《God Of Crafting》


 Chapter 1: Talentless

    Thump. Thump. Thump.


    My fist struck the dense, heavy wood of the practice target.


    It was a simple block of wood, cut directly from its main trunk, and elevated on a metal pike that was anchored deep in the ground.


    A target the surface of which I continued to pummel with my fists at a steady, calcted pace.


    Not too fast, not too slow.


    Just to establish a proper rhythm and fall into a quasi-meditative state while doing so.


    ''I can do it.''


    Encouraging myself in my thoughts, I ignored the pain and continued with the exercise.


    This was my fifth year in the training hall. Meaning, it''s been two years since my own ssmates moved on and joined various sects and it would only take one more year for the students of every ss to rotate out of the institution.


    Punch after punch. Strike after strike.


    With every hit, my fist wouldnd directly against the small indentations I''d developed on this piece of hard wood over the five years of my training. Parts on the target that my constant strikes and the lube of my blood polished to the point they could serve as a mirror.


    "Huff, huff, huff."


    For every strike I took a quick, intense breath, refilling the stock of fresh oxygen in my lungs, always keeping a steady amount of it for my heart to pump energy into my arms.


    But it was all for nothing.


    No matter how hard and long and desperately I tried¡­


    My fist simply refused to move faster, strike harder, pierce deeper.


    The ssing of the wood polished by my own blood was the greatest proof of that, of the absoluteck of results.


    I''ve kept going¡­ But in all honesty, I grew sick and tired of it all.


    ''There has to be some reasonable limit. A stage at which I will ept the facts and move on.''


    I gritted my teeth and took a slightly deeper breath¡­ only for thispse of concentration to quickly snowball into a missed beat, faulty rhythm of the next hook, and aplete copse of my stance a momentter.


    "Shit!"


    A silent curse escaped my lips as I leaned down and rested my hands against my knees, the bloodied, bruised knuckles of my hands the living proof of how hard and for how long I''ve tried.


    Suddenly, a coat of something warm and soft fell down upon my weary, breath-shaken shoulders, providing a refreshing, coolpress for my pained flesh.


    "Working hard as always," Sam called out with his usual, cheerful attitude as he fixed the cold towel on my back. He then nced over the blood-smeared wood of the practice target. "I would say for you to keep it up¡­"


    ''Hmm?''


    I lowered my back under the soothing weight of the cool towel while still raising my eyes to the man''s face.


    ''This isn''t like the usual.''


    With a hint of worry shing in my heart, I prickled my ears and focused on his words.


    "But right now, you should report to the master''s office," Sam added, his easy-going smile wavering for a fleeting second.


    "Haaah¡­" I sighed before grabbing the towel and wiping my face with it. "Sure thing, but do you maybe know why¡­"


    This time, I didn''t hide my gaze as I looked up.


    Sam only bounced his shoulders and shook his head.


    "No idea man," he lied with a troubled look on his face¡­.


    A look that only made me sigh again.


    ''It was inevitable anyway, huh?''


    It didn''t take a genius to figure out what was happening.


    A lone 5th-year student, still failing to produce any results. And now we were only a month off the regionals marking the change of the seasons.


    Even if technology and scientific approach allowed the most trainees to be cultivators within just three years of practice¡­ I''ve now reached the limit that began all the way in ancient times, back when there were still sects, immortals, and great heroes roaming the world and setting up all the rules.


    "Sure thing, and¡­" I looked properly up, facing the gym''s supervisor directly.


    For thest five years, he provided me with all the help, encouragement, and instructions I could ever ask for. What he didn''t provide me with, though, was an elixir that would heal whatever made my attempts at cultivating so damn unsessful!


    "Thanks for¡­"


    The words got stuck in my throat for a short moment.


    "Thanks for the info."


    Even though I knew what wasing¡­ I couldn''t bring myself to say it properly, ''Thanks for everything.''


    I nodded my head and moved away, likely for thest time, from my target, the loyal partner that stuck with me for thest five years. Then, a short walkter, I arrived at the institution master''s office before giving the doors a solid, confident knock.


    "Come on in."


    A deep breathter, I pushed the doors open and walked inside.


    The straw matting on the floor was far toofortable than it had any right to be for my naked feet. Likely, it came from some sort of a spiritual herb, an item inessible for mere mortals like me.


    A bit deeper in the room, a middle-aged man sat cross-legged while watching some sort of meditation stream on the wall-sized disy.


    Instead of intruding any further, I patiently waited at the doorstep while Master continued his inner training.


    "I believe it''s quite obvious why I''ve called for you," my master said as he finally turned his head away from the feed of some recently popr group of meditation streamers. "But before we get there, there are a few words I want you to hear first."


    Despite the icon in the corner of the screen revealing that it was actually a paid stream, amodity that went for quite a pretty penny on the web due to the limited number of ess tokens for the live, the master turned away from the screen and locked his gaze on me.


    I gulped my saliva down, not really sure what to expect.


    Or rather¡­ Petrified by myck of understanding of what would happen next?


    I was going to get kicked out and forcefully dropped out of the institution. It was something that absolutely had to happen unless I wanted to be shameless enough to go and try and singlehandedly tank the institution rating that all of my fellow trainees worked so hard to improve.


    In fact, I''ve already long overstayed my wee, with only my desperation and perverse sense of preservation keeping me going for thest two years.


    But how would this kind, uncle-like man going to make it happen?


    I just¡­ couldn''t imagine having him look at me all angry and shaming me while demanding me to leave!


    "When you first came to this institution, you belonged to the group of cadets I usually have high hopes for," Master smiled as he reminisced about the past. "You had this passion¡­ This shine in your eyes that quickly developed into a fire as you started to train."


    The constitution master closed his mouth and lowered his gaze before taking a deep, long breath.


    "For five years, I''ve watched you diligently train. Heck, on the days you''ve skipped training, I didn''t even bother calling your home because I knew it really had to be something important!"


    A corner of my lips twitched as if attempting to for a smile.


    I knew full well that most in the society considered the basic cultivation training, a part of the obligatory regime of courses all citizens had to go through before certain stages of their life, considered this practice to be a bother, an annoying chore. As such, it came as no surprise that my attitude¡­ was something that would make the old man so expressive.


    "Nevertheless, despite five years of constant effort, the facts are what they are."


    The master raised his gaze and looked me directly in the face.


    "I won''t shit you by iming it has nothing to do with the institutional ratings that are updating in a month, but¡­" This man¡­ the wise overseer of my training and someone who actively tried to figure out the root cause behind my inability to do what most of the others could¡­


    He lowered his eyes, as if in apology.


    "But I really think it''s time for you to call it quits and look for something else to put that lovely, admirable devotion of yours."


    Only by the end of his verdict did Master raise his eyes to meet my face again.


    I took a shallow breath, and¡­


    "I understand."


    What else was I to say?


    Cry out in protest? Fall to my knees and beg? Disregard all the legitimate concerns of this hard-working uncle to do right not only by me¡­ but also by all the other trainees at the institution, current and future?


    No.


    I was old enough to learn the simple truth.


    Some dreams simply weren''t meant toe true. And the only result of resisting this reality would be increasing the hurt once the brutal adult life would force me to do so anyway.


    "I know this isn''t much, but I''ve prepared a small, parting gift for you," the master added, taking me by a bit of a surprise.


    What he pulled out, though, could be called anything but small.


    It was a huge box¡­ No, a crate the size of the ones one could see in movies. And once the man opened it up¡­


    ''Yeah, the inside doesn''t fit his words either,'' I thought when my eyesid upon a collection of all sorts of different kinds of tools and two stacks of books.


    "When I said that I think you need to look for something else, I meant it," the master added as he held the lid of the crate up for me to see its content. "I''ve collected basic manuals for a plethora of different activities, from making music through writing, crafting, and at geopolitics ending."


    Soon, the master''s exnation started to make sense.


    "In all those years, I''ve noticed that the reason why you can''t cultivate is because you can''t achieve the Qi gathering state of mind. In other words, you fail to separate your ego from your actions, to properly meditate."


    My eyebrows would rise¡­ if this weren''t old news for me.


    But this time, rather than all the other times everyone at the institution told me the same, master clearly wasn''t done yet.


    The tools inside the box were basic and generally cheap¡­ but just good enough for me to give all sorts of disciplines a serious try!


    In all honesty, I would lie if I were to im this prospect didn''t excite me a bit.


    For years I''ve denied myself the respite of finding a hobby, putting all my thoughts and efforts into shattering the barrier that held me back, turning me into pretty much an outcast in the modern, spiritual society. Not a banite unable to partake in adult life¡­ But an outcast nheless.


    But now that I was dropping out¡­ Why not?


    "I never said this, but if you manage to reach the state of meditation through any of those activities¡­" Master hesitated for a second, before steeling the look on his face as he turned his deep re directly to my eyes. "If you do just that, you will have two options.


    You can go back and I will teach you personally and privately for up to half a year to see if you can actually improve after oveing this hurdle, but¡­"


    The look on the master''s face mellowed down.


    "I honestly believe that once you hopefully find something worth your effort and determination, it will be better for you to keep doing it instead," Master said as his eyes reached the rare level of warmth on this usually stoic man''s face. "Believe me, you won''t give two shits about cultivation and whatnot if you get to do something that you really love!"

 Chapter 2: You fool of an old man!

    "Now, what should I do with it?"


    Staring at the open crate disyed directly on my studio''s floor, I leaned my head over my shoulder while indecisiveness reigned supreme in my thoughts.


    What should I even begin with?


    Just carrying this huge, heavy crate all the way back to the cheap and ustrophobically small ce I was staying at was a challenge. In about two hours I had to rush to my part-time; bills wouldn''t pay for themselves, after all!


    And in all honesty, encroaching on thetter half of my twenties, I really disliked the idea of picking up my phone and turning to my parents to, once again, ask for their support.


    Powerless, I sighed out and fell down on my bed.


    All the motivation be damned, now that it came to actually moving on¡­ I just couldn''t do it.


    It was one thing for stuff to happen that forced change on my life, but an entirely different matter altogether to personally move on to something else.


    One wouldn''t heal their heart devastated by a broken rtionship in a day, so how could I heal my motivation when my attempt at cultivatingsted much longer than the modern average for a rtionship?


    ''I''ve only have two hours, though.''


    As much as I didn''t want to instantly start doing something new, even if only for the sake of looking for something that would catch my interest¡­


    What would be the better time than now?


    With the training session cut short, I''ve had a rare moment of respite. And now that I was out of the institution¡­ I could no longer rely on its stipend either, meaning, the time that I saved by not going to train anymore¡­ would directly trante into the hours I would work at my job to cover for the missingponent of my pathetic but somewhat stable financial situation.


    Twenty and five years into this life, I could see the charms of just settling in my current situation. It wasn''t great¡­ But as long as I worked somewhat hard, I could make it.


    ''If I throw myself into somethingpletely new, I''m pretty much risking it all.''


    The perspective of returning, as a grown-ass man, to my parents ce simply because I could no longer afford to live on my own¡­


    I gritted my teeth and sat up on the bed''s edge, while taking care not to press my weight too hard on it.


    After the recent disaster in which half of its inner supporting structure broke, it took some real damn skill to sleep on it without inviting a secondary disaster.


    "I better do what I can while time is still mine to manage."


    I reached down and picked the nearest trade manual.


    "Advanced Computing in the era of Spiritual AI. Comprehensive guide to training your first SummonGPT!"


    A loud, prolonged sigh oozed out of my mouth.


    "Yeah, as if."


    I threw the book aside, separating it from everything else in the box and turning it into yet another piece of garbage littering my already small domicile.


    Despite living in this closet-turned-studio apartment, I made it harder for myself by stubbornly refusing to keep it clean.


    It was just too much effort for too little end. And while I was fully aware this way of thinking was wrong and immature¡­ I couldn''t bring myself to waste so much time and effort for results that would improve my situation by such insignificant little!


    After discarding the first book, I reached for the next.


    And this time, I actually gave it a few pages.


    "Qi is actually mana!: How to infuse your Qi into everything around you, start with the very basics!"


    This time, I gave the manual a few pages, merely out of raw interest in the topic¡­ Before repeating the sigh and then discarding the book on the floor just like before.


    What was the point of me studying the maniption or nature of Qi if Icked the means to gather it in my body to begin with?


    I looked up to one of the few luxuries in my possession, a simple clock on the wall. A product of a bygone era that I, strangely enough, found weirdly endearing to use.


    Then, reminded of the fleeting nature of the little time I had, I reached out and grabbed yet another book.


    Title after title, my former master''s gifts turned into trash discarded somewhere over my floor.


    There were some that I''ve studied for even ten minutes, genuinely falling into the hole of just how interesting they were¡­


    But in the end, over and over again, I would chance upon a wall. The same wall that led me to my current point in life. Only in some cases was it something else like ack of interest or actual means to participate.


    I had no connections to be a diplomat, nor certificates and or ssifications to apply for certain trades like policeman or security. And the few things that I actually had means and interest for¡­ Pretty much always came with the requirement of wielding Qi.


    Still, at the bottom of my heart, just like when I trained against all the odds in the institution¡­ I had this hope that something will work out. Even when I scrolled through the pages of thest manual, I harbored this deep hope that maybe, just maybe, I will find out something at the next page that will change the situation.


    But as it turned out, life was merely an amplification, expansion of the dojo. And when thest of the books fell on the floor, leaving just the tools of the different trades in the crate¡­ I found nothing.


    Sure, there were several topics that got me curious¡­ But none of them was the right fit for me.


    And so, in a moment of defeat¡­ I whipped out my phone before turning on one of the countless types of mindless scrolls.


    By now, I only had an hour left before I would have to get going to get to my part-time¡­ well, on time. And after thirty minutes or so of mindless scrolling through the endless feed of content others produced¡­


    I found something.


    "Shit, this old man¡­"


    I closed my eyes as my phone dropped heavily on my chest.


    I felt likeughing.


    "Who the hell looks for a tutorial in books, nowadays?!"


    The dojo''s uncle¡­ was a master of his craft but also a man of his age. And what I failed to find in the manuals he provided, I received on a silver tter from the brain-rot grade of short videos.


    It was just another one of those weird shorts of someone taking a concept and then approaching it from aedic if not outright ridiculous angle. A man constructing various contraptions, electrical, mechanical and spiritual, just for the sake of the fun of doing so.


    "This design is very human indeed," I smirked as I rolled off the bed and rushed to the crate.


    I ignored the crafting manual discarded somewhere on the floor and dove into the crate again, taking my pick of the variety of tools, all intended for different purpose.


    And as it turned out, quite a few of them were just what I needed for a fun, little project that appeared in my head the moment I marveled at this "very human design."


    One had absolutely nothing to do with the other¡­ beside the thirst for the visceral joy of creating something.


    And so, I scoured the room for potential materials, grabbing everything and anything that could be remotely useful.


    Ten minutester, I''ve amassed quite the pile on my bed, along with all the tools I needed for the job.


    It was a tiny project, that I nigh instantly found a short tutorial for on the web. It was¡­ a shelf.


    A single piece of solid surface that one could, quite easily, mount on one''s wall without permanently damaging it.


    I looked up to the clock, only to realize I''ve now only had fifteen minutes left.


    But then again, this job couldn''t be any damn easier, as it only involved several pieces of cardboard, scissors, hot glue and, two-sided tape, a pencil and a bit of handiwork.


    And if there was anything I''ve learned after five years of mindlessly mming my fists against the hardwood target at the dojo, it was the perfect coordination between my hands and my perception of the world!

 Chapter 3: Immersion

    If there was anything I''ve learned after five years of mindlessly mming my fists against the hardwood target at the dojo, it was the perfect coordination between my hands and my perception of the world!


    Or so I''ve thought.


    As it turned out, mashing my fists at a certain, steady rhythm against the hard, wooden dick of a practice target, had little to do with fine-tuning the delicate movements of my hands to properly mold and shape different materials with the help of various tools.


    First, I cut the stack of cardboard boxes into one pile of bigger and one pile of smaller pieces. I did so with rtive ease. But when I moved to cutting smaller elements¡­


    The idea was simple.


    By stacking severalyers of the pizza tops or bottoms and adding a honeb-shaped filling made with the smaller parts, I could create a surprisingly sturdy element. But doing so¡­ Forced me to create rather tiny and short strips of the smaller cardboard parts before¡­


    Carefully and attentively arrange them on all theyers with the help of the hot glue.


    Yet, the very moment Ipleted this procedure for the first time¡­ I''ve glued another, bigger piece before starting it all over again. And then again. And again.


    And again.


    One by one, I''ve replicated the entire process, only to soon find no more of the filling.


    The amount that took me a good while to carefully cut out onlysted for a mere twoyers.


    And so, I cut more of it out before getting back to the task.


    One by one, I patiently conquered the steps of the way from a blueprint to a finished product.


    Then, by the clever use of double-sided tape, I stuck the whole thing firmly on the wall, creating a precious storage space for this rtively empty room of mine.


    The high rent forced me to stay in this ce, all in a bid to spend just a little less to somehow manage with my strained finances. And with the addition of the huge mess, there was practically no room left in my¡­ well, room.


    Taking a deep breath, I took a step back and sat down on the bed. I then lowered my eyes to the mess on the floor.


    Surprisingly, just by gathering the potentially useful stuff, I''ve managed to clear up quite a bit.


    And after a deep sigh, I moved up from the bed and started to clear the stuff off the floor.


    Bit by bit, the mess that flooded my ce became nothing more but two, orderly organized piles of stuff.


    A process that took me merely ten minutes¡­


    ''Wait.''


    I slowly raised my eyes to where my clock overlooked the room.


    "Oh shit."


    The realization dawned upon me as I looked at the two arrows on the clock''s face.


    ''Late!''


    My first instinct was to drop everything and rush outside, hoping to ovee half an hour''s distance in mere minutes left until my shift was supposed to start.


    The second thought was to just ignore it altogether and leave the issue forter, a relict of my past approach to life that I''ve put all of myself to rein in.


    But with a third thought, I reached out for the phone and selected the right number for the asion.


    [I''m dying on the shitter, can you get my shift asap?]


    Upon pressing send¡­


    I hurried and turned the phone''s signal off.


    This was the minimum I had to go through to build a case for why I couldn''te, less I wanted to risk the job. Thankfully, I was merely one of the guys on the shift rather than the sole cashier of a small shop.


    And with some more time now left to my sole proprietorship, I''ve turned my eyes to the two piles of stuff I formed while cleaning.


    ''There has to be something else,'' I thought, already moving to stack the crafting-aligned tools on the newly made and installed shelf.


    Now that I''ve regained around ten times as much space in the room as I did by installing the new shelf, I''ve suddenly felt like¡­ doing something else.


    ''Maybe this is the feeling the old man was talking about?'' I thought, looking down at my hands as I closed and opened my fists.


    Then, I quickly found another tutorial on the phone, using the home''swork over the phone''s own data now that I''ve cut all the direct connections.


    And after staring at the two piles of junk and trash, I''ve finally decided.


    A sense of challenge pushed me forward, edging me on the idea of crafting something new.


    ''This doesn''t feel all that bad.''


    I''ve pulled out all the parts that I thought I needed before double-checking the recipe on my phone. A quick view of the tutorial video I foundter, I''ve already sorted the few resources and tools I had before¡­ rxing and taking a deep breath.


    I did it thousands of times before.


    Over and over again, I''ve gathered and enclosed my thoughts, focusing on the target ahead. Just, this time, rather than striking the target with my fist¡­ I moved them to create something new instead.


    Bit by bit, all the other thoughts vanished, leaving my head empty, bristling to fill with nothing but the task ahead.


    And so, by pushing past the limits of the agility of my fingers, I started to dismantle¡­ something.


    It was a strange feeling, to be aware I wasn''t lucid and yet¡­ loose the track of certain parts of reality.


    I couldn''t really see, sense or understand what I was doing, blind to the great workings of my own hands.


    And as the task grew more precise, sweat started to slowly trickle down my forehead.


    Off to the side of the bed, a nicely-edited video taught my subconsciousness how to make whatever it was that I started to do¡­ All the while my consciousness sank down into a strange ce, too rxed to care about the weird stuff happening.


    It was a strange feeling, to be so rxed, and yet¡­ To feel the heat and the burden of the precise engineering I was somehow making happen with my hands. I could feel the sweat trickling down my face as I focused more and more, only growing number to the actual reality.


    Sometime in that process, my sweat ended up falling down directly on the screen of my phone, causing something to happen, turning the video off and switching some random stuff¡­


    But by now, my intuition of the moment somehow took over.


    I didn''t need the tutorial anymore, with my hands easily keeping a good job without the instructions.


    And then, all of a sudden, everything came to an end.


    I took a deep breath, suddenly all frozen in ce when this weird experience came to an end. But as I moved, my head naturally bobbed down, bringing my creation to view¡­


    ''What the hell is this¡­?''


    Whatever it was that I was trying to do¡­ I either couldn''t figure out its purpose or, much more likely, it was far from finished. There were some traces of distant concepts¡­ but the whole thing just didn''t have this aura of aplete product.


    Much worse, though, I couldn''t really recognize¡­ anything.


    Any part of the work-in-progress of my subconsciousness¡­


    Meaning, I didn''t learn a damn thing!


    ''Even if this was going to be something great¡­'' I thought, clenching my fist as I realized I''d just wasted pretty much everything of any use left to create something that looked like a malformed ill-intent from another dimension¡­ and had no known purpose.


    Regardless of what this thing could be if finished¡­ Again, I didn''t learn a thing.


    "¡­!"


    It was merely the act of closing my fist.


    But as I did so, it felt as if¡­ my fingers moved through some sort of¡­ fog?


    There was this intangible drag to those movements as if my fingers had to force their way through some medium slightly thicker than air.


    ''Don''t you tell me¡­''


    Pushed by the feeling, I swung my arm around a bit¡­


    Only for this strange resistance to vanish right after.


    It was but a fleeting feeling that I could experience while keeping my hands rtively still. But there was no fucking mistaking it!


    It was the Qi, the spiritual power that I''ve failed to obtain even the slightest bit over thest five years!


    While I still didn''t know how or why¡­


    I''ve finally managed to meditate!

 Chapter 4: What one needs to craft

    Meditation.


    A process in which a trainee would enter a state of deep focus, a state when they would¡­ forget themselves.


    And a state in which one could harness the power of Qi.


    This was the exact thing I was missing to finally pass the exam and advance to the status of a cultivator. There, I would have to face all sorts of new challenges, but¡­


    But up until now, I was deprived of this right.


    The right to learn how to feel, manipte, and experience the Qi and the world through it.


    At pretty much the same moment, I felt like rushing out.


    Now that I''ve managed to meditate¡­ I could actually get my qualifications, right? Maybe the training would¡­


    My body froze.


    The motivation died as soon as it appeared.


    ''What good would training more do?'' I thought to myself, once again looking down upon my own hands. ''Why should I go back to doing more of the thing that clearly didn''t work for me, if¡­''


    My eyes turned over to the broken, iplete gizmo.


    Then, almost outside of my control, my hand reached out for my phone.


    I didn''t call my master to beg for him to allow my return to the institution. I didn''t bother calling the work even after turning the ne mode off.


    Instead, I did what I really didn''t want to and dialed my father''s number¡­


    Only for my thumb to hover over the call button without actually pressing it.


    I then erased the number and moved back to the main screen before opening up the banking app I was using to manage my finances.


    Mere ten minutester, I''ve be a proud owner of a considerable loan of five thousand Esecs, with payments of a round hundred esecs on a monthly basis.


    It was a bad decision, and I took it with no hesitation whatsoever. Maybe after five years of beating my forehead against the wall of inability to meditate, now that I saw a ray of hope, I dared not to hold back in the slightest.


    Still, I was more willing to take out a loan with the excuse of starting to build my credit score up than to call my parents to ask for some help.


    Heavens knew they''ve already supported me enough and¡­ Regardless of how bad of an idea it was to take a loan when I was already at the bottom¡­


    I opted to loan from the bank rather than ask my parents for help simply because it put the issue of me wasting my life and the ensuing confrontation forter.


    The bank only required a simple form and came with no poli-hourly lecture about how I should''ve long be awyer or a doctor rather than living in the dream of bing a cultivator¡­


    A momentter, the notification on my phone indicated the fresh funds had arrived at my ount, swelling it to the levels I''d never seen before.


    Still, this wasn''t my spending money. It was purely an investment.


    I knew I would need that money to craft more even before I bothered to look deeper into the topic. Between materials, tools, or all the stuff that I didn''t even know I needed yet¡­ All of that would cost money. And while finally learning how to gather Qi promised some prospects in every field I would try to specialize in, all the perks would onlye with time!


    With the issue of immediate living expenses secured, I moved to the crate before pulling out the crafting book I''d found there again.


    Now that I had Qi, this manual was actually better than anything I could find online. After all, rather than teaching me a single trick, it introduced a systematic set of knowledge and basics needed when delving into the field of crafting for cultivators.


    And without wasting even a moment, I threw myself onto the bed, carefully not to break it again, before immersing myself in the lecture.


    Immerse me I did, weathering through the boring foreword, bloated introduction, and then ass-licking added even to the very first, proper page of the manual. After all, why learn what I wanted if I could read about how much the author loved the publisher behind the manual?


    Still, I read it all through, not daring to miss even the tiniest potentially important element due to nothing more but impatience andck of discipline.


    And so, I''ve kept reading.


    Reading about the physical qualities of Qi, what it is, how it can affect the world¡­ And how craftsmen of all sorts could make use of it.


    Roughly two hourster, I realized that the first four chapters of the manual could all be summed up with just one sentence and exined in four.


    The power of Qi was pretty much the mana people knew from the fantasy novels.


    To exin, mana was merely a force, potential energy leftover after the act of creation itself and now constantly brimming in every particle of air that surrounded us. It was this energy that the cultivators of the past exploited through techniques, cultivators of the spiritual renaissance era wielded through the use of spells and modern-day cultivators harnessed through meditation and procedures.


    The cultivation techniques of the ancients, the spells of the restorationists, and the procedures of today were ultimately all the same¡­ one being the upgrade and evolution of the other.


    Spiritual techniques started as merely means of circting one''s Qi through their own body to form different flows that would then invoke different effects. Spells organized this process, turning the spiritual energy into mere fuel for the instructions of their spells.


    Modern cultivators, however, ingrained the procedures directly into the flow of the Qi itself, making the whole process several times more efficient than ever before.


    But ultimately¡­


    The spiritual energy was just¡­ mana. A fuel for cultivators to use, be it for training their fists or for crafting their creations.


    And in both cases, as I''ve learned, the supple ess to dense, spiritual energy was the key.


    If I wanted to make the most out of every meditative state I''ve managed to enter¡­ Just tinkering around in my room wouldn''t be anywhere nearly enough. Not because there was something wrong with my room¡­ But because, contrary to the area upied by the institute, the spiritual energy within my room was extremely¡­ thin.


    For others, this would be a problem, another wall to ovee.


    For the me now, though?


    "So I just need to make the spiritual energy in the air¡­ richer?"


    Now that I figured out some sort of a goal¡­ I quickly found out not to be as innovative as I momentarily thought myself to be, when on the very next page, I found a recipe for a simple, Qi-Condensing array.


    The painting on the pages was perfectly formic, making it extremely simple to replicate the entire thing, even whencking skill as I did. All I really needed was a pen and paper to draw the few dots and dashes that made up most of the runes included within the array.


    But as I looked down and, thanks to what I learned from the first four chapters of the manual, understood¡­


    "Couldn''t I make it a little¡­ better?"


    I gulped my saliva down as if to ease the arrogance behind this statement down my throat.


    But still...


    "Or maybe, not better but... more modern?"

 Chapter 5: The first step

    The idea was simple.


    A Qi-condensation array gathered the Qi from the air before using special crystals to enrich¡­ No, to condense it before releasing it back out into the air.


    As long as this process happened in a confined space, the density of the Qi in the air would increase over time. And while quite a lot of this denser Qi would disperse outside¡­ The rate at which the fresh Qi woulde from elsewhere more than justpensated for that.


    Back at the institution, this array was engraved into every inch of the walls surrounding the training hall.


    But¡­


    No matter how hard I looked at it and how closely it resembled what I saw back on the walls of the institution¡­


    Wasn''t there a better, more modern way to go about things?


    ''If I grabbed¡­ how were they called¡­''


    I turned back to somewhere in the middle of the second chapter of the manual in my hand.


    Spricur crystals, a simple product all the way from ancient times that only recently on the historical scale started to gain poprity.


    For the ancients, it was a stone etched with the force of thunder.


    In the restorationist era, it was widely used as a source of light for streetmps.


    But its true ability was much more interesting.


    "A spiritual-current crystal, when infused into a circuit, can serve as an adapter transforming spiritual energy into electrical current," I''ve read out loud the passage hidden as early as in the middle of the second chapter.


    Taking a moment, I could picture several ways in which those crystals would find their use in modern-day technology¡­


    But most definitely, I didn''t see them back at the institution!


    I squinted my eyes and turned the pages all the way back to the fourth chapter and another inconspicuous passage.


    While great at conversing one type of energy to the other, they themselves made for a pretty bad circuit material.


    Why else would they be used to turn spiritual power in the air into an electric current that would concurrently make them heat up so much that they would produce their own light?


    ''Thinking about it, wouldn''t this quality apply to¡­ all the cultivation materials and procedures?''


    I raised my right hand up to my eyes.


    Although distant, I could still sense the very same resistance whenever my fingers would move.


    Its nature was definitely much more tangible than something as abstract as electricity!


    And yet, it was this other type of force that humanity learned how to control with extreme precision instead!


    "And that means¡­"


    With a smile slowly forming on my face, I threw the manual back on the bed before standing up and getting myself ready.


    Mere minute of dressing upter, I pushed the doors open and rushed down several flights of stairs to the small bike parking located at the back of the whole apartment building.


    Before five minutes could pass, I jumped off my bike at the doorstep of a nearby electric shop.


    Despite how close it was, this wasn''t the ce I would visit frequently. And save for when my light bulb went out and required recement or something like that, I treated this ce as merely part of the background on the streets.


    But not today.


    Entering the shop, I moved directly to the counter¡­ Only to then wait as two old men concluded their lengthy discussion of some issue over¡­ some actual tea.


    Rolling my eyes at the wait, I ultimately had no better choice but to just¡­ patiently wait as I sorted my thoughts to get all my ns organized.


    "Hello, how can I help on this beautiful day?"


    The young cashier offered a slightly awkward and clearly forced smile with deep spots under his eyes only putting an emphasis on how tired he was.


    Likely, he thought of nothing else but finishing his shift at this kind of dead-end job and going back home to waste the rest of the day mindlessly ying. I saw this look on the faces of my ssmates back in the school. And now, even without really catching up with them, I had the feeling this is exactly how quite a lot of them would end up.


    But such was the fate of those who allowed the life to lead them. And I was determined to do whatever it was in my power to change it.


    Shopping at this ce was merely the first step to this change.


    "Hello," I politely nodded my head before pulling out a short memo I''d written while on the way down the stairs and on the few straight and empty roads I took to get to the shop. "I''m going to need a bunch of standard, empty circuit boards, capacitors, resistors¡­" I pulled the note away before opening my arms and spreading them out only to shake them up a bit.


    "Basically, a budget set for ying around with circuits of all kinds."


    At first, the clerk looked up at me, slightly taken aback by the request. And yet¡­ This request somehow managed to pull the clerk out of his boring routine.


    "Eh¡­ sure? What budget are we talking about?"


    The entire interaction took merely about ten minutes.


    From picking out the basics, through selecting the range of all the basic elements, and at the additional purchase of the soldering kit ending, when I left the shop, I filled my backpack with pretty much everything I could mold electricity with.


    But this was merely the first step.


    ''Now, how should I get to that other ce¡­?''


    After scouring my memory for a short moment and then double-checking through the online map service, I remounted my bike before pressing on to the next objective.


    This time, it wasn''t just some small, mostly hobbyist-targeted shop.


    This time, I was going to the part of town where people with a mortal-level of money and interest would rarely visit.


    The marketce.

 Chapter 6: That will be three thousand eight hundred and fifty Esecs

    The marketce was¡­ a weird ce.


    In no other part of the city could any mortal feel¡­ so out of ce.


    This entire ce seemed like taken straight from a bygone era of cultivation restorationists.


    The people on the streets, just by turning the corner, stopped dressing as one would expect and donned fleeting, ephemeral robes instead.


    They wore long, traditional robes of martial artists and spiritualists, making it seem as if I stepped into apletely different world. But then, others opted for a more modern arrangement of their clothes, still following the restorationist vibe but with muchfier and more versatile cuts.


    And the girls¡­


    To say that this mystical world was filled with eye candy would be a gross understatement with just how much creative freedom some of the women took with their clothes¡­ Or how the mere effect of handling mana made pretty much everyone on the street a whole league more beautiful than an average mortal.


    Still, I wasn''t here to gawk at women¡­ even if their short-sleeved and pretty much skirtless haoris left very little to one''s imagination.


    I gulped my saliva down my throat, leaving the choice at the designated area by the district''s edge before stepping into the world of mostly unknown.


    Never before have I stepped inside of this world, barred byck of any Qi of my own. But now, with a mere whisker of it at my fingertips, I could finally sort of step back into the past.


    Yet, the very moment I crossed the border and stepped upon the paved road¡­ The air grew thick, dense, and sticky. Just making a single step proved to be a great challenge¡­


    Only for my body to get used to the new sensation within a few seconds, allowing me to regain a proper stride before I could celebrate stepping into this ce by nting my face into the road.


    ''That was close¡­'' I thought, taking a quick breath as I stabilized my steps before I could draw more unnecessary attention to myself. And yet¡­


    And yet, I could notice quite a few who noticed¡­ And then some who smirked.


    This wasn''t the look of mockery, only polite and opportunistic amusement¡­ But even knowing that didn''t make my pride hurt any less.


    But I pressed on.


    I was here for a reason, after all.


    A short walk through the sparsely crowded streetster, I arrived at the doorstep of yet another shop, simrly hidden in the side alley as the one I visited just before. It was a small and dimly lit chamber filled to the roof with shelves¡­ each, quite peculiarly, housing only a single item.


    ''I know I should be thest person to judge,'' I gulped my saliva as I moved my eyes over artifacts of all sorts, most of them alike to what I would expect from a movie prop. ''But isn''t this one hell of an inefficient way to store or even disy stuff?'' I thought, raising my eyes up to the upper shelves of the room, ones even I could only reach with some sort of stool ordder.


    "Hi," deeper from within the shop, hidden behind two furtheryers of the shelves, hid the clerk of the ce. And as I walked across thebyrinth of shelves, a lovely-looking girl in thick sses looked up from behind her counter.


    She rested the side of her head against her hand while keeping her elbow on the fancily decorated wooden desk, allowing her hazelnut-colored, long hair to fall down one side of her face, exposing the entirety of her cheek and ear.


    In spite of herzy pose, the girl''s eyes were filled with sparks of curiosity as her lips perked up into a small, mischievous smirk.


    "What can I help you with?"


    I took a deep breath¡­ Before forcing myself back into the same mindset I developed while constantly smashing my fists against the wood of the practice target. A mindset that I hoped to use to meditate, only to fail for five years long.


    Still, in this state, I could easily cut any distractions, be it fear, boredom, pain, or¡­ awkwardness over how to approach a girl sofortably cute and radiating such easygoing warmth, she couldn''t be called anything else but outright beautiful.


    "I need six Spircur crystals, two stacks of spiritual essence, and a selection of basic crystals," I recounted the list that I''dmitted to my memory moments prior to entering the shop.


    "That''s¡­" the clerk''s eyebrows jumped up her forehead. Then, a look of certain, awkward uneasiness appeared in her eyes as she suddenly grew more serious. "I''m only estimating here, but it won''te short of three thousand Esecs, you know?"


    The clerk raised up and assumed a formal position on her chair.


    "Yeah, as long as I don''t go above four thousand, I should be okay," I replied with a shrug of my shoulders.


    Just like I could sense the overwhelmingly thick aura of the mana of this clerk¡­ She likely could tell how I merely reached the minimum necessary to even step into the world of cultivators. And someone at my age with the pitiful amount of Qi I''ve gathered¡­ Didn''t seem like someone ready to splurge so much!


    After all, cultivation was an extremely costly hobby!


    "Four thousand¡­" The look on the girl''s face mellowed down a little as her eyes lost their focus, making her seem as if she was lost in her thoughts.


    Then, the clerk''s full lips curved up in a slight smile.


    "I think I can do that, give me a moment."


    Rushing up from behind her desk, the girl dove between the shelves, collecting all of the requested materials as quickly as she did gracefully, all the while giving me one hell of a show of her clothes.


    It was by no means provocative or even slightly erotic in nature.


    The show was strictly all about just¡­ her presence.


    The way her brown-red robes fluttered on the stale air of the shop, how every step she made somehow appeared profound and full of innate wisdom¡­


    ''It''s like observing some sort of fairy,'' I thought, enchanted by the sight¡­


    Only for the cute clerk to suddenly materialize right before my eyes with aically huge stack of boxes stacked from her arms all the way above her head.


    Clearly struggling, the girl took another step¡­ before dropping the boxed merchandise down on the counter and heaving a deep breath.


    "Just when did you¡­" I couldn''t help but mutter, taken aback by how, in a single instant, she went from gracefully checking some tags on some shelves to suddenly carrying a huge load of boxes!


    "Did you like it?" Raising her slightly sweaty face, the clerk smirked as I twitched.


    "Huh?" I could only take a step back.


    There was a limit to how long my well-practiced sense of calm could hold against such an assault!


    "My clothes!" The girl let out a sweet, innocent bout ofugh that quickly devolved into a friendly snicker as she hid her lips behind her hand. She then raised her face and then her arms, as if to show off the fancy robe that seemed to mysteriously bend the space around it now that I took a closer look.


    "You see, the world of magicrafting can be really fun¡­" The clerk''s eyes suddenly gained an extremely distant look as her smile faded and her hands started to quickly unpack the boxes and bring out just a few pieces from each of them.


    For a moment, the girl''s face remained nk, strangely contrasting the vibrancy of her clothes. Before long, however, her lips perked up again as she forced out a small, almost pleading smile.


    "So even if you fail, just don''t give up, okay?"


    I squinted my eyes a bit, more in confusion than in shock.


    ''Just what is this pleading look in her eyes?!''


    For a moment, this remained but a mystery.


    But then, the clerk''s face devolved into a much less profound and much more honest look of silent but not absolute desperation.


    Just the level of it that would make someone do things they never would have considered doing before but not strong enough to make them do things they would consider unthinkable.


    And then, it dawned upon me.


    I''ve already seen that look¡­ And it was on the face of the shop owner of my past part-time job when the big franchise of small, local groceries took over the area and then outright bought out his shop.


    "Because if I do, your sales will remain as bad as they are, I guess?" I somehow found myself daring enough to ask.


    In return, the girl slowly raised her suddenly tired eyes up from where she somehow ended up nting her face against the counter.


    Rather than replying, though, she simply looked away with a hurt look on her face.


    And again, right at this moment, it dawned on me.


    This wasn''t some sort of immortal jade beauty who ushered me in her grace¡­ But a young shopkeeper, either a part-timer or someone who inherited the business, desperate as she was forced to watch her source of livelihood¡­ copse.


    ''In all honesty, I can sympathize.''


    While this girl had to watch her shop crumble due to the unforgiving reality, I had to watch the same happen to my life.''


    I shook my head a bit.


    "I wouldn''t splurge so much if I nned for it to all go to waste," I shook my head before forcing a small smile on my lips.


    "And on that note, would you mind if I came byter to ask your opinion on something I want to make?" I shot my shot, eager to possibly gain contact with someone who could take a look at my creation and judge its validity within the reality of the world I only knew so little about.


    "Huh?"


    My words finally broke the girl free from her momentary state of depression.


    "I can''t say for sure if it will be any good and it will take me some time to earn enough to shop here¡­"


    "It''s fine," a small part of the lights from before reignited in the girl''s eyes. And as she produced a small, strangely restrained smile, I could feel yet another source of motivation root the idea of crafting into my soul. "I will be looking forward to your next visit, then," she said with a smile¡­


    All the while producing a terminal from below her counter, using just one hand to type something on it before passing it over to me.


    "That will be three thousand, eight-hundred and fifty Esecs," she properly conveyed the price before putting a wide and perfectly professional smile on her face. "Would you like to pay with cash or a card?"

 Chapter 7: Crafting the mana-electrict circuit

    It was one thing to have five thousand Esecs on the ount.


    But it was an entirely different feeling to carry around stuff I had just bought for nearly four fat ones, all the more when it was all stuffed into my backpack!


    Walking back from the shop, through the cultivation district to where I left my bike wasn''t even the bad part with how all of the people around me seemed to think nothing more of me but an adorable upstart with the tiny amount of mana I gathered.


    The tougher part started when I got on my bike and then pedaled home, worrying whether or not even the slightest shake or slightest bump on the road would render the parts I''d bought broken.


    This tension continued to grow as I reached closer and closer to my apartment building, peaking when I stoved my bike away and used the lift to get to my floor.


    ''Just leave it as it is,'' I thought as I moved the backpack from my back to my chest, too scared to leave it out of my sight if I didn''t have to. ''Trying to check things out only risks them falling out. Just be patient and do it back home!''


    Seconds passed as the lift climbed through the levels of the building, only to a long, ugly screech of its brakes to announce I was now nearing my floor.


    The next part was blurry.


    Fueled by nothing but fear and anxiety, I walked down the corridor and stepped into my ce before turning around and securing both the lower and the upper lock on the door.


    Only when I carefully ced the backpack down on the bed and started to pull out all the parts before organizing them directly on the soft sheets that my anxiety finally started to fade.


    ''Nothing looks broken¡­''


    Right as a ray of hope appeared in my heart, the reality came to m me right across my face.


    Even though it was still closed, the deep dent in the box of middle-scoped resistors pretty much assured most of the pieces were all but gone.


    ''At least it''s nothing expensive,'' I thought, already picturing out several ways in which I could ovee theck of those particr resistors by fashioning out a slightly moreplex part out of several smaller resistors.


    The anxiety continued all the way to the point where I finally pulled out thest part from my backpack before taking a step back - all that the size of my room allowed - and looking down to carefully inspect everything.


    Two tubes filled with spiritual powder. Six pieces of uniformly shaped Spricur stones. A metal case filled with nicely-arranged crystals, all ced within a special, foam cushion. And then, a big array of various electrical pieces, ranging from empty circuit boards, through capacitors, resistors, and transistors all the way to tables of all sorts and sizes.


    My first instinct uponpleting the inspection was to just throw myself into the fun of crafting stuff, the fun of making something bybining different parts in a specific way and with a specific purpose in mind.


    Before I could do that, though, I pulled out a somewhat clean sheet of paper and one of the pens that used to be just part of my floor litter and nowid nicely arranged on the shelf I made just a few hours ago.


    ''I''ve only got around five hundred Esecs left from the loan,'' I thought as I positioned myself so that I could still reach the paper on my desk while keeping the entirety of the collection on my bed within my sight. ''Combined with all my savings and food funds, thates up to what, a fifteen hundred?''


    I resisted the desire to roll my eyes.


    I never considered savings to be money I could use¡­ Unless absolutely necessary that is. And with my food money amounting to a mere hundred Esecs¡­


    By all means and purposes, when looking at the bnce of my ount on the phone, I stared at numbers symbolizing wealth greater than I ever had to freely spend. And yet¡­


    And yet, I couldn''t help but feel even poorer than when I struggled to survive on whatever little money I could earn from my part-time and the institution.


    "That means," I forcefully looked away from my phone before picking up the pen again as I started to list out every single part, tool, and possibly useful scrap I had on the paper, "I need to make everyst element count."


    Once done with the list, I picked a piece of white cardboard left over from my first crafting project, using it in lieu of a paper that I''ve pretty much run out by now. And bit by bit, while being as careful with the strokes of my pen as I could, I turned what started as merely a few dots and lines into a simplistic but extremely easy-to-read schematic of what I wanted to create.


    "First, let''s start with the circuit itself," I muttered to myself as I stood up, and picked just the parts I absolutely needed for the first step before neatly stacking them on the desk. A second trip enriched the collection on my table with the tools needed to process the elements I''ve gathered. And then¡­


    Then, by plugging the soldering gun into the socket, I put it aside to let it heat up while following the schematic and stuffing a total of ten capacitors in line - as many as the width of the circuit board would allow.


    Next came both the easiest and the hardest part.


    First, I bent the pins of all the elements stuffed into the universal circuit board, making sure they would stay in ce even if the circuit would be turned over¡­ Because that''s exactly what I did next.


    I only knew as much about soldiering as I''d read about it from the inte and what little I remembered from when I would solder small stuff with my dad. As quickly turned out, theoretical knowledge with little to no practical experience¡­ didn''t work all that great in reality.


    In my first attempt, I ended up heating the soldering agent on the pin of the soldiering gun for too long, rendering it too dry to make it usable.


    The second, third, and fourth attempts went pretty much the same, forcing me to learn to adjust both the amount of the soldering agent and the soldering flux with just my eye alone before quickly transferring it over to where I wanted to make the connection between the hole in the circuit board and the pin of the element permanent and active.


    By the time Ipleted this step properly for the very first time, my forehead was, once again, fully covered in sweat, both because of just how focused I was and how easily just this small, soldering gun could heat up all the air in my tiny apartment.


    But just like with biking, once I got the hang of the process, repeating it ended up far easier than I initially expected it.


    And so, one by one, I soldered all the capacitors in ce, having to rece a brittle connection only four times during the entire process. Yet, even when I put the soldering gun away and pulled its cord out of the socket¡­ I still had a ways off before calling it a day.


    After soldering every element in ce came the most meticulous and outright draining step, when I had to scrape off all the excess pathways on the bottom of the circuit board, changing the pathways from an interconnected mesh into a simple pathway.


    A pathway leading from the empty socket for a power source that then split into ten different paths that then led into ten different capacitors.


    With one side of the circuit now finished¡­ I turned it around, before pretty much repeating the process by adding resistors of varying resistance factors in series with each of the capacitors, soldering them in ce, and then carving out the paths.


    By the time the circuit board was properly finished¡­ I merely reached the half of the whole process.


    ''At least, the next part should be easy,'' I thought, wiping my forehead from all the sweat before carefully bringing over two Spricur crystals, some more wires, and¡­ tape.


    This time, thankfully, all I had to do was add one Spricur crystal at the start and at the end of the circuit, using the first one to transform spiritual power into electricity while the other to do the same¡­ but in reverse.


    For a final touch, I simply redrew the simplest gathering array I''ve found in the crafting manual, using it to feed spiritual energy into the first spricur stone, before drawing the diffusing array and then attaching it to the very end of the circuit.


    The moment I did so, a slight electric shock snapped at my fingers, causing me to drop the whole thing down on the surface of my desk. Yet, besides this strange punishment¡­ nothing else seemed to happen!


    And in the end, nothing else happened. Electricity didn''t sh nor did it create arcs between the two tes of each of the capacitors. Mana didn''t gush out from the circuit''s end, filling the room to the brim with the mystical power.


    None of that happened.


    But one thing did change.


    And it was the resistance the air offered when I tried to wave my fingers near the circuit''s output!

 Chapter 8: Its so flawed, I cant help but get ideas on how to improve it!

    Whoosh.


    I moved my hand over the outer end of the circuit¡­ Only to then bring it back, pushing my fingers through the strangely dense air near the output formation of the whole thing.


    "This is so ugly," I muttered to myself as I looked down upon my creation.


    The soldering was far from perfect. The Qi gathering array that fed the spiritual energy into the Spricur crystal was attached to the stone with two-sided tape while said stone sat upon the throne made with a simple blob of hot glue.


    No matter how warped one''s artistic sense would be, this creation of mine was anything but nice to the eye.


    But who gives a fuck?


    ''I''m a craftsman, not an artist,'' I thought to myself, excusing the poor looks of the device by focusing on its utility instead.


    And in that regard¡­


    ''Jackpot!''


    I didn''t allow this single word to leave my mouth. It felt as if I dared to do so¡­ it would raise some sort of g and push the world''s narrative to punish me for my arrogance.


    And so, while rejoicing in my soul, I continued to wave my hand to and fro by the discharging end of the circuit, making it seem as if I was wanking some invisible cock.


    An impression only further reinforced by the strangely slowed-down movements of my hand, the effect that served as the greatest proof that this damned circuit was working!


    After all, what else could create this invisible sense of resistance if not the thick Qi outputted by the formation?


    What''s more¡­


    "It seems that putting so many pairs of capacitors and resistors was a good idea," I muttered to myself while still wanking the air''s cock¡­ Not for the sake of practicing the move that I''ve long since ingrained deep into the memory of my muscles.


    No.


    By waving my hand, now that I''ve obtained this slight amount of mana, I could sense how this circuit outputted it. And just by waving my hand to and fro, I''ve realized that this resistance¡­ Was by no means constant.


    Sure, it was repetetive and just stopping my waving for a moment would restore this sensation¡­ But, if I swung my hand fast enough, the circuit would orga¡­ No, the circuit wouldn''t be able to output the condensed Qi at a rate quick enough to match the frequency of my movements.


    Or, in simpler words, by swinging my hand fast enough, some of those swings would happen at the moment when all of the capacitors were charging while thest discharge of electricity that the Spricur crystal could transform was already dispersed by my previous swing.


    After no less than ten whole minutes of this rudimentary testing, I finally brought my tired hand back to its ce by my side as I distanced myself from the circuit, both mentally and physically, before taking a look at it again.


    ''For it to be so damn easy¡­ It feels outright wrong¡­''


    Sure, there were some obstacles that I had to ovee when it came to the skills necessary to put this thing together¡­ But I wasn''t the only one in the world with those skills. In fact, I wouldn''t be surprised if it was far easier to find someone better at this level of crafting than me than it would be to find someone who could do even worse!


    And yet, with the world crawling with people capable of creating this kind of circuit¡­


    Howe I''ve never seen it disyed or even stoved away anywhere?


    With how cheap its parts were and how easy it was to put them together, why wasn''t this one of the most rudimentary products one could find in every electrical shop?


    ''Wouldn''t it make for one hell of a great green source of energy?'' I thought, recalling all the craze about saving the world''s climate by moving away from fossil fuels I''ve often encountered while surfing the web in my spare time.


    And here it was.


    Right within everyone''s reach.


    A tool that allowed to gather spiritual¡­ and thus pollution-free energy directly from the air before turning it into electricity! And yet¡­


    And yet, I never heard of a single power nt powered solely by that type of contraption! In fact, now that I thought about it¡­


    ''I don''t think there''s even a single power nt in the world that connects the technology of the modern age with the wonders of spirituality¡­''


    Pushed by some strange feeling, I turned my eyes over to the very manual that while not directly, still dabbled into the topics rted to my current question.


    ''How is the world of science and world of cultivation detached so much?''


    The more I thought about it, the less sense it made.


    "Maybe there are some considerations? Something that''s in obvious to anyone who''s deep into the topic enough, while an amateur like me simply has no chance to notice?''


    In an instant, I recalled how my father once came in and crushed my dreams about going back into the past to be the richest man in the world by spreading technology¡­ Not byughing over how time travel was simply impossible and futile to dream about, not at all.


    He did so by pointing out the ws in my thinking that I simplycked the proper education to even notice.


    ''Perpetum mobile cannot exist because of the conservation of energyw.''


    ''If you want to make umbres, how will you make their sprints or their ribs?''


    ''How do you rifle the insides of a barrel?''


    One question after the other, he revealed the sides of the topics that I''ve dreamed about¡­ but never paid proper attention to study and properly learn about first.


    And in all honesty, the feeling of shock¡­ felt exactly the same as what I felt back then, when the reality of the world dawned upon my dreams, leaving behind nothing but a solid and valuable lesson to focus on reality rather than my dreams.


    A lesson that I never managed to fully absorb, given just how long I was stuck on my dream of bing a proper cultivator in the first ce!


    "Still, now that I think about it¡­"


    As reluctant as I was to forgo the joy of my discovery and creation and focus on its potential ws¡­ It only took pretty much a nce to realize the first few points of fault that likely greatly limited the potential of my circuit.


    By connecting the Qi gathering array with tape, I introduced an element that didn''t really conduct the spiritual energy well. So, in order to ovee this problem, I just sshed the tape with a fistful of the spiritual powder first before using it to connect the two parts.


    That solution, while allowing the energy to flow through¡­ Was far from efficient. And it was merely the first chokepoint within my creation that contributed to its¡­ slightlyckluster results!


    "Now then¡­" taking another step to the back, I allowed the edge of my bed''s frame to press against the inner side of my knees, cutting me off and forcing me to fall down on the bed, directing my eyes to the in ceiling of the room.


    ''What if I use tape to attach the formation te, then coat some wire in glue and evenly cover it in the spiritual powder so that I can get a bit better connection to the spricur stone?''


    ''Maybe using hot glue rather than tape would be even better? But wouldn''t it make the entire thing too fragile, prone to break apart?''


    Bit by bit, ideas on how to improve my design continued to appear in my head.


    And so, in the heat of the moment¡­ I ignored all of those ideas and reached for the manual instead.


    What was the point of trying to improve on my already wed design if I could simply make it better during my next attempt? And if that was the path I was going to take¡­ Then wouldn''t it make sense to learn a bit more first?''

 Chapter 9: Too good for my own good?

    "Huh?"


    This was the first thought that appeared in my head after only heavens know how long.


    I blinked my eyes a few times, trying to remove the film of something sticky that seemed to cover my eyeballs, just like it would after waking up from a night of well-deserved and desired sleep.


    ''Wait, did I¡­''


    This wasn''t my first time, so I didn''t need as much time self-reflecting to realize what happened.


    And I didn''t even need to look down, at whaty right by my hands, to realize the obvious!


    I meditated!


    I had no idea when I started and could hardly recall anything that happened to me prior¡­ But this fact was undeniable! Not when the air was all the harder for me to move my limbs through!


    "Wait, is this how it''s supposed to be?" I muttered as I actually had to put quite a lot of strength into my body to move it.


    It no longer felt as if I was moving through strangely thick air. Now, the process of moving was asborious as would be moving through water¡­ without the added benefit of buoyancy!


    ''Wait, isn''t it just like when I stepped into the cultivators'' district?'' I thought when this worrying level of resistance started to fade¡­ But never to reach the level of air thickness that I was used to.


    "Isn''t the air here denser¡­ Far denser than it was at the institution?"


    As soon as those words left my mouth, I realized the implication behind them¡­ Or rather, a series of implications, one growing from another.


    If the air was giving me such a hard time to move through, then it likely wasn''t the air''s fault¡­ but the fault of just how dense the spiritual energy within my apartment became!


    Taking this for a fact as it was the only thing that I could somewhat reliably verify with just how it affected my body, I dived deeper into this line of logic.


    As much as I would love it to be the case, this result simply couldn''te from the device I constructed before falling into the meditative state. I was humble¡­ No, self-aware enough to be sure of that. Not to mention, I''ve already verified the extent of that circuit''s potential!


    And so, deprived of any further clues, I looked down, at the device resting right between my two, weirdly rxed hands.


    "Oh boy¡­" I could only release a short sigh. "I did it again, didn''t I?"


    The¡­ artifact between my hands didn''t look like anything that could be made with those awkward, untrained hands of mine.


    It was¡­ a box.


    A simple, rectangr box constructed with two full-sized circuit boards for its top and bottom and then two half-sized ones for its sides.


    Judging by theck of soldering marks on the outside of the box, not only were all of the elements of the circuits hidden inside the box but they were also all soldered on the face of the board as opposed to its underside.


    To keep the circuitry safe, the whole thing was covered with some sort of material that I didn''t recall buying at all¡­ Only to then realize that a small part of my bedsheets were missing, with scraps of material dirtying the recently cleaned-up floor.


    As infuriating as it was to see a mess in the room that I''ve just worked so hard to clear¡­ I was too damn excited to pay it any mind for long.


    Turning my eyes back to the device between my hands, I nearly gasped when I realized that the front and the end of the box, its sides that I initially omitted to take a closer lookter¡­ It was actually where the magic happened.


    Sure, whatever gave the meditating me an idea to use the circuit boards for the walls to construct a box with¡­ had leagues better artistic sense than I could ever hope to have. But with all things considered¡­ it was nothing more but an artistic choice, with no practical benefits that I could figure out.


    "Putting that aside, this part here¡­" muttering to myself, I picked the device up, not without quite the hardship of moving my hands towards it, before bringing it closer to my eyes.


    Yet, even with my face nearly touching the artifact, it took me well over five minutes to understand the scale ofplexity my unconscious hands conceived.


    It was impossible to say what made up the front and the end of the box¡­ Because I couldn''t really decide whether it was the Spricur crystal or the formation tes. In fact, it wouldn''t be a lie to im that while meditating, I somehow ended up fusing those two elements together!


    ''I need to see inside,'' this single thought reined uncontested in my mind as I carefully removed the front of the device from the box, pulling it out just far enough to get a look at the face of the formation te without affecting the wires connecting the Spricur crystal to the electrical circuit inside of the box.


    And it was quite the marvel.


    The te itself was different than the ones I bought, with a right rhombus cut straight out of its middle. A hole that served to perfectly house the wider side of the Spricur crystal. What''s more, the array on the formation wasn''t drawn with just simple paint¡­ but with what looked like a mix of paint, hot glue, and spiritual powder.


    But that wasn''t the end of it!


    With the premade tes housing just a single formation on them, my meditating self couldn''t allow such a waste of space!


    And so, while my first, conscious-made circuit only housed one Qi gathering formation¡­ I could count more than a dozen of them on this product of my meditation-crafting, all of which connected directly, although in quite a meandering way, to the different sides of the Spricur stone.


    All the "entry points" of the spiritual paths of the formations into the Spricur stone were spaced perfectly evenly apart, making me wonder just how in all hell my hands achieve this degree of precision!


    But this wasn''t even the end of it yet!


    With the formation te and the spiracr stone now creating a new, singr entity, the question of connecting it to the electrical circuit remained. And once again, the way I did it with my conscious mind couldn''t be any different than the way I did it while meditating.


    When attempting it myself¡­ I just attached a single wire to the crystal before smoldering its other end into the board.


    But from just a quick look, I could tell that the changes in my second creation were not only qualitative¡­ but also quantitative.


    "I used to tape the wire into the stone earlier, but this¡­" I looked as closely as I could¡­ But I just couldn''t figure out what sort of magic I somehow used to attach the wires to the crystal.


    Was it glue? Was it heated spiritual powder?


    Looking as closely as I could, I noticed another difference.


    While, when working on my own, I simply pressed the write against the stone. But in the creation of my Qi-guided craftsmanship, I somehow ended up drilling microscopic holes in it, just big enough for me to force just the tip of the wire in.


    How did the wire stick to these less-than-a-millimeter-deep holes, I couldn''t tell.


    But once again, just like after my first meditation, I just opted to leave this issue aside forter and focus on what I could actually figure out.


    Quite honestly, save for whatever miracles there were to discover on the insides of the circuit box, thest difference was how it wasn''t just one wire that connected to the circuit¡­ But a bunch of them were so numerous and thick, I couldn''t realistically count them without breaking the entire thing apart!


    "Now then¡­" I bit down on my lip as I carefully pieced the thing together again before, just as carefully as I picked it up, and ced it down.


    Then, after facing the struggle of freeing my hands from the device given how thick the air around it was¡­


    I''ve realized the truth that I would have to be either extremely naive or even worse, outright mentally challenged to ignore.


    The device that I''ve crafted while in the state of meditation¡­ Wasn''t it a bit too powerful? Wasn''t it too good... for my own good?


    Burdened by this thought, I took a deep breath and looked down¡­


    Only to realize that I''ve missed just one more thing. Just one more, tiny detail.


    I''ve missed the fact that save for the elegant,pleted device right on the table, there was another one, much more crude-looking, resting right by the only free power socket I had left in my apartment!


    A device that looked just like the first one I''d made¡­ with the one difference of recing the Qi-gathering array and the first Spricur crystal with a set of thick cords, several parts I couldn''t readily recognize and then pretty much a copy of what I did in my first proper project.


    What was worrying, though, was how this design, although crude¡­ Took the very idea that I thought about so much just moments before falling into the meditative state¡­ to a whole new level!

 Chapter 10: Are you an idiot, or do you seek death?

    I had no idea how much time had passed¡­ That is, before I rushed down the stairs, too excited to wait for the lift to arrive at my floor, and got out of the apartment building.


    Somehow, in my passion, I failed to ount for the many windows in both the corridors and the staircase of the building, only realizing just howte it was when I walked into the bike-holding area.


    "Ugh¡­" I stopped for a moment as a simple realization struck me.


    ''That shop¡­ It''s likely closing by now or it''s already closed, isn''t it?'' I thought, looking up to the already dark sky with only fleeting remains of the light of the day.


    ''With my speed¡­'' I took a moment to calcte, ''by the time I reach the district, it will be proper night¡­''


    I stopped for a short moment¡­ Only to grit my teeth and free my bike from its restraints before turning it around and jumping on it.


    ''Whether it''s closed or not¡­ I guess there''s only one way for me to find out!''


    The clerk''s suggestion to go back if I had some questions about the mana crafting only loosely stuck in my head.


    Back at her shop, I was too busy trying not to fall for her fairy-like charms to think about whatever words her sweet lips were producing.


    Nevertheless, whether she was serious or offered those words as a courtesy alone¡­ She still offered to help me out if I had any questions!


    And after what could only be called a disaster back in my room, I certainly had some questions that I doubted my manual would have any answers for.


    The disaster I spoke of¡­ Wasn''t all that big or permanent or even dangerous. In fact, the worst that could happen¡­ was an angry call from thendlord if anyone bothered to snitch on me.


    After all, it went without saying that because of me, the power went off in the whole-ass apartment!


    Even though all it took to fix the problem was a quick flick on the circuit breaker located right by the entrance to my ce¡­ The effects this momentary burst of power had on the second device that I produced during my meditation¡­


    ''At the very least, I now know what''s going to happen if I try to use that thing as carelessly as I did,'' I thought, going back to the moment when the QI in the air grew so thick and dense, I actually struggled to move an inch!


    Thankfully, with the power in my apartment breaking and this thick Qi quickly dissolving in the air, I didn''t end up trapped in my own ce for life, turning this scary experience into¡­ well, just that, a scary yet momentary experience.


    And now, as I biked down the dimly lit roads of the city, I couldn''t stop thanking my own sense of reason that made me leave that dangerous device back home.


    In fact, I didn''t bring my fancy circuit either, worrying it was something an amateur like me shouldn''t be able to produce. And so, with just the first circuit I''ve constructed somewhat secured by bubble wrap inside of my backpack, I continued to bike to the cultivators'' district.


    The road took me less than a quarter of an hour to conquer. Still, those fifteen minutes were just enough for the sun to fully retire for the day, giving way for the moon to im supremacy over the sky.


    Upon arriving, despite the dark, I simply went through the motions again.


    Secure the bike in the holding area. Pass through the barrier at the border of the two worlds¡­ A feat that somehow became all the easier after what I went through back at my own ce.


    Rush down the roads, hoping that the shop I was in just half a day prior would still be open.


    ''It is at times like this that one hates just how much cultivators refuse to ept the blessings of technology,'' I thought, recalling the empty page on the map app that mentioned nothing more beyond the location and the name of the shop.


    No contact information, no opening hours, no photos, no link to their website¡­ nothing.


    Just an address and the name, as if it would be a great dishonor to that clerk or whoever actually owned the ce to make the life for their customers easier!


    And so, with nothing but hope pushing me forth, I rushed through the main street of the cultivators'' district, ignoring the weirded-out stares of the fancily dressed cultivators when they encountered a civilian-looking me with some pitiful shadow of mana to call my own.


    I rushed and rushed, and when I took the corner¡­


    The clerk from before! She was still there!


    She was busy closing the shop''s doors¡­ But she was still here!


    "Hey!" I called out, unable to properly modte my voice after rushing with all my might and for no reason.


    Startled, the fairy-like girl turned around, tracing the direction my voice came from¡­ Only for her face to first tense up and then turn ugly as she appeared to have recognized me.


    "Didn''t I tell you?!" she groaned through her gnashed teeth as her face grew slightly darker and quite openly displeased. "It''s not my problem if you throw your money around, but I''m not going to offer you a damn refund if¡­"


    "Wait, what?" I stopped in my tracks¡­ Only to nearly fall on my face when I attempted to stop as suddenly as I just did, with the momentum of my approach nearly making me stumble and fall down directly on my face.


    Thankfully, all the physical training I''ve gone through back at the institution, allowed me to moderate and then stabilize my breath quite quickly, saving myself the issue of trying to correct the clerk while desperately fighting to restore the proper working order of my lungs.


    "No, that''s not it!"


    After sessfully stopping the girl''s rant before it could fully develop, I energetically shook my head¡­ Before bending forward, I rested my hands against my knees to take just a little bit more time to rest and regain my breath.


    "Then what is it?" The girl''s face grew even darker¡­ But in her eyes, deep down at their bottom, I could see some faint sparks of curiosity.


    After all, if I wasn''t here for a refund, then what else would make me rush here so hard, that I would fail to maintain myposure out of physical exhaustion alone?


    "Questions!"


    Realizing that there was only so much attention this girl was willing to offer before she would just roll her eyes and hurriedly leave, I made sure to be as concise and precise as I could.


    "You told me I cane back if I have any questions, didn''t you?" I borated when my first call ended up without an answer.


    "Wait, did you rush back all the way here from wherever the hell you came¡­" the girl''s face took a turn as she gave me a slightly startled look while her eyes jumped all over my tired figure.


    Then, FINALLY, her expression melted and softened a bit.


    "Ha-ah¡­" she sighed before shaking her head a little and sending her long, brown, slightly curly hair into a spin. "What do you want to know?" she asked with the face of someone who resigned themselves to their fate.


    "Oh, just one moment," I hurriedly asked, only to lower my bag from my back before quickly opening it up and fishing out the crude device I constructed.


    A quick inspection of the thingter, I''ve confirmed it managed to survive my desperate rush without any major damage, with just some parts of the tapeing loose in the process.


    "This thing," I''ve raised the crude device up as if to make it more visible for the girl, "can you tell me what you think about it?"


    For a moment, I just stood in ce, my hands reaching out to present my circuit to the girl¡­


    Only for her face to grow slightly darker when she saw the quality of my produce.


    "This thing¡­" she muttered, clearly struggling to find the right words not to kill my motivation while giving me an urate assessment of¡­ well, of how fucked I was.


    And yet, by the time she took a step to take a closer look, her face changed.


    Then, with her expression freezing as her eyes grew serious, she rushed up thest few steps that separated us only to reach out and grab my hands as she lowered her eyes over the device.


    "This thing¡­" she repeated herself, too focused on my creation to even pay attention to this fact.


    And then, as if nothing at all had happened, she raised her face and revealed the same kind and weing expression she showed when I first saw her over the counter of her shop.


    "Don''t talk and follow me," she spoke with a smile even more lovely than the one I already saw¡­ Only to turn on her heel and move right back to her shop''s doors. A momentter, she unlocked them and pushed them open, only to grab my wrist and pull me inside.


    "Just a little longer," she whispered as she¡­ forced me deeper into the shop while turning back herself and closing the door behind us before spending well over a few seconds securing all the locks the doors of her shops came equipped with.


    Then and only then did she take a deep breath and turn around, her face now all serious.


    "Are you the one who made this?" she asked, her voice t as a loli and as emotionless as a tree.


    "Yeah," confused, I nodded my head.


    Strangely enough, despite how weird of an encounter as it was¡­ I felt no danger brewing.


    "Then listen to me very carefully¡­" the girl spoke¡­ Only to bend down as she covered her face in her hands and cried out, "Are you an idiot, or do you seek death? Because I find no other reason for you to unt such a thing out in the open!"

 Chapter 11: Are you into humiliation play or something?

    "Idiot! Baka! Moron!"


    The girl threw one insult after the other even after she locked the doors to the shop and walked past me as she moved to her usual spot behind the counter.


    "I mean... Thank you?" I muttered.


    Not really sure how I was supposed to respond to her tirade; I opted for the answer as random as her litany of insults was random for me.


    "What the hell are you thanking...!" The girl sharply turned her head my way and threw me a furious nce, only for her face to freeze as some sort of enlightenment shed in her eyes. "Don''t tell me, are you into humiliation or something?"


    From the total shock, confusion, and agitation, the shopkeeper''s face turned into one of apprehension.


    "Huh?" I leaned my head over to the side. "What makes you think so?" I refuted before shaking my head. "But yeah, I''m not. It''s just..."


    I shook my head again.


    "Judging from your reaction, I did something really... bad?" I raised my eyebrow while allowing a hint of confusion on my face. "So, for stopping me and then hiding me in this shop, I want to thank you. But, on that point," I crossed my arms over my chest, "would you care to borate on what I did that upset you so much, miss?"


    For a moment, the girl stared right into my face before heaving a deep, long sigh and then resting her elbows against the counter before hiding her weary face in her palms.


    "Where do I even begin?" the girl wailed, her voice slightly muffled now that it had to conquer not only the air between us but also the embargo established by her hands.


    "Okay, let''s do this," the girl said as she lowered her hands and raised her already tired face. "First off, I''m going to give you a tiny bit of a leeway. Judging by your..."


    The girl raised her eyes to my face... Only to freeze for a second before gulping her saliva down.


    "Okay, nevermind, that''s going to be another point... But yeah, first, judging by the quantity of your mana when you visited before, I guess you are not unionized a guild, right?" she asked while raising her eyes to my face again as if to confirm the answer through my expression.


    And, in the kindness of my heart, I opted to make this job easier for her by shaking my head sideways.


    "I''ve heard about cultivation guilds before, but unionizing..." I shook my head. "I can only associate this world with the workce unions or something..."


    "As I thought," the clerk sighed as if my answer perfectly filled the shape of what she expected it to be. "That''s why, at least for now, I need you to just trust my word and refuse invitations to any guilds that happen to approach you. I don''t care for the reason, just... don''t sign any papers or anything, okay?"


    Feeling the girl''s burning stare on my face... I gulped all my embarrassment down my throat along with my spit.


    ''Is this how popr guys feel?'' I thought, trying to turn my shyness andck of ability to socialize a bit more bearable with an innocent joke like this.


    "Aren''t you going to exin everything to me before letting me go out anyway?" I still countered the girl''s request. "Judging from how you framed it, you are going to exin this request of yours, just not now but at the end of your lecture, right?"


    "R-right..." somewhat shaken, the girl blinked her eyes a few times before hanging her head on her hands as she lowered it over the counter. "Sorry, I''m tired and I''ve never expected this to happen, so I might not be thinking exactly straight..."


    The young shopkeeper took a few breaths to calm herself down and regain some of her non-agitation-borne vigor.


    "Okay, moving on," she said as she raised her face again before giving me an intense stare with those lovely, brown eyes of hers. "First thing first,bining science and cultivation, even in such simple and outright crude form..."


    ''Shots fired...'' I thought as her honest words cut into my soul.


    Sure, I knew that the creation I made with my own efforts was anything but nice and tidy or even well-made... But knowing it and hearing someone give it to me so straight were two different matters altogether!


    "... is something akin to breaking the taboo. If any of the traditionalists were to see you with it..."


    The girl only shook her head.


    But I wasn''t an idiot. Just her grim expression and her pressing her lips into an extremely thin line were enough of an boration on the consequences of such an event happening.


    "On the other hand, if anyone unassociated with the traditionalist were to see it..."


    This time, the clerk''s expression wasn''t as grim, but more like... screaming ''unfortunate''?


    "They would steal the concept?" I attempted to guess, only to have the clerk nod her beautiful head to confirm it.


    Both of her concerns regarding my creation were... perfectly valid. And, while my knowledge about the world of cultivation was pretty limited to what was well established in themon media... What I''ve just learned aligned with saidmon knowledge pretty damn well.


    But...


    Yeah, there was always some sort of but. And in this situation, it was staring me dead in the face, begging to be touched upon.


    "But what''s your end in warning me about all of this?" I asked outright.


    Sure, some could say it would be smart to push this topic forter, pretend I didn''t notice it for now, and try to squeeze the answer to it without revealing my intentions or suspicions...


    But I wasn''t that kind of aplex, plotting man.


    Years of mming my fists into a block of wood taught me how to be straightforward and consistent, not shady and scheming!


    "I..." the clerk hesitated for a second, her face twisting as she looked away while a look of uncertainty shed in her expression.


    She then sighed out before slumping over her counter.


    "Back a few years ago, I thought about bridging science and cultivation too, you know?" the girl asked, a vivid sense of nostalgia and regret appearing on her face, only to vanish as she refocused her eyes back on my face literally the very next second.


    "But my hands..." the clerk said as she raised her arms from the counter and stared at her perfectly fine, smooth hands, free of any sort of calluses that would indicate extensive training.


    Those hands... were theplete opposite of my own hands, fully covered in marks left after five years of extensive training.


    "Those hands of mine are great at wielding sword or drawing formations, but when ites to crafting something precise..." she shook her head before forcing a small smile on her lips.


    "That, and by the time I realized what was going on, I was already affiliated with a traditionalist guild that would break my whole cultivation and make me into a banite if I ever dared to break the taboo with my own, ipetent hands."


    I squinted my eyes, finally able to make sense of why this girl reacted the way she did when she saw mee in with the device I''d crafted.


    With those squinted eyes of mine, I saw the forced smile on the clerk''s face soften up and turn into a slight but true smile.


    "And that''s exactly where youe in," the girl threw, only for her cheeks to suddenly cover with blush. "On that note, what''s your name again?"

 Chapter 12: Negotiating the partnership

    ''How can you ask about something again if you never asked about it in the first ce?'' For a second, I entertained the thought of ying the grammar-police with the clerk¡­ Only to quickly abandon the idea.


    What would be the point of doing so save for irritating her? And while sure, I was curious just how would her pouting or annoyed face look like, this¡­


    This meeting, as weird as it already was, just didn''t feel like something I was supposed to ignore.


    ''Is this how it feels when I''m on the main quest, rather than some sub-routine only meant to increase the game''s dered ytime?'' I thought, recalling the terms I used to be familiar with back before I decided to put games aside and my life back on proper track only to then proceed to happily lose five years of it on a lost cause.


    "I''m Tim," I answered after giving up on all the shenanigans that popped up in my mind only to reach out for a handshake. "And you are¡­?"


    The girl first squinted her eyes before looking down at my hand.


    That alone was enough to give my soul a shake, as certain unsavory shbacks of my school life threatened to resurface.


    Then again, rather than putting on a disgusted face as certain ''ss elite'' of my dark past did, the girl actually reached out and epted my hand.


    "ire," she introduced herself right as she took me by surprise and twisted my wrist, a feat that didn''t seem possible given her light physique and the sleeper build I''ve refined over thest five years.


    Still, as impossible as it might seem to be, she turned my head over with surprising ease only to instantly turn her eyes down.


    "This certainly doesn''t look like the hand of a craftsman¡­" she muttered, only to raise her eyes as she gave me a sharp, suspicious look. "Could it be¡­"


    My mind raced¡­ but only for a moment.


    It didn''t take a genius to figure out what she saw in my hand that would suddenly raise rm in her cute head.


    After all, I caught this detail myself, of my hands befitting a thug or a martial artist rather than an artist or a craftsman. And in all honesty, the looks of my first proper creation only served to prove that point.


    "No." I shook my head. "I know what you are thinking, but I''m not some mule or proxy. The device I''ve brought, I created with the very hand you are holding," I''ve exined, only for the grammar-police mode to sh up in my mind once again.


    "Well, I made it with both of my hands, but you get the idea," I added as I corrected my statement.


    ''Even if it''s something that crude, it would take one hell of a genius or a world of determination to make it with just one hand!''


    Hearing those words, rie raised her eyes to my face while putting a slightly weirded-out expression on her own, as if she wasn''t exactly sure whether to be baffled, unamused or just to roll her eyes. Ultimately, she shook her head, resetting her expression to what seemed to be her default, passive and just slightly focused look.


    "Moving on, what would you say about sort of¡­ partnership?" ire asked. This time, it was her turn to act slightly skittish as she quickly averted her eyes and leaned back in her chair, looking for something hidden on the inner side of the counter.


    Before long, she pulled out a rtively clean sheet of paper and some cheap, disposable pen that simply couldn''t be more out of ce in this ce filled with expensive and mystical materials straight out of the cultivation world.


    "I know, I know," ire nodded her head before I could even voice a single word of concern while raising her hands as if to imply she meant no harm, be it directly or in a business way.


    "Just partnership is an empty word, so let me borate on what I mean," she exined only to twirl the pen in her graceful fingers and then grab proper hold of it, making its tip stop just a hair-width shy of the paper.


    "You have the skills, passion¡­" ire started rather unenthusiastically, "but more importantly, means to craft stuff unobstructed. And judging from what you brought," she cast a quick nce to my left hand where I still held my mana-thickening device, "you are happy to work with both cultivation and science materials."


    Rather than speaking first and then writing, ire noted down a few points on the paper right as she spoke.


    "From what I can tell, though, you are extremely new to the world of cultivation," she noted something down on the other side of the paper, "youck the connections necessary to sell your products, expand your crafting range, or get your hands on lessmon materials."


    One by one, ire''s disposable pen continued to stack more and more lines on the other side of the paper.


    And then, she just stopped her hand only to raise her face and look me directly in the eyes.


    "Am I wrong? Am I missing something?"


    I didn''t ask how she figured it all out. She didn''t look like an idiot and, for how limited my knowledge and cultivation ofmon sense were, I liked to believe I wasn''t one either.


    Between my extremely slim amount of mana when we first met, theck ofmon sense I''ve apparently disyed while unting my device out in the open, and then countless other small hints I''ve served on a silver tter without even realizing it, it would be actually weird if she didn''t figure it all out by now!


    "I''m aplete amateur when ites to cultivation, so if you want me to craft anything that requires manipting it in the crafting process¡­"


    As stupid as it would seem to be to add another line to what was clearly the list of things she was willing to take care of in the partnership she was drafting, there was no point in working with each other if I were to hold such an important piece of information back.


    Whether I liked it or not, something like this woulde out extremely quickly. In fact, it wouldn''t be weird if ire already figured that fact out all on her own!


    Hearing my words, the girl only smiled before, indeed, adding another line to her side of the paper.


    "I like your honesty," ire admitted with a small smile, only for a small hint of mischief to appear in her eyes as she pressed the pen''s tip against the paper again, "so, let''s not forget the benefit of getting to work with a jade-beauty like me!"


    Hearing this, I couldn''t help but roll my eyes.


    "Then, don''t forget to add the drawback of attracting the ire of countless young masters who wille running to get their faces pped only to turn my family into cauldrons in revenge," I countered, only for ire to giggle at my joke.


    Instead of adding the "risk of young masters running amok" to my side, though, she simply crossed out the "jade-beauty" line on her side.


    "That''s a good point," she admitted, only to then turn the paper around and push it over the counter for me to inspect.


    "I''m not really sure if youck money or not, but in the world of cultivators¡­" she started, only for an awkward grimace to take over her face. "Actually, just like you were honest with me, I won''t be dishonest to im money isn''t important," she stated before shaking her head and looking right into my eyes again.


    "I won''t im money isn''t important, but it''s not like you can solve everything with it. Not here, not with how people deal with things on this side of the reality," she said before heaving a long sigh.


    "Money makes the world go round," I pointed out with a shake of my shoulders. "Just like you charged me for the materials, myndlord charges me rent and the grocery at my corner doesn''t provide me with food just to umte good karma either."


    ire smirked a little¡­ Only to reach into her counter and¡­


    And bring out a stack of money the size I''ve only ever seen in movies before.


    "Ten thousand Esecs," she stated as she pushed the stack over the counter just like she did the draft of the partnership before. "Take it."


    "And the catch?" I asked, strangely unable to even raise my hand for the money, sensing some sort of a trap.


    "There''s none," ire shrugged her shoulders. "Just a consultation fee, an investment or reimbursement for the materials you used, call it whatever you want."


    ire looked up at my face¡­ and sighed when she noticed my reaction to the money on the table.


    "So you are poor, huh?" she muttered only to shake her head. "If you want, I can take your device for thrice as much¡­" she suggested, only to twist her head over to the side and give me the cutest smile of all the smiles she produced ever since I''ve met her.


    "Or, you can try to go and improve the design, make it¡­ better looking?" she suggested only to rest her elbows on the counter and lean over it, resting her head in her hands while drilling holes in my face with her stare. "Then, instead of adding two more stacks like this one, I will add a zero to the bill instead."

 Chapter 13: If this is your way of trying to make me dual cultivate with you…

    "Then, instead of adding two more stacks like this one, I will add one more zero instead."


    At first, my eyes widened a bit.


    Before I could react in any other way, however, my well-developed instincts kicked in, putting me in a state of deep focus.


    It was a natural result of the way I''ve trained and hoped to ovee the wall of meditation, by forcing myself to regain my focus whenever my attention would spike.


    Normally, this kind of focus reset would happen whenever I would be in an already deeply focused state and with something extremely minor about to distract me. Right now, however, with my thoughts already agitated, ire''s suggestion¡­


    It was as much of a shock in my already agitated state as much a fly flying past would be a distraction while I tried to focus.


    And so, with just a single twitch of my eyes, I''ve entered this quasi-meditative state, momentarily slowing down my perception of time and allowing me just a slight moment to think things through.


    "So, a hundred thousand for a finished design with some slight improvements to how well it works?" I''ve asked, not for the sake of negotiating the price, but to buy myself more time.


    ''Should I just get the money and run?''


    ''Maybe cooperating with her is not the worst idea? Ten big ones are a lot, but nowhere near enough to keep going for long, especially with all the added costs¡­''


    ''Am I insane for even thinking I can trust someone I just randomly met?


    A thousand different thoughts raced through my mind, each of them helping me to distance myself from the weight of the money the girl offered right away, and the sum she imed to be willing to pay for a finished product.


    Yet, even with all of that said¡­


    "That''s right," ire nodded her head, leaving the neatly arranged wad of cash on the table before pulling her empty hand back. "A hundred big ones for what, a week''s worth of work?" she asked with a small smile, shrewd enough to already include the rough timeline in the deal she was proposing.


    But after all the thoughts that went through my mind, after all the things I noticed, thought, and processed¡­ This wasn''t the course I wished for our discussion to take. Not just yet, at the very least.


    "Before I say anything else, allow me to suggest two stiptions," I stated while crossing my hands over my chest and doing my best to put a small, nonmitted smile on my face. "From here and out, we are going to be fully honest. No bullshit, no half-truths, no lies of convenience or omitting the important details.


    Obviously, if there are things we won''t have the answer for or we won''t feel at liberty to speak about, just a single mention of this stiption will suffice for an answer," I borated a bit before raising the corner of my smile to make it seem slightly cheeky. "What say you?"


    Judging by the slight changes on ire''s face, my words managed to take her somewhat by surprise¡­ But not to the point where she would break her persona and show it directly. Just a slight raise of her eyebrow, a twitch of her eye, a momentarypse of her own smile, those were the hints I had to work with.


    But now that I was in my fully focused state, those details could very well be painted in red and have big, neon arrows shing as they pointed at each and everyst one of them.


    "Is this the moment that I call the cops or¡­?"


    Iughed out a little before rxing my hands and stuffing them down into the pockets of my pants.


    "It''s nothing that grand, I''m just a simple man who dislikesplicated schemes or word games.


    And yes, I''m aware that only makes me a prime target for a rip-off of the century," I shook my arms while keeping my arms firmly stuffed in my pockets before breathing a slight, exhausted sigh, "but honestly, I can see our cooperation turning long-term as it benefits us both, so I will leave it up to you to set the proper foundation for it today."


    ire wasn''t in a hurry to give her answer. Instead, she stared me down from the tip of my head to the very bottom of my feet, all the while hiding behind the solid barrier of her counter.


    Just by the benefit of sitting down while she offered me no seat to rest on, she could somewhat im a slightly better position on the negotiating table¡­ But just like I said before, I had no wish, desire, or energy to deal with small caveats like that.


    "Fine, if it''s honesty you want, then honesty is the least I can offer," ire sighed, proving her assessment of my person came out, at the very least, somewhat favorably. "Shoot, what is it that you wish to know?"


    I nodded my head a little to express my gratitude for her decision.


    "First off, on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your ability to teach someone the basics of cultivation?" I asked, only to turn my smile a little bit wider, more weing. "And I mean both theory and practice."


    This time, however, my words¡­


    My words brought a change that actually caught me off guard. For what I considered to be just an innocent question, even if slightly telling about my wish to find a teacher to bring me through the basics now that I''ve found my way to meditate¡­


    What I didn''t expect was ire''s face suddenly ring up as if I just asked if I could make love to her grandmother!


    ire''s face turned fierce, sparks of ill-hidden rage shing up in her eyes as she began to stand from her seat. The air in the room tensed up¡­ It actually tensed up, likely due to whatever this girl did to the mana within the shop.


    "If this is your way of trying to make me dual cultivate with you¡­"


    ''Huh?''


    Despite the obvious seriousness of the clerk''s misunderstanding¡­ Her rage died down as soon as it came to be.


    And I could only guess it was the genuine surprise on my face that made her realize that her interpretation of my words didn''t align with my intentions at all!


    "That was never my goal," I quickly rebuked the usation while raising my hands up to my chest and showing my palms as if to show that I waspletely harmless - just like my intentions. "I mean, you saw me some hours ago. As embarrassing as it is, today is the very first day that I''ve touched mana, so¡­"


    I was twenty-five years old.


    While it didn''t matter all that much in the modern day and age, I''ve already started between two and five yearster than usual. And with how I''ve onlye to ept my absoluteck of talent two yearster than pretty much even the worst practicioners were expected to enter the realm of cultivation¡­


    I couldn''t really fault ire for not taking me for a total and absolute newbie!


    "Is that why you asked¡­?" Slightly startled, ire raised her eyes to my face as he¡­ took a deeper look into me.


    It wasn''t just her expression.


    Just like when the air around her tensed up a moment ago, her stare felt¡­ heavier, deeper than before.


    "You actually are just a newbie¡­" she then muttered before I could even give her the answer.


    Still, this girl clearly wasn''t the one to dwell on the topic while she pondered over her options.


    "On a scale of one to ten¡­ I can confidently im to be seven. With that said, though," ire''s voice turned lower and fainter as her sentence drew to an end, only for the girl to squint her eyes as her stare, once again, pierced through my eyes. "While I can guess why you ask about it, I''m not really sure what it has to do with your crafting or our deal.


    With a hundred big ones, you could easily hire¡­"


    "That''s what my second question was for," I interrupted the girl, courtly ignoring the opportunity to ask what made her rate herself so rtively high on the scale I proposed. "How much would you prize a device capable of thickening the mana in a room about the size of this shop so much, a newbie like me right now would actually struggle to move?"

 Chapter 14: Bringing a fairy-like girl home?

    ''How the hell did this happen?''


    This one thought prevailed in my head as I dragged my bike along while making sure to match ire''s step.


    It was an extremely weird feeling, to walk through town beside a fairy like her¡­


    But somehow, this impossible event came to be regardless of the close-to-null chances of it ever happening.


    And somehow, I was bringing this beautiful girl home!


    ''Let''s not get ahead of myself,'' I thought, desperately striving to calm myself down while trying not to let the awkward silence between the two of us get to me. ''She''s noting to my ce, she''sing to check the device up and then help me out with my cultivation. That''s all there is to it!''


    Still.


    It was one thing to be aware of something but apletely different thing to live through it.


    "Why are you so silent?" ire asked while leaning her head slightly off to the side and giving me a bit weirded-out look. Then, her lips twitched a little as she formed a small, slightly mischievous smile, "could it be, are you¡­"


    "I''m not good at talking to women, alright?" I cut the chatter before this tease of a clerk could gain any momentum with her yful teasing.


    "I''ve spent five years training with all the passion I could find in hopes of achieving a meditative state, so forgive me if I failed to develop this kind of rudimentary social skill," I added, rolling my eyes only to turn them away, hoping that if I didn''t have ire in my sights, she wouldn''t affect my mind all that much.


    "Oho?"


    Just hearing how she held back herugh made me realize that my attempt at being straightforward andying the situation t out¡­ was likely a mistake.


    I saw, just from the corner of my eyes, that ire sped up a bit¡­ Only to jump, pull her legs over the frame of my bike, and thennd her shapely bottom directly on its seat. A move so perfect the bike didn''t even twitch, making it seem as if something she extensively practiced.


    ''What the¡­''


    "Is this another thing you want me to teach you about?" ire giggled, dangling her feet off to the side of my bike only to then raise her left foot and ce it against my stomach. "How to deal with girls?" she asked, rubbing her feet up and down while letting out a lovely giggle.


    "I believe you were to teach me cultivation, didn''t you?" I spoke out while giving her a side-eye¡­ not really sure how to deal with her yful, flirtatious behavior.


    "Yeah, what about it?" she replied while leaning back on the bike''s seat, forcing me to counter by pulling it a bit harder in my direction. In this position, if only she was wearing a skirt rather than a set of pants, my unobstructed view would be to kill for.


    "Right now, you make it seem as if you were to teach me dual cultivation instead," I pointed out, drawing a direct parallel to what she was wary about before.


    "Oh, calm down," ireughed out again, finally pulling her leg down and allowing it to freely dangle while she continued to fill my ears with her bright, charming giggling. "I''m only ying a bit!"


    I heaved a long, heavy sigh.


    "Didn''t I just say that I''m not really used to women?" I forced myself to look over at the girl with a disapproving look in my eyes. "What are you doing all of that for? Just to have some fun at my expense?" I protested.


    "Do you really think so little of me?" ire asked, pushing her lips out as she pretended to pout. This pout then turned into a small smirk that further transformed into a rxed smile. "What if I said I''m trying to get you addicted to me so that you won''t bail the moment you get a better offer than what I can put on the table?"


    Once again, I leaned my head over to the side to give the girl a stinky side-eye.


    "Let me use your own words, do you really think so little of me?" I countered before turning my head back to its natural position as I focused on the road ahead rather than the yful girl.


    Rather than keeping up with the conversation, though, I turned silent instead, hoping that this trip coulde to an end as soon as possible.


    ''If this is the ordeal I have to go through to be a proper cultivator¡­'' I thought, only to grit my teeth as I steeled my resolve, ''then so be it!''


    For the next few moments, the peace returned as ire seemingly lost all interest in teasing me.


    "Actually, you will have to get used to this kind of touch," she blurted out, only to lean back while stretching her hands over her head, only to kick up with her legs, do a handstand, and then flip back to her legs. She then ran around the back of the bike only to m herself against my open left side and wrap her arms around my arm.


    "While dual cultivation is an entirely different topic, a bit of touch is necessary for me to get a proper look at your inner state," she muttered while rubbing her cheek against my shoulder, all the while holding on to that mischievous smirk of hers.


    "So, why shouldn''t I start getting you used to it a bit?" she asked, her voice growing slightly more serious than before. "It would do us no good if you were to get hard whenever I put my hands on you, would it?"


    I took a deep breath, trying to hold my emotions back¡­ just like I held myself from shaking her off my shoulder.


    "Don''t tter yourself," I tried to counter¡­ All the while trying to manipte my step so that the creasing of my jeans wouldn''t twist in a way unfortunate enough to prove the point ire was making.


    Thankfully, before she could notice, we finally took thest turn before arriving at the entrance to my apartment building. And that alone was enough for her face to first sour and then turn serious.


    "Yes, I really live in this ce," I admitted while rolling my eyes, well aware that this ce was more of a jail than a proper apartment building, something that the architect didn''t even bother to try to hide from an outside view.


    "No¡­ That''s not it¡­" ire muttered as she let go of my arm and squinted her legs, her smirk finally reced by a properly serious expression. "It''s the mana¡­" she spoke out, only to cut her sentence short and then shake her head to the side, followed by grabbing my arm again only to pull me into the building.


    "Lead the way," rie shortly ordered¡­ all the while pulling me along, making the task of leading the way quite impossible.


    Still, after recollecting my thoughts, I sped up my steps and first matched and then overtook the girl, guiding her up the stairs and then along the corridor, all the way to the doors leading to my closet of an apartment. The closer we got, though, the slower ire''s steps became, as if she suddenly started to struggle to push ahead, long before I felt the mana in the air grow any thicker.


    By the time we arrived at the doors, ire''s knees were already shaking, making it seem as if I just brought home some drunk and terrified girl. Yet, when I opened the doors¡­


    "I''m sorry, but give me just a moment," she pleaded, only to rush inside, sit down on the bed, pull her legs up before crossing them, and then close her eyes.


    As weird as it was, I just shrugged my shoulders and closed the doors. Yet, as I turned around to face her again, she was already in a state of deep meditation, with her chest slowly moving to the rhythm of her long, deep breaths.


    And as I stood there, in the narrow open space of my room with a beautiful fairy of a girl meditating on my bed, only one thought upied my mind.


    ''What the hell do I do now?''

 Chapter 16: Not only a genius crafter but also a genius cultivator?

    ''Huh?''


    Opening her eyes, ire suddenly found herself in a foreign, extremely cramped room.


    It consisted of a bed, a small desk with a stool for a chair, and¡­ pretty much it. Even with so little furniture, there was only about one, one and a half meters of spare room on the floor, currently upied by some stranger¡­


    ''Wait, no, it''s not a stranger, it''s Tim,'' the girl corrected herself as the fog started to lift from her weary mind.


    Cultivation was never an easy task. It was the process of guiding the mana in the air with the use of an extremely specific method and through an extremely specific path, all in a bid to develop one''s inner world to the peak of the stage they were currently at.


    For the girl to im herself to be a genius would be nothing short of pure arrogance. But that didn''t mean shecked talent and potential whenpared to her peers.


    Most, by the age of twenty-two, would merely enter the stage of flesh-qi bnce, only starting on the perilous path of expelling all the imperfections and toxins from their bodies so that they could embark on the task of building up a core in the future.


    ire, however, has long since aplished that goal, boasting the beauty deprived of all the small downsides that all the mortals below her stage had no other choice but to ept.


    But what she thought to be a great achievement, her first step into the realm of true, core-based cultivation, or in ancient terms - dantian-based cultivation, only served to make the girl realize just how small she was whenpared to the true giants of the mystical world.


    Her growth rate slowed down pretty much to a crawl. Her meditation, from just a nice boon, turned into an absolutely indispensable element of her training. And the resources she had at hand suddenly proved to be useless.


    No matter how many Qi-condensing formations the girl stacked, she simply couldn''t infuse the air with Qi dense enough to make a dent in the enormous task ahead of her.


    And so, for thest year, ire was stuck on the core foundation stage, otherwise known as the true condensation stage, feeling as if the hours upon hours of her daily training and meditation were all for naught.


    That is, all of it was true up until the moment when Tim opened up the doors to his room, flooding the girl''s senses with mana as rich as when her father splurged on her twenty-third birthday and offered her with a damned elixir!


    Unable to stop herself, when faced with such rich Qi, ire just went ahead and started to cultivate without the slightest care in the world. And by the time she woke up, for the first time since her birthday¡­ she actually moved forward!


    And as if this wasn''t enough, back when using the elixir in the most efficient way possible, while surrounded by formations and in a state of perfect meditation, she merely managed to form three strands of solidified qi inside of her. But now?


    After merely meditating for what felt like a short while? Not only did she gain three more strands but actually threaded them together, creating what could very likely be the seed of the core!


    ''Wait, is it just me or¡­ is the density of qi in the air about to return back to how it was when he opened the door?'' Startled, ire took a moment to confirm her thought¡­ Only to realize that her feeling was right on the money!


    And the culprit for this wondrous effect just¡­ sat on Tim''s table, rapidly sucking in the thin mana from the air only to gradually dispel extremely condensed Qi at regr intervals!


    ''No, it''s not that device that''s behind this, it''s¡­'' ire''s eyes finally moved over to the host of the ce, the alleged creator of the wondrous device¡­


    Whopletely ignored her beauty and fully focused on fiddling with some of the toys she brought over more as a joke than in a bid to actually help him out.


    ''What is he¡­'' ire thought as she first straightened out her legs - tired after all the time she spent meditating in a lotus position, only to fall forward on all fours as she silently crept up to the bed''s edge before taking a quick look over the young man''s broad shoulder.


    "What are you doing?" ire asked in a neutral voice, silent enough not to startle the man but loud enough to ensure he actually heard her¡­


    But as if she didn''t exist, Tim continued to fiddle with what looked like an alchemist set for kids up to six years old, too focused to pay her any mind.


    ''Wait, is he meditating?'' the girl thought before turning her eyes over to the ceramic pot around which Tim''s hands danced. And then, her face contorted even more than when she saw the nicely-looking, finished device sitting atop his desk.


    "Is this a damned elixir?!" Unable to stop herself, ire screamed out in shock, recognizing the pattern of dancing lights within the liquid that only ever took ce when the potion reached the grade of an actual elixir.


    The shine was small, barely noticeable in fact¡­ But it was far denser than anything she saw in her life, with the sole exception of the treasures that sometimes would go up on an auction!


    And as if that still wasn''t enough¡­


    "Don''t tell me you crafted it from those piss-worth ingredients?!"


    Freaking out of her mind, ire reached out for Tim''s shoulder and shook it¡­ But to no avail.


    Just like she was unresponsive to the world around her before, while stuck deep into her meditation limbo while trying to work out the rich Qi energy in the air into her system, Tim didn''t seem to be aware of his surroundings or his own actions to boot, not even when ire actively tried to get his attention!


    "Such focus¡­" she muttered, her eyes turning wide as she quickly started to connect the dots.


    Back when he first visited, he merely possessed a single whisk of mana, just barely enough to pass through the barrier of the cultivation district, less than enough for anyone to actually consider him a cultivator.


    During his second visit, however, his Qi reserves grew so considerably, that rie would have no qualms about attributing him to the Qi-gathering stage, the first realm of cultivation where one could truly adopt the name of a practitioner.


    But now?


    ''It wouldn''t be weird to im he''s already reached the Qi condensation stage, even though I can''t see him trying to condense it at all!


    There were precise steps to growing one''s cultivation, a step-by-step process that humans researched since the first mystical era before ancient times, mastered during the restoration era, and then perfected with the touch of modern thought and scientific methods in modern times.


    A path that everyone had to follow simply because it was the most optimal one. But it was also a path that defined the general frame of how powerful one could get in each of those stages, with only the greatest screw-ups and mightiest geniuses breaking free from those constraints.


    And yet, here he was, a man who didn''t seem to follow any rule or stiption of cultivation and reaching heightsparable to the third stage of Qi refinement¡­ And all of that, just by the benefit of absorbing the dense Qi in the air.


    Just in case all of it wasn''t yet enough, he was doing all of that¡­ not only without noticing it himself but also while performing a deep meditation, a feat supposedly only achievable by those who cleared the Flesh-Qi bnce stage!


    ''To think that he asked for my help with cultivation¡­'' ire thought, bitting down at her bottom lip¡­ only to crawl just a little bit further up the bed and wrap her arms around the young man''s shoulders before hiding her face in the corner between his neck and shoulder only to close her eyes, synchronize her breathing with Tim''s¡­ And then bite through the thin, sensitive skin of her lip before doing the same and lightly biting down into the man''s neck, just enough for a single drop of blood to ooze out of his vein.


    A process that she thenpleted by taking a deep breath and pressing her own wounded flesh against Tim''s, uniting with the man in the least intimate way possible before focusing on the inner flow of his Qi.


    ''He didn''t lie to me, after all,'' she then thought when, without even a shred of doubt, she realized that just like this man imed, his inner world was perfectly pure, devoid of any form or sense that a cultivation method would bestow it with.

 Chapter 16: Not only a genius crafter but also a genius cultivator?

    ''Huh?''


    Opening her eyes, ire suddenly found herself in a foreign, extremely cramped room.


    It consisted of a bed, a small desk with a stool for a chair, and¡­ pretty much it. Even with so little furniture, there was only about one, one and a half meters of spare room on the floor, currently upied by some stranger¡­


    ''Wait, no, it''s not a stranger, it''s Tim,'' the girl corrected herself as the fog started to lift from her weary mind.


    Cultivation was never an easy task. It was the process of guiding the mana in the air with the use of an extremely specific method and through an extremely specific path, all in a bid to develop one''s inner world to the peak of the stage they were currently at.


    For the girl to im herself to be a genius would be nothing short of pure arrogance. But that didn''t mean shecked talent and potential whenpared to her peers.


    Most, by the age of twenty-two, would merely enter the stage of flesh-qi bnce, only starting on the perilous path of expelling all the imperfections and toxins from their bodies so that they could embark on the task of building up a core in the future.


    ire, however, has long since aplished that goal, boasting the beauty deprived of all the small downsides that all the mortals below her stage had no other choice but to ept.


    But what she thought to be a great achievement, her first step into the realm of true, core-based cultivation, or in ancient terms - dantian-based cultivation, only served to make the girl realize just how small she was whenpared to the true giants of the mystical world.


    Her growth rate slowed down pretty much to a crawl. Her meditation, from just a nice boon, turned into an absolutely indispensable element of her training. And the resources she had at hand suddenly proved to be useless.


    No matter how many Qi-condensing formations the girl stacked, she simply couldn''t infuse the air with Qi dense enough to make a dent in the enormous task ahead of her.


    And so, for thest year, ire was stuck on the core foundation stage, otherwise known as the true condensation stage, feeling as if the hours upon hours of her daily training and meditation were all for naught.


    That is, all of it was true up until the moment when Tim opened up the doors to his room, flooding the girl''s senses with mana as rich as when her father splurged on her twenty-third birthday and offered her with a damned elixir!


    Unable to stop herself, when faced with such rich Qi, ire just went ahead and started to cultivate without the slightest care in the world. And by the time she woke up, for the first time since her birthday¡­ she actually moved forward!


    And as if this wasn''t enough, back when using the elixir in the most efficient way possible, while surrounded by formations and in a state of perfect meditation, she merely managed to form three strands of solidified qi inside of her. But now?


    After merely meditating for what felt like a short while? Not only did she gain three more strands but actually threaded them together, creating what could very likely be the seed of the core!


    ''Wait, is it just me or¡­ is the density of qi in the air about to return back to how it was when he opened the door?'' Startled, ire took a moment to confirm her thought¡­ Only to realize that her feeling was right on the money!


    And the culprit for this wondrous effect just¡­ sat on Tim''s table, rapidly sucking in the thin mana from the air only to gradually dispel extremely condensed Qi at regr intervals!


    ''No, it''s not that device that''s behind this, it''s¡­'' ire''s eyes finally moved over to the host of the ce, the alleged creator of the wondrous device¡­


    Whopletely ignored her beauty and fully focused on fiddling with some of the toys she brought over more as a joke than in a bid to actually help him out.


    ''What is he¡­'' ire thought as she first straightened out her legs - tired after all the time she spent meditating in a lotus position, only to fall forward on all fours as she silently crept up to the bed''s edge before taking a quick look over the young man''s broad shoulder.


    "What are you doing?" ire asked in a neutral voice, silent enough not to startle the man but loud enough to ensure he actually heard her¡­


    But as if she didn''t exist, Tim continued to fiddle with what looked like an alchemist set for kids up to six years old, too focused to pay her any mind.


    ''Wait, is he meditating?'' the girl thought before turning her eyes over to the ceramic pot around which Tim''s hands danced. And then, her face contorted even more than when she saw the nicely-looking, finished device sitting atop his desk.


    "Is this a damned elixir?!" Unable to stop herself, ire screamed out in shock, recognizing the pattern of dancing lights within the liquid that only ever took ce when the potion reached the grade of an actual elixir.


    The shine was small, barely noticeable in fact¡­ But it was far denser than anything she saw in her life, with the sole exception of the treasures that sometimes would go up on an auction!


    And as if that still wasn''t enough¡­


    "Don''t tell me you crafted it from those piss-worth ingredients?!"


    Freaking out of her mind, ire reached out for Tim''s shoulder and shook it¡­ But to no avail.


    Just like she was unresponsive to the world around her before, while stuck deep into her meditation limbo while trying to work out the rich Qi energy in the air into her system, Tim didn''t seem to be aware of his surroundings or his own actions to boot, not even when ire actively tried to get his attention!


    "Such focus¡­" she muttered, her eyes turning wide as she quickly started to connect the dots.


    Back when he first visited, he merely possessed a single whisk of mana, just barely enough to pass through the barrier of the cultivation district, less than enough for anyone to actually consider him a cultivator.


    During his second visit, however, his Qi reserves grew so considerably, that rie would have no qualms about attributing him to the Qi-gathering stage, the first realm of cultivation where one could truly adopt the name of a practitioner.


    But now?


    ''It wouldn''t be weird to im he''s already reached the Qi condensation stage, even though I can''t see him trying to condense it at all!


    There were precise steps to growing one''s cultivation, a step-by-step process that humans researched since the first mystical era before ancient times, mastered during the restoration era, and then perfected with the touch of modern thought and scientific methods in modern times.


    A path that everyone had to follow simply because it was the most optimal one. But it was also a path that defined the general frame of how powerful one could get in each of those stages, with only the greatest screw-ups and mightiest geniuses breaking free from those constraints.


    And yet, here he was, a man who didn''t seem to follow any rule or stiption of cultivation and reaching heightsparable to the third stage of Qi refinement¡­ And all of that, just by the benefit of absorbing the dense Qi in the air.


    Just in case all of it wasn''t yet enough, he was doing all of that¡­ not only without noticing it himself but also while performing a deep meditation, a feat supposedly only achievable by those who cleared the Flesh-Qi bnce stage!


    ''To think that he asked for my help with cultivation¡­'' ire thought, bitting down at her bottom lip¡­ only to crawl just a little bit further up the bed and wrap her arms around the young man''s shoulders before hiding her face in the corner between his neck and shoulder only to close her eyes, synchronize her breathing with Tim''s¡­ And then bite through the thin, sensitive skin of her lip before doing the same and lightly biting down into the man''s neck, just enough for a single drop of blood to ooze out of his vein.


    A process that she thenpleted by taking a deep breath and pressing her own wounded flesh against Tim''s, uniting with the man in the least intimate way possible before focusing on the inner flow of his Qi.


    ''He didn''t lie to me, after all,'' she then thought when, without even a shred of doubt, she realized that just like this man imed, his inner world was perfectly pure, devoid of any form or sense that a cultivation method would bestow it with.

 Chapter 17: A method of helping me out I truly wasnt prepared for

    ''Not again¡­''


    Waking up from my meditative state, I felt just¡­ helpless.


    Because how else was I supposed to feel when there was a strange part of me that I didn''t have any control over? It was as if I was randomly falling asleep whenever I tried to do something!


    Still, as opposed to just falling asleep, there was the constory prize of my bodypleting the very task I set out to do, even if it all happened without the control of my own mind over it.


    "You are up, huh?"


    Hearing a voice from behind, I nearly jumped up to my feet, only to realize that there was some sort of powerful force holding my shoulders down and thus making me unable to move an inch from where I sat down.


    "Calm down, it''s me, ire¡­" Once again, the voice reached my ears¡­ but this time, my brain actually managed to process it.


    ''Oh right.''


    I took a few deep breaths to calm down¡­ Only to feel ire''s hands lifting up from my shoulders, thus allowing me to feel a strange, sharp yet perfectly bearable pain around the same ce where she kept her hands.


    "What is this¡­?" I muttered more to myself than to the girl as I reached out with my hand to check for any sort of injuries where the pain wasing from, only to realize that I actually held something in my hand!


    ''Again?'' I thought, a sense of exasperation filling my soul as I looked down to check what I was holding.


    Thankfully¡­ Or rather, at the very least, it wasn''t some sort of a device capable of producing an endless amount of elixir-grade potions this time. This time, it was just a single ss vial filled up to roughly half its volume with some sort of sparking, blue liquid.


    Prompted by the sight, I looked down at the alchemy set, only to realize that just as I feared¡­ It was empty.


    With the exception of some stinky, slightly charred paste at the bottom of my tiny, ceramic pot, not a single bit of herbs, liquids or other materials remained in the box of the reagents that came with the set.


    This time, as opposed to myst excursion into thend of mindless meditation, I could somewhat understand what happened.


    ''All of those, when following the recipes to theirst letter, allowed one to craft just one full vial of an actual elixir,'' I thought, only to then look at the vial in my hand.


    And quite obviously, rather than a full vial of the finished product, I only had a half of it!


    ''Does this mean¡­''


    "Hey!" ire suddenly shouted, pulling me out of the depths of my analytical mode and forcing my thoughts to resurface back to reality.


    "What?" I snapped back at her, somewhat dissatisfied I couldn''t even get a few moments to process what actually happened. And given how it was the very first time for me to actually figure out a part of what I did while deprived of consciousness in my meditative state¡­


    "I think I''ve figured out what''s wrong with you," the girl said, instantly redeeming herself in my eyes and prompting me to nearly drop the vial out of my hand as I turned to look her in the face.


    "Did you?!"


    I was excited. And in all honesty, it would be weird if I wasn''t. After all, those few words she just said were proof that I was right in asking for her help, even if it came at a great mary price of sharing the profits from whatever I created with her, even if just by making her my trading proxy!


    "Yeah, I did," ire sighed while leaning back on her hands and allowing her legs to freely dangle off the edge of my bed. Once again, I had nothing but utmost gratitude for her selection of clothing that saved me from the awkward feeling of not knowing where to look while she would unknowingly expose the part of her clothing no eyes of a random man were supposed to ever experience.


    "Haaah¡­" the girl then uttered a long, exhausted sigh before pulling herself up by her bootstraps and raising up to sit on the edge of the bed instead.


    "In short, you are extremely weird," she started, only to nigh instantly put me down. "Ah," she then reflected, right as my face twisted in response to her words, "Don''t take it the wrong way.


    It''s just¡­ The amount of mana that you gather within yourself as you meditate is way, waaay higher than what I, or anyone else for that matter, would expect from a newbie," she exined before suddenly growing all silent. "What''s more, this state of meditation you enter¡­ It''s something that normally only happens once one goes past the Flesh-Qi bnce stage of cultivation.


    And that, I just can''t exin at all."


    At first, I simply stared back at ire''s face, my eyes revealing the extent of hope that I harnessed in my mind.


    And how could I not be so hopeful? After five years of struggle, I finally found my breakthrough¡­ Only to be met with yet another wall. A wall all the scarier, with how it pretty much prevented me from actually learning!


    But now, rather than finding answers, all ire offered me were more questions, questions that not even a cultivator like her could easily find an answer to.


    "Let''s cut the crap and get to the important bits," I suggested while leaning back so that I could look her in the face without looking up like some sort of kid looking up to an adult''s face. "Is there any way for you to help me¡­ get past those issues?"


    This was supposed to be a simple, straightforward question. And yet¡­


    ire suddenly blushed only to quickly turn her eyes away. She then opened up her mouth¡­ Only to close them back up without uttering a single word.


    "Ekhem¡­" I cleared my thought, "It''s not like I''m just going to forget about our deal if you can''t. Just by rifying what are my issues you are already helping me out a fair bit, so if you are worried about me going back on my word just because you couldn''t help me out as much as I hoped you could¡­"


    "And who the hell said I couldn''t do it?!" Suddenly, ire red up, as if I just insulted not only her but her entire lineage, her pride of a practitioner, and then the cute dog she loved above everything else.


    Still, ire tightened her hands into fists and even raised them as if to swing them at my face¡­ Only to squint her eyes and look me dead in the face with a look of determination I have yet to see on her face before.


    "So, as long as I can help, you are fine with whatever methods I will have to use?" she asked in a provocative tone as if trying to scare me off from saying yes.


    "I mean¡­" I hesitated for a second¡­


    Only to then recall all the trouble, all the effort, all the pains, and desperation I went through to get to the point where I was at right now.


    "As long as it won''t kill me, I will do just fine," I said while defiantly raising my head and staring right back into ire''s determined eyes.


    "Fine!" she called out only to jump off the bed''s edge and up to her feet, circle around me¡­ And then step over myp before dropping down with her ass directly on top of myp only to then wrap her hands around my shoulders and lean in, as if the answer to my problemsy in a prolonged session of a passionate making-out.


    "What are you waiting for?!" ire nearly screamed out right into my face as she wiggled her hips to press herself as close to me as she could, ignoring the fact that her crotch now rubbed against mine or how her breasts ttened against my chest. "Get to crafting, god damn it!"


    At first, I was startled, not sure how to react. Yet, as the softness of her body pressed against my skin, as her slightly sweet, floral scent got to my mind, as her warmth started to warm me up from inside out¡­


    ''Shit¡­''


    Feeling how my little soldier was waking up to stand at attention, I quickly reached out for whatever I could get my hands on without moving all that much before quickly scrolling through my phone to get some sort of recipe I could follow.


    With just those two elements, I focused with all my mind on crafting¡­ Only to feel ire lean in over my shoulder¡­


    Only to bite down at my neck, just hard enough for her teeth to bite through my skin.


    Strangely enough, though, while it was slightly painful¡­ It only served to get my blood pumping even faster, only further narrowing down my window of opportunity to forget about excitement and focus on the task at hand¡­

 Chapter 18: Offering a ring to salvage the mess?!

    ''Shit, again?''


    I couldn''t move my body. I could hardly even feel it to begin with.


    It was a weird feeling as if I failed to wake up and was now stuck with my consciousness woken but my body paralyzed by the sleep demon, a hallucination that the human body created to rationalize sleep paralysis.


    But¡­


    But weren''t things a little bit different now?


    ''Since when can I think when I''m stuck in that meditation limbo?''


    This was¡­ a new thing.


    Just like when I remembered parts of the process from myst crafting-meditating session, things have changed, even if only by a tiny little bit.


    ''Does that mean¡­ I''m getting used to it?''


    Yet, right as the joy of this potential progress was about to settle in my soul, the memories of how I got into the current process also returned.


    ''Wait, isn''t she¡­ still straddling me?''


    A cold chill ran down my spine as I realized the likely scenario happening right in the real world while I was stuck in the prison of my own mind.


    And as great as it was not to suffer the consequences of a cute and well-endoweddy sitting down on myp and hugging me tightly while acting like some sort of a vampire and sucking on the side of my neck, the consequences that were bound to make it both awkward and embarrassing once I woke up¡­


    Heck, I wasn''t made out of stone! In all honesty, while it was great I didn''t have to suffer the consequences of such a stimting situation¡­ I couldn''t say I didn''t wish for it to change!


    As if following my heart''s true desire, the fog of my mind that kept me locked out of reality¡­


    It started to lift!


    ''Wait, what?!'' I quickly went into panic mode, far more fearful of suddenly pushing my hard-on directly against ire''s crotch than excited about the prospect of experiencing such a tight if not outright intimate hug!


    Regardless of my feelings, though, once the fog started to lift, there was no stopping it. And in what felt both like a mere moment but also an eternity, the reality started to once again appear before my eyes.


    The situation¡­ didn''t change much.


    Obviously, because of our position, all I could see was ire''s perfectly shaped back covered in the simple shirt she wore. A shirt¡­ That stuck closely to her skin due to all the sweat she was producing for some reason.


    And with the material turning wet, I couldn''t do anything but just stare at how it put an emphasis on her shoulder des, the slight indentation of her spine running along her entire back, all the way to where her back widened at her hips before turning into her ass¡­


    At first, my perception simply follows my instincts, focusing my attention on those tiny details I''ve never experienced from so close before. But as my attention rode down the girl''s back and onto her ass¡­ It then kept going, all the way to where my hands were busy turning parts and pieces into some sort of greater whole.


    ''Ah¡­''


    I nearly twitched when more and more of my senses started to return, making ire''s body warmth distract me from the acts of my own hands¡­


    And even worse, from a second,pletely separate line of thought that operated out of my mind.


    [The resistance ratio of this alloy is¡­]


    My vision changed as my eyes turned over to my phone, one of my hands letting go of the project and, at a lightning-fast rate, typing the question out in the search engine.


    [XXYZYYXZYYXZY]


    A strange, iprehensible thought ran through my mind as my eyes scanned the answer, only for my hand to return to the job and grab the other end of a long, narrow piece of silver before¡­ bending it with ease that made me question whether the material in my hands was an actual metal.


    As I did so,plex calctions continued to sh through my subconsciousness as my eyes picked out everyst, tiniest detail on how the metal in my hands behaved under pressure.


    In the end, what used to be just a strip of silver-like material now, under the sculpting of my hands, turned into a simple ring. Only now, the marks that looked no different than just some scratches made by an unskilled hand turned into a set of markings that have finally revealed their true purpose.


    ''Oh god¡­''


    I gulped my saliva down, feeling a fresh dose of excitement run up my spine when the realization struck me, right as my eyes moved to the other side and scanned the text of two separate recipe leaflets, one from the cksmithing set and the other one from the runesmithing one.


    But¡­ But as what turned out to be a fancy ring engraved with runes I couldn''t make first sense about finally started to take proper shape, the fog over my mind continued to lift up¡­ And with it, the numbness to the physical touch that prevented my body from reacting to ire rubbing herself all over me in the way any normal male my age would!


    ''Shit¡­''


    Still unable to move but now perfectly aware of just how warm and soft she was¡­ I could do nothing while feeling how those sensations started a rise out of me.


    Then, I felt ire''s lips on my neck¡­ And the strange sense as if she was sucking my blood out the very ce she bit with her teeth through?!


    "Aaah!"


    My head suddenly fell to the back when all of those sensations¡­ Suddenly exploded in intensity, as the numbing fully wore off. And with it, I''ve realized that I wasn''t just getting hard - I had a raging erection, with nothing but the poor girl''s crotch standing in its way and stopping it from revealing its full might!


    Or, to put it in less poetic terms, while still locked out of control over my own flesh, I could feel myself pressing down at ire right in the worst ce possible if there even was a ce where rubbing my hard-on against could be allowed to begin with!


    "Hmmph?"


    Stilltched onto my neck, ire appeared to wake up from her own daze too¡­ Only to be mmed with all the sensations I was experiencing myself.


    In an instant, she pulled her face out of my neck, putting her hands on my chest to push herself off¡­ Only to freeze, still straddling me down, when her eyes fell down on my crimson-covered cheeks.


    "A-are y-you¡­ a-a-awake?" ire stuttered as blush covered her own cheeks, giving her already cute face just one more push to make it outright lethally adorable.


    ''Fuck, move man, move!''


    With my body still locked out by this meditation paralysis, I could struggle all I wanted but would end up doing nothing but staring right back into ire''s blush-covered face and skittish eyes¡­ as she now got right in my line of sight of whatever my hands were crafting!


    Still, while ire panicked¡­ I continued to push with all of my will¡­


    Only for something to¡­ pop.


    And no, at the very least, I didn''t shame myself by exploding right into my own pants. Thankfully, it was something different. It was as if¡­ something became whole, finally lifting the restraints that removed my control of my body.


    "AH!"


    I moaned as my body finally moved, only for my hands to pull back¡­ And grab at ire''s waist!


    "Kyah!" the girl squealed while her entire body jumped up, only to then fall right back down on myp when it appeared as if all the strength left her legs, seating her right back down¡­ right on top of my fucking crotch!


    "Ah!" Another moan escaped from my lips when ire, hopefully unknowingly, brought me all the closer to actually shaming myself.


    But in this tense moment, with neither of the two of us knowing how to react¡­ My eyes moved over to what I actually held in my right hand.


    A silver ring with an intricate set of runes engraved both on its inside and outside. And, in a fit of desperation¡­


    "I have no idea how we ended up in a situation like this, so¡­" I slowly pulled my right hand off ire''s waist before opening it up and revealing the silvery piece to her eyes. "Can I offer you this ring in lieu of an apology?"

 Chapter 19: Graceless return

    ''What the hell was that?!''


    Rushing through the streets, ire could hardly keep enough attention on the road not to sh with any of the civilians that stood in her way.


    Thankfully, thete hour of the early night made it so that there were only a few pedestrians here and there on the pavement, not only saving her from a fatwsuit from running into someone at her speed but also the embarrassment¡­ of running into someone with her cheeks burning red.


    ''What?!''


    ''WHAT?!''


    ire''s chest tingled, only for a cold breeze to run all the way up her spine.


    ''WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!''


    Sure, it was one thing for a cultivator like her to make use of such a golden opportunity to cultivate. An opportunity even better than what she encountered when she first entered Tim''s room.


    An opportunity consisting of not only the thick aura of QI in the air produced by this insane device of his but also of all the other things that pretty much came to face her one by one like some sort of silly reveal in a poorly written story of an author who just couldn''t help but give in to his excitement and drop the big plot points one by one super-early into the story!


    The thick aura of Qi in the room was just one thing. The overwhelmingly potent Qi that she ended up sucking out of Tim''s system was another.


    But the way his Qi circted through his body without even the slightest shred of guidance¡­


    ''HOW THE HELL?!''


    At this point, ire wasn''t even sure if she should be amazed, stunned, jealous, or scared.


    The proper cultivation routine that she worked so hard for, had to earn merit with her father to get her hands on a manual and then spared no effort to practice¡­


    All of it was nothing whenpared to the routine that guy did without even thinking about it.


    No!


    He did it without even being aware of the fact that he was doing it!


    No, that wasn''t even it yet!


    HE DID IT WHILE NOT EVEN CONSCIOUS!!


    ire slowed down her steps only to¡­


    "Aargh!" she released a groan so full of stifled anger and other emotions, that she just couldn''t help but m her fist into the wall of some innocent building that just was unlucky enough to be nearby. And she did so with enough strength for her fist to actually sink into the concrete, breaking off a considerable chunk of it.


    "Ha¡­ ha¡­ haaa¡­." ire breathed heavily, doing her best to let all of those stifled emotions go along with her breath.


    Just like with cultivation, she made sure to properly circte her breath through her body, getting herself as close to the state of meditation as she could before actually doing so, all in a bid to calm her emotions down.


    ''What the hell was I even doing?!''


    She could still feel the warmth of Tim''s body that she so tightly pressed herself against. Her crotch could still remember the sensation of his hard-on pressing against it as she herself loosened and warmed up in the process of sucking that guy''s excessive Qi.


    She could still remember the adorable blush on his face as he recovered his consciousness and realized the state the two of them were in. The face he made when forced to react to it in some way or form has burned into her memory, threatening to appear whenever she would close her eyes or even let her thoughts wander.


    Looking to the side, ire hung her eyes on the hole in the wall of her own making and her fist that rested within that hole. The fist that she then brought closer to her eyes and pried open¡­ Only to see the intricately crafted silvery wing that Tim offered her in exchange for all her troubles.


    ''What the fuck was that, man?'' ire nearly cried out, staring at the ring made from what was supposed to be crude and cheap materials¡­ only to radiate the kind of aura she''s only ever experienced in artifacts back at her father''s main shop, objects that were worth easily many times the worth of everything that she stocked her own shop with!


    Torn by all the feelings that she failed to properly curb, ire stared at the ring in the palm of her hand for a while¡­ Only to follow a sudden impulse and slip the ring on her finger.


    "Ah!" A slight moan escaped the girl''s lips as her body rxed nearly to the point of just crumbling down onto the walkway.


    But it wasn''t all!


    The Qi around her suddenly grew thicker, as if she simply couldn''t perceive its thickness before, growing nearly to the level of what she''d experienced back at Tim''s ce.


    Those two aspects alone were enough to make this ring into the treasure of her family, an object worthy of putting on the golden shelf of her father''s shop, something just to be disyed for the sake of her n''s pride rather than sold to anyone, regardless of the prize offered.


    But¡­


    There always had to be some sort of a caveat. And when it came to this ring¡­


    ''Wha¡­''


    "Aaaah¡­" A sweet moan escaped ire''s lips when she suddenly felt her chest tighten while her entire body filled with a strange sense of bliss as if a thousand hands caressed it all over. Not even her chest of crotch was an exception, making the girl feel like she could just dual cultivate with the entire world around her right at this moment.


    And if all of that wasn''t enough¡­


    This feeling of warmth, rxation, intimate touch¡­ It all was somehow etched with the very essence she grew to know the taste of when she sucked at the corner of Tim''s neck!


    "Huff¡­ huff¡­ huff¡­"


    Desperate not to make an even biggerughing stock out of herself while right out in the open, ire breathed heavily while struggling to move her hand¡­ And tear the ring off her finger, freeing herself from¡­


    ''What exactly was that supposed to be?'' the girl thought, holding herself upright with just thest of her will¡­ While simultaneously having to suffer the realization that the world around her suddenly turned all bleak, gray, deprived of warmth, and undeserving of her interest.


    ''Am I reacting like that because it''s a new feeling, or¡­''


    ire''s crotch tingled, only for her knees to instantly gravitate towards each other, making her seem like someone desperately holding their pee back.


    Thankfully, between her rush and then the sudden switch to an extremely slow walk, she pretty much managed to reach her goal.


    And while it wasn''t thefortable safety of her own shop, her own kingdom where not even her father could intrude lightly¡­ It was still her n''s mansion, a ce where she would find the safety and privacy of her own room and the protection of the tens of disciples who would give a limb or two if it meant earning a favor with her or her father.


    Still, as much as she wanted to just go through the gates and hide herself in her room to give herself some time to properly process everything that happened¡­


    "Young miss!" One of the two disciples standing guard at the n mansions'' gate rushed forth the very moment he saw her. "To see you return home sote¡­" the young man continued, blissfully unaware of just how much ire wanted to just w his eyes¡­ No, his entire face out. "Did anyone give you any trouble on your way back?!"


    Just this shout alone was enough to attract the attention of the other disciple by the gate¡­ and then a few more of the one''s training on the outer courtyard of the mansion.


    "It''s nothing, just let me through," ire snapped, pushing the man''s concerned hand away as she moved past him¡­ Only to stop as soon as she stepped inside the protective embrace of the formations of her n''s mansion. "Actually, go and tell my father I need to meet him. Just¡­ Just not now.


    For now," ire averted her eyes before picking up her pace as she walked towards the mansion proper, "for now, I need to get some rest."

 Chapter 20: Ways to distract myself from the vivid memories

    "What the hell was that?!"


    I screamed out right into the soft cushion of my pillow in hopes of muffling what would be otherwise a desperate scream.


    That''s right.


    What the hell was that?


    A question that many philosophers pondered over the ages, a question that many young men would often find themselves asking after stumbling on their chance with whatever girl they had a crush on.


    In this particr case, however, I genuinely had no idea what the actual fuck was that!


    ''Was sheing onto me? Or am I just projecting my instinctive wishes over something that was mere coincidence, a side-effect of her actually trying to help me out?''


    I gritted my teeth before pushing my face even deeper into the pillow¡­ Only to sense the faint, distant aroma of the same scent I could feel around the girl, likely, of her perfume or shampoo or something.


    ''Oh right, she was on this bed just until recently¡­'' I thought, throwing my mind for a loop once again as I started to recall the details concerning the fairy-like girl who just so happened to be straddling myp while hugging me tightly and sucking on my¡­


    "Shit, this isn''t helping at all," I muttered to myself as I rose up from the bed, too scared of the possibility that if I allowed my thoughts to wander for any longer, I would end up sniffing my sheets with passion in hopes of catching just one more whiff of ire''s scent.


    ''Keep it together, man! Aren''t you a grown-ass adult?'' I thought, trying every avenue, every angle, every possible approach to get myself to calm down.


    I even went as far as to consider going to the bathroom for a moment to clear my body and thus mind¡­ Only to end up gritting my teeth and abandoning the idea.


    There were only a few things that I''ve learned during my five years at the institution¡­ But the consequences of giving to one''s desires, self-satisfying them, and then falling into a state of lethargy afterward¡­


    ''Eh, I never thought things would end up this way just because I tried to seek some damned help¡­'' I thought, sitting down on the edge of my bed, only to then slide down to the floor and stare ahead at quite the mess left after my crafting process.


    By now, most of the beginner sets were either fully exhausted of their resources or left with just a tiny bit of scraps. The only exception to that rule was the runesmithing and formation-making sets, each consisting of a bunch of tools and, in the case of the formations, a pretty much untouched vial of thick, dark ink.


    "There isn''t much left of anything, huh?" I summed my findings out¡­ Before patting my hands down against my knees and getting to work.


    This time, however, rather than trying to craft something out of pretty much nothing¡­ I simply started to clean again, hoping that this pretty much mindless activity would save me from the bother of the vivid memories I made just recently.


    Bit by bit, the mess on the floor, the scattered materials, single-paged leaflets, thin pamphlets, marks of scattered ink¡­ While each of those only contributed a little bit to the overall mess, whenbined, they turned my room pretty much back to the state it was in before I decided to do better.


    Thankfully, maybe because it wasn''t my first time doing so, the process of clearing the entire thing out took me merely a fraction of the time I needed when I did it for the very first time just a day ago. Not even the added process of sorting and then nicely organizing everything out took as much time as I thought it would.


    Which was one big fuck-up all in its own right. Because as great as it was that I could now clean quickly and efficiently¡­ What else was I supposed to do now that I''vepleted this task?


    ''To think that getting good at something would be so annoying,'' I thought as I, once again, started to recall various sensations that ire, knowingly or not, imposed on my brain and engraved so deep into my memory I just couldn''t think of anything else. And now that I was deprived of the task to upy my thoughts¡­


    "Well, shit. I guess it''s time to go for the nuclear option," I muttered to myself as I grabbed my phone¡­ Andunched the powerful, mighty app that was as useful as it was scary. An app filled with nothing but short-form videos on every topic a human brain could conceive.


    A supreme tool for wasting time, upying one''s thoughts, and eroding one''s own ability to keep focused. A tool I''ve previously used to look up various guides and tutorials.This time, however, I simply went to the main page and started scrolling, desperate to find something that would upy my thoughts for long enough for the vivid memories of rie''s pressing herself against me to fade away.


    It was a decision that helped in the short term¡­ Only to back-fire tragically when I started to encounter the videos that pretended to be anything but what they really were - a bunch of skimpily dressed girls doing all sorts of activities only serving to showcase the bounciness of their exposed body parts¡­


    I scrolled the first video of this kind away¡­


    But I didn''t do so quickly enough. A fatal mistake that the app''s algorithm picked up instantly, soon flooding my feed with more and more content that only served to remind me of the very thing I wanted to exclude from my thoughts.


    ''Shit, I really have no other choice but to get back to crafting, do I?''


    Putting the phone away, I cast a short nce at the now well-organized remains of the things I''ve brought from ire''s shop.


    Sure, there were enough tools, leftover materials, and instructions left for me to try crafting something else. In fact, just reading through the thicker pamphlets that came with runesmithing and formation-drawing sets would take a while. But¡­


    But I was tired.


    As tired as I would be after hours upon hours of mming my fists against the wooden target¡­ if not actually more!


    More, it wasn''t just the physical kind of exhaustion, even if that yed a part too. Right now, it was my brain that was exhausted, be it from my attempts to figure out what I was doing while meditating, due to meditation itself or just constantly trying to learn more before doing my best to figure out how to put the theory I''ve just read about from leaflets and pamphlets into practice.


    I was in a state where just picking up the tools to try crafting would be akin to overexerting myself, going beyond the healthy limits. I could tell that, as enticing as it could be, it wasn''t the proper way to do things.


    But¡­


    I couldn''t go to sleep when all my thoughts only served to make my junior stand at attention, right? The risk of me turning over to my stomach and ending up with the sort of injury that just the thought of was enough to make even the toughest man shiver in terror¡­


    "Normally, this would be an excuse toze around, but¡­" I gulped my saliva down before taking a deep breath and picking up my phone again. "But I guess I can do something unhealthy every once in a while, can''t I?"


    This time, rather than just allowing the feed of the app to dictate what I would be watching, I''ve actually searched for the general term "simple crafting recipes" before scrolling for as long as it took for me to find something I could create with whatever materials and tools I had left.


    Rather than rushing into action, though, I rested my back against the bed''s edge and watched the video manual of the process again and again, all the way to the point when I memorized every single detail included in it.


    "Now, just in case I start to meditate again," I muttered to myself as I switched the mode of the app from a consumer of the content to a producer before setting my phone down and hitting the record.


    ''Now then,'' I thought, ncing over to where I''ve left the half-opened pamphlet about formation marking, open on the page with the dictionary of runes - not all that different from the runes used in rune-smithing - to confirm whether or not my memory served me right.


    ''Okay then.''


    I started by picking up a formerly scrapped piece of cardboard, one of the few leftovers from when I turned the emptied pizza boxes into an actual material, before grabbing the painting brush and dipping its hair into the thick ink of the formation-drawing set.


    Before long, I could sense my consciousness fading away as I started to cover the piece of cardboard with intricate markings, all the while arranging them in a mathematical-form-like arrangement. A momentter, I whipped out my scissors and separated the painted part of the cardboard from the rest, before repeating the process. And then again. And again.


    This idea came from what little I learned about programming back in school. An idea to turn simple runes into actual expressions¡­ functions of sorts. With those at hand¡­


    As I concentrated more and more, falling into the rabbit hole of creativity and active creation, my body started to give out signs of exhaustion.


    Yet, at the same time my forehead covered in sweat, sweat that soon started to fall all over the ce, on the floor, on the phone, and, if not for my quick save, even on the function tes I''d already prepared, my consciousness started to fade away, pushing the task of creativity onto the unconscious part of my brain.


    More and more half-products came out, only for me to pile them up to the side. My phone shed, likely my sweat messing up with its touch-screen. My consciousness reached the point where I was pretty much about to fall asleep¡­


    Only for thisst step never to happen.


    Just like when ire sat down on myp and sucked on my neck, I failed to fully lose my consciousness, ending up in a half-awake state of meditation, with my hands doing whatever they wanted all the while my mind was reduced to just a passive observer of the events.


    ''At least I''m recording everything,'' I thought, perfectly aware of just how little I could grasp of what my meditating brain was actually conjuring up only to then push my body to turn its ideas into a reality. ''This way, I will be able to go back and try to learn more of what I did than just grasping at the straws in the state I''m in right now!''

 Chapter 21: Message from Claires mother

    The inner sanctum of the mansion was abnormally silent whenpared to the outer part of the building.


    One could even say that the silence of this ce was deafening, as it forced one to exist with just their thoughts alone. And in the modern world filled with noises and distractions, it was a challenge not many could ovee.


    For the cultivators like ire, however, the name of this ce was extremely fitting.


    A sanctum.


    A sacred ce where one could remove all the outside distractions and focus on one''s inner state. A perfect ce for meditation of a level beyond what ire herself could perform¡­ And a daily thing for her father.


    Still, as great of a ce as it was for the girl to be, it also came with a plethora of added rules, customs¡­ etiquette.


    Dressed in the traditional robe consisting of just one, long and wide piece of perfectly white, pristine-even cloth, ire moved forward in small steps, careful to keep her steps light enough not to make a single noise.


    Her father was extremely particr about upholding the proper qualities for his cultivation retreat, after all. And she endured more than enough rounds of severe scoldings not to make the mistake of acting recklessly here ever again.


    ire moved ahead in perfectly measured steps, more akin to a dance than a normal walk, all designed to eliminate the rustling of the cloth of her robe and prevent the wooden panels of the floor from squeaking underneath her weight.


    ''I always wondered, is this particrity over all those details yet another technique for getting one''s mind into a proper ce, or just a set of rules that the old man just¡­ likes to follow?''


    With this thought in her mind, ire arrived before the entrance to the inner sanctum, sheltered behind just a flimsy piece of cloth hanging off the rack mounted atop what used to be a doorframe. As flimsy as this cloth was, though, it also represented the biggest challenge of approaching her father while he was immersed in his meditation.


    The girl took a few breaths, conditioning her mental state and aligning it with the inner peace of her flesh.


    ''Here goes nothing,'' she thought before taking a step and pushing the cloth aside¡­


    "You arete today," a deep, low voice of her father reached ire''s ears the very moment she attempted to make her way past the cloth of the entrance.


    ''Not today, huh?'' she thought, breathing out a sigh of disappointment as she gave up on her attempt at entering right the way her father desired.


    Today, ire failed again. Failed to enter the meditation garden without making a sound¡­ Or rather, without making a sound that her father wouldn''t be able to hear between all the sounds of natureing from within the core.


    Contrary to the perfectly silent and dark pathway to the inner sanctum, the core of the ce itself was¡­ full of noises, colors, movements¡­ variables of nature.


    And despite being located at the deepest part of the whole n''s mansion, this ce housed an impressive garden of all sorts of rare herbs, a small stream of spiritual water flowing into a graceful, tiny pond, and a full plethora of various, small animals that made this ce their home.


    The aura of this ce was unlike any other ce ire ever visited, Tim''s room included. This statement held true even when she removed all the aesthetic differences from the equation, focusing on just the aura of spiritual energy alone.


    It was just¡­ different. Not crudely thicker as it was the case with the air at Tim''s ce, but¡­ more dignified? Distilled? Noble?


    "Apologies, Father," after getting herself used to this ce yet again, ire slowly lowered herself down to her knees, sitting down on her heels only to then bow down and press her hands and her forehead against the soft, rosy grass of the garden. "I''ve had an unexpected encounter that sparked my curiosity and then brought a plethora of surprises."


    The girl''s manner of speaking changed, as if to match the dignified aura of the ce, as if to align even the tiniest element of her being to the spirituality of the core of the sanctum.


    "I see¡­" Chihiro, ire''s father, muttered absentmindedly, finally giving the girl enough of a trace to locate the man within the garden.


    Chihiro sat down by the pond''s shore, so deeply immersed in his cultivation that even his presence seemed to merge with his surroundings. A feat only those near the peak of the mortal cultivation could achieve. And yet¡­


    Despite being so immersed in his meditation that Chihiro''s breathing nigh perfectly aligned with the slight winds gusting through the garden, he somehow could still talk, even if in a slow and somewhat fragmentary way.


    "Was it beneficial?"


    ire raised up and sat down on her heels while resting her hands on her thighs while pushing her elbows out to the side.


    "It was. Greatly."


    A silence followed, broken only by the shimmer of the flowing water and the whisper of the slight winds.


    "Yet, you seem disturbed."


    Chihiro slowly turned his head, allowing his long, white hair to slide over his well-built back as if to contrast the stiff frame of his corbone-long, white beard. And as he looked at his daughter with a profound yet calm expression on his mature face, only one word escaped his full, rigged lips.


    "Why?"


    ire quickly opened her mouth¡­ Only to shut it back down just as hastily.


    "I¡­" she tried again, only for her attempt to fall through and through under the unnervinglyposed gaze of her father.


    ''Think, girl, think!''


    Chihiro¡­ was a special kind of a father. A man who somehow did his best both to be a great parent but also to relentlessly cultivate, be it by way of meditation or obtaining more resources to aid his cultivation.


    And while he cared little for anyone but his little girl¡­ There was one that had to be excluded from this rule, the target of his relentless chase for strength, the only one whose approval and invitation he sought despite all the others willing to offer it.


    "Your Mother has sent a message," Chihiro ultimately spoke out before ire couldpose herself enough to find the right words for her reply. "In two weeks'' time, you are to join her at her family''s court so that you can be matched with a fitting suitor."

 Chapter 22: Home invasion?!

    ''So that''s how it is¡­''


    To say that this was my most productive crafting session thus far would be a gross understatement. An understatement of a level where it had so little left to do with the truth, it was no different than an outright lie.


    And all of that¡­ while I only had some scraps of materials left and no greater idea what to craft with them!


    ''Maybe that''s why it feels so¡­ natural?'' I suddenly got a thought, momentarily losing the focus on the process of crafting itself. ''Because rather than adhering to the strict rules and recipes, I''m just doing whatever I feel like doing?''


    This feeling was truly¡­ magical.


    To just grab whatever I could get my hands on and turn it into something else. To pick scrap and create something actually useful¡­ even if I couldn''t really tell its purpose yet.


    But it wasn''t just that. It wasn''t even the fact that crafting, the process I currently had little to no control over, felt better than ever before.


    The best advantage that this session of crafting offered was the fact that, for as long as I kept my focus, I could somehow peer into both the intent of my meditative state and the means through which said intent was taking form.


    [Arrange the functions and stack them in sequences.]


    My hands moved the small pieces of cardboard filled with tiny runes to the brim. First, organizing them into three different groups and then lining them up one by one.


    [Establish the argument esction process.]


    Next, I''ve brought out a total of seven different materials, all with different conductivity for Qi.


    [Secure the esction by varying the resistance]


    I moved the crystals I''d bought during my first visit to ire''s shop, cing a different one at the end of each of the seven materials I''d prepared before.


    Step by step, I could somewhat peer into the general idea of what I was doing, before deducting its actual purpose from the actions of my hands.


    Sure, I had yet to regain proper control of my body or proper control of my thoughts¡­ But my current situation was infinitely better than just going to sleep whenever I entered a meditative state only to wake up with some weird effigy that I couldn''t get the first clue about!


    Step by step, the huge mess of different materials, half-products, and crystals started to take shape.


    ''Well, it''s still merely the first part of the process,'' I thought, rxing my mind for a moment I stared down at the current result of what could very well be ten minutes as well as it could be five hours of work.


    By now, I did nothing more but arrange all the materials into different groups, each with a different purpose and goal behind them. But no matter how much or how hard I tried to argue for the meaning behind it¡­ I still did nothing more but just blueprint the shit out of the idea that my meditating self had, an idea that I continued to fail my attempts at grasping.


    It looked nothing like a finished product, the example of which still sat on my desk and continued to thicken up the Qi in the air of my room. That was a finished piece, upying all three dimensions. What I had before my eyes, however, was merely an assortment of piecesid down in two dimensions.


    ''It is by copsing the blueprint into a higher dimension that I give it shape andyer different purposes of those materials together¡­'' I suddenly got a thought that sounded extremely fancy. Sadly, it was too fancy for me to actually understand its meaning.


    This moment of enlightenment was nothing better than an idiot misreading some words and somehow ending up producing a deep, highly intelligent observation.


    Still, even if I couldn''t really grasp the meaning of what I just thought of¡­ I could still try to figure it out.


    ''If crafting is all about turning a schematic into a product by expanding a n of two dimensions into a reality of three dimensions¡­ couldn''t I involve a fourth dimension as well?''


    This thought¡­ felt extremely intelligent again. But no matter how much I tried to peer into its meaning¡­ I just couldn''t grasp it.


    ''I wonder if I''m just thinking random stuff and attributing its greatness, or if I''m actually onto something?''


    Ultimately, I ended up giving up on all those thoughts, too scared that focusing on it would cost me all the things I could learn by observing the process of my body crafting all on its own.


    Thankfully, it was finally time for my hands to move to the more interesting part of actually taking various groups of materials and half-products and then piecing them together.


    My hands grabbed the cardboard filled with the runic marks before covering its edges with resin-like jelly. Next, I grabbed the strange substances that my unconscious self somehow decided to be the conductors for Qi before squeezing them so hard, that the veins of my hands started to pop out.


    But that wasn''t the end of it!


    After quite some time spent doing nothing but just squeezing what looked like a lump of cheese so old it grew no softer than stone, I ced it down on the floor before getting on all fours¡­ and pressing it down with all the weight of my upper body as I started to roll it back and forth.


    This process continued for some time as the lump slowly grew thinner and longer, all the way to the point where it was the size of the standard-issue USB cable that I saw whenever I plugged my phone into the charger.


    ''I wonder what''s that tape for,'' I thought when I finally moved on and grabbed a simple insting tape¡­ Only to then watch how I carefully wrapped a considerable amount of it around the material I still failed to consciously recognize.


    Thump.


    Bit by bit, I continued to roll the tape around the cable-like piece, covering every inch of it with no less than fouryers of istion.


    Thump, thump.


    ''Is it my heart beating? Did I grow so tired already?''


    Despite those thoughts suddenly causing my mind to explode with worry for my actual, physical health¡­ I continued.


    Thump, thump, thump!


    ''No, this is too loud to be my heart¡­''


    Finally, right as the whole piece of this damn-expensive tape started to near its end, Ipleted the task and turned the thin strand of hardened-cheese-like material into a rtively thick cord¡­


    Only to then reach out for the sculpting knife from the runesmithing set and notch the cord in a total of four, evenly spaced-out ces on the cord, before using all my considerable strength to bend the sturdy cord all the way to the point where its two ends met, turning it from a straight line into a simple circle.


    ''Just what the hell am I doing now?'' I thought, only to watch how my hands moved the cord down to the resin-covered cardboard before pressing it down and¡­


    "FUCK!"


    A sudden shout reached my ears, right as the lock of my doors exploded only for said doors to heavily swing in, opening the way for the home invader to step right in.


    ''What the¡­''


    The shock of the sudden robbery or something was so great, that I night instantly broke free from my meditation¡­


    As, fucking, if.


    "What the hell?!" the robber spoke out again,pletely unbothered by seeing me inside the apartment they just broke into. And as if this wasn''t enough¡­ Save for the very edge of the door, in my position, I couldn''t even see who it was!


    The sounds of steps followed as my insides revolved, images of all kinds of harm that would soon befall me ring up in my mind as I slowly but surely started to break free from the chains of my meditation. I just¡­ wasn''t there yet!


    "Please, don''t tell me¡­"


    As the robber came closer and closer, they finally the edge of my field of view, pretty much right as I finally regained control over my head, swinging into the side to see the likelying attack and hopefully have enough time to dodge it¡­


    "¡­ that you''ve kept going throughout the entire damn night?"


    Freed from the chains of my meditation, I was finally ready to defend myself¡­


    Only for all of my adrenaline to go to waste since the invader was no one else¡­ But ire!

 Chapter 23: You are (a)live!

    "Shit, girl¡­"


    I took a deep breath, even though it was of no use to calm down my beating heart.


    "For a moment I thought you were a robber or something."


    The adrenaline still zed in my veins, my fight or flight instinct fully awake.


    The suning from the doors and ire''s words proved I''d just pulled an all-nighter, and yet... Every fiber of my being was bristling, ready to fuel the one thing I knew how to do perfectly well - to throw a straight, simplistic punch out.


    But all of this energy, all of this adrenaline-powered force¡­ had no way to go.


    For it wasn''t a home invader¡­ but the very girl that made it hard for me to concentrate for likely half of the night I''d just pulled!


    "What?" ire barked, somehow taking my reaction for the weird part of the scene where¡­


    Where she literally kicked my doors open to make her way in.


    "I¡­"


    Before I could even mention it, her eyes dashed around my room, only to soon lock on the phone that faithfully remained on the makeshift stand I''d prepared for it before I started the work.


    The recording was to serve as my teaching material, a way for me to go back and study the secrets of the abilities I''ve showcased during my meditation. Reference material of sorts that was to allow me to better study the ins and outs of my strange ability, all in hopes of perfecting my ability to craft consciously.


    Having a part of me that I couldn''t control, as great and beneficial as it was, just rubbed me the wrong way. Until I imed those crafting abilities truly for myself, I innately just couldn''t rely on them as much as I wanted.


    Still¡­


    ire''s eyes shed, her eyelids rising up a tiny bit only to then contract as she locked in on something in my room.


    I couldn''t even see her rush forth. Her hand just¡­ appeared on the far end of my narrow room, grabbing my phone and smashing it against the table.


    "Okay, what the fucking hell?!"


    Weirdly, as I jumped up in righteous anger¡­ I somehow felt strangely justified.


    It was as if¡­ just saw the kind of thing someone in a rtionship would have to deal with. It felt like¡­ Spending my whole life single as a pringle didn''t seem all that bad if that was the stuff I''ve avoided.


    "You moron!" ire, rather thaning back to her senses, pressed on into her craze.


    "The fuck are you talk¡­ No, what the fuck are you doing?!" Already up on my feet, I finally found the voice to protest. "First my doors, now my phone? What the hell is wrong with you? Even if¡­"


    My face suddenly tensed up.


    ''Less for the doors, maybe she thought¡­''


    On one hand, what were the chances of a cultivator like ire suddenly findingpses in her memory, unable to recall if my phone was recording back when she¡­ happily mingled with me?


    But on the other hand, if that''s what she thought in the heat of the moment¡­


    ''Which still doesn''t exin the doors¡­''


    "Haaa¡­!" Even when ire breathed out¡­ it somehow came out aggressive.


    And it was finally the moment, with how things happened, for me to address the fact of ire¡­ Wearing both a mask and a deep hoodie! Sure, she looked adorable in those¡­ But with an addition of a mere pair of ck sses, she would be sporting the prime "poorly masked person" fit!


    "What the hell were you thinking?!" ire exploded again, snapping her hands to rest them on her hips as she leaned forward, acting as if¡­ I was the one in the wrong?


    But her deep frown only continued to grow.


    "Aaah!" ire raised her hands to her face as she groaned and leaned back.


    ''Okay, that''s enough.''


    "Again, what the fuck are you talking about?!" Ished back. "Youe in storming, literally break my door fucking open¡­!"


    ire''s hands wed down on her face as if me merely daring to retort was akin to insulting her entire lineage.


    "Wait!"


    ire froze for a second before rapidly breaking her hands off and reaching down to her pocket. She then hurriedly pulled out her phone and quickly scrolled¡­


    But as her eyes shed up in a mix of shock, panic, and urgency, my hand shot forward¡­


    Just in time to intercept her fist on course for my phone!


    "What the hell do you think you are doing?! No matter what you think happened, it did not¡­"


    "You are live, for heaven love!" ire cried out in what seemed like an outburst of a righteous yet powerless fury.


    "Of course, I''m fucking alive!" I retorted, still holding back her wrist¡­ Only for the girl to easily wrestle it out by pulling her hand off to the side and then throwing both her arms, not to strike me, but...


    But to drop her hands down on my shoulders.


    "You are on a live stream!"


    ¡­


    ¡­


    ¡­


    I took a moment to process what she just said.


    It was just¡­ so out of the ordinary, so much outside of the range of my expectations¡­


    ¡­


    "Oh¡­"


    For a moment, we both froze.


    ire then grabbed my shoulders¡­ Before attempting to shove me aside, likely to¡­ reach my phone?


    ''Wait¡­''


    Bit by bit, things started to click. And once they did¡­


    ''No, wait, what the hell? What? How?''


    An array of questions exploded in my head, and all the while ire continued in her attempts to move me, only to fail over and over again.


    "Turn it off!" she screamed once she somehow ended uping to terms that a cultivator like her¡­ couldn''t move a newbie like me.


    Likely, the physical benefit of thest five years that I''ve spent doing nothing but standing in ce and mastering my punch. And standing perfectly still to maintain the form was just one of the many elements I''ve mastered in my hopes of breaking through the meditation barrier.


    But it was also right as ire shouted that another figure appeared in the frame of my now broken doors.


    It was a huge, no, massive man, hardly able to fit through the entrance. He wore perfectly white, thick robes of a practitioner¡­ And looked at me as if I was the source of all evil in the world.


    Then again¡­


    I''ve finally managed to process what was happening.


    ''ire came because apparently I''m on a stream.''


    ''What stream?''


    ''I wasn''t streaming, so¡­''


    ''A bug? Malfunction?''


    Sensing that the time before this heavy yet perfectly athletic man would snuff the life out of me with a single punch was drawing near, I shot my hand up as if to stop him in ce with just a gesture. Then, I took the risk¡­


    And looked him straight in the eye, all the while keeping my mouth perfectly shut.


    For a second, we just stared at each other¡­


    And then I turned my head over my back before carefully picking up the phone ire just smashed against the floor before pressing its power button down for a few seconds only for the short signal to announce it was now turning off.


    Now then¡­


    ''Who is this man?''


    ''He''s with her?''


    ''Much older. More¡­ not even more powerful¡­ he''s just¡­ more than her!''


    ''Who?''


    ''Father?''


    Seeing me turning my phone off, ire finally dropped her left hand off my shoulder and reached to check her own phone again.


    And only then did she breathe a sigh of relief, the look of agitation and rage slowly washing off her face.


    "Dear¡­" the man in the doors threw a quick nce at my ce before turning his eyes over to ire as his face steeled. "Who is this young man?"

 Chapter 24: Showdown with the Granny

    "Dear... Who is this young man?"


    I raised my eyes to the huge man still standing right within the doorframe that formerly housed the doors to my apartment... The very doors that ire kicked in and sent crashing into the wall of my ce.


    ''Yeah, it seems to be her father...'' I thought, connecting enough dots to arrive at this conclusion.


    But, despite having ire rest her right hand on my shoulder... it wasn''t the fact of her father catching us in this potentially problematic position that worried me.


    ''Didn''t she mention how she herself wasn''t in a spot to break the taboos?'' I thought, gulping my saliva down while alternating my eyes between ire''s likely dad and the girl herself. ''And that man is a cultivator, he''s one for sure. And quite the strong one at that!''


    Bit by bit, things started to make more sense.


    "ire..." the man spoke out again, this time his voice growing colder.


    But the girl... didn''t seem to have any interest in replying.


    From the man''s perspective, she simply lowered her head and stood frozen with her hand on my shoulder. But from my perspective...


    ''Wait, could it be...?''


    Looking down at ire''s suddenly panicked face, I realized that in her bid to rush to my ce to stop the stream... she likely failed to consider the possibility of her father following her here!


    "Dear, I''ve asked you a question."


    There was no hostility in the man''s voice... just yet. His cold and focused expression alone, however, was enough to fully transmit maybe not his intentions, but the mood the situation before his very own eyes was putting him in.


    "T-this..." ire gulped her saliva before picking her chin up and peeking at my face as if searching for inspiration in my confused expression. "The encounter I''ve talked about..."


    "What the hell is going on here?!"


    As if the situation wasn''t messy enough, yet another voice joined in on the fray. And as weary and high-pitched as it was... just the tone of this voice was enough to send a chill down my spine.


    ''Oh shit...''


    Behind the man, a tiny, old woman suddenly appeared with the look of heaven''s fury written all over her wrinkled face.


    And in this single sh in which I''ve noticed her, the handbag in her hands... It no longer looked like a simple article of woman''s clothing but a mighty weapon ready to smite the gods themselves!


    A point that the old woman rushed to prove after merely taking a nce past the kicked-in doors.


    "YOU!" Shrieking, the woman waved her hand before mming her handbag straight into the man''s side.


    Not only did she take him by surprise, despite openly telegraphing her attack, but her strike proved heavy enough to actually make the massive man... twitch in response to it?!


    "Who the..." ire was just as surprised as me whilecking the same level of terror that was present in my soul.


    Right... while she was merely surprised by the appearance of someone gutsy enough to attack her likely-to-be father, she missed the crucial knowledge that was the source of my terror.


    This old, orientaldy was no one else but myndlord! She was both the owner and the manager of this entire building. And now that she saw one of her precious doors broken, kicked off its frame... With the might of an angered lioness, she proceeded to defend her heritage with a total disregard for her own safety.


    "Who do you think you are to bash my doors in?!" The olddy screamed out from the bottom of her lungs while her handbag continued to fly all over the ce, striking the man''s body whenever he showed even the tiniest opening.


    His thigh, his side, his arms, and even his face - the olddy urately struck them all, not giving the poor man even a second to rest or to exin himself.


    "What business is it of yours what the young-uns are doing at their own ce?! Your daughter is her own person, not some tool for you to use and control as you desire!" The olddy continued with her chastizing, likely crafting the story of what happened from just a few details she noticed before going full rage mode.


    It wasn''t thendy''s fury that was the biggest surprise for the moment, though. In fact, I knew this granny well enough not to be surprised by her reaction almost at all!


    But the same couldn''t be said about ire who, while watching her father getting mercilessly beaten up by the olddy... smirked.


    "That''s what he gets for trying to stalk me!" ire suddenly announced with joy, only to then burst out lighting.


    And it would all be great... if not for her vivid smile only serving to remind me of the events of yesterday''s night.


    "Okay, that''s enough!" Either due to his patience running out or maybe prompted by his daughter''s reaction, the man at the doors finally moved.


    For a moment I was worried he would strike the olddy down, snuffing her life out with an off-handed p...


    But no, he still controlled himself and merely grabbed the bag while it was heading straight for his face again.


    "I have no idea what kind of misconception you have, Grandpa, but I merely chased after my daughter when she made me drive her here and then stormed out of the car. As for what''s going on here, I''m as clueless as you are!"


    Despite holding the olddy''s bag, ire''s father didn''t use it to retaliate against all the beating he suffered from her weary hand. Instead, he just held it in ce as he stared the granny down, only letting go once the expression on her face softened up.


    "Oh..." thendy muttered, taking a step back as she realized she just tried to beat down an innocent man merely worried about his daughter''s antics.


    But then, as soon as her eyes turned over to the broken doors... The rage in her eyes reignited.


    "I can tell it was my daughter who destroyed the door, so I will be sure topensate for all the damages..." ire''s father quickly added, easily reading the expression of the granny and the meaning hidden behind it.


    "Hmph!" The olddy scoffed before raising her chin and looking up to the man''s face along the line of her own nose, acting all high and mighty despite the tip of her head merely reaching up to the man''s sr plexus.


    "And with that said..." ire''s father finally turned his eyes back to the insides of my apartment. For a moment, his eyes lingered on ire, who continued to tremble under the aftershocks of her outburst ofughter, only to then move his eyes to scan my room again before finally locking his sights down on me.


    Yet, right as I got myself ready to address whatever usations he was about to levy my way...


    "He''s the gu... He''s the encounter I mentionedst night," realizing that the time forughter was gone, ire quickly rposed herself and came up with the answer to the question her father posed all the way before his showdown with the olddy.


    "I see..." the man muttered, only for his eyes to sweep the insides of my apartment again. As they locked on the very device that I properly finished during my unconscious meditation, it actually lingered on it for a moment.


    ''So that''s what he''s going to ask me about, huh?'' I thought, preparing myself for the series of questions that were likely to follow.


    For who else could ire have in mind when mentioning how she herself was blocked from freely breaking the cultivation taboos if not her cultivator father?


    ''I wonder if I will have to get the police involved,'' I thought, suddenly starting to regret my decision to turn my phone off earlier.


    "So that''s how it is..." the man muttered once again before shaking his head and turning his eyes over to the girl. "Now then, how about you exin why you kicked the doors to this poor man''s apartment before barging in as if you owned the ce?"

 Chapter 25: Highball now to lowball in the future?

    "So that''s how it is..."


    Chihiro, ire''s father, muttered as he closely inspected the mana-thickening device he held in his hands.


    Yet, even though one didn''t need to disassemble it to realize it wasn''t made purely with cultivation-rted materials thanks to its outer shell being made with nothing else but circuit boards... he didn''t seem to be displeased at all!


    "You are not... angry?" ire asked, while I had no other choice but to restrain my desire to wrap my hands around her neck to strangle her.


    ''Why would you ask him that?!'' I panicked, gritting my teeth in a bid not to let my emotions show on my face. ''It''s only going to invite...''


    "Why would I be? This thing, it''s quite marvelous," Chihiro proimed with a shrug of his shoulders. "Sure, we have better artifacts back at home, but that doesn''t take away any worth from this thing."


    With that statement, the man turned his eyes over to me.


    "Still, I just couldn''t help but wonder how you made it..."


    ''Here it fucking is.''


    It didn''t take a genius to realize that this sentence was merely a segway to either a lecture on how one should mix modern technology with cultivation stuff, or, even worse...


    "What''s the recipe for it?" Chihiro asked in a casual tone as if it was no biggie to just randomly answer such a question.


    "Sir, with all due respect, I do not ask you to reveal the secrets of your cultivation techniques," I replied, bowing my head down to both show respect but also hide the anxiety on my face.


    ''I really shouldn''t have turned my phone off!''


    Cultivator or not, this man was still a member of the modern society! And what better could someone as poor, not connected, and outright meaningless person like me do against him if not fall back on the cushion of authorities?


    But now, even this path of escape, the only one essible to themon folk, was cut off...


    All because of this damned, idental stream!


    ''Thinking about it, I still have no idea what actually happened, do I?'' I suddenly realized. ''Even if I ended up streaming...'' I thought, turning my eyes over to ire, ''How in the hell did she find this one, particr stream?''


    Before I could even attempt to get an answer to that, however, Chihiro''s small smile evaporated from his face, reced with a cial-cold expression.


    "First you put your hands on my daughter and now you can''t even humor a small question like that?!" Chihiro snarled.


    "First, she invaded my home by kicking the doors out of the frame as she stepped inside uninvited," I countered the man, forcing myself to look up into his eyes.


    Having my phone on or off didn''t matter.


    With the Landy gone from the area, there was a witness of those twoing in here and acting all high and mighty, so even if this man were to put his hands on me...


    "And now you are trying to threaten me into revealing my secrets?" I finalized my response, only to shake my head in an act of astounded disbelief.


    "But you''ve already revealed them by streaming, didn''t you?" Chihiro quickly countered while crossing his hands over his chest and raising his left eyebrow.


    "Which is the very reason why your daughter rushed in so fast she didn''t have the time to knock, all in a bid to make me aware of this idental mistake."


    Right now, we were still talking. And for as long as we kept talking, this man''s power was fully and utterly meaningless.


    ''Just try to threaten me again,'' I thought, preparing myself for the worst. ''Then I will show you what it means to sue someone to oblivion!''


    By myself, I was nobody. Without money, contacts, or backers, I could only dream of suing someone capable of reaching the same heights of cultivation as ire''s father.


    But...


    For someone to grow so strong, they had to invest a nigh immeasurable fortune into all sorts of tonics, artifacts, and the upkeep for all the time they had to spend training.


    And since we were talking about someone so considerably wealthy, I had no doubt there would be scores of potentwyers ready and happy to jump on such a court case merely by getting a percentage of the potential payoff!


    Even if Chihiro somehow found a way to stop this avenue of mine... All I had to do was to swallow my pride and give my uncle a call, asking for his help instead!


    Yet, rather than pushing in...


    ire''s father suddenlyughed out before backing off a step.


    "Hahaha," hisugh while appearing perfectly honest and genuine... somehow felt weird; it didn''t match his face if not his entire disposition. "I''m sorry, young man, but I had to make sure ire isn''t just taking advantage of you, nor that anyone else will."


    ''Wait, so... no court case for me to easily win?'' I thought, thrown for a loop where all my mental preparations and predictions suddenly proved to bepletely and utterly... pointless.


    "With that said, though, I can certainly see the problem at hand," he then added, once again throwing me a curved ball.


    "What kind of problem are you talking about, sir?" I inquired, still struggling to just take his words for granted.


    "Well, for starters, I have to get your doors and phone fixed, isn''t that right?" he stated, only to snap his fingers...


    And for a middle-aged man dressed like a butler from an anime to appear by the broken doors, seemingly out of nowhere.


    "Fix those doors for me," Chihiro ordered before turning back to ire. "And you will wire him both the money for the new phone and thepensation fee for so rudely intruding upon him. Is that clear?"


    In an instant, ire''s face went from anxious and observant... to one with hints of exasperation and despair.


    "But...!"


    "There will be no buts!" Chihiro cut his daughter off before she could even start protesting. "As for this tool..." he then turned his attention back to the device he still kept in his hand. "How about I get it off your hands for, hmm..."


    In the short moment that Chihiro took to act out as if he actually had to think his offer through, I caught a glimpse of ire''s face. Or rather, the ugly grimace that spoiled her otherwise cute features.


    But then again, judging just by her father''s disposition alone, regardless of what kind of number he was about to throw out... It wasn''t going to be something a simple, poor man like me could easily ignore!


    Still, even with that in mind, what was this strange feeling of resistance boiling down at the bottom of my soul? It was as if... my guts were warning me about something that, just like when meditating, I just couldn''t properly grasp!


    "How does half a million Esecs sound like?"


    That was...


    I gulped my saliva down, suddenly realizing what it meant to be unable to catch a breath.


    This number was so overwhelming... It pretty much turned my brain into a mush, stopping me from having a single rational thought.


    But... This feeling in my gut...


    "What''s the catch?" I asked, opting to at least partially answer to my premonition. "I mean, we both know that this device isn''t worth as much. So, what''s the catch?"


    If the amount Chihiro offered wasn''t about the device... then what else did he want to actually buy? My silence? To ensure I wouldn''t sue for the home invasion? Or was this his way of trying to get his hands on my device so he could reverse-engineer the recipe for it?


    "You really won''t allow anyone to take advantage of you, won''t you?" Chihiro smiled. "But fear not, all I want is to have a priority on anything new that you craft, regardless if it''s a sessful project or not. Not that bad of a deal, isn''t it?"


    That... exined a lot.


    Right now, I am merely a beginner. And judging by everyone''s reaction thus far or by how desperate ire was to stop my idental stream, the things that I crafted... were worth more than their weight in gold.


    What did the right of priority mean for rie and her father in the long term, then, if not the ability to lowball me like mad once I started to craft things that would be of much greater value?


    On the other hand, however, what guarantee do I have that I could actually be crafting anything better than I already did?


    And ultimately, why was ire grimacing so damn hard?


    "I''m sorry, but I cannot give you an answer yet. And while I don''t want you to think of it as my refusal..." I shook my head before looking up and staring right into Chihiro''s calm eyes. "The amount you offered makes me weak in the knees, so I need to calm down and properly think it through before giving you an answer."

 Chapter 26: And then, things got progressively worse

    "Haa-ah¡­"


    My sigh was filled with so much of my exhaustion, that it turned all the air in the room stale.


    I sat down on the edge of my bed, leaning down with my elbows resting heavily on my knees. I even covered my face with my hands¡­


    But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn''t figure it out.


    "I know your life was all about what this, what that, what not, but ultimately, you need to decide!"


    Hyping myself up, I took in a big breath before shifting my weight and heaving my upper body back, to lift the burden of everything that was going on and stall tall despite its weight.


    "First, what even are my options?"


    Thinking out loud, I stood up, only to hurriedly sit down right next to my bed, at my table.


    This change, while small and seemingly insignificant, allowed me to properly shift my gears. Rather than in a mood to whine, I was now ready to tackle whatever issuey ahead just like I''ve always done - by taking it one step at a time.


    "First, I can get the fat stack off that guy''s hands. This will allow me to easily pawn off anything I crate, ultimately giving me a nice connection to someone clearly of importance."


    I didn''t need anyone to tell me that ire''s father was¡­ well, rich beyond any measure. Just the degree of his cultivation was, in a way, proof of that. Which, when thinking about it, was another great reason to cooperate with the man.


    "Isn''t this kind of backing exactly the thing that would set you on the path you always wanted?"


    Looking up to the ceiling, I talked to myself.


    It was no exagerattion.


    Just the proceeds from selling the device would be enough to secure my living expenses for a few years. What''s more, I would likely be able to ask for help with my cultivation issues.


    But¡­


    "Then again, even if he pays a lot now, what''s going to stop him from brutally lowballing me down the line? And¡­" I hesitated for a bit, even when merely conversing with myself, "And what was with ire''s expression¡­?"


    I hung to my words a bit, lingering on the brief memory of the face she made whenever her father pushed for the deal.


    "On the other hand, if I refuse, I will be back to slow but steady growth, with likely inferior but¡­ more essible knowledge."


    Even if I refused her father¡­ There was a likely chance ire would try to stick with me.


    Why else would she dislike the idea of me making a deal with her father?


    Why else would she bring out all the reasons why he couldn''t do the things that I could and did?


    And why would she warn me about the consequence of joining the usual path of cultivators that I would be otherwise unlikely to notice in time?


    There were many reasons why ire was likely to cooperate even if¡­ Or rather, especially in the case of me denying her father''s deal. And that cooperation, while inferior in every regard to what her father proposed, also came with much looser strings attached.


    Rather than banning me from breaking the taboo, she would instruct me how to toe the line of what''s allowed and what breaks the taboo too hard for people to let me off for it. Rather than highballing me now to lowball me in the future, she did the opposite, with how she had limited resources to offer right now but would end up taking a much lesser cut once things developed in the future¡­


    ''In other words, this choice is all about¡­''


    I gritted my teeth, nearly bursting outughing at the insidiousness of the fate.


    ''It''s a choice between instant gratification and greater benefits over time,'' I thought before heaving a long sigh.


    "In other words, it''s all about my potential, huh?"


    After wasting five years doing nothing but mming my fists against the literal wall for, as I now confirmed, absolutely nothing, I wasn''t all that ready to dedicate my entire self to something else.


    My failure to reach the meditative state was the greatest proof that even with nigh endless efforts, if I didn''t have the talent, then my potential¡­ Then, the reach of my potential would be severely limited.


    And right now, this was the very question for me to ask myself. Is the novelty of now more than what I can bring forth in the future?


    "Yeah, I just can''t decide."


    I brought my head down and rather than the ceiling, I looked at my bed nearby.


    "I guess I could check what the hell is this thing with the stream?"


    Since I''ve found myself at a crossroads I couldn''t easily pass, I''ve decided to just¡­ do something else. Who knew, maybe by finding out more about my situation, I could make a better-educated choice?


    Thankfully, ire''s initial smash failed to fully kill my phone. In fact, save for my disy shattering, with the bottom third of it just showing a ck screen while only the middle part of the touchpad actually reacted to my fingers¡­ But still, as annoying as it would be, I could use it.


    Looking through the records on my phone proved to be¡­ absolutely unnecessary, given the sea of notifications that appeared to give my phone Parkinson''s disease. What''s more, I still had my phone on the phone mode, making it actually impossible to contact me at all!


    "Well¡­" I gulped my saliva down, legitimately terrified of what I could find, "let''s fish for a bit."


    The investigation was short and provided me with decisive evidence in the form of screenshots, clips, and entire reaction videos swarming the morning feed of the app.


    It wasn''t at the point of absolute viral masterpiece¡­ But I could spot only one more topic that got greater love from the algorithm than stuff directly rted to my fuck-up!


    The situation, however, wasn''t all thatplicated.


    While the reason behind all of it still remained a mystery, my phone somehow switched from recording to streaming mode, right as I sat down to indulge my crafting fetish a bit.


    At first, nothing really changed, save for my VOD being now shared globally.


    Then, some random web surfers stumbled upon the stream¡­


    And nothing happened again.


    It wasn''t until three hours into my stream, when I unknowingly crossed some sort of mental barrier in the algorithm''s brain, that it decided I deserved some more attention.


    In a manner of ten minutes, my audience grew to quite unstable, two-digit number fluctuating between twenty and as high as eighty.


    Then, as one of the clips proved, one of my channel''s guests just happened to be watching some popr meditation streamer. And that very fan proved to be a whale when he made the streamer check my own feed out by pping his face with a fat donation.


    And from then on, things got progressively worse.

 Chapter 27: Too viral

    "Is this guy for real?"


    Despite how popr clickbait thumbnails for the videos tended to be, the shocked face of one of the meditation streaming gurus¡­ actually appeared in the clip.


    Or, to be more precise, it remained on the man''s face for the full duration of said clip, likely extending well beyond the timeframe the clip revealed.


    "I know a few guys who are so talented to fall into a sleep-like state while meditating, but this guy¡­?"


    The popr streamer shook his head.


    "Actually, let me hit one of them up¡­"


    When I thought that from the moment this popr streamer actually hosted my own stream things got progressively worse¡­I wasn''t wrong. In fact, back then, I still underestimated the viral potential of my stream¡­ whatever that potential could be.


    From "MeditateWithUS", one of the biggest meditation streaming channels, my stream soon appeared live on three more channels. And the clipper did a really good job of connecting all four of the streams into a 4-panel video, allowing the viewers to watch the streamers as they had their call on-stream.


    "This has to be the third if the not fourth stage of meditation¡­", ''Medio'', another popr streamer leaned in closer over his screen, as if peering into the details of my own life. "If you take a closer look, his eyes do not match the movement of his hands. And what''s even bigger, there''s absolutely no movement of that guy''s expression!"


    "Medio, staph, speak in in English, you know you alone are the freaky one to study anything beyond the third stage of meditation¡­"


    Medio rolled his eyes at the remark of the long-haired "Messitiation" guy, made famous by his insistence on learning how to meditate without cleaning his room ever again.


    A silly idea¡­ that apparently had some solid, background study supporting it over how one had to fully cut themselves free from the world around them in order to reach the third stage of meditation, a feat all the harder when all the mess around them actually pedantic streamer only continued to y on his nerves.


    "Do any of you have contact with some good crafters?" MeditateWithUs asked, only for two of his friends to grimace right in their streams.


    "What crafters? cksmith? Runemaster? Engineer?" Medio protested. "It''s not like there''s a general ''crafter'' profession, everyone specializes in something nowadays¡­"


    "Then, do you have contact with anyone who can tell what in the heavens is this kid trying to make?"


    This back-and-forth between the four big streamers only continued for the rest of the clip, ending with just two statements they ended up agreeing on.


    First, I apparently reached the stage of focus in my meditation that they themselves either coveted or topped their talent by reaching. MeditateWithUS and Medio, however, kept insisting that I''ve already stepped into the fourth stage of meditation¡­ whatever it could possibly mean.


    ''So, others are jealous of my meditation, while for me it''s nothing but a burden? Just another obstacle that blocks me from advancing?''


    But that was merely one of the statements.


    The other one, that I found after scrolling through a few more clips of the matter, imed that I was apparently trying to build up a Vahanea structure, a formation from ancient timesuded to be the absolutely best Qi-gathering formation the recipe for which was lost in the ancient times.


    Then again, I''ve learned all of that from a quick search through the vast expanses of the search engine. And that alone revealed just how sparse the information about this topic was.


    Outside of the general idea of what this formation was supposed to be used for, it appeared mostly not in cultivation research fields¡­ but archeology, as reiming the recipe appeared to be one of the historical concerns of the Restoration era, a desire that ultimately went unfulfilled when the technological progress swayed the vast majority of the poption to focus on the developing and precise technology rather than the stagnant and mystical cultivation that not only requires one to have a talent for it¡­ but also came at a great, mary cost.


    And just like before, there was only one question in my mind left after I did all my due research - Assuming those streamers were right, then how the fuck did my hands somehow started to craft a formation that was lost since ancient times?!


    "Well, I guess that means one thing, streaming is not for me," I sighed as I kept the phone in my hands for just long enough to fully confirm the deletion of my ount before closing the app and making sure to uninstall it. "Whether those streamers are right or not, doesn''t matter. But if that''s the result of me streaming my crafting by an ident once¡­"


    Just like I low-key expected, learning more about my situation provided me with apletely new set of insights into my other options. And while I still would rather have the freedom that came with picking to stick to ire rather than her father¡­


    Was I even in a position to keep on living without a backer now?


    What would I do if some smarty-pants web users were to somehow figure out my details, from where I lived all the way to who I was?


    ''If there are people who will trust those streamers spoke true about what I was doing, then there are going to be a fuckload of people trying to go and take advantage of me, isn''t that right?''


    I heaved a long sigh.


    Sure, the prospect of going viral the very moment I tried to stream properly didn''t seem all that bad¡­ But after what I went through before I learned how to discipline myself, I had no desire to jump back into the gate of perversion others called the inte, not in the slightest.


    "Well, at the very least, now the choice is simple," I muttered to myself only to stand up and move to my bed only to fall down on it at stare at the ceiling of my cramped apartment.


    "Do I really on ire''s dad or do I swallow this bitter pill and call my uncle instead?"

 Chapter 28: You are not quitting! Im firing you!

    I wasn''t all that used to taking a walk outside just for the sake of calming down my thoughts. Up until now, whenever I left my ce, I would go somewhere to achieve some sort of purpose, be it to throw the trash out, go get some groceries, or meet up with friends.


    But to just take a walk outside¡­ for the sake of talking a walk?


    ''I wonder if that''s just another part of bing a proper grown-up¡­''


    It was just one of the many random thoughts that popped into my head as I walked through the rtively empty streets of the morning town.


    In just about an hour, those streets would fill with both people and cars, killing the peaceful ambiance the city had right now. Just an hour before the peace would turn into chaos of everyone rushing to their jobs, to their schools, or to whatever made them leave theforts of their home.


    Before that, though, I continued to just pace around, allowing my legs to drag me whenever.


    ''Thinking back, I''ve yet to train again after leaving the institution,'' I thought, suddenly feeling an urge to get some exercise done.


    It wasn''t a matter of keeping myself healthy or even keeping up all the gains I''ve got over the years of keeping up with the harsh discipline of my regime. I merely missed the strain on the body killing my thoughts, forcing me to focus on achieving perfection with my next strike.


    ''Now that I think about it¡­''


    Before I could even finish a single line of thought, my body jerked up before breaking into a dash, as if some ghost suddenly started to chase me down the morning streets of the city.


    I wasn''t dressed up for a jog. My shoes were nothing like what I should be wearing for a running exercise. Even my fit was just whatever I threw atop my back before leaving rather than proper exercise clothes. In short, I didn''t look the part of a jogger currently out on their morning run. But at the same time¡­


    ''How is it so liberating?'' Running through the streets, I thought nothing of what the passersby would think of me. I steadily ran across the streets despite wearing clothes many would feel ashamed to throw the trash out in.


    But just like I thought, to cast away all my worries, all my concerns, and all my inhibitors and just run freely¡­


    ''Wait, aren''t I a lot faster than usual?''


    Suddenly paying attention to my own speed nearly resulted in me running straight into a road sign. But I was right, my casual running speed was now pretty much what would be my former max speed I could only achieve for a short amount of time!


    ''Didn''t I run like that for a while already?'' I thought, forcing my feet to stop as I looked around¡­ Only to realize that even in my bid to just run freely for a while, my body followed its habits. And rather than bringing me out to a random part of the city, I have yet to explore¡­


    My feet brought me all the way over to where I would usually take the bike. Before realizing it, I''ve arrived right at the doorstep of my part-time, the same part-time that my shift would normally be ending sometime around now, if not for me pretending to be sick out of my mind.


    ''I guess I should remove myself from here posthaste¡­'' I thought, instinctively taking a step back as I imagined the mental burden of confronting the people from work. Yet, right as I took this one step¡­


    ''Since when I''m shying away from the challenge?''


    Suddenly stopped, I just stared at the ss doors of the 24/7 type of small grocery shop where I just missed my shift because of alleged sickness, only to arrive at its doorstep right as the said shift was about to end.


    ''With my situation as it is now¡­'' I thought back to the offers both ire and her father made. Yet, regardless of which one I would pick¡­ my financial prospects would advance to a level I could never reach by ending this dead-end job!


    "I guess I''ve gotta deal with this first, then?" I muttered to myself, only to turn over my heel right as someone was about to strike my back.


    "What?" Tom''s eyes widened as his hand missed my back, nearly making him turn around and stumble off his feet. "What was that? A hyper instinct or something?" he asked, looking up from where he ended up bending down to keep himself stable on his feet.


    "So the shift''s over, isn''t it?" I replied, ignoring the man''sment and raising my eyes up to the shop''s entrance. "Is the boss in?"


    Tom squinted his eyes, and a hint of suspicion appeared on his face.


    "Yes and yes," he replied, raising up to straighten his back before resting his hands down on his hips and giving me an inquisitive look.


    For a short moment, we just stood in silence, only for Tom to break it with a long sigh a momentter.


    "So you''ve finally done it," hemented only to put a small smile on his head as he shook it sideways before reaching out and then patting my shoulder. "Congrattions, bro," he said, only to wipe the smuggish vibe off his face as he looked up and revealed a properly happy smile. "I know it''s going to sound like a joke or a jab, but I''m really proud of you."


    Ugh¡­


    "Thanks, man. And yes, I did."


    There was no need for us to exin our short messages in depth. We worked the graveyard shift together for long enough to pretty much understand each other just from our expressions alone. After all, how else could we have detailed conversations over who is to take care of the next troublesome customer¡­ with said customer already standing at the counter?


    And so, I didn''t need to exin how I''ve finally managed to start cultivating. He could tell from how I''ve avoided his back-p before.


    I didn''t even need to tell him that I''ve now faced apletely new set of struggles that only became apparent once I finally overcame the wall that stopped me for so long - if I wasn''t struggling, he wouldn''t see me at the work right the moment the shift I skipped came to an end.


    And definitely, he wouldn''t hear me asking if the boss was in the shop if I didn''t have the ns to¡­


    "Tim!" A sudden shout broke me out of this self-reflective state meeting Tom put me in. "What the hell? Weren''t you¡­"


    Pushing the ss doors open, a tiny-looking orientaldy stepped out, her eyes first concerned only to then nearly turn red when her expression turned fiery as she connected the dots and realized the likely truth.


    "Do you think you can skimp on work now? Someone really grew some balls, didn''t you, huh?!" With every word, the middle-aged panda-likedy came a step closer, her knuckles already turning white from how hard she squeezed down on the reins of her bag.


    She was the owner and the boss of the shop I was working at. A fiercedy who only ever appeared kind when she had to. And now that I''ve put myself in her anger''s way¡­


    "Kids these days really don''t know how to work hard!" she screamed out through the empty street, the bag in her hand already starting to move back and forth as if she started to spin it up for an attack. "It seems I have no other choice but to teach you a damn less¡­"


    "I quit," not missing a beat, I stared the middle-ageddy right in the eye as I revealed the news.


    "Huh?" Tom jumped a little, slightly taken aback by the suddenness of the news.


    "What?" Even the bossdy appeared to be caught off guard by my reveal. But she wouldn''t be herself if she just allowed it to pass, would she? "No! You are not quitting! No one quits on me!"


    And then, with the most vicious smile, I''ve seen her make thus far, "You are not quitting! Ha! I''m firing you!"

 Chapter 29: The simple answer to a complicated question

    "You are not quitting! Ha! I''m firing you!"


    I only bothered to spare the vicious middle-ageddy a short, baffled nce.


    ''What''s the difference if all that changes is the wording?''


    I shook my head before rolling my eyes and turning around.


    What would be the point of responding?


    Sure, I was quitting on the spot after missing a graveyard shift¡­ But it wasn''t like this ce, no, this boss treated me kindly before.


    Working graveyard shifts while attending the institution already put a massive strain on my ability to get proper rest, something the olddy knew perfectly well about. And despite working the nights, she would always skimp on the overnight pay, pretending as if this obligation didn''t apply to our part-time deals at the shop.


    This was but one of the many hateful aspects of this job, but¡­


    But I would lie if I were to im it was all bad. Heck, I wouldn''t have arranged for someone to likely cover for me if I didn''t care in the slightest.


    The thing is, rather than for the shop or the bossdy herself, I cared for the rest of our small team, knowing full well that the others were hopeless bastards just like me.


    That''s why I called.


    Because while I couldn''t care less over what would happen to the bossdy, I had no ns to go out of my way to make things harder for the boys!


    The greatest proof of how this situation wasn''t just me whining was how Tom, despite being in full view of the bossdy, still decided to walk with me as we left the area.


    And he didn''t look back even once.


    "That was one way to end your job," Tom spoke out once we retreated safely outside of the patrol range of the olddy, well beyond her hearing range under the assumption she wasn''t furious enough to leave her job behind the counter and follow us into the city.


    I looked over to the side at the dreamy face of my now-former colleague. Just from the look of it, I could tell he imagined nothing else but himself stepping into my shoes and ditching his work as well.


    "Yeah," I agreed in a silent voice, perfectly fine with the overwhelmingly heavy ambiance of the morning.


    By now, the streets were still only starting to fill up, not yet robbing our walk back home of its peacefulness and silence.


    "I really like those moments, you know?" Tom spoke out only when we reached the city''s park through which we often cut our way through. "Walking through as the city barely wakes up for the day."


    Hidden away from the neon lights of the city by the silence of the old trees, Tom''splexion improved a little. Now, he didn''t seem as tired as when he just left the shop.


    "Good for you," I said, myself falling into the same, reflective mood. "If you can find joy in the smallest of things, even in the worst of circumstances¡­ You''ve got a happy life ahead of you."


    For me, it was different.


    I was always set on my goal of bing a cultivator. A goal always so distant, I failed to consider whaty beyond achieving it.


    That was likely why I wasn''t sure which offer to pick, whether to be a streamer and ride my wave of going viral, ept ire''s offer and enjoy my freedom, or shake hands with her dad and gain instant benefits at the cost of freedom and premiums down the line.


    I couldn''t decide¡­ because I didn''t really know what was my goal behind all of it! And I could only rationally judge the pros and cons of every choice when I knew what direction in life I wanted to take!


    But even now¡­ I still just couldn''t tell.


    Sure, it was easy to wish to be rich¡­ But now that it was something I actually could achieve, I could no longer see it as¡­ just an empty goal.


    Instead of chasing my first breakthrough was I supposed to chase after an endlessly bigger and bigger number on my bank ount?


    Was that really all my determination and discipline would amount to, in the end, just an ever-growing stack of cash I would soon find myself having nothing to spend on?


    Or was I supposed to do my best with the actual cultivation, only to fill my life with endless struggle whenever I went?


    ''You don''t have the talent for it and you have five years to back this realization up,'' I thought to myself, trying to remain as rational in the situation as I could. ''But with this way of thinking¡­''


    I had a talent for crafting.


    That one part was undeniable.


    How and why was I crafting some strange and weird things when I meditated, I couldn''t tell. But even without the support of this meditation, my hands were still capable of adding shape and form to the ideas popping up in my mind.


    ''I have both talent for crafting, as hard to measure as something like this might be, but it''s also quite fun, isn''t it?''


    I heaved a long, deep sigh, enjoying the rare taste of the fresh, moist air of the forest in the morning. It was just¡­ so different from the air I was used to breathing back at my ce.


    To tasty, so refreshing, so¡­


    ''Wait¡­''


    I stopped my feet from taking another step, too focused on the sudden idea that popped into my head.


    And now that I''ve focused¡­


    "So you''ve already figured it out," Tom spoke out, giving me a slight smile as he looked down at me with his arms crossed on his chest.


    "Figured out what?" I asked, unexpectedly failing to catch his drift.


    "You were deep in thought over something," Tom exined without any issue while opening up his arms and then resting his hands on his hip. "But now you look like you figured something out. Am I on point, or am I talking nonsense?"


    Tom''s slight smile was perfectly confident¡­ and for a good reason.


    He was right, after all.


    But it was his words that made me realize that by getting this one, sudden idea, I''ve figured out the simple answer to this extremelyplicated question.


    How could I do anything else in my life if not the thing that I randomly get ideas for while walking through the park? Randomly connect the dots in my mind to themon denominator¡­?


    ''If it''s so tasteful, refreshing, and whatnot¡­ Why not make a device to purify the air?''


    The moment of deeper breathing confirmed that the Qi in the air, as sparse as it was, was the culprit behind this slight, refreshing feeling I''d felt the moment I stepped into the forest.


    Something I''ve felt much stronger than just three days ago when I did it as a mere unawakened mortal.


    The Qi in the air was extremely thin¡­ but also deprived of quite a part of the dirt and pollution present on the streets.


    Back home I''ve already got dense Qi¡­ but what would happen if I further purify it?


    But all of that¡­ was just a distraction. A feed for thought forter, for when I would get back home.


    What was important, was that just like Tom pointed out, I''ve figured it out.


    "What I want to do in the future is to keep crafting," I muttered, as if voicing this thought out could anchor it in reality, solidify its presence, and turn it into something¡­ tangible?


    "Crafting?" Tom caught up with my mutter and raised his eyebrow. "I thought you finally managed to be a cultivator, so why not just rejoin the institution?" he suggested.


    That¡­


    That surely was an option¡­ but one that I''ve long since given up on. I''ve already learned how I had to craft to meditate, something I couldn''t do while simultaneously throwing out precise punches!


    One couldn''t focus on doing two things at once, especially when one required the utmost level of delicacy while the other relied on raw strength!


    "Is there even money in crafting? But now that I think about it¡­ If you start like a handyman for hire, maybe you could actually earn quite a fair bit?"


    I smiled lightly and shook my head.


    "That''s not exactly the kind of crafting I had in mind, but yeah, there definitely is money in it."


    Hearing this, Tom smiled before his posture¡­ rxed.


    "That''s great to hear," he breathed out with visible relief before turning his face and beaming me with a wide, snickerish grin, "then I hope you will hire me once you firmly stand on your own two feet!"

 Chapter 30: The shop is empty no longer

    Between my little jog to refresh my thoughts, the small encounter at my now former part-time job, and then the slow stroll back home with Tom, and then the short rest at my ce, it took me roughly until midday before I could finally get on the move.


    ''Sleep is for the week¡­'' I thought, only for an ugly grimace to take over my lips as I could feel weakness all over. ''Yeah, I''m too old for that kind of crap¡­''


    As much as I didn''t want to acknowledge it, without the proper eight¡­ or, at the very least, six hours of sleep, I simply was unable to be at my top performance.


    But with how I just got myself fired, settling the deal with ire and her father was now of utmost importance. After all, even though ire paid me for the device I sold her¡­ between the daily living costs and all the materials I hurriedly bought to keep testing my crafting ability, those funds were already running out.


    Sure, I could live off the small pile of my savings, but it was a critical step I really didn''t want to take.


    That''s why, after getting just enough rest to keep my mind rtively fresh, I got myself up again before leaving for a slightly longer stroll.


    With a night''s worth of crafting behind my back, I didn''t dare to step onto the bike. Even though I treated my hands roughly for the past few years, I just couldn''t risk getting into even a small ident due to exhaustion, only to have my hands rendered immobile even for a few days.


    Right now, crafting was my lifeline, something I went all in on, and I wasn''t going to take any unnecessary risks.


    And so, I strolled through the city, through the path I already made twice just yesterday.


    I still wasn''t sure whether my choice of going all for crafting was correct. In fact, the amount of worry and anxiety that making this choice gave birth to only made me ponder whether or not it was actually a smart thing to do¡­


    There was no telling whether my choice to burn the bridges behind me and force myself onto this path with no way out was a genius move or an example of intrepid stupidity. Only time would tell whether I''d just gone vabank to win the pot or if things went wrong, just brought my independent life to its ruin.


    Whether I won my gamble or not, however, it would be a result of my choices, as much as I could im it to be my choice when by no means or measure was my unexpected talent for crafting something I decided on my own.


    ''Is there actually anything wrong with jumping on the opportunity?'' I asked myself as I watched how the disys of the stores grew nicer, fancier, and filled with more and more expensive stuff as I approached the border of the cultivation district.


    There, once again, with a single step, I moved over to an entirely different world.


    Whether the barrier of the district kept the pollution of the air at bay or not I couldn''t tell¡­ but it certainly felt like it.


    Looking down from the sky, I moved my attention to the shopfronts already within the district. And the first thing I noticed, was the drastically visible drop of quality between the shops at the edge of the actual shopping street and the entrance of the cultivation district. It was like¡­


    ''It''s like people here are going more for the old-timey vibe, while the shops outside are much more focused on clean disys and architecture¡­''


    It was a weird feeling to see two such distinctive styles sh so near to each other, with seemingly nothing more but a few steps splitting them apart. In the end, however, this realization served as nothing more but another thing to upy my mind as I drew closer to ire''s shop hidden within one of the side alleys.


    The closer to the shop I got, the more my hands and chest trembled. It was the feeling of anxiety incarnate, a feeling that drew stronger the closer I got to the ce where I would have no other choice but to reveal my decision¡­ and by doing so, set it in stone.


    A decision that while within the frame of what I thought about before¡­ still went outside of the frames of the three choices I believed I had when I excused ire and her father out of my ce.


    My hands trembled harder and harder, all the way to the point where I reached out and grabbed the knob before pulling the doors open.


    Now, not even this flimsy-looking piece of wood stood in the way of my setting my destiny in stone. Yet, rather than greeting me right at the door, which I low-key came to expect, ire didn''t move an inch from behind her counter.


    And how could she, given the line of seven other customers all waiting for their turn to pay for whatever they picked off the shelves?


    ''I guess I will have to wait a bit,'' I realized before drawing my eyes toward the many shelves that ire densely packed inside the small area of the shop. Doing so surely turned this ce into a smallbyrinth of sorts¡­ but both allowed the shop to disy more products for sale while also forcing the customer to pretty much inspect them all on their way to the counter.


    A selling tactic I usually found annoying in normal marketces, here, didn''t feel all that bad.


    After all, it was a prime opportunity for me to take my time checking just what kind of precious or simply useful tools and half-products ire could offer me right from her shop''s supply. My interest was quite loose, making my eyes linger on most random pieces¡­ but that didn''t mean I had no greater goal in mind.


    Specifically speaking, I just couldn''t help but wonder if there was some sort of tool that purified the air from all the impurities that pretty much the entire modern world was afflicted with?


    It was a task immersive enough that when I finally turned my head to answer someone calling my name¡­ It became obvious from the annoyed look on ire''s face that it wasn''t the first time she called out for me.


    "Are you done browsing, sir?" she asked while forcing a smile on her face. "If so, would you minding with me to the back of the shop for a moment?"


    "Are you sure? Didn''t we just meet? Isn''t it a little bit too early for such brazen¡­"


    The look ire threw me in response to my teasing would definitely be lethal if she practiced some sort of sight-rted battle arts. Right now, however, all it did was inform me just how little she appreciated my silly humor.


    "Just lock the doors and flip the open gue on them," ire cut to the chase before standing up from behind her counter and pointing her hand at the doors she moved towards. "While I cannot wait to hear what''s your decision, there are some more things we need to discuss first."

 Chapter 31: Backroom dealings

    "So?"


    The very moment I stepped into the backroom of ire''s shop, she was already standing there with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes giving me an expecting look.


    "So?" she asked again as I stood agape in silence, "just what kind of insane idea did you get this time?"


    I looked at the confrontational stance of the girl for a moment before breathing out a sigh and shaking my head.


    "What makes you think I''ve got one?" I asked, crossing my arms over my own chest as I copied ire''s pose.


    In response to my words, she leaned her head over her left arm and gave me a look as if she was staring at some sort of idiot.


    "Because you were too busy checking out the wares in my shop for it to be a mere passing curiosity," she ended up answering, as if not to drag this needless confrontation any longer.


    Then, ire shook her head... Only to then raise her hands and p her cheeks with them.


    "Now, putting that aside and to get things moving before I get another wave of customers..." ire nearly groaned when she spoke about the crucial part of her job, serving others, "what''s your decision?"


    For a second she stared at me with an expecting look on her face, only to then roll her eyes before leaning her head over her other arm.


    "That''s why you came here, right?" she suggested. "To give me your answer, right?"


    For just a little longer, I pursed my lips and stared at her in silence.


    "Well..." I hesitated for but a second, merely acting my hesitation out as I''d long sincee to a decision. "Well yes, but actually no."


    "You have the answer but you don''t have it?" ire squinted her eyes as a look of doubt appeared on her nicely expressive face.


    "Ah, my bad," I quickly reflected on myself as I shook my head. "Yes, I''m going to pick you, but no, I''m not going to fully deny your father either. That''s why rather than being here to give you an answer, I''m here to schedule a meeting with your father and..."


    This time I hesitated for real.


    "A meeting with both your father and you, so we can discuss making the deal together."


    This time, ire didn''t make any face, making it quite the challenge to read her mood and thus reaction to my response that she clearly waited for.


    "A meeting with father, huh?" she muttered as she shook her head, only to suddenly bring it to a halt and raise her chin, shing a yful smirk as she grinned at me, "what, are you going to ask him for my hand or something?"


    This time it was my turn to lean my head over my shoulder, cross my arms over my chest, and sh ire with a small, cheeky smile.


    "I mean, the trail you gave me back at my ce surely made your hand and thuspanionship quite desirable..." I then shook my head, "but I''m sorry. I am a man of god and I don''t know you well enough to further engage in acts like that."


    At first, ire was smirking. But as I kept going, her smile grew weary, dimmed out only to turn into a rather peculiar expression as my response came to an end.


    "What is it that you want to discuss with my father, then?" ire, her mood clearly dampened, asked.


    "The details of the deal I want to make with the two of you. Because while I would much rather just work with you and have absolutely no strings attached..."


    The way I left thetter part of my sentence to hang to dry was enough to tell the girl everything she needed to know.


    "But you cannot go without a proper backer now that a part of your abilities came to light because of that unfortunate stream?" she suggested as if to prove she already knew what worries I was troubled with.


    "That''s a part of it, yes," I nodded my head, "but there''s also the topic of me knowing pretty much nothing about cultivation, forcing me to seek proper help in that regard. That also connects to myck of knowledge of what cultivators would desire, making it hard to figure out what I should try crafting next. Then, ultimately, there''s still the matter of funding..."


    ire raised her eyebrow while moving her arms back to the top of her chest where she locked them together.


    "What, am I not paying you enough?" she asked, her tone indicating I''ve now stepped into the muddy waters through which I had to step really, really carefully.


    And so...


    "Yes," I nodded my head as I ignored my own sense of preservation for the sake of my... well, longtime preservation.


    The topic of money was something that woulde up sooner orter anyway, so I was well within my right and natural reason to get it out of the way BEFORE making the deal as opposed to trying to arrange it AFTER the deal was done and shaken upon.


    "You see when going around the shop, I''ve found quite the number of parts that I might possibly need for the next thing I want to craft. Whether or not my product will sell, however, is one big unknown. And with all the bills I have left to pay and how I''m doing all this crafting instead of going to my part-time work..."


    ire bit down on her lower lip, a tragic sight for me who already felt the softness of those lips directly on the skin of my neck before. It was like watching someone take a precious piece of art... and cut it to pieces without even realizing the loss they were inflicting upon humanity as a whole by doing so!


    "How much do you need, then?" ire ended up asking, looking at me with... strangely honest curiosity.


    It was as if...


    ''Wait, don''t tell me...'' I nearly froze when a sudden idea struck me... Or rather when an array of random points I''ve noticed well in advance have all now connected into a clear picture.


    ''Isn''t she just a spoiled youngdy who knows pretty much nothing of the actual cost of living for a normal person?''


    I gulped my saliva down.


    "Let me give you a run-down," I said before breathing a long sigh. "Just my rent alone amounts to nearly two thousand Esecs per month, all bills and fees included. Then the costs of food, transportation, asional medicine... Let''s round it up to another thousand.


    That makes it three big ones just to live in..." a grimace appeared on my face as soon as I thought back to the conditions I was living in.


    "Just to live in the cage I call my home, eat the most basic and efficient foods, and have little to no money on any sort of leisure. I now also have to pay for the loan I took beforeing to your store... And that''s all before ever mentioning the costs of materials and tools I need to craft stuff!"


    I wasn''t exaggerating here. Just by running down the list of things I found potentially useful to the project taking root in my mind, the total cost without any discounts would amount to a measly... seventy-three thousand spiritual coins.


    To say it again, the cost of cultivation materials alone for my project amounted to pretty much three years'' worth of sustenance! That was all before including the cost of other parts, tools I might need to buy, increased bills once I started to use said tools, and ultimately the cost of mybor.


    With all of that in mind, the half a million that ire''s father offered in his first breath certainly sounded far more exciting and reasonable than anything the girl wanted... or could offer!


    "Let''s ignore the numbers for a moment and speak needs," ire requested, clearly listening in to my points only to then instantly turn them on their head. "You need a ce to stay, stuff to eat, maybe reasonable allowance for personal affairs, and then all the materials and tools that might be necessary for your crafting, right?"


    The girl listed out before putting a bright yet strangely cheeky smile on her face.


    "You forgot about help with my cultivation, both theoretical and practical, oversight over my creative process to determine projects that can actually sell and projects I canplete merely for training purposes, some level of protection now that parts of my abilities leaked out..."


    I opted not to make the list any longer, even if there was a countless number of further things that had to be discussed.


    There was no need for me to make my position look any harder to satisfy, after all!


    "Well then, get the hell out of my shop, then," rie called me out, only to reach out and stuff a piece of paper in my breast pocket.


    "This is my number. Call it sometime tomorrow, and I should have the meeting with my father arranged," she informed only to leave me with an extreme sense of anxiety sourcing directly to the wicked grin that emerged on her face.


    "I think I might have just the right solution for what you, I, and my father all need!"

 Chapter 32: The air-purifier... but of a cultivation kind!

    Even though I went to ire''s shop with nothing more but some pocket money, when I left, I still ended up carrying two sizeable bags.


    Apparently, cultivators were aware of the problem of prancing around the town with expensive products, making it a standard service to provide a low-key bag to pack all of one''s purchases.


    In a world where a single stalk of herb could go well into tens of thousands of Esecs, the value one could gather in a single bag was quite unbelievable.


    As it turned out, however, when operating with money on the level that ire and her father did, a mere voiced desire to sign a deal was worth enough to make the girl "lend me" all sorts of half-products off her shelves that easily amounted to a few hundred big ones.


    That obviously made my return home quite a nerve-wracking experience, only to then leave me thankful that no one had ever paid me any mind.


    Even if the city was policed well enough to make the streets rtively safe, one could never predict when a random assault or robbing attempt woulde to face them.


    ''I really should''ve taken the bike,'' I thought as I passed by the patio by the apartment building''s entrance, before heading inside, up the stairs and hunkering down at my ce.


    Rather than moving to the task right away to make the most efficient use of my time¡­ I ced the bags down and sat down on the bed, closing my eyes and leaning my head back before taking a long, slow breath.


    For a moment, I allowed absolutely nothing to disturb the sense of peace in my head, breathing in the unpleasant air that I could only refresh bymitting the greatest sin and actually opening the window to my room. Even then, the one-sided nature of the apartment meant I couldn''t really air it out well, not without the help of some powerful fan¡­ that I could never afford to buy.


    And so, rather than venting my room to make concentration easier, I ignored the poor quality of the Qi-thick air before focusing my attention all on the idea that struck me back at ire''s shop.


    Bit by bit, I recalled the founding idea, smaller bits of creative thought on how to solve various problems that were likely to arise¡­ And bit by bit, the whole thought came back to me, materializing in my head not as just a loose desire to make something specific, but a solid idea apanied by a general schematic pained by my thoughts directly in my brain.


    ''An air purifier¡­ but of a cultivation kind!''


    The idea was simple and heavily borrowed from my electric Qi condenser. In fact, it was the exact same thing¡­ with the difference of what process that humans technologically mastered I could apply to the principles of cultivation. And, in a much simpler way, it was an idea I got when I realized that the stuffiness of the air¡­ is as much of a technological concept as it is a cultivation one!


    With my brain already perfecting the details of the air-purifier schematic, my hands moved to sort out all the things I''d brought over from ire''s ce, organizing them within the limited shelving of my room. With everything now well within reach of my hand, sorted by its purpose, and size, and then turned, I blinked my eyes a few times before finally looking down at my small desk.


    ''No matter what, I will have to move out from here as soon as I can afford it¡­'' I thought, despairing over my living standard for the very first time in an extremely long while.


    Still¡­


    "Okay, let''s get to it."


    There was no use wasting time and mental prowess onining or whining about my current situation. The same energy I would have to waste on those things I could put to better use by working to change what I disliked instead.


    It didn''t take long for my movements to be smoother as if all the doubt and hesitation vanished¡­


    ''No¡­ that''s not it,'' I thought before I could even form a proper thought.


    Sure, my movements suddenly smoothened out as if I already knew every tiniest element of the process ahead by my heart and soul¡­ But it wasn''t just a changed, focused mindset.


    No.


    There actually was a slight whisk of force that pushed my arms around, easing their task to cut through the thick air or contributing to the strength of me lifting something whenever I picked a part.


    ''Interesting¡­''


    As much as I wanted to focus on this feeling and figure out its exact purpose, source, meaning, extent, and all¡­ Right now, I have some crafting to do.


    The entire thing started as usual, with me picking out the pieces I brought over from ire¡­ Before either smashing them apart or carefully dismantling them I judged the piece to be too fragile for the rough treatment. It was only with this steppleted that I finally moved on to the actual crafting as opposed to the preparatory phase that came before.


    Following the schematic in my mind, I arrayed several pieces of thin, narrow, metal tubes, connecting them together with a simple, instant-weld paste before making sure they were all aligned perfectly well.


    Then, with some more of that welding paste and several other pieces I either scavenged from ire''s artifacts or outright bought in advance, I added a series of four sockets into the frame, one for each corner of the now three-dimensional structure.


    Putting the frame away, I made sure the welding paste could settle properly as I moved on to the next¡­ or rather, parallel step.


    I grabbed a bunch of quickly-setting y, molding it with my hands into the shape of a simple bowl, the circumference of which was just slightly bigger than the radius of the frame I made before. Once done¡­ I did this step all over again, altering it bit by bit until I made sure both parts could be perfectly aligned and then joined together.


    Rather than doing that right away, however, I sprayed the y with the special reagent before again, setting it aside to let the y settle and harden.


    While waiting for that to happen, I pulled out one of the more important parts of the whole building, Dryair leaves.


    ording to the description ire''s shop provided, those simple, hand-sized leaves had two different qualities that both made them just the perfect fit for my purposes.


    And so, while the y hardened, I removed the package from the leaves, letting them air for a bit as I set up the small cauldron from ire''s set to boil roughly half of its volume of water.


    "Haaa¡­" I breathed out as I wiped all the sweat off my forehead with my forearm.


    Every step required precision that, in turn, required focusparable to what I needed to throw my punches out. And that, despite not physically taxing almost at all, still put a huge strain on my brain.


    Still, even though I could already feel the first tingles of exhaustion, I couldn''t even fathom the idea of stopping!


    With my forehead now dry, I picked up both the hardened y bowls and the leaves¡­ Before stering the leaves all over the bowls, leaving only the inner side of the bowl uncovered in the leaves.


    This process alone required as much creative thinking and precision as it needed delicacy and a sense of a greater picture.


    Still, one by one, leaves found their ce on the outer side of the y bowl, all wrapped over the bowl''s edge to secure the entire thing in ce. Then, with all the care I could muster, I slowly lowered both parts of leaf-covered y into the cauldron with boiling water, nearly going as far as actually submerging my fingers in the boiling water just to avoid dropping the piece into it.


    "Now then," happy with the progress, I moved over to the easiest part of the task.


    Contrary to how I used Spricur stones in my Qi condenser device, I opted for Spriox stones for this build. After arranging them in opposite directions with a small gap between them, I then used some tiny steel wires to first insert and then secure in ce a square-looking socket between the stones.


    Next, I covered both sides with a t, stic kitchen funnel, using cold glue to force it to stay in ce.


    Then, while waiting for the bowls to boil out, I repeated this step four times before finally bringing the base frame back and carefully cing each of the four purifying pieces into each of the four sockets I pasta-welded in advance while making sure to keep the bulk of the pieces on the inner side of the frame, directing all four outflow funnels to the very middle of the half-made device.


    From then on, I only had the easiest and the hardest steps toplete.


    First, I fished the bowls out of the water before crushing all the hardened y away, exposing the now sturdyyer of the leaves. The first quality of theirs that caught my interest was that when submerged and heated up, those leaves would release a strong binding agent.


    With the y gone, I finally moved the two big, green cups over before gently cing them over the sides of the device, while making sure that the division between the two parts would perfectly align with the entrance of the slots in each of the four corners of the frame.


    Then, after repeating the process of softening up the leaves and releasing their inner glue, I moved on to the hardest part of the whole process, using spare Dryair leaves to cover the gap between the two bowl-like covers, masking it as just another part of the strange, fruit or maybe a seed-like object.


    This time, there weren''t many finishing touches necessary, save for carefully binding and manipting the leaves as they dried out and solidified, all for the sake of creating hidden ess to the slots of the device inside.


    Slots that I then filled with store-bought air purifying mesh.


    "Haaa¡­."


    Gently cing the finished device down on my desk, I sat down in my chair before leaning back as I stared at the product of my own hands.


    The idea was simple.


    Use Spriox stones to turn the air into its Qi-infused version. Then, pass this air through the air purifying mesh, so that all the filth materialized upon infusing the air with the Qi would be cleansed, allowing only the pure air to pass to the second Spriox stone, where it would be turned back into its normal version.


    What made it a tough project, was both my desire to replicate the system several times within the single device to increase its potency¡­ and then my attempt at making it look like some sort of ancient treasure, that cultivators would ept for a mystical artifact rather than some sort of borate device.


    With that said, when looking at the now-finished product and waiting for it to dry out, I couldn''t help but smile.


    "Now, I''m ready to meet ire''s dad," I muttered to myself as I stared at yet another ace card I procured for tomorrow''s negotiations.


    Yet, this smile of mine wasn''t long-lived at all, as I''ve realized that this mindset¡­ was nothing short of empty arrogance.


    And as my eyes moved over to theptop stashed far into the corner of my room,


    ''On a second thought, though¡­''

 Chapter 33: Overwhelming Excess

    ''They really held nothing back, did they?'' I thought as I looked up, trying to have my eyes pierce the clouds in the sky so that I could see the top of the building where I was invited.


    It was one of the fancier towers of the town, fitting everything inside. From the shops at the bottom, service, and office sectors in the middle all the way to the hotel and high-ss restaurants near the top, one wouldn''t be mistaken to call this building the pearl of the city.


    Which, by no ident, was also the name of this magnificent tower. And whoever was behind the faint illumination on the tower''s walls clearly yed into the joke, making the base of the tower look as if it was made from shiny pearls.


    Everything about this ce, from how high it went into the sky, through the fancy front parking with three separate ess points to its underground counterpart, all the way to the ever-present security that ensured the safety of not only the insides but the immediate outside too¡­ Everything about this ce screamed luxury, importance, and excess.


    And it was the exact ce where apparently ire''s dad wanted to have a talk with me to discuss the details of our potential deal.


    ''All of a sudden, my fit ain''t that fancy, huh?'' I thought, looking down at what, just a moment ago before taking the corner, I considered to be my best clothes.


    I wore no suit, for I never saw the need or had enough free money to spare to get myself a proper one.


    Instead, I came dressed in long, ck pants and a simple, buttoned shirt, reaching the level of casual elegance at the very most¡­ Which still made me stand out in this ce like a sore thumb, for I fit neither the high-ss category of the guests who all arrived in suits and dresses nor the casual look of those rich enough to actually take up residence in the pearl.


    ''Ha-ah¡­'' I let out an internal sigh. ''They really did it now, didn''t they?''


    It was hard not to get annoyed right off the bat.


    Even if the other party wasn''t perfectly aware of my financial status yet, they had enough info to guess the rough estimate of my situation.


    And what else was an invitation to the fanciest ce in town if not an intimidation tactic prepared to limit my ability to speak up, for me to be too overwhelmed to properly advocate my own points and rights?


    ''Well,'' I thought as I breathed out, attempting to push all the emotions aside as I did, ''that''s a well-calcted move on their end, assuming getting this sort of advantage is worth the cost of reserving a table in this ce¡­''


    Taking the whole situation as a mere extension to the negotiations, negotiations that have yet to properly start, suddenly allowed me to just push ahead, ignore some of the stares, and move all the way to the reception desk where I simply presented a QR code to the automated scanner, only for a maized card to slide out from just below the scanner''s ess point.


    [Floor: 65: Please, use the maic card provided in the elevator]


    There was no point for anyone to greet me on the bottom floor of the tower, where there were more customers making their way to and from the shops than an actual tower guest.


    And so, with just the maic ticket in my head, I made my way over to the slightly calmer part of the tower''s bottom floor, with an entire, huge square dedicated to nothing else but a series of what looked like nearly forty different elevators arranged all over the perimeter of the square.


    From that point on, I had to wait in the queue for a bit to get to one of the lifts where, upon closing the doors, I pressed the ticket against the scanner on the lift''s side.


    ''Now that I think about it, why wasn''t there a room number on the screen?'' I thought, quickly looking all over the elevator only to find a small screen right in the most eye-catching part of it. As the lift started to move up, I patiently waited for further instructions¡­


    But none appeared.


    And the moment the elevator doors opened up to the sides, I finally figured two things out.


    There was no room number on my ticket or anywhere else simply because floor sixty-five¡­ was a single entity.


    Secondly, my estimation of just how much ire and her dad were willing to invest just to overwhelm me¡­ was nowhere near the actual number!


    As for the two of them, while obviously notified of my arrival, they didn''t deem it fitting to leave their spot on the balcony that overlooked the entire city, with ire stretched back in her fancy chair while her dad calmly sipped down on some sort of juice from a whiskey crystal.


    "Is all of this really that necessary?" I asked as I stepped out and closed the distance a bit. Yet, all the way up to the point where I actually stepped out onto the balcony''s entrance, I didn''t get the answer.


    There was only one reason why I managed to remainrgely unbothered by the overwhelming disy of financial might by the other party. And that''s because after I finished my crafting yesterday, I made damn sure to research all about ire, her family, their size, background, and everything else I could find about their n on the inte.


    Sure, it was no easy task given how the majority of their assets and influences were locked within the cultivator''s domain where even governments would find it hard to put their greedy hands on it¡­ But there were just enough scraps for me to piece the general picture together.


    And as out of the water as I was on this privately rented floor of one of the most expensive buildings in the entire damned city¡­ It was still well within maybe not my expectations but surely within the realm of what I imagined to be possible.


    "So," putting the ss down on the fancy, ss table, Chihiro turned his head and looked at me, finally acknowledging my presence. "What do you have for us?" he asked, outright ignoring my question from earlier.


    And so, I decided to have some fun myself, since this bastard felt so free to entertain myself at my expense.


    "Do you want to hear the reasonable or the cultivator''s name first?" I asked while leaning my head over my shoulder and putting on a small, cheeky smile.


    Chihiro apparently didn''t seem to mind my approach, even going as far as to allow the corner of his mouth to pull up, forming a small, slightly mocking smirk.


    "Let''s start with the fancy one, then," he suggested only to raise the cup to his mouth and take a sip of the vibrant red, viscous liquid in his ss.


    "Then, allow me to present to you, a rechargeable seed of the purifying tree," I announced, only to reach into my bag and then pull out the end result of all my hard work yesterday.


    Now that it was properly dried off, it looked like an actual, oversized seed of some mystical tree or fruit. A seed even slightly bigger than my own head and covered in nothing but solidified leaves.


    Chihiro only raised an eyebrow, while ire leaned over the table to get a closer look at the item in my hand.


    "And its reasonable name would be¡­?" ire''s dad inquired, even going as far as to put his ss away.


    And so I smiled, ced the device down on the ground¡­ and opened up my arms only to shake them a bit.


    "A rechargeable air purification unit."

 Chapter 34: Is it still crafting if Im cooking?

    Chihiro reached out¡­


    And the Air Purification Unit, the huge seed rose from the ground and flew straight to his hand.


    It happened so suddenly that one would worry about the safety of the device¡­ But somehow, I could tell the force that moved it, also¡­


    Cushioned it?


    It was just a feeling, yet even when watching the seed abruptlynd in ire''s dad''s hand, I just¡­ wasn''t worried about its structural integrity.


    He then leaned over the table where he carefully rested the seed, locking his eyes on the structure.


    The hardest part of crafting it all came down to the fine details.


    With the outer shell made with the leaves solidified into shape when their own, internal glue melted and permeated throughout the structure. But all the melting of those nts heavily erased its natural vibe, making it look more like a painting than an actual texture of the precious herb.


    That''s why, I spent several hours dribbling into the surface with a tiny, sculpting knife and raced against the rate at which the entire thing settled down and hardened properly. Only for ire''s dad to stare into it as if to try to see through all its secrets.


    As for ire¡­


    She was leaning over the table, clearly interested in the seed as she stared at it with a vivid curiosity.


    The curiosity on her face was so intense, that it made me believe that she either wasn''t aware or simply cared not for the view she offered when dressed in her exquisite dress.


    As a whole, she revealed a¡­ new, interesting vibe of the rich girl - an undeniable fact given the circumstances.


    ''To rent this entire floor¡­ Even if only for a day, they have to be rich rich.''


    Still¡­


    With the silvery dress cutting off just below her corbone, pretty much the full shape of her bosom was shing right in my face.


    And just a bit to the side, her father stared fiercely into my device, ready to look up to my face and thus bound to see where my eyes were directed at any given time.


    The risk was too great, especially at such important times. The only problem was, standing by their table, I had hardly anywhere else to look.


    "Tell me, how much do you actually know about cultivation?"


    I raised my eyes as I followed the voice behind the question.


    A sigh escaped my lips.


    "Honestly? Not too much."


    Between the two, I expected ire to speak first to ease the atmosphere. Contrary to this expectation of mine, however, it was Chihiro who took the lead.


    Still, all scheming aside¡­ If I wanted this middle-aged peak-level cultivator to sponsor me, I had to give him enough reason for it.


    So, for once, I decided to be justpletely open.


    "I failed to graduate from the institute for five years," I dropped the bomb that I never before really thought of bringing up. "It was only when I, out of desperation, tried to craft something, when¡­"


    I pursed my lips, not to withhold myself from speaking up, but because I genuinely wasn''t sure how to put it into words.


    "When something clicked."


    ''I''m still holding on¡­!''


    Using most of my concentration on the single task of not staring down ire''s chest, I took a moment to breathe. A moment for those two to internalize what I just said.


    ''Can she figure out the timing?'' I thought, looking at ire for a second and staring down her curious eyes.


    Still, despite starting off with a random tangent, I still didn''t give a proper answer.


    "I''m aware that there''s Qi in the air, I can even feel a bit of it in myself," I announced once I regained my voice while raising my right hand.


    For a moment, I recalled the feeling of dragging my flesh through Qi-thick air¡­ Only for the same sensation to return in force. As I dragged my hand through the air, my coordination clearly fell now that I was exceedingly conscious of the sense of the thick air resisting my moves.


    Then, I raised my eyes back to ire before moving over to look right into her dad''s remarkably handsome face.


    "I know pretty much the same as everyone else in the Inte age.


    Both Chihiro and ire¡­ just leaned back in their chairs, their faces frozen still on the light, polite expressions as they kept their stares on me.


    But now that I looked¡­ ire''s eyes grew a lot emptier than her dad''s.


    "And¡­" ire''s dad looked down at the device before turning his eyes back to me. "And you crafted this?"


    I turned my eyes to the seed before turning them back to a small point just slightly above the base of the bridge of Chihiro''s nose. A small trick to make oneself appear slightly more confident and focused to the other person.


    And while the credibility of this im was dubious at best¡­ It was still a trick I could focus on not to allow the overwhelming pressure of the moment to get to me.


    "In a strict sense, I pretty much redid my earlier idea," I spoke out, happily ready to exin the process.


    I was here to sell my ideas, ability, and potential, so if I wanted fairpensation, I had to reveal some of my worth!


    "I took something we have mastered on the technical side of things. And then, upon a random stroke of genius, I''ve realized that I could apply this to the cultivation world as well."


    Chihro''s polite smile melted as it transformed into an intrigued expression. And with the weight of the stakes of this moment pressing hard against my mental state¡­


    I felt the same sensation as recently as yesterday when I sat down to craft.


    This time, however¡­ What could I be crafting on an empty balcony with nothing but some high-octane juice and a soda?


    This energy¡­ It didn''t move into my hands, however, but rather into my mouth.


    "After all, since Qi, mana, spiritual power, or however else you would like to call it, is just a shadow of shared consciousness. And that means, if I can infuse this power into the air, how else would its impurities manifest if not as dirt, pollution?"

 Chapter 35: Genius

    ire leaned back on her chair, her eyes empty.


    ''Don''t tell me¡­''


    Somehow, the first thing that came to her mind when Tim spoke, was the moment when he entered her shop for the very first time. With rather limited funds and much greater curiosity than she saw in anyone else over the past few years. And in just so few days, he came out to be someone of importance so vital, it was impossible to overestimate.


    His crafts so far were enough to put first her andter her father into a state of shock, both when they saw the improved design of what ire bought and now when he brought yet another wonder.


    ''I knew he was sort of special but¡­''


    Her eyes drew to the huge, green seed on the table.


    ''But to think he knew absolutely nothing¡­''


    Tim''s revtion shed some light on the timeline for her.


    Because without a doubt, it was mere days ago when this bastard first discovered he was good at crafting! And it was those mere few days ago when he first stepped into ire''s shop, making her by aplete chance, the first person to realize his potential.


    And now, thanks to this fated yetpletely random advantage, she could be the first to make him an offer.


    ire bit down on her bottom lip, nearly to the point she would start to cut open her delicate skin. And as her eyes drew to her father''s face¡­


    ''If someone who never as much as touched the basics of cultivation can spout such profound enlightenments, then who do we even pretend to be?''


    ire and Chihiro; both geniuses in their respective weight ss.


    ire, an up-anding moderate genius who reached the true condensation stage by the ripe age of neen and was rumored to creep upon the outer reaches of the sixth step, the core establishment stage.


    Chihiro, one of the selected few cultivators of the ninth, two-dimensional core stage within the entirety of not only the city but the entire province. A man capable of freely traversing the spiritualnds of the old eras, just a step away from bing an active contributor to the fabric those worlds are weaved from.


    For their respective ages, they were both well above the average person.


    And now, this freaking upstart¡­


    For some reason, ire suddenly grew extremely annoyed.


    ''Huh?!''


    The girl¡­ wasn''t as dense as to fail to notice her own feelings. But as she squinted her eyes and looked inside her thoughts¡­ She couldn''t really find the reason for this ire of her.


    Only for this failure to be apletely new source of anger, as she grew sick and tired of her chaotic thoughts.


    ''Am I really annoyed to the power of two because of this damned¡­!''


    ire opened her eyes wide and looked up to Tim''s face. Yet, as soon as she did¡­ The warmth returned to her chest, from when his adorably nonchnt eyes moved over her bosom and stuck to it for a short instant.


    ''Wait, no¡­''


    With this single thought, ire''s body all red up as she started to recall all the other sensations she felt because of Tim.


    Her thighs, her waist, her arms, and her lips¡­


    ''What''s that?''


    Right as ire''s thoughts heated up, she suddenly felt a strange sensation, as if something¡­


    As if something grand approached.


    And she somehow managed to instantly pinpoint the source of this distant yet grand presence.


    It lingered in Tim''s mouth as if a byproduct of his earlier words.


    And between the presence of this grandeur and her ongoing impression, just one thought formed in ire''s head as it pushed out everything else.


    ''A genius.''


    ************


    ''What the hell was that?!''


    I wanted to scream, cry out, and run away.


    Was I supposed to cringe? Or maybe keeping a calm face was better? What if I reveal I have no idea where it came from?


    I couldn''t decide¡­ Just like I had no idea what the fuck I just said!


    Or rather¡­


    At some distant level, I could somehow feel the underlying idea of what I said. It was like¡­ a practicalmon sense that I had yet to fully develop.


    But it certainly wasn''t a statement I should be giving out right in the face of the only two cultivators I actually knew, both of which were stars of their respective fields!


    When this energy first appeared, I got a distant feeling that maybe, just maybe¡­ I''ve managed to tame my meditative state.


    To reach the point where it no longer imposed its will upon my brain and flesh.


    I''ve achieved the first step toward this goal when I managed to stay awake through the process, even if not without ire''s active help.


    But yesterday, when I crafted¡­


    Sure, this force was there to push me forward, but it merely improved upon the things I wanted to do rather than doing something entirely out of my own oversight.


    And by all means, this was the sign that I''ve finally managed to ovee my greatest issue since the discovery of my talent!


    Sure, the level of improvement to what I could craft was smaller than when I fully gave the reins to my Qi-guided self, but still¡­ It was a power I could actually wield rather than be a mere subject of!


    And now, the same force was pushing my mouth to utter some profound-sounding bullshit!


    ''What do I do now, though?'' I thought, zeroing in on the most crucial question of the moment.


    What was I to do next, now that I spoke this random crap?


    "I see."


    Chihiro spoke in a much deeper, more exhausted voice than before. Then, he heaved a deep sigh.


    "I''ve heard of the terms you talked with my daughter about." The moment the man took between the two sentences was abruptly short as if he merely took a breath rather than thinking about what he wanted to say. "She also came up with quite an interesting suggestion¡­"


    Chihiro looked over at his daughter, catching her re as she gave him a slightly confused look¡­


    That somehow rooted the ire that I knew, the cheerful, slightly nerdy yet extremely energetic girl as if shedding some of the camouge of her fancy clothes, exposed skin, and perfect make-up. As if anchoring the fact that this rich, sexy girl in front of me was still the same adorable shopkeeper fairy I knew.


    Yet, when her father abruptly turned his head and looked over, I lost the freedom to look at ire, forced to respond to her father''s re.


    "But now I have to make some alternations to our proposition."

 Chapter 36: Mind-boggling offer

    "But now I have to make some alternations to our proposition."


    ''Huh?''


    This wasn''t the part of the n that I cooked for this meeting in my head. Especially now that things appeared to be going rather well¡­


    Without a doubt, this short sentence alone was enough not to sour the mood, but topletely kill it.


    But it did so while giving me quite a bit of insight into the position of the other party.


    ''So they came here with some sort of proposition prepared in advance?'' I thought, trying not to let the sudden mood switch get to me. ''But we''ve only now discussed the details, the rate of my growth or even the new device. And we hardly even got to talk about proper terms¡­''


    As hopeful as I wished to be, if those words didn''t sound foreboding, then I didn''t know what else could!


    This state of dread-founded anxiety got to ire as well as she rapidly alternated her eyes between my face and her father''s, as if she was taken aback if not outright shocked by the development.


    Maybe she was even panicking a bit? But if so, then why¡­?


    "I''m willing to take this piece of your hands for a sum total of two and a half million Esecs."


    When I mentioned my background before, I thought I dropped a huge curveball. But just like the rich elder he was, Chihiro proved that in this kind of contest of who could drop bigger balls during this meeting, he alone had the bigger balls to drop.


    And he wasn''t even done speaking!


    "Adding the other device I saw back at your ce, it totals to three mil, which I''m still going to then double."


    My breath got stuck in my throat.


    This was all simple math, mere addition on basic numbers¡­ but still, for some strange reason, I just couldn''t add those simple numbers up.


    No, it was as if those simple numbers no longer added up at all!


    ''Doesn''t that make¡­''


    The world spun in my head as I nearly retreated a few steps under the weight of the words Chihiro casually threw¡­ Or rather, the meaning behind those.


    ''Six million¡­''


    This was an offer too good to refuse¡­ and most likely, too good to be true. Which mean¡­ ire''s dad still wasn''t done talking!


    "But¡­"


    Just as expected, there was no way a figure that high would appear merely as the prize for the tools.


    Exactly the same way as it happened back at my ce when ire came inside along with the doors, this was merely the bait.


    And if anyone were to ask me, I sensed the hook was hidden right next to it.


    "This money you won''t receive directly. I''m going to set up a business fund for you to create a small enterprise," Chihiro started to exin as he took another sip of his high-octane juice. "It will cover all your living costs, material expenses, and pretty much everything else you will need to get the business going."


    ire''s dad came to a full stop and took a long sip before mming the ss away and breathing out as if to release the fumes of the alcohol out of his system. And then, as he caught my stare¡­ he smiled.


    "But," he said, only for his smile to turn into a smirk if not an outright grin, "it''s all going to be under ire''s direct management, save for¡­" he hesitated for a moment as he rubbed his chin while thinking, "let''s say, five thousand Esecs of allowance a week. In exchange¡­"


    ''And now we are getting to the bad parts of the deal,'' I thought, finally getting a sense of how Chihiro was trying to make the flow of the conversation go.


    "In exchange, I will get both of the devices you''ve created. I will also gain the right of first look at whatever you create, along with the right of first offer or outright veto. In the case of the first offer, if you are unsatisfied, we will put the product up for an auction and then split the profits, let''s say¡­" Chihiro took a moment to think again, "Seven-two-one?"


    I raised my eyebrow and closed my arms on my chest, ready to be pped with reality.


    "Seven out of ten will go directly to the business fund, two will be your profit while one will be my fee."


    That¡­


    That took me by surprise.


    When I heard Chihiro mention numbers, the only thing I wasn''t sure about was whether I would get two-tenths or one-tenth of the sale. But what he suggested effectively meant getting nine parts out of ten of every sale?


    "¡­"


    The more blinded by the lucrative prospect I was, however, the easier time I had focusing on the parts that seemed off. Yet, the very moment I was about to speak up, Chihiro raised his voice again.


    "When ites to stuff I veto, I shall leave them to your own, personal use while reimbursing¡­" ire''s father once again took some time to think, "Three¡­ No, five times the cost of the material. That use is under the assumption there will be no foul y and abusing it. So, to make things simple, I will once again, leave it for ire to supervise."


    "Meaning?" I finally managed to put a word in, hoping to at least rify some of the points Chihiro made.


    "If she tells you that whatever idea you want to make tangible next won''t be something we can sell, then if I decide to go along and veto it, there will be no reimbursement. Ah, and whatever I veto, will have to stay within the business premises, outside the reach of any customer or whoever you decide to hire."


    Chihiro took a breath before casting a short nce at his empty ss¡­ only to turn his eyes back to my face as opposed to taking his time to refill the crystal.


    "There are some other, mostly minor details for this deal that will be included in the official writing," Chihiro stated before I could even raise this point of concern, of everything existing only as a voiced-out proposition rather than a concrete, court-proof document.


    And right the mixture of my shock, pressure, sense of loss and now missing the beat when he, for the third time, addressed my concern before I could even voice it out¡­ The man smiled.


    "So?" the corners of his lips inched ever higher up his cheeks as he gave me a small grin. "What do you say?"

 Chapter 37: A moment to clear my thoughts

    "What do you say?"


    It was such a simple question... And yet, even something as little as nodding my head proved to be the challenge. And it wasn''t only because the number behind this question was so mind-numbing, but also...


    ''Those minor details,'' I thought, looking back at what Chihiro said while releasing a small, short sigh, ''why does it feel like those minor details are the teeth of the trap he''s trying to close on me?''


    But...


    But I''ve already tried to protest once, only for Chihiro to remove my doubts before I could even voice them out. And now, trying to once again seek fault with the deal just because it felt too great to be true...


    Wasn''t this the typical case of a self-fulfilling prophecy? A situation where my repeating doubt of ire and Chihiro''s sincerity would lead to the deal falling through?


    And the worst part of it, now that I tried to voice my doubts before... I just couldn''t bring myself to even try voicing them again! Once again, especially when all the things I caught to be potentially hazardous, Chihrio rushed to answer and exin.


    ''Isn''t this doubt of mine... just more of the same?'' I thought, eager to rationalize my social inability to judge the correct move in the negotiations with such massive stakes.


    Then again, speaking out against this deal would not only expose some of my cards but, what was my greatest concern for the moment, it could be taken as myck of faith in the other party, proof of missing sincerity on my end!


    "Well, I would have to be stupid to refuse such an offer," I said before heaving a long, deep sigh.


    Somehow, just uttering those few words was enough to let a wave of calm wash up through my entire soul, as if I just ovee the hurdle on the level of my former inability to meditate.


    "So," with the decision already made, speaking up turned out to be a lot easier than before. "When do we sign the written contract?"


    Speaking out was so much easier now... that I''ve managed to sneak in an important piece I wouldn''t leave this room satisfied without.


    A double-signed contract solid enough to be admissible to a court.


    This was the only way in which a mere peasant like me could stand my ground against this rich and powerful n.


    "I''ve just made some changes on the spot, so how about you give mywyer an hour or two?" Chihiro''s smile only widened as he rose up from his seat and spread his right arm out as if to point at everything around him. "Feel free to tour this entire ce as you wish in the meantime."


    It was an offer... I simply couldn''t refuse.


    Yet, rather than standing awkwardly in this Vip section where I clearly didn''t belong, I hurriedly moved all the way back to the elevator before riding all the way down to the bottom floor.


    If I were to wait around for quite a while, how would I rx by sitting around in a ce way too fancy for my standards? Just breathing the air in that ce felt likemitting a sacrilege.


    Once at the bottom, I left the elevator and hurried down the main passage of this mall-like area, only to take a quick stop at the single-use vape vending machine.


    Smoking was an addiction I rid myself of five years prior when I decided to do every tiniest thing I could to raise my odds of entering the meditative state. An addiction I never thought I would so easily return to...


    But in all honesty, if this wasn''t just the right moment to take a smoke, then I couldn''t tell what else would be a fitting one.


    Then, with just slightly hurried steps, I walked outside and then to one of the few designated smoking areas, hurriedly unpacking the device as I went all the way to the point where I put it to my lips and took in a long, deep breath.


    The feeling of inhaling the vored vapor...


    Was actually he disgusting.


    ''What the fuck?'' I thought, looking down at the small pen in my hand only to see the simple reason.


    In my rush to get myself something to smoke to help me calm down, I didn''t really pay much attention to what vor I''d picked. And as my luck would have it, I ended up with the kind I hated to the bone, dessert-kind, milky coffee one.


    ''Well, I''ve paid for it, so I might as well...''


    Trying my best to ignore the annoying taste, I took another puff, allowing the smoke to gradually fill my lungs, allowing them to absorb the nicotine.


    A cheap, artificial sense of calm soon washed over my mind, sweeping aside all my thoughts, worries, and concerns.


    Still, rather than vaping or outright smoking, just by the factor of standing at the foot of the Pearl Tower, I somehow felt all posh and fancy, as if I was inhaling some high-ss drug instead.


    It took only a few moments, a few precious moments that I happily dedicated to abusing my old addiction to calm myself down, before ire followed me down and then to the outside, all the way to finding me within the smoking area.


    ''Is she a stalker or what?'' I thought, gritting my teeth when I first saw her face only to then act as if I didn''t see her, enjoying thest few moments of peace I would get as we all waited for Chihiro''swyer to solve the issues with the contract.


    I clearly expected ire to be the harbinger of more trouble or, at the very least, some bad news. Yet, as she approached she just... brought out a stack of papers before pushing them against my chest.


    "Here, it''s pretty much the whole thing, save for the numbers that they are reprinting the entire thing from scratch to have them fixed..." ire exined right as she noticed my startled and slightly confused look.


    For just one more moment, I just kept staring at her with the surprise written not only in my eyes but all over my face. Then, rather than wasting my spit on some useless small talk, I conveyed my gratitude with a nod of my head before looking down into the papers.


    Bit by bit, I went through it all. And just like ire mentioned... the entire thing was perfectly aligned with what we discussed on the sixty-fifth floor of the Pearl Tower, save for the much smaller numbers when it came to initial founding and much less preferential treatment when it came to the division of profits or treatment of vetoed items.


    When it came to the small details that Chihiro offhandedly mentioned, however...


    "We are going to live together?" I muttered a question as I gave the girl a side-eye.


    While not stated directly in the contract, it was the obvious conclusion anyone would arrive at when connecting the dots scattered all over the whole contract.


    From how my living would now be secured by thepany, how it was to be attached to my crafting spot and shop, how it had to be outfitted with a training area for ire to help me out with my cultivation...


    Thewyer of ire''s father who wrote this contract clearly knew what he was doing, for it was only after looking at the thing as a whole one would be able to arrive at this conclusion.


    "What?" ire jumped a little in response to my question. "I''m to be your manager, teacher, secretary, and a damned dietician," she mentioned, bringing up all sorts of functions the contract attributed her with. "There isn''t enough time in a day for me to get all of this done if I have to crammute into my daily schedule!"


    ire''s reasoning was perfectly solid... Just as it was outright naive.


    After all, anyone could tell that it wasn''t her tasks that were the source of the problem, but a man and a woman of perfectly reproductive age living in constant, close proximity to each other, especially with everything that the two of us went through so far...


    I looked over to the side and took a closer look at the girl.


    ire was... blushing a bit, most likely perfectly aware of the whole issue and just using reason to avoid taking responsibility for it at this moment.


    ''Maybe she doesn''t want to discuss it here, out in the open?'' I thought as I gave her a long stare, not missing a single detail of just how sexy and elegant she looked in her fancy dress.


    Even now, with a simple jacket thrown over her back and her shoulders, her fairy-like beauty was still enough to draw stares from everyone around us... Stares that soon mixed with looks of hostility when people noticed me by her side.


    Thankfully, the solid physique I''ve built over the years of doing nothing but training my body and throwing the same punch over and over again was enough to keep those onlookers from trying their luck with ire.


    ''If I get to live with a damn fairy, why do I even seek problems with it?'' I asked myself, as I realized the founding reason behind myst question.


    It was just my innocent self growing extremely wary of this girl who already did and was likely to continue to threaten my innocence, making it hard to ept the idea of living with her... as full of great sights and possible pleasures as this kind of cohabitation would bring.


    With my thoughts torn, I reached up with my hand to take another puff... Only to then act out as if I suddenly forgot how to handle my smoke as I started to cough all over.


    "Why the hell did I think going back would be a good idea?" I asked myself out loud before passing the papers back to ire and turning around. "I''m going to toss it so just wait a second."


    For some reason... Just holding the vape made me feel improper in the moment. Yet, with my poor person mindset... I still needed a proper justification to throw it out so soon after buying it!


    ire didn''t protest as I walked off to the slightly distant edge of the smoking area where, right by the road, I spotted somemunal bins.


    ''Hmm?''


    As I approached the bin, a ck, elegant car came to a sudden stop nearby, only for a man in a suit to walk out from the seat by the driver''s side and move to the car''s back door.


    ''A vip of some sort?'' I thought as I took onest smoke before tossing the vape into the bin.


    As expected, upon reaching the car''s rear doors, the man in the suit kept a perfectly straight back as he opened the door...


    But there was no one in the back seat of the car to get out...?


    ''Hmm?'' I nced over, baffled by the sudden twist to the scenario that I came up with, only to feel a presence behind me. And as I turned over...


    Two more men reached out, and grabbed my shoulders before tossing me with all their might, through the open doors and into the back of the ck car!

 Chapter 38: Kidnapping?!

    Two suited men grabbed me by my shoulders before pulling me with all their strength, all their weight, hoping to toss me into the backseat of the car.


    As it turned out, rather than opening the doors to let someone out, the guy I''d noticed before was doing so to force someone¡­ No, to force me inside.


    Okay.


    With a simple jerk of my right shoulder, I freed my arm only to spin on my heel and throw a casual, thoughtless punch at the other man.


    And that''s where the main problem with me and fighting came.


    This thoughtless punch of mine was just like the thousands upon thousands of thoughtless punches I would throw when relying on just my reflexes and habits for the sake of getting into a focused mood.


    So, while this wasn''t the kind of punch that would give me the satisfaction of perfection, not even by a long shot¡­


    It was still a punch that I didn''t hold myself back on!


    Crunch!


    The nose of the huge man in the suit just¡­ copsed under the weight of my fist as I pushed its tip, its bridge, and then its entirety inside of the man''s skull.


    ''Situation?''


    With adrenaline now pumping into my blood, the world seemed to slow down a considerable bit. Yet, not having the time to even look around, I could only nce around, limited to just the angles that were already well within the reach of my eyes and didn''t require any further moving of my head.


    Still, what I found out wasn''t in the least encouraging.


    The people¡­ were so shocked by the sudden and extremely rapidly developing events that they just¡­ stood around, staring at themotion with not a single thought shing on their faces.


    I couldn''t tell how the situation looked behind me or in any other ce my nce couldn''t reach¡­ But if the people within my field of vision were THAT frozen, then what logic would ever allow me to think others wouldn''t be the same?


    A hand once again grasped at my right arm.


    The guy whose nose I just smashed ignored the pain and disorientation of such a serious punch, not to mention the damage of having their nose actually forced back into their skull¡­


    As it turned out, however, this grab was merely ast hurrah of the man whose eyes soon turned cloudy as his whole body copsed down to the ground.


    And for but a moment, everything just¡­ stopped.


    ''Did I just¡­''


    Before I could start feeling the dread of actually iming a life, I saw the man''s chest move. Yet, right as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief¡­


    Thump.


    ''That''s new,'' I thought as what I initially took for quite the weak punch suddenly enriched with the sensation of slight, cutting pain and then¡­


    An overwhelming sense of cold and numbness that exploded out from the part of my back someone struck.


    With my arms freed, I spun around again, using the momentum of my turn to throw another punch¡­


    Whisk!


    ''Tsk, toote,'' I thought as the knuckles of my fist barely grazed the elegant beard of the man as he jumped to the back, some sort of strange, syringe-like device still in his hand.


    ''Wait, what?''


    Pressed by nothing more but a feeling, I stepped up on it and continued with a chained punch with my left,nding it squarely against the side of the attacker''s head¡­


    But this feeling of numbness has already spread out to my left shoulder de, sapping the strength from the punch I just threw.


    And all the way up until that point, not one person said a single word or reacted to this assault in any way or form. That is until one of the random women nearby just started to scream her guts out!


    I rose up again, ready to cave the face in of anyone else who dared to approach¡­ But with the cold numbness assaulting all of my muscles one by one in rapid session, by the time my eyes found my next target, two men grabbed my now powerless arms before repeating what they started with and throwing me into the back of the car.


    And this time, whatever they dosed me with, allowed them to actually achieve their goal.


    ''Fuck!''


    There was nothing but obscenity in my mind as I crashed down into the backseat of the elegant and clearly expensive car. It was also only when the two men from before jumped right after me only to dogpile right on top when the car suddenly revved its engine before almost jumping out from where it was parked, the eleration so sudden it forced the doors to swing and close¡­


    And forced me to realize that there were no handles on the inner side of this car''s doors!


    My world spun around as the drug started to reach my head.


    ''FUCK NO!''


    I wasn''t going to give up that easily!


    Sure, it would be easy to just give in to the sudden and overwhelming sleepiness, to just let the events y out and try to exin things once I would go back to my senses¡­


    But just like I continued to stubbornly smash my fists against the wooden target for two years longer than anyone of the era would take to get promoted from the institution away, I wasn''t the fan of taking the easy way out!


    "FUCK YOU!"


    Shouting the obscenity to aid my strength, I tensed all my muscles¡­ And for but a fleeting moment, I manage to chase the sense of numbness away.


    Strangely enough, it didn''t seem to affect me as strongly as I thought, simply robbing me of just enough strength to throw my movements off. Robbing me of the strength¡­ That I never before knew I had in me!


    All that was left, was just the power I''ve cultivated over the long years of failing to enter the meditative state. And as Imitted myself to using it in the best way possible, the familiar feeling from before returned.


    The feeling when some strange force pushed my hands around. The feeling when the same force manipted my mouth and vocal cords to utter words I couldn''t even fully understand myself.


    Now, however, the same force aided me in my bid to raise up, ignoring the weight of the two huge men pilling down on me from above!


    In the tight confinement of the car''s back, I couldn''t throw a proper punch. So, putting all honor and courtesy aside, I just did everything else I could think of.


    A jab into the soft tissue right below the ribs. A twist and turn of the nipple that strayed dangerously close to my hands.


    A jerk of my hips powerful enough to make the two men m into the car''s roof, giving me just enough time to twist over onto my back and then throw a powerful jab right into the abdomen of the man below the other, jab powerful and precise enough for the man''s face to bloat as he attempted to hold back the content of his stomach from spilling out.


    "SIT STILL OR I WILL SHOOT YOU!" a man sitting in the front of the car pulled out a gun while screaming in panic¡­ While his hands moved perfectly smoothly only to arrive at their destination and stay locked right on my forehead without as much as a twitch.


    And as I looked down inside the barrel¡­


    Something at the very bottom of my soul just¡­


    Something snapped.


    A strange fire erupted from my groin and surged upward, suppressing the sense of overwhelming coldness and numbness that continued to fight for supremacy over my body with every passing moment. But for just this instant, it became nothing more but aughable tingle whenpared to the fire that exploded from within me, threatening to spill all over.


    And just like back when I could merely observe what I would be crafting with my meditation guiding my hands, the sense of fury, danger, humiliation, and refusal¡­ All of them mixed into a drink that set off this sea of emotions aze.


    The force that merely aided my desperate movements before now grew strong enough to ascertain its authority over my flesh.


    Which proved to bepletely unnecessary, when a whisk of this strange, burning energy simply¡­


    Under the guidance of what had to be my Qi, my hand just¡­ flew forward.


    It was no hasty move aimed at disarming the gunman. It was way too casual, too¡­ simple of a thing.


    The very moment the tips of my hand touched just the very front of the barrel, a part of the burning energy within my soul suddenly got sucked away¡­ only for the gun to suddenly fall apart right within its holder''s hand, falling down to the bottom of the car as a mere pile of tiny parts it was originally made up with.


    Even its frame, which should be just a solid block of precisely shaped metal, turned into just a bunch of scrapped shards of materials, ready to be reused in another project.


    Then, the whisk of power returned to me, seemingly unchanged by the work it just did.


    "Wha¡­?!"


    Everything was happening so fast, that my assants only managed to utter a word when some sort of crazy, impossible idea exploded in my head.


    ''If I can dismantle the gun away¡­''


    It was crazy, impossible, and outright stupid. Thankfully, though, with the fire of my soul threatening to burn me from within, all three of those words have all but lost their meaning.


    Deprived of his gun, the man in the front passenger''s seat attempted to smash his head into my face, resorting to much simpler and less sophisticated methods of ascertaining domination over someone else¡­


    But by now, it was toote.


    With a single nce, I saw the driver trying to split his focus between steering the rapidly elerating car and pulling out his own gun on me¡­


    But again, it was all too little and toote.


    Because while my assants were either trying to smash me unconscious or pull their guns on me¡­


    I simply reached out and pulled this burning energy of mine on them. And as my hand found its target long before actually touching it, the heat in my eyes exploded again, only for all of this overwhelming force within my soul to all get sucked as it rushed to fulfill the task I prescribed it with.

 Chapter 39: Too late

    *A moment earlier*


    ire watched over Tim''s back as he moved to throw the vape away. Once he was far enough, she sighed and dropped her shoulders.


    ''What am I even doing?''


    She resisted the urge to cover her face in her hands, because what if Tim was to look back?


    Ever since the meeting started, ire felt all weird with just how much she had to change for this event.


    Rather than her usual,fy clothes, the mere presence of her father forced her to sort through all of her clothes just to look the ce. What''s more, it was a rare moment of the two actually spending time together, with how rarely Chihiro took a break from extremely diligent if not overindulging cultivation.


    And so, when Tim revealed slowly revealed his creation to the two of them, ire couldn''t help but fall deeper and deeper into her confusion.


    ''I knew he was special, but again..'' She looked up, Tim still only half of the way to the bin. ire''s lips curled as the same sense of annoyance filled her mind.


    ''He''s the reason! It''s his fault!''


    A genius wasn''t like a normal person. And cultivators knew it better than anyone else.


    From this perspective, Tim''s antics almost appeared¡­ justified?


    ''No,'' ire pursed her lips as she looked up to Tim''s back again.


    A genius wasn''t like a normal person. A normal, even if talented, person like ire herself could never fully understand a true natural talent.


    And yet, somehow, Tim''s back didn''t look all that big as he reached out to throw the vape into the bin.


    ''Still¡­'' ire hesitated, watching the device drop into the trash. "It''s actually happening. We are going to live¡­''


    The girl raised her eyes right as two nicely dressed men covered her view of Tim as they walked to the nearby car.


    The next thing she saw, was those two men in suits suddenly elerated¡­


    And grabbed Tim from behind, only for one of them to instantly eat a gnarly fist with their face.


    ''WHAT?!''


    It took her only a second to process what was going on. But in that single second, a third man came and pressed some device to Tim''s back.


    ''Shit!''


    Firing up her cultivation, she exploded it all over her body, using the shockwave to fill her flesh full of spiritual energy. The moment the tips of her fingers energized, she was already squatting as she booted up tounch.


    The distance was of no concern. The timing was plenty. Yet, the very moment ire dpressed her body to cut through the distance and ughter the attackers¡­


    The whole world suddenly darkened, as if all the light was suddenly banned from this reality.


    ''Wait, that pressure¡­!''


    Before the homing restraint could fire up, though, Chihiro casually dropped from the sky, whipping out a weirdly pping talisman.


    "Hei!"


    ire''s dad looked majestic when he pped the talisman onto the floor, instantly opening up a seventh-grade hunter-killer formation.


    ''Tsk,'' recognizing the device, ire nearly hissed in frustration.


    Her father going lightweight into this encounter meant the opponent was of lower rank already. Meaning, a sixth-order cultivator of a core establishment rank. A mere one stage above the girl¡­ but still more than enough to suppress her!


    The difference between the two ranks was just¡­ too big.


    Being on the fifth stage, ire was still in the process of actually creating a proper core. Her opponent, on the other hand, her opponent already sought to establish their core as a whole new way to mold the spiritual force.


    A difference of conceptual kind rather than regarding pure might itself.


    Nevertheless, ire''s father was as low-key as he was ruthless.


    The formation he deployed didn''t want to fend off the attack. It was designed to locate and eliminate the threat.


    Before ire could even think, the force suppressing her vanished, returning the light and color to the world around them¡­


    ''Tim!''


    It was still a massive shock to witness a scene of this kind right out in the open, amidst the civilians of the town.


    Regardless of their pride, there was a perfectly valid reason why cultivators were absolutely terrified of breaking the ords that would force them out of the modern world and into the spiritual realm.


    Cultivation aside, the majority of the spiritual poption still wanted to peacefully enjoy their casual, mortal lifestyle.


    Strength be damned, long live C and the Inte!


    And so, when people came and threatened to cause disasters that could endanger the feeble status quo existing since the end of the restoration era and only waiting to erode away into the seconding of the decade of annihtion¡­


    In spite of all of this, someone actually dared to attack a powerful cultivator during a kidnapping!


    Just that alone was enough to warrant the reaction of her father, turning it into an attempt at preserving the delicate status quo¡­ But there was so much more.


    But as everything unveiled in mere seconds, her father''s formation already tracked the source of the spiritual force locked on her and fired back, frying the attacker''s brain before ire could even realize what was going on.


    Still, ire''s eyes instantly snapped to Tim.


    ''We are just sidepieces in this!''


    The sixth-level cultivator was here just to ensure the smooth ride of the operation, only reacting when ire was about to stop the attempt.


    By now, however, Tim was nowhere to be seen, with a speeding car instantly drawing both ire''s and her dad''s attention.


    Where Chihiro hesitated, likely concerned about the damage in case of a chase, ire did not.


    ''You fucking dare¡­?!''


    For the first time in what seemed like ages, she found something interesting. And now those fuckers were trying to take it away from her?!


    The Qi in ire''s legs exploded, a force she patiently gathered ever since she was ready to jump. And in a single burst of power, she jumped ahead.


    Faster.


    Quicker.


    Hastier.


    But by jumping, she could only use more of her spiritual energy as she elerated through the air. Thankfully, by moving over the street, there were no pedestrians or obstacles in the way of her target, save for some cars she could easily jump or outright fly over.


    Yet, the closer she got, the faster the car went, quickly slowing down her gains before reaching the point of equilibrium only to then start to increase the distance again.


    Pouring more and more of her Qi into her movement technique, rie could nearly feel parts of her soul breaking as she, with full awareness of the act, broke through more and moremon sense taboos.


    Still, by reaching right below the range of her power that would make the act a criminal one, she managed to speed up just enough to get closer to the car¡­


    BOOM!


    An instant infinitely quicker than the perception of all but the greatest cultivators. An explosion so powerful it blew the whole car into extremely small pieces¡­


    Pieces the size of a fingernail that ire saw flying all over the ce at great speeds before crashing everywhere.


    Between the distance and her deployed spiritual power ying the part, she somehow ended up unharmed by the incident, but¡­


    Her hands trembling, ire looked up at the huge wreckage of ming pieces of the car.


    There were so few pieces bigger than a ball, that it hardly made sense for those remains to be enough to make up an actual vehicle.


    And looking up, ire just stood still.


    Amidst all the despair, disbelief, shock¡­ There was but a glimmer¡­ No, a mental itch ire just couldn''t scratch.


    ''But that explosion¡­ wasn''t even all that big, though? So how¡­?''


    This made no sense.


    Those results couldn''t be the reality. This couldn''t be the end of this awkward, tense yet ultimately interesting moment she enjoyed just a few seconds ago!


    Just this empty street with burning pieces of rubble scattered all over. Not even the sound of the carsing to a screeching stop at the edges of the rubble.


    An event of this kind was bound to attract a lot of attention. It was only a matter of extremely short time before all the world''s eyes would be on this spot ofnd.


    And yet, as ire''s shock forcefully calmed her mind into a state of near-apathy¡­ she noticed a faint glimmer of something¡­ familiar?

 Chapter 40: Herbal Bath

    Waking up from the state of lost consciousness was a skill I had no other choice but to master in my attempts to tame my very own skills.


    This instance, however, was far harder than any of the trials I faced before.


    It felt weirdly¡­ warm?


    As if I was in some thick, heated sludge.


    It was so extremely cozy and rxing it grew all the harder to even maintain the desire to regain my consciousness.


    But this was a trap I knew better than to fall into. And so, I continued to flow up and up, desperate to free myself from thisfortable restraint.


    And so, I finally managed to pry my eyes open, only to see my hands floating in some strange sort of bath while my legsfortably stretched on the bath''s bottom.


    To call this ce a bath would be a mistake so grave it could be ssified as a sin.


    The whole ce appeared like some sort of indoor garden, with vegetation thick enough to hide all of the walls, roof, and the floor of the room. And right in the middle of this soothing jungle stood a massive, wooden bail, filled with some strange sort of strangely thick yet perfectly clear water.


    But it couldn''t be water¡­ Because no water was so thick and thus hard to move around!


    Even though I still couldn''t control my body, I could feel the strange sensation of having my arms static because of how hard it was to move them around.


    Or rather¡­


    It was the same as my experience back when I nearly QI-bombed myself by leaving the device to run overnight with my window closed¡­ Just much, much more intense.


    ''Is it water¡­?''


    My strangely tired mindzily woke up to pose the first question.


    In the end, my curiosity was unmatched, really.


    Was this strange thickness due to the some sort of quality of this specific water?


    ''Or is it¡­ just that thick with Qi?''


    The sensation was the same. Just like the air that was hard to move around in, the water, by nature much thicker than any gas, was now much harder to manipte or move through. But the sense this resistance provided was exactly the same.


    For a second, the joy of this discovery was enough to light my brain up a little bit more, allowing me to form a slightly moreplex form of thought or observation.


    Which finally allowed me to answer the question of my arms and legs somehow¡­ doubling?


    ''Wait, no¡­ what?!''


    The water in the bail was rather clear, despite all the herbs floating in it. And through this water, I could clearly two sets of limbs that didn''t match my own at all.


    What''s more, while my legs and handsy straight, enjoying the sense offortable stillness¡­ Those two sets of limbs were firmly wrapped over my hips and just below my arms¡­


    And the very moment I noticed this, I also realized that there was one more source of heat of much more varied texture and¡­ degree of softness.


    Before another thought could form in my head, all my muscles jerked, fueled by my desperation to get out of a sketchy situation like this¡­


    "Stay still, damn it!" In a strangely sleepy voice, ire scolded me lightly only to tighten her hold and easily force me back down onto the floor of the bail. "It''s way too early for you to move¡­"


    Putting this nerve-wracking situation aside, her voice¡­


    ire''s voice was weird.


    Too sleepy to be the actual way she spoke!


    Yet, the very moment I turned my head around to check what was going on, ire wiggled up as she nested herself over my back, rubbing her arms and legs all over my torso in the process. And the feeling on my back was¡­ unmistakable, providing my creative mind with all the fuel it needed to fully wake up.


    This situation didn''t make any sense.


    ''Why is ire climbing to me while we are both fully naked, submerged in some strange, QI-rich bath and¡­''


    The very moment I posed this question, my memories finally came back to me.


    A rush of images, thoughts, and feelings that all made up the events of yester¡­hour? Yesterday? Or maybe¡­


    And now, things made a little more sense.


    ''So this is a¡­ herbal bath of sorts?'' I thought, finally regaining enough strength to move my arm through the water, allowing me to raise but a handcup of it over the surface before dropping it down into the pool-sized bath.


    "Didn''t I tell you?" ire tightened her hold over my torso again, effectively bringing me deeper into her naked hug. First and foremost, however, her voice indicated she was clearly asleep¡­?''


    Whether she was asleep or not, I apparently wiggled a just not enough to free myself from the dangers of herfortable hold yet more than enough to prompt her awake. And as she moved all over my back again¡­


    "Huh?" ire let out a small cry of surprise, her body jerking up as she did.


    "Erm¡­" No matter how much fake bravado I could create¡­ It wouldn''t be enough for a situation like this!


    ''Why in all hells is she holding me like that? Why are we together in a bath?! What the hell, when I wasn''t even injured in that explosion¡­?!''


    Looking back, I could remember what happened. A trick I somehow found myself just powerful enough to pull. Just like when I dismantled the gun, I allowed this strange force of my crafting to flow through me as I targeted the car instead.


    This time, however, beyond just redoing it as my heart desired, I also made sure to arrange it just perfectly enough to save myself.


    To be honest, the explosion was an oversight. A small example of my controlpsing for but a second, allowing a stray spark to reach all the fuel fumes, the ignition of which lead to the explosion of the car''s main tank.


    Within that half-meditative state, I''ve managed to cover myself with just the right kind of car parts to shield myself from what I turned the rest of the vehicle - tiny parts that couldn''t threaten the integrity of my improvised shield.


    When the explosion happened, I simply let go of all the parts, allowing them to scatter all over while I used two seats and two doors to cushion mynding. There, for a short moment, I lost it.


    I still dropped right from the ground from moving in a car racing at a great speed! Putting aside what kind of force allowed me to dismantle the car at wish, it apparently cushioned some of the force of my fall too, ultimately knocking me out for but a short moment.


    The very moment I woke up, I walked out to assess the damage and harm I''ve suffered¡­ Only for a sudden wave of weakness to take over when this powerful force suddenly vanished, only for the numbing cold to explode all over my body in an instant, right from the spot where those bastards injected me just before¡­


    Then, the next thing I knew, I was rubbing my back against ire''s naked front while she desperately wrapped her arms and legs around me, treating me as if I were her cuddle toy.


    Then again, she woke up. But besides that, the sense of this chilling cold on my back¡­ it was now no more?

 Chapter 41: You better get yourself comfortable

    "Don''t move."


    ire''s first words were perfectly aligned with what she muttered in her sleep.


    Yet, even though she obviously woke up now, her voice remained as sleepy as before.


    Still¡­


    For some reason, none of the expected reactions came.


    Obviously, why would ire freak out when she was the one who knew how the two of us ended up like that?


    With my own memory cutting off right as I lost consciousness after clearly overexerting myself¡­


    All of a sudden, I forgot all about the bath and the naked fairy hugging me from behind as my thoughts drew to the obvious.


    ''Did I actually do what I did?''


    Shocked by the memory of my own feat, I nearly fell into a state of disbelief-prompted withdrawal¡­


    Only for the rubbing of ire''s thighs and arms to bring me right back to the risque reality.


    "How much do you remember?"


    ''Oh, so that''s how we start¡­'' I thought, jerking a little as if to look back into ire''s face.


    Only for the girl to tighten her grasp over my torso right away.


    "Can you just¡­ stop?!" Freaking out a little harder than I expected, ire finally managed to get the message across.


    "Do you think I''m holding you tightly like that just because?!"


    ire got the message across but never learned of the fact. As such, she readily provided me a believable line of thought not only to calm me down, proving there was some logic in this nonsensical development but also to give me a proper reason not to move.


    "Thest thing I remember¡­" Pushing all the questions I had down my throat, I focused on the direction ire gave me. "Yeah, it has to be when I cked out after getting out from under that rubble I used to¡­"


    I stopped as suddenly as I started, realizing that¡­ I wasn''t so sure how to exactly exin the rest.


    The rubble that I used for what? To cover myself from the exploding car? And did I really somehow dismantle the entire thing in the heat of the moment?


    "Haa-ah¡­" A long sigh escaped my lips as my body slumped down, inevitably causing ire to pull up as she stretched herself over my back. And with her head following the process, her mouth ended up just an inch away from my ear, making me strangely aware of the sound of her heavy,bored breathing.


    "Can you tell me what happened next? And¡­" I hesitated for a second, strangely reluctant to acknowledge the situation we were in.


    As childish as it might be, it felt that as long as I didn''t bring that up, the whole topic could be ignored, put aside, and free of anyone''s attention.


    "And how did we end up the way we are right now?"


    At first, ire replied with nothing but silence, as if she was thinking about something.


    Then, she grasped her hold over my torso again before pulling back, all the way to the point where she rested her back against the edge of the wooden bail, inevitably forcing me upon the cushion of her own skin and flesh.


    "Do you promise to stay still as I exin what happened?" ire asked in a tired voice as if way too exhausted to mind something as small as this strangely intimate session.


    "Sure do," I was slightly too quick for my ownfort with my positive response.


    As exciting as lying with a goddess-level beauty was enticing, my thoughts already moved to the thing so out of the perception of the world I was used to, I just couldn''t put it aside even for a slight moment.


    Right now, while I was in this herbal bath, its water thick from all the spiritual energy it was infused with¡­ And yet, Qi continued to move at a rapid pace around me in two circles spinning in opposite directions.


    And just like one could create a spark of electricity by moving mas over a wire, the flow of clearly ire''s Qi was somehow agitating my inner state, allowing me to absorb the power within the water with much greater ease.


    ''Is this why she wrapped her hands and arms around me like that?'' I thought, trying to reason the details of the situation all on my own.


    Then again, no matter how interesting cultivation was, a youthful beauty was wrapping her soft, warm thighs lower over my hips, squishing them against my waist in her attempt to keep me still and¡­ rxed?


    "First off, I''m sorry. If only I was a little bit faster¡­" ire started from an angle I actually didn''t expect.


    We have yet to sign the deal, so there was no legal reason for her to bear any responsibility for my health or safety¡­


    ''But on the other hand, losing me would be surely a big loss of a potential investment, I guess?''


    "When I saw you walk out of the rubble, perfectly fine and unharmed¡­ I didn''t want to believe it. I thought my eyes were ying tricks on me, really."


    This time, ire squeezed only her arms, letting her legs drop and rest against my own thighs.


    "But then, you fell, and¡­"


    ire''s hold grew so strong, that she actually started to choke me out.


    "And?" I asked, refusing to let the girl fall into silence right as she reached the part I was actually interested in!


    "They infused you with Bolka, an anti-cultivator tranquilizer. It''s strong enough to put a pr bear to sleep in an instant. And while it''s just strong enough to put most of cultivators out ofmission for a while¡­"


    "I''m not a proper cultivator, at least not yet¡­" I filled in the details on my own. Then, after a moment of silence, I raised my head.


    Understanding that there was some sort of purpose in our current situation, I no longer tried to look back. Even if it was just a matter of ire worried about me seeing her in her birthday suit, it was a wish of hers I decided to properly respect.


    "And then?" I asked, only to feel ire moving around a bit as if just recalling the memory made her ufortable.


    "Your heart was about to stop. Against pretty much a normal person, that tranquilizer was more than enough to push you into a cardiac arrest. And while that we stopped as soon as we got to you¡­"


    This time, the silence that followed ire''s words was different.


    She wasn''t trying to hide stuff from me, just¡­


    It felt as if she wasn''t all thatfortable speaking about it.


    "Aren''t we in a prettypromising situation already?" I asked, obediently keeping my hands still despite a great desire to just raise them and point at the two of us. "What else there is that you can tell me that could top the two of us taking a healing bath together?"


    ire, at first, twitched a little. A momentter, however, she ended up rxing a bit, even going as far as to utter a small chuckle.


    "Yeah, you are right," her arms moved as she hugged herself into my back. "There are not many steps left for us to go any further, so why am I so bothered?" she whispered in a cheeky manner before leaning back as sheughed out.


    "Without Qi, you wouldn''t survive. And after whatever it was that you did to the car, you''ve clearly sapped what little spiritual energy you''ve gathered before. So, we had to substitute for yourcking Qi and find someone powerful enough to take on the burden of this drug."


    This seemed like some sort of a great piece of the puzzle designed to exin the whole situation to me.


    Which made it all the stranger when I failed to piece it together.


    "And just as you asked, here we are, stuck in the medicinal bath with spiritual Qi all around and with me driving my cultivation over you to bait all of that nasty drug out," ire exined before heaving a sigh and leaning back against the edge of the bail¡­ which inevitably pulled me even further back, nearly nailing my back down on her hard nipples.


    ''Hmm?''


    Why were exactly her nipples¡­ hard?


    Was it just my imagination, or maybe a reaction to Qi-rich, warm water?


    Or maybe¡­


    ''No, this is not the time, ce, or asion for that,'' I quicklyshed out at myself in my own thoughts, reining in the weird train of thought before it could derail on its own.


    "You see when I saw you first walk out only to then suddenly copse¡­" ire tightened her hug once again.


    ''I see¡­ I''ve got it all wrong.''


    Ever since the meeting started, I ended up looking at ire through a different lens than usual. Rather than the slightly nerdy shopkeeper that I knew, she appeared as this rich and colddy of high status, all titles full of thin, velvet restraints that imposed certain sets of behaviors and priorities upon her.


    And it was this impression that now shed with the much more cozy, natural, and outright warm feeling of ire''s current version.


    She wasn''t worried about a potential investment or about the loss of what she already invested.


    She appeared to be genuinely worried about me back then!


    ''Damn¡­'' I suddenly rxed, taken aback by the warm feeling filling up my gut. ''I didn''t know it would feel that good to have someone give a¡­''


    Following this train of thought, I hung my head with a knowing smile, only to realize that the feeling good part wasn''t exactly limited to the soothing warmth of my soul!


    "Hey, I''ve now woken up so isn''t it time for us to¡­ move out of the bath?" I suggested, suddenly finding myself in a great hurry when I realized how just a fraction of an inch separated us¡­ No, separated me from a disaster.


    "What are you talking about?" ire protested as she yawned before dragging me right back into a tight hold¡­ And only elerating the progress of the issue when her chest rubbed all over my back again, squished by my weight only for her nipples to pierce right into my skin.


    "We are here an hour at most," ire revealed with a strange¡­ and worrying nonchnce. "It''s going to take at least two, three more days before I will allow you to get out of the tub, two or three days at the very least," she dropped a bomb that rendered me too stunned, too senseless to react to it in any way or form.


    ''Two, three more days of¡­ this?!''


    Sensing that there was something troubling me, ire moved again, this time climbing over my back and rubbing herself against me in the process, all for the sake of popping her head out over my shoulder, all in a bit to take a look at my face.


    In the process of her move, however, the angle of her hips and thus legs shifted. And as her thighs dragged over the sides of my waist, her shins¡­


    Her shins happened to turn at just the right angle to push against the erection I was desperately trying to stuff between my legs without dragging ire''s attention to it!


    ire thankfully ignored my openly desperate attempts, satisfied just by hanging her lips just off to the side of my ear.


    "So, you better get yourselffortable, for we are going to stay here together for quite some time."

 Chapter 42: Im just a good investment

    "Oooh?"


    With how much ire moved around, it was inevitable. An oue that one didn''t have to be a genius to predict¡­ And yet, the oue that I desperately wanted to avoid.


    ''Come on! We were sitting, talking, having a good time overall¡­ So why fuck it up now?!'' I cried out in my thoughts¡­ but by now, it was toote.


    With her head already over my shoulder, ire didn''t wait to satisfy her curiosity when the texture below her legs didn''t fit her expectations. And as she turned her eyes down and looked into the water¡­


    Let''s say, for all the QI and herbs in the bath, the water was still nearly perfectly pristine, offering no obstruction for ire''s eyes as she pretty much confirmed the reason for the weird shape against which she ended up rubbing her legs.


    "Oh, I see¡­" ire muttered, momentarily frozen with her eyes still ufortably locked on my own crotch.


    "If you can already tell, then how about you stop clinging to me so much?" In my desperation, I suggested.


    If all that ire needed to do for the next two days was to keep two physical loops around me to keep the two circles of moving Qi around me, then she didn''t really need to hug me so tightly, didn''t she?


    Then, still¡­


    ''But to survive for two more days like that, even if she gets to distance herself a bit¡­''


    I clenched my jaws so hard, that my teeth started to hurt.


    On one hand, I wanted to not only enjoy the most out of this moment but also see just how far I could take it¡­ No, how far would ire allow me to take it?


    But on the other, more rational hand¡­


    She was the daughter of Chihiro! And he was not only one of the most powerful men in the entirety of the city if not outright the entire country, both in terms of cultivation and personal influence¡­ But that man was also my boss!


    And while I could somewhat see him allowing this bath to happen out of necessity and the urgency of the moment¡­


    I wasn''t the horny teenager of five years prior who would take the risk of sinking a six million Esecs deal just to get to touch and feel some!


    "I can tell that you are blushing hard even without looking," ire whispered in a strangely low, sensual voice. And if that wasn''t enough of her teasing¡­ She started to move her legs up and down, gently stroking the underside of my erection by doing so.


    It was¡­ awkward at best, given how she had to maintain the lock of her legs, forcing her movements to be limited in nature and extremely restrained in both speed and range¡­


    But still, having ire rub her shins against my dick was a feeling I didn''t expect to experience in this whole damned life of mine!


    "Why are you holding back?" ire whispered right into my ear. And judging by how I couldn''t feel her moving, she somehow figured it out without even looking at my face!


    "I mean¡­" I attempted to reply¡­ but how was I to do so?


    ''You are the daughter of a powerful man who is to be my boss.''


    ''We know each other for how long, three days by now?''


    ''How is it that nearly every meeting of ours ends up in a risque situation like this?''


    There were so many ways in which I could answer¡­ but all of them only invited more trouble down the line!


    ''You are the daughter¡­ No, she''s her own person!''


    ''We know each other for¡­ And since when are we obliged to subscribe to how others develop their own situationships?''


    ''How is it that nearly¡­ Isn''t this just a sign we are fated to do it anyway?''


    For every answer I coulde up with, my mind provided a potential reply that would only dig my grave even further. And with how I genuinely had no idea what to do or say, I just opted to remain silent instead.


    "I mean, when I asked you to getfortable, I really meant it. And since we are going to stay like this for at least two more days¡­"


    ire moved up my back again, this time climbing just a little bit higher, only to then pivot her entire body to the left as she squeezed her arms one past the other, all the way to the point where both of her hands reached over my neck and all the way to the base of the opposite shoulder of her.


    With that done, she waited still for a short moment, before suddenly lowering one of her hands.


    The upper circle of the spinning spiritual energy¡­ continued to go as per usual, with the loop now closed over her corbone, the base of her left shoulder, then moving through the entire length of her left arm all the way to the tips of her fingers that she pressed against her right shoulder, closing the loop. And with her other hand¡­


    Just like I always projected myself to be as gentle with my partner during our first intimate encounter, ire didn''t rush things, opting to just ce her now freed hand squarely against my chest, perfectly central and on the height level of my heart.


    Even though the warmth of the Qi-thick water already got me used to its temperature, when ire''s fingersid down on my chest, I found her touch both chillingly cold¡­ but also extremely warm.


    "Since we are going to stay like this for two more days, then how about we¡­" ire gulped her saliva so hard, I could both hear and then feel it happen. "How about we use a slightly more efficient method?"


    As the girl spoke, her thighs tightened over my waist while her hand slowly slid down my chest to my stomach and then lower and lower, soon bound to reach the base of my¡­


    "Why?"


    This single word was the only thing I coulde up with, the only method that had any chance at stopping ire before, in the moment of heat and curiosity, she would go too far.


    "I''m just a good investment, so why do you go that far?"


    I nearly bit my tongue right as I was uttering those foolish words.


    ''Didn''t I already decide she wasn''t treating me that coldly and¡­ objectively? And yet, in the heat of the moment, I still ended up rolling back to this mental dilemma of mine.


    BUT HOW COULD I NOT?!


    The girl that I knew to be just a shopkeeper in a random store of the cultivation district, somehow ended up being the richdy of one of the most powerful ns in the whole damn city if not country! And now she was clinging with her skin directly pressing against mine while her hand inched closer and closer to my raging erection!


    The dissonance between those two backgrounds of ours that couldn''t be any further apart was so great, it made me feel like there was something absolutely wrong with the current setting!


    ''If anything, I should be the oneing onto her, not the other way around!''


    "Just a good investment, you say¡­?" ire''s voice turned¡­ weird. Her entire body grew stiff¡­ regretfully, not losing even the slightest bit of its softness or warmth in the process.


    The good thing, however, was that her hand stopped, just an ufortable two inches away from the base of my dick.


    Then, ire''s hold grew somewhat tenser¡­ but in a different way to how she would fix her embrace over and over again before that.


    "If you are just a good investment," ire finally managed to process all that I''ve said ande to some sort of a conclusion, "then I''m here just to sweeten the deal we offered, aren''t I?!"

 Chapter 43: Genius, again

    We exchanged a select few of the words. And in a single moment, the atmosphere in the bath changed once again.


    And it would be weird if it didn''t, given the weight of what we dropped in those few words.


    An investment.


    It implied a rtionship based on the calction of costs and incentives.


    A deal sweetener, on the other hand, was merely a honey trap aimed to gain leverage.


    ''When put in this way, this really sounds bad, huh?''


    I resisted the desire to hang my head.


    Doing so right now would inevitably mean ire shifting her position as well. And right now, it was our conversation that I had to put all my attention to, not some stupid worldly desires.


    In the end, I only managed to cover my face with the palm of my hand before heaving a long sigh.


    "Listen," I tried to speak out, only for ire to, once again, tighten her hold over me.


    "Shut up."


    For a moment, she left me hanging. Her voice¡­ annoyed?


    ''Wait, that doesn''t track¡­''


    She didn''t cry out nor weakly whispered. She just¡­ snapped a bit, as if too focused on something to allow any distractions.


    Then, as opposed to my long one, she took a quick breath before¡­ tightening her hold yet again.


    "Okay, I''m sorry, it''s not like that."


    For the first time in ages, her hands, her legs¡­ rxed a bit.


    The suddenness of the change caught me off-guard. As if, maybe, some sort of load dropped off her shoulders?


    And as I fell deeper into her now rxed embrace¡­ she moved her hand down thest inch.


    ''Shit¡­''


    Instead of jerking her hand, however¡­ she jerked up her entire body, pushing the two of us away from the bail''s edge.


    Then, using the hold of my dick for a handle, she swung over in the water to my front. And just like during our first¡­ impromptu encounter, she ended up straddling myp.


    This time, however, both my dick and her nipples were hard. And there was no single article of clothing between the two of us.


    ''Damn¡­''


    In a moment of strange rity, I just looked at ire''s slightly embarrassed but perfectly determined face¡­ And I looked with open awe.


    "You are really bold, I will give you that," I sighed, finally dropping my hand off my face and properly looking down.


    By now, most of the visual show was over, one could say, given how ire pressed herself down against me, slowly making the two of us float back to the bail''s edge. Just this time, she stuck to me directly, only to end up pinning me down against the bath''s end.


    But that''s only what a simpleton could ever assume.


    Staring down through the pristine water, I held my breath as ire''s curves pressed against my naked skin.


    Still, her face was down. And to be perfectly honest¡­


    ''I want to see.''


    Pushed by the impulse, I reached out, ignoring her earlier plea to stay still, and gently grasped at her chin before slowly, carefully raising it up.


    What I expected to be an embarrassed face, however, turned out to be one of determination.


    "Listen, I don''t have anything against ying my part in this deal."


    While obviously aware of my stare, ire¡­


    She pushed her upper body out and away, as far as she could while still closing the loop of her hands over my neck.


    "You are really interesting. Just by being around you a bit, I''ve seen things I would never see otherwise. And in all honesty¡­" ire¡­ bit down on her bottom lip as she slowly raised her eyes up, revealing a much different look than any I''ve seen on her face before.


    Coupled with how her body was slithering up against mine with every breath, every twitch, I could sense something¡­ growing inside of her.


    Then, for but a moment, her body turned still only to rx right away, making it feel as if she suddenly calmed down.


    "Just a second¡­"


    Suddenly breaking both of the loops, ire stood up and reached for something over the bath''s edge¡­


    The moment she did, however, weakness suddenly overtook my whole body. A sense of sleepiness¡­


    There was no pain, no exhaustion, no¡­ nothing.


    Just a strange desire to justy down andzily recover in the warm rays of the sun.


    My whole body went limp in an instant as my consciousness started to fade¡­


    "Here!" ire''s hurried shout¡­ somehow seemed to root me in reality, anchoring me away from the much desired and DESERVED sleep!


    Yet, the very next moment, this overwhelming sense of sleepiness¡­ receded, leaving as quickly as it came to be.


    The moment the reality returned, however¡­


    I''ve somehow ended up with my face all the way up ire''s wet and heavy chest!


    And quite noticeably¡­ her hands were now gently wrapping against the back of my head. What''s more, her hips were still pressing against my stomach, proving her legs couldn''t be wrapped around me either!


    And yet¡­ I was awake?


    ''So that''s what''s all about with this tranquilizer¡­'' I thought, recalling what I learned a bit earlier. ''Then¡­''


    Wasn''t there a part of her taking on the burden, rather than just shielding me from it?


    ''So that''s why she was so¡­''


    "We don''t have much time. This artifact will onlyst for about fifteen minutes," ire suddenly announced as she wrapped her hands a bit tighter around my head¡­ Only to then let go as she slowly dropped right back down on myp, intentionally looking down and squinting her eyes as her face dropped just below mine.


    "As arrogant as this might sound, I think I know what you are thinking, how you are feeling," ire suddenly announced, perking her head up as she looked directly into my eyes. "But everything is actually in reverse."


    Resting her hands high on my chest, ire suddenly climbed up on her hips, raising just high enough to lock my face between her lowered head and her bust. And as she cradled the back of my head with one hand while brushing through my hair with the other¡­


    "You don''t seem to be aware, but you are a bona fide genius."


    The intensity of ire''s voice right now, especially as she spoke right into my face¡­


    Not even looking down into her adorable expression was enough to distract me from her voice.


    "And honestly¡­" ire climbed up even higher only to bring her lips down to my ear. "I''m the one taking advantage of you, not the other way around."

 Chapter 44: And the trick is...?

    "I''m the one taking advantage of you, not the other way around."


    ire''s hands stopped, only to then move to grab a hold of my head. She then pried my face up, looking down right into my eyes.


    Her hips twitched, making my erection shift just a little bit closer to the same position it was in back when she first straddled me back at my ce.


    "You have no idea just how far you are going to go. All the things we offer you are¡­" ire suddenly bit down on her lip again.


    This time, however, she did so with a slightly pained expression.


    "They are all meaningless in the long run. Knowing how things go, it won''t be long before you¡­ outgrow everything that we can offer. But¡­"


    I squinted my eyes when I saw theplex expression suddenly taking over ire''s face.


    It was as if she was¡­ holding something back?


    "But my father will never let you go. And the worst part about it all," ire''s face suddenly twisted as if she was about to cry out, "I''m just a tool to bind you down to him!"


    ire never raised her voice. It was the intensity of it that made her statement so heavy.


    At this point, I could only sigh.


    "Listen, in a scenario where I take all you just said for a perfect prophecy or equally as perfect estimation¡­" I shook my head before blinking my eyes and looking right back into ire''s tense¡­ if not desperate eyes.


    "Then I should be damned if I ever changed so much yourpany would be displeasing."


    The moment I said that¡­ I''ve realized just how much I fumbled.


    ''What is this, a shounen manga?''


    Despite being in the middle of my twenties, I was still capable of spouting such lines?


    "I mean, just look at you¡­" I moved my hands again to grab ire by her waist before pushing her off my chest a bit. "If I''ve ever met a bastard with a girlfriend like you being ungrateful¡­" I shook my head, somehow struggling to find simple and straightforward words to exin my own feelings. "You are a bombshell, you know it? And while I admit, I ended up blindsided by your earlier looks¡­"


    I pursed my lips as I, once again, looked for proper and simple words to express myself.


    "Ahh¡­" I shook my head. "Assuming you are right and my prospective future leads me far away from the point where I am at¡­" I shook my head again, this time along with an exasperated sigh. Then, I took a proper breath while replicating ire''s idea and gently taking hold of her head all to direct her face up and look down at her beautiful, brown eyes.


    "I refuse to ept the idea of ever-growing into some kind of scumbag who would be dissatisfied with such a beauty like yourself."


    ire tensed up a little¡­ but didn''t avert her eyes. Her pupils appeared to be¡­ spinning as if to hypnotize me.


    "Or, to be even more direct," I put on a small, cheeky smile, my head full of nothing but desire to tease her back a little, "If you are the prize, then honestly," I spoke¡­ only to suddenly push my hands to the back of ire''s waist and pulled her close, mming her bosom against my chest as I embraced her tightly and leaned over her ear, "then honestly, I don''t really mind living in the cage your father builds."


    This time, ire didn''t tense up¡­ but froze on the spot. Then, her body trembled as if a thrill went up her spine, only making her squirm more right on top of myp.


    "Like I said," ire once again used her hands to conquer and grab a hold of my head, "I don''t really mind this arrangement either. With that said, though¡­"


    To say that my expectations didn''t rise as my moral barriers fell down one by one would be an outright lie. Still, when ire suddenly caught my face again and rose up on her hips just a tiny little bit¡­


    I obviously didn''t expect her to pull me up, only to slide down behind me as she once again pressed herself against my back while wrapping her soft, warm flesh around my hips and above my shoulders.


    "With that said, we really shouldn''t waste the time on just talking. We can talk perfectly fine while I''m holding the burden rather than the effigy," she exined¡­ quite a reasonable point.


    "So we are in the green now?" I asked, just to make sure, while ignoring the throbbing of my erection so suddenly deprived of the warm embrace of ire''s meaty upper thighs.


    "Yeah, it switches off by itself when I drive my cultivation. And if we are really going to use it, then we should properly prepare to make the most out of it, right?"


    Even though I could see ire''s face no more, somehow, I could tell that she disyed a yful smile.


    We knew each other for only a few days¡­ But went through quite a lot in this limited frame of time.


    "Actually, let me exin," ire then quickly spoke again. "For us to make the most out of the trick, we need to both get as close to the edge as we can. So, while it might seem freaky at times, it''s all just a scientifically proven method, alright?"


    ire shifted ufortably as she started her preamble.


    "Ugh, I guess I''m alright?" I replied, not really sure what she had in mind.


    A trick?


    Did she mean how there was a way to hasten the process of fighting back this drug I was injected with?


    "Good," ire''s voice brightened up so much she simply had to be smiling. "Just for you to know," she then added as she leaned over my shoulder to bring her lips closer to my ear, while simultaneously pushing her left arm to single-handedlyplete the circle over my neck, "If we do it, you will never be able to share all those benefits with anyone else."


    Somehow, ire''s voice changed yet again, turning into some kind of foreboding warning?


    "Do what?" I inquired, trying to get a better picture of the situation¡­


    Only for ire''s free hand to once again press against my chest, only for her fingers to instantly start tapping against my muscles, bringing her hand further and further down with each tap¡­


    "Isn''t this obvious¡­?" ire asked, leaning her head far enough to me to catch a glimpse of her mischievous smile.


    Her hand conquered thest inch again, grasping at the base of my dick¡­ but in a much different, gentler¡­ sensual way whenpared to how she did it before.


    "I''m talking about dual cultivation."

 Chapter 45: Can I be... greedier?

    Dual cultivation.


    I''ve watched enough dramas in my life to understand the meaning behind the world. And even if I didn''t, ire wrapping her sweet, slick fingers around my shaft was enough of a hint for even the most intrepid bloke to get the hint.


    And if that still wasn''t enough, her actually moving her hand up and down as she slowly, gently massaged my erection was an undeniable fact.


    "Are you for real¡­?"


    After all the teasing of today and all the holding back that came in response, having a girl happily glued to my back and gently stroking my dick while throwing curious nces over my shoulder¡­


    "Yeah," ire admitted without even a hint of resistance.


    Then, all of a sudden, her stroking stopped as she fixed her wrap over my neck.


    "You see, meeting a potential partner was never going to be a joyride in my life. With all the privileges of my station, there''s an equal number of obligations. And offering my hand in marriage to a suitable partner was always going to be a tool for my n to create an alliance."


    ire heaved a small sigh before leaning back against the bath''s edge and pulling me along, making me rest my back against the two soft mounds of her breasts.


    "So if it turns out I''m to spend my days with someone that crafty, interesting, and a genius to boot¡­" ire tightened her left arm as if to choke me¡­ But no.


    She did it just to reach out with her right arm and push against my cheek, causing me to face her as she leaned in over my shoulder.


    "You can''t me me for getting a little greedy¡­"


    At this point, it was weird not that we got to it but just how long it took us to get to it.


    Still, when ire''s lips pressed against mine, it felt as if the world in its entirety hade to an end.


    ire was a girl¡­ of the level only seen in photos after a whole slew of masters of photo correction got to take their turn improving it.


    Her body was perfectly shapely, having just the right amount of meat in just the right ces, without breaking the immersion of her slender physique.


    When holding her down by her waist, ire would appear tiny and fragile, only for this picture to break when adoring her wide hips or considerable chest.


    But while she had all the curves in the right ces, I couldn''t find a single ce that felt like too much, posing her not even within my striking zone, but the striking zone I''ve only taken seriously when it came to dreams andte-night fantasies.


    A true fairy of the cultivation world with all the qualities of a mature, jade beauty and a considerable hint of modern yfulness and nerdiness to top the mix-up.


    And when her plump, warm, and moist lips squished against my mouth when the air that we breathed suddenly became one¡­


    ''Damn¡­''


    Powerless to move a single muscle, I allowed myself to fall down the immersing intensity of our kiss.


    It was such a simple, ordinary-even thing, to kiss someone. Pretty much most of humans throughout history got to kiss someone. And maybe that''s exactly what made this moment so¡­ intimate?


    ''Am I even doing it right?'' I thought, my introverted sense of self panicking in this unrecognized form of social interaction.


    But with ire''s skin pressing all over me, I just couldn''t care less.


    "Haaa¡­" I took a long breath when ire finally tore her lips away from mine, heavily catching fresh breath while huffing and puffing while giving me the same, strange look that I''ve noticed on her face before.


    And right as I was about to take another breath¡­


    ire pressed ahead again, sealing my lips with her own before I could as much as refill my lungs.


    Every tiniest move of her lips appeared as a profound revtion of the world''s will. Every tiniest manner in which her body squirmed over me as we kissed was a picture full of details all in its own right.


    All along, her hand continued to move up and down, patiently searching for just the right amount of pressure, a study ire conducted by merely sticking to me as closely as she could so that she could read my every reaction to her teasing.


    Again, she suddenly pulled her mouth away, as if to tease me with deprivation.


    ''Is this the edging she was talking about before?'' I thought, only for ire''s free hand to move down, grab my wrist¡­ and then move my hand up while interlocking she interlocked our fingers.


    "How about we step it up a bit?" ire asked with a small, somewhat embarrassed grin, only to pull my hand ahead¡­ and ce it against her breast, all the while keeping her eyes locked on mine.


    "Haah!" Right the moment my fingers sank into her tit, ire''s mouth twisted into a small, happy curve as a sweet moan escaped from between her curved lips.


    Her back arched a little only for the girl to suddenly open up her legs and slide her left hand down my chest as well.


    "I''m sorry¡­" ire suddenly muttered while lowering her head down.


    "Hmm?" I muttered, not really caught up with the current iteration of what she was thinking about.


    "Can I be more than just a little greedy?" ire suddenly asked, raising her face just far enough to give me a pleading look with upturned eyes, all the while moving her chest up and down just little enough to make it sway in the water, all for me to see.


    "I mean¡­"


    Her hand tightened just a little bit more¡­ before driving further than ever before and sliding over my shaft and all the way to the sensitive top of my dick.


    "¡­sure?"


    ire''s eyes red up with a thousand sparks as she hurriedly slid over my side before climbing up myp to straddle it yet again.


    ''Could it be her favorite spot or something?'' I thought right as she first pushed her hips as far up my legs as she could, only to then press her abdomen against my stomach, then her stomach, then her ribs and chest, all the way to the point where one couldn''t even hope to squeeze a finger between her body and mine.


    And with all of that said, she ended up trapping my erection between our stomachs, mixing the pain of the slight strain with the extreme softness and the warmth of her lower abdomen.


    "I can tell how hard you are," ire whispered as she leaned up to my ear, only to retreat a bit, stare into my face for a short moment¡­ and then lean in again, once again pressing her lips against mine.


    Once again, I just¡­ flew away, giving in to the rxation that came with the kiss.


    Maybe it wasn''t the case for any other kiss in the world, but kissing a rich, jade beauty, a cultivation fairy that was still interested in the mundane side of daily life and creation¡­ It just felt like this was what winning at life was all about.


    ire''s hips jerked up, causing her entire body to drag over my skin just an inch higher, only for gravity to then win and push ire back down onto myp.


    Then, it happened again.


    And then, rie moved for the third time, being the sole viin behind this treacherous move that clearly aimed to rub one out of me not with her hands, not with her maidenhood but with¡­ her stomach?


    "Then, I''m going to take you up on your offer," ire whispered as she raised her hips just far enough to bring our faces to an equal level, before pressing her forehead against mine and releasing her sweet whisper.


    "You see," she continued as her hips climbed higher and higher, all the way to the point where she domineered over me when she finally reached the point where my dick slipped out from between us and fell down over my crotch, springing up to its more natural position.


    "Even if we are merely interested in each other now, nothing is stopping us from falling in love with each other as time goes on, right?"


    In a sense¡­ ire was right.


    Even if this rtionship of ours bore every sign of an arranged, political marriage¡­ Who was there to say those could never work?


    And given how our future was all about doing whatever the heck we wanted with close to no worry about anything in the world, what better environment could two young adults ask for to grow as friends with certain benefits only to ultimately take it to a proper next level?


    The fact that we were to be bound by the contract first rather than vows of true love and marriage, no one could stop us from getting thereter on!


    But all of that future¡­ It rode on the single question of whether or not I could deliver the promise ire''s dad apparently saw in me. And for that, the very first step¡­ was to make the most of the moment and try to make this dual cultivation count, right?


    "In fact," I smiled at the girl as she looked down at my face with her long, brown hair cascading down as it separated the rest of the world away, allowing us to focus on nothing else but each other.


    And so, I grabbed ire by her shapely hips before tensing up my dick to make it stand at attention, "I think I''m starting to fall in love already," I announced right as my tip started to tease the entrance to ire''s insides.


    That act alone was enough to make me realize just how wet and inviting ire was by now.


    ''It seems I''m not the only one looking forward to it, huh?'' I thought, only for ire to wrap her hands around my face again as she forced me to look up, right into her eyes.


    "Be gentle with me, mkay?" A hint of fear shed in her eyes as her body, her hips started to gravitate down, as if already working all on their own to impale her all the way down my impressive, personal-best-breaking erection.


    "I wouldn''t have it otherwise," I replied before starting to slowly and gently push ire''s hips down.

 Chapter 46: Time for edge and then rejoice!

    Pushing ire''s body down inevitably meant forcing the tip of my dick to pry deeper and deeper into her insides.


    And not too long after I started, a sudden sense of resistance forced me to stop.


    Or was it the fact that ire''s sweet moans suddenly ceased while her body tensed all up?


    ''It''s okay, there''s no hurry,'' I thought, painfully aware that in reality, we had all the reasons to hurry up.


    Right now, ire could no longer think to hold her arms and legs properly, not to bring up the fact of actively driving her cultivation. Meaning, every passing second was a precious time her father''s artifact gave us¡­ time that continued to dry out.


    "To think a beauty like you would still be¡­" with an idea popping into my head, I spoke out¡­ Only to see ire suddenly raising her blushed, and seriously shocked face.


    "Do you really think that just because I''m cute¡­"


    Right as ire reached the middle of her sentence and stopped to take a breath, I tightened my hold over her hips before forcing them as far down, as far up her insides I could push my dick.


    Rather than taking in a breath, ire gasped with the sense of shock and surprise likely muting the inevitable pain of losing her maidenhood.


    At the same time, a strange feeling filled me up from the very bottom of my soul and continued to bubble up, all the way to the point where I felt like my entire self was ready to explode at any moment now.


    Still, rather than following up with more, I just hugged the girl with all my might, keeping her close while she took her time to settle herself in this new feeling.


    ''This is really¡­ tough to endure¡­'' I thought, doing my best but still falling short of stopping the growth and expansion of my own excitement.


    "Ha¡­ ha¡­ ha¡­" ire breathed out unsteadily, her eyes widening as she looked down at where we were now connected.


    A sense of awe, curiosity, and confusion filled her eyes. And before I could tell, she already lifted her hips up a bit, still curiously staring down at where my dick went inside of her. And as she did so, her insides greedilytched onto me, refusing to let me go.


    ''Fuck, whenpared to her hand¡­'' I gritted my teeth, prying to the high heavens not to embarrass myself right away.


    But could I even be med?


    I was a virgin who knew no other hand on my dick but my own and now a fairly-like beauty was happily riding me down?! Who would be insane enough to expect me to hold on?!


    "Your muscles¡­" ire whispered, her hips still moving up and down a little as if in an attempt to find the mostfortable angle, all the while her hands traced the outline of the muscles I developed over thest five years. "They look¡­ delicious¡­"


    Not holding herself back, iretched her lips onto my chest, as if she wanted to suck the essence out of my body by sucking on the skin above my heart. At the same time, however, her insides continued to viciously coil around my dick, as if desperate to squeeze everyst drop stored within my balls.


    "ire¡­ I''m sorry, but¡­" My voice appeared to bring the girl back from the high heaven, causing her face to contort as her eyes widened.


    "Hold it in!" she cried out, desperatelytching her hands to my face before mming her feet against the bottom of the bail and rapidly standing up.


    In all honesty, just the feeling when her pussy suddenly slid off my dick was to kill for¡­ But just a little bit short of breaking through thest barriers my sense of responsibility made me raise.


    Still, with the hot pressure on my dick gone, I could better focus on her lips as we kissed. In the end, not without ire''s help, I managed to somehow rein myself in. And the very moment I did so, ire breathed out¡­ and dropped her hips right back.


    Whether it was luck, skill, or instinct, I couldn''t tell. But without any issue, she aimed herself down perfectly, sliding my cock right back in before pushing her hips further and further down, all the way to when her lower lips touched the base of my dick.


    "Ah¡­"


    Despite not knowing the reason, since ire asked me to hold back, that became the one objective that illuminated my way ahead.


    Still, my hands jerked as I grabbed at the girl''s waist, holding her down and close to my chest, preventing her from doing the one thing that would instantly send me over the edge - moving around.


    "Haaah¡­" her moans tickled my ears, adding yet anotheryer of excitement to the pressure building up in my groin.


    "Just a little bit longer¡­ Hold it in¡­" she whispered despite struggling to keep her own self sane and focused on the task with just how extremely sensitive and overdue for fuck we were.


    ''I guess that''s what hours of cuddling in the bath while naked do to a person,'' I thought, gritting my teeth to the point they felt as if I was dislodging them.


    Still, even when we just sat down and breathed heavily into each other''s face¡­ ire''s insides continued to coil all over my cock, as if desperate to squeeze out everything it could offer.


    It was warm¡­ no, it was scorchingly hot, yet it didn''t feel the least ufortable.


    It was extremely tight as if I tried to force my penis into a hole too small for it to fit¡­ And yet, all I felt was overwhelming softness.


    Apparently, ire''s insides were a mix of extremes so out of bounds, their very nature turned hypocritical.


    But that was just one part of the moment.


    The weight of her body pushing down against myp as she straddled me, the warmth of her inner thighs wrapping around the bottom of my waist, the softness of her boobs pressing into mine, the luxuriously full and red lips that kept nibbling at my own mouth¡­


    Even her eyes, full of hunger and suppressed desire were a factor.


    "As long as you can, hold," ire requested again¡­ Only to slowly lift her hips up, adding a whole new dimension to the feeling of having my dick literally consumed by her insides. And when she dropped back down, pushing all of my foreskin down the shaft and causing my shroom to rub directly against her hot, squirming insides¡­


    "Shit!" For the first time, a curse actually escaped from my lips, right as I dug my fingers deep into ire''s waist in response to my body simultaneously tensing up and rxing.


    For a short moment, the whole world went nk, as if now that I''d achieved the ultimate goal of life, reproduction, the free trial of the game was now over and I could only sit back and wait for the pop-up window inviting me to buy a paid expansion that went beyond the story thus far.


    This feeling of perfect disorientation as I reached for something at the very core of my nature as a human¡­ Onlysted for the briefest of moments, only to then copse, throwing me back into the much simpler reality that I was so used to¡­


    A reality where I felt myself cumming my balls out right into the depths of ire''s convulsing pussy.

 Chapter 47: Sudden breakthrough?

    The pleasure of ending up inside of a woman was¡­ something else.


    It was an experience that simply couldn''tpare to anything I''ve ever managed to get out with my hand or the tools I bought back when I was young and desperate.


    ire''s body simply mped down on me, her legs locking my hips in ce we continued to convulse together, my dick twitching as it tried to splurt out all the leftover cum inside my system and feed it all to ire¡­


    While on the other hand, ire''s insides continued to coil down and squeeze my dick, as if to guide the cum still inside of it and suck it all out.


    ire herself hid her face in the upper part of my chest, now just gasping for air as the pleasure she clearly never felt before made her body continuously tighten up only to then rx down over and over and over again.


    For a few more moments we simply continued to twitch together like that, each too immersed in the sensation to form a single thought, not to bring up talking or reacting to what we just did.


    A momentter, however, ire twisted her head and pressed her ear roughly against where my heart was as if suddenly wanting to listen to its beat.


    Her expression, however¡­ was too serious for it to be just a new way for us to snuggle up as we relieved thest aftershocks of our orgasms.


    And what an orgasm it was!


    Not only was the level of caressing my dick had to endure just iparable to a hand or a sleeve from my memories, but there was also a whole addedyer of ire''s body squeezing down all over me, her hands holding me tightly and refusing to let me go, her stomach trembling when her gasps failed to provide all the air she needed, making her breathing all broken and erratic¡­


    "That''s¡­"


    ire''s voice was just what I needed to get my head out of the clouds. Although, if she were to start praising my performance all out of nowhere now, there would be no telling¡­


    "Didn''t you im that you''ve hardly cultivated before?" ire suddenly asked, keeping her ear by my chest for a little longer before raising her face and giving me quite a weird look.


    "Well¡­" I hesitated a little. "I don''t know if meditation counts for cultivating, but even if it does, I only did meditate like¡­ four times total?" I answered with all the honesty I could muster.


    Not only was this girl likely determined to live out her role as my partner while hoping thispanionship could turn into a proper rtionship with time, but she was also the daughter of my sponsor! And even if we weren''t at the stage yet when I would willingly confide all my secrets with her, she certainly deserved to know the truth behind my cultivation.


    "Are you¡­" ire gulped her saliva down, "absolutely sure?"


    "Yeah, why?" I replied, sparks of agitation growing in my soul as I realized that, most likely, something had to not be right for ire to suddenly act in such a weird way.


    "Then how did you just break through to the fifth stage all in one go?"


    I stared at ire''s face¡­ hardly troubled by her statement. Not because I didn''t care¡­. But because I had no idea what this fifth stage was all about!


    "You mean to say¡­ I jumped over stages one through fourth?" I asked, just to make sure I got the concept right.


    With my dick still firmly locked inside of her pussy, ire suddenly leaned back, as if to get a better look on my face. And only after staring at me for a short while did her eyes open up with genuine surprise.


    "You don''t even know that much¡­? Then how¡­"


    All of a sudden, ire''s face darkened as she hurriedly moved back to my chest, hiding her face away from my eyes while still somehow managing to exude such an exasperated aura I just couldn''t help but reach out and drag my hand up and down her spine in a silly bid to humor her now that there was something unpleasant on the mind of this adorable creature.


    "AAAAH!" ire suddenly screamed out, raising her face up and pointing at the ceiling as if she wanted to throw her cries straight at the heavens. "I knew you would be breaking allmon sense, but for it to happen so soon¡­!"


    ''So, reaching the fifth stage in one go is a big thing, got it,'' I thought while taking a mental note.


    And now that I thought about it¡­


    Surely, I had nowhere close to as much information and knowledge about those stages as a proper cultivator would¡­ But I still knew something.


    Chihiro, ire''s father, was one of the very few ninth-stage cultivators. And while that perception could be different in a spiritual world, in the physical reality, it was enough to make him a superstar of sorts.


    ''I don''t think those stages are linear¡­ but even if they were, the fifth stage would be a halfway point, wouldn''t it?'' I thought, only for my face to then turn still when I realized the consequences behind this finding.


    ''If, at the impossibly best scenario, I''ve got as far as halfway to the top, then¡­''


    In a more realistic scenario, just how insane would this unexpected feat of mine be?


    "Care to borate what got you so annoyed?" I tried to ask, fully aware it would either lead me to an answer¡­ or an even greater outburst of ire''s anger.


    Hearing my words, ire looked at my face before sighing out and dropping back on top of myp, taking a moment to calm herself down. Then, as she pushed her pouty face off to the side, she muttered, "I knew you would grow fast, but never expected you to be¡­ so fast!"


    What ire said¡­ directed my thoughts to an entirely different topic, just loosely connected to her most recent words.


    Still, following this line of nothing more but my instinct, I suddenly realized one thing.


    "Wait, if this was all the trick to speed up my recovery¡­" I muttered, only now realizing that I actually had no idea how dual cultivation was supposed to work in the first ce, "then, did it work?"


    ire gave me a pouty look for just a little longer before swallowing her anger and nodding her head.


    "Yeah, I hoped to bring you up to the second, maybe third stage, where you would be able to just sleep the drug off, but¡­"


    ''Great, noted. Now, for the next.''


    The trick worked. Meaning, I was likely now able to move around without the help of the girl or her father''s artifact.


    And, in fact, just by inspecting my inner state, the tiny slivers of spiritual energy ire was making my body produce by agitating my spiritual sense with her own cultivation¡­


    Those were nothing whenpared to the sea of dense energy now filling every fiber and whisker of my body and soul alike!


    ''That drug was dangerous because it was aimed to topple cultivators. So, now that I''m of a rank high enough, I should be safe, right?'' I thought, only to instantly direct my eyes back to the girl.


    ''Why is she so upset I''ve reached the fifth rank, though?'' I thought.


    At first, it didn''t seem like a question worthy of pursuing the answer to,but more like a small curiosity, I might learn about muchter down the line of my rtionship with her. But at the same time, whenever I thought how ire was just a normal girl with a different set of circumstances than me¡­ the answer couldn''t be any more obvious.


    "Could it be, you are fifth rank too?" I asked, only for ire to freeze.


    For a moment, her eyes jumped all over the ce, as if she wasn''t sure where to hide her re¡­ Only to then lower her head and silently nod it a bit.


    "I''ve told you, didn''t I?" she then whispered, her face too blushed for ire to even consider showing it to me. "You are a genius," she stated, only to suddenly raise her face and coughed to clear her throat. "So, rather than letting it get to me, here¡­"


    ire suddenly opened up her arms, as if to reveal the full potential of her breasts right into my face¡­ all the while adding the topping of a lovely, inviting smile.


    "You can do as you wish with me."

 Chapter 48: Fifth stage?!

    I stared at ire''s open invitation to a naked, cuddly hug. For a moment, I was even willing to forget how she was still imprisoning my dick with her insides, removing to move her crotch from mine even for a bit, even when we talked and even when our mood changed.


    "Whatever I want, you say?" I asked, reaching out with my hand¡­ but rather than grabbing her hand for some handholding innuendo, rather than reaching for her shapely chest to get all the feels of it my heart could desire¡­


    I reached out with my hand to just gently caress ire''s cheek.


    "Can you tell me how dual cultivation is supposed to work? And why were you trying to edge me?"


    With the open invitation she provided, ire ended up taken aback by my¡­ mild response.


    For a moment, she stared at me with disbelief, as if she couldn''t fathom the idea of a man refusing her open arms or her exposed chest¡­


    Ultimately, however, she lowered her hands and leaned back in, resting the side of her head against my shoulder as she sighed.


    "There are severalyers to it. At the very bottom, it''s all about bringing one''s body to its most extreme. Just like there are some freaks who kill or outright torture people, there are those who consider sexual peak to be the best way of reaching the extreme. And while there are those who drink, those who even take drugs or look for others, even more extreme ways, ultimately¡­"


    "It''s all about reaching the extreme state of something, right?" I filled up the nks, taking ire''s ce in summing up her whole point.


    "Yeah," ire muttered while rubbing her cheek against my shoulder. "Then, the second stage isn''t about the other person, but the massively improved ability to absorb spiritual energy when in the "peaked" state. Which is exactly why we have this bath going¡­" she exined, finally shedding some light on the answers I was curious about since quite a while ago.


    "Ultimately, the thirdyer of it¡­" suddenly, even though how openly she exined everything so far, ire hesitated. "Apparently, when the lovers bond and peak together,something about the different types of spiritual energy men and women cultivate leads to a sparking¡­"


    ire hesitated again¡­ but rather than hurrying her up, I allowed her to simply rx and take her time to sort her thoughts out beforepleting her train of thought.


    "Sparking is a process in which a new type of spiritual energyes to life, energy that''s exclusive to the two that sparked it and energy that can serve as one of the greatest nourishments to one''s cultivation there is in the whole world of cultivation."


    With that said, ire shriveled back and cuddled up into my chest as if exining just this one thing was enough to fully sap her mental strength.


    "So, that means¡­" I muttered, only to move my hand through the water¡­ realizing that it no longer offered me any more resistance than any other kind of water.


    ''Wait, could it be?'' I thought, startled by the implications behind the thought. ''I''ve actually absorbed all the Qi that was in this bath¡­ and then whatever we sparked with ire?''


    For a moment, my thoughts went haywire in an attempt to properly sort this knowledge out and add a mental link to it in every topic where this deeper understanding of cultivation could prove useful.


    Ultimately, however, it proved one thing while giving me just the kind of information I needed.


    "In other words, I''m now healed from that drug and no longer need to worry about time on you keeping your hands and legs wrapped around me, right?" I asked while grabbing ire by her armpits and lifting her up, finally putting an end to the imprisonment of my dick within the tight confines of her pussy.


    "Wha¡­ No, wait¡­!" before she could even process what happened, ire expressed her innermost desire¡­ to stop this needless separation. The shriek she made felt as if by pulling my dick out of her, I somehow ended up tearing her soul in half¡­?


    Our bodies were still close, close enough for me to sense her tensing up and down all over again, only for the water near her crotch to suddenly turn muddy, much whiter than it otherwise should be while the girl just copsed down on my chest, doing nothing but gasping for air again.


    "And because I''ve reached your stage of cultivation so easily and randomly, your sense of worth is threatened, right?" I suggested, trying my absolute best to figure out what was going through ire''s head.


    Which¡­ was absolutely unnecessary, because she told me all about it herself. And all I had to do, was just listen properly.


    "Huh?!" Hearing my usation, ire perked up instantly¡­ In fact, she did it so quickly, it kind of proved my point then and there.


    "It''s a good thing I have an idea of how we can ovee this issue together!" I announced¡­ Only to reach out and grab ire by her waist again¡­ before stepping up and pushing her all through the entirety of the huge, wooden bail, all the way to the point where I pressed her down against its opposite edge.


    "No matter what, to advance your cultivation you need both energy and some sort of enlightenment, right?" I asked for confirmation, given how most of my knowledge about cultivation came from period dramas rather than cultivation manuals.


    "Pretty much, yeah¡­" Startled by my sudden boldness, ire couldn''t stop her face from blushing¡­ nor her hips from squirming when I pressed myself against her, literally pinning her against the bath''s wall.


    "Then," I announced, only to drive my hands into the water, moving them from ire''s waist to grab her by her ass before lifting her body up from the water and putting the girl down on the bath''s edge.


    Then, with a single step, I pushed myself between her legs, forcing her to open them up as I came in like for a hug. Before we could hug, however, I stopped for a moment to get myself properly aimed.


    "I know nothing about cultivation, so my outlook on it is perfectly flesh. So, how about you tell me what you are having a problem with," I suggested, only to push my hips up and force my dick straight back into the hot mess of her twitching pussy, "while I make sure there''s enough Qi sparking for you to advance?"

 Chapter 49: One Claire-ritto to go!

    "Haaa¡­ Haaa¡­ Haaa¡­"


    Looking down at the creation of my own hands and loins, I could do nothing but breathe a sigh of relief while allowing a sense of a job well done to wash over me.


    Below me was nothing else but ire, currently too busy gasping for air to think about anything else.


    To think about all the water we spilled, to think about all the Qi we absorbed or how she just advanced to the sixth stage.


    Right now, she couldn''t even give the slightest fuck about the way she was sprawled down on the floor, all her limbs twitching powerlessly while my sperm continued to spurt out of her convulsing vagina.


    ''This looks like a scene of a violent rape or a sex so unrealistically great, it made the girl nearly pass out,'' I thought, only for the warm sense of achievement to fill me up from my groins up.


    To leave a girl in such a messy state¡­ felt like me, once again, winning at life. Achieving the goal that any man would set for themselves in their life.


    And obviously, by leaving the girl, I didn''t have a single intention to leave her side right now.


    "Ha¡­ haa¡­ haaa¡­"


    ire''s breathing only grew tenser and heavier and she continued to struggle to gather her thoughts. And quite honestly, I couldn''t me her.


    After what felt like hours upon hours of going at it, we moved from the bath to its edge, from the bath''s edge to the stand beside it, then down the stairs and all the way to the floor.


    As shameful as it was, we even vandalized the beautiful garden of the bath in our search of a wall that ire could rest her hands against when pushing out that sweet, sweet arse of hers for me to conquer.


    In fact, if not for my own sense of responsibility and restraint, ire would seed at coaxing me into conquering her ass not only as a position¡­ but also in a much more direct and certainly freaky way.


    Now, however, as I looked around, rather than admiring the scene of destruction that could also serve as proof of what I did to ire and how she ended up in such a messy state down on the floor¡­ I simply searched for something I could wrap around her.


    And before long, but muchter than I hoped to, I managed to find a huge towel of the kind one couldy down on the beach and then go to sleep on.


    Returning with it like some sort of trophy, I then carefully knelled down before setting the towel down and carefully, extremely carefully, rolling ire over said towel. Then, as if I were making a human-sized burrito, I kept rolling the girl over the nket until it was fully wrapped around her weak and exhausted body.


    "Now then," I muttered to myself as I grabbed the girl and rose up before bravely taking a step towards the exit of the bath we found during our aggressive assertion of a physical rtionship¡­ Or, to call it in a more cultivation-like way, our ascension to the peak of mortal amusement in a bid to let ire reach greater heights and unlock her inner potential by feeding her with both a fresh perspective for the things she found problematic but also such an excessive amount of nourishing energy, she could break through to the sixth stage even without an enlightenment!


    Raising up on my knees with this sushi-like wrap of a girl in my hands, I nearly melted down when ire ended up resting her hand down against my shoulder all on her own as if already instinctively seeking my presence.


    And in all honesty, I couldn''t really fault her for that, not when we just spent several hours making sure we knew every nook and cranny of the other''s body!


    Still, with my heart melting over ire''s innocent cuteness as she sweetly slept in my arms, I carried her out of the bath and then across a short corridor¡­


    Only to walk out in the biggest apartment I''ve ever seen in my entire life, much bigger than even the sixty-fifth floor of the Peal Tower that Chihiro invited me to.


    This apartment was both full and empty.


    It was full of human presence with all sorts of silverware already disyed in all the right ces, various snacks littering the tters, and drinks waiting in iced buckets for someone to quell their thirst with them¡­


    At the same time, however, it was empty for beside me and sleeping ire, there wasn''t a single living soul anywhere near!


    Still, with the burrito of my prospective life partner in my hands, I quelled my curiosity and moved to a massive if not outright oversized sofa, where I could finallyy ire down, only to hurry it up and lie right behind her.


    As I wrapped my hands around the girl before covering both myself and ire-ritto with a nket, I finally found enough peace of mind to actually look around.


    If I was given two words to describe this ce, it would be luxurious and convenient.


    The views out of the window were literally to kill for, with probably an entire vige going up in mes just to make space for the massive garden sprawling outside of the mansion. Every piece of furniture in the building felt equally as luxurious as the view as if made exclusively with the bones of the long-extinct animals.


    Still, everything was so perfectly thought off, that one could only sum it up with ''convenient.''


    No matter how I spun or where I decided to sit down or lie down, there was always a tter of varied snacks and drinks within the reach of my hand. No matter where I turned my eyes, there was always something soothing waiting to amaze me with its level of detail and craftsmanship.


    But in all honesty, right now, I couldn''t care less about any of this.


    It was a world a poor person like me was never expected to even enter¡­ But it all dwindled whenpared to the pleasure I''ve got from just¡­ lying down, spooning ire-ritto, and listening to her steady breath while gently stroking her cheek with just the tips of my fingers.


    ''I know I said it already, but if that''s what I get for getting chained to her family,'' I smiled, ''then I would have to be an idiot to be dissatisfied.''

 Chapter 50: Waking up next to a Claire-ritto

    Waking up, I already knew I couldn''t be back at my ce.


    The cushions¡­ were just too soft, toofortable, too rxing.


    And the bed back at my home was nowhere near this kind of quality, making my brain scatter for clues long before I actually opened up my eyes.


    But the more awake I grew, the worse and worse the situation became.


    ''This isn''t just the bed alone that''s sofortable, is it?'' I asked myself, using the slow breaths of my acted-out sleep-breathing pattern to slowly drive my nerves to a fake-out calm.


    ''Well, whatever it is, I can''t really change the reality by ignoring it, can I now?''


    This was exactly how I grew up to be, to be a small man who would rather run from responsibilities than face them head-on, despite all of my parents'' attempts to set me on the straight path.


    As it turned out, it took a whole, full year of being beaten up at the institution - I believe the guys at the institution called it "breaking someone in" - for me to grow up a bit and start facing the world as a man should.


    And with this very approach, I breathed out before slowly driving my eyes open.


    Nothing jumped on me the moment I revealed I was no longer asleep.


    No army of police andyers surrounded me to charge me for an assault, breaking into this unknown ce, and then making me rot in the prison for the rest of my days.


    Chihiro didn''te out of the shadow the moment I opened my eyes either, nor did any of his cultivator henchmen, ready to punish me for all the things I did to his daughter.


    No.


    All I had to face as I woke up¡­ Was ire-ritto, still going strong since I rolled it up, with the sole exception of ire''s face now sinking below theyers of the nket and leaving only a thin line of her face, right at the level of her eyes, above the cloth she was wrapped in.


    ''How cute¡­'' I couldn''t stop myself from thinking just this one thing as I looked down and started into those big, brown, startled eyes of hers.


    With her face hidden like that, ire looked like some sort of a scared yet still curious animal, looking me up and down with those eyes of hers while keeping the rest of herself safely hidden in the nket.


    ''I guess that''s when I cross, waking up next to a world-ss beauty off my to-do list, huh?'' I thought while slowlying to the realization that ire-ritto was still in the very same spot as she was when we went to sleep¡­ simply because my left arm was still wrapped over it, holding the whole thing in ce and disallowing ire any chance at escape.


    "Morning¡­"


    In the end, no matter how startling or new it was, this was going to be our new reality¡­ That is unless Chihiro came storming in to pluck my heart, eyes, and balls out for the great sin of getting down and dirty with his daughter, a possibility I still considered as real and likely as the next most ordinary event under the sun.


    But rather than worrying about ire''s father who still has yet to reveal his presence here, I opted to focus on two things.


    First, ire who was right within my reach, and then the process of daily life¡­ Or, in other words, the usual grind that kept calling my name, especially with how much importance both this cute piece of an animal from thest night and her father put to my abilities and potential.


    ''I wouldn''t want to disappoint them, huh?'' I thought, still waiting for ire''s reaction to my greeting, only to soone to the realization I wasn''t getting any. And as I looked down to see if she was actually awake¡­ our eyes met.


    The startled expression was still there, lingering in her eyes¡­ Alongside the sparks of curiosity, a barely visible blush of excitement on her cheeks, excitement expressed how one of her hands somehow made it out of the nked-based burrito and ended up pressing against my chiseled abdomen as her fingers traced the outlines of my muscles.


    ''To think all those years of hard training woulde and gain their worth in such an unexpected way¡­''


    Just the momentary, entranced gaze of this girl as it fell upon my well-maintained body made all the efforts necessary to obtain it, justified¡­ No, worth the end result.


    And her startled look whenever her fingers would press slightly harder against my muscles only for excitement to nearly blow out from her eyes as she looked up, as if to share it with me, only to be pped with a fresh dose of embarrassment and have her expression revert to that of a startled animal¡­


    "How are you feeling?" I asked as I closed my eyes and snuck my right arm underneath ire-ritto, all in a bid to pull her closer to my chest, gently pressing her head against my exposed torso that she was checking out so intently just a second before. "Are you in any pain? Can you move? Or maybe you came to regret everything that happened yester¡­"


    "No!" Out of nowhere, ire suddenly perked up, even going as far as to raise her head and thus deprive her face of the protection of the nket that, as all in the world knew, was the greatest form of defense against monsters and nightmares.


    Yet, by looking up, ire''s face ended up just an inch away from mine¡­ And what was even worse for her and better for me¡­ Or actually worse for my heart as well, all of the emotions I managed to make out from just the sliver of her face were now in full disy, all for my eyes to savor and for my heart to melt down as I did.


    "I do not regret it!" ire stated out loud and clear¡­ Only for her cheeks to then cover in an even more intense hue of red. "I-I¡­ I w-was just¡­ unsure on how to act now that we¡­ y-you know¡­"


    It was a whole new experience for me to watch this confident and bubbly girl suddenly grow so timid and restrained. To hide her face as much as she hid her body, despite how we couldn''t bare ourselves any further to each other than how we did it back in the bath¡­


    "And you are not sure how to act?" I asked, leaning my head down only for my heart to melt down when ire timidly brought her gaze down as well, as to avoid my eyes, before gently nodding her head up and down.


    ''Just what kind of a cute animal is this?'' I thought as my desire to protect this adorable burrito exploded in my heart.


    ''I''m a simple man, huh?'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I realized that if this was all but a honey-trap¡­ then I swallowed the bait, the hook, and the line of it.


    Then again, was it wrong for me to quickly grow a soft spot for a girl that cute and, if my memories served me right, that¡­ willing?


    ''No.''


    My mood suddenly worsened¡­ Or should I say, grew more serious?


    ''Even if she''s willing because of her position in this situation, her role¡­ Abusing this sort of convenience will only bring us pain in the long term. Even if she served herself to me on a silver tter, I still need to make sure I''m worthy of every bit of affection she will show me!''


    This thought aside¡­ I still ended up hugging ire-ritto to my chest, struggling to deal with just how precious she was in the moment.


    "I mean, I''m the same, am I not?" I muttered after taking my sweet time to react to ire''s worries. "Strip away the brave front, and I''m scared little virg¡­ Well, I guess I''m not one anymore, but that doesn''t change I have no idea how to deal with having such a beautiful and nice girl right next to me as I wake up."


    Moving my left hand, I snuck it within the warps of ire-ritto, all for the sake of reaching the back of her head and then brushing my fingers through her hair in a bid to calm her down a bit and fill her soul with a sense of reassurance.


    "So, how about we both just¡­ take it slow and try to figure out how to live our new lives one step at a time?"

 Chapter 51: Breaking the Ice of morning awkwardness

    The casual cking of the cutlery hitting the tes turned into the background song of my first breakfast with ire.


    On one hand, this was likely the best breakfast I had in my life.


    From the expensive yet still convenient tes, through the huge array of various foods that we could pretty much choose whatever we wished from, all the way to a team of three chefs standing behind the huge countertop of the open kitchen, readily preparing more and more snacks for us to choose from¡­


    Every bit of this simple meal spelled luxury, not to even mention ire in loose loungewear sitting right across the table and giving me quite the show of her cleavage moving while she silently ate¡­


    But on the other hand, it was also the most stressful breakfast I''ve had in my entire life.


    The silence, broken only by the slight noise from the kitchen and the tapping of our silverware against the porcin was strangely deafening.


    And all because of the awkwardness that poisoned the air between the two of us.


    It was one thing to wake up when the hormones and emotions from thest night still lingered. But as we got out of bed and dressed up¡­


    The mundane reality of daily life struck us right back, taking in our confidence at being able to easily make this new arrangement work andughing at us as it proved that reality was often disappointing.


    "Could you pass me the salt?" I asked after taking some time to gather my courage.


    In reality, I didn''t have any desire to add salt to my meals. They were all cooked on the spot by chefs who were easily equalized to earn for one day of their work than I could hope to earn for a month back in my part-time.


    In a sense, asking for salt with those chefs right by our side was nothing but an insult to their faces¡­


    But in this strange, awkward situation, this was my best bet to start any sort of conversation and put an end to this deafening silence.


    "Salt?'' ire raised her eyes from her te, only to then turn her face slightly to the side as she sent her re over to the chefs. She then looked back and grimaced as if she wasn''t sure if I was joking, unaware ofmon etiquette to this degree, or maybe outright trying to spark some mes¡­


    "Haaa¡­" Unable to get a read off my face, ire sighed before shaking her head. "All those meals are prepared to perfection by the chefs, so why would you need the salt for?" she asked¡­ yet still, she grabbed the small, crystal bottle before passing it over.


    "I know¡­ Or rather, I could tell that to be the case but between the awkwardness of acting rude to the chefs and the awkwardness between the two of us¡­" I shook my head, leaning back to imply I had no ns of reaching out to take the salt from the girl''s hand.


    "I¡­ I see," ire muttered, lowering her face while pulling her hand back.


    Her cheeks grew slightly redder as she shifted somewhat ufortably in her seat.


    "What would you want to talk about, then?" she asked, trying to do her best and y along with my attempt. And then¡­ "What do you think about today''s weather?"


    I looked up from my te, allowing a piece of dry-fried paprika to hang off my fork.


    Then, a sigh escaped from my lips.


    "You don''t need to try THAT hard, you know?" I suggested before shaking my head and grabbing the cup filled to the inner brim with some thick, extremely rich-vored juice. "We can''t speed-run trying to get to know each other better, so how about we just¡­ let it happen naturally?"


    At first, ire stared at me for a bit, a hint of grudge from myment over her attempt brimming at the bottom of her eyes, only to vanish as she sighed and shrugged her shoulders.


    ire then leaned back in her chair, as if to copy my position, before taking a sip from her own cup.


    "What should we talk about, then?" she asked while resting her cup down against her knee as opposed to resting it down on the table.


    "I know it''s bad manners to talk about business while dining, but there''s quite a lot of stuff that I need to catch up. So, I''m sorry if it will feel pushy or outright rude, but when can I expect to sign the contract?"


    Even though the prize on that contract was great, it still pretty much turned me into the ve of ire''s n. As such, I could pretty much tell what she was thinking when she responded to my question by raising her eyebrows in surprise.


    "Are you in a hurry to sign it or something?" she asked. While her words could be taken to be slightly provocative¡­ the genuine surprise on her face proved her intentions were free from such schemes. "Or are you worried that we¡­"


    "I just want to be fair to you¡­ To your n," I replied with a shake of my head. "You guys saved my life, didn''t you?"


    With the cooks still present and even if they were too busy working to listen in to our conversation¡­ Their mere presence forced me to y around with my words a bit, forced me to craft my sentences around the issue but in a way that would make my intentions obvious to the girl across the table.


    "Well¡­" ire hesitated a little bit, her cheeks growing just a bit brighter.


    Sure, when talking about saving my life, one was likely to think about the kidnapping ident¡­ But between me and ire, saving my life also had another meaning. A meaning the memory of which was enough to make ire squirm in her seat.


    "The contract is ready whenever you are ready to sign in. As for its stiptions¡­" ire''s face cleared up as a more serious, productive glint appeared in her eyes. "You are still recovering, so it''s a good idea for you to take a week or two of rest¡­"


    ire''s eyes moved upright as she sprung her back against the backrest of her chair and leaned forward over the dining table.


    "But if my feeling about you is right, you will want to get right back to work, am I right?"


    I smiled a little.


    "We might not know each other for long, but for you to be able to predict my thoughts and feelings already¡­" I spoke only to shake my head in disbelief. "I''m ttered."


    "Oh, spare me the empty drivel," ire rolled her eyes¡­ but underneath the stiff mask of a serious, work-focused expression, I could see a hint of a smile.


    "As for your question, yes, you are right," I admitted as I leaned back in my chair. "Before, it was a necessity that drove me to do my best. But now? With all the tools, means, and opportunities within my reach?"


    I shook my head before lowering it as I locked my eyes on my meal and used my fork to roll some beans around the te.


    "It might just be me, but rather than taking it easy, I would much rather keep doing my best," I then smiled before leaning my head just a bit off to the side. "How else can I prove that you guys were right to bet on me?"

 Chapter 52: Now that Im your clans slave, how about we talk?

    "Here are the papers," ire announced in a formal tone as she passed me a stack of documents roughly the side of my old type of personalputer.


    "You can read through all of it if you want, but all the important bits are on the first seven pages. The rest is just the codification of the business rtionship between my father''s estate and ourpany designed to match thews of both material and spiritual worlds."


    There were quite a few points drawing my attention in what ire said so far... but one thing stuck out more than all the others.


    Contrary to what one would expect from this scene, it wasn''t anythingw, contract, or business-rted. Instead...


    ''Ourpany?'' I thought, only for a small smile to appear on my lips as I looked up and locked stares with the girl.


    "What?" ire asked, squinting her eyes when she noticed my stare.


    "Ourpany?" I asked out loud, opting to go through with the small tease I nned out in my head.


    "Huh?" ire nearly jumped, taken aback by the nature of my protest. "Are you really that petty to be catching my words like that?" she then asked, her face filling with a look of distant disappointment.


    "Wait, no," I quickly shook my head, taken aback by the way she spun the situation. "It was the other way around! I was hap..."


    With my eyes already locked on the girl, I just couldn''t miss the small twitch of her mouth that just momentarily formed a small grin on her face.


    "Wait..." I muttered as the girl quickly recollected herself and retook the reins over her facial muscles. "You are ying with me!"


    At first, ire opened up her eyes wide and puffed up her chest while straightening her back and raising her chin, all in a bid to make herself look bigger and more serious...


    Only for her serious expression to copse when it broke into a genuine smile of amusement. A smile with a proper dose of warmth in her eyes.


    "Just a tiny little bit?" ire excused herself, her smile only growing wider on her face.


    "If so, then I''m happy again," I bounced the ball back, refusing to give in even an inch in this battle of who could tease the other more.


    In the end, though, we didn''t go to the study to y around but to get some business and some talking done. And with that in mind, I turned my eyes down before quickly scanning the writing of the contract.


    ''It seems to be pretty much the same as what she offered me back before the shit went down,'' I thought, going back with my thoughts to the kidnapping attempt.


    Once again, I had no other choice but to marvel at the things I did all by myself... even in a quasi-meditative state.


    ''It''s a pity I don''t have any recording of what happened,'' I thought, ''it would make it all the easier to figure out what actually happened...''


    In theory, I could imagine using my power to dismantle a gun... or a whole damn car. But in practice, if someone asked me to do it... I wouldn''t even know where to start!


    And so, despite my desperate desire to take ownership of this ability too, I had no other choice but to leave it atop the pile of matters that I was not yet ready to tackle.


    "Where do I sign exactly?" I asked once done checking the contract.


    "It''s at the bottom of the third, fourth, and then seventh page," ire hurried to provide an answer.


    Three turns of the page and a few scribblester, my fate was sealed.


    "Done," I announced as I put the pen away and removed the contract from my mind, fully focusing on the girl ahead. "Now that I''m your ve, can you tell me what made your father decide to go through with this?"


    There was no need for me to be any more specific. Even if there was a great rift between how I looked at this contract and how someone rich like ire or Chihiro would see it... But there was no denying the fact that my terms were far, far too generous for a simple contractor''s work.


    Those terms were even better than anything a proper specialist could ask for!


    ''Then there is the point of my creations breaking all sorts of taboos just by existing...''


    This was the one thing that I just couldn''t figure out.


    If it was just about hiring me, I could attribute it to ire''s personal curiosity and her father doting on her too much.


    But with the terms that Chihiro offered, this could no longer be ssified as a matter of the father merely spoiling his daughter as he fulfilled every of her wishes.


    "That''s one hell of a topic to pick out for an ice-breaker," ire sighed, her face revealing that I either made quite the mistake by bringing this question up... Or maybe, proving that I hit a jackpot of a story that while obviously lengthy, would reveal not only Chihiro''s reasons but also motivation behind those.


    "Should we talk about something else, then?" I suggested while leaning my head over to the side.


    If ire wasn''tfortable talking about this topic, I had no ns of forcing her to do so.


    At least, not during the very first full day of our shaky cohabitation!


    "No, it''s actually fine, just... It''s a long story," ire stated as she put all of the papers out of her arms and back on the table. She then stretched her hands out and took a step... Only to suddenly wobble in the air as if she lost her footing.


    ''Shit!''


    Following nothing but my instincts, I jumped out of my chair and grabbed the girl by her waist, all just to make sure she wouldn''t topple down on her feet.


    "Thanks..." ire muttered as she stabilized her footing. "It seems that I''m..."


    Before she could finish her sentence, ire wobbled again, as if unable to keep her hips properly stabilized... Only to end up falling down on me and pushing us both onto my chair.


    "Are you okay?!" I cried out right away, my hands already moving ire''s hair to ensure she didn''t hit her head anywhere.


    "Y-yeah, I just..." she put on an embarrassed smile, "I just lost stability for a second, so I should be okay now..."


    "No, you are not," I denied her attempt at standing up, grasping down at her shoulder before pulling her right back down onto myp. "Just sit still for now. You don''t need to be across the table for us to talk, do you?"


    ire hesitated a little bit at first, not exactlyfortable with taking myp for a seat. Ultimately, however, she swallowed her objections and regathered her thoughts while lifting her fist to her mouth and clearing her throat.


    "For you to understand my father''s motives..."


    ''She moved on that quick?'' I thought, taken aback by how swiftly ire managed to pass over the issue of sitting down on myp, and moved ahead to the actual topic of our conversation.


    "...I need to start all the way at the beginning of my own story. What you likely are not aware of, in certain circles, I''m hailed as the bastard daughter of the n''s great elder," ire revealed, only for her face to grow darker as she seemed to shrivel down on myp. "But it''s not my father that this title refers to."

 Chapter 53: The weight of purity

    "So, to sum it up," I spoke out after taking a sip of the coffee that the house attendants brought just before ire reached the peak of the backstory of her father.


    "Your parents fell in love with each other, even though the talent of your father, perfectly formidable and respectable in its own right, was nothing on the innate talent of your mother''s bloodline," I summed up the part that took ire about fifteen minutes to properly tell.


    Then, to keep my throat wet and going, I took another sip, allowing the herbal drink to soothe my throat...


    Which made me feel like a rat who had just switched from eating straight from a dumpster to one that somehow got a golden ticket to a world-ss restaurant.


    And it applied to pretty much everything in this ce.


    Every room was filled with a different, distinct aroma, be it the slight sweetness of the gently burnt sandalwood of the main living room, the scent of the essential oils in the bathroom proper, the herbal smell of the fresh, morning forest, all the way to the old, smokey aroma of old books filled with the scent of the old whiskey barrels from which the carpenters sourced the wood for the shelves of the study.


    When walking inside, as opposed to keeping my shoes on as I did back at my ce, I instead enjoyed the perfectly soft carpet underneath my feet, turning every step from a simple motion of conquering space into a spiritual experience.


    Then there was food, the furnishing of the room, the sights outside...


    Everything about this ce gave me a feeling of some other, different world...


    A world that was all toomon to ire.


    "While the elders of the n couldn''t really stop your mother from spending time with your father, everything changed when your mom got pregnant with you, her pregnancy being the solid proof that your father has... spoiled her?" I finally turned my mere repetition of ire''s story into an actual question.


    Hearing the change in my voice, ire raised her eyebrow and turned her head slightly off to the side, over her right shoulder, all the while giving me a puzzled look.


    "Yeah, what about it?" she asked before carefully reaching out to the table and grabbing her cup of herbal tea.


    As careful as ire was to move it over from the table and then take the sip, most likely doing her best to avoid spilling it over and burning me, her face when she drank it... didn''t change in the slightest, once again proving that what was luxury to me, was merely an every-day matter for her.


    And while it was something I at least prepared myself mentally for... This difference in our perception of the world also served as a constant reminder for me.


    A constant reminder that if I ever wanted to be an integral, active, and respectable part of her n, this was the level of life I would have to be able to provide for her, lest I wanted ire to associate the drop in her living standards with her rtionship with me!


    ''What an unsettling thought...''


    Still, rather than discussing my worry for the future, I''ve decided to focus on the topic at hand.


    "Was that... spoiling act..." As easy as it was for me to lead up the discussion up to this point, right as I was about to voice the final preamble to my true question, I realized how it would sound.


    "Yes, it means he took my mom''s virginity," ire sighed, most likely reading enough into my thoughts merely by observing as the worry grew on my face.


    ''Aren''t we... a bit too good at reading each other, even though we met like what, a week ago?'' Yet another unsettling thought carved out a piece of my brain to call home.


    "Yeah, that''s the thing I wanted to ask about," faced with the curveball of having ire state the obvious openly and directly, I wasn''t really sure how I was supposed to respond... so I just pieced some words into a response that carried absolutely no meaning or intent to it.


    "Hmm?" ire made a small, inquisitive noise, only to then raise her hand, grab my chin, and turn it over to the side, forcing me to look right into her face.


    And with the girl sitting directly across myp, there couldn''t be more than just a few inches between our faces.


    "Why are you so interested in my mom''s virginity?" ire asked, her face suddenly all tense while her eyes squinted as if focused on searching for even the tiniest detail of dishonesty.


    "It''s not your mom''s..." I ended up biting my lips before lightly shaking my head. "I was wondering, if it was such a big deal for your mom, then..." Once again, I lost my own voice, struggling to push the right words out of my mouth.


    But while it would be perfectly easy to just change the topic and avoid the burning question in my mind, it simply wasn''t the right thing to do. Not if I wanted to do right by ire.


    "Then, isn''t it kind of a massive deal for cultivators in general? For example... for you?"


    I could still remember the hint of red, the way ire''s body all tensed up, the pained look on her face thatsted for a good second before the pleasure took over...


    Even if it hadn''t been said out loud thus far, I was pretty sure that ire offered me her first time justst night.


    And now I just learned that apparently, for cultivators, it was a pretty big deal, something much greater than the proof of purity that was otherwise rooted into human society as a virtue.


    "I mean..."


    Strangely enough, while clearly amused as I struggled to voice my concerns when it was her turn to speak, ire''s cheeks turned red while her eyes escaped to the side, moving as far off my face as they could.


    "Yeah..." ire lowered her head while her voice grew weaker and her hold over my neck harder. "It kinda is."


    For quite some time, we simply sat down in silence, with nothing but the sound of our breathing and the ticking of some old clock on the wall to apany our thoughts.


    Ultimately, I moved my right hand from the armrest of the chair and onto ire''s waist before locking her in an embrace when I added my left hand.


    "While I''m still not aware of how big of a deal it is, I promise," I rested my forehead against ire''s shoulder, "I will do my best to make it count."


    Before my anxiety about ire''s response could start spiking up, I felt her hand rest down upon the back of my head before she moved it up and down, gently caressing my scalp with her delicate fingers.


    "You don''t have to worry about it. It was never my intention to burden you with this thought."


    For just a little longer, I epted ire''s gentle cuddle, before pulling my head back and recovering my smile, as tall of an order as it was.


    "Okay then, moving on..." I muttered, my head lifted from ire''s shoulder... but my hands still locked over her waist. "Because of the difference of status, the moment she gave birth to you and ensured your safety, your mom had no other choice but to permanently retreat to the spiritual ne, right?"


    Instead of answering, ire simply nodded her head.


    "That''s correct," she then spoke out only to end up biting down on her lower lip. "And ever since, it was my father''s one wish and desire to grow powerful enough to gain the indisputable right to reunite with her."

 Chapter 54: Claires inquisition (part 1)

    "I don''t get it..." I muttered when the silence following ire''s statement grew to be unbearable; a reality that came all the sooner with her as close as directly sitting down on myp.


    And those four words of mine turned out to be good enough to break the silence, but not good enough to avoid putting a frown on ire''s face.


    "Is it really that weird to dedicate your everything to follow the woman you love?" she asked, her voice a mix of apprehension and slight anger.


    ''How did she...?'' I shook my head before hurrying it up to rify the meaning of my doubts.


    "That''s not the part I was talking about. When ites to your father''s dedication, I believe it''s perfectlymendable and worth admiration," I added, honestly expressing my stance on those things in order to soothe ire''s slighted feelings. "In fact, I wish this kind of approach would be the norm, but I believe the society is too far gone for it to be a standard anymore."


    ire''s body rxed a little bit, sinking just a slightly bit deeper down on myp before her head rested against my shoulder as she looked up to my face.


    "What confuses you, then?" she asked, her voice weirdly small and restrained.


    ''She''s hiding something?'' I thought, only to then roll my eyes. ''She''s a woman, obviously she does. All I can do is hope one day she will deem me worthy to share her thoughts and feelings. Just... not yet.''


    "You said that your father was cultivating diligently for years, so..." I hesitated for a second. "Why change now? Is not like he can gain a whole lot from those two devices I made and there''s no guarantee I will be able to reach the level of crafting that will be of use to him anytime soon. What''s more, aren''t I just a massive risk factor for someone of the traditionalist faction?"


    ire shifted her weight on myp a little as her expression returned to the casual one I was more or less already familiar with. What''s more, there was even a lingering hint of a smile on her lips!


    "You are quite observant, aren''t you?" she mentioned only to sigh and shake her head before bringing her hands back to the armrest of the chair and then leaning back. "It is true that for pretty much my entire life, my father did nothing but diligently cultivate. But after all those years..." the slight smile on her face grew dimmer while her eyes dropped down.


    "Right now, he has one... maybe two years left before the gates to the spiritual world will forever close to him."


    ''Huh?'' I twitched a little when yet another detail of cultivation culture made itself known to be something I had no idea about.


    "It''s been three years since he broke through to the ninth rank. And from what I can tell, he doesn''t have much hope of breaking to the tenth stage and then beyond the mortal realm within the short time that he has left."


    For a moment, ire turned silent... Only to then jump out of myp and swirl on her heel only to then lean forward as she brought her face pretty damn close to mine.


    "And that''s where youe in!" she said with a yful smile that only grew when my eyes inevitably gravitated towards the impressive cleavage of her loose loungewear.


    Still, I wasn''t really convinced yet.


    "I know just how little I know about cultivation, but even I won''t believe that a newbie like me could make a difference for a powerhouse like your father," I pointed out, refusing to be yed like an idiot.


    ''What is this? Even after everything, she still can''t give me the proper reason?''


    The glint in ire''s eyes indicated she could guess what was going on in my mind. And yet... she simply leaned back before stuffing her hands into the pockets of her halfway-zipped hoodie.


    "I assume you are somewhat aware that you are special, aren''t you?" ire spoke as she leaned her head over her right shoulder.


    "Yeah," I nodded my head, too curious about ire''s and Chihiro''s real reasons for hiring me to y stupid now. "It''s hard to tell how much of my worthes from a fresh view on things and how much of it is an actual talent of mine, but yeah, I know that I''m..." For a second I hesitated, before putting a stupid grin on my face and leaning back in the chair, "I know that I''m built different."


    Using those words, even if only as a joke, still made me nearly roll my eyes over my own silliness.


    On the other hand, instead of appreciating the joke, ire just... shook her head, as if I just proved her point.


    "Now, I hope it won''t get to your head too much, but you''ve just confirmed that you have no idea just how special you are," ire stated only to turn around and walk a few steps away... And then turn right back with now a much more serious look on her face.


    "That first device of yours, the one that I actually bought before all of this," she spread her arms out as if to point at the whole mansion we were in, "at what stage of cultivation do you think people would no longer be able to benefit from it in any real, meaningful way?"


    ''Is this a trick question?'' I squinted my eyes. After a short moment, however, I decided to take a different approach.


    "I thought you would be aware by now, but beyond some absolute basics, I know pretty much nothing about cultivation. Save for the first two stages of Qi gathering and Qi condensation, I don''t even know the names of the rest, not to bring up the actual meaning of those stages."


    Hearing my words, ire only nodded her head while keeping a serious look on her face.


    "Yeah, I''m aware of yourck of knowledge. And while it''s the very next thing that we will work on, for now, just give me a true guess rather than an educated one."


    Facing such a direct request, I no longer had any wiggle room to try to improve my answer. And so, just like ire requested, I thought for a moment before raising my cheeks a bit while lowering my upper eyelids in a look of uncertainty before firing my shoot.


    "Second... no, third stage?" I guessed, even going as far as to up my prediction a bit to make it more in line with the vibe ire''s questioning was giving me, even if it went against her request not to make it an educated guess.


    "Close enough," ire stated while nodding her head, only to then raise it right back and look right in my face again, "then, how about the improved version? You know, the one that actually looked nice, worked far better and caught the attention of my father?"


    ''Oh, that one?'' I thought, recalling the sight of the device Ipleted while fully relying on my old, uncontroble meditation.


    "Let''s say... fourth stage?"


    Once again, I went against ire''s wish and instead of making a random guess, I put forth an educated one.


    After all, the difference between the prototype and the perfected version... was not that big. Sure, it operated smoother and had four times the throughput of the prototype... But most of its improved qualities came from pretty much stacking four prototypes into a single device, not an added skill necessary to make it look as nice andplete as I did.


    Then, while I was extremely ignorant about cultivation, even I knew that as one climbed through the ranks, their power didn''t grow linearly. And while it wasn''t exactly a geometrical increase either... I was much more inclined to believe the exponential growth to be closer to the actual baseline!


    And with all of that in mind, while I obviously increased the top rank that device would be of use to... I struggled to believe going beyond just one rank increase would be reasonable.


    Amidst all of this, however, just one question continued to ring silently yet persistently in my head. A question that if answered, would allow me to skip the whole process and arrive all the way at the end-goal of this exchange.


    ''Just where is she going with all of this?''

 Chapter 55: Claires Inquisition (part 2)

    "Then, how about that air purification thingy?" ire continued with her questioning, although the slight change in her intonation suggested that she was nearing the end of it.


    "Extending the pattern from earlier, I would say the sixth stage?" I guessed, no longer able to use my earlier line of thinking toe up with any sort of reasonable estimate.


    At that point, ire smiled widely before casually moving all the way back to my chair until her knees were just an inch away from mine.


    "Dear, if what you said was true, my father would never allow me to put myself as a part of the deal," ire smiled, too engrossed in her own line of thinking to realize the weight of what she just said.


    ''Do I mention it?'' I thought while trying to stop the warmth spreading in my lower body from affecting my face.


    After all, she just said that it was her own idea to include herself in the deal, not something her potentially calctive father did. And with that in mind... wasn''t she the one most interested in getting closer to me?


    That thought, as potentially poisonous as it could be... For someone like me who lived pretty much a life of failures was...


    A weird thing to hear, but by no means an unpleasant one.


    "So, allow me to fix your misunderstanding," ire said as she leaned forward with her serious expression defeating her smile and making an unexpectedeback as she rested her hands down on my shoulders, once again giving me the dilemma of whether to keep up the etiquette and look up to her face, or give in to my instincts and go back to inspecting the quality of her chest through the deep cleavage of her loungewear.


    "That first device of yours, cultivators of the first three ranks would kill for. In fact, it would still be of use to the fourth and fifth ranks, albeit to a limited degree. As for the improved version, even the fourth stage cultivators would go crazy after it, with fifth level ones, just like me, still being able to greatly benefit from its effects."


    That was... unexpected.


    But what made my soul enter the state of turmoil wasn''t ire''s revtion, but the meaning hidden behind it.


    Still, before I could even move to process the chaotic mess of thoughts inside my brain, I still had to hear one more thing.


    "What about the air purification unit, then?


    ire smiled again, making herself look for a second as if she considered the idea of climbing back on myp. Yet, rather than answering directly...


    "Did you know that even though my father bought all of your things, he actually left that fancy device of yours in my hands, so that we could both properly benefit from its effects?"


    I squinted my eyes a bit.


    "That''s the first time I''m hearing about this, but what does it have to do..."


    "Then, why do you think he didn''t leave that seed of yours too, but opted to take it directly to his cultivation cave instead?"


    Hearing this, my eyes widened as I finally figured out where ire was going with all of that.


    And finally, the question that continued to ring at the back of my head has found its answer.


    "He took it back because it still is of use for him?" I suggested the answer even though I was pretty confident I''d got it right by now.


    Then again, with how little I knew about cultivation, it wouldn''t be surprising if I had it totally wrong.


    "That''s right," ire didn''t waste any time to let my anxiety linger. "he took it back because he still can get some worth out of it. In fact," ire averted her eyes, "I wouldn''t be all that surprised if it was better than most of the artifacts he bought before..."


    For a moment, ire kept her eyes averted, finally giving me pretty much a free session of watching how her boobs moved up and down along with her breathing pattern.


    The next moment I knew, however, she slid her hands down the circumference of my arms, locking her fingers at my armpits before stepping back and pulling with all the strength of her body to drag me out of the chair.


    ''Hmm?'' Not really sure what her end goal was now, I simply followed her lead and stood up, slow enough to make her believe it was her dragging me up yet fast enough not to make it seem like too much of a challenge.


    ''Strange...'' A sudden thought befell my mind, ''aren''t cultivators supposed to be... stronger than that?''


    Either way, the very moment I stood up, ire instantly dropped a bomb that pushed all the other thoughts out of my head.


    "Now, while I''m not going to put you through the wringer yet if you are that eager to prove your worth, how about we start with the basics of cultivation?" she suggested with a light, charming smile that then quickly evolved into a mischievous grin.


    "Now, strip."


    My eyes turned wide.


    ''That escted rather quickly, didn''t it?''


    Using the fact I was already standing up, I took a step back... only for the edge of the chair to block my shins, nearly making me fall back into the cushions.


    "Excuse me?"


    ire''s grin only grew wider.


    "What, pervy thoughts already filling your head, huh?" she asked, only to then slowly drag her eyes down towards my crotch and widen her smile even further.


    ire then took a step forward and ced her open hand over my chest while getting close enough to make herself look all the cutter when she looked up and gave me a great view of her upturned eyes.


    "If you need it to rx and calm down, I''m down for a quickie. It''s better than having you suffer while I need you to focus on the lesson..."


    ire moved even closer, now openly pushing her breasts against my chest while her deep cleavage left pretty much nothing to the imagination.


    But...


    "You are right," I nodded my head... Only to reach out and grab the girl by her shoulders before gently pushing her to the edge of my personal space. "I am desperate to prove myself to both you and your father so that neither of you will ever bother rethinking the validity of our deal."


    With that said, I slipped out from between ire and the chair, quickly grabbing the edge of my shirt before pulling it up and taking it off, only to throw it on the sofa nearby.


    "Should I take the pants off too?" I asked, turning just my head to look over at the girl.


    I looked over... Only to catch her pouting a little, an expression that vanished the very moment she realized I had my eyes on her.


    "Since you are hard already..." ire rolled her eyes with a hint of dissatisfaction on her face, "You can leave your underwear on. Once you are done, sit down and wait for me to join you."


    I took a step in the direction ire pointed out, only to stop after this single step.


    "Out of curiosity, are you going to..."


    Once again, I caught ire''s stare. This time, however, she was... surprised?


    "And why would I..."


    Just like me before, she cut her sentence short when she saw the look on my face.


    "Since you really want me to spell it out," I turned back to face her again before quickly conquering the distance between us and bringing my hands down to her waist. "You know how it goes, duty before pleasure and all," I stated before leaning in even closer, bringing my lips as close to ire''s ear without actually touching it.


    "So, I really wouldn''t mind having some sort of reward to look forward to if I do my best to work hard."

 Chapter 56: Learning the basics of cultivation

    I sat down in nothing but my underwear and with my legsfortably crossed. My hands rested down on my knees, allowing me to fully rx my shoulders.


    In fact, if not for the heavily ingrained habit of keeping my back perfectly straight at all times, I would likely slump down and, before long, fall into the sweet embrace of the nap.


    The ce where I sat down was merely a few meters away from where I had just sat with ire and drank their insanely tasty herbal tea¡­ And yet, with about ten meters of space between me and that very chair, it was still the closest piece of furniture to me in the entirety of the room.


    In essence, this whole ce looked like a big but rtively ordinary mansion that was transformed into a cultivator''s abode only after its construction was finished.


    With the eye of my imagination, I could easily picture a dividing wall going across the massive room to separate the living area with the sofa, chairs, table, cabs, and all the other pieces of furniture one could expect from the day room from the perfectly clean, open side of it with nothing but thick paddingid across the floor.


    "Okay, let''s start with the basics," ire announced right as I was not only done with learning everything there was to learn about the room and readily approaching the point where, even while keeping my back straight, I was starting to sumb to my desire to take a nap.


    She walked back into the room¡­ in an outfit looking like something in between a proper nightgown and a sexy lingerie aimed to tease all that was underneath.


    ''Is it her way of preparing for the reward I mentioned hoping for?'' I thought, sparing her but a single nce before closing my eyes shut and regting my breathing to calm down the small spark of excitement invoked by her looks in the single instant before I shut my vision off.


    "Mortal cultivation can be divided, in rough terms, into three stages," ire started with the very basics¡­ that already went beyond what I knew beforehand.


    "The first phase of cultivation is all about maniption of the spiritual force. During the first step, you learn how to properly gather it. Or, in more pragmatic terms, you learn how to absorb it from whatever medium you are using, be it the air around you, a medicinal bath, or even holy mes.


    This step can be further divided into the ability to sense your inner Qi, the ability to sense the free Qi, the ability to infuse your body with the free Qi, and so on."


    Judging by the direction of the sound of her steps, ire walked all the way up to my side, only to stop right in front of me, close enough for the slight scent of her fresh skin to reach my nostrils.


    "The second step is all about condensing the Qi you''ve already absorbed. You can imagine it like copsing the fumes from the air into a proper liquid¡­ Just don''t get too stuck on this picture, because spiritual energy has nothing to do with the states of matter you learned back in physics ss. It merely copies them in certain ways, but¡­"


    ire sighed.


    "But that''s a whole other can of worms that we don''t really have the time to unpack now. So, if the first step is all about gathering the spiritual energy, then the second one is all about condensing it into a practically-viable form."


    With that said, ire picked up her pace as she first distanced herself for at least a few meters before starting to circle all around me at a steady, controlled pace.


    "The third and practicallyst step of the first phase is all about refining your condensed spiritual power, or as some say, enriching it."


    ire stopped her walk once again, this time positioning herself behind my back.


    "Now then, care to guess what''s the difference between the two?" she asked, making sure this wasn''t just a monotone lecture but a more interactive, engaging lesson than just her speaking.


    "The first one''s like turning sparse vapor into much thicker liquid while the other is like¡­ distilling strong alcohol out of a weak moonshine?" I attempted to answer while using the first set ofparisons that came to my mind.


    The second part in particr was rooted pretty deep in my mind, forced into my psyche by the slipper of my mother. It was merely an unpredictable end result of my attempt at following the ancient one-four-ten brewing technique as a merely fourteen-year-old kid.


    Back then, however, I didn''t have a banking ount or enough drive to get myself a fermenting valve, which I tried to rece with a simple, stic straw.


    The whole event came to its climax when I identally ended up pushing the five-litter water bottle filled with the mash over, causing all the gases settled within to release, turning my would-be moonshine into a fountain of sticky, stinky paint that I ended up covering half of my basement walls with.


    It was but a single episode of my childhood¡­ yet one that, through the slipper of my mother, ended up deeply ingrained into my mentality, now appearing as an indeliberate choice of words andparisons during a cultivation lesson.


    ''In a sense, one could turn it into a joke. What does a moonshine have to do with cultivation?'' I thought, trying not to smirk at the silliness of this thought.


    "That''s¡­ pretty interesting way to put it," ire''s voice grew slightly warmer for reasons I could likely guess¡­ if I had the balls to open my eyes and take a look at her face.


    Yet, given her choice of clothing for the lesson, by opening my eyes, I risked putting my concentration on an axe!


    After all, how could I focus on the details of ire''s lesson when all I could think about were her curves joyfully bouncing up and down with every step she took?


    "You can remember the second step as turning the spiritual energy denser while the third step as making it more¡­ pure? Or just remember it as the step of cleaning your own Qi. While the theory behind those two steps can seem hard to distinguish, it''s really easier to feel the difference on a practical level," ire exined before clearing her thoughts.


    "Now then, moving on to the fourth stage¡­" she hesitated for a second, "there are two schools of thought. Some believe it to be thest step of the spiritual cultivation of the mortal phase, while others argue it''s a transitional stage with all the rights for a separate categorization."


    "And that fourth stage is¡­?" I asked as soon as I sensed ire close her sentence.


    "Flesh-Qi bnce, otherwise called bodily purification," ire answered as swiftly as I did ask the question, hinting if not outright proving that she somewhat expected me to ask about it.


    "Even though it''s the fourth stage already, you should know it from all the media renditions of it, especially popr in cultivation dramas," ire exined only to then stop her pace, once again standing still right in front of me.


    "This is the stage where cultivators use their condensed and purified Qi to cleanse their flesh from all the physical imperfections, turning their bodies into vessels capable of the second phase of cultivation, the four core-based stages."

 Chapter 57: From learning the basics to figuring out the secrets on my own?

    "The fifth stage of the mortal cultivation is officially called core foundation, otherwise known as true condensation. And it just so happens to be the stage that we are both currently on, meaning, it''s also thest stage I can exin with a degree of expertise or depth."


    ire''s lecture continued without even the slightest disturbance, fanfare or the audience pping, and yet¡­


    And yet I could tell that just as she earlier divided mortal cultivation into three phases, now that we started to talk about the second step of it, this was going to change and do so in a hurry.


    "This stage is all about taking the spiritual energy you''ve gathered, condensed and then refined¡­ and then condensing it again, beyond the limits of what you thought or felt possible before."


    The noise of ire''s steps once again reached my ears, signifying she had resumed her stroll around me in this dojo-like part of the living room.


    "If we extend the example from before when you first condense your spiritual power, you turn it from a gas into a liquid. Then, when you are at the fifth stage, you condense that liquid into a proper solid."


    ire''s steps stopped.


    "Then again, thisparison is a simplification of such degree, it is hardly any different from a lie at this point, so be careful with applying that sort of understanding too directly."


    ire went back to walking around me, pushing just one question to my head.


    ''Is there any sort of significance to when she moves and when she stays still?''


    "Once you properly condense your spiritual energy into a basic core, you enter the next step, the sixth stage of core establishment," the noise of ire''s steps stopped, "which, as I stated before, is a foreign territory for me, so I need you to decrease your trust in my words even further from now on."


    Her steps resumed once again.


    ''Could it be¡­''


    "ording to what I''ve heard, as a sixth-stage cultivator, your goal is to properly establish your spiritual core as the basis of your cultivation. In a certain sense, it''s only at the sixth stage that one gains the ability to draw strength from their spiritual core, as opposed to just diffusing parts of it and unleashing it as the spiritual energy of lower ranks."


    ''Is she stopping whenever she inserts a caveat or off-thought, walking only as she concentrates on the core of the lecture?'' I thought, believing to finally crack the mystery of ire''s pacing.


    "So, to sum it up, while fifth stage cultivators use their spiritual core as a sort of a central storage of their energy, a storage much greater than what their flesh can hold thanks to how condensed the spiritual energy is within it, once reaching the sixth rank, it literally bes the centerpiece of one''s whole cultivation."


    ire''s steps stopped, giving me the opportunity to verify my guess.


    "Now, any questions so far?" she asked, unknowingly making me bring my eyebrows closer in a slight confusion.


    ''Wait, so it''s not just tangents but questions too?'' I thought while forcing a small, rxed smile on my lips and raising my face¡­ but remaining sane enough not to open my eyes.


    "I think I do follow you, so let''s keep going."


    For a moment, there was no sound indicating ire picked up her pace, making it seem as if she was just standing there and staring me down¡­


    "Good. Then, nextes the seventh step, the core expansion stage where one spreads the influence of their centerpiece throughout their body. Just like we¡­" ire''s voice cut off for a second as she noticed her mistake, only to quickly correct herself, "Well, you didn''t exactly go through this process, so I can''t talk about us going through it but¡­"


    This time, it was a sight that marked yet another stop to ire''s pace, putting her in a position just a few steps behind my back. Yet, when she moved again, something was different.


    "I can''t really exin it in words, so I''m going to show you how it works instead."


    Soon, I figured out what was different about the sound of her steps, as short as it was. And it was all thanks¡­ to the gentle yet slightly cold touch of her fingers that blessed my back roughly at the mid-point of my spine.


    I wasn''t really sure what ire was trying to do at first, especially when she suddenly dug her fingernail into my skin brutally enough to actually cut it open¡­ An uncertainty that vanished when I felt her own energy suddenly invade my own system.


    At first¡­ it simply diffused throughout my body, like the Qi I would inherently absorb from the air while meditating. Then, once the process established itself well enough for me to recognize it¡­ Her energy suddenly started to radiate towards itself.


    One whiff of her energy would move towards the other, while the next one would rush to join with the one after that. Soon enough, a small bout of her spiritual force now condensed to the point where I could hardly sense its presence while remaining fully aware of the weight of the power hiding behind it.


    "Since I''ve already purified my Qi, I can''t really showcase that step, so let''s just assume it happened and move on," ire exined out loud, only to then nearly send me fainting when she unleashed a storm of her energy directly into my system.


    This time, however, rather than doing anything new¡­ she simply diffused the same, concentrated energy that I felt condensing before throughout my flesh¡­ before actually infusing the spiritual power into the physical aspect of my body.


    ''Flesh-Qi bnce, I guess?'' I thought, trying my best to figure out what was going on before she would feel the need to exin it out loud.


    As for how she knew whether I understood the part of the lesson or not¡­ I honestly had no idea.


    But it was also the very next thing that happened that drew my attention, as the whole process suddenly felt¡­ vaguely familiar.


    ire''s spiritual energy within my flesh suddenly¡­ copsed, as if its structure could no longer handle its weight. Bit by bit, starting with the tips of my fingers, her energy would recede, all falling into the center of its spiritual weight¡­


    Right where I could feel my own energy radiating out into my body.


    "That''s the fifth step," ire didn''t say but whispered instead, making use of the close proximity of our bodies. "As for how the next step looks like, I can only give you my idea rather than an outright solution¡­"


    ire didn''t finish her sentence. Instead, the ball of her condensed energy suddenly started to grow unstable, as if the energy suddenly decided it no longer wanted to exist within a singr point of her body and tried to reverse the process of founding the core, spreading its influence all the way back to all the areas of my flesh that her spiritual power was infused into before.


    A process that continued for quite some time¡­ but never reached its proper finish, leaving my soul and mind in a state of weird confusion and disarray.


    "I''m sorry, but that''s the limit of how far I can¡­"


    Before ire could finish her words, I caved in to what felt like merely my instincts. And instead of trying to stretch the influence of the fake core of her energy back to parts of my flesh it previously visited without upsetting the bnce of said core in the process¡­


    I just skipped the stretching part altogether, allowing its influence to simply manifest in the areas I wanted!


    ''No, that''s not right either,'' I thought as I grew numb to ire''s touch and deaf to her words, too focused on the riddle in front of my mind''s eye to pay attention to anything else.


    Sure, manifesting the power of ire''s fake core and even my own power was certainly possible. A fact I proved when I first seeded at doing so¡­


    But it was a process so unstable, that it simply couldn''t be right.


    ''I refuse to believe this is the right way to go about things, not if it forever burdens you with this constant need to keep the core''s bnce.''


    I took in a full breath, filling my lungs all the way to their brim¡­ and then holding the air in within my pumped-out chest, as if threatening myself not to take another breath until I solved this puzzle.


    Seconds passed, soon turning into fractions of a minute before bing a proper, full minute.


    But I didn''t stop there.


    A minute after minute passed, and while the feeling of suffocating started to ring the rm bells in my mind, I just kept going, relying on the improvements to my flesh introduced by this very spiritual power.


    ''Wait¡­''


    All of a sudden, I allowed all the exhausted air to escape from my lungs before taking another, hurried breath.


    ''Why am I even trying all that hard? Isn''t my gimmick to rely on the modern technology?''


    With this thought, all the messy ideas that stacked up on each other in my mind suddenly vanished, reced with a neatly organized list of potential solutions to the problem that I tranted into a less mystical and more practical dimension.


    Rather than thinking about using my core, spiritual energy, and Qi¡­ I switched to imagining circuits, roads, canals, and the like.


    ''Gateways¡­''


    What if I could construct a set of mental pathways and gates for the spiritual energy to flow through, forcibly keeping the core stable with all the gates closed and allowing it to return back to its chaotic state when one of them opened up, simultaneously giving it a way to release the energy that excess pressure that destabilizes it, to begin with?


    Like a set of valves attached to a pressurized tank, allowing one to exploit this very pressure to direct the tank''s content wherever they desire?


    ''No, that would be just as much strain on the brain as trying to do it manually.''


    ''How about pulsating it out? Like the trick they employ when using just a few cables to light up a huge number of diodes in any configuration one could desire?''


    Because some diodes woulde with a dy between the moment the energy cuts off and their light properly vanishes, by circting those signals at a rate faster than the dy, one could use a set of just a few cables to light up pretty much any number of diodes in any setting they wanted. A feat that seemed impossible without the prior knowledge of this quality of the diodes.


    ''No, this idea is far tooplicated. And how do I even go about choosing which ces should the pulses be attracted to go to¡­ !!!''


    It failed idea¡­ that finally guided me in the right direction.


    ''What if I just make a set of points all over my body that on their own serve to discharge the excess pressure and moderate the chaotic state of the core, feeding energy into the rest of my body in the process?''

 Chapter 58: Statistically infinitesmall margin of error

    The problem with all the ideas that initially popped up in my head could all be centralized to just one factor.


    Complexity.


    Inherently, the process of core establishment within one''s body stood in direct opposition to the concept of founding it. After all, while one aimed to condense all of one''s energy into a singrity, the other advocated the growth of the range of its influence.


    It was one thing to have a spiritual core and another to be able to put them to effective use.


    As such, destabilizing the core seemed necessary to achieve this, even if it went against the idea of total concentration of one''s power.


    The problem was, that this was already a process that required quite the focus, as it went directly against the nature of the stage the two of us were in. As a result, there was extremely limited room for further aspects for one to pay attention to.


    That''s why, the solution couldn''t be anythingplex¡­ but in essence, that was all there was to it.


    This same problem gued all the solutions I initially came up with due to just how much maintenance andplex arraying they required. A task quite like the idea of fully memorizing aplicated blueprint as one went about drawing it in their thoughts in the first ce!


    ''It has to be something simple. And figuring out the ces for this energy to go¡­''


    Stuck in my own world, I couldn''t think of anything else but the puzzle before me.


    ''Is it just a habit I developed when I sharpened all of my attention before every strike?'' I thought, distracting myself for but a moment.


    A process that resulted in my mind taking but a momentary breather from its task as it focused on something else.


    A short-term rest that instantly resulted in a proper idea.


    ''What if I just make end-points all over my body, so that the chaotic energy from my destabilized core would always have a huge array of equally attractive points that it could discharge to at random?''


    I gulped my saliva down as the sense of something great loomed in the back of my brain.


    I wasn''t there to fully figure it out yet. Still, somehow, I could tell that I was on the right track!


    Either way, even if this momentary feeling implied there was much more to this topic than what I noticed, for now, I was more than happy with the current range of my discovery.


    ''Just by raising the number of the outputs from the core to a certain level, the random chance any of those points would have for the core to discharge into it would make it so that my entire body would have constant ess to the energy of my core?''


    It was all about simple math.


    If one imagined the problem with the core as a center of the sma ball, then a single point of discharge would be akin to putting one finger to the ball''s outer surface, leading to the creation of the arc discharging currents between the two, short-ended points.


    A circuit carved out by nature''s energy through the usually non-conductive air.


    In terms of cultivation, however, I could simply destabilize my core in a way that would make it spill tiny amounts of its energy at extremely high frequency. And by just increasing the numbers of pulses in a unit of frame¡­''


    My whole body tensed up¡­


    Allowing me to realize that in the process of this potentially useless and outright wrong self-discovery of cultivation, I somehow brought my hand to my chin and rubbed it a little as Ipletely removed myself from reality to immerse myself in the problem.


    A state extremely simr to when I cultivated, just this time¡­ It felt a whole lot more¡­ matter-of-fact? As if it was merely a part of my nature rather than the brutal interference of some power hiding within my Qi.


    ''Maybe this feeling changed because I''ve apparently reached the rank of Core foundation myself?''


    I had nothing beyond ire''s word for it¡­ And my own feeling.


    The world itself now felt¡­ just every-so-slightly richer, more vibrant, as if it regained a bit of its essence.


    Still, as amazing as it was, I had a potentially groundbreaking discovery toplete and share with ire, didn''t I?


    "Hey¡­"


    Despite paying absolutely no attention to the world around me for quite some time¡­ I spoke out while pushing my eyelids open.


    This moment was way too important for me to think about the risk of seeing ire in the pajama-like outfit.


    ''No matter how adorable she is, this is potentially too big for me to care¡­!'' I thought, fully aware of the one aspect of cultivation that ire have yet to mention.


    The reason why, with every cultivation era, the entire concept behind it changed. After all, during both the mystical and restoration eras, all the cultivators ever wanted was to either find a perfect path to cultivate or perfect the means they already had to do it. All in a bid to make the results more consistent.


    In a sense, one could consider each step on the path of cultivation to be a certain modifier, multiplying certain aspects of one''s being. It could be strength, perception, agility, and, quite frankly, anybination of those and many other aspects.


    But this modifier had a range.


    If someone perfectly mastered the first three ranks of their cultivation, they would be in an extremely different spot to those who just breezed through it. Which, in turn, was another reason why cultivation usually took such an extensive amount of pain and effort!


    For why would anyone, in their pursuit of greatness, intentionally cut down on their future potential in a bid to grow stronger¡­ faster?


    But, regardless if it was mystical or restoration age, cultivators always ran into the wall¡­ The very wall that science aimed to eliminate.


    For while cultivation operated on the basis of feelings, mysticism, spirit, and consciousness, all ambiguous concepts¡­


    Science was all about methods, numbers, and a proven track record of different causalities.


    If one smashed a ss against a rock a thousand times and it always smashed, then the thousandth and first piece of ss was likely to shatter on a rock as well. You need to put ten smaller weights to bnce a single, ten-times heavier one.


    And right now, I found a way to use simple math along with extremely simplistic mental construction¡­ to ensure the mathematically best possible oue for establishing the power of my core all over my body!


    For if the number of pulses in a unit of time was high enough, the statistical error of misdistribution of the Qi discharging to a random end-point could be forcefully brought to such minuscule levels, they effectively didn''t exist, just like some math functions always grew nearer to specific solutions never to fully reach them irregardless of the argument used to calcte the result.


    "Hey, what!" ire shouted right in my face, forcing me right out of the mindhole I promptly fell into as soon as I raised my voice a while ago.


    "What''s going on?!" ire shouted, her face flushed with panic and worry.


    ''Oh right, I was sitting in silence for god knows how long¡­'' I realized, shaking my head to let the girl calm down a little¡­ Only to reach out and grab for her hand, stopping her from retreating now that she could calm down seeing how I returned to my senses.


    "Is it just me or did you mention that all you need to advance now is enlightenment?" I asked, despite not even knowing how those words appeared on my lips.


    It was all my instinct, all just a random feeling that felt too¡­ natural and matter-of-fact for me to ignore.


    "Huh?" ire shook, her eyes turning wide. "When did I mention those¡­?!"


    Her shock was far greater than what I expected. For even if it was just a hunch of mine¡­ Why was she so surprised right now?


    Was it because I used those words?


    Was there some sort of greater meaning behind them?


    "Actually, I want to try something out," I revealed, tightening my grasp on her hand while making sure not to cause her any actual pain¡­ All the while ignoring the beauty of this flustered girl standing right in front of me in just some loose, fluffy, pajamas-like loungewear


    "Huh?"


    Still shocked, taken aback, and suddenly out of breath, ire tried to take a step back, only for me to pull back on her hand, causing her to fall right back and then rest lightly against my chest.


    ire didn''t wait even a second to use this opportunity to hide her face in my chest, where my eyes couldn''t reach.


    "I mean, you can stop it at any point you want, any point you feel it is wrong or dangerous¡­"


    I lowered my eyes and took a deep breath before raising them back just a little and prompting ire''s chin up with my hand to make her look back right into my eyes.


    "But would you be willing to trust me for just a moment?"

 Chapter 59: Perfect breakthrough

    This day... was weird.


    When ire woke up next to Tim, she nearly jumped out of bed in panic. In the end, however, rather than escaping to get herself dressed up...


    She ended up just... lying there and watching his sleeping face for so long, that shepletely lost track of time.


    Then, Tim woke up, they got dressed, and moved on with their day... Only to end up when she became his teacher and taught Tim the basics of cultivation that pretty much every cultivator knew before they advanced beyond the first cultivation stage of Qi gathering.


    But with all of that said...


    ''What?''


    "Would you be willing to trust me for just a moment?"


    ire looked up and into Tim''s determined eyes.


    There was something in his face... No, it was something in those deep eyes of his that prevented the girl from looking away or, for that matter, taking her hand out of his hold.


    "O-okay..." ire muttered in a trembling voice, strangely agitated by this new face of the man she came to live with.


    ''But just what does he need my hand for? It''s not like he can connect to my spirituality without the direct contact between our blo... WOAH!''


    ire nearly jumped when a presence suddenly intruded upon her soul... but did so in such a gentle and matter-of-fact manner, she simply couldn''t raise her defenses against it.


    It was an invasion so deprived of hostility or the intent to break through her defenses... that her mental defenses simply didn''t consider it to be an invasion of her privacy, to begin with!


    But that... That was merely the first and the mildest out of the surprises that Tim prepared for her at this moment.


    At first, he simply grasped a silver of her own spiritual power... before focusing on it with all of his attention. And bit by bit, by rooting this whisker of power in its ce, he continued to reinforce it, as if to make it a new element of her cultivation of the same kind as her core.


    An element that she didn''t even need to consciously control. An element that... just was there, roughly at the tip of the pinky of her left hand.


    Then, he moved on, repeating the whole, lengthy process of slowly rooting such a point in her other finger. This time, however, while it still took a while, the length of the process decreased as if to reflect Tim ironing out the kinks and simply getting better at the job.


    Bit by bit, he continued to litter her body with those uniform points, tendrils of sorts.


    And somewhere along the line, ire simply rxed and allowed him to do as he wished... even though his current actions were a much greater invasion of her privacy than when she offered him her purity!


    ''He''s so gentle...'' ire thought as she fell deeper and deeper into the state of near-perfect rxation, soon starting to long to just get closer, crawl into his arms, and just... rest down against his chest while allowing him to keep doing whatever the heck he wanted to do to her.


    Somewhere along the line, ire lowered her guard so far down, she actually started to doze off!


    She dozed off, only to wake up when Tim gave her a slight shake.


    "Are you awake?" he asked, only to reveal a look of concern on his face when ire opened up her eyes and looked up.


    "I..." the girl hesitated for a little, her mind too mushy, toofy to properly process his question.


    Thankfully, it wasn''t a hard one, allowing ire to reply even without her mind at its peak.


    "Mhmm..." she ended up muttering while bringing her other hand up to her mouth and covering it with her fingers now coiling down to turn into a fist.


    ''I wonder if he thinks I''m cute right now,'' ire thought, only somewhat vaguely of just how much her thoughts have strayed from the topic of cultivation that she was supposed to be lecturing Tim about.


    ''Wait...''


    It was this realization that forced the girl back awake.


    This notice of how things... were a lotfier than they should be!


    There was absolutely no strain on her spirituality, even after she allowed Tim a free rein over it enough time to fall into a shallow sleep. She didn''t feel the weight of her core either, proving he wasn''t probing into it at all.


    ''What''s going on? Did he...''


    ire''s face froze.


    It took her over a year to figure out that she needed to destabilize the core she worked so hard to create if she wanted to advance beyond her current limits. Then, it took pretty much as long for her to learn how to properly control this risky process and slowly, slowly spread its influence over pretty much the whole of her body.


    But now?


    The familiar sense of the power bursting through her flesh was fully gone as if Tim took all that she worked so hard to develop and... made it vanish?!


    ''What the hell?! What did he actually do?!''


    Freaking out, ire shook her head and looked up to Tim''s face again...


    Only to realize he was still waiting for a proper answer!


    Which only served to terrify her even further.


    ''If he didn''t even start whatever he wanted to test, then what is he nning to...''


    ire didn''t get to finish her sentence when the very same presence that she quickly epted the meddling off... suddenly turned extremely hostile as it pierced right into the core of her cultivation, disturbing its flow with enough strength and intensity to send her cultivation straight to a berserk state!


    "STOP!" ire cried out... but it was toote.


    Her core reached the point where just a single re of its energy would tear it apart from the inside...


    Tim''s influence stopped.


    Her core reached the state of imminent copse.


    Her thoughts nearly ceased as the reality dawned upon her head.


    And then, the wave of the energy came...


    But instead of shattering her core into pieces and turning her into a mindless monster that would rampage until her scattered spiritual energy was fully exhausted...


    Instead, her body suddenly filled with as much energy as it had back when she was still at the fourth stage of QI-flesh bnce.


    But things didn''t end there. No, this return to the lower rank... was something that happened only for a single instant.


    It was merely the first thing she felt when the energy rushed into every single muscle, bone, and fiber of her physical being, growing stronger and stronger with every iteration of the process that was supposed to tear her core apart!


    Her power, something she diligently worked for years to gather, continued to grow stronger and... stronger?


    ''No, that''s not it...'' ire realized when she grew a bit more used to the feeling. ''It''s not like this power is stronger, but more like...''


    ire blinked her eyes as she slowly slid her hand out of Tim''s grasp only to raise it up to her eyes and stare at its palm with disbelief.


    Whatever Tim did, didn''t affect the sum-total of spiritual energy she harnessed in her core. Instead, all it did was give ire a much better handle, much better control of it.


    For her, using the energy of her core up until this point felt like trying to punch something while falling down into an infinite hole.


    But now, Tim offered her a foothold from which she could properly draw and express the power of her punch!


    ''That''s...''


    ire''s eyes widened even further, a feat she never believed to be within the limits of her physique.,


    ''I''ve reached the sixth rank, didn''t I?''


    The idea of the sixth rank was something she kept thinking about ever since she reached the fifth stage. It was her goal for years, making it into something she was intimately familiar with, even though it remained nothing but an unattainable goal all this time.


    But now...


    She simply found herself achieving that stage, even though she never sensed the moment of her breakthrough!


    ''Did it happen when I was asleep?'' ire''s first thought was to deny thiscking element, this missing piece of the puzzle as something she simply slept through while it took ce.


    Then again, Tim properly made sure she was awake before disturbing her core...


    ''Again, wait!''


    With her mind in turmoil, ire focused on her core again... Only to realize that rather than stabilizing, it reached even closer and closer to its absolute limit, way beyond what she ever expected it to be able to withstand.


    It was only by some miracle that the internal forces within it didn''t tear the thing from the inside out, just like it was a miracle the spiritual energy it radiated didn''t umte to do the same from the outside.


    Instead...


    Instead, each outburst of her now chaotic core would instantly vanish, its fierceness drawn away to one of the thousands of points of contact now littered all over her body, all of its minuscule energy drained by the points Tim made and serving to reinforce that specific part of her flesh.


    ''Oh, I see...'' ire thought as she solved the first part of the puzzle. ''So that''s how this arrangement keeps my core from copsing...''


    She then bit her lips.


    Because between the obvious fact that she somehow reached the sixth stage and how she never went through any process of enlightement nor did she experience any sense of breakthrough, there was only one and only possible exnation that took all those points and made them make some sense.


    "Don''t tell me..." a whisper escaped from the girl''s lips as her eyes turned teary from just how intently she stared into the palm of her own hand.


    "A perfect breakthrough?!"

 Chapter 60: What part did I skip? How did we get here?!

    "A perfect breakthrough?"


    I raised my eyebrow as I heard the unfamiliar term.


    And the instant hit of curiosity was strong enough to, kind of, knock me out of my trance.


    The shock on ire''s face proved that, at least to some degree, she understood the implication of what just happened.


    ''Maybe that''s what this perfect breakthrough is about?'' I thought, rationally connecting her words to the emotional state she was in.


    But as seconds passed, ire''s face only sank into greater and greater shock.


    It was a weird show of her face slowly draining out of all its colors.


    Whatever she herself understood about it, I''ve also just proved my theory. And from the weight of presence exploding all over the room, I could see I was right.


    "A perfect breakthrough," ire sighed and slowly raised her strangely tired eyes. She then bit down on her bottom lip as she looked up at me.


    I swayed to the back a bit, floored by her look. And with those curled fingers of hers raised up to her mouth¡­


    ''Fuck, a critical hit¡­''


    She couldn''t be more adorable right now!


    In this loose,fy-looking outfit of hers, she gave off such an unguarded, innocent vibe¡­


    A vibe that when mixed with my suddenly resurfacing memory of just the night before, produced a sense of a filthy, deep satisfaction.


    "Normally, when you advance to the next stage, you use enlightenment to ovee thest hurdle."


    ire''s face slowly turned back to its more serious side, prompting me to calm down with a heavy breath and do the same.


    "But I just advanced," ire announced the obvious while all firing up as if she was presenting a case to a judge. "And there wasn''t a single hurdle on the way."


    ire lowered her head while putting on an extremely tired, inquisitive look as he rubbed her chin over some deep ponder.


    "In other words¡­" she spoke as she breathed out and looked down. Yet, as she raised her eyes¡­


    "What in heaven''s mercy did you do?"


    ''Ugh¡­''


    Honestly, I was at a loss for words.


    There was absolutely nothing I could say about experimenting on someone so close to me with what amounted to merely¡­ an unfinished idea.


    I thought so highly of my ability to craft not only things but also the ideas behind them, that I had never considered the fact I would be experimenting on the one close and pretty damn important person in my current life!


    Still, there was still the factor of this trance of mine, a power that I arrogantly disregarded some time ago, only for it to prove far¡­ heavier of a burden than I thought.


    ''I can control my movements¡­ but my thoughts might not be truly mine.


    It was, honestly, a terrifying sign. All the more if the consequences were to befell those around me¡­ Which pretty much was limited to ire.


    Still¡­


    I raised my eyes to the girl.


    ''Yeah, she''s too precious for me to do it ever again like that, regardless of the current oue.''


    "First off, I''m sorry," I lowered my head, already bearing the weight of the guilt dropping down on my heart, a guilt that only intensified when I looked back at ire''s agitated face.


    It didn''t matter that she was clearly excited rather than disturbed, eager to learn more¡­


    No, it only made me feel all the worse!


    "Listen, what I did, even if it worked in the end, it¡­" I bit down on my lips and looked down. "I had no proof or reason to be as sure it would work as I was. And for imposing my unfinished idea on you, I truly am sorry."


    With that said, though¡­ Armed with my new determination, I summoned the very feeling that led to the current situation.


    "As for what I did, I created a concept that satisfied all the required criteria."


    The voice in my mouth¡­ wasn''t exactly mine.


    And now that I''ve myself reached quite a new height, controlling it grew somewhat easier.


    ire''s eyes went, as unbelievable as it was, even wider.


    Her body visibly tensed up¡­ only for the air around her to suddenly start to weirdly vibrate.


    ire''s attention went somewhere else, proving she herself was startled. And right as it happened, her body suddenly twitched only to rx and copse down to the ground as the power within her fresh stirred up.


    Not a single thought passed through my head as I bolted ahead, cutting the space between us in the short instant it would take for her body to fall down to the ground.


    "And Qi is nothing more than an echo of shared consciousness, isn''t it?"


    ire''s eyes shone with a strange light as she looked up and smiled crazily. Still, hanging down on my arms and unable to support her own weight¡­


    The spiritual energy clearly stirred up inside her as more and more energy filled her flesh only to then drain right back to her core.


    But as the activity of her core intensified, she soon reached some sort of a limit¡­


    Only to smash through it without even a single thought, as the energy in her flesh continued to explode.


    With my inner instinct already in my lips, it couldn''t be easier to spread it over to my eyes. And as I did¡­


    ''Not yet.''


    From just this perfect breakthrough she mentioned, ire''s body skyrocketed so high, that she readily knocked on the gate of yet another stage!


    On one hand, it was great, to see how fast she could advance. But on the other hand, now that I looked closer¡­


    She wasn''t ready for her next step yet.


    I knew nothing about the ranks that were ahead, and yet, I just could tell.


    Right now, ire rode on the wave of the booming energy from her mathematically perfect advancement. But that energy, while sufficient to approach the lower strata of the next stage was nowhere near her full potential.


    "I''m sorry," I leaned over the overly excited if not weirdly horny girl, "but you need to stop."


    I reached for ire''s waist before leaning in even closer.


    "Breathe in¡­" I waited for the girl to follow mymands, "Breathe out."


    For a moment, I patiently observed and coordinated ire''s breathing, all the way to the point where she came back to her senses.


    Yet, even as she stopped¡­ she didn''t give me a single "why" look. And judging from how readily she rushed to break through again¡­


    "I don''t know how, but I can tell it will do you no good to advance now," I lectured the girl with a stern look on my face while squeezing down on her waist as if kneading it. "You can do it¡­ just not yet, okay?"


    Before I knew it, ire already sat down on myp, still keeping her head at a hands-length distance while leaning back on her arms with aplicated look on her face.


    Then again¡­


    ''Isn''t this how pretty much how all of our¡­ more exciting moments started like this?'' I thought, trying to smile in the face of a small disaster in my underwear.


    Not wearing anything but undies didn''t do me any favors when ire''s soothingly warm, fluffy fabric of her onesie pressed down against my thighs.


    Just the sense of her weight atop myp was enough to make me go mad.


    But if there was anything, it could only be one of the two questions that seriously bothered me at this precise moment.


    ''What part did I skip? How the heck did we get here?!''

 Chapter 61: The lesson isnt over yet!

    ''What part did I skip? How the heck did we get here?!''


    How did we go from being amazed by ire''s recent breakthrough to the theory that allowed it to her straddling myp yet again?


    And what was this rather intense look in her eyes as she cradled my head between her hands, keeping my face at just the right angle for her to kiss me?


    Yet, as the two of us breathed into each other faces... the crazed look on the girl''s face slowly started to fade away, faltering just a tiny little bit with every shake of her chest indicating a single instance of her breath.


    "Haaa...." ire exhaled heavily, only for her hands to slide off my cheeks and then down to my shoulders. Next, her head copsed down, falling forward only to then rest against my forehead as herbored breathing continued.


    And then, when she finally appeared to have regained her senses...


    "How..." she whispered, her lips just an inch away from mine.


    Then, with her forehead still resting against mine, she looked up, as if searching for connection to my own eyes.


    "How?" she asked again while straightening her face just the tiny bit necessary for her moving lips to now brush against mine as she spoke. "Is it your Qi?"


    I merely managed to raise my eyebrows when ire went in for the kill and pressed her lips against mine.


    This wasn''t but a normal kiss, however. Her hands wrapped around my neck while her knees moved even further apart only to then move ahead and lock behind my back.


    Before I could even utter a single word of protest or joy, she was already sloppily making out with me, the very presence of her being slowly infusing into my own flesh just the same way I inserted my consciousness in hers.


    Then, as she started to steal some slight whiskers of energy only to hurriedly absorb them back into her own flesh where she could properly inspect those...


    ire''s mind suddenly went astray when I could no longer hold my expected response back and ended up poking her crotch that she so eagerly pressed against mine, with my growing erection.


    "Hah..." ire uttered a small moan as she suddenly tightened her hold over me even harder.


    Next, her hips started to move up and down, as if she wanted to rub her chest against mine... or to rub the center point of her sweats against the deformed part of my undies.


    And then, just like she did before, ire stopped.


    "This spiritual energy of yours..." she whispered as she leaned her head away just far enough to speakfortably, "how is it so pure?"


    ''Excuse me?''


    I raised my eyebrows, not exactly sure what exactly was I supposed to say.


    And so, opting to rather not risk infusing my mouth with this strange power of mine, I simply smiled.


    "This smile of yours, why is it so adorable? Why is your chest so grabbable? Why are your legs so long and sexy or why is your character just the perfect bnce of serious, teasy, and yful?"


    Instead of letting ire pose her questions, I swarmed her with an array of questions of my own, all more and more etched with an intimate vibe than the previous one.


    My hands didn''t remain rooted in ce either, moving first to ire''s waist only to slide down her onesie all the way to where the soft, fluffy fabric kept her ass hidden from direct view.


    And as I grabbed at it... I just couldn''t get enough of how the softness of the fluffy fabric mixed with the just perfect firmness of ire''s lower cheeks, soft enough for my fingers to sink into it while firm enough never to let me forget just what I was grabbing at.


    Again.


    ''How the hell did we get here?''


    I wasn''t sure whether tough or cry. Because all things considered, I wasn''t really all that interested in refusing ire''s advances, even if I only got some partial clue as to what might be behind it.


    In all honesty, the glint of curiosity reaching the level of awe, besides tickling my ego, was also quite the giveaway here.


    And with ire all over my nearly naked self, there was a limit to how long I could care about less critically important matters at hand like¡­ well, her breakthrough that left her with enough momentum to challenge another one straight away!


    "Haaa¡­"ire exhaled before slowly leaning back, her hands weekly hanging down from my shoulders, making it seem as if she was too exhausted to keep them properly up.


    But when I looked ahead and into her upturned, clouded eyes¡­


    ''Fuck¡­''


    I gritted my teeth before reaching out and locking ire''s face between my hands. Then, I leaned in for the fat, juicy kiss. A kiss that could be nothing else but an open invite for some sloppy session of making out like some stupid teenagers.


    Yet, right as ire''s hands started to slip into my undies and grasp the growing treasure there, I pulled away, putting the girl back at arm''s length.


    "Let''s not forget about our n for the day," I suggested, knowingly pushing ire''s advances¡­ aside?!


    "Huh?"


    With her expression already all mushy, just like the sense of dampness I could feel rubbing against my stretched-out boxers, ire¡­ just froze.


    "You know," I smiled, savoring everyst moment of this sudden sense of rejection that dawned upon the girl as she realized what I was talking about, "reward after the lesson, wasn''t it?" I argued while looking at her shocked face while all smiles myself.


    "B-but¡­"


    Today, ire was somewhat¡­ more expressive than usual? Or maybe¡­ she was less guarded?


    "We already reached what, sixth stage?" I called back as if to encourage the girl to go for just onest stretch of the lesson.


    "Ugh¡­" ire grimaced, devastated by the news¡­ but already thinking over the issue in a simplistic yet desperate desire to go right back to what mattered.


    "The seventh stage is all about properly expanding the core''s influence, building up upon all the previous steps. Then, the eight stage is about condensing the core again, to blossom it into a realm. And then, thest two steps, are all about doubling and then tripling that private, spiritual dimension."


    ire gulped down and gave me a look of expectation¡­


    Only to then bite down with frustration on her lips as her eyes scattered around, indicating great turmoil in her mind.


    "Then¡­"


    She cleared her thought before raising her chin a bit and once again scored a critical strike with the look she gave me with her upturned, brown, innocent, and outright lustful stare.


    "Then and only then can one try to ovee their mortality, when their spiritual realm grows as profound as the reality, allowing them free ess to the dimension exclusive to those of the practitioner rank." ire recited, all the while keeping a pleading look on her face. "That''s what my father wants, by the way, but¡­"


    ire licked down her lips before swallowing her saliva again, only to then slightly pry her mouth open as her eyes slowly moved down my well-honed chest, stomach, and then all the way to where my erection now pressed down against her stomach in its full might despite the restraint of my undies.


    "But now¡­ Can we¡­?"

 Chapter 62: At the end of the lesson and the begining of tomorrow

    ''Now that she''s out of it, what should I do next?''


    I took a deep breath as I looked down at ire slumped down atop myp.


    After what very likely was over an hour of intense making out, ire couldn''t care less about her advancement. She just curled up, purring as she dozed off, all happy and satisfied.


    ''Now that I think about it, I don''t really have any real ns for the days ahead,'' I thought, finally forced to face the ugly reality of putting all sorts of troubles aside, forter.


    Because now that thister arriver¡­ I couldn''t help but feel awfully ill-prepared.


    ''Sure, I''ve racked up achievements with both the devices and now ire''s breakthrough¡­ But what is it that I actually need to do now?''


    There were many possible paths for me to take. In the end, however, only three appeared viable enough for me to pursue them.


    First, I had to help Chihiro. An extremely tall order given how¡­


    My eyes drew to ire''s exhausted yet satisfied expression.


    She looked truly adorable in her unicorn-shaped onesie, peacefully napping down on my thigh with her body curling up into a ball of fluff.


    ''But I don''t really have the knowledge or the means to do it yet. And even when I learn what ire can share, I doubt I will be able to grasp everything just like I did today.


    There were limits to just how broken my strange ability could be. And if a mere fifth-stage cultivator could somehow figure out the secrets of the highest mortal stages¡­ The world would be doomed!


    ''Even if from just a few of her words,'' I drew my fingers through ire''s soft, light-brown hair. ''She still told me something.''


    I didn''t forget ire''s short mumble when she rushed to get all the steps checked out before stealing my lips for the next hour or so.


    And now, while I still suffered from exhaustion, she happily napped down, her ear resting on my knee while her small yet true smile proved she was rewarded with happy dreams.


    ''Core expansion, condensation, then new realm, doubled and tripled¡­'' I repeated what I could still remember, taking a mental note of every word I managed to recover.


    And now, that I finally located the right topic to pay attention to¡­


    I''ve noted it down in my mind before moving on.


    It wasn''t my goal to do something, not for now.


    A proper n had toe first, lest I want toplicate the situation once I grow more aware of my goals and circumstances.


    ''First, the two of us need to get stronger. Then, we need the business to explode with some sort of product, so that we can grow in wealth, ess, and importance. With those, we could easily approach higher realms. And by doing so, I might peer deeper into the secrets of whatever currently restricts Chihiro''s growth.


    Then again¡­


    ''Core expansion, huh?'' I thought all the way back to the first word. ''And it''s followed by condensation to boot¡­''


    This one word continued to appear over and over again, starting with the second stage of Qi condensation, re-emerging in the fifth stage with themon name being true condensation¡­ And now all the way up at the eighth stage, of core condensation.


    ''I wonder if the process will be roughly the same¡­''


    I didn''t really go through the second stage, save for the little show ire performed for me during the lesson. The True condensation stage, however, was apparently my current level.


    And to a degree, I couldn''t help but notice how things were rtively¡­ the same.


    In both cases, I simply had to condense the spiritual energy to a tighter state, forcibly refining it under great pressure to raise its quality.


    But how was one supposed to condense their core¡­ already it was already a product of condensation?


    ''No, that''s not even the right question. The first thing that I should focus on, is how to expand the core now that she properly established it. That, and¡­'' my face darkened a little. ''That, and I need to find out how to break past this fifth stage myself.''


    Was it greedy, to lust for higher ranks right after I''ve somehow skipped a whole four of them?


    Normally, one could say yes, but in my case¡­


    I honestly couldn''t care less about my rank itself.


    In a certain sense, now that I had Chihiro''s financial support, I moved from a world of absolute deficiency to an absolute overkill. As such, even when putting aside everything else, the normal path of cultivation no longer applied to me anyway.


    As such, what I once believed I would have fun climbing now turned into nothing more but a necessity, a requirement for me to stand straight by ire''s side as we go through our lives.


    But rolling back, for that to happen, I couldn''t just focus on ire''s or Chihiro''s growth.


    If I wanted to keep all my benefits, I had to keep proving my worth. And disying my personal prowess was the easiest way to go about it.


    ''Okay then, that settles it,'' I thought, taking in a slightly deeper breath before slowly exhaling it out.


    ''First, I need to grow stronger myself. Second, we need to kick-start the business. And once this allows us to grow stronger, we will use everything we gained and learned along the way to help Chihiro challenge his mortal limits.''


    Everything had to follow a certain path.


    If I wanted to help Chihiro, I needed both means and knowledge.


    This means I could obtain by developing my business while knowledge was barred behind my cultivation rank. And with how a prospering business would only further aid my hunger for resources connected to personal growth¡­


    That was exactly what I should start with!


    ''But what should we even sell? Neither those Qi condensators nor the Qi purifiers would pass their veto¡­''


    I breathed out a sigh before looking down, at ire napping down on my knee.


    Once again, I couldn''t help but fall into the ditch of her soothing adorableness. A feeling of peace emanated out of her calm, innocent face.


    ''She really doesn''t look like someone who raped my mouth for an hour straight,'' I thought, allowing a small smile to help my face rx.


    ''And now that I think about it¡­''

 Chapter 63: Shopnt

    "Your father''s men are moving fast¡­" I admitted in a defeated, exasperated voice as I watched ire''s shop being practically dismantled on the spot.


    Not the building itself, obviously, given how she rented or owned merely a single business location over the entire thing, but everything that made this ce into ire''s shop was now either fully disassembled or outright gone.


    ''There goes my source of inspiration,'' I thought, struggling to believe how quick some things could happen.


    It wasn''t even a day since when I started to live with ire. In fact, with the n now safe in my head, we ventured out to get some fresh air so that I could work out the finer details of my ideas.


    As one could expect, ire''s shop was the first ce I wanted to visit, given the variety of various parts and tools that could give me the inspiration necessary to give my ns a solid form of a proper concept.


    But now, ire''s shop has be nothing more but an empty husk of what it used to be, with the workers already moving topletely remodel it from the inside and out.


    "It''s really hard to believe, even when I''m looking at it with my own eyes," I admitted, a strange sense of heaviness poking through the vibe of my voice.


    That shop¡­ It was the ce where I first met ire. It was the ce where I first got an idea of what to craft. A ce¡­


    It was a ce that, for thest few days, served as an anchor, a center point for all my adventures. But now?


    Now, it was in the process of bing a stylized, modern front for a newly opened branch of Chihiro''s personal franchise.


    "Don''t worry," ire looked at the shop with indifference before turning her lovely, brown eyes over to my face as she hurried up the few steps of distance between us beforetching onto my arm. "All the items were moved to thepany warehouse. It was¡­" she hesitated for a second, a hint of guilt shing in her eyes, "it was an initial cost of buying my business out¡­"


    I squinted my eyes a bit as I turned my face and looked at ire for a bit, only to then roll my eyes and look away.


    In all honesty, even if she yed around with the prizes of her stuff before ensuring everything would be bought out by thepany Chihiro set up for me¡­ I couldn''t care less. I was much more concerned about the nostalgia aspect.


    And with how I couldn''t help but feel uneasy about this shop vanishing to make space for something else¡­ Just how bad was it for the girl who spent much more time in there?


    "I mean, are you okay?" I asked, not wanting to be someone who noticed a potential issue yet opted never to bring it up to the light to avoid the inconvenience that came with it. "Wasn''t that ce important to you?"


    ire''s eyes at first widened a bit, only to then rx. She smiled lightly and with a profound look at the bottom of her eyes.


    "Whatever role this ce had in my life is now over," ire said before shaking her shoulders up and then shaking her head sideways. "It was a great ce to get busy and get my thoughts upied, saving me from the endless boredom of doing nothing but cultivating. But now¡­" she wrapped herself tighter around my arm, "but now it is no longer necessary.


    So I''m going to make a much better use of this space rather than keeping it as it was purely for the sake of its sentimental value."


    Looking down and into her eyes locked on the shop, I could tell that ire wasn''t perfectly honest here¡­ But while there was a hint of regret in her eyes, so was there a whole ocean of determination.


    "I''m definitely going to ask what this shop was all for. Even if not now and not today¡­ someday, I hope you will be happy to share it with me."


    It didn''t take a genius to figure this connection out, nor was I a genius to realize it wasn''t the right time to have this conversation. Only once the memory of this shop bes just that, a distant memory rather than a picture right before her eyes, could we talk about it again.


    "What do we do now, then?" ire asked, perking her head up after thoroughly washing her expression out of anything that could get me worried.


    And as I scrambled my thoughts to figure out what would be the next best ce for us to go to¡­


    "Now that I think about it, did you know that when ites to the cultivation district¡­ I''ve never gone anywhere beyond this shop of yours?" I asked as I turned my eyes to the girl strapped on my arm.


    "Wait, seriously?" ire opened up her eyes wide, taken aback by my statement.


    "Yeah," I nodded my head. "When I first came here, I just wanted to take a stroll through this ce and see the world I wasn''t allowed to before. But then I ended up at your ce and well, became too preupied with other things to ever waste an evening on just sightseeing," I exined. "So, how about we put all the duties forter and just¡­ go on a sight-seeing date for now?"


    I allowed my inviting smile to grow a little bigger.


    "And it won''t be a waste of time, since I need to find inspiration for my next project anyway!" I added, just in case ire wanted to argue the job was more important than just a¡­


    "So you are telling me I get to be the one to show you all around?" ire asked with a look of uncertainty in her eyes that vanished before she could even finish her sentence, reced by excitement bursting out of her eyes. "Then, what are we still waiting for, standing around like that? Let''s go!"

 Chapter 64: Otherwordly place

    As weird as it might be, this really was my first trip into the depths of the cultivation district. Save for the short stretch of the main road I walked through before taking the turn to where ire''s shop was hidden, the rest of this ce was just one, big mystery to me.


    Normally, exploring this ce would be a tall order for me, given how out-of-ce I would feel in a world I merely tipped my toes in. Surrounded by people who knew things I had no idea about and had considerations I wasn''t any wiser about, I was bound to, sooner orter, make some sort of mistake or make myself otherwise visible.


    But with ire by my side, this consideration ended up flipped on its head.


    "Come on! Quickly! It''s just behind this corner right there!"


    Caring not for the public peace or the cultured, elegant silence of the others on the street, rie just stormed all over the road. Even though it still felt strange, we started our trip by holding hands¡­ Only for ire to soon let go, when her excitement at the idea of sharing the wonders of this ce got the better of her, making her run all over the ce.


    And surely enough, as soon as I took the nearest corner and looked down what turned out to be a much bigger road than what I took to be the main path¡­


    For but a second, I forgot how to breathe.


    The path stretched out as far south as I could see, slowly angling up as it followed the terrain only to end up at a massive gate of the walled-off foothold of the lone peak of the entire city.


    ''From what I remember, getting this mound done was one of the biggest engineering projects everpleted in the city,'' I thought, recalling what little bits of knowledge I had about the ce, this time ending up with the news I''d read all the way back when I was still in the middle school.


    "Wee to the temple street!" ire called me over after running up a few steps ahead only to swirl around on her heel and spread her arms out as if to present this beautiful street in all of its glory for me.


    And there surely was a lot on this street for my eyes to take.


    Paying no mind to the steep incline of thend prizes within the city, especially in its inner districts, this whole street consisted of nothing but temples that only grew bigger and more borate the further up the main path one went.


    At this point of the road, the temples consisted pretty much of just a simple altar standing at a heightened tform and surrounded by a garden of flowers. But just a few meters away, another temple had its altar fully hidden within a special enclosure.


    Just a few steps further, and the enclosure turned into a proper building only to turn into a structure no lesser than a cathedral roughly halfway down the road.


    From that point on, rather than building up or adding more and more ir to the temples, each of the plots came up with designs further and further away detached from what an engineer would ever consider a sound construction, all the way to the point where the temples near the gate at the mound''s base appeared to all be levitating in the air!


    But if there was one thing that applied to everyst plot on the side of this street¡­ then it would be¡­


    "Beautiful¡­"


    I wasn''t an architect so I couldn''t really appreciate the great ideas that led to both the smaller and more mundane and then the bigger and much more borate parts of this ce. Yet, even without this kind of expertise, I could simply enjoy the pristine, peaceful, and outright dignified looks this ce offered.


    "Feels like a whole other world, doesn''t it?" ire smiled when she saw the awe painted all over my face.


    What''s more, she must have sensed something, for she quickly hurried back to my side only to jump on my arm and then wrap herself around it again, bing a sort of reality anchor for me, definitely proving that even with all those otherworldly temples down the road¡­ it was still all real.


    "You know, I don''t think I''ve fully internalized the fact that cultivation actually goes beyond science," I muttered, getting into a strange mood when faced with levitating structures of hundreds if not thousands of tonnes in weight.


    "I mean," I turned my head to the side to look down at the cutie wrapped around my arm, "ever since you entered the picture, it was hard for me to think of anything else, but still¡­"


    "It doesn''t feel real?" ire finished up my thought while climbing up my arm just far enough to let her lips reach my cheek on which she happily nted a small kiss. "It is real, though."


    For a moment, we just stood in the middle of the road like that, not caring for the fact that if there were any cars around, we would most definitely be obstructing the traffic¡­ Still, despite how wide the main road of the district was, there wasn''t a single car around, turning this entire width into a domain exclusive to passersby.


    "Now, I wonder if you are ready for the biggest shock of this ce¡­" ire suddenly whimpered in a fashion that made it pretty obvious her words were still meant for my ears.


    "The biggest shock?" I asked while turning my eyes down to the yful expression on her face only to then bring my head back and look down the street again, where nning genius, architectural overindulgence, and outright magic continued to baffle my mind with stuff that clearly went against the science I knew.


    The floating buildings, random balls of light simply floating through the streets, random boulders chained down to the ground with thick, metal restraints as if those rocks would otherwise flow away into the sky if not restrained¡­


    "Just what else there is to this ce for there to be an even bigger shock waiting for me?" I asked, in a full-disbelief mode.


    ''I know cultivation doesn''t strictly adhere to science and all¡­ but how could there be even more to it? Or what, if I turn around will I be able to see tamed dragons or something?''


    Full of doubt, I looked back to ire''s face, only to see her grin so hard, she showed me the white of her teeth. And while staring down at her lovely, positive expression was a treat all in its own right¡­


    "Just turn around," ire whispered, climbing onto her tiptoes once again to kiss my cheek¡­


    This time, however, I wasn''t going to let her do as she wanted. Instead of waiting with my cheek for her lips, I turned my face and reached out, grabbing ire''s face as she moved up, holding it in ce and then leaning in to press my own lips against her mouth.


    For a moment, all the glory of this ce, all the surprises it could still hold, all of those things moved to the second n, with my mind filling with ire and the delicious, slightly sweet taste of her lips.


    If I were to be in this ce alone, I would cover by the side of the street, doing my best to both sink in the views but also not to stand out. But with ire¡­ I simply couldn''t care less about how our sloppy-make-out session performed right in the middle and open of the street quickly became a tourist attraction for all those who just happened to be walking around.


    Our lips pressed against each other, allowing one to indulge in the warmth of the other, all the while our bodies coiled in a way that only served to spark the mes of our instincts.


    I pulled down on ire''s waist, pressing myself into her, as if not even our ongoing kiss could save me from the withdrawal syndromes of ire''s closeness. And it wasn''t until we both had to pull out just to catch a breath that I finally allowed both my head to turn around and my eyes to draw to whatever it was that ire expected to still take me by surprise in this weird ce.


    And so, I looked down the other side of the main road of the cultivation district, only for my face to tense up as¡­


    As if my mind bugged out?

 Chapter 65: One day, you will have to decide

    Looking up the street, I could only see the magnificent temples. Yet, the moment I turned around, I suddenly found the source of all the background noise.


    Right on the very crossroads we were on, the district suddenly changed, turning into your usual shopping street.


    And for some reason, it felt as if the heart of the entire district was right there, with just how many walked around, always busy with their own matters.


    A living and beating heart of a district¡­ filled to the brim with busy people.


    Or, in other words, a marketce.


    "Why would they¡­" Instantly, one question pressed to my lips while making me look from one side of the street to the other.


    The difference was so overwhelming, that it only reinforced my feeling of this ce being surreal. This dichotomy between elegantly mystical and then energetically ordinary made it so that not even ire''s touch was enough to root me at the moment.


    "I figured you would rather enjoy a practical date, that''s why I brought you here."


    Where ire''s presence provedcking, her voice ended up achieving with ease, forcibly binding my attention back to the world.


    "Everything starts when the business starts, isn''t that right?" ire asked while letting go of my arm and taking just a step away as if to once again present me with this entire district.


    "I mean, sure?" I replied, still somehow lost in the moment. "But before we do¡­" I looked over my shoulder.


    ''There has to be a reason why she brought me here. A reason beyond just the nice sight¡­''


    I turned my eyes back to ire''s face.


    "Before that, those temples," I turned my head yet again, casting my sights back to the marvels behind me. "Is there any meaning behind them?"


    ire first brought her eyebrows together before lowering her eyes and tightening her hands into fists. She then slowly raised her eyes as she looked up the temple side of the street.


    Quite notably, her eyes stopped at three points, pretty early on, around the middle, and then nearly all the way to the end.


    ''Why do I feel like the trip her eyes made was a trip down memoryne?''


    "On this street, every major n keeps a temple. You can consider it a tax to the city of sorts, but it''s also connected to the n''s prestige, standing, and all the likes¡­" ire''s voice changed, taking on quite the dismissive tone.


    "My father, despite inching ever closer to the tenth stage and knocking on the wall of the realm beyond mortality¡­ He can only reach as far as roughly the middle down this road," she stated, reaching out with her hand and pointing out at one of the more borate yet less magical shrines.


    "Then, there''s the Bosko n that my mother is from," ire added¡­ Only to move her arm and point pretty much at the very end of the street¡­ if not beyond the gate thaty at its end.


    For a moment, the girl remained silent, the look in her eyes distant as she kept staring out at the far-off temple.


    Then, ire abruptly let go of my arm before fully turning towards one of the altars nearest the crossroads. It was one with nothing but a simple tform, a shrine proper, and then a field of flowers all around it.


    "This is the shrine my parents set up when I was born, hoping to establish a whole new n, a family no one could easily mess with."


    ire lowered her head a little as she squatted down and picked one of the flowers at the edge of the shrine. Then, for a while, she simply stared at its petals while twirling it around in her hand.


    "One day, when we both prove that we are happy and worthy of the current deal, I will add your mark to one of those shrines," ire announced, only to raise up and then turn around, facing me with only the small flower and a deep frown on the face and distant look in her eyes. "On that day, you will need to decide which shrine would you like to be added to."


    I stared right back into ire''s eyes, perfectly able to sense the great weight that she attached to this question.


    I had no clue what exactly was the meaning behind it. To a degree I could guess¡­ but your guess would be as good as mine.


    Nevertheless, that didn''t make me any less able to feel the weight of ire''s question. And if she was willing to ask something so important, my one and only choice was to respond to the best of my ability anyway.


    "Then, once that dayes, I will be sure to have an answer prepared, while remaining on the lookout in the meantime to make sure I will know all the implications and consequences."


    For just a little longer, ire stared right back into my eyes with the same deep,plex look in her eyes. But then, the corners of her lips trembled a little before her entire face melted down into a small, somewhat sad smile.


    "Here," ire reached out with her hand, passing over the flower she just picked.


    Right as I reached out myself to ept her gift, ire rxed her fingers before lounging just a bit further up and grabbing my hand, only to pull me ahead and, right as I tried to remain on my feet, wrap herself around my arm just like before.


    "Now then, until that dayes, let''s go do some shopping!" she cheered up, holding nothing back when she used her left hand to strike her fist up against the sky.


    Then, as her sad smile gave way to an excited one, the corner of her eyes nted as her smile took a mischievous undertone as she brought her hand down and slid it into the breast pocket of her casual fit before pulling out a silver card with ck-gold rim.


    "It''s high time to break this piggy open, isn''t it?" she asked as her proud, yful grin grew so bright it could rival the brightness of a morning sun.

 Chapter 66: Shopping date

    "Oh? Would you look at this!"


    ire dragged me over to one of the stalls pretty much the moment we stepped into the marketce sprawling over the bottom flight of the main road.


    Just like on the other side of the street and with the temples, the shops here came in all shapes and forms, ranging from simple roadside stalls, through proper locations all the way to some fancy, branded shops and even a mall.


    ''No, now that I think about it, there is a greater variety of shops here than there are different kinds of temples behind us,'' I thought, ncing over at the temples for but a second before turning my attention to whatever it was that caught ire''s fancy.


    But as it turned out, the practice of putting proper descriptions for every item offered for sale was an exception of ire''s shop, not the norm of a cultivation district. As such, even when I looked closer and closer¡­ All I could tell was that ire was now holding some sort of purple flower.


    ''A herb?''


    There was a limit to what could be the reason behind ire''s interest. Then again, withoutbels¡­


    "It''s a sleepweed," ire raised her head and looked over at my face with a bright smile as she exined, "It has a great, calming aroma, but if you boil and drink it as a brew, it will put even the strongest cultivator to¡­"


    ire''s face suddenly tensed up while her eyes escaped to the side, her hand swiftly stuffing the flower back where she picked it from.


    I raised my eyebrows a bit.


    "Was it what they used in that tranquilizer?" I managed to figure this connection out by a mere ident, nothing more but a stroke of luck of my synapses just aligning in the right way.


    Because sure, both this flower and the tranquilizer used on me had the same purpose, and, judging from what ire just said, they were both potent¡­


    But that wasn''t enough for me to draw the connection, not even with ire acting weird about the flower after acting as if she remembered something.


    "Y-yeah¡­" ire nodded her head, her eyes still turned away as if she couldn''t face me after such a blunder.


    "ire, dear, it''s not like I have some sort of trauma¡­" I muttered, not really sure how to approach the topic.


    Humoring someone when they were in a bad mood was something I always thought I was good at¡­ But when it came to rectifying the truth about myself¡­


    It felt weirdly arrogant as if I was pridefully assuming others actually cared.


    Nevertheless, I wasn''t dense enough not to realize that ire''s mood sank the very moment she realized she just brought up the topic that could be still quite hurtful to me.


    The truth was quite the opposite, given how it was only by the valiant effort of my self-control that I managed to stop myself from just grabbing ire from behind and hugging the life out of her.


    "In fact, I might have a purpose for this flower¡­ Just not yet. So," I pulled the corners of my lips to force out a small, encouraging smile, "so, where do we go next?"


    ire finally turned her head and gave me a reluctant side eye that soon developed into an upturned nce. Then, after what felt like ages, she returned back to my side before gently wrapping her hands around my arm and pulling me ahead.


    Thankfully, in just a few steps, ire appeared to get distracted with another item for sale as the sparks returned to her energetic eyes while her hands dragged me ahead.


    "Look, it''s Porosi herb!" ire eximed, joyfully grabbing a small pot with an even smaller nt in it before carefully raising it to her eyes.


    Then, her face contorted a bit as she lowered her hands and carefully put the nt aside.


    "Something wrong with it?" I asked, not exactly sure how to interpret her expressions this time.


    "It was rented prematurely," ire said with a face that looked as if she was about to click her tongue and spit down on the ground in angered frustration. "Just two, three days more and it could reach an even higher level of maturity," she said before leading on with a sigh, "what a waste."


    From then on, ire moved ahead at an ever-increasing pace.


    At first, she mostly browsed through the items disyed by the smaller merchants either at a stall or, sometimes, directly from the street''s floor. And before I could even react, I suddenly found myself carrying two sizeable bags in each of my hands as I struggled more and more to follow the excited girl.


    "Here! Take a look! It''s a calming stone!"


    "How about this, a bonafide spiritual stone! Even though they are much more effective when dusted, someone kept a few of them whole!"


    Soon, it felt as if every stall, every merchant, every shop had something ire would happilyy her hands on.


    Thankfully, by the time we reached the part where the shops and all the buildings, in general, grew in size and their wares grew both in prizes and the quantity avable, we suddenly stepped inside a much bigger building that came with the prestige of looking nothing like any of the other buildings I could see nearby.


    Contrary to all the stalls and shops we''ve visited before, this ce actually came with a reception, clerks, security¡­ All of them merely nced at rie before putting on the widest smile their faces could produce and standing aside while bowing down and inviting the two of us in.


    "Miss ire, it''s a pleasure," soon, one of the clerks in a slightly different uniform than the rest of them appeared and introduced himself to ire. "In what way could this merchant house be of help today?"


    ire merely spared a nce at the man.


    "I need a private room, full stock of your local and neighboring warehouses, and then an ountant," ire recited as if she came here prepared, having rehearsed every tiniest element of what we were supposed to do in this ce.


    Or, to put it in perspective, she sounded exactly like all them witches who woulde up to the counter at StartsAtTenBucks coffee chain before performing some strange rituals and casting some ancient spells¡­ Or, as a more outgoing person would say, like all those girls who never struggled to list ten-point instructions over how they wanted their fancy coffee made.


    "Oh, and bring us a card from¡­" ire hesitated for a bit, "Smith and Ulmer", she requested before putting a momentary look of a bored, youngdy followed by turning her hands away¡­ and then dragging me deeper and deeper into the impressively sized building.


    "I think I fancy a steak today, what do you say?" she turned her head and asked, revealing a much different persona and expression to the one she allowed that male clerk to see.


    "I''m fine with anything, honestly, but¡­" This time, it was my turn to hesitate a bit, "what are we even supposed to do here?" I then asked, paying no mind to the clerks still hanging around, ready to be at every beck and call of the girl.


    Just by appearing by ire''s side, I''ve fed them with enough gossip material for the next month¡­ So did it really matter if I revealed just how unustomed I was to this ce?


    ''Well, if they are going to smirk me out, that only reflects on their professionalism, not me.''


    "What else if not to shop?" ire replied, turning over and giving me a slightly weirded-out look¡­ quickly followed by a moment of enlightenment when her eyes suddenly widened before quickly settling in. "It''s your first time here, isn''t it?" she asked, only to shake her head as she already knew her answer.


    "Let me put it this way. We are getting a room so you can put all of those toys away rather than dragging them all over the ce," ire exined as she scooted closer only to wrestle the bags out of my left hand, perfectly happy to share the burden of carrying half of them all. "Then, we are going to check their stock to prepare an order for everything we might need at ourpany.


    The ountant will be there to set up a new business ount for us while Smith and Ulmer¡­"


    ire''s face physically brightened up as she put on a wide grin that revealed the whites of her teeth.


    "I will admit, I just want to see you enjoy their food," she revealed only to lower her head and bring her hands together, raising her chin just high enough to give me a look with her upturned eyes while twiddling her thumbs around each other. "Can''t I?"


    A long sigh escaped from my lips.


    "Do you really think I would ever dare to refuse?" I asked, shaking my head before reaching out and aiming to give the girl a pat on her head¡­ Only to then remember we were still out in the public just in time to alter my hand''s path and pat her shoulder instead.


    "So, there''s no need for you to act all cutesy and all. Just your smile is more than enough to make me do whatever you want, you know?"

 Chapter 67: Only if you come out of the gates storming

    "Oh, so this is like¡­ a wholesaler?" I asked as we sat down in what was supposed to be a room yet turned out to be closer to a VIP-longue one could expect in a nightclub or some of the more obvious karaoke ces.


    The room itself consisted ofrge, perfectlyfy cushions arranged all around the room''s edges with a massive, ss table filling its middle.


    Right now, the room was lit up pretty evenly, killing the vibe this ce was designed to have. Yet, judging by the switch box right by the entrance, one could return the proper atmosphere to this ce with just a few flicks of switches and dials.


    "Pretty much, yeah," ire said as she put the bags down on the floor before happily jumping down onto the cushions and releasing a long, exhausted yet satisfied groan.


    "Now, that hit a spot," she muttered while sinking further and further down into cushions like some alien form of quite the adorable slob.


    "I''m d that you enjoyed it," I said while carefully putting the bags down myself before moving over and taking a seat right by ire''s side.


    ''Damn, this feels nice,'' I thought, pretty in awe over the boldness it took to just¡­ casually sit by the side of such a beauty.


    "What is thatfy smile?" ire grinned when she caught me enjoying the view¡­ But not of her exposed body in any way or form. Her current clothes covered everything that they should, keeping her attributes away from the view of all the passersby.


    Still, even though she wore a simple, cotton top and a light, green-leather jacket on top¡­ with the storm of brown, slightly curling hair reaching as far down as her bust while she kept those pretty brown eyes of hers behind the simple, ck-framed sses¡­


    Watching such a natural and perfectly unexposed beauty rx on a cushion as she no longer held herself back from messing her outside-world image with groans or whining¡­


    "I''m just happy that I got to live to see this day," I replied without holding anything back and even growing rather daring as I brought my arm up and over the back of ire''s head, all the way to the point where I rested it over her shoulders. "I have afy smile because it''s perfectlyfy, that''s all."


    Pulling my arm just a little proved sufficient to have ire lean a bit harder over me, resting her tiny head right where my arm met with my shoulder.


    And just like that, we sat down and simply enjoyed the presence of the other in silence.


    Even though ire''s body once again pressed down on me, this time, my body didn''t react like it would in the past, opting to simply enjoy her warmth and cuddly softness rather than to trante those sensations into something more.


    For now, just sitting like that with her was enough.


    ire leaned her head to the side before stealing a quick nce at my face¡­ and then turning her head right away only to bring her hands up and cover her face with them. Then, she leaned her head again, prying her fingers apart just enough for her eyes to peek through as she stole another glimpse of my face.


    In the meantime¡­ I simply rxed, sitting down and only moving whenever I felt ire move, all in a bid to turn myself into the mostfortable pillow imaginable, always ready to adjust to whatever position ire would put herself in.


    "What is taking them so long?" ireined quite sometimeter, pretty much right as I realized that all of her rustling and moving about¡­ was actually nothing short of her starting to feel it herself and being not exactly sure how to deal with it.


    "If we have to wait that long, then¡­" my eyes moved over to the light''s switch-box. And we just so happened to sit down close enough for me to reach it¡­ But doing so would force me to change the position, a position that ire finally foundfortable enough to rest calmly at.


    "Then¡­?" ire leaned her head over, revealing the cloudy look in her eyes. And the way she just kept her hands sprawled back and her fingers curled up just a little bit¡­


    ''Just how can she look so adorable yet so defenseless?''


    Even with how elegant if not outright prudish her outfit was, now that she rested down with her back on my chest, I could still see quite far into her cleavage. And while I tried not to look or to look away, perfectly aware of what would happen if I didn''t hold myself back like that¡­


    This time, my instincts prevailed. Following those, my eyes moved down, gazing into ire''s chest while savoring the newfound taste of having them hidden and thus making the whole thing feel like something illegal, idental.


    When ire moved her hand, she merely grabbed my fingers before pulling my own hand down and cing it on her stomach.


    The softness of her cotton top now mixed with the softness of warmth of her tummy, making it one of the best ces for me to caress her in a non-sexual way¡­


    Only for ire''s hands to stay locked on my wrist and pull my hand¡­


    Knock, knock, knock.


    As if a bomb exploded in the room, the two of us pretty much jumped on the spot, only to quickly sat back down as ire rushed to pat her clothes down while I did the same with her now slightly disheveled hair.


    "I''ming in!" Whoever was behind the knock now announced themselves before pushing the doors open and invading what turned into our cozy, private spot for a while.


    Whether by ident or because the staff noticed the unhappy looks I gave the male clerk who dared to approach ire, the ountant turned out to be a woman appearing to be roughly in herte thirties. She was dressed for the job, sporting a proper and modest suit and carrying with her a small file seemingly full of papers.


    "You''ve requested to open up a new banking line for your business, so I''m here to make that happen," the woman announced before leisurely taking a set across the table.


    The very moment she did, as if orchestrated by some invisible strings, the doors swung open again, this time to let in a server who came in with a te with three empty crystals.


    The one that came after him came carrying a whole damn ice bucket with several bottles icing inside and the third and thest one came carrying two tters full of snacks, one te filled with dried-out meats and other savory treats while the other one upied by cakes, candies and elegant crystal-shaped pieces of chocte.


    "Now then, are we talking about a sub-ount or a new enterprise?" the clerk asked as soon as she unpacked her files onto the table before pulling out a fancy pen and leaning over an empty form.


    "I want it to be a new ount, but I would like for all my outstanding benefits to transfer over to it," ire got into her business mode right away, sitting up with her back as straight as my sexual orientation and her face as serious as I was about making her happy.


    "That''s certainly¡­" the clerk hesitated for a second. Yet, rather than refusing ire''s request outright, she first sorted through her papers as if she were looking for some clues before putting them away and raising her eyes again. "That''s certainly doable, but only if youe out of the gates storming," she stated before straightening her back and locking her eyes against ire''s.


    "How much are we talking?"


    "At the very least¡­" the clerk hesitated again before squinting her eyes as if to calcte something on the go, "half a million would be the minimum, but I won''tin if you open with a full million instead. In this way, I could get themission down by a further two percent points¡­"


    "That will do, thanks," ire quickly sealed the deal, even going as far as to pull out her fancy card and slide it over the table to the ountant''s side. "Feel free to bill this card the decided amount, but in the meantime, I hope you came with the stock cards that I''ve requested!"

 Chapter 68: I better get used to these kinds of numbers!

    "Okay then, that will be all from me. Now, I will go get everything set up for you, so feel free to browse our stock in the meantime. Once you are ready¡­" the woman stood up after gathering her papers, "Well, you know what to do so I''m not going to bore you. Have a great day!"


    With that, the woman picked up her stuff and left, closing the door behind her and leaving us two in peace.


    "A million?" I asked after making sure the doors were closed properly. "Don''t treat it as me doubting your choices, but don''t you think that''s a little bit too much?"


    I was hardly in a ce to say so after we spent pretty much around a hundred thousand Esecs on the random stuff on our way to this ce.


    And if a single instance of shopping could add up so quickly, then¡­


    "Oh, it''s not just a million," ire raised her head and smiled cheekily. "This one million is just the initial investment. By tomorrow, I will wire the next two million over. This way, once you decide what you need, we will have up to fifty mils in total with the in-house credit."


    ire spoke exactly the same way she would when we talked about silly nothings. I, on the other hand, had to pay extremely close attention to each word she said, just in case I missed a single number.


    Yet, I didn''t miss even one of them.


    One million, two million, up to fifty million.


    If not for the fact that the numbers were rtively consistent, I would simply assume I misheard, especially with the absolutely still expression on ire''s face.


    But on the other hand¡­


    ''I guess I have to get used to these kinds of numbers,'' I thought, taking a deep breath to calm down¡­


    Only for ire to climb right back up into myp after she grabbed the cards left behind by the ounting clerk of the merchant''s house.


    "This is going to take a while to read through it all," she muttered as she scanned the content of the hardened piece of paper. "Would you like to listen to the whole list or should I pick stuff that I myself find interesting?"


    Leaning her head out to the side, ire looked up, clearly waiting for my reaction.


    ''That list¡­ Isn''t it the warehouse manifest of this ce?'' I thought as I nced over at the neatly arranged database printed out on the hard piece ofminated paper.


    "Once again, don''t take it for me distrusting your ideas¡­ but what do we need this for?" I asked instead of giving out an answer. And while I hated the idea of answering a question with a question of my own¡­ I couldn''t really give a proper answer if I didn''t really understand what ire was asking about!


    "Ah, I never brought it up, my bad," ire nodded her head a little only to then quickly rest it back against my shoulder. "Seeing how you''ve gained a lot of inspiration from just going around my store and leading thebels, I thought this would be the best way to get you whatever tools, parts, and resources you might need.


    And while this ce definitely doesn''t deal with the more exotic and hyper-expensive stuff¡­" ire reached out with her other hand before tapping her knuckles against theminated card in her other hand, "as long as it somethingmon, they are going to have it in stock."


    ''As one would expect from the wholesaler,'' I thought, taking a moment to process it all before adding it to the mosaic of my understanding of the cultivation world.


    "Then, your exnation is for¡­"


    "A stand-in for thebels," ire answered before I could even finish my inquiry. "It won''t be any helpful if I just read out the names that you''ve never heard about before," she exined only to then drive her fingers up the card¡­


    Only for the text to follow the movement of her finger, scrolling up and revealing more and more verses of the spreadsheet.


    "That''s¡­" My eyes widened as I realized that rather than just a piece ofminated paper, this card was actually a tablet of sorts.


    "Oh, that," ire twitched on myp only to then wiggle around as she found the perfect way to nestle her ass atop my thighs. "It''s a liquid crystal technology. Apparently, it''s only set tomercially release to the public in a year or two, but¡­"


    ire then dragged her eyes all over the room, hanging her stare on each part of it that looked even remotely more expensive than the others.


    "But this ce isn''t exactly a part of the public, huh?" I muttered, getting the point ire was trying to make.


    "Yeah," she nodded her head with a happy smile and turned her eyes back to the device in her hand. "Just renting this ce can cost upwards of twenty thousand for a single visit, so yeah, this definitely isn''t technology that your average Joe will have ess to.


    Nevertheless," ire''s smile turned into a grin as she leaned her head to the back, stretching her chin as far up as she could while brushing the top of her head against my chest as she stretched her head to sh her lovely grin at me, "it''s quite convenient."


    Looking down, I had a tough choice of where exactly to look.


    Down into ire''s eyes? Or a bit further down and into the chest that she puffed out as she stretched her head or the back?


    "Damn, girl, stop temping me like that," I whimpered, acting as if I was about to cry. "We can have all the fun that we want once we go back, so shouldn''t we focus on the job for now?"


    ire first straightened her back before suddenly standing up and turning on her heel, all in a bid to look me directly in the face.


    "Why not both?" she asked as her grin grew into ascivious, hungry smile. "You know, now that you made me all excited¡­ I don''t think I can get myself in the mood to not only read through it all but also exin what each specific item is for¡­"


    ire exined in a suggestive voice¡­ Only to turn her back to me before taking a step back and voluntarily falling right back into myp. Then, using her free right hand, she grabbed my wrist before pulling my hand all the way over to her stomach.


    "So, while I will go back to working hard, how about you go back to what you were about to do before we were so rudely interrupted?"

 Chapter 69: The shopping was all about me, so this moment is going to be all about Claire

    "Elmer stone. It''s a stone used to enrich the air with the essence of the type specified by the variety of stone added to the mix."


    ire''s vibrant voice filled the whole lounge, likely thanks to the acoustics of this ce designed for this ce to serve as the best karaoke spot in the town.


    Sure, it was nowhere near the original purpose of the room¡­ but when just opening this ce up for a single visit cost tens of thousands, making the room karaoke-viable was the least its architects could do.


    "Grasu stone. It''s a powder, -ah!"


    A sweet, high-pitched moan escaped ire''s lips when I slowly dragged my hand down, currently pressing it down against her lower stomach yet still about an inch away from her abdomen.


    I didn''t even move her clothes out of the way, effectively caressing her shirt rather than her skin, and yet¡­


    And yet, it was enough for rie to start growing restless.


    Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were moist. And yet, she continued to lock her sights on the tablet-like device as she persevered in her task, regardless of my teasing.


    "Honestly," I leaned over ire''s ear as I whispered directly into it, "if that''s how our work is supposed to look, then¡­"


    Rather than finishing my sentence up, I slid my hand just a little lower, right where the bottom of her top met with the upper rim of her jeans.


    "Then¡­?" ire whimpered, already struggling to get her words properly out.


    "Then, I''m afraid, there won''t be a single day we will be able to look back at with pride and im that we worked hard back then."


    With those words in my mouth, I finally slid my fingers below the edge of ire''s jeans¡­ while keeping them above the fabric of her panties.


    ''This feels¡­ fucking awesome¡­''


    ire wasn''t your typical sexy or outright slutty beauty. No, if anything, she was the opposite.


    From the moment I first saw her in the shop, she gave me that slightly nerdy, kind, passionate-girl feeling. Up to this point, she always yed the part, be it through the way she dressed, talked, or acted.


    That''s why, when sheid down on my chest with her legs initially stuffed between mine only to now slowly climb up on my knees as she started to unknowingly push them open¡­


    It felt immoral, it felt wrong. It felt like a sacrilege as if allowing my filthy hands to touch her natural, innocent beauty was akin to spoiling her.


    And yet¡­


    Despite all of those, ire was still in myp, responding well to even the slightest of my movements.


    She didn''t protest when I added my other hand and slowly climbed up her stomach all the way to the point where the two peaks suddenly stood in the path of my hand.


    "Ah!" she moaned a little when my hand pressed against the bottom of her breasts as if to weigh them, while the fingers of my right hand continued to trace their way inside her pants.


    It felt wrong, immortal, bad, and outright evil to touch such an innocent, adorable beauty in a way that could spoil her¡­ And yet, I just couldn''t help myself but make sure to avoid her most sensitive parts while my fingers run wild all over her abdomen before and now her crotch and the inner side of her thighs.


    "Should I take them off?" ire suddenly whispered, twisting her entire body with how she no longer had the strength to lean her head far enough to look into my face.


    "Take what off, your jacket?" I asked, ying dumb.


    "My pants, you dummy!" ire protested with tears appearing in her eyes.


    ''So it''s working¡­''


    Obviously, being able to see her teary face was one of the perks of me avoiding touching herher regions directly. But while my main goal was to build up the anticipation to forever engrave the memory of the first time I touched her as something extremely pleasant¡­


    Seeing how she reacted to all my teasing was more than just a fitting reward for all of my efforts!


    "Touch me¡­"Unaware of what was even going in my head, ire pleaded both with her words and with pretty much even inch of her body as she kept wiggling around, not sure whether to drag her hips up so that my hand would finally reach the center of her crotch or to do the opposite and slide down myp so that my other hand would finallynd on her breast.


    "It''s okay, I''m going to touch you as much as you could desire," I whispered into ire''s ear¡­


    Only to pull both of my hands off her body.


    But I wasn''t a monster. After all of that teasing, I wasn''t just going to leave her hanging!


    Instead, I moved both of my hands down to the lock of her jeans, quickly undoing the button while nearly bathing in the satisfaction that came with doing so¡­ only to then pull the sides of her jeans apart before sliding the pants off ire''s ass, finally revealing her perfectly squishy thighs that I was ying with so much.


    Then again, rather than going for the goal right away, I instead moved my hands over to the edge of her cotton top instead.


    This time, however, I didn''t just ignore its existence. Rather than that, I slid both of my hands underneath it before driving my hands up, all the way to the point where they met the barrier of her brasserie.


    There, I no longer had the patience to y all gentlemanly, opting to just drag it off her chest before reaching even further up her shirt and finally taking a proper hold of her boobs.


    ''Aaah¡­''


    My whole body jolted when this sense of impossible softness filled my entire brain as my fingers sank into the hot skin of ire''s delicate flesh.


    Her breasts were just the perfect size for me to grab on to while retaining just enough tenderness to remain perfectly springy and bouncy.


    ire''s tits were so firm and bouncy, in fact, her skin pushed back against my fingers!


    ''Now then¡­ heavy ho!'' I called out in my mind before tightening my grip over ire''s tits and¡­ using them to pull her up myp a bit, just high enough for her ass to once again end up resting down on myp as opposed to ire''s just pressing it back against my erection.


    "Hurry¡­!" ire''s pleading voice only filled my brain with more cum and my blood with more energy, forcing me to pull one of my hands down and busy the other with the slow crawl towards the peak of ire''s breast while my other hand replicated its path from before.


    Inch by inch, my fingers climbed higher and higher up ire''s breast, all the way to the point when they finally reached her perfectly hard nipple, while down there, rather than sliding below theyer of her pants¡­ my fingers slid underneath her panties instead!


    Then again, I still refused to touch her clit or her vagina directly, making a v-sigh with my fingers as I dragged them over the outside of ire''s bottom lips, meeting them back together right between her anus and her pussy before hooking two of my fingers up and slowly driving my hand back up.


    This time, however, rather than just dragging my touch over her skin, I allowed my hook to sink right into her wet insides, right the very moment I finally pinched at her nipple.


    "ARGH!" rie''s moan grew both in volume and in intensity as her entire body tensed up, jerked up, and then fell back down on myp, fully deprived of its strength like a kitten caught by the b of skin by its neck.


    Her warmth was pressing down against me. The smell of her shampoo filled my nose. And as if that wasn''t enough, the skin of her breast pressed against my fingers that sank into it, as if nothing in the whole wide world was worthy enough to deform ire''s bust.


    While down below¡­


    Down below, along with her hips twitching at some crazy rate, ire''s insides coiled hard over my fingers, thering them with her love juices while, at the same time, sucking on them so hard, it would be no wonder if they were dry once pulled out!


    But this wasn''t the time for me to enjoy myself, even ire ensured I wouldn''t be in this room without an erection that she caused. And even though she was now offering herself whole for my hands to molest¡­


    ''I need to hold on,'' I told myself as I continued to scrape her insides with my fingers, already pushing them apart as I began the true quest of this moment - my search for her sensitive spots.


    ''This is once in a lifetime opportunity to engrave this as a pleasant memory and then to figure out what she likes me doing to her the most,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I forced myself to endure my excitement as I continued to touch ire all over.


    "Ah¡­ AH!" ire''s moans only continued to fill the room, while the cushions of the sofa proved that while they were a great thing to sit at¡­ they also excelled at something to put below one''s ass when getting down and dirty.


    And right now, ire was both down and she was all dirty, with her body fully opening up from her mouth through her hands, her legs, and finally her pussy, ready to ept me in full at any time.


    But that wasn''t enough. For today wasn''t going to be just about us two having sex. If it was, then how would be any different from any other day in the future?


    Today, this shopping trip was all about me and my passions¡­ so the least I could do was to make sure this precise moment, at the very least, was all about ire!

 Chapter 70: One heck of a way to procrastinate

    "Criorose, a herb that adds¡­" ire gritted her teeth when my hand stopped just an inch shy of her clit. "A herb that adds ice element to the concoction. It easily melts in oil, but burns with freezing fire when dipped in water."


    Bit by bit, my fingers explored more and more ire''s body, perversely always avoiding the areas that were the most sensitive.


    The list was long, after all, and it would be no fun if we brought this fun to an end anytime soon!


    "Teastone, it''s a crystal that can make any liquid taste like tea¡­ but just a normal one, not one of the fancy ones we''ve been drinking back home."


    I raised my eyebrows, losing my focus for just long enough for my hands to freeze as I leaned in over the idea.


    ''For cultivators, it would be useless, but wouldn''t that be one hell of a hit on a normal market?''


    It didn''t take a genius to notice all the benefits of such a wondrous item.


    A stone that altered the taste of liquid with just its spiritual power? Wasn''t that a key to taking over the entire industry of special bottles for water with vored caps?


    "Interested?" ire asked while leaning her head up to look at my face.


    Even with my fingers just an inch away from her pussy, she had enough will to break herself free from the restraints of her excitement and lust and focus on the job whenever necessary.


    "Maybeter. It''s not something that would aid anyone in their cultivation, just a convenience that could make us a lot of money¡­ That is, what does it cost?"


    ire threw a nce at the liquid-crystal device in her hands.


    "When bought individually, it ranges from five hundred Esces to roughly five thousand. But when bought in bulk, it goes for around six hundred a piece," ire exined before squinting her eyes a little.


    "Something wrong?" Just as she could read my bodynguage, so I could read hers. And in all honesty, I didn''t mind at all switching the focus from my right hand sinking into her crotch and my left hand with which I simply snuggled her close to my chest.


    In all honesty, if not for her invitation, I would be perfectly fine just cuddling, savoring every second of being in such close contact with someone so impossibly adorable!


    "No, I''m just wondering¡­" ire squinted her eyes before raising her hand to her mouth, only to end up chewing on the tip of her thumb. "When bought in bulk, it should be cheaper, so why¡­"


    Rather than trying her best to figure it out with what little she knew¡­ ire simply tapped at the entry in the database, hyperlinking to the page describing the ins and outs of the product with a full array of pictures and further spreadsheets describing the potential deal in the finest detail.


    ''So it''s not just a wholesaler, but pretty much a shopping center for every smaller shop around, huh?'' I thought, recognizing the simrities between this page¡­ and the very page I used whenever arranging for the delivery to my former part-time job at a small grocery.


    Back in that part-time, I used to joke around that it wasn''t the customers of the grocery chain that the corporation behind it made its money from, but all those who were forced to obey quite the weird rules when ordering more supplies to their respective franchises.


    Thankfully, from what I could nce over ire''s shoulder, as she constructed our order, she wasn''t forced to ept a certain amount of produce that the wholesaler simply wanted to push out or to follow any other rules like that.


    "I see," the girl shifted a bit in my hold when she finally found her answer. "They all range in size, so the cost increases as the individual stones grow. On average, the prize of a single crystal would be between eight hundred and a thousand, so six hundred is a reasonable discount when purchasing in bulk¡­"


    This time, I was the one squinting my eyes as ire''s reason made perfect sense to my ears. And while it was nothing surprising given how she had her very own shop for quite some time¡­ I still couldn''t help but feel impressed with how quickly and easily she managed to figure out the truth behind this deal.


    "Do you want to get some of those?" ire then asked, turning her eyes away from the device as she looked up to my face again.


    "Sure, a small box of them wouldn''t hurt," I replied, already stocking some ideas forter.


    Why were the bigger stones sold at a premium? Did it have anything to do with their durability? Or maybe they could infuse the drink with the taste at a faster rate? But if so, was the growth of the intensity of those crystals bound linearly to their surface¡­ or not?


    ''I wonder what will happen if we grind them down into smaller pieces?'' I thought, already picturing a voring cap that could work pretty much in perpetuity¡­ as long as those stones could be ground down to a convenient size, that is.


    Then again, all of this was merely a distraction, a potential project for the future aimed to do nothing more but earn us some money if that ever bes necessary. Alternatively, a project I could use purely for the sake of improving my own crafting skill.


    And so, rather than putting my readiness to keep going with the list into words¡­ I turned my attention from hugging rie with my arm to the hand that already infiltrated her panties.


    ''Given how long I''ve been teasing her by now¡­'' I thought while ire already tapped on the device to return back to the list.


    "Asmotic¡­ ah!"


    My fingers made the move, finally reaching the rim of ire''s pussy before slowly creeping inside.


    At first, I probed around with just my middle finger, all the while moving the palm of my hand over ire''s crotch.


    "That''s¡­" ire attempted to protest a bit only for her body to tense up all over myp as her hand shot to the back and wed at my arm.


    Even though I''ve barely scratched the surface, I responded to ire''s reaction and pulled my finger down. Yet, the very moment her body powerlessly fell back down on top of me, I pulled the palm of my hand down.


    Trapping her clitoris beneath the palm of my hand, I slid down against it while pushing my middle finger up her pussy, now wasting no time as I inserted it whole.


    ire tensed up again¡­ just this time, she no longer had the strength in her body to make it jump up. Still, with her joints locking and her muscles tensing up, ire gasped for air, proving that after all the edging, even such a slight caress was enough to bring her over the edge.


    But she wasn''t there yet. As if to show her indomitable spirit, she clutched at the device in her hand before dragging her eyes down and opening her mouth.


    "Aaah¡­" the very moment her lips rxed to speak, a long, sweet moan escaped from her mouth.


    Then again, ire wasn''t the one to give up that easily. And after just one more moment¡­


    "Asmotic paste, it''s a reagent you can use to¡­ Hiya!"


    I''ve only waited for ire to finish the first half of her sentence before bending my finger down and hooking it right against the spot that made her body react the most.


    But ire still refused to give up, clenching her entire self to hold back the pleasure as she focused on the task before her.


    "You can grind it down and use the powder as the seal that lets the spiritual energy seep through!" ire recited out as quick as she could in a race against her own pleasure.


    The very moment she did, the sense of achievement washed over her, causing the girl to drop her guard just little enough for my caressing to finally get to her head.


    And with just a single crack on her will, ire could no longer hold back, her body jerking one more time as her back arched up, sending her hips up and thus pressing my palm even harder against her clit as her crotch literally dragged my hand up.


    At the very same time, her wet insides coiled down against my finger, as if trying to suck on it so strongly my blood vessels threatened to burst out and offer ire''s womb the sacrifice of my blood.


    And in this precise moment, with her hands clutching at whatever they could find, with her mind losing control over her orgasming body and her face melting down under the relentless assaults of the waves of pleasure¡­


    ire looked all the more adorable!


    ''Is this what people mean by gap?'' I thought, watching how ire spasmed, her expression twisting in turning as she gasped for air, forgoing all the elegance and dignity in favor of her true, unrestrained self.


    And as she fell down on me, her body so deprived of strength she couldn''t even twitch anymore, a hint of her usual adorableness returned¡­ only making her all the more endearing.


    ''I''m the one who did it,'' I thought, sensing a strange desire to show ire in her current state to the entire world and then brag out loud about how I was the one who brought her into such a disheveled, undignified state.


    But, amidst all the excitement of ire showing yet another side of her that I didn''t really get to see before, just one thought continued to ring in the back of my head.


    ''At this rate¡­''


    Just one thought, and yet, it refused to leave my thoughts.


    ''At this rate, we are never going to finish this job!''

 Chapter 71: The way Rich people use money

    "Is this seriously all that you want?" ire asked while raising her eyes from thepiled list of all the things that I ended up picking while she was recovering from her orgasm along with the things that we picked before her thoughts all vanished in the tsunami of pleasure.


    "I''ve mostly marked the things that could be of use or things that caught my fancy for some reason. And I''m not ordering anything in bigger numbers because I simply don''t know what we are going to do yet."


    ire squinted her eyes as she looked at the list before rxing her face and putting the device away only to get herselffortable on the cushions while bringing a piece of cake to her mouth.


    "Au wewwy sufe?" she muttered while munching on the fruit-tart, before licking her lips clean and swallowing the treat. "Are you really sure?" she asked again, this time using proper words, before moving her hand and tapping at the device with the joint of her forefinger. "You spent a mere three hundred thousand. I came here expecting to throw at least several million down, you know?"


    I reached out for the cup¡­ Only to change my mind mid-move and grab an entire bottle of soda instead, taking a second to twist its cork open before passing it over to rie.


    Given how dry that tart looked to me, I couldn''t help but worry ire might end up choking on it.


    "Thanks," the girl happily grabbed the bottle from my hand before taking a swing in a manner that only further reinforced the sense of gap moe I''d first noticed when she was orgasming all over my hands. "But really, I mean it. I understand if youe from a ce where you didn''t really have money, so it might be hard to stomach it, but¡­"


    ire bit down on her lips as she stopped herself from saying whatever it was that she had on her mind.


    "Feel free to say it," I quickly reacted, hoping to nip all of the potential problems withmunication we would have in their bud before they could grow into an actual problem. "It''s okay if it''s something that I might personally dislike or don''t agree with. You know the world of rich a lot better than I could ever hope to know it and I''m not stupid enough to put my pride above your wisdom."


    Just like I knew how to deal with most of the issues of operating a small shop at its bottom-most level from proper ways of stocking the shelves ording to first-in-first-out rules, to how to merchandise the wares to make the customers more likely to buy them and the likes, ire knew better how to move around in the world of rich people.


    And so, having her hold her advice back just because it was something my poor-person mindset would interpret as insulting or aggressive would be nothing short of short-sightedness if not outright ignorant arrogance!


    "There''s value to spending money, even if it''s on things you don''t really need," ire finally gave up as she revealed what she had on her mind.


    A thought that sounded like bullshit that only a rich person could evere up with, yet another motto used by the rich when addressing the masses that couldn''t be any different from what they were actively doing themselves.


    "Could you borate on this point?" I requested while leaning forward on the cushions and lowering my eyelids as I focused my sight on ire''s lips, ready to catch everyst word of hers.


    "I mean¡­" the girl hesitated for a bit while looking away. Ultimately, however, she brought her eyes back and looked straight ahead, taking my stare head-on and responding to it in kind. "When you spendrge, you change how other businesses view you.


    In the case of this merchant shop, by spending a lot, you continuously bring down their premiums all the way to the point where they make literally a single spiritual coin on every item you buy. But then, there''s more.


    From how most of the items are appreciates at a better rate than money, through how you can manipte the prizes of those very items just by stocking them, all the way to protecting yourself from white-intelligence¡­"


    "White intelligence?" I asked, unfamiliar with the term.


    "Open source intelligence, stuff that doesn''t strictly rte to what you are researching¡­" ire stopped for a second and took a moment to find the best possible answer to my question. "Do you know how there''s this pizza-unrest index?" she suddenly asked,ing up with yet another term I didn''t know about.


    "It''s from back in the old days when several pizza shops would be swamped with orders whenever a long set of meetings would be scheduled at a nearby government''s office. Those intense, long, and sessive meetings can then trante to that government agency intensifying its efforts in preparation for something big to go down," ire exined before leaning back and smiling.


    "In other words, you don''t look for the bread, you look for the crumbs left in the wake of whoever carried it away," she exined, simplifying the entire thing to a much more ptable example.


    "And in this case, by buying a bunch of stuff that we don''t need or are simply going to turn empty credit into a value that actually appreciates, we can maybe not exactly stop others from figuring out what we are actually using¡­"


    "But we can cloud the waters enough for our transactions with the merchant house not to be a manifest of what we are using to produce things that never existed in this world before," I finished up the exnation just to see if I''ve got it right.


    "Pretty much, yeah," ire nodded her head, her smile growing just a little bit more as we grew ever-so-slightly closer now that we were on the same page.


    "Can I leave it to you to buff this list up, then?" I asked, only to lean over at the device and quickly scroll through the list again. "Oh, and while you are at it, can you add a bunch of basic stuff that''s likely toe of use?


    That, and," I smiled, as I finally formalized the path to making the one item that I had kept thinking about since a while ago, "and there are just a few more things that I think we might need from here."

 Chapter 72: Hints and floating lights

    "So?" ire leaned her head over to the side as she threw a curious and slightly inquisitive nce up to my face. "When are you going to reveal what it is that you are nning to make?"


    I raised one of my eyebrows as I looked slightly down, to the face of the girl walking by my side.


    "I don''t think it''s something that I should be bringing up now that we are outside¡­" I shook my head a bit, "why didn''t you ask while we were still back in the lounge?"


    ire bit her lips just a little bit to make herself appear even more adorable. Whether it was her intention or not I couldn''t really tell¡­ but rather than intentions, it was the end result that mattered in this regard.


    "It was a bit hard for me to¡­ think properly back there," ire whimpered in a low voice while dragging her eyes down and to the side, locking them on the floor of the massive building''s main corridor. Yet, despite going as far as to hold her breath to make her cheeks appear blushed she recovered enough to throw a sneaky nce up to my face way too quickly for her embarrassment to be real.


    Still, I was more than happy to respect the effort she put into making me talk.


    ''Or maybe it''s all a test, on whether or not I would cave in and do something reckless so that she could know whether or not it was a good idea to trust me with important yet restricted information?''


    Pondering over the issue for a moment, I suddenly reached out for ire''s wrist, grabbing it and pulling her back just strong enough to make her turn around and properly face me with her full body.


    "I really don''t want to bring it up while we are outside, so, I''m going to give you a hint," I decided before taking half of a step closer while pinning my eyes right against ire''s and refusing to move them away. "Now, focus on my face and face alone, okay?"


    Rather than answering out loud, ire pursed her lips and nodded a bit while already squinting her eyes to see as clearly as she could.


    And so I went ahead and let go of her hand only to raise my arm and grab right at her breast!


    Obviously, I did it through all theyers of her clothes that she properly put back on after our little adventure in the room. Nevertheless, we were out in public view of other customers of this busy ce¡­ and yet I went ahead and grabbed at her tit regardless of that fact!


    "What are you¡­?!" ire cried out a little, more startled than shocked or scared. Yet, the moment her eyes twitched, her voice softened before vanishing altogether.


    ''Did she get the hint?'' I asked myself, perfectly aware that I put all of my acting ability into making the most rxed face I could possibly make¡­ but not aware whether or not I made it obvious enough.


    To grab at her tit and end up rxed. That was the greatest extent of a hint that I was willing to drop while still out in public. A hint that was still far enough from the actual idea to make drawing the connection between the two a proper challenge¡­ not only for ire but for all the fuckers that followed her earlier cry with their eyes and now openly stared at the two of us down!


    Then again, while all of those passersby only saw us make out in public¡­ ire knew everyst item that I actually wanted to order before she herself went ahead and clouded that very list with several times more records of purchases that neither of us actually cared about.


    And so, with all of this knowledge behind her, it wouldn''t be all that surprising if she managed to figure it out from just this simple hint.


    "I think we should get going," I then muttered, changing the topic to one that was a lot more ptable in public space. "There are too many stares here, and I don''t want all of those schmucks to bask in the glory of your adorable smile," I added, catching ire with her guard lowered enough to make her cheeks cover with an actual blush as opposed to the one she forced by holding her breath.


    "Yeah," ire looked around before sighing, "I agree. Let''s go."


    Assisted with countless stares, we moved down the corridor before reaching the main gate and then leaving the building¡­ Only to be faced with the consequences of going shopping at the hour we did and then spending close to three hours behind closed doors.


    By now, the whole district¡­ No, the whole city and then the region has shifted fromte afternoon to an actual night. Yet, while this only served to remind us just how much time we wasted ying around¡­ it also allowed me to witness the glory of the floating lights that I''ve taken notice of before.


    A glory that I could never experience if I only visited this ce during the daylight hours.


    What used to be just a mere curiosity, funny things to observe before moving on and forgetting it existed, now turned not only into a proper utility that lit up the streets but into an actual show of lights, casting all sorts of shadows over the whole district and enriching it with a brand new, mystical feeling to it.


    "Now that I think about it, I never really brought up the details of the temples, did I?" ire said, this time satisfied with just grabbing my hand as opposed to wrapping herself around my arm as she did before.


    "Do those lights have to do with those temples?" I asked, fully aware by now just how observant this girl was. And between her randomly raising this topic and her doing so in response to how much my eyes drew to those floating lights¡­


    "Actually, they do," ire said with a small smile, showing just how happy she was to teach me something new.


    ''Maybe she has the pedagogical talent or inclining or sorts?'' I thought for a second before focusing right back on her words.


    "I mentioned this part before, but those temples are not only serving as a tribute to the city''s governor, but they alsoe with¡­" ire thought for a moment while putting yet another new look on her face for me to enjoy, "benefits? Like, when you pay tax, you get healthcare, roads et cetera.


    Here, when you offer your spiritual energy or treasures at the altar of your temple, it is turned into all sorts of services. And those lights," ire muttered as and raised it, yet kept her hand low as she searched the skies for something, "are just one of the many different benefits that we get in exchange."


    "That orb," ire shook her arm and finally moved her hand up and pointed it at a specific floating light, urging me to look up, "that golden orb I''m pointing at is powered by my father''s temple. On the other hand, that one," her hand moved over to a much dimmer orb that was extremely hard to notice with all the different lights dancing around¡­


    "ire?"


    Before she could finish up her story, someone called ire''s name, first making her go all stiff before quickly dropping her arm and looking around, all tense up until the moment when she saw the other party.


    Yet, while that instantly made her face rx and ended up with her smiling from ear to ear¡­


    Her body only tensed up even further, something that I could not only see with my own eyes¡­ but also feel with how hard she squeezed down at my hand.

 Chapter 73: Pulling out the uncle card

    "ire!"


    A group of three girls donning the kind of robes one would expect either from a cosyer or an average citizen of a cultivation district we were in.


    Their long, elegant robes fluttered as they rushed to our side, making them look like a bunch of fairies descending from the realm of the divine rather than just a bunch of girls happy to see their friend.


    Additionally, with how I''ve already seen others wearing the same kind of old-style format¡­


    Weren''t the robes of those girls a little bit too revealing, given how whenever they moved, the long strip of cloth in the middle would end up tangled between their legs, revealing pretty much the entirety of their long legs for all to see?


    ''With them for a contrast, I just can''t help but appreciate ire''s modesty more¡­'' I thought, almost weirded out by how I found those skimpy clothes of the trio morecking than attractive.


    Or maybe it was a result of ire doing her best to drain all the cum out of my system just a few hours ago, allowing me to look at the world around me from a much more mature, sober perspective?


    "Cassia, Jeanne, Calipso," ire''s smile only widened as she nodded her head in greeting, most likely reciting their names out for no other purpose but to let me know about them in advance. "I didn''t expect to meet you three here at this hour!"


    "Oh, I''ve never expected to see you here at this time either!" the girl in the middle stepped out of the group, allowing me to quickly establish the general dynamic of her group.


    ''She''s the top dog. Then, the one on her left¡­'' I took my eyes and turned them towards the other girl.


    As opposed to the striking, crimson robes of the first of the girls, the second one wore all blue while maintaining exactly the same cut of her outfit as her more dominant friend. What''s more, judging by how she kept on pinching at her fit to fix its position and properly hide her legs, she wasn''t all thatfortable in something that revealing.


    On the other hand, the girl on the right side of the group was donning clothes of an intense, brown color and cut to a simr¡­ yet distinctively different shape than the outfits of the other two.


    Sure, it was still a daring outfit leaving her stomach and pretty much most of her thighs out in the open¡­ But at the same time, the master craftsman who sown it knew their craft well enough to make the outfit hide the rest of her skin much better than the outfits of her two friends.


    ''The one in the middle is the top dog, the one on the left is dragged around while the one on the right is either the brain, the wallet, or the insider of the group,'' I thought, only to then resist the desire to put a helpless smile on my face.


    ''All that''s left now is to attach those names to their faces, huh?''


    "I didn''t expect to see you here either, but more than that¡­" the girl in the middle repeated her earlier statement, only to turn her eyes over to where ire and I held hands. Then, she slowly moved her eyes up my body, scanning every nook and cranny of it that her eyes could reach, only stopping when our stares met for a second before finally turning her eyes back to her target, back to ire.


    "If you don''t mind me asking," she started, clearly having no intention to wait and rify with ire if she minded the question or not, "but who''s that gentleman?"


    ire''s fingers tightened even harder over my hand.


    "He is¡­"


    She squeezed down on my hand so hard that I started to genuinely worry about a potential injury¡­


    "¡­my dear friend. What about him?" she then asked, proving that she knew perfectly well those three girls weren''t here just for gossip or small talk¡­ Or to be more precise, while that''s what was likely their reason to approach, rather than a participant, rie was bound to be the subject of those rumors instead.


    "Oh?" the girl in the middle took one more step¡­


    Prompting me to pull ire back a step while taking a step forward myself, staring right back into the girl''s curious eyes with a perfectly empty, disinterested look on my face.


    The girl''s eyes lingered on my face a little before turning down, to where we held hands, beforending right back on ire''s face.


    "Doesn''t look like¡­ just a friend, though¡­" she muttered just loud enough for not only the two of us and two of her friends¡­ but pretty much everyone around to hear it.


    "And since when is it a business of yours who he is?" ire snapped back, revealing that wasn''t going to take this kind of probing lightly. "Since when is it your business who do I hang out with?" ire asked again, only to then take a step slightly to the side to reveal herself from behind my back. "Or are you that jealous that I would rather hang out with him rather than with the three of you?"


    The smile on the girl''s face prevailed in the face of ire''s words, but it didn''t take a genius observer to see it turn sour.


    This changested only for a fleeting second before the girl''s expression returned to her former, much more natural smile.


    "Oh my¡­" the girl moaned a little¡­ with a voice that was strangely much more intense than I would ever expect someone''s voice to be. "Little ire is finally starting to show her fangs!" she eximed before bursting outughing, even going as far as to raise her hand and wipe the tear that formed in the corner of her eye.


    Then, as if herughter was nothing but an illusion, the girl raised her head and threw a furious stare down ire''s face.


    "Whether you have fangs or not, you better not forget which n is in charge of this ce!" she eximed so loud, that it became obvious she was trying to make a scene.


    "You¡­" ire took a step forward¡­ but this time, I pulled back on her arm, stopping her from facing those girls on her lonesome.


    "None of the ns are in charge of this ce," I stated out loud, caring not for all the stares this girl''s acting attracted so far. "Government is in charge of this ce and merely delegates its duties rted to this special zone to a select few families.


    In other words, just so that you won''t forget," I leaned my head over my arm while equipping the most charming smile I could produce with my lips, "be it your n, ire''s n, or a n with a stray dog for its patriarch," my smile grew even wider and wilder.


    "They only matter because my uncle says so."


    This statement was so unexpected, so out of line that it would be a bigger surprise if those three... Heck, if all four of the girls present on the scene actually believed in it!


    "Your uncle? Ha!" the leader of the three girlsughed out, obviously taking my words to be empty, devoid of any substance behind them. "And who this uncle of yours might be?" she then asked, struggling to properly voice her thoughts through her tears of amusement.


    "Tim?" ire asked in half-voice, clearly not expecting me to spin the situation into its current state.


    "My uncle?" I repeated the question... pretty much just to give those girls a little bit more hope that I was indeed talking nonsense.


    "He''s the elected mayor of this glorious city. Or, in other words, a man with enough executive power to remove your n''s residence permits. And coincidentally," I leaned my head over my other shoulder while my smile quickly turned sour, "a man who would jump on this opportunity to do me a favor and thus win the bet he made with me."

 Chapter 74: A proper way to play the "uncle" card

    "They only matter because my uncle approved such an arrangement."


    This was one hell of a statement¡­ and I knew it.


    A statement that was extremely political, direct, and honest to the bone. But while it was the truth¡­ It didn''t mean those three girls, or anyone else around us in fact, was happy to hear it.


    After a moment of silence, however, the leading bitch of the pack managed to recollect her thought and restore that aggressively bitchy look on her face.


    "Your uncle? Ha!" she cried out before throwing her hands out as if to say e at me''. "How telling of you to pull out a fact that no one here can verify!"


    In front of me, there were those three girls. To my side stood ire, who had a peculiar look of anxiety mixed with curiosity on her face.


    Those two I could deal with.


    But after my big statement, the crowd around us was the source of my worry. And to put it lightly, it wouldn''t be that much of a stretch for them to take those words of mine and use them as a justification for a lynch!


    Because while what I said was true¡­ thews in the cultivation districts were a lot different than thews outside of them. And while cultivators would be extremely careful with their powers in the secr part of the world, in here¡­


    "You see, that''s the problem," I ended up speaking out in the calmest and mostposed voice I could get my throat to produce. "You act as if I care enough about your drivel to ept a huge loss on my bet with him just to rub the ufortable truth in your face."


    "Tim, that''s okay, let''s just¡­" ire attempted to pull me aside¡­ but in her sheltered life, she clearly couldn''t recognize the signs that I, as someone who grew up in one of the denser parts of the city, could see at a nce.


    And it was the fact that with how things were right now, the crowd that gathered around us was unlikely to just let us leave.


    "Not only are they throwing empty words and trying to scare us with them," the leading bitch cleverly incorporated everyone in the crowd into her argument, "but when I''m trying to verify the validity of their ims, they are going to instantly backtrack?"


    Word after word, the girl''s voice grew louder and louder, soon turning into a crowd address rather than something directed at me or ire.


    "And this is exactly where your misconception lies," I pointed out both with my words and by raising my hand and pointing at the girl. "I do not owe you a word of exnation," I took a small, miniscule step ahead. "I do not owe you any proof," a step, "validation," I made another step, "or anything else. I simply exined the truth that I knew you would dislike."


    By now, I stood so close to the girl, that a curious and uniformed onlooker could assume we were about to kiss.


    During my advance, this bitch¡­ actually stood her ground, refusing to move back as I inched closer and closer. And while I was willing to give her credit for that, it didn''t change the crux of the situation in the slightest.


    "That''s a lot of fancy words for someone who''s all bark but no bite!" the bitch then tried to counter, only for ire to pull on my hand even harder as if worried this girl''s words would actually get to me.


    "And you are the one saying that?" I asked, taking a step back to put an emphasis on my exasperation. "Weren''t you the one who approached us all Karen-like, intruding upon our time together just to entertain yourself at our expense?"


    Bit by bit, I started to switch the narrative of the drama over from my earlier statement to the situation that started it all.


    "I just came to say hi to a friend!" the girl protested, clearly unwilling to let this situation blow over.


    "Then, what''s my name?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning a little to the back while showcasing a confident smile to the whole crowd around us.


    "Huh? Your name?" the girl''s eyes widened as she struggled to figure out where I was going with this question. And thisck of understanding¡­ was what finally started to crack her confident facade.


    "Why would I ever care about your name?!" she nearly screamed out before quickly calming herself down and waving her hand around as she put the most disgusted look on her face she could muster, "You better check your privilege, man, because nowadays¡­"


    "You came up to a friend you saw in town, saw that friend holding hands with a man and yet still failed to even ask for his name?"


    Rather than allowing the girl to go on, even though her actually acting like a Karen actually worked out for us, I kept my pressure.


    I''ve already managed to move the attention from the topic of the rtions between the secr and cultivation world and all the politics around this topic to something all of the people in the crowd could easily understand.


    And as those who weren''t here to witness it happen thought back and imagined the scenario¡­


    To say the mood changed would be a massive understatement.


    "You approached the two of us as we were busy talking and holding hands. Then, you start to throw poorly disguised shade while trying to rub your superiority and position in our faces. And now you get all bitchy when I do the same?"


    And just like that, we went full circle to the very point of the discussion I initially wanted to avoid.


    But if this girl was smart enough¡­ she would never let me do it. And no matter how the discussion would shift, or how the mood of the crowd would change, this would always remain a great point for her to draw back to. A point that I would never be able to refute if it was thrown back in my face.


    Now that I brought it back up myself, however¡­


    "I mean, he isn''t wrong¡­"


    "Isn''t that Cassie? I''ve heard rumors, but to see her bully others out in the open with my own two eyes¡­"


    The crowd filled with murmurs and whispers as everyone took their own take on the situation and eagerly shared it with whomever they were out in the streets with.


    "The truth of the matter is, I''m not going to call my uncle to deal with you. Heck," I spread my arms open as if to show I wasn''t armed or eager to fight to begin with "I''m not even gonna bother retaliating in any way or form!" I slowly lowered my hands only to reach out with my right arm, andnd it over ire''s shoulders before bringing her closer as I gave her a side hug.


    "You are not worth any more of our time, so we are simply going to leave."


    With that said, I didn''t bother wasting even a single second more of the girl, opting to stand by my words and turn around, ready to leave.


    Now that the mood of the crowd had shifted, it was the perfect opportunity to make our exit and stop putting our time and mental weight on this pointless drama.


    "That''s right! Run back to that loser of a n head of yours! Your uncle or not, for as long as he''s stuck at the ninth stage, he will forever remain just a bitch to my n!" Cassie screamed out, proving that she never experienced enough setbacks in her life to know how to deal with a situation she didn''te out on top of.


    And feeling how ire tensed up underneath my arm¡­


    "Would you like for me to retaliate?" I asked, both my tongue and my fists itching to get back at those bitches who dared to strike at ire true enough to actually make her react.


    "No, let them dogs bark as they wish," ire muttered through her tightened lips, clearly trying to hold her emotions back. "As for what she said¡­" she sighed before shaking her head, "I will bring it up with the father and let him decide how to deal with those kids."


    The corner of my lip moved up as a small, proud smile emerged on my face.


    It wasn''t easy to hold one''s emotions back when they were at their highest and make an urate, mature, and calm decision. That''s why, seeing and hearing ire do just that only served to raise her standing in my eyes even further, a feat that I routinely doubted to be possible only for, just as routinely, ire to prove me wrong.


    "Run as far as you like! It won''t change the fact your father will never advance and your n will be forever banished from the spiritual realm!"


    Paying Cassie''s shouts no mind, I focused all my attention on ire''s face so that I could tell at what point those bitches would cross the line. The line beyond which ire would no longer be willing to act mature and, instead, opt to deal with the troublemakers directly.


    "Say whatever you want, but you already know your father will never advance to the tenth stage!"


    At this point, ire merely sighed as her shoulders dropped a little.


    But her face, rather than being sad, infuriated, or annoyed¡­ merely showed signs of mental exhaustion.


    "Isn''t that why you found a rich mortal bastard to stick to? Because you know your n are nothing but talentless losers?!"


    Seeing the two of us just¡­ walk away without paying her any mind had to really tickle Cassie wrong given just how undignified she was willing to make herself be out in the open¡­ just to throw some more childish insults our way.


    But at this point, while I could respect the hustle, I just couldn''t let all of her words go unpunished, could I?


    And so, I leaned my head over the shoulder, easily catching the stare of the trio given how the crowd parted away to give the two groups a direct line of sight of each other.


    "Just one piece of advice in the passing from someone too smart to deal with your psychotic episode," I called out before putting a lovely smile on my face¡­ An easy feat as I imagined theeuppance that was already in the making.


    "You say ire''s father will never break through, how talentless he is and all¡­ But, if you think about it¡­"


    I even went as far as to stop and took a moment to think, knowing full well that these kind of small pauses was just the right tool to keep the crowd of onlookers engaged.


    "Wouldn''t the day when he breaks through anyway the very day when your own hand will end up pping your own face?"

 Chapter 75: Answering a question Claire was too worried to voice out loud

    The rumors always spread through the crowd at a rate that would baffle theoretical physics, moving faster than one would believe it to be possible.


    A process that required two people to talk to each other, and pass the news before turning around and repeating the whole thing with the person next in line¡­ somehow led to the news of the drama spreading faster than the two of us could leave the ce where the drama took ce.


    But while the spreading rate of the rumors about what just happened was much faster than we could walk¡­ it also meant that with every iteration of a person repeating the news, the truth about it would deteriorate just a little bit more.


    That''s why, while the rumors moved faster than the two of us could, by the time we reached the main crossroads of the district and took the turn for the road I formerly believed to be the main one, no one was paying us any mind anymore.


    It wasn''t because people didn''t care about the troublemakers behind the drama¡­ But by the time we took the corner, the details of the rumors had diluted to the point no one could tell we were the ones at the center of the talk of the night!


    "Hey¡­" ire tried to start some sort of conversation, but her voice broke and she turned her face away when I looked over.


    ire''s expression was now that of reluctance, uncertainty, as if something was heavily eating away at her thoughts yet struggled to spark curiosity desperate enough for her to ignore the potential consequences of raising the topic.


    "It''s about my story, isn''t it?" I asked, pretty much just for the sake of confirmation.


    ire turned her head back and looked up, only to escape with her eyes right away only to finally look at me with the corner of her eyes while still keeping her face away.


    ''Is it really that scary to bring up a potentially ufortable topic¡­?'' I thought, before trying to imagine a scenario where I would be asking her about something that ire was obviously ufortable talking about¡­


    ''Oh, I guess that''s pretty normal.''


    Just the thought of making ire restless, especially with how little we actually knew each other, or how we were still in the process ofying the foundation for our rtionship, was enough to make me fear such a faux pass could turn into a serious issue and a source of conflict down the line.


    "Don''t worry," I smiled, opting to take the burden I just imagined off ire''s shoulders and engage with the topic without having her ask about it. "While it''s not something I would discuss with a stranger, it''s not that I particrly mind talking about it.


    And in all honesty," I sighed, "you and your father are owed an exnation¡­" I hesitated before putting on a small smirk on my lips as I gave the girl a side-eye.


    "That is, assuming you didn''t learn everything there is to learn about it when you did a background check on me."


    "Huh?" Hearing this unfounded usation, rie nearby jumped, her face going into a panic mode¡­ Only to calm down when I just waved my head to dismiss her worries.


    "I don''t have any proof you guys actually went ahead and did it¡­ But I''m not stupid either. While I don''t really know the details of your rtionship with your father, he didn''t strike me as someone who would ept the kind of rtionship we have right now¡­" I hesitated once again, only to roll my eyes and backtrack a little.


    "Actually, I don''t think he would allow you to have any kind of rtionship with me without making sure I wasn''t some sort of a piece of shit that just knows how to act in public. So, the only logical result of this line of thought is a high likelihood of a background check."


    ire''s cheeks covered with a slight blush, only for the girl to then nod her head.


    "Yeah, we ran a check on you¡­And well, shiver me timbers, there was hardly anything for us to learn from it."


    This time, my mouth twisted into an annoyed grimace.


    ''He''s really throughout, isn''t he?'' I thought as the face of my deplorable uncle appeared in my mind.


    "Well, it''s nothing all that weird or unexpected, just a natural result of having two brothers where one values sess while the other values morals."


    I sighed as I brought my thoughts back to the less-than-pleasant memories when I, still as a mere kid, strayed away from the righteous path my father set me on and fell for the allure of all the morally questionable choices my uncle showered me with just to spite his own brother.


    "It''s going to seem like a massive tangent, but I will have to start quite far in the past to exin it," I announced, only to then grab ire''s hand and move both of us to the side, giving way to a group of rowdy cultivators clearly heading out to the town to get themselves hammered.


    Even if they didn''t look like some sort of real troublemakers who would give us a hard time¡­ I wasn''t really in the mood to start another drama when all I wanted was to just bring ire home safe so that we could talk in a more private andfortable setting.


    "You see, I love and value my parents very much even if they never made it big.


    By all means, you could say that, when counting just my immediate rtives, Ie from a normal, healthy family with a factory technician for a father and a high-school physics teacher for a mother," I started from a weird angle by putting a rtively huge emphasis on my parents'' profession rather than the quirks and qualities of their character.


    Nevertheless, ire didn''t seem to be bothered by such a massive tangent, clinging to my arm with her hands as she locked her eyes on my face and prickled her ears, all the while leaving the task of guiding her through the night-time streets all within my grasp and responsibility.


    "The thing is, my uncle was someone who didn''t really share my father''s values. While for my father, a hard day of honest work repeated over and over again was the true measure of a man''s enduring spirit, for my uncle, results were always all that mattered."


    I sighed as one scene, in particr, surfaced to the top of my memories, filling my soul with the same sense of awkwardness I felt back when I witnessed the aftershocks of the falling out between my father and my uncle.


    "And on a certain day, they simply decided they were so ipatible, they could no longer have any sort of rtionship, save for edge cases of emergencies," I revealed before sighing.


    "Tim¡­" ire muttered, her fingers clinging just a little bit higher on my arm as she gave me a concerned look. "If it''s too hard to talk about it, you don''t really have to¡­"


    "Don''t worry," I dismissed ire''s concern with a smile and another wave of my hand, "it''s not hard to talk about it. I simply can''t figure out some details of what made them grow apart so much, but¡­"


    I shook my head.


    "Moving on, from the day I turned thirteen, my family and my uncle grew apart. And it only changed when I hit the peak of my puberty and entered my rebellious stage."

 Chapter 76: How a hard-working young man turned into a spoiled brat

    "Looking at how calm you are right now, it''s hard to believe you ever had a rebellious phase," ire said with a small hint of a smirk on her lisp, a clear attempt at easing the air around us now that I''ve brought up the topic that inevitably made it tense up.


    "It''s but a result of getting burned for all my mistakes and nearly going way too far due to my own stubbornness," I admitted to a part of myself that I''ve long since epted. "But back then¡­"


    I closed my mouth, making the two of us walk in silence for a short while.


    A short while that then extended all the way to the point where we left the cultivation district, only for rie to call in an automated cab to get us all the way back to the outer part of the town''s suburbs where our vi was located.


    It wasn''t until the doors of the cab closed behind us that I finally managed to calm my memories down and kill the shame I felt over how I used to be, allowing me to open my mouth again and speak properly rather than tripping over every other word.


    "When I turned fifteen, I grew too tired of the burden that my father''s way of living put on me¡­ No, the burden it would put on anyone who tried to follow in his footsteps."


    ire''s hand moved up as her fingers entangled with mine before squeezing down.


    And as silly as it could be for a twenty-five-year-old me to be affected by that¡­ I still felt reassured.


    "Was it that hard?" ire asked, using her hold over my hand to slide a bit closer over the cab''s sofa as she pressed herself against my side and rested her head over my shoulder.


    "Looking back, not really?" I struggled to find the right way and, the right intonation for my answer. "It wasn''t the daily life that was hard. My father''s expectations always fell within the realm of possibility constructed upon my talents and potential¡­ But it was the end goal that kept putting me down."


    I sighed and leaned heavily against the backrest of the cab''s long seat.


    "You see, I don''t really mind working hard if it leads to something. That''s how I managed to cope for the two years since my father''s fall-out with the uncle, which only made him all the more strict with how he brought me up. But by the time I turned fifteen¡­"


    This time, my sigh grew quite a lot longer.


    "Back then, I realized that all thatid ahead of me if I kept going along with my father''s guidance¡­ was more of the same." I shook my head. "The only reward for working hard was to work even harder in the future. The only result of all the effort would be greater requirements down the line. And no matter how hard I tried¡­"


    I pursed my lips before gritting my teeth.


    Even now, after I''ve already internalized all of those problems and found what I believed to be the right answers to them, just recalling that part of my life was enough for a hint of doubt to once again sneak into my mind and start sowing the chaotic seeds of¡­ well, chaos.


    "No matter how hard I tried, there didn''t seem to be any reward at the end of the road. There was nothing that would make my efforts worthwhile."


    This time, I didn''t sigh, shake my head, bit down on my lips, or do anything else. I just¡­ stared dead ahead with a nk look on my face.


    "And so, with my moment of vulnerability, doubt, and rebellion, I just happened to chance upon my uncle and, eager to see what his conflict with my father was for myself, epted his invitation for a meal."


    By now, I could no longer hold the same, empty expression on my face. And it was all because¡­


    It was all because, to this very day, I wasn''t really sure how to judge the things that followed.


    "To cut a long story short, my uncle wasted no time, effort, or money to burden me with tasks much lighter than my father did¡­ while always making sure an appropriate reward would wait for me the very moment I was done."


    Rather thanmenting on the story or trying to put her own two cents to it, ire simply caressed my arm with her hands as she locked her eyes on my face and listened in perfect silence and with perfect focus.


    "It''s not like my parents were poor, allowing my uncle to brainwash me by just throwing some pennies my way. No, not at all," I shook my head to put an emphasis on that fact¡­ or rather, the convenient lie by omission.


    Because the truth was, my family never allowed me to experience the feeling of being poor. And even thoughter, when I looked back at those times, it was obvious there were moments when the money in the family budget was short¡­


    It was a burden my hard-working parents never allowed to affect me.


    "It''s not like I couldn''t y games with my friends¡­ but my parents refused to give me the things I wanted. I never got a scooter when most of my friends rode around the town in one. I didn''t have thetest gaming consoles or the newest model of a phone. And while now I know how meaningless if not outright harmful buying those things would be for the young me, back then¡­"


    "Back then, it didn''t seem the same way as it does now, right?"


    When ire intruded on my story for the very first time, she appeared to do so only to prove just how attentively she listened to my words.


    Strangely enough, after all the experiences I had of people cutting me off and abusing my dislike of doing the same to them¡­ I actually felt great when ire did so!


    "That''s right," I nodded my head, only to open my mouth¡­ right as the cab came to a stop, announcing the end of our ride. "And so, when my uncle started to shower me with rewards for every tiniest thing I did, it took only a few months for me to turn into an arrogant, spoiled brat."

 Chapter 77: The one condition I cannot agree to

    "By my sixteenth birthday, I was running all sorts of errands for my uncle, hardly ever finding time to go to school or have dinner with my family. At that point, it was also no longer a secret I was working for him, putting a huge strain on my rtionship with my father."


    This was, without a doubt, the least pleasant part of the whole story.


    Not the part where I nearly went to jail over some misunderstanding, maniption, and advancing from a gofer to a fall guy.


    Not the part where I became a menace to anyone who dared to talk with me as all the money I earned under my uncle turned me into something much worse than just a spoiled brat - a spoiled young adult.


    It was the part where my naive, arrogant, and self-serving actions created a rift in my family nearly strong enough to tear it into pieces.


    That part of the story, however, I wasn''t yet ready to talk to ire about. And in all honesty, those details didn''t really matter for her, for they were of no greater influence over my past itself.


    "The situation continued all the way to the day when, as I was about to return from a job to get paid, I just happened to listen up to the conversation my uncle had with one of his mistresses."


    By now, we''d reached the doors to the mansion, prompting me to turn silent as we went inside, and greeted the hard-working staff at the main hall before moving to the private areas that the staff only had ess to when we weren''t there.


    A solution that was apparently perfectlymon for people on Chihiro''s level of wealth, allowing one to clearly dictate when they were willing to socialize with their service workers and when they wanted to spend time in private.


    It wasn''t until we reached that private part of the mansion and sat down in the freshly cleaned living room that I sorted my thoughts to the point where I could finally start talking again.


    "As it turned out, most of the jobs I was doing were of absolutely no significance. What I thought to be missions vital to one of my uncle''s many businesses turned out to be merely a facade," I spoke out, only to end up muttering at the end.


    "What do you mean by that?" ire asked, squinting her lovely eyes as she struggled to understand my somewhat cryptic words.


    "For example, one of the tasks I was often assigned was to move documents or smaller packages from one ce to the other," I started to exin, only to quickly raise my hands when I realized how my words sounded just now. "Don''t worry, I always could take a look into the package so it''s not like I was peddling drugs or something like that. Just¡­ documents, trinkets, and other stuff."


    ''That''s strange,'' I thought when I felt as if all the strength left my body, leaving me sitting all powerless on the soft cushions of the living room sofa. It was only by some miracle that the ss of soda in my hand didn''t slip out from my now loose fingers.


    ''I was sure I got over it already, but just look at me right now¡­''


    "Tim¡­" ire muttered, a look of worry and concern resurfacing on her face.


    "As it turned out, the documents of vital importance turned out to be scraps of paper, often made on the spot by my uncle cutting newspapers into smaller pieces. The trinkets I was bringing over to improve rtionships between businesses turned out to be sundries no one actually needed."


    "Then, why?" ire asked before the next dose of silence could turn deafening.


    "Just to keep me busy, keep giving me money and keep rubbing it into my father''s face how his own sold sided with his uncle over him just because he threw some money in my face and spared a word of praise every now and then."


    I took a deep breath.


    "It was back then that I understood that all that I did, all the hard work I took such great pride in, was nothing more but a facade, a means for my uncle to strike back at my father.


    And sure, the money was great for a young man from an average family like me¡­ But all things considered, it was just another way for me to validate my efforts and prove my father wrong rather than something I actively desired."


    At this point, I grew too weary of my own memories to keep going. And so, I focused all of my attention on the heavy task of actually gripping at the ss and then forcing my arm to move up so I could take a sip and soothe my dry throat.


    It was a task that, at this specific moment, proved to be a little too much for me.


    Thankfully, rather than speaking out in the air for only my ears to hear, I had ire by my side. ire who was observant enough to notice my struggle, grasped my ss and then actually helped me take a sip.


    "Tim, that''s enough. You really don''t have to force it¡­"


    "It''s okay, that was the worst part of it all, so it''s only going to get easier from now on," I replied, somehow mustering enough strength to squeeze back at ire''s hand.


    "Back then, I understood what my father meant when bringing up the value of hard work. The value of doing stuff others would actually appreciate, even if I wouldn''t get the money to show for it. And after a year of doing my best to fix the rotten parts of my character that I spoiled over thest three years, my dad rmended I join the institution."


    At this point, I simply shrugged my shoulders.


    "From then on, the story is simple. I went to the institution, banged my fist into the target over and over again, and did everything I could to enter a meditative state. A process thatsted five years, all the way to the point where I was told to give up before getting kicked out of the institution," I exined before taking a deep breath and forcing a small smile on my lips.


    "As for my uncle, however, he didn''t take my switch lightly. And even three years into my adventure at the institution, he kept trying to convince me to go back to his side."


    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before shaking my head and then leaning back on the sofa as if I wanted to go to sleep.


    "That''s why, unless it will be absolutely necessary, I''m not going to call my uncle, even if he now has both the political and mary power to do as he wishes in this city. And it''s not only because it would make me feel like betraying my dad''s expectations again, but¡­" I opened my eyes and turned my head to the side, giving ire a heavy look.


    "But also because his condition for helping me out, is for me to give up on cultivation, to give up on working hard, to¡­ To give up on the one thing my dad taught me that I never crossed."


    I took a deep breath before looking away from ire and up to the ceiling.


    "To give up on the idea that working hard¡­ works."

 Chapter 78: Now that I think about it, what happened to my would-be kidnappers?

    "Out of everything that you said, I don''t understand only one thing," ire imed as she moved her head off from my shoulder andid down across the sofa while resting her head down on myp. And as she looked up, right to my face, she asked, "If you despise the idea of calling your uncle so much, why did you bring him up to begin with?"


    Looking down, I couldn''t help myself but bring my hand up to ire''s head and then brush my fingers through her soft, brown hair. An action that instantly put a small smile on the girl''s face as she lowered her eyelids and purred infort.


    "You see, it''s what my uncle did that I hate, not my uncle himself. And by now, I''m mature enough to admit that while what he did was shitty, it was still a valuable lesson I learned."


    ire leaned her head slightly to the side, as if not sure whether to enjoy the head-patting or to put an emphasis on how little sense my words made to her.


    "What do you mean by that?" she ultimately went with asking the question, only to instantly close her eyes down and go right back to enjoying the slight caress.


    "My uncle used me in his conflict with my father. So wouldn''t it be only fitting for me to use him back?"


    As much as I disliked answering a question with a question on my own¡­ given the more rhetorical nature of my response, I could still somehow squeeze those words out of my throat.


    "Wait, what?!" ire nearly jumped up from myp, only for her rxed body to twitch¡­ and then fall right back onto my thighs as she ended up being too rxed to take any decisive actions. "You would be willing to give up on all those things that you stuck to for so long just to p the face of some stupid bitch?!"


    ire''s face painted with disbelief, holy fury, anger, and all sorts of other high-octane emotions.


    A mix of expressions that I responded to by just¡­ smiling.


    "You do realize that I could just lie to him?"


    For a moment, ire froze.


    "What''s more, it''s not about smacking the face of some cultivator Karen. That''s not the point at all," I stated while shaking my head and then moving my hand from the top of ire''s hair to her cheek as I caressed it lightly. "It''s about pping the face of someone who dares to annoy my dear ire. And it might be just me, but I think there''s one hell of a difference between the two."


    This time, ire froze at first¡­ only to then rx all on her own, opting not to engage as she focused her attention on hiding the satisfied blush that rushed up to her cheeks as she heard my words.


    "How do you know what are just the right words I would like to hear¡­" ireined a bit only to then shake her head to the sides as if nestling it deeper into myp. "Anyway, Karen or not, I don''t want you to take such a huge step just to make me feel good, make me feel justified for all the off-handed remarks that bitch likes to throw my way."


    ire''s face twitched a little as some sort of a thought visited her mind, only for her face to then quickly grow quite somber.


    "More importantly, I don''t want you to make people aware of your existence," she stated as she raised her head from myp¡­ Only to then raise up as if she wanted to sit, only to press her hands against the bed to lift her ass before nting it right back down where her head was just a moment ago.


    "That kidnapping ident¡­ We managed to suppress the news about it, but I''m not arrogant enough to believe we left no one any wiser. Right now, the only reason why no one else is trying to put their filthy hands on you," ire''s voice quickly grew more and more agitated as she went back with her thoughts to that fateful day, "is because they don''t know enough tomit hard enough.


    And I really don''t want that to change."


    That was quite the problem. A problem that I was fully aware of, just underestimated its scale and rate at which it grew.


    After figuring out the current extent of my abilities and just what kind of insane inventions I could bring to the cultivation side of the world, I pretty much had no other choice but to ept all the risks and responsibilities that woulde with it.


    In that perspective, the kidnapping attempt¡­


    It was merely the beginning, a foreshadowing of how my life was likely to look like in the future rather than just an off-case of someone who stumbled upon my stream, managed to find out who I was, and then made a move to secure my abilities for themselves.


    But then again, wasn''t this the fate of all those who made it big? And that thing was one of the few I was quite sure about - I was going to make it big in this broken and nonsensical world!


    "Wait, now that I think about it, I never asked about what happened to the guys who tried to kidnap me," I realized and nigh instantly voiced this doubt-sh-curiosity. "Are they all dead, or¡­?"


    Even though, in theory, I wasn''t changing the topic¡­ In reality, there wasn''t much else to discuss.


    ire already made her mind clear - she didn''t want me acting high-key, all in a bid to keep me a hidden card of her n rather than a high-profile member of it. And given how I was all for this kind of approach myself, what else was there for us to discuss?


    "We are holding them in one of the ck sites of the n," ire replied without even a shred of hesitation as if she was talking about what she had for yesterday''s dinner rather than a very likely highly illegal solution to equally as illegal problem.


    "Why do you ask, though?" she asked herself, throwing her right hand behind my neck only to lock it on her left before hanging her entire body back as she stared right into my face.


    "It started as just a curiosity when I realized I know pretty much nothing about what happened back then, especially after I copsed," I admitted before putting a wide grin on my face. "But now, your tickling of the info only made my curiosity grow!"

 Chapter 79: An offer no fertile man could refuse

    "I made your curiosity grow, you say?" ire whispered, only to pull on my neck to bring herself up before kicking out with her legs off to the side as her ass slid over myp all the way to the point where she leaned to the back and rested her rear against my chest, cing her head right below and to the side of mine as she used my shoulder for a temporary pillow.


    Then, after a short moment of silence, she pushed her chin up so that she could look up at my face and revealed her mischievous smile, all the while she continued to move her hips a little as if trying to settle better on myp.


    "Are you sure it is your curiosity that grew? Not something else?" she asked right as I felt my pants suddenly growing ufortably tight.


    "Is this your attempt at changing the topic?" I asked in a slightly stern voice while moving my hands down to her stomach and then¡­ just letting them rest down on ire''s waist in a bit to stop her what started as slightly moving her hips around and now turned into pretty much quite the intense twerk.


    "And what if it is?" ire asked back in a provocative tone while sparks appeared all over her eyes that she kept locked on my face regardless of just how active her rear grew atop myp.


    "Well, isn''t it obvious?" I asked in return while raising my right eyebrow in what I hoped she would understand for a look of disapproval. "It''s annoying because it''s fucking working!"


    Just like when I noticed the gap in ire''s charms before, having this natural,fy beauty of the librarian-type act all slutty while in private was quite the experience.


    Then again, the topic I brought up by a total chance was actually a bit too interesting for it to lose against ire''s poor attempt at seducing my thoughts away from it.


    "I mean, if you want to do it, I''m game, but¡­ How about you fill me in first?" I pleaded while trying my best not to show just how nice it felt to have her rub herself down on me or just how easy it was for me to drown in those intense, brown eyes of hers.


    "Then, how about it, I''m only going to give you some general information¡­ But in ce of going to the site and paying them back in kind for what they did, I will do whatever you ask of me instead?"


    At this point, ire brought me dangerously close to the limit of what I was willing¡­ No, what I was capable of enduring.


    ''Isn''t she a bit too skilled at using her charms to her own advantage?'' I thought as a hint of restlessness appeared in my soul¡­ Only to serve as a fuel that only further fanned the mes in my soul.


    As a result, rather than waiting for ire to respond, I moved my hands down her waist to her hips and then her ass. But I didn''t stop there!


    Instead, I kept moving my hands further and further down, even going as far as to lean forward and squeeze ire down on myp a little as I did so¡­ All in a bit to bring my hands as far down as ire''s knees.


    Then, once I locked my fingers against the middle joint of ire''s legs, I suddenly jerked my hands up, pulling ire''s knees as high as I could without making her slide off myp.


    "Hyaa!" ire squealed when I suddenly put her in a position as if I was trying to expose her most important ce to someone standing right in front of us¡­ even if we were all alone in the room.


    But to say I tried to expose her butt and the stuff hidden by it wouldn''t be much of a surprise, given how I then let go of one of her legs only to bring my hand right down to her crotch before sliding it even further down, near the area that, despite already having done the deed, we have yet to mention or bring up even once!


    With ire''s skirt flipped over, there was nothing but only her panties in the way of my hand as I pressed my fingers down at an area dangerously close to her ass.


    "Are you really sure you are ready to pay such a hefty price?" I asked while taking the liberty of enjoying the softness of her thigh with my other hand.


    "That''s¡­"


    For the first time, ire hesitated. And in her hesitation, she lost focus and lowered her head, now looking down at where my hand moved rather than up to my face.


    "Just like I thought¡­" I muttered, quickly moving my hands away¡­ Only to bring them up to her face, grab her chin, and lift it up while lowering my own head at the same time.


    Before ire could even have a shot at reacting, I pressed my lips down from above on her mouth, connecting us with a long yet preciously gentle kiss.


    A kiss that came to an end when we both parted our mouths to catch a breath¡­ Only for me to move in again, this time using my lips to pry ire''s mouth open as I made my way inside, determined to im ownership over her soft, wet tongue.


    While tensing up in surprise at first, rie quickly came to rx as she immersed herself in the now deep kiss, perfectly happy with enjoying it even if my hands made it feel as if I was forcing this kiss on her.


    ''Why isn''t she resisting?'' I asked myself when we both paused to take another breath¡­ Only for ire to push her head up and seek my lips herself, without even the slightest pull of my hands.


    ''She asked for this, didn''t she?'' As a certain thought appeared in my head, my mind quickly rushed to find a proper justification for it.


    "Then, if you are serious with this offer of yours," I whispered when we parted our lips to take another breath, "then you surely wouldn''t mind me iming those sweet lips of yours, would you?"

 Chapter 80: The likely reason behind the kidnapping attempt

    "Would you?" I asked as we parted our lips, only to raise and slide my hand up ire''s side, track the curvature of her waist turning into her chest, over her armpit, and across her neck, all the way to the point where my handid down on her cheek.


    But I wasn''t done there.


    Moving my hand just a little bit higher, I locked ire''s bottom lip between my thumb and the side of my forefinger, pulling it down as if to open her mouth for another kiss.


    ire''s hands moved up and rested down on my chest as she obediently followed my guidance, allowing me to pull her mouth open¡­ and thus rendering herself unable to voice her answer.


    Instead, she pushed the top of her head down, wrapping her upper lip down against my finger only to then look up, giving me a perfect look at her upturned eyes.


    ''This cannot mean anything but yes,'' I thought as I felt her tongue start to lick all over my fingers all the while she maintained eye eye-contact between the two of us.


    Which only made it harder for me to follow through with the next step.


    "Well, that''s good to know, but this time I will have to refuse."


    I first rxed my fingers to let ire''s bottom lip slip out, before sliding my forefinger out of her mouth and then dropping my hand down to my own hips just fast enough to escape with it before ire could catch it with her mouth again.


    "Huh?"


    The shock on ire''s face was real. And in all honesty, it didn''t take a genius to figure out why.


    ''This is the first time I refused her advances, isn''t it?'' I thought right as ire leaned back on myp, still holding the same shocked look on her. She then stared deeply into my face as if unsure if I was still the same man that she was starting to get to know better.


    "I''m sorry sweetie, but after thinking about it, I really dislike the idea of conceding something just because you offered this kind of service," I stated while shaking my head, only stopping the shaking when I was ready to look up straight ahead and into ire''s eyes. "And this isn''t the topic to be taken so lightly it could be solved in this way."


    ire still refused to say a single word¡­ but she bit her lips as a hint of frustration shed through her eyes.


    "What do you want to know about them, then?" ire finally asked, speaking out for the very first time since I suddenly refused her advanced right as she admitted she was willing to try one of the things that most men in the world desired with the entirety of their hearts.


    "Why they thought a kidnapping attempt was the best way to approach the matter, why they went through this in the first ce, why didn''t they just approach me and ask for cooperation¡­" I spoke out some random reasons I could think of off the top of my head¡­ while keeping silent about the real reasons I wanted to meet with those people.


    It wasn''t something as simple as just a desire to bury my feet into the stomach of the people who dared to attempt to take my freedom away. In all honesty, with all the time that passed since the incident, I couldn''t really care less about them.


    But, as stupid as it was, I really wanted to know whether or not they had anything to do with ire and-sh-or Chihiro.


    And it was all because of the timing of this attack¡­ wasn''t it a bit too damn convenient?


    Sure, I came into my meeting with Chihiro and ire pretty much with my decision to cooperate with them made¡­ Or rather, I came to that meeting with the mindset of someone applying for cooperation rather than someone seeking the best offer for my skills.


    And after just a moment of thought, the timelines of the things that happened made little to no sense within the assumption it was Chihiro who arranged the event¡­


    But what if it was something he prepared in advance in case I wasn''t willing to make the deal?


    ''Assuming it''s true, it won''t change much for me for now¡­ But as respectable of an attempt at covering all one''s bases as it potentially was, it''s something I need to know to better understand how to move with that man watching every move I make.''


    "If it''s about those questions, we already have the answers though?" ire spoke while leaning her head over her shoulder and moving her upper body ever-so-slightly closer to mine.


    ''She''s really making it hard to believe they had anything to do with it,'' I thought, sensing how my answers made ire rx as if I didn''t voice out the reason behind my wish to meet those would-be-kidnappers that she was worried to be behind my motivation.


    "Care to share them?" I requested while raising my hands just a little bit higher to return them back to where they felt to be in their fated spot - right at the indentation of ire''s waist.


    That ce¡­ it felt as if the creation itself was behind making it feel just so damn right for my hands to hold!


    "They attempted the kidnapping because they learned about your connection to my n and realized they couldn''t afford to offer anything we wouldn''t bid over," ire answered without even a second thought. "They went through it in the first ce because they believed you were about to craft a certain thing.


    As for why they didn''t approach you¡­ well, my first answer already serves as a fitting reply to this question too, doesn''t it?"


    Thinking back to the questions I posed, I couldn''t help but nod my head in agreement.


    "Then, why did they deem my abilities important enough to attempt something so bold if not outright stupid as kidnapping right in the middle of a damn city? Not to even bring up the fact of actively using their powers while doing so?"


    This time, rather than turning surprised, ire''s face outright darkened.


    She then lowered her eyes and took a deep breath, calming herself down before slowly raising her eyes back and looking straight into my face while her hands moved to rest upon my shoulders.


    "Tell me, what do you know about Vahanea structure?"

 Chapter 81: Arrays, formations and structures

    "Tell me, what do you know about Vahanea structure?"


    This question had two, rather simr answers.


    One answer that woulde from me all the way up to the day when I looked into my streaming incident and then, another one, that woulde from times after it.


    Yet, while those two answers would be extremely different¡­ they would also boil down pretty much to the same thing. For an answer before the incident would be absolutely nothing, my current one¡­


    "As much as your average Joe who typed it out into a search engine," I replied with a shrug of my shoulders. "Some sort of device that cultivators all the way from mystic times tried to create, then the guys from the mysticism restoration era tried to replicate."


    I sighed before shaking my shoulders again.


    "In other words, a myth."


    That was the extent of the information I could find on the web. But, as I looked up and stared into ire''s face¡­


    There seemed to be more to the issue than your averageizen was privy to know.


    "That''s understandable," ire sighed before shaking her head, "but it''s not the full truth either. So, to make it slightly easier, try to forget everything and anything you''ve read about it because themon knowledge is nothing more but a bunch of lies and misinformation spread by the elites of the cultivation world."


    I squinted my eyes.


    ''No matter how you look at it, this sounds like either tinfoil-hat level of conspiracy¡­ or an actual issue. And given how ire doesn''t strike me as someone who would be into conspiracies¡­''


    It only took a moment of actually leaning over the issue for me to realize just how potentially dramatic of a change this truth could be over what I pictured to be reality.


    "Wait, don''t tell me it exists¡­!"


    The Vahanea structure was supposed to be this perfectly optimal formation capable of taking even the thinnest Qi from the air and purifying it, condensing, enriching, and reforming it in such a way that what came out was the energy that even immortal cultivators could make great use of.


    It was because this formation was never replicated in the mystical reformation era that science ultimately took over the world, pushing the cultivation to the sidelines of history.


    In a sense, one could look at it as some sort of a wonder weapon that was supposed to help the cultivators stop the march of the modern armies and give them a fighting chance against the rapidly developing modern weapons. A wonder weapon that the desperate believed in with nothing else to pin their hopes on.


    But that was all merely a part of what your average Joe knew or could know if he studied what little about this topic could be found on the web.


    ''What if none of that is true? What if that structure exists¡­'' I squinted my eyes as I took my time thinking over the issue.


    ''Then again, it doesn''t make practical sense,'' I thought as I cast all the random thoughts and doubts aside. ''It''s an undeniable fact that the current spiritual world exists within thends that were devastated in thest great war that the victors haphazardly rebuilt and established as the cultivation-free zone,ying the foundation of what the spiritual world is today.


    But if such a thing existed¡­ How could the cultivators lose the great war to begin with?''


    "I can see the gears in your mind turning," ireughed out a little, her face free of even the faintest hint of mockery or amusement gained at my expense. "But it''s nothing all thatplicated. In short, it is believed that the Vahanea structure is what modern science would consider a perpetuum mobile¡­ Or rather, its cultivation counterpart or sorts."


    With this sentence on her lips, ire suddenly raised her hips before fully standing up, making mee face to face with her stomach for a second before she walked off the sofa and leaned over the table. She swiped away most of the various snacks and drinks prepared by the house staff before bringing out just the biggest bowl that she could find.


    "You see, in everyday life, people use words like formation, array, and structure interchangeably. But if you look closer, those three things are actually all different," she exined while now picking up the smallest items off the table and arranging them in strange, swirling patterns all around the big bowl.


    "An array is the name for arranging severalmands for spiritual energy on a ne. It''smonly engraved into a single item so that one could infuse it with Qi to bring forth an effect that would otherwise take quite a lot of effort to mold the spiritual energy into.


    Ultimately, however, it''s still just an item that you need to power up, an item that stops working the moment you stop pouring your spiritual energy into it."


    ire finally turned back only to then point her hand at the bowl.


    "Imagine this bowl to be an array designed to simply store spiritual energy, in this case, represented by the fruits, until someone decides to pick it up. But just like you would need to extend the effort of moving your hand to pick fruit, you need to extend spiritual energy to ess what''s stored in the array."


    ire''s hand then moved over to one of the swirling arrangements of cups, shot sses, and spice bottles.


    "Those are all arrays as well, with predetermined intent and designation," she exined, only to reach out into the bowl and pick up an apple only to then bring it over to the first of the empty sses and act as if she was pouring its content over the apple.


    She then moved it over to the next step, then the next one, and so on, all the way until she reached the end of the swirling arrangement where she suddenly tossed the apple away only to put down a tter with squares of apple pie in its ce.


    "You can imagine this whole thing as a formation. A set of smaller arrays, each responsible for but a single task, now arranged in a way that brings forth a result much moreplex than what you would be able to ever achieve with an array."


    Listening with all the focus and attention I could muster, I squinted my eyes before raising them from the table and onto the girl''s face.


    "Following this example, a structure would be an arrangement of several formations?" I tried to guess, only to see the corner of ire''s mouth twitch into a small smile.


    "Yes but actually no," she said as her smile grew. "Yes, structures are arrangements of formations and arrays that give out moreplex results than a formation or an array could bring forth on their own. But that''s also what¡­ well, an arrangement of arrays and formations is. In other words¡­"


    "There is some other prerequisite for an arrangement to be considered a proper structure, right?"


    ire nodded her head before sitting down at the edge of the table with the snacks and crossing her hands on her chest before heaving a deep sigh.


    "For an arrangement to be a structure, it has to be capable of self-sustaining the task it was designed to perform. And while that''s still something that we can do¡­"


    ire shook her head.


    "A Vahanea structure is a structure that takes in any kind of spiritual energy and turns it into true Qi. But while that''s still possible even if a rather challenging structure to create¡­"


    A thought shed in my mind as I connected the dots between what ire said before and what she was leading to now.


    "It''s a structure that can use the very true qi it outputs to keep itself running in perpetuity, right?"

 Chapter 82: Who cares about perpetum mobile of the ancients when we have supreme pastry!

    A Vahanea structure. A perpetuum mobile of the cultivation world. A structure capable of endlessly reproducing true Qi as long as someone feeds it with a bit of spiritual energy in the beginning.


    In other words, something that, ording to anyws of physics, cultivation, ormon sense, couldn''t exist.


    And yet¡­


    "Are you going to tell me now that it actually exists?" I asked while raising my eyes to the girl''s face.


    "What? No, of course it doesn''t!" she quickly eximed, only to then shake her head. "But that doesn''t mean there are no structures made with Vahanea''s structure in mind. And even if they all ended up failing, it doesn''t change the fact that some of those¡­"


    ire averted her eyes and looked down while biting down on her lips.


    "Some of the structures made in Vahanaea image certainly do work, even if they are still a far cry from what the original was supposed to be," she exined.


    But there was one word that instantly caught my attention.


    "The original?" I muttered while raising my eyebrows. "I thought it was impossible to make one, so how could there be an original?"


    ire sighed.


    "And that''s where we enter the realm of what you brought at the very beginning, the realm of myth. ording to that very myth, there wasn''t just one¡­ but a total of seven different Vahanea structures that predated even the mystical area. That time of cultivators running free all over the world and holding the reins of all of humanity?"


    ire shook her head.


    "There are some who believe that rather than humanity''s high point in history, it was the time of decay and fall for the civilization that''s lost in time. A civilization buried by some disaster so thoroughly, all we ever managed to recover from it are some tiny trinkets."


    I opened my mouth¡­ only to close it shut as a sudden question popped up in my head.


    ''Just what exactly was the topic before we shifted to talking about this structure?'' I thought, turning my eyes over to the arrangement of the table.


    ''Formations? Arrays? Or¡­''


    "Well, I guess there''s no use worrying about it too much," I said before following it up with a deep sigh. "If it''s impossible, then that''s that.


    What''s the point of worrying about it now?" I asked the rhetorical question while standing up and getting closer to ire¡­ Only to reach by her side and pick the te before using it to carry a piece of the apple pie that ire formerly used as a showcase of an end result from putting an apple, a stand-in for spiritual energy, through all sorts of arrays within the formation she disyed.


    In fact, this cake drew my attention quite a while earlier already with how its perfectly square cut did a great job at disying the meaty, chunky insides of the fried apple filling and its golden crust seemingly shining with its own light.


    A pastry I didn''t feel like grabbing before in fear of ire having the irrational thought I paid more attention to food than herself. And a worry I could only put aside now that she left myp!


    "Well, the one thing I can say," I stated, only to raise the te to my mouth and then use it as a crumble-catcher when I took the bite of the soft treat, "oose nent vaion¡­"


    My vision nearly went off when my eyes went up to the ceiling as the rich, perfectly juicy vor of the pastry''s filling filled my mouth. The slight sourness of the apple mixed perfectly with the sweet addition of the cinnamon powder infused in it the simple, straightforward sweetness of the fluffy base, and then the crunchy, zed crust.


    "Those ancient nations or whatever, even if they really had impossible devices like that Vahanea structure, they certainly didn''t get these kinds of tasty treats!"


    I wasn''t overexaggerating here. Not even in my time of working for my uncle when money was hardly an issue and when I frequented his ce did I get a taste as rich and vorful as I did just now.


    "It''s¡­" ire gave me a strange, slightly confused look. "It''s just a pie, you know?" she muttered, before turning her gaze over to the huge te with more squares of the pastry. "Oh, I¡­"


    "Look here," I called out to the girl, only to strike out with my right hand¡­ and stuff her mouth with the piece I just took a bite from as soon as she turned to face me again.


    At first surprised, ire awkwardly munched down on the cake while allowing the drops of crumbles to fall down to the te I held just below her chin. Then, for a moment, her expression melted down as she got to taste the delicious treat herself, only to swallow¡­ and look up with a hint of anger in her eyes.


    "Tasty, isn''t it?" I asked with a huge smile on my face, more than eager to move away from all those heavy topics and charge straight ahead to the next point of the day''s schedule.


    "It sure is¡­" ire begrudgingly muttered. "Just don''t eat too much of it, since it''s made with Atraxia leaf."


    "And what''s that?"


    "Quite the vicious herb," ire shook her head before pushing the te with thest bite of the cake away from her mouth. Yet, rather than just letting me have it, she actually grabbed the te before forcing it out of my hand and putting it back onto the table. "While it''s not bad in small amounts¡­ Well, it uses your own Qi to enrich the taste of whatever it is that you are currently eating.


    So using it sparingly shouldn''t be a problem, but well¡­"


    ire looked away.


    "It''s better if you won''t get used to its effects because once you get addicted to this level of taste and start consuming it on a regr basis, the burden it will ce on your cultivation will be actually massive."

 Chapter 83: Is the vetting really that strict if we have a man dedicated to random odd-jobs?

    I slowly pried my eyes open, only to see the ceiling that slowly, slowly, I was starting to get familiar with.


    Yet, as my consciousness started to cast away the chains of slumber, I was soon hit with a whole series of effects that nearly dragged me right back to the realm of sleep.


    Even though I''d cast my covers at some point in the night, only half of my body felt cold while the other half was asfortably warm as it could get with the addition of a soothing weight pinning me down to the bed''s cushions.


    A weight that kept on gently moving with every breath ire took.


    ''Another morning like that, huh?'' I thought, holding off on the desire to stretch out all the morning tiredness I could still feel in my bones.


    I wasn''t rude enough to try stretching when ire was still sleeping atop the right side of my chest.


    ''Weren''t we supposed to get the delivery early in the morning today, though?'' I thought, turning my eyes over to the massive and expensively decorated clock that hung over the room''s doors.


    A moment of reading the analog clockter I had to now suppress my desire to just bolt out of the bed and rush to the doors in hopes of being just in time not to miss the important delivery.


    But with her warm weight pinning me down, with the gentle near-asmr-like sound of her breathing, the way she snuggled up to my chest¡­


    Was I really the kind of a demon who would risk waking her up just to get some deliveries epted?


    Of course, I was!


    But that didn''t mean I was going to rudely pay no mind to her sleep.


    And so, began a ten-minute-long adventure of slowly, slowly shifting ire''s hands, then arms, and then sliding out from underneath her, all the while making sure to keep herfortable and undisturbed. An adventure that only ended when I slid down from the bed and recovered the very nket we kicked off during our pre-sleep exercise and covered ire''s half-naked body with it.


    ''Now then,'' I thought as I grabbed a bathrobe and threw it on my shoulders, only bothering to bind it belt down around my waist once I left our bedroom and moved down the corridor, no longer worried about my actions forcing the girl out of her peaceful slumber.


    After what I made her go through before we went to sleep, this kind of respect for her sleep was the least I could do to let her recover!


    My worries about the delivery, however, soon turned out to be both on point andpletely unfounded.


    "Sir¡­?" one of the house staff raised their head from the box he had just nicely piled up in the corner of the massive storage set directly connected to the house, his face revealing just how surprised he was to see me.


    Was it because this wasn''t the ce he expected me to see? Or maybe it was still too early for someone actually living in this expensive vi to wake up in this butler''s eyes?


    "Is this the delivery from the merchant''s house¡­?" I asked as I stared at what now looked more like a warehouse than a simple storage shed with all the boxes stacked upon massive, ceiling-high shelves.


    A sight all the more amazing when I realized how everyst thing neatly stacked within those boxes was here¡­ all for me to y around with!


    "It sure is sir!" the young, maybe twenty years old man reported with the energy I would never expect from anyone at this ungodly hour. "Do you have anything you would like moved directly to the workshop, or¡­?" he then asked, eagerly seeking even more orders¡­


    Even when all it took was a single nce to see just as many boxes stacked outside the shed as there were boxes already moved inside of it.


    ''Wouldn''t that defeat the purpose of ordering much more than we actually needed if I let some random butler know exactly what I need?'' I thought, thinking back to the conversation I had with ire back at the merchant house.


    "That will be quite fine," I replied now openly looking over to where the boxes still waited for their turn to be moved into the safety of the shed. "It seems you still have a lot of work to do, so, the only thing I want to know is¡­"


    The young handyman''s face tensed up a little in response to my words.


    "Why are you the only one dealing with all of those boxes?"


    After working the dead-end shift at a simple grocery store, I wasn''t going to turn into the spoiled piece of shit that would abuse those who worked for my sake, especially when it wasn''t my personal money that contributed to their wages!


    "Sir¡­?"


    My question clearly took the young handyman off-guard, to the point he actually froze in ce with a clearly heavy box still weighing down on his hands.


    "Haaah¡­" I released a long, heavy sigh. "You are free to put this box down, man. I don''t know how they treated you here before, but I''m not going to make your life harder just because you stop for a moment as we talk¡­"


    Once again, I had to resist my desire, this time to just hang my head low and sigh out all of my frustration and exasperation away.


    Then again, no matter how weird it was to be looked at in the same way I looked at my own boss back when I still cared about my job¡­ I still had a whole lot of excitement to deal with!


    "Actually sir, it took an insane amount of vetting to get this job," the young man exined, obediently putting the box down only to quickly stand up right back up and straighten his back as if he felt the need to stand at attention. "There is only a limited number of people in this vi, and they each have their own tasks to deal with. That''s why when ites to random jobs that pop out."


    Hearing this, my eyebrow ended up moving up my forehead.


    ''On one hand, there''s a strict vetting system and on the other, we even have someone here just to pick up random jobs that do not fit the standard?'' I thought for a moment before shaking my head and smiling at the man.


    "Well, I''m not going to stress you any further then," I stated before turning sideways to the young handyman and moving over to where he already stacked some of the boxes. "You just keep going at a rate you arefortable with.


    And don''t take me being here for an inspection," I added with a smile, perfectly aware of how it felt to have one''s boss standing around while one tried to do their job in peace, "I just need to familiarize myself with where everything is."


    "Will do, boss!" the young man replied cheerfully¡­ Before showing great dedication in picking up the box and going back to his work that soon brought him back, outside of the shed and away from my prying eyes.


    ''What a strange, young man,'' I thought, watching how he left before turning my attention, as announced, back towards the boxes. And with how they all came perfectlybeled, I didn''t even have to open each and everyst one of them to figure out what box held what items.


    In other words, for a crafter like me¡­


    Isn''t this what heaven would look like?

 Chapter 84: Who knew that crafting requires creativity and inspiration?

    "Finally, I''m home."


    It was such a strange sentence to utter when I just enclosed myself in a room I''d just entered for the very first time. The overwhelmingly massive sense of relief that one could hear in my voice if there was anyone with me in this room to hear was even stranger¡­


    And yet, such was the truth, for just by stepping inside this so-called workshop, I felt as if I''d returned to a long-lost home.


    This ce alone was at least twenty times bigger than the ce I formerly called my home. And even though it was choke-full of equipment, tools, and all sorts of different workspaces, it didn''t feel cramped in the slightest.


    "Wait¡­" As my eyes caught a glimpse of something that didn''t fit the general vibe of the room, I rushed across the ce, eager to find out whether it was just an illusion or an actual, solid truth.


    "Don''t you fucking tell me¡­"


    I could barely mutter when I cast my nce down the stairs only to learn that they''ve led to the basement.


    No, that''s the wrong way to put it.


    Those stairs, they''ve lead to THE basement.


    Even though my perspective was fairly limited, I could already see a full-sized pool table and a set of gaming machines aligned over one of the basement''s walls. There was also a hint of a massive fridge and by moving to the other side of the stairs I could see the corner of what appeared to be a massive, wall-fucking-sized television!


    "Looking at this, I''m not sure if they want me to work or justze around all day¡­" I muttered to myself before gritting my teeth and turning away.


    It would be some time before ire would wake up¡­ a time I was set to spend properly. And wasting it on games, however great they could be, or even something as simple as touring what appeared to be the top-tier mancave¡­


    "A waste of time is all it would be," I spoke out loud mostly to convince my very own self. And with those words in my mouth, I turned my back to the stairs before moving back to the workshop proper and taking a proper look around it.


    Even though the delivery of all the things we''ve ordered with rie only came this morning, there were already several open boxes filled with all sorts of stuff for me to y around with, all neatly stacked in a ce where they wouldn''t obstruct my way regardless of what equipment I needed to use.


    They weren''t all that far from the center of the room either, saving me the time on the trips necessary to grab whatever parts or ingredients I needed.


    "This ce is fucking insane¡­" I was so shocked I just couldn''t help but curse, feeling as if using just in, cultured words wouldn''t give this massive room¡­ No, this workshop hall has proper justice!


    Yet, as massive and full of useful tools as this ce was¡­ it also made me feel quite overwhelmed.


    What should I start with? Which tool would be the most helpful? Maybe I should begin by learning how to use all of them from scratch, lest I was willing to pay the bloody price of making a careless mistake?


    With so many options at hand, I simply couldn''t decide where to start!


    And so, rather than focusing on the things that were new to me, I opted to do things as usual.


    "Let''s see what I have, try to think of something I can craft, and then go from there."


    This was where I made my first mistake¡­ albeit it took me quite a while to even realize it.


    For sorting through the essible tools and resources back home took me a mere hour, it''s already been ny minutes before I realized that while I''d managed to bring out one piece, vial, or a small box of everything that the house staff prepared for me to craft with¡­ I still had yet to even think about what I could do with it!


    "Maybe I should try crafting a weapon or something?" I thought to myself, learning of the one true hardship of creative arts for the very first time. For as it turned out, getting an idea of what I wanted to craft wasn''t always going to be as easy as it was in all the instances of it happening before!


    But a weapon?


    It wasn''t an idea born out of what should be the traumatic experience of being a victim of an attempted kidnapping. Sure, it wasn''t a nice memory to have, but somehow, I came out of that event without any major emotional scars.


    No.


    The idea to craft a weapon was merely a part of a male fantasy¡­ or rather, the calling of a man''s soul, a basic human need so effectively curbed by all thews and limitations imposed by the government to neuter the citizens and establish a monopoly of violence in the hands of the government services¡­ and all those came closest to thew when they took a piss on it.


    But while pretty much all the firearms were now a heavily and strictly regtedmodity, be it a full gun or parts one needed to make it¡­


    It wasn''t a gun that I had in my mind when I thought about making a weapon!


    "Should I try starting with a sword?" I muttered to myself, only to quickly gave up on the idea.


    Sure, it sounded fun both to craft and then to wield. Who knew, it could maybe even have some beneficial effects on my cultivation, but¡­


    But a sword was a weapon used by nobles rather than your everyday soldiers in the annals of history not only because it was one of the moreplex weapons to learn how to handle, but also because it was something that could cost one hell of a pretty penny to make.


    And while sure, in my current situation, money didn''t seem to be an issue when it came to anything short of buying entirepanies or investing in the stock market or real estate¡­ The high price of a sword didn''te around just because, but due to just how hard it was on craftsmen to prepare a proper de for it.


    "Maybe I should go with something simpler, like an axe? Or maybe a spear?"


    Those two were much easier both to wield, as proved by howmonly those two were used in history, but also to prepare, given how the generals of the past didn''t seem to mind throwing thousands of those at the farmers they would conscript for their wars.


    And given the skill and the mortality rate of those conscripts, a spear or an axe appeared to be a weapon cheap enough to match the cost of their lives, thus making it a weapon extremely simple to prepare.


    Yet, while I opted not to try making a sword for practical reasons when it came to spears and axes¡­


    "I just don''t feel it, huh?" I muttered to myself, almost feeling like crying over the emptiness that reced the creative center in my brain.


    And then, it dawned upon me.


    A single historical episode from the past so far down I couldn''t consider it anything more but a fairy tale¡­ but recent enough for there to be proper historical records about it.


    One instance when a certain nation rose up against its oppressors and included in their army the unit of scythemen, former farmers who took the tools of their trade to go and cut a bloody path through the upying soldiers to their freedom.


    A weapon that was perfectly impractical if not outright nonsensical, given the immense casualty rate that historical unit suffered¡­ But a weapon with a cool factor great enough to get my creative juices flowing again!


    "So, I''m going to make a scythe, huh?" I spoke to no one else but myself, finally allowing my eyes to move back to the selection of the materials essible to me that I''d worked hard to neatly disy directly on the floor.


    "No, you are going to go and get breakfast with me," ire said, proving that my ability to sense others was extremely subpar whenpared to my ability toe up with random bullshit I wanted to craft.

 Chapter 85: The truth behind Claires foul mood

    The breakfast, for how fancy it was¡­ surely didn''t feel like just a normal, morning meal.


    Not with the weird stares, ire kept stealing off my face while pretending to be perfectly immersed in her toast with strawberry jam.


    There wasn''t really any good opportunity for me to bring up the small talk, though, with how the cook continued to create more and more pieces of art with the ingredients he had and stuffing them all over our table.


    ''How are we even supposed to eat all of this?'' I thought, conveniently ignoring the possibility that this abundance¡­ would soon turn into scraps that would then turn into garbage.


    This kind of waste was too painful for someone like me, who, by the merit of my own choices, ended up living literally from paycheck to paycheck, doing groceries ording to the discount schedule of all the nearby supermarkets and had his diet restricted not by its nutritional value but the cost to nutrition ratio.


    "You can stop making this kind of face," rie suddenly sighed, shaking her head after giving me an actual stare for a moment. "Whatever we won''t eat will be added to the table for the staff, so it''s not like we are going to throw all of this food away."


    This sentence instantly gained both my attention but also the attention of the chef, the server tasked with bringing the food over from the kitchen''s counter, and then a¡­ cupbearer? Yet, while I was simply shocked by the audacity of such an arrangement, where our own workers were fed scraps of whatever we opted not to eat, the staff''s reaction proved the reasoning behind it was vastly different.


    For me, it was the arrogant waste of food turned into an audacious way of showing superiority over people working for us. For the staff, however, it appeared as if the need to exin something that clearly appeared to be obvious to them was the shocking factor of the moment.


    "No, it''s not what you are thinking either," ire sighed again, this time much heavier. "We are not feeding them scraps, we simply share leftovers," she exined before pointing her hand at a fish cake, something a hignder-born me wouldn''t touch with a teen-foot-pole.


    "I don''t have the taste for a fish right now and, as far as I recall, you don''t like fish in general, right?" ire asked, only to then nce up at the server¡­


    "Thank you, miss," the man quickly moved in to grab the tter before bowing his head and putting it away into the heatedpartment of a rolling food cart.


    "We get the variety of foods that we pay for, and then they get to snack on the foods cooked by a world-ss chef," ire finished her exnation before shaking her shoulders. "I know that this might seem weird given your upbringing, but trust me, it''s not wasteful nor insulting."


    I squinted my eyes a bit before taking a small breath and raising my eyes to the server and¡­ the cupbearer? The maid? The butler? The very upbringing of mine that ire just mentioned prevented me from pinpointing just what exactly that second server''s job should be.


    "Let me verify it," I announced before turning over and sitting on my chair sideways so I could properly face the staff. "Are you guys really fine with it? And just to make it clear, whatever your answer will be, we are not going to me you or punish you if you happen to disagree. I''m sort of out of the water here, but as someone who worked as a cashier in low-end retail, I just¡­"


    All three of them, the server, the chef¡­ and whoever the heck was the third guy simply put on a polite smile.


    "Sir, the food that''s touched is sealed and sent over to be used as fodder for the animals on one of the farms owned by the estate. The food that was left untouched goes straight to our table or bes a snack for us three and the others to enjoy throughout the day," the chef exined from behind his counter while his hands kept moving as he prepared yet another dish.


    "So you are happy with this arrangement?" I asked, just to be sure¡­ and even though I knew that this kind of questioning was nothing short of me putting ire''s words into doubt.


    "Yes, we are," the cupbearer answered, only to be followed by the nod of the server''s head.


    "Well then, I''m sorry to bother you all," I replied, using the awkwardness of the moment as an excuse to stand up while wiping my mouth with a fancy napkin before nodding my head over to ire. "Thank you for the meal," I put my hands together before bowing towards the table a bit and then attempting to move out¡­


    "Can you tell me what it was that you were mumbling to yourself back in the workshop?"


    Seeing how I was about to escape, ire finally cracked and raised the very topic that I could tell to be the reason behind her weird mood and all the nces she stole at me throughout the breakfast.


    "About the scythe?" I replied with a question of my own, although just for the rification sake.


    "The scythe?" ire twisted her eyes while putting on a slightly weirded-out expression. "What would you need a scythe for?"


    ''So, she didn''t really hear all that much of me mumbling to myself, huh?'' I thought, solving one of the riddles CLaire created by approaching me so silently I never knew she was in the workshop before she spoke out.


    "First, a training exercise. Second, a weapon. Third, just trying to get my creative juices flowing so I can get some new, interesting ideas," I shortly exined only to finish it up with a shrug of my shoulders.


    "Wait," ire raised her hand like some sort of a student asking their teacher to repeat thest example because she failed to follow. "The training I can understand just like the creativity¡­ but a weapon?"


    The look of surprise on the girl''s face shifted into one of guilt mixed with anxiety and worry.


    "As I thought, that incident¡­"


    "This time it''s not what YOU are thinking," I quickly stepped in to correct ire before she could draw some sort of conclusions from what was clearly her misunderstanding. "It''s not like I''m scared or traumatized. It''s more of me just doing one for the boys, you could say?" I leaned my head over to the side while putting a look of uncertainty on my face.


    After all, with all things considered, I didn''t really know why I ended up vibing with the idea of crafting a weapon so much; it''s just happened.


    "I see¡­" ire mumbled only to breathe a sigh of relief before raising her eyes again, this time her face turning into an usatory one. "Then, just onest question," she started with the preamble only to rest her elbows on the table and rest her chin over her head as she stared right into my face.


    "Why did you leave the bed before I woke up instead of waiting or even waking me up yourself?" she asked, finally revealing what I failed to notice as the primary cause of her bad mood. "Do you have even the slightest idea how worried I was when you weren''t there as I woke up?"

 Chapter 88: Its not a grass-cutting kind of a Scythe

    "Tim!"


    ire''s voice was the first thing I heard when I regained consciousness¡­


    No, when I''ve finally grown too tired to keep maintaining the agitated state of my very own spiritual core.


    "Huh?" Startled, I took a step back only to see a pile of pairs of wooden blocks¡­ Now perfectly sanded down to the round shape I imagined them to be.


    But that wasn''t all!


    With the strings that held each of the pairs now gone, I could only assume that I''d already glued the pieces together, which only served to pose one hell of an important question.


    "Did I fill them in?" I identally asked out loud, too startled to control what was just the voice in the back of my head and what I actually spelled out loud.


    "You are finally back¡­" ire''s greatly concerned voice finally pressed me to look away from the sanding machine and at the girl, whose extremely worried face only served to drive the point home.


    "Shit¡­" I cursed as I nearly stumbled down on my feet.


    Now that I could no longer use my spiritual energy to keep my body going, all of the burden of my physical exertion was now just for my flesh and bones to bear.


    "Tim!"


    Seeing me copse down to the ground, ire rushed ahead, kicking away various tools and ingredients that were on her way as she jumped to my side to grab my arm and stop me from falling right as my head came dangerously close to a sharp corner of one of the many machines in the workshop.


    "I did it again, didn''t I?" I''ve muttered under my nose, struggling to even breathe properly.


    "What did you do again?" ire, despite the great agitation visible on her face, somehow managed to keep her voice calm if not outright soothing as she quickly moved from just holding me up to actually cradling me down within her embrace.


    "Oh right," I muttered weekly as I had to put all my focus on remaining awake now that I actually had to deal with all the exhaustion of crafting for what felt like an entire day if not more. "I''m not sure if I mentioned it before but the gist of it is¡­"


    I hesitated for a second, not really sure what was the best way to approach the topic.


    "The gist of it is, there are times when I lose track of myself when I craft?" I suggested the answer, not really sure how else I could put it into words to make it even easier to understand without going into a prolonged lecture over my unorthodox circumstances.


    "And you end up in a state like this?!" ire''s voice grew both louder and more agitated, proving she was now getting into a state where she simply couldn''t hold her emotions from affecting her voice.


    Yet, despite the clear me for recklessness, I could hear in her words¡­ For some reason, her new, more agitated voice ended up more soothing than when she kept her emotions in check before.


    ''Is it because it''s the rare instance of someone actually giving a crap about me?'' I thought, only to then fight the desire to bite down on the imaginary lips of my brain. ''Shut it, man. Your parents always cared for you so why are you acting all like some tragic heroine now?!''


    Gritting my teeth, I took a deep breath¡­ Only to end up epting ire''s hospitality and resting my head down on the most divine pillow on her chest.


    "Honestly, it''s the first time I ended up so tired after getting into this kind of focused state. Which," I squinted my eyes as I noticed the obvious discrepancy in the logic of what happened, "is quite weird, given how it should be easier for me to handle it now that I actually have proper spiritual energy, don''t you think?"


    This question was stupid.


    What was ire supposed to think when she only knew some small bits about my weird situation?


    In the end, however, I didn''t really expect ire to answer and treated my words as just me talking to myself in hopes of getting an easier time processing my own thoughts.


    "That''s¡­" ire wrapped her hands over my chest as she secured me in her lock before hugging me tightly.


    Judging by the slight sound and feel of her hair brushing over my sweaty shoulders, ire shook her head.


    "I''m sorry, but this doesn''t make any real sense to me either," she admitted before closing her arms over my chest even tighter. "But¡­ But what were you trying to do to get yourself so ungodly tired?" she asked, her voice indicating she was already on the verge of letting her tears just flow.


    "A handle," I answered without a hesitation as I raised my eyes to the sandpaper-roller machine or whatever professionals called it now fully covered in sawdust from the precious tree I deduced from the wood chunks to make them into the shape I desired.


    "That''s it? A handle? For that scythe you mentioned?"


    Despite being on the verge of tears just a moment ago, ire''s voice now changed along with the intensity of her hug growing even further, revealing just how baffled she was by my words.


    "Wouldn''t a damned stick suffice?!" she then cried out as her emotions bounced right back and took their rightful spot momentarily upied by the surprise.


    "It surely would if all I wanted was to make a scythe to cut the grass with," I answered before rxing just a little bit further as the gentle warmth and softness of her bosombined with the care-born hurt in her voicebined into the sweetest and most soothing luby a man could ask for. "But I was trying to create something right at the limit of my current ability and creativity.


    So rather than just a grass-cutting scythe¡­"


    My consciousness started to waver again as ire''s embrace now only amplified the effects of my ungodly exhaustion.


    "I''m making a scythe great enough for your father to hold without shame."

 Chapter 87: Spiritually-boosted crafting

    "Breathe in and breathe out¡­" I muttered as I used my very own words to slowly direct my actions.


    This was the one downside of reaching the fifth cultivation stage without actually all the actual effort and training one would usually need to get here. The skills that those people gained with their training were something I simply didn''t have!


    And so, rather than entering a meditative state with just a single thought, I had to actually calm myself down first, then steady my breathing, cease all the unnecessary thoughts¡­


    And then, by the end of it, still hope for the best, given how I''ve only ever entered the meditative state¡­ without really knowing how it happened.


    Thankfully, the thing that my former masters at the institute deemed impossible for me turned out not to be all that hard when I actually put my mind to it. And in all honesty, nearly as soon as I focused on the task, I could once again feel the flow of spiritual energy both inside of my body and in the air around me.


    ''Why is it so thin?'' I thought, surprised when I realized just how diluted the Qi in the air was, making it hard to even imagine using it to grow the power within me.


    Then again, right now it wasn''t my goal to grow stronger, but to get my spiritual energy moving instead.


    And pretty much as soon as I focused and noticed it again, the whole process that I induced in ire grew more and more apparent as if even this thin amount of QI in the air was enough to raise the instability of my core and thus fire up the process of the spiritual energy radiating out of it only to then snap-discharge to pretty much every single part of my body.


    ''Wait, how do I limit it to just¡­''


    The thing that I somehow managed to do before with just my will, now I''ve realized to be impossible.


    Before suddenly breaking through all the way to the fifth stage, it wasn''t even all that hard for me to limit my spiritual energy just to certain parts of my body, but now?


    With my spiritual core on the brink of copse and constantly oozing spiritual energy only for it to trickle right back down into the core, I could only invoke my power all at once throughout my entire body, rather than precisely controlling where it would manifest.


    Then again, given the task at hand, I couldn''t really imagine it being that much of a problem at all.


    As my awareness of the process grew, the exhaustion in my hands slowly started to vanish, only to soon be but a fleeting memory so distant, that I struggled to believe it was real in the first ce.


    But it wasn''t just my hands, they were simply the first ce where I noticed the effects of my Qi activating given just how tired they were after moving around all those boxes full of often heavy ingredients.


    Soon, however, the influence of the spiritual energy filled my brain, my legs, and even my eyes and ears, putting me in this weird state of enhanced awareness and readiness.


    A state I didn''t hesitate to put to use as I picked up the next pair of wooden blocks before putting them down on the table and pressing my chiseling knife right in between the two lines I drew on its surface.


    As this wasn''t going to be just the base of the handle, the channel that only swirled a bit before, now actually curved in on itself, forcing me to carve some parts of the wood deeper to prepare it for where the channel for the spiritual energy to pass would upy all three dimensions instead of operating just on the t ne.


    This process, without the spiritual energy in y, would take me half an hour at the very least.


    But now that I happily employed this unearned power of mine, with my body seemingly immune to exhaustion and my mind resisting even the tiniest signs of distraction, I''ve finished the second pair of the wooden blocks in just over five minutes, regardless of just how much moreplicated it was than the base one.


    From then on, the things moved at an ever-increasing pace, as I ced pair after pair of the blocks aside while always making sure to smear their chiseled-out insides with the isting agent.


    ''Given the conductive nature of this wood that I''m using to mask the actual properties of the handle, it would do me no good if the spiritual energy could escape from the channel and infuse itself directly into the handle¡­'' I thought as I paid additional care to thisst and seemingly least important step.


    In the end, roughly an hour and a half after I''ve started, I''ve finally finished chiseling the insides of thest pair of the wooden cubes, only to bind them together with a simple string and put them aside.


    Yet, after nearly half a day of tirelessly working, all that I had to show for it was just fifteen pairs of slightly altered wooden blocks¡­


    "No one ever said that crafting is easy," I muttered to myself, trying to put all thezy and potentially distracting thoughts aside as I grabbed all the prepped wood and moved it over to the table-sized band saw.


    ''This one I''ve never used before,'' I thought as I started the device with a press of a button only for my eyes to lock on the thin strip of the de moving at a speed that stopped my spiritually-enhanced eyes from spotting the individual teeth of.


    No matter what, however, the process couldn''t be all that hard as the idea of how to turn a simple block of wood into a more circr and thus ergonomic shape simply couldn''t be all thatplex, could it?


    Still, with this doubt at my heart, I did take the time to surf the web a bit for all sorts of possible handle designs, ultimately deciding on one that appeared to be quite simple to replicate while retaining the qualities I looking out for.


    ''I''m not really used to working with those, so¡­'' I thought before taking a deep breath and gathering as much free spiritual energy from the air before pushing it all into my core, elerating the process of its endless decay.


    To say that my spiritual power grew would be¡­ a lie, or a misinformation at the very least. The amount of Qi I could gather from the air without any tools to make it thicker around was too minuscule to affect my core in any real way or form.


    What doing so achieved, however, was increasing the rate at which the energy from my endlessly copsing spiritual core would radiate out and then discharge to one of the thousands of the end-points I''ve created all over my flesh.


    And despite my spiritual power not growing any stronger, with the increased rate of its flow, I could feel my field of perception narrow down as if I''ve suddenly got a tunnel vision with nothing but the end product of what I wanted to create at the end of it.

 Chapter 88: Its not a grass-cutting kind of a Scythe

    "Tim!"


    ire''s voice was the first thing I heard when I regained consciousness¡­


    No, when I''ve finally grown too tired to keep maintaining the agitated state of my very own spiritual core.


    "Huh?" Startled, I took a step back only to see a pile of pairs of wooden blocks¡­ Now perfectly sanded down to the round shape I imagined them to be.


    But that wasn''t all!


    With the strings that held each of the pairs now gone, I could only assume that I''d already glued the pieces together, which only served to pose one hell of an important question.


    "Did I fill them in?" I identally asked out loud, too startled to control what was just the voice in the back of my head and what I actually spelled out loud.


    "You are finally back¡­" ire''s greatly concerned voice finally pressed me to look away from the sanding machine and at the girl, whose extremely worried face only served to drive the point home.


    "Shit¡­" I cursed as I nearly stumbled down on my feet.


    Now that I could no longer use my spiritual energy to keep my body going, all of the burden of my physical exertion was now just for my flesh and bones to bear.


    "Tim!"


    Seeing me copse down to the ground, ire rushed ahead, kicking away various tools and ingredients that were on her way as she jumped to my side to grab my arm and stop me from falling right as my head came dangerously close to a sharp corner of one of the many machines in the workshop.


    "I did it again, didn''t I?" I''ve muttered under my nose, struggling to even breathe properly.


    "What did you do again?" ire, despite the great agitation visible on her face, somehow managed to keep her voice calm if not outright soothing as she quickly moved from just holding me up to actually cradling me down within her embrace.


    "Oh right," I muttered weekly as I had to put all my focus on remaining awake now that I actually had to deal with all the exhaustion of crafting for what felt like an entire day if not more. "I''m not sure if I mentioned it before but the gist of it is¡­"


    I hesitated for a second, not really sure what was the best way to approach the topic.


    "The gist of it is, there are times when I lose track of myself when I craft?" I suggested the answer, not really sure how else I could put it into words to make it even easier to understand without going into a prolonged lecture over my unorthodox circumstances.


    "And you end up in a state like this?!" ire''s voice grew both louder and more agitated, proving she was now getting into a state where she simply couldn''t hold her emotions from affecting her voice.


    Yet, despite the clear me for recklessness, I could hear in her words¡­ For some reason, her new, more agitated voice ended up more soothing than when she kept her emotions in check before.


    ''Is it because it''s the rare instance of someone actually giving a crap about me?'' I thought, only to then fight the desire to bite down on the imaginary lips of my brain. ''Shut it, man. Your parents always cared for you so why are you acting all like some tragic heroine now?!''


    Gritting my teeth, I took a deep breath¡­ Only to end up epting ire''s hospitality and resting my head down on the most divine pillow on her chest.


    "Honestly, it''s the first time I ended up so tired after getting into this kind of focused state. Which," I squinted my eyes as I noticed the obvious discrepancy in the logic of what happened, "is quite weird, given how it should be easier for me to handle it now that I actually have proper spiritual energy, don''t you think?"


    This question was stupid.


    What was ire supposed to think when she only knew some small bits about my weird situation?


    In the end, however, I didn''t really expect ire to answer and treated my words as just me talking to myself in hopes of getting an easier time processing my own thoughts.


    "That''s¡­" ire wrapped her hands over my chest as she secured me in her lock before hugging me tightly.


    Judging by the slight sound and feel of her hair brushing over my sweaty shoulders, ire shook her head.


    "I''m sorry, but this doesn''t make any real sense to me either," she admitted before closing her arms over my chest even tighter. "But¡­ But what were you trying to do to get yourself so ungodly tired?" she asked, her voice indicating she was already on the verge of letting her tears just flow.


    "A handle," I answered without a hesitation as I raised my eyes to the sandpaper-roller machine or whatever professionals called it now fully covered in sawdust from the precious tree I deduced from the wood chunks to make them into the shape I desired.


    "That''s it? A handle? For that scythe you mentioned?"


    Despite being on the verge of tears just a moment ago, ire''s voice now changed along with the intensity of her hug growing even further, revealing just how baffled she was by my words.


    "Wouldn''t a damned stick suffice?!" she then cried out as her emotions bounced right back and took their rightful spot momentarily upied by the surprise.


    "It surely would if all I wanted was to make a scythe to cut the grass with," I answered before rxing just a little bit further as the gentle warmth and softness of her bosombined with the care-born hurt in her voicebined into the sweetest and most soothing luby a man could ask for. "But I was trying to create something right at the limit of my current ability and creativity.


    So rather than just a grass-cutting scythe¡­"


    My consciousness started to waver again as ire''s embrace now only amplified the effects of my ungodly exhaustion.


    "I''m making a scythe great enough for your father to hold without shame."

 Chapter 89: The problem and its problematic solution

    "Scythe or not a Scythe, I don''t care," ire stated with great determination in her voice as she suddenly rxed her grasp over my waist and moved her hands over to my shoulder¡­


    Only to pull herself aside and then circle to my front.


    And when I saw the look on her face¡­


    ''I''m in trouble, aren''t I?''


    "Tim, there''s a lot of things that I''m willing to ept. There are a lot of ways in which our rtionship doesn''t fit the norms of this day and age. But while this makes me turn a blind eye to quite a lot of things¡­"


    ire bit down her lips and lowered her head before taking a deep breath and looking back up again as she locked her stare right on my eyes.


    "But I don''t want to see you in such a state ever again," ire stated while staring right into my eyes. "Can you promise me you will never end up like you did just now?"


    ire''s face looked as serious as it could get. Her eyes didn''t waver in the slightest, showcasing just how determined she was to get this promise out of my mouth.


    But in all honesty, it wasn''t something that I could guarantee, so how could I make a promise over something that wasn''t fully within my power?


    "I''m sorry, but I don''t think I''m able to make that kind of a promise," I said while shaking my head all the while trying to cope with my mounting exhaustion. "As in, it''s not like I don''t want to make this promise, but¡­"


    I hesitated for a second, only to decide to just be honest and open about my reasoning.


    "But I don''t want to make a promise that I''m not sure it''s within my ability to keep up. That''s why, instead, I can promise you I will do my best to never let myself end up like I did today."


    ire bit down on her lips again¡­ but ended up holding her protest back.


    "That¡­ I can ept," she muttered while lowering her eyes. She then sat back down on her heels and leaned back a bit. "But then¡­" she mumbled while still keeping her eyes down on the floor¡­


    ire shook her head before raising her chin and looking straight into my eyes again.


    "But then, isn''t your next prerogative to figure out why¡­" she started, only to suddenly stop her sentence in its middle while locking her eyes on my neck.


    "Actually, let me check something out," she requested, only to raise her hand up to her face, bite down on the side of her hand hard enough to cut her skin open before moving forth¡­


    And doing the one thing that she had already trained me to interpret in the one and only way.


    ire didn''t even stand up as she moved forth on her knees and mounted myp only to lean over my neck and open her mouth before biting down on my skin just hard enough to cut my skin open.


    Then, however, instead of sucking on the wound like some sort of a vampire, she leaned back before pressing her wounded hand against my wounded neck and then closing her eyes.


    For a moment, I could vaguely feel her spiritual presence ransack through my insides as if she was trying to possess me, only for the whole thing toe to an end before I could even figure out what she was trying to achieve.


    "Just like I thought¡­" ire muttered only to jump up to her feet and grab my face between her hands. "You just stay here for a moment and do your best to stay awake, okay?" she requested only to let go of my face and then leave the workshop running before even giving me the chance to respond.


    "Judging by what she just did¡­" I thought, quickly running down the list of possible reasons behind ire''s strange behavior¡­


    Only to arrive at what should be the most obvious conclusion possible.


    ''Is it because I ran out of my spiritual energy?'' I thought, daring not to voice this thought out. But now that I brought my own attention to it¡­ This seemed like much more than just a possibility.


    ''But wouldn''t that mean that by growing stronger¡­ I''ve actually shot myself in the foot?''


    If this assumption was correct, then I ended up so tired because now that my cultivation grew, it took a lot more energy to fill my body full of it. An now that I worked in this massive workshop with hardly any Qi in the air as opposed to my tiny room where Qi was so dense it actually made the air as thick as some sort of a slurry¡­


    "But wouldn''t that mean¡­"


    I bit down on my lips before I even had the chance to voice out my sudden guess. All because when this guess formed in my mind, I''ve nigh instantly realized just how overwhelmingly massive this theory of mine was.


    Or rather, how it would mean that instead of being just a blessed crafter, I would be¡­


    "I''m back!" ire called out as soon as she ran back to the workshop with two familiar items in her hand.


    The prototype of the QI condensation device that I sold to her all those days ago and then the finished and actually nicely-looking device that I sold during our negotiations with her father.


    Neither of those two devices had to be turned on as they were designed to just work their magic in the background for as long as the materials it was made with wouldn''t deteriorate and degrade to the point they would lose their qualities.


    And as soon as ire brought those two devices over and pretty much pressed them against my chest¡­


    It was a weird feeling, but despite the pressure she added to my chest, it suddenly felt as if I could breathe properly again. As if the air I was breathing for the entire day was so thin I could hardly catch any oxygen in it.


    I took a deep breath, savoring every tiniest bit of the air that suddenly grew thick with the now condensed Qi, only to feel my exhaustion suddenly recede like a wave of filth washed away by a jet of pressurized water.


    "Haaaa¡­." I heaved a long sigh as my body now properly rxed as opposed to just shutting down in a desperate bid to preserve whatever spiritual energy was left in it.


    It was just a single breath, way too little to fully avert the side-effects of overexerting myself¡­ but all in all, it was better than nothing.


    "How is it?" ire asked, raising her concerned eyes and locking them on my face as she waited with anticipation for my answer.


    "Better¡­" I admitted before heaving a short sigh only to then greedily take another breath of the Qi-rich air, "Much better."


    "Haaaah¡­" This time it was ire''s turn to breathe out a sigh of relief. "That''s good to hear¡­" she muttered only to then energetically shake her head and reach out for my shoulders again as she, once again, looked straight into my ears. "So now that we know what the issue is, how do you n to solve it?"


    ire''s question was as hard¡­ as did it serve as something to jolt my memory and bring back the one idea that I deemed interesting but potentially too dangerous to just craft like that.


    "Actually, I do have an idea¡­" I muttered before averting my eyes, not really sure whether bringing such a game-changing device to life wouldn''t be akin to inviting disaster to my life, even if it could pretty much solve the problem we currently faced. "The thing is, if there are things that we can sell and then there are things that sell we cannot, the thing I''m thinking about right now¡­"


    I hesitated to even bring the details of this idea up as if merely speaking about it would be akin to printing myself a ticket to the stake on which I would soon burn.


    "Just say it, there''s no use dancing around the topic," ire chastised me a little while the anxiety in her eyes gave way to the familiar spark of curiosity.


    "The thing I''m thinking about right now could possibly be the spark of the second iteration of the war to end all wars."

 Chapter 90: An unknown force

    For how massive of a game-changer my idea was when put into a schematic¡­


    It was actually one hell of a simple device. And that was one of the reasons why it was so damn dangerous of thing if the news of its existence were to ever reach the public.


    "Do you remember how exactly the Qi-condensing device works?" I asked once I finally made up my mind to share this extremely dangerous idea.


    "That device¡­?" ire looked down at the two items I was now holding up to my chest so that I could directly breathe the air they affected.


    The girl then squinted her eyes as she sorted through her memories.


    "It uses Spricur stones to convert the Qi in the air into electricity that you then condense into a series of pulses which are then turned back into now much denser spiritual energy, right?"


    I only nodded my head but opted not to say a word and just¡­ stared back at the girl''s face.


    In fact, when thinking about it from the position of knowing, the one thing I didn''t dare to build before seemed like the logical first step to building the Qi condensing device rather than its natural evolution.


    "What?" ire asked when she noticed I did nothing but just stare back at her.


    "I''m wondering if you can see the thing I have in mind given how damn obvious it is," I admitted before lowering the two devices in my hands and cing them on the floor now that I''ve regained enough spiritual energy to operate as usual.


    Sure, it would be problematic for me to drive my cultivation or use it to get myself into the crafting mode right now¡­ But given what happened just before, there was no way I was going to do it, was there?


    And so, seconds passed and turned into minutes with rie squinting her eyes down as she thought about the issue. In the end, however, she didn''t seem to catch my drift.


    "I give up," rie finally said as she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "Can''t you just tell me? What''s the point of making me try to guess that dangerous idea of yours?" she went ahead and asked.


    "Actually," I leaned my head over my left shoulder as I graced this beautiful, schr-like woman with the most lovely smile I could muster on my lips. "I wanted to see if someone like you, with proper hints, could just catch it. But," I shook my head a bit, "it seems that this idea is too foreign to yourmon sense for you to just see it."


    This was the one and most important advantage I had over all the cultivators, the difference that everyone else was likely to consider a disadvantage instead.


    Without the proper cultivation training, I couldn''t really cultivate on my own¡­. But at the same time, I wasn''t burdened by the same preconceptions that made up themon sense of all those who received proper training and teachings.


    "Tell me, what would happen if we removed one half of the process?" I asked, ready to reveal the big-small secret now that I pretty much confirmed it was unlikely people would just randomly stumble upon the same idea.


    "The first or thest one?" ire asked, seeking rification.


    "Actually, either one works. The one difference is whether you want to produce electricity from thin air or produce near endless amount of extremely condensed Qi at the small prize of considerably higher electricity bill."


    By now, I pretty much gave ire the idea on a silver tter. And yet¡­


    "Can''t you be any clearer?" she asked, the curiosity in her eyes slowly reced by outright annoyance.


    "Wait, you seriously don''t get it yet?" I asked, baffled by how someone who already proved to be quite the smart person still couldn''t grasp the idea despite all the hints thus far and me pretty much giving out the answer already.


    "Are you calling me stupid?" The curiosity in ire''s eyes now vanished in its entirety, fully reced by the anger of what she likely perceived as me just amusing myself at her expense.


    "Wait, no, full stop!" I raised my hands as if to defend myself, too baffled by the current situation to focus on the actual task of exining the idea.


    ''Is something stopping her from making the connection?'' I thought to myself¡­ Only for a cold shiver to move up my spine as I realized the potential consequences of that being an urate point.


    "ire, I''m sorry, I know you are eager to understand it, but there''s something I need to test out," I announced, only to take a deep breath to calm myself down and close my eyes as I took a moment to revamp the idea on how I was going to approach the topic.


    "Okay, let''s start from scratch," I started. "This QI condensing device uses Spricur stones to turn the spiritual energy it gathers directly from the air around us to turn it into electricity, right?"


    As agitated as she was, ire could read my face well enough to realize just how serious I was about this unexpected problem.


    "Yeah, it''s all clear thus far. That''s exactly what those crystals are used for, after all!" she replied, only to confuse me even further.


    ''Isn''t that practically the answer I''m trying to get her to announce?'' I thought, only to grit my teeth and take another deep breath.


    "Then, the next part is all about pushing the electricity we obtained from the air and using capacitors. By putting those capacitors in parallel and moderating the current so that it will feed more or less equally into each of them, we can multiply the number of pulses of condensed current that''s released once the capacitors reach their full charge.


    In this way, rather than releasing one pulse of condensed Qi whenever a single capacitor overcharges, we can make the whole process slightly smoother."


    ire nodded her head to signal she followed my exnation without any issue.


    "Then, finally, we push this condensed electric current into the second set of Spricur stones, so that it can be turned back into spiritual energy, right?"


    "Yeah," ire replied, proving that she perfectly understood each step of the process.


    And at this point, I could only have a long, exhausted sigh.


    "Then, it seems that rather than failing to understand my concept, you are under the influence of some sort of power that prevents you from doing so," I stated before spreading my arms out to the sides and then shaking my shoulder. "What power is influencing you, however¡­" I shook my head. "I do not know."


    ire opened up her mouth¡­ only to keep it open for a second before ultimately closing it right back.


    "Then," after a moment, she calmed herself down and raised her eyes once again, "what is the idea that you im I''m blocked from figuring out myself?"


    I sighed yet again before putting a small smile on my face.


    "What if, instead of gathering the spiritual energy from the air, we feed electricity into the device directly, by recing the first set of Spricur stones with an ordinary charger cable?"

 Chapter 91: Where the hell do we find a potentiometer at this hour?!

    What started as a potentially tragic, dangerous, and anxiety-inducing situation now turned into a pretty straightforward process.


    Or so it would, if only I was smart enough to get my stuff from my old apartment¡­ Or smart enough to actually go around and buy the electricponents that I now found myself in need of.


    "I''m sorry, I didn''t think about buying anything like that," ire apologized while lowering her head and then looking away. "I thought of everything cultivation-rted that you might need but electricponents¡­?"


    She shook her head.


    "In all honesty, even if I thought about buying that kind of stuff, I don''t think I would even know what exactly to buy!"


    "That''s perfectly fine," I replied after moving away from the one and only box with a variety of tools and parts after scouring through it for quite a while only to realize that no matter how much I looked, I wouldn''t be able to find something that simply wasn''t there.


    "How about we just leave it for tomorrow, then?" ire suggested as she pulled out her phone and checked the time. "While there are shops still open, by the time we get to the nearest one, it will be long past their closing time," she announced the obvious.


    It would be a challenge to find a shop dabbling in electricponents past the usual working hours of hobby and craft businesses.


    And while it was still possible to just go to one of the bigger shops that prided themselves in having everything one''s heart could desire in stock¡­ Those too were too far from the outskirts of the suburbs that ire''s vi was in for us to get there before even those would close down.


    "Even though we are missing only one element¡­"


    Most of the stuff we needed for a device that would test my theory was right there, within the prototype. And given its crude form, even a kid would be able to dismantle it for parts.


    Thankfully, be it the charger or other basicponents necessary to alter the initial design, we could still get them by cannibalizing whatever electronic devices that could be easily found around the vi. And while buying those things again would be much more expensive than just buying the parts we needed¡­


    Right now, money wasn''t something I had any need to concern myself with, especially on that level.


    But there was one element, just oneponent that was absolutely necessary for the test to go through unless I wanted to risk not only failing the test but wasting all the other parts used to make it happen.


    "Wait, if we can get the cable and the ferrite choke from theptop charger, can''t we just look a little bit harder for the potentiometer?"


    The reason why this part was absolutely crucial¡­ was because it allowed us to limit how much electric energy we would feed into the spiritual circuit while also allowing us to measure the limits of theSpricur stones.


    Without a potentiometer, we could only try to connect the thing and hope it wouldn''t just burn out if the electric charge turned out to be too strong. And even if it worked¡­ we wouldn''t learn anything about just how efficient those Spricur stones were at turning raw electricity straight out of the wall socket into spiritual power.


    And while the manner in which a potentiometer worked made it extremely easy to replicate¡­ It only rang true for those who had the proper machinery, experience, and tools to make it.


    Surely, there was still hope I would be able to craft it if I abused my strange ability again¡­ But doing so would directly go against the reason why we were trying to craft the device I talked about!


    "I thought about it, I looked through the house, I even asked around," ire exined while shaking her head. "But there isn''t a single device in this vi that allows you to control it with a simple rotary wheel."


    Hearing this, I suddenly realized what was the likely issue.


    "Did you ask the staff if any of them have headphones with wheel-controlled volume?"


    It was just a random idea I came up with on the spot. An idea that wasn''t all that good given the likely specification of the potentiometer hidden underneath such a wheel¡­


    But as the saying goes, if you can''t have what you love, love what you have!


    "That''s¡­" ire thought for a bit, only for her eyes to twitch right as she turned on her heel and ran out of the room. "One moment!" she called out right as she ran out of the room, leaving me with a half-disassembled device in my hands and nothing to silence to apany me.


    ''I wonder if it will work,'' I thought, turning my eyes to the disemboweled prototype.


    There was a hint of regret deep at the bottom of my soul as I looked down at what was now left of the very first thing that I actually sat down to craft andplete. In a sense, it felt as if I was depriving myself of the legacy of sorts.


    "I''ve got it!" ire''s shout pulled me back from my thoughts as she rushed back to the room with a pair of old-style headphones outfitted with a small knob directly on their left.


    "That''s great," I called back as I grabbed a screwdriver and a knife before carefully dismembering the stic covers that hid the electrics of the listening device away from its user, protecting those delicate insides from harm.


    It was a task that proved surprisingly tough toplete, something that I could only understand when I saw the small marking of the gaming brand hidden in one of the crevices.


    ''I guess they made those with a gamer''s mind in mind,'' I thought when the stic finally popped out, revealing a small and rtively simple circuit te¡­ outfitted with the very thing I was looking for.


    Soon, with the help of the soldering gun, I moved the potentiometer from the headphones and onto the circuit of what used to be the Qi-condensing prototype. After soldering a few moreponents before finally adding a universal serial bus socket, allowing me to switch out from using the Spricut stones to provide electricity to the circuit in favor of using a simple USB cable.


    "It is done," I muttered as I put the device away, as if scared that just by holding it in my hands I could somehow damage it.


    "So it is¡­" ire whispered, staring at the device with a strange look on her face.


    "If this works¡­" I mumbled a bit before clenching my fists and turning my face over to the girl. "If it works, we will need your father toe and see it himself."


    ire looked over at my face, only to quickly turn her eyes back to the device and gulp a mouthful of saliva down.


    "I mean, I understand that this thing is so ingenious it makes it extremely dangerous¡­ but do we really have to rush inviting Dad over?"


    I took a deep breath before sighing.


    "ire, don''t take it the wrong way, but I need him to test my theory out. And he''s the only one who can be allowed to witness this device."


    Even now, I still couldn''t turn my thoughts away from the fact ire somehow failed to notice the idea that we just gave shape and form. She was too damn smart to miss it, especially with all the hints I''ve dropped, especially when I pretty much served the answer on a silver tter.


    And with that in mind, if Chihiro, someone intelligent enough to reach enlightenment over and over again all the way until he reached ninth rank, still couldn''t figure it out on his own¡­


    Then wouldn''t it serve as proof that there indeed was some foul force at y actively preventing people from figuring the idea behind this simple device out?


    "Well, I can call him, but even if it''s urgent, unless it''s emergency¡­"


    ire''s escaped with her eyes to the side as if her hesitation made her unable to directly bear my stare.


    "If this thing works, then it is going to be an emergency. Just¡­" I averted my eyes, "just not a bad kind of emergency."


    "That is, if it works, right?" ire pped right back while crossing her arms over her chest and lifting her right eyebrow. "So, how about we test it first?"


    For a moment, I stared back at the girl only to then sigh, grab the cable¡­ and connect the device to a simple USB charging device before ensuring the potentiometer was at its lowest possible setting that pretty much broke the circuit open before plugging the charger into the wall.


    Then, as I took another deep breath to brace myself for whatever coulde next, I reached out and grabbed the twisting knob of the potentiometer¡­ before slowly turning it up.

 Chapter 92: A fitting quote for such a historical moment

    ''Now I am be death, the destroyer of worlds¡­'' I thought back to the words Oppenheimer spoke after realizing the weight behind the project he heralded.


    Profound words that struck true at the devastating nature of his creation.


    But now that I slowly turned the knob to first close the circuit and then gradually decrease its resistance to allow more of the current to flow¡­


    I found myself with my head empty, devoid of any profound quote I could utter at this moment.


    ''For now, I have be a transformer, a mutator of energy,'' I thought, internally cringing at my poor attempts ating up with words fitting the situation.


    Words that fit the deep meaning behind what was happening, because if someone were to look at me and ire right now, we would look like a couple of geeks trying to see whether a simple circuit they hobbystically created would actually work.


    For an imaginary onlooker, this moment would look like anything but a moment of possibly greatest upset to the current bnce of the world. And yet¡­


    I slowly turned the knob further and further, allowing more and more of the electric energy to flow through it. And roughly as I reached the middle of the potentiometer''s range¡­


    "I can tell," ire announced in a low, silent voice as she raised her eyes and looked at my face. "It''s working."


    I gritted my teeth, but I continued to turn the knob.


    Just a single degree. Then another. Then five, ten, fifteen, fifty degrees more, all the way to the point where this potentiometer turned into the part of the circuit of the least resistance, lesser than the resistivity of the cable that provided the current or even the paths on the circuit.


    In other words, the moment the knob would turn no more, I''ve unleashed the full potential of the phone''s USB charger onto my now-remodeled Qi condensing device.


    And while its effects didn''t match the ability of the finished product that I dared not to touch or cannibalize¡­ The results weren''t all that far off.


    "The Spricur stones¡­" I muttered as I took a closer look at the far end of the circuit, where the Spricur stones continued to turn the electric charge into spiritual energy that they then released directly into the air.


    Yet, no matter how closely I looked¡­ I couldn''t see a single sign of them deteriorating, reaching their limit, or anything of the like.


    "They are holding strong," ire muttered, as interested in the results of this small experiment as was I.


    Yet, rather than seeing joy or satisfaction on her face, all I could see was growing anxiety and ack of confidence.


    "Do you dislike the idea of calling your father all that much?" I asked, only now realizing that I never really bothered to study Chihiro''s and ire''s rtionship before, leaving me clueless about the reasons behind ire''s anxiety.


    "That''s not it," ire shook her head before biting down on her bottom lip. "I''m just¡­"


    The young woman took in a deep breath, only to hold it in her lungs for a while before taking her time sighing it all out. As she did so, her shoulders fell down¡­ No, they copsed down, making it clear she was crumbling on herself rather than rxing.


    "I just gave the idea of how this device will change the world a shot," she revealed before going as far as to step away from where the device worked perfectly well only to turn her back to one of the empty machining tables, rest her hands against its edge and then jump up, taking a seat directly on the table only to then lean forward and close her eyes.


    "And it''s not all that great of a perspective, isn''t it?" I muttered in response, feeling the burden of this discovery myself.


    I wasn''t young or naive enough to simply enjoy this innovation.


    Sure, it was something that could change the world for the better, either by providing humanity with pretty much a free source of green energy or by allowing cultivators from all walks of life to gain ess to nigh limitless spiritual energy to train with, something that was previously gatekept behind the insane prices of the artifacts that could, to a limited degree, do the same.


    It wasn''t like this device in particr would have any effect on the world itself either, given how even the finished product I sold to Chirhio while somehow keeping it by my side could do better than the thing right before my eyes.


    The thing that worried me, was how this remodeled prototype was a proof of concept. A proof that my idea of turning electric energy into spiritual energy worked.


    And with that in mind, what would be there to stop the spiritual world from creating a single powernt, turning all of its energy into Qi, and then steamrolling the modern world with their now nigh-endless power?


    "ire¡­" I muttered as I realized the simple truth behind this discovery.


    "Yeah?" the girl heavily raised her head as she gave me a tired stare.


    For both of us, just thinking about the consequences of this discovery was enough to sap all our enthusiasm for actually proving I was right or creating a device that did indeed work.


    "Should we just¡­ destroy it? Destroy it and erase all evidence of it ever working or being built?"


    Initially, I wanted to just call Chihiro and have him shoulder the heavy responsibility and burden of using this device. I even figured out that we could take a note from the book of some druglords and install a secret cultivationb in the basement of some power-hungry factory just to hide the electric footprint of using this device for cultivation¡­


    But be it hiding or asking Chihiro to take care of securing this device and all itster iterations I could easily make¡­


    It still came with the massive risk of someone, at some point, finding out about it. And the moment news were to spread, the world as we knew it would quicklye to an end.


    But¡­


    ''Is it really my responsibility to hold back progress just because I''m scared of where it might lead?''


    This thought stunned me, for it¡­


    It just perfectly aligned with something deep, deep at the bottom of my soul.


    "Is it really my job to judge how a new technology will affect the world?" I asked out loud, just for the sake of better processing this question myself.


    "Huh?" To the side, ire jumped a little. After staring at my face for a moment, she heaved yet another deep sigh before shaking her head jumping off the edge of the table she was sitting at, and pulling her phone out as she moved closer.


    By the time she stopped right by my side, she was just a single tap of a finger away from calling her dad.


    "It''s your choice," she spoke softly, her face clear of any hesitation, doubt, or uncertainty.


    ''It is my choice, huh?''


    I closed my eyes and reached deep into my own soul, deep into my own mind, fishing for what it actually was that I wanted.


    Was it money?


    I already had more of it than I could spend in my lifetime.


    Was it women?


    With ire at my side, I would have to be a horny teenager or an outright pervert to wish for more.


    Maybe it was the influence, fame, and control, for my records to be written down in the books of history?


    Yet, none of those things struck me as something that I actively cared about. They were nice to have, sure, but¡­


    Was the potential cost of achieving them eptable?


    At the end of the line, however, there was only one thing that truly lit the embers of my heart. The one thing that brought an end to my five years'' worth of failures.


    It was crafting. By definition, wasn''t crafting a desire to make things easier; more convenient?


    "Call him," I said as I opened up my eyes and looked up to ire''s face. "And after we are done talking with your dad, I think it''s high time for me to call my uncle and arrange a private meeting between the four of us."


    "What?" rie''s face twisted in shock, now that I brought up something we just so recently decided to be eptable only in an absolute emergency. Something that could be done only if unthinkable were to happen, leaving us with no other choice.


    And now, I was suggesting to do so?


    "Not even your father can shoulder the responsibility and weight of this discovery," I stated while reaching out and pressing the call button on ire''s phone myself. "And unless you want this discovery to truly bring an end to the world as we know it, we need the scientific side of it to be prepared for the change this thing will bring out to the world."


    Just as I said it, Chihiro''s voice announced that the call had now connected.


    "Hello? What''s up, sweetie? Is everything alright?"


    And as ire''s dad''s voice reached my ears, a single line appeared in my mind.


    ''In my hands lies the spark, and with it, the power to either ignite a future or burn it all to ashes.''


    **End of Volume 1**

 Chapter 93: Once can be a coincidence, but twice makes a rule

    "When I said you need to get every new item through me first, I really didn''t expect you to call so soon," Chihiro said with a small yet weirdly enthusiastic smile as he walked past the long courtyard of the mansion only to grab ire into a tight, weing hug.


    Yet, the very moment ire''s dad pulled back and actually paid attention to our faces¡­


    "Okay, I can see something happen. How bad is it?"


    I raised my eyes to the man, only to sigh and then shake my head.


    "Nothing bad happened yet. But what we madest night¡­" I shook my head again. "Let''s just say it''s way too big for us to manage. And that''s the limit of what I''m at liberty to say¡­" I paused for a second to quite openly look around the open space of the courtyard, "out in the open."


    "Oh?" Chihiro turned his eyes to me, then took a step back and looked at his daughter''s face.


    Then and only then did his face calm down, his smile vanishing into oblivion as a look of seriousness reced it.


    "Lead the way, then," he requested, opting to cut all the needless chatter.


    It took the man an entire night and then most of the morning to actually make any bit of room in his schedule, forcing the two of us to just sit back on the topic and seek to escape the anxiety in thefort of holding each other tightly throughout the night.


    Even though it was a big¡­ no, one hell of a discovery, a history-changing breakthrough, it made our breakfast quite the awkward urrence with even the staff sensing that something was amiss and opting to do their jobs as quietly as they could.


    This atmosphere continued throughout the day, all the way to the point when Chihiro finally arrived¡­ and then it kept up, only for the air to somewhat diffuse when ire''s dad led us to one of the rooms that I didn''t even know existed and then closing¡­


    No, securing the doors behind him with a lock mechanism appeared to be taken straight out of a submarine.


    "This room is perfectly screened out from the outside," Chihiro announced before taking a seat at the small table in the middle of the chamber that looked like a replica of the soft-walled confines only ever found in the psychiatric wards, fully designed to prevent the patients from hurting themselves in any way or form.


    What served as a precaution for crazies in a psych ward, however, here it was clearly designed to stop any sound from leaking to the outside.


    "Guys, I can tell that something is going on, but due to the nature of this room, we only have about a quarter of an hour before we will have to leave due to the air running out, so¡­"


    I took a deep breath to calm myself down before taking a look at rie and then following her as we both joined her dad at the table.


    "I''m fully aware that your time is precious, but there''s one more thing that I need to bring up before revealing the issue at hand," I started before copsing my hands together and then resting them t against the table''s surface. "Do you have any recollection of how the prototype of my Qi condensation device operates?"


    Chihiro squinted his eyes just a tiny little bit.


    "Isn''t the principle pretty much the same as the finished one you sold?" he asked.


    "It is. The finished product uses the same principles as the prototype, it just uses moreponents and has a neater build. But that isn''t the question," I stated, perfectly aware my attitude wasn''t as respectful as it should be¡­ or as I wanted it to be.


    But with the weight of my discovery burdening down my mental shoulders, I simply couldn''t care less.


    "To a point, I do," Chihiro got the hint and nodded his head. "You grab the QI from the air with the Spricur stones, turn it into electricity, use a circuit to condense it, and then reverse the first step, turning it back into the spiritual energy," he exined the entire process.


    Yet, as great as it was to know he was aware of it¡­ It also served as the first hint of proof that my worries were well-founded in reality.


    After all, if he understood the process¡­ then how could he miss such an obvious evolution to it?


    "Then, the question as important as the actual reason for why we have called you with such haste and urgency," I stated before putting my hands together and using them to make a triangle with the desk for its base, a triangle on which I then rested my head. "Do you see any potential in changing the design to make the device even¡­"


    I struggled to find the right words for a moment.


    "Even more powerful?"


    Chirhiro leaned back in his chair, his eyes momentarily locked on my face only to then first move down to the table as he processed my question and then up to the ceiling as he scoured his brain for an answer.


    "I assume you don''t mean increasing the number of Spricur stones on either end of it, right?"


    I only nodded my head for a response.


    "Is this really necessary?" ire asked, distracting the two of us from the topic for a second. "By now it should be obvious that there is¡­"


    I raised my hand, stopping the girl just before she could say a word too much.


    "I''m asking if you can see a simple way to alter the design that will turn it from a crafty and useful device into something that would more than warrant the urgency with which we called you to see it yourself."


    Chihiro turned his eyes from my face to ire''s, only to then look back to me and end up taking just a little bit more time to think.


    "No, I do not¡­" he muttered after what had to be like a minute or two, yet felt like half of an eternity. "But¡­" he then added, only to look down as his face twisted in slight confusion, only to then evolve into frustration.


    "It seems I was right, then," I mumbled while shaking my head only to then raise it and look the man straight in the eyes. "The idea is, take away the Spricur stones designed to gather the Qi from the air and then turn it into electricity¡­ And rece them with a single charger that provides electricity directly into the circuit only for it to be turned into spiritual energy."


    I took a short breath.


    "In other words, I''ve found a way to turn electric energy into a spiritual one."


    At this mention, Chihiro turned silent. And for the next few minutes, he just sat down in his seat, thinking about something.


    "Does it¡­''"


    I nodded my head before the man could even finish his question.


    "It does. We tested it on a simple USB charger and it produces just slightly less Qi than the finished device I sold to you would. Due to the limited materials that we didn''t have the opportunity to get our hands on yet, we couldn''t really test the limits of how much energy a single Spricur stone can change into Qi, but¡­"


    "It serves as a proof of concept, doesn''t it?" Chihiro mentioned, easily catching my drift. He then fell into a silent mode for two more minutes, stretching our presence in the room dangerously close to the limit of how long we could safely spend here.


    "Bring me over," Chihiro said once he finally managed to gather all of his thoughts. "Before I pass any judgements, I need to see this device first."

 Chapter 94: It wont be a problem if you are too strong for it to be a problem

    "When you said you didn''t have the time to get the parts to test it more¡­" Chihiro muttered under his nose before raising his head above the device and turning over to look directly at my face. "Why do I feel like that wasn''t the full truth?"


    Under the man''s intense stare, I could only lower my head before nodding it to confirm his words.


    "Once we''ve realized the implications behind this device¡­ I thought it was better if we didn''t do anything reckless.


    It would do us no good if someone were to track our purchases to try to figure out what we need all sorts of chargers, potentiometers, and other parts so soon after making excessive purchases of cultivation materials for," I''ve exined my reasoning¡­ Only to then raise my head and look right back into the man''s eyes.


    "Even if there really is some kind of force that stops people from realizing what seems obvious to us now, it''s not like we can count on something that none of us actually understands."


    Contrary to what I was worried about, Chihiro didn''t make the whole discovery into a big deal. Or, to be more precise, he didn''t act the part.


    Instead, from the moment we left the sealed room all the way to when he lifted his face away from the device after inspecting it, he maintained a properposure, not allowing even a hint of anxiety on his face.


    It was as if¡­ he either couldn''t see the implications those devices could impose upon the world around us or if those implications weren''t enough to phase him!


    "That was a good call," Chihiro stated shortly only to pull out his phone, select one of the numbers, and then quickly raise it up to his ear. And a moment no longer than two pings of the callter¡­


    "I need you to go and get me fifteen pieces of every kind of possible electricalponent."


    A short pause.


    "No, you can exclude¡­" Chihiro looked down as he scanned my face for a moment. "Actually, yes, you can get those too. It won''t hurt to pad the costs a bit and who knows, maybe we will find some use for those too?"


    "Yes, yes, bill it to the branch enterprise."


    "Research and Development."


    "You can leave it in the public record, as long as it won''t draw attention. Yeah, okay,hurry it up then."


    Whoever ire''s dad was speaking with, their voice was too silent for me to hear. And so, I was left guessing what exactly was the content of their discussion just from the short messages Chihiro left.


    "You can consider the issue of parts settled," the man said as soon as he lowered his phone off his head. "Since I''m billing it to one of mypanies, I''m also going to shoulder the costs, just like we agreed in our deal."


    ''Oh, that''s right,'' I thought as I suddenly realized that in reality, I wasn''t free to just spend ire''s money and resources as I wished. There were rules and stiptions to everything, and now that it was clear my newest creation wasn''t something that could ever enter a wider market¡­ It only meant that financing the entire thing now rested upon Chihiro''s shoulders!


    "I will add a ten million bonus for the discovery and a further twenty for the research and development that will be billed through the subsidiary I mentioned. In other words¡­"


    "Whatever we need or want, they will step in and cover all the costs for us," ire spoke out over her father as if to prove he was qualified enough to fill the shoes of a financial manager of the two-personpany we had within the mansion.


    "Yeah," Chihiro smiled lightly for the very first time since his face turned serious back at the mansion''s entrance. Then, he did the one thing I didn''t expect this outgoing yet still lofty high-rank cultivator to do.


    He shook his head.


    "Anyway, this isn''t an issue that I alone can deal with. Most likely, I will have to go and have a talk with the city''s governor first¡­" he stated, only to give me a long stare. "I hope you won''t mind, but with how big this thing is," he waved his hand in the direction of the now disconnected device, "I''m out of options, really.


    If my guess is right, this thing might be too big even for the central government to manage¡­ But we will get there when we get there."


    "Yeah," I nodded my head, "I was nning to give my uncle a call myself before I decided it was a better idea to wait for you to decide on what to do next. After all," I shook my shoulders, "even if we can''t hide it forever, I don''t think there''s any risk of anyone finding out about this thing anytime sooner than a few years from now if we are careful enough.


    So, waiting a day or two just to make a decision on how to deal with the matter isn''t that big of a deal."


    I finished my statement with a shrug as if the whole topic was perfectly neutral to me¡­ even though it included the very person I was currently on pretty bad, not speaking to each other terms.


    "That''s not¡­" Chihiro''s face tensed up a bit, only for the man to shake his head again before putting a gravely serious expression on his face and looking directly into my eyes. "Tim, with this thing, I''m going to have to go and talk to your uncle. Are you sure you are alright with it?"


    ''It''s not like I can ask you not to, can I?'' I thought, forcibly stopping a cheeky grin from taking over my face.


    "It''s not a problem, sir," I nodded my head just to show my respect both to the man and to the decision he made. "This thing¡­" I took a look to the side, where the device just¡­ sat there, ominously. "This thing is too big for any of us to hold back. And if I can turn it into something powerful enough with all the tools and parts you''ve just ordered¡­"


    This time I actually allowed my smile to creep up on my lips, only for it to make me wonder if I didn''t just make quite the viin-fitting face.


    "Then wouldn''t it be possible for you to grow strong enough for neither the modern side or the spiritual world to have enough means to actively interfere?"

 Chapter 95: At the governors office

    The day at the governor''s office was as busy as ever.


    No matter when one looked, people were rushing about to get their tasks done. Not even a single person could be caught wasting time on pointless discussions, spreading useless rumors, or shying away from work.


    This was the high government office, after all, not some random administration building where clerks were only concerned with how to pass the little time they had for applicants between one coffee break and the other.


    The whole of the governor''s office was busy... but it wasn''t chaotic.


    Just like a well-oiled and attuned machine, everyone knew precisely how and when to do their tasks. And because of the hiring standards for the ce, everyone was fully aware how just one of them cking would burden everyone else around them.


    Yet, even in all of this fake chaos, as the office would appear to the eyes of an outsider, there was a single ce, an epicenter of sorts, where everyone''s work would, sooner orter, go to.


    "Makary''s institute submitted their quarterly report," a single, middle-aged man stood by the governor''s desk, with no more than ten pages in his hands...


    And a stack of a few hundred more of them neatly arranged on a smaller desk located just below the governor''s massive one.


    "How is it?" yton didn''t even raise his eyes from the paper he himself was studying.


    In fact, him actually responding to his assistant was already an exception to the norm showcasing just how important the mentioned report was.


    "There are some inconsistencies..." yton''s assistant turned over the pages to look into the finer details outlined in one of the numerical sheets, only to then shake his head while rolling his eyes. "Nothing out of the norm, though. Pretty much what you would expect from the ountant befitting the level of their institute."


    "Then proceed as usual," yton replied with a roll of his eyes only to blink a few times and refocus back on the documents he was just reading.


    This was the governor''s office. The highest authority when it came to the city and a direct delegation of the national assembly to the management of the province as a whole.


    As a governor himself, yton had matters much more important to deal with than just one of the many profit or non-profit organizations within the city''s jurisdiction trying to skim a few coins off the tax they were supposed to pay.


    ''In the grand scheme of things, it doesn''t really matter whether people like Makary pay what they owe to the city or not,'' the governor thought as he put the piece of paper in his hand back onto the table and then leaned back into his chair. ''This matter, on the other hand...''


    One would find it really challenging to find a single person who dared to ck in the whole of the building. That is unless they walked into the governor''s private office...


    But this ability to take things rtively easier than all the people working underneath him was simply one of the perks of the job of the city''s highest charge.


    Or, to be more precise, this kind of small break wasn''t even a perk - it was simply a requirement necessary for the governor to do his job properly rather than just singing his name, and thus the authority of the whole country that he was the extension off, under every piece of paper his assistants would prepare for him.


    "I guess we will have to give up on some ground," yton muttered as if the very idea of allowing those words to sound out within the office was no lesser infraction than denouncing his nation and country as a whole.


    And even though it was merely a murmur, it was enough to catch the attention of his assistant, a veteran official who fully well understood the implication behind his boss'' sentiment.


    "But sir, if we do that, then the next election aside, wouldn''t that sabotage our negotiating position in theing roundtable rounds?" he asked in a slightly agitated voice.


    No matter how drastic the topic they were discussing or how drastic measures yton thought or talked about, keeping his nerves under control was just as much of a required ability for the man as it was an ability to rx under all of the city''s political pressure for yton himself.


    "You speak true, that I won''t hold back from you," yton said before heaving a long, exhausted sigh. "But we cannot worry about things a year into the future when our situation grows desperate right now. And unless we pacify their interests right now, then by tomorrow, this city..."


    yton cut his sentence short, only to stand up from his chair and walk over to the huge window that allowed him to look over the wide view of the city''s skyline.


    A momentter, as if the sight of the city revitalized the man and gave him the courage to make the hard choices that, as a governor, he was destined to make, yton turned back and returned to his desk.


    Yet, right as he picked up his elegant pen to nt his signature on the paper that would buy him enough support from the spiritual ns to keep the city going and stop the local parliament from paralyzing all of his decision-making ability...


    Ring, ring, ring!


    As if the actual life was nothing short of a pstickedy, right as yton was to sign the deal with the devil, a phone rang.


    It wasn''t the ck phone that sat upon his desk and that connected him directly to the headquarters of the political party he belonged to.


    It wasn''t the red phone of the emergency service, the green phone of the volunteer corps, the blue phone of the general business manager nor the yellow phone that would only activate in case of matters that fall outside of the scope of authority of the underlings on the other end of those private lines.


    No, it was yton''s private phone that, over the course of his tenure grew increasingly silent, all the way to the point where he pretty much considered it as nothing more but his gateway into the web and just a handy clock.


    ''Who in the hell would be calling me?'' yton thought, gritting his teeth at the mere thought of any of his family members suddenly finding it fitting to dial his number.


    As he reached out to pull his private phone from one of the shelves underneath the table, yton''s thoughts ran amock as he ran down the short list of all the people that actually had his number.


    ''Peter? No way, he wouldn''t bother unless it''s for an emergency. And even then, I wouldn''t be anywhere near the list of people he would contact. Kimo? Didn''t he die two months ago? Juno and Elizabeth are deployed while Norn is on a mission in a spiritual world, and there''s no signal over there...''


    Squinting his eyes as the confusion overtook his thoughts, yton finally opened the drawer and pulled the phone out, only to see the one contact he never expected to appear on his phone ever again.


    A contact that reminded him of a much simpler past, back when his drama with Peter was still one of the major highlights of his social life to the point he would go ahead and y around with his brother''s son just to rub it back into Peter''s face.


    "yton speaking."


    Raising the phone to his ear, yton allowed the artificial intelligence installed on it to read the motion and ept the call.


    "It''s been a while, uncle."


    The voice on the phone...


    Without even a shred of doubt, it was Tim''s voice.


    It changed a whole lot from how he sounded back when the two talked for thest time years ago... But without a doubt, it was still the same, energetic young man that yton came to actually like and personally adore over the course of the years he spent using him to y his brother.


    "I..."


    When it came to facing the issues of the city, yton was like a fearless lion, ready and willing to make even the hardest choice if it would be for the good of themunity he came to love and respect so much.


    But when it came to dealing with Tim in particr...


    "I know you never expected this call, but right now, there''s something that you need to hear. Not as my uncle, but as the city''s governor."


    As if there weren''t enough surprises for the day, it wasn''t just Tim''s voice that changed, but so did his manner of speech and the way he talked up to yton.


    "Wait, an emergency?!" yton spoke back to the phone, jumping up from his seat as soon as he heard the word and only processing the rest of his nephew''s message when he was already standing. "Something I need to hear? And as a governor rather than your uncle?"


    To the side, ytor''s assistant wasn''t exactly sure what kind of face he was supposed to make.


    To pick up a private call when they were discussing matters that could actively affect the future of the city...


    It didn''t take a genius to figure out the meaning behind the scowl that appeared on the man''s face as he observed the transgression of the governor...


    Yet, at the same time, he didn''t stop him either, fully aware that no matter one''s position, there wasn''t a single human alive that would just ignore an emergency in their family even if they were extremely busy with important yet work-rted matters!


    "There are two people who will being to the meeting with me. And I need you to make sure the discussion we will have will be private in every possible way you could think of," Tim spoke out through the phone again, leaving yton too suddenly by the sudden call, the sudden message, and then the sudden details requested to respond in a timely manner.


    "So," wasting no time, Tim continued, "when can you arrange for this meet?"

 Chapter 96: But making a boomstick was never my idea!

    "It is done," I muttered as I lowered the phone away from my ear and heaved a long, exhausted sigh.


    By all means, I had every right to be exhausted after this short call that didn''tst longer than just a few minutes.


    It was a call that I made to my uncle, after all, a call that broke the unspoken vow of silence between the two of us thatsted for years.


    "When?"


    Hardly giving me any time to breathe after this taxing call, Chihrio asked shortly, sparing no effort to make his question fanciful or, in fact, using more than just one, absolutely necessary word.


    ''I wonder if he would speak at all if he could ask without raising his voice...'' I thought as I turned my eyes to the man.


    "Either today after the closing of his office or tomorrow before it," I reported dutifully, only to watch Chihiro nod his head with a profound expression on his face... and then turn his eyes over my shoulders, to one of the tables behind me.


    "That''s good," he muttered while rubbing his chin, only to continue his gesture for just a little while longer before properly locking his eyes over on the object that clearly caught his eye.


    And even without turning back, I could tell just what was so likely to be the culprit of snatching Chihiro''s attention.


    "It''s not a product I''m trying to sell. In fact, it''s nothing more but me trying to learn something new while doing whatever it was that my creativity pushed me to do," I exined while holding back a sigh of defeat, turning around not to confirm my suspicion, but to grab the long, wooden rod nearly as long as I was tall.


    "A stick?" Chihiro asked as he took the would-be handle out of my hands and took a moment to inspect it before raising his eyes over to my face and then lifting his left eyebrow to make a slightly doubtful expression.


    "A boom-stick," I corrected the man only to put a small smile on my face. "But it''s not even finished yet. I''m still waiting for the glue to settle before doing thest and most crucial step."


    Even with the time I spent just cuddling around with ire, sleeping through the night, or eating breakfast in the tense atmosphere, I still found just enough opportunity to add high-grade glue to the parts of my handle and then stick all of the carved blocks together.


    Yet, even with all the time that passed since I added thest part, I still had to wait at least a few hours more.


    After all, there were more than then blocks that had to be glued together... each of which consisted of two parts that I too had to glue together in order to let go of the strings that I used in lieu of said glue before.


    The amount of the high-quality glue used made it rather hard for it to settle quickly... which was absolutely necessary before I could move to the next and pretty muchst step of preparing the handle - pouring purified mana dust into the carved-out insides of the stick.


    This was the reason why I carved its insides before and why I covered the carved-out parts with ayer of non-conductive sent. Yet, due to the extremely fine nature of the mana-dust, if the glue was still even remotely wet once I started to pour the dust down the hole in the shaft...


    Then, rather than turning this dust into a conductive circuit for the spiritual energy to pass through the handle and activate all the runes I engraved into the very path of said dust, it wouldbine with the glue instead, turning into an uneven slurry that would only serve to hamper the potential of what was merely a part of the full project.


    "A boomstick?" Chihiro raised the stick even closer to his face, only to then turn it in his hands and raise its upper end only to look down the hole in its middle.


    Then, despite there being nothing to conduct the spiritual energy, he still poured his own Qi into it... Only for his face to twist as he raised his eyebrows in surprise.


    "A boomstick indeed..." he muttered, only to rapidly pull the stick away as the small bit of Qi he sent into the stick to investigate its insides went through all the runes engraved into the wood, bounced back, and then nearly shot him right back in the face!


    "Woah!" ire shouted in surprise as she backed off a step, even though not only wasn''t this energy aimed anywhere near her, it was nowhere near powerful enough to threaten to do her, or her father, any real harm.


    "What an ingenious design!" Chihiro marveled with his eyes opening up wide as he held the handle for what was supposed to be my scythe with great reverence in his hands. "Is this your take on a cultivator''s gun or something?"


    Feeling the weight of the man''s stare, I considered just going along with his idea for a moment...


    Only to ultimately shake my head as I took the stick out of the man''s hands and rested its butt down against the ground.


    "It was designed to be merely a handle. And the spiritual circuitry inside of it is aimed at elerating the rate at which one would be able to infuse its actual de with QI."


    That was the idea behind the design of the runes I carved into the wood, the step that turned what should be a simple job of just sanding down a long stick to a desired shape into hours upon hours of patiently dabbling into the wood to give its insides just the right shape.


    Because why should I just use a material that could conduct spiritual energy by itself, if I could go one step further and actually elerate this energy? And what was eleration, momentum, if just not another way to express energy itself?


    Then again, while this wasn''t my initial idea, now that Chihiro mentioned it...


    "A boomstick, huh?" I muttered, only to realize a little bit toote that by voicing my thoughts out, I actually made both Chihiro and ire look right at me with weird expressions on their faces.


    "What?" I asked, weirded out by their silent and perfectly shared reaction that made it seem as if someone had taken Chihiro''s expression, copied it, and then stered it all over ire''s much more delicate facial features.


    "You just got another idea, didn''t you?" ire wheezed as if already tired just by the very thought of something like this happening.


    "Well, I wouldn''t exactly call it my idea..." I protested while turning my eyes over to Chihiro before hanging them right on the man''s face.


    After all, wasn''t he the one who suggested it to begin with? To turn what was merely an overengineered handle for an unnecessary and likely unwieldy scythe into a stick with actual purpose all in itself?


    "Oh right," Chihiro suddenly yelped while his eyebrows shot up his forehead. "I called it out myself, didn''t I?"


    "Thank you!" I rolled my eyes as if the man''s words just absolved me of...


    Of what exactly? Of having yet another good idea of what I should make in the future?


    "Oh right, I''m sorry for changing the topic, but now that you are here, sir," I spoke while shaking my head as if to indicate just how different my next thought would be in rtion to everything we discussed prior. "Would you mind sharing your insights about the sixth stage of cultivation?"


    Chihiro''s face darkened a little while his eyes filled with worry.


    "I appreciate your eagerness to grow stronger, young man, but..." the man hesitated for a moment only to nce over at ire as if to seek support in that direction...


    Only for his face to grow still and his look to sharpen up, gaining some mystic undertones as he looked deeper and deeper into his daughter''s face.


    Then, finally, he took a step back while raising his eyebrows again and heaving out a small sigh of exasperation.


    "You advanced so soon?" he mumbled as if he was not yet done showcasing just how surprising news it was to him.


    ire''s dad then turned his eyes to me, giving me a simr stare... Only to take another step to the back before averting his eyes a bit.


    "I see, if you both grew so quickly, then it could only be... this..." he mumbled under his nose in a voice just on the edge of what I could hear and what would turn into a mere background noise.


    "I think I know what you are thinking about, father, but I can assure you," ire suddenly took a step forward, as if to pursue her father with a determined and somewhat insulted look on her face, "It''s not what you think. I''ve broken through because Tim helped me out with the enlightenment!"


    "Is that so?" the weirdly young-looking man looked over at me again before using his hand to push aside his long hair, as if he couldn''t bear the thought of them covering his handsome face. "And is that why you asked about the sixth stage?"


    I took a deep breath to calm down.


    It wasn''t every day for one to get a chance to ask an actual expert for advice. And given how ire couldn''t really talk about anything beyond the fifth rank from the standpoint of someone that actually experienced it, the insights someone of the ninth rank could offer...


    "Well, it''s not like I ever minded it, I was just surprised... And worried," Chihiro sighed out. "Worried, because it would do you no good to study the upper stages that you are not ready to challenge yet. But, given how you both broke through already, let me indulge you a bit."

 Chapter 97: Cultivation is not as simple and uniform as I lowkey believed it to be

    "Let me indulge you a bit."


    Just six words.


    Three words if one were to ignore articles and pronouns. A single word if one were to remove the useless descriptor and the basic verb.


    To indulge.


    ''A fitting word for ninth stage cultivator teaching basics to those four whole ranks below him.''


    In theory, ire already gave me the run-down through the cultivation ranks¡­ But what could she, formerly a fifth-stage aspirant and now a fifth-stage practicioner know about the sixth stage?


    And while sure, as someone who lived in thismunity and culture for her entire life, she surely knew more than me¡­ But it was all still but theoretical knowledge, unsupported by hands-on experience.


    Chihiro, on the other hand, had not only gone through the whole of the sixth stage already, but he could now look back on it from a much better, much wider perspective of his ninth rank!


    "Before that, however," Chihiro said only to then turn over to ire while resting his hands down on his hips. "Show it off."


    There was no need for ire''s dad to borate any further. Even though his rtionship with his daughter clearly wasn''t as normal as they would like it to be and there were some issues¡­ when it came to simplemunication like this, they still understood each other without any major issue or need for further rification.


    And so, without any further ado, ire lowered her eyelids a bit as she focused, only for her flesh to suddenly infuse with her spiritual power that exploded out of her destabilized core only to snap as it shortcircuited thousands upon thousands of times, each time sharing some of its chaotic power with the endpoints scattered all over her flesh.


    ''When looking at it from the outside,'' I thought as I immersed myself in the feeling of the spiritual energy, allowing it to kind of ovey over my normal vision, ''it really does look a lot different than it feels when I do it myself.''


    When I pushed my own Qi to bring my core from a semi-stable to an unstable level, my mental perception of what was happening allowed me to keep track of what was actually taking ce. As in, even though it felt like no more than an afterthought, I could still tell it wasn''t just energy flowing through my veins but snapping in the manner of a corona discharge instead.


    As I watched ire''s spiritual energy flow through her flesh, however, it appeared more like a perfectly fluid, continuous process in which her entire body filled with nearly perfectly uniform levels of energy, skipping over the steps of thousands upon thousands of short-circuits as it merged them all together into a t, ongoing process.


    "That''s¡­"


    On the other hand, Chihiro was faced with yet another surprise, clearly not expecting to see whatever it was that he saw as he looked at his daughter.


    ''Poor man,'' I thought, allowing but the slightest of smirks to appear on my lips as I amused myself with the scene. ''Ever since he came in, all he does is face one shock after the other, huh?''


    "This cultivation manner¡­" Chihiro muttered, proving my guess about his surprise to be right on the money. "It''s¡­ unorthodox for sure, but¡­" he hesitated for a second, "but I cannot really figure out how you could reach this kind of enlightenment!"


    If I were the kind of cker who liked to take the easy way out, I would assume Chihiro''s words to be praise. If I was the kind of a person to allow my intrusive thoughts to fester my mood, I would likely assume those were the words of fear if not terror, warranted by the cultivation of his daughter going in a way he would deem unfit or generally harmful in one way or another.


    But I was neither of those two. Instead, after five years of standing in ce and moving in a predetermined way to execute the same strike over and over again, if I had the tendency to do anything, it was overthinking things.


    Because what better did my mind have to do when all I did for hours upon the time was standing in the exact same position as I did for hours before striking out with my fist in exactly the same way I did over and over again?


    And with me overthinking Chihiro''s words, I soon arrived at an entirely different conclusion, by catching the one small detail that was so hidden in what the man said, I wouldn''t me anyone, not even myself, if they missed it.


    ''This kind of enlightenment, he said,'' I thought, squinting my eyes just a tiny little bit. ''So, the way one''s cultivation works while at any given stage is dependent on the details of their enlightenment?''


    For an outsider like me with nothing but sparse bits and pieces of knowledge that others took for the norm, cultivation stages always appeared to be¡­ something normalized? They were nothing more but levels one could achieve with enough time, effort, and resources. And while there were obviously going to be differences between two cultivators of the same stage¡­


    Weren''t those differences supposed to be minimal, a surface-level thing?


    "Tim helped me out with it," ire revealed without holding anything back but rather shaking her head instead. "To be perfectly honest, I don''t think I would break through to the fifth stage so soon if not for his help."


    "That''s quite the praise," Chihiro muttered and followed with a small, short whistle as he turned his eyes over to me and nodded his head, in lieu of expressing his respect with words.


    Then, before even looking away, his face tensed up as his attention moved somewhere else, somewhere¡­ inside his own mind.


    "But with this sort of enlightenment¡­" Chihiro muttered again only to raise his hand to his chin and rub it a little as he fell deep into his thoughts. "Okay, I''ve got it," he then added a mere momentter as he raised his eyes and smiled.


    "Cultivation stages, in a sense, are all about mastering dimensions."

 Chapter 98: Meet THE uncle

    The lobby of the city''s Governor''s Administration was spacious, elegant, and slithering in luxury, but also had air no different than the sweaty lobbies at the overcrowded doctor''s office.


    Every seat was taken by a customer, each of them holding for their dear life the small, paper ticket outlining their number in the queue.


    And all of that, roughly an hour before the office would officially open and the clerks would man their stations.


    Right now, all the customers with actually urgent matters to deal with yet no backing to get easier, backdoor ess had no other choice but to waste an hour of their time just waiting for the office to open.


    In exchange, rather than relying on the fancy new idea of using tickets, most of them organized into various queues designated for each of the stations and based on nothing more but a honor system.


    Such was the fate of most of the reforms shaking the city''s founding principles since the former governor took power, only to then retire halfway through his tenure and elevate my uncle to the highest political status of the town. The concept was there, and the delivery was good enough, but people¡­


    People were simply too stuck in their own ways to ept the change, even if that change''s one modus operandi was to make things more convenient if not simply better.


    But no!


    How could people use tickets when those hardly favored the customers who came in advance? How could anyone dare to approach the clerk if there were others who waited their turn longer?


    And so, what was supposed to be a nice, representative building where people would spend a few short moments at the longest, turned into yet another massive queue-hall for those who didn''t really have anything better to do with their time.


    To a degree, my group wasn''t an exception, with how we silently sat down at the most ordinary of the chairs, minding our own business while the crowd continued to create different currents as the neers went it to get their titles while those who waited the longest were slowly forming yet another queue, this time to the toilets.


    Our trio just¡­ sat there, as we patiently waited for the number on our ticket to get called out.


    Chihiro,one of the city''s up-anding elite; a cultivator of the ninth stage with a firm grip over the city''s light industrial sector.


    ire, a fairy-like gentle beauty; striking everyone with her elegance as she opted to wear her reading sses that she then used to immerse herself in the lecture of some profound, cultivation text.


    And then me, Tim, pretty much a nobody who, as I could bet half my fortune for, people likely believed to be lucky to just so happened to sit by ire''s side.


    There was another reason why Chihiro in particr gathered people''s attention as they had nothing better to do than just sit around, observe others, and then waste time talking around. Even more so than a man of his caliber would, in fact.


    As I''ve learned just before we came here, he belonged to not as much as a faction but more of a simple group of the city''s rich and powerful that opted out of politics, focusing on their own business rather than trying to dabble in this cesspool of scheming, fraud, and corruption.


    "With a special invitation¡­" a secretary walked out of office number one in the hall, "number fifty-seven, please,e in!" she called out after taking a quick look at her clipboard.


    "That''s us," Chihiro patted down at his knees and stood up from his seat, quickly followed by ire¡­ and me.


    Several gasps moved across the room as the smarter members of the crowd instantly connected the dots.


    "Let''s go."


    Following Chihiro''smand, we walked ahead before getting inside the office. And the very moment the doors closed¡­


    The hall erupted in whispers, gasps, and all sorts of other noises humans would make when excited.


    ''I bet there will be a dozen of articles all over the tea-sharing newsletters in an hour or less,'' I thought, unconsciously allowing a grim look to appear on my face as I walked in while thinking of the unsavory clout I was now extremely likely to bask in.


    To the other party that already waited in the room, however, their interpretation of my face likely provided results much different from reality.


    "Tim¡­"


    Ignoring the big fish in the room like no politician would, yton looked up to my face with a slightly confused expression all over his own.


    He looked as if he couldn''t make up his mind how to face¡­ or how to even feel about seeing me.


    Before anyone could take advantage of this moment of vulnerability, my uncle shook his head and cleared his thoughts before reaffirming a proper, serious look on his face as he looked right at Chihiro''s face.


    "Wee to the city''s office," yton said¡­ yet, rather than facing Chihiro as he did, he made sure to look right back to my face before opening his mouth. "The emergency, what is it?"


    yton didn''t waste even a single moment of his time, instantly addressing the metaphorical elephant in the room while outright ignoring the actual social elephant that was literally in the room with him.


    "An Oppenheimer-level one," I revealed without hesitation while nonchntly grabbing the nearest set and sitting down, not even waiting for Chihiro to do it first as the most senior of our group. "Without speaking too many details, we have a blueprint for an extremely simple-to-build nuclear device.


    And while it''s not exactly a bomb per se, it''s going to change the world in ways none of us is prepared for."


    Despite Chihiro greatly outranking me here, I was the starting lead of the meeting. He was there toe in when the general talk would progress to the stage of talking details when ideas would be reced by the matter of allocating money, manpower, and resources.


    For now, however, the room was mine.


    "Even if you say it¡­" yton murmured, taken aback by my statement.


    This clearly wasn''t what he expected this meeting to be about. Yet, like the true politician he was, it took him just an instant to recollect himself and lean over the table while focusing his eyes on my face.


    "But let''s say you spoke truth and only truth, then¡­"


    yton leaned his head over his shoulder.


    "What is it that you came here for?"

 Chapter 99: Hes still the same, he just learned how to hide it better

    "We are here to make a deal," Chihiro said, taking the question for his cue to step in.


    "In all honesty, we are perfectly fine without your help if ites to exploiting our discovery. In fact, I''m quite certain we could have it running for years before anyone would get even the slightest hint of it."


    Chihiro suddenly stopped his words and just¡­ stood there, leaning over the table while staring straight into yton''s face, as if making sure to put a great emphasis on the point he was making.


    "Then again, if we do it on our own, once ites to the light, we won''t be able to bear the consequences this discovery will have upon the world," Chihiro stated while spreading his arms out. "That''s why, we are here for three reasons," he added while stretching his hand out and showing three of his fingers.


    "First, we are here to announce me bing Tim''s fiancee," ire started while taking a set by my side. "That''s why we are here so openly, that''s why we spent half an hour just sitting around and being seen," she exined with a shrug of her shoulders.


    "Second, we are here to ensure your cooperation with our project. Cooperation, that on your end will be limited to hiring just a few security guards, giving us all the grants and approvals that we need so that we can establish a ce where we will exploit our discovery in peace while giving you time to figure out how to prepare for when the news about it will break to the world."


    "And thirdly," Chihiro spoke again, "I''m here to do you a favor you are in desperate need of, yet a favor that will bury you if you ever as much as think about stabbing us in the back."


    Rather than using threats on the city or state level, it was much better to just threaten my uncle personally. After all, he wasn''t guaranteed to care if the consequences of treason woulde to fall upon the city or the country as a whole. But if he were to be the one to bear the consequences himself, then the decision of turning his back on us wouldn''te as lightly.


    "A favor I need?" yton muttered while raising his eyebrow and giving Chihiro a doubtful look. "I''m sorry, but it seems that detaching yourself from the political scene made you blissfully unaware of just what kind of problems I deal with. In other words," yton leaned back in his chair as if to show just how much of his confidence he regained with just this statement alone.


    "It seems like you are overestimating your influence."


    In response, Chihiro just¡­ smiled.


    "Aren''t you short of three votes for the roundtable rounds to retain the initiative?"


    Silence.


    For the first time since the meeting started, no one had anything to say. Even if it onlysted a short moment, it was there to show just how well-aimed Chihiro''s retort was¡­


    Even if I personally had no idea what were those two guys on about.


    "It''s not the kind of knowledge that would be hard to find out about," yton replied with a seemingly totalck of care¡­ But the sound of his voice changed just enough to confirm ire''s dad struck him true¡­ and sank him down in one go.


    "And yet, to abate the situation you are willing to give up on half of the remation marks, don''t you?"


    With a perfectly satisfied smile, Chihiro shattered yton''s hastily mounted defense, proving that his research into the man ran far deeper than my uncle appeared to expect.


    "It was never the city''s authority to decide on the distribution of those marks¡­"


    "And yet, it''s going to be decided at the city council, meaning, rather than by a popr vote, it''s going to get decided between the city and the elites," Chihiro shrugged his shoulders while the look of amusement started to fade off his face, indicating he was nearing the limits of his patience over how long this discourse shouldst.


    "That''s¡­"


    Judging by his hesitation, yton didn''t really have any way to retort thest of Chihiro''s points.


    And no matter what those remation marks or the roundtable rounds meant, I could tell that our deal was by no means bad.


    ''He wouldn''t react like that if those things weren''t of vital importance,'' I thought, taking my leisurely time trying to learn as much about what was going on as I could. ''And if he can avoid some sort of a really sour pill for the low price of just cooperating with us¡­'' I squinted my eyes a bit, ''wouldn''t it be stupid to refuse?''


    I didn''t need to know what the two men were talking about in particr to realize it wasn''t just a small, random topic of no significance. And that alone was pretty much to confirm that we were, indeed, offering him a really good deal.


    "All in all, we just need to get a direct deal with the city''s distributor of the electricity and enough paperwork to bury all the records of it ever happening. Then, we just need a few men on constant duty, always ready to stop any other authority from infringing upon our project," Chihiro ignored the need for yton''s approval and moved right to exining how the deal would look like.


    ''He clearly considers the topic to be settled already,'' I thought, leisurely watching how the confrontation between the two men went.


    "You wouldn''t havee to me if you didn''t actually need my cooperation," yton stated, seemingly out of nowhere, right as Chihiro was about to move to the next part of his exnation. "And that''s why, not only will you take care of getting me the votes I need, but you will also join the city''s council in a full, official capacity."


    That¡­ came out of nowhere.


    And what was worse, without proper background knowledge about what the hell the city council was, I couldn''t even tell whether this ask was worth a lot or not.


    "I''m still only ninth stage," Chihiro spread his arms open as if to show himself to the governor bare. "As such, it would be illegal for me to¡­"


    "Oh,e on," yton rolled his eyes before putting down his left elbow on the table before bringing his head down onto his palm. "We both know that you wouldn''t move for anything but the opportunity to break through to the tenth stage."


    Even though yton was the Governor of the city and had little to no authority on the matters of the cultivation district¡­


    He still was de jure overseer of thosends and all that happened within. As such, he didn''t have the freedom to ignore the world of cultivation as most of the modern folk did, not when the political party he belonged to won their current mandate to rule on the back of the promise to keep the rtionship between modern and spiritual moderated.


    "That''s¡­" Still, regardless of what the weight of yton''s ask was, when I saw the look of hesitation on Chihiro''s face¡­


    I could already tell.


    Even though I didn''t really spend much time with the man, the same couldn''t be said about spending time with his daughter. And regardless of what was the problem of their rtionship, their mannerisms were still,rgely, the same!


    And so, I could tell that Chihiro''s hesitation was nothing more but an act, aimed to settle the deal on the current terms by making it seem as if he wasn''t all that ready to agree to the current offer!


    "Okay then, I''m going to join the council, not before breaking through to the tenth rank, though," Chihiro stated while making the face of the utmost reluctance if not outright grief.


    "Good," yton nodded his head, acting as if he was satisfied with the deal¡­ even though the rapid movement of his eyes made it quite obvious he was well aware of what was going on.


    ''I guess he just got greedy for a moment there,'' I thought, holding back a sigh.


    Even though yton changed by a whole lot since thest I saw him¡­ at the very core, there was no doubt in my heart that he was still the same, maniptive and greedy man!


    "Now that we agreed to the deal, how about you tell me just what the hell is that thing I''m going to need to prepare the city for?" my uncle asked with the look of exasperation mixing with the look of exhaustion on his face.


    "It''s nothing much," I smiled while leaning back in my chair before stopping my words and turning my head to take a look at Chihiro.


    In a sh, a wave of heavy, extremely heavy energy washed over me¡­ Or, to be more precise, washed through the entire room, throwing everyone inside into a bubble of extremely thick Qi.


    Which, in turn, was my cue to continue.


    "I found a way to turn electric energy into spiritual Qi," I exined. "And with that said, I''m going to let you figure it out yourself why do all three of us consider this discovery to be an emergency."

 Chapter 100: It’s quite exhilarating, isn’t it?

    "With that said, there''s one more thing that I need to discuss with you in detail, now that we are going to work together," Chihiro said, breaking the script of how, more or less, we nned this meeting to go.


    He then turned towards where I sat with ire before nodding his head and then pointing it out towards the door.


    "You kids can leave. This is the discussion I need to have in private," he added, excusing us out of the meeting.


    ''Hmm?'' I squinted my eyes a bit, unprepared for the sudden change to the n of how things were supposed to work out¡­


    But who was I to stop Chihiro, a ninth-stage cultivator and the father of my woman, from telling me what to do?


    "Yes, sir," I nodded my head before standing up only to offer ire a hand and then help her up as well. "We are going to take our leave, then," I announced, only to turn around and, while pulling ire along, leave the room.


    The very moment we did, the attention of every person queueing in the room turned towards the two of us.


    ''Did the news spread already?'' I thought at first. Yet, as I noticed that most of those looks appeared to be disinterested, I understood where I made the mistake in my assessment.


    Most of the people looked at us before we were called in before anyone else and with the special invitation, rather than because of our identity and the popr drama it was likely to start on the web right about now.


    ''A nobody seen with the ice beauty of the cultivation district? Is this the so-called forbidden romance?'' I thought, already picturing such a title appearing today on the web only for tomorrow to swarm out from every possible angle all at once.


    Nevertheless, save for some useless attention, there was nothing stopping us from leaving the ce. And, having nothing else to achieve in this building, we hurriedly left¡­


    Only for there to already be a self-driving car waiting right by the office doors to pick us up.


    "Have you ever driven one before?" ire suddenly asked, only to then open the doors and invite me over to the back seat of the vehicle before hurriedly getting in herself, closing the door, and then patting the neckrest of the front seat, as if to announce we were now ready to leave.


    "Never had the chance," I said while shaking my head.


    Back when I was still working for yton, some self-driving cars existed¡­ but they were nothing more a luxurious toys for the ultra-rich. Nowadays, however, they have be amodity that pretty much every well-off family could afford with just a little bit of savings. Not a cheapmodity by any means¡­ just something that people could actually afford.


    "Then, on a slightly another note¡­" ire muttered and got a little bit closer right as I squinted my eyes and thought of a certain unknown that I failed to consider due to how sudden everything was.


    "Where are we actually going?" I asked as I realized that contrary to me, rie didn''t seem to be surprised by the turn of events that ended up with the two of us out of the meeting and Chihiro staying behind.


    "Actually, there''s a ce that I want you to see. Because with how things are, it won''t be long before you will have to pay it a serious visit¡­ And I believe it''s better if you take a look with your own eyes first, rather than being thrown on the deep water once you will have to go there anyway."


    ire''s exnation was perfectly sound even if it omitted any precise details of¡­ of what I just asked her about!


    "Never mind that, though!" ire called out as soon as I turned my eyes over to the car''s navigation that I could still somewhat see from the back of the car, forcing my attention right back on herself.


    "Do you remember how we talked about something that we have yet to do?" ire suddenly asked, throwing me a curveball of a question.


    ''What?'' my face twisted as I suddenly had to face yet another puzzle of what did she have in her mind. ''Cultivation? Physical training? Or maybe something entirely else?''


    Before I could say a thing or voice my doubts, however, rie leaned over myp only to then twist her head and press her lips against mine. Soon, both of her handsnded on my sides, pinning me down to where I sat while her lips refused to part with mine.


    While startling at first, I soon immersed myself in the kiss, more than happy to indulge a bit. And in all honesty, the thrill of making out while driven by just some algorithm¡­


    ''Wait, don''t tell me she meant¡­''


    ire''s hand moving down from my side andnding on my pants quickly proved that my intuition was likely on the point. But as down for some carnal fun, as I always was, just one question refused to leave my mind.


    ''Just why¡­ why now?''


    Why was this precisely the moment ire picked to bring that conversation back and, from the look of things, turn it from something we merely talked about into yet another experience we could fondly look back upon whenever a situation called for either of us to prepare ourselves ahead of the actual flirt.


    Yet, as ire''s hand unsheathed my dick from below theyer of my pants and then underwear, all my thoughts vanished into oblivion, fully reced by nothing but the sensation of her fingers closing down on my shaft.


    "I¡­ I do now, I swear!" I cried out, unable to stop my body from pumping blood down to my crotch, quickly bringing results to ire''s efforts of jerking my softie off.


    "A head in a moving car, with nothing behind the steering wheel," ire, still leaning so close our lips were practically touching, whispered.


    Then, she jerked her hand up and down three times, making a great effort to find just the right bnce between squeezing down on me and keeping her hand soft enough to make her affection on the right side of the rift between pleasure and torture.


    Yet, as she started to push her hips to the back while bringing her whole torso lower and lower over myp, her grip swiftly grew loose, only serving to keep my dick in ce by the time she brought her head directly above it.


    And obviously, she wouldn''t be herself if she didn''t turn her head up to give me a nce with a bit of a smirk trembling in the corner of her lips.


    "It''s quite exhrating, isn''t it?"

 Chapter 101: Taking a look before deep dive

    The trip turned out to be much more interesting than whatever its goal might be.


    It felt¡­ depraved, holding ire''s head down as her lips wrapped around the bottom of my dick.


    Especially with how she kept her sses up, the sense of doing something amoral to a girl THAT adorably innocent came with a whole thrill on its own.


    My fingers sank deeper into her lush, brown hair. The curve of her head fit just so perfectly in the palms of my hands. And her hands¡­


    Rather than distracting me with her hands, ire made it clear that she wanted me to focus on her lips alone. And so, rather than teasing me in any other fancy or unorthodox way, ire clutched her arms around my waist, holding herself firmly in ce.


    By now, however, the fun was quicklying to an end.


    "Haaa¡­." I released a long, weary moan, feeling exhausted now that ire had sucked the soul out of my balls with an admirable level of determination.


    "You will be arriving in¡­ one¡­ minute."


    The distinct breaks in the voice made it clear it was the GPS talking.


    A whole minute, huh?


    Looking down, I found ire''s upturned gaze and her deep, brown eyes.


    And with her face still tightly warped around my dick ire made thest effort to suck everyst drop still left in me.


    "God¡­ damn¡­"


    I was so spent, that I couldn''t even say two words on a single breath. And looking down, at how ire''s eyes turned from cloudy and unfocused to just dreamy as she now slowly pulled out only to reveal a satisfied smile of a conqueror as she rose back up to her knees.


    Reaching out, I grabbed a piece of whatever before quickly moving to clean the mix of spit and cum that stuck to the corners of ire''s face, and inevitably, as I did so, I ended up caressing her chin.


    "Thanks," I breathed out while taking my time to bring all my senses back together. "That was insane."


    Breathe in and breathe out.


    For a short while, that was all that I had to¡­ and all that I could follow. Yet, with the contribution of my spiritual energy, my strength returned much faster than I would naturally do.


    "I''m happy to hear that," ire mused only to then beam her plished smile as if she wanted to blind me.


    But there wasn''t enough time for me to get amazed over how wonderful¡­ no, insane of a woman rie was.


    Because our car juste to a stop, forcing me to pull my pants back up before ensuring again that ire''s face was now clean and fitting for the outside world.


    "Now, is this the good time to ask what this ce is supposed to be?" I asked, as we gathered our stuff and prepared to get out.


    "One of the few reservations that the city sponsors in the area," rie exined as she fixed her clothes before opening the doors and walking out. "This is where cultivators can go and train out in the open. In a sense," the girl''s face suddenly grew profound, "it''s a fleeting fragment of how the world used to be."


    Walking out of the car, I could tell that the ce was¡­ not the same as all the other ces I reached previously. The air here simply felt different, lighter.


    As if the quality of the spiritual energy, somehow, was of an entirely different grade here.


    ''Wait, but how¡­''


    It wasn''t a matter of concentration. It wasn''t even a matter of purity. It was more like¡­


    More as if the usual resistance of the Qi in the air was merely a fraction of its normal level, whichpensated for the fact of the spiritual energy being much more diluted,cking in essence as it spread thinly over a vast area of what turned out to be an ancient hunting ground.


    "This is Fantasia, the biggest reservation, a fragment of the world long gone. A ce where you can let your spiritual energy run wild while you hunt prey that can provide you with valuable loot. Just keep in mind," ire turned slightly to the side as she led us all the way up to a makeshift viewing tform overlooking the massive forest stretching out into the distance.


    She then gave me a long, side-eye.


    "The world beyond that border," she pointed out at a nearby line of cleared trees and vegetation, beyond which I couldn''t really reach with my mana sense. "It truly is ancient. As such, the rule of the normalws no longer apply, forcivilization cannot realistically handle what''s inside."


    That¡­ I could imagine.


    Because the more I thought about it, the better I was starting to connect the dots of various bits of knowledge to create a semnce of a greater picture.


    If, as I said myself under the influence of my weird ability, spiritual energy was just a sum-total of the leftover will of all those who partake in it¡­ Then the weird nature of this ce could be easily exined.


    Here, there were only a handful of wills, be it humans or beastial, that affected the essence of the spiritual energy. Yet, quite obviously, all of those sparse wills were much more focused and concentrated than anything one could expect to witness back in a modern city.


    As such, while the energy in this ce was extremely, extremely potent¡­ it was also so sparse, that the extremes pretty much covered for each other, making any attempt at cultivation in this ce bear pretty much the same results as doing so would bring back in the modern world.


    But just like ire pointed out, killing the beasts roaming this ce meant obtaining valuable loot¡­ from one of the few beings who are qualified enough to affect such unwieldy power of local will!


    "In other words¡­" ire suddenly spoke up again, forcing me out of my train of thought. Yet, after a momentary glint on her face, she shook her head and dismissed the topic.


    "Well, I''ve brought you here so that you can take a look and internalize what this ce is all about. And there''s no way I''m going to let you enter here, not before you finish that weapon of yours," she then added with a strangely deep, yet emotionless smile.


    ''Is it just me, or is she acting just slightly off?''


    Before I could confirm or disprove my gut feeling, however, ire turned around on her heel while grabbing my hand, only to then pull me ahead, straight back to where we left the car.


    "I brought you here so that you will know what to expect when we go for a huntter on."


    Once again, a part of today that I was never consulted about before. And while the idea of just going hunting already struck me as slightly odd, whenbined with ire''s strange vibe¡­


    "Yeah," I nodded my head before looking over my shoulder and casting a fleeting, strangely longing nce towards the mystical woods, untouched by all that humankind achieved in the recent centuries, ever since the beginning of the rapid development of the industrial revolution.


    "And honestly," I smirked a little as a darker undertone suddenly poisoned my thoughts, "I cannot wait."

 Chapter 102: Fragment of the Ancient world that goes with no absolutes

    The fact that we left the viewing tform that overlooked the ancient forest from above didn''t mean we were ready to leave the ce yet.


    After all, save for learning about this kind of challenge I would soon have to ovee, I didn''t really get any information about this ce at all!


    ire appeared to understand this problem, seeing how instead back to the car, she led me down a path hidden perfectly well by what looked like natural overgrowth of the bushes, all the way down the small hill and to where, right by the edge of the cleared-out border area of the zone, stood a huge, wooden hut.


    "A boarding house?" I asked, voicing out the first suggestion that came to my mind.


    "More like, an administration building," ire sighed before leading the way and stepping inside this three-story high building that was way too big for anyone to keep hidden yet was made up with materials most likely sourced from this very area, in the desperate hopes that the simr colors and patterns would somehow make this building well-hidden from an outsider''s eye.


    Then again, the first thing that I thought when we got inside, was how my guess of this building''s purpose was much closer aligned to how it looked from the inside than ire''s im.


    Only then did it strike me just how big of a contrast there was between the building''s outside and its interior.


    From the outside, it was an oversized, wooden hut that robbed its visitors of any hope for running, hot water, or electricity inside.


    Once passing through the main doorway and then through the second pair of doors at the end of the windcatcher, we stepped into what could only be called a resort.


    What appeared like just a in, wooden wall from the outside now turned out to be mere masking of a massive, ss panel that spanned the entire side of the building''s wall, allowing the guests to freely amuse themselves with the beautiful view of the ancient forest.


    The furnishing was done with only the mostfortable of pieces, ranging from huge sofas, through deep, elegant chairs all the way to three sets of high seats by what looked like individual bars.


    Then, there was the usual set-up one could expect from a resort consisting of reception, outer-wear changing area, and some tables for people to sit and discuss their matters.


    The bright, shing lights made sure no one had any doubt about where to find the resort''s toilets, which most likely indeed had both running and hot water.


    "What a weird ce," I muttered as I silently followed after ire who appeared to know exactly where to go and what to do.


    First, she ignored the reception, opting to head for the staircase right away. Then, she brought us all the way to the very top floor¡­ Only to move across the main hall and then find another set of stairs that she then made us take all the way back to the bottom floor¡­ and then, even deeper, into the cer.


    ''Wait, this doesn''t look like a basement¡­'' I thought when the elegant furnishing and finishing of the walls turned into a solid if not outright brutal look of the thick, concrete walls and even thicker, steel st-doors hanging off the hinges many times thicker than my leg.


    ''This is a fucking bunker, isn''t it?''


    At this point, I could hardly be any more surprised¡­ or impressed. After all, once I gave it some thought¡­


    It only made sense for a retreat built for cultivators would beparable in quality to five-star hotels back in the city, given how extremely pricey the cultivation materials were. In other words, if someone was strong enough to pay this ce a visit, the amount of resources they had to consume on the way made them very well rich enough to pay for their lodging fee.


    And just like that, the presence of a solid bunker also only made sense, when save for what looked like a rather flimsy barrier, there was nothing stopping the monsters of those ancestral woods from breaking free and wreaking havoc at the nearest building they could find, where all the cultivators, weary from their past hunts or merely preparing for their first one would assume themselves to be safe.


    It only made sense¡­ but that didn''t mean it made it any easier for me to feelfortable as I walked through those narrower and narrower corridors.


    Thankfully, ire didn''t intend to take me all that far. Instead, she soon took a turn and plunged into an even narrower corridor, only to then pull out some sort of a card, press it against what appeared to be just another piece of the bunker''s wall¡­


    Only for the wall itself to suddenly open up, revealing a seam so perfect it was impossible to notice it on one''s own. And as those doors opened up, ire reached out with her hand and smiled, pointing at the small but perfectlyfortable room hidden within.


    "This is the ns'' viewing tform proper," ire announced, only to grab my head and pull me inside before hurriedly pressing her card against the inner side of the wall, causing it to swish again and seal the entrance behind us.


    Then, as if by a touch of a magic wand, the whole of the wall suddenly lit up as one¡­ only to then split up into a few dozen, uniformly shaped and sized squares. Squares that soon revealed their boundaries before rifying their content, revealing an extensivework of cameras feeding directly into the system mounted on the wall!


    "Take a seat, rx, and be ready to start taking notes," ire called me out while taking a seat and grabbing what looked like some sort of a remote from a small stand by the edge of the main sofa.


    "Those cameras are from the ns'' private investment into the reservation and are exclusive just to this room. Or, in other words¡­"


    "No matter where you go in those woods, there will be someone watching?" I attempted to finish up the sentence ire left hanging.


    "That''s right," the girl nodded her head with a small smile before reaching out and passing over the remote. "That''s just one of the things that you absolutely need to keep in mind at all times. But it wouldn''t be a good ce to train if you couldn''t manifest your abilities safely, wouldn''t it be?" she then suggested, only to press one of the buttons on the remote, right as she passed it over.


    Looking over to the side, I could see various squares of the camera feeds suddenly merging together, leaving only two rows and two columns of ongoing monitoring to all four sides of the wall, with roughly eighty percent of it now merging into just one, focused feed that disyed a huge, open clearing seemingly in the middle of the sea of the trees.


    "This ce is our n''s plot, where no other cameras are allowed. And while it''s far from being the closest to the good hunting grounds, you won''t find a better ce to train out in the open than this."


    Hearing all of this, I could already imagine myself swinging my finished scythe all over the very ce that I could only through the lenses of the camera for now. But there was just one thing I didn''t quite follow from ire''s exnation.


    "It''s far from good hunting grounds?" I asked while reiterating her own words. "Isn''t this entire ce a hunting ground?"


    "It is," ire nodded her head before leaning back and sinking down into the cushions of the sofa. "But spiritual beasts have their own habits, their own hunting grounds, and their own treasures they found and try to protect from the rest of the world.


    That''s why, while those things change a lot, there are some areas where you are more likely to encounter a good hung and then there are the areas that arergely safe from the incursions from random spiritual beasts. But then again¡­"


    "Just like thew of the modern world does not apply to this ce; so does the modern way of absolute thinking," I finished ire''s sentence again¡­ Even though this time, it was nothing more but a feeling that prompted me to do so, not a proper idea born from reason and observation.


    "That''s right," ire nodded her head again while putting on a small, satisfied smile.


    "It might be unlikely for beasts or anyone else, in fact, to venture as far off the natural trails to end up at that ce," she nodded her chin forward, as if to point at the ce disyed on the main screen, "it''s not like it never happened before nor is there any reason to believe it will never happen again."

 Chapter 103: Home, sweet home

    ''Home sweet home¡­''


    I never knew how quickly I woulde to consider ire''s vi to be my home. And yet, even though I''ve lived there only for a few days by now while spending pretty much all five years of my miserable past back in that animal cage of a rental apartment¡­


    By now, I could hardly even remember anything about that ce.


    Not like there was anything special about it to make me remember it by, as opposed to pretty much everything about the mansion.


    "I bet you wanna go and craft a bit, so go get yourself ready and I will join you soon," ire said, only to quickly escape deeper into the house as she vanished in the corridor leading up to the daily living area.


    I, on the other hand, moved down the familiar route only to end up in the ce that was most central in the entire vi for me.


    The workshop.


    Huh?" I stopped as I opened the doors, staring at a small pile of boxes I didn''t recall moving inside. "That''s new¡­" I muttered as I moved closed and took a look at thebels.


    "Spiritual tonics, Qi-gathering array in parts, reinforcement potion¡­"


    As it turned out, I didn''t even need to check each and every box, before grasping the general idea.


    "Oh, so you''ve seen it already!" ire called out, appearing at the doors not that muchter and with her eyes instantly moving over to the box.


    "What are those?" I asked, despite being able to guess already.


    "My countermeasure for the problem with your cultivation," ire replied without even a moment of hesitation, proving my guess to be right on the money. "With all of those, you won''t need to worry about running out of spiritual energy while you craft. And I will be here to make sure it all works¡­ and just in case you run them dry without realizing it yourself."


    "I mean, suit yourself?" I replied while fighting off the desire tough it off.


    In reality, we could just remake my recent discovery to make it slightly more potent before plugging it into the wall socket and forgetting about the issue. But now that yton came to know about its existence, or rather, now that we openly drew attention to ourselves by interacting with him, we had to be on our best behavior, leaving no traces for anyone to find.


    And so, rather than just making a simple device and then using a bit of electricity, ire ended up ordering a fortune worth in resources and tools¡­ all to achieve pretty much as much if not less than what we could with my recent discovery.


    For the moment, however, I couldn''t care less about it. Ever since I joined hands with Chihiro, money was no longer of issue for me, meaning, I couldn''t really be bothered even if ire just went ahead and wasted quite a bit of it.


    In the long term, however much she spent on the content hidden in those boxes wouldn''t amount to anything more than the rounding error. And so, rather than wasting my thoughts on it, I allowed ire to take care of the newly arriving boxes instead while moving to my own tasks.


    ''Now that I have the handle, what should I do about the de?''


    This was the question of utmost importance¡­ and yet, despite just how much time I had to think over it, only now I realized that actually¡­ I never did.


    ''What should I draw my inspiration from, then?'' I asked myself while leaning against one of the many machines present within the room.


    ''The possible parts?'' I thought, looking over at where my floor collection remained as I left it after Chihiro left yesterday, with pretty much every possible base resource disyed for my eyes to see and analyze.


    ''Maybe I should look for some sort of an end goal, a purpose this weapon will be supposed to achieve?''


    I gritted my teeth and clenched my ass¡­ but no random idea came to my mind, regardless of how hard I tried.


    For some reason, my creativity continued to elude me, only ever appearing when least needed it.


    ''Or maybe¡­''


    With my eyes turning empty while staring down at the resources I''ve disyed, my thoughts went back to the discussion we had with ire''s dad back when he paid us a visit at the mansion. And between all sorts of materials on the ground and the man''s take of what was his take on the sixth stage of cultivation¡­


    ''Actually, wouldn''t it be possible to use external tools to achieve what is apparently the next level of one''s own cultivation?''


    With the concepts Chihiro nted in my head now starting to bud out into flowers, my vision changed a bit.


    While I saw everything exactly the same as before, rather than just looking down at a huge mesh of different materials, I was now searching for things that fit certain criteria. And soon enough, quite a few of them left a mark in my mind, making me remember their position andbel as I looked over them only to then look for anything else that could be of use.


    "Okay, I think I''ve got it," I muttered to myself as if to lock in that sentiment in reality by voicing it out.


    "I''m sorry, but I''m going to need a few more minutes," ire called out in response, currently bogged down by the task of arranging formation stones in just the right way to turn them from a bunch of worthless scraps into an actual device that would contribute to our effort at holding my qi-exhaustion issue at bay.


    "Ah, I still need to gather the materials up, so you are free to take your time without worry," I threw back before turning my attention right back to my task.


    The job ahead wasn''t going to be easy¡­ which was something I''d already established by overengineering the mere handle of a weapon and thus setting a rather high bar to just how high-grade its de should be.


    And just like the staff of the scythe-to-be, I wasn''t going to settle on just a simple de, even if made with the greatest materials essible and refined to their limit with the best techniques that existed.


    No.


    If I wanted to be fully satisfied, the de itself had to have some sort of purpose.


    And it just so happened that after recalling my talk with Chihiro, I had just the right purpose for it in my mind!

 Chapter 104: I did it... so Im going to do it all over again!

    ''Okay, those should do it¡­'' I thought to myself as I stared down at the pile of various resources I''d gathered for the next step of my project.


    In total, there were seven different piles of otherwise neatly organized stuff for me to take from as I needed, each consisting of pretty much an apartment''s worth of precious resources.


    From the left, there were three piles of different kinds of metals, each of which boasted different properties that I believed to be interesting enough to include them in the build.


    Then, there was the molding agent, allowing me to create any shape I wanted before burning it out to give it heat-resistant ability.


    Next was a small pile of Spiritual stones etched with absolutely no qualities other than their ability to store a bit of spiritual energy. Following that, thest two piles were made up with respectively Qi-condensing crystals and then a small bunch of tiny boxes filled with ground-down crystals of the same kind.


    "Okay, I''m ready," I called out as I took a step away from the resources and looked. "How about you?"


    "All set and ready to go!" ire called back, raising her head from behind the machine that just so happened to perfectly hide her from my view. "Just tell me when you are about to start," she then asked as she stood up and kicked something, only for the air in the workshop to suddenly start to stir up.


    It wasn''t a process as rapid as when I firstunched my prototypes in the confines of my small apartment. Yet, just like a cold wind created by an AC, it took only a moment for the wave of the much denser Qi to reach me, instantly seeping into every pore of my skin.


    "Haaa¡­" I took a deep breath, savoring the taste of the tasteless air, while feeling how all the gaps in my cultivation quickly filled back with spiritual energy again.


    Soon enough, my spiritual core once again reached its unstable state before getting more and more chaotic and reaching closer and closer to its absolute limit while shooting its energy all over my body.


    And when this process reached the peak on which it stabilized¡­ I got to work.


    First, I took the sturdiest of the three metals before putting it all into a small crucible that I then dropped into a special prototype of a modern sh cultivator''s smithing furnace that operated ording to the scientific principles while allowing a whole set of different formations to actively aid it in the process.


    And so I just sat down and did nothing but stare at how the metal slowly melted down into liquid under the influence of Spiritually enhanced mes. A process that clearly changed something about the metal.


    Yet, rather than grabbing my tongs and using them to pull the crucible out as soon as I got the core metal of the build in its desired state, I simply left it to keep burning in the furnace as I grabbed a handful of a burnable molding agent before kneading it into the shape akin to a long nail¡­ or, ording to who I was to ask, a long piece of turd.


    The next part was as weird as it was fun to do, as it started with me heat-treating the mold to make it harden, only to then wrap a simple string around it before covering it in the nonbustible molding agent.


    Next came the extremely precise yet still fun part of using the string from before to gently pry away just a tiny bit of the molding agent, separating it into a two-part cover rather than a full-on shell.


    Then and only then did I return back to the furnace¡­ not to pull the molten metal just yet, but to gently slide the freshly-made mold inside as well.


    Pretty much as soon as I closed the furnace''s doors, the heat inside of it raised the point the inner mold suddenlybusted¡­ Only for the fire to start slowly eating it away while adding an internal heating source for the non-burnable outer mold.


    Five minutester, I used the tongs to bring the shell out before gently splitting it apart, finally creating a proper mold I could use to cast metal.


    Then again, rather than pulling the crucible out, I simply brought up another one before stuffing the second type of metal inside and leaving it inside the furnace to melt.


    ''How is this so easy?'' I thought while maintaining a perfect focus on the task as my hands added a simple shape to the mold¡­ mold that I would use to build the actual body of the de.


    Then again, just like I did it with the handle, the de itself would be made from two separate halves, allowing me ess to its insides at any time I wanted prior to the final seal that would bring those two halves together forever.


    "How are you doing?" ire asked from the other end of the workshop where she retreated once she could no longer bear the heat radiating from the furnace¡­ and the overheated metal inside of it.


    "Step by step, I''m getting there¡­"


    I was too focused on the job to pay much attention to small talk. Especially now that I watched the second mold harden in the furnace, only to casually bring it out¡­ and then finally bring the crucible with the liquified metal out of the furnace.


    That is, the second crucible, for the first one was still stuck in the furnace, as if I wanted to vaporize the precious metals I started with rather than just turning them into liquid and thus castable state.


    The next step was as nerve-wracking as it was easy, for all I had to do was hold the tongs firm while I gently leaned the crucible over its side, slowly pouring the metal down the second form I made.


    And for what was worth, it this metal, apparently called the high mithril for some reason, was a lot easier to manage than the thing I kept cooking in the furnace. Then again, while the first crucible held the special feature that would be kept inside the de, this high Mythril was designed as the main body of the de, even if it wouldn''t be used for the de part itself.


    With enough of the metal poured down, I hurriedly yet carefully ced the crucible with roughly half of its content left back into the furnace, before pressing another form against the molten metal.


    Contrary to the wood, metal was too hard for me to chisel into, forcing me to add all sorts of shapes and forms I wanted into the mold itself. And since the secret part was going to be hidden right in the middle of the de''s body, right now was the most the one and only time for me to impose it upon the molten material.


    "This looks like it''s about to be done soon," iremented as she decided to brave the high temperature and get a little bit closer.


    "It''s still ways off," I countered without a second of thought. "I''m merely preparing the first half of the de''s body and there are still several steps to make before I will make its counterpart and put the two together¡­" I muttered, allowing my voice to fade as my focus fully returned to the task at hand.


    And so, a few momentster, I finally brought up a small hammer before bashing it away at the mold, cracking it open with just a few well-aimed shots.


    ''Is it just me or is the act of hammering something down using pretty much the same motions as punching out?'' I thought, only to shake my head and then use the tongs to pull the finished half of the scythe''s de''s body from the wreckage of the mold¡­


    Only to put it aside before moving it to a special venting machine that would ensure the drying and cooling process would take ce in a perfectly controlled environment, preventing the uneven cooling of the metal from creating micro-ws in its structure.


    "Finally done," after closing the doors to the venting machine, I took a step back and wiped my forehead with my forearm before taking a deep breath and turning to take a look at the rest of the materials.


    "Now, to do it all over again¡­"

 Chapter 105: The Scythe

    "Today is the very first day wh I looked at the idea of crafting¡­ and considered it a chore."


    If anyone were to ask me just weeks¡­ no, days ago, this would be the stce I would put my hands on the line never to utter.


    And th, just a few dayster, the reality proved to be a lot more bothersome and a lot less interesting than my amateur eyes allowed me to see it.


    Crafting was fun. There was no hint of doubt about that in my soul. But for me to reach any of the actually interesting parts of the crafting, I had to patitly go through the drag of preparing everything with great focus, patice, and peace of heart.


    I mean, I did it.


    After three hours of ying a with molds, casts, and liquid metal, I managed toplete the first half of the body of my scythe''s de. And the very next thing I did¡­


    Was to start the process all over again, with the sole inttion of making a twin to what I just finished so that I could pair the two of them up.


    And so, I furnaced the shit out of the high Mytrhil, preparing the mold for it while it slowly melted down under the influce of the spiritual-qi-infused mes.


    Th, I cast the second part of the body before pressing it down in its form with a special lid. Th, once the metal settled, I cracked the mold op with a hammer before moving it over to the vting machine¡­


    And this time, I managed to shrink the whole process from three hours to just two hours and a half!


    "Now it is done, right?" ire asked wh she saw me put the two pieces of my scythe''s de together, side by side. And despite how unlikely it might seem, after over five hours of just sitting a and watching me sweat as I crafted in the high heat oozing from the furnace, the sparks of curiosity in her eyes actually ignited again.


    "Dear, I''m barely getting started!" I protested while overying the whining in my voice. "For real, though, I''m only done with the easy part. The actual challge¡­" I looked over at the finished halves of the de''s body, "it only starts from now on."


    Ever since nearly six hours ago, the precious metal continued to boil up in the furnace, while constantly going through the swings of the temperature whever I oped the furnace to pull stuff out of it or to put something new inside. To top it off, it was constantly tempered by the spiritual-infused mes of the furnace, bit by bit, changing its qualities.


    "What''s the hard part, th?" ire asked, only to watch me go and grab both the dustified crystals of the veryst pile of the materials and their respective, bigger cousins in the form of small crystals.


    "To create the inertia part of the machine," I replied before leaving everything down on the table before going for the win and actually bringing out the very metal that I kept boiling for so long.


    Over such a long time of heating up, and cooling down only to grow hotter again, this metal¡­ changed.


    It no longer appeared to have any desire to go back into its solid form¡­. An illusion created by just how much heat was trapped into it, heat that released from the insides of the metal soup whever it outside would cold down ev the tiniest bit.


    And right into this soup, still bubbling up within the crucible, I poured all the qi-storing and qi-tempering crystals, before stirring the tire mixture up and th adding the boxes of the powdered crystals, by oping one of them up, pouring the dust inside the crucible, stirring the whole mixture up and th repeating the process all over again.


    Bit by bit, the rtively clear liquid of the reflective, metal soup turned into a strange, thick slurry with bits of the crystals asionally appearing on the surface to reflect the artificial light of themps of the workshop.


    And it was only with this pre-prepared slurry that I moved over the finished body of the de before taking aim¡­ and pouring it all down into the small indtation that ran along the whole lgth of the de and was reflected in both of the de''s halves.


    Bit by bit, drop by drop, the slurry fell into the indtation and filled it up, still remaining in this half-liquid half-slurry form.


    ''It''s kinda like a pitch from that legdary pitch drop experimt,'' I thought, watching just how much this thick liquid struggled to fall off the edge of the crucible and th slowly spread out in its designed space.


    ''It seems that I made way too much of it,'' I thought whparing what was left in the crucible after filling the indtation in one half of the de''s body¡­ Only to th move over to the side a bit before repeating the process all over again.


    In the d, I hardly used half of the slurry I prepared, leaving the rest to go to waste along with the crucible that I held it in. And while it was still possible to somewhat salvage it, or at least parts of the precious materials used to mix it out¡­


    Right now, I have a much more important task to focus on. It was to bring the two halves together and mold them while making sure not a single drop of the slurry would get ough time and momtum to flow out of its designated chamber.


    m!


    With a powerful strike of the smithing hammer, I forced a simple, crude-ev nail into the two halves of the body before hammering it down to make sure one would need quite the force to split them up.


    "Now, just to add the de¡­" I thought as my eyes moved over to the third and the cheapest out of the three kinds of metal I prepared. It was nothing more but the perfect kind of tooling steel, with properties just perfect to be used for a cutting edge.


    And, as I quickly proved by taking mere momts to melt it down before pouring it all down in its ce, it served as a great seal to connect the two halves of the de into a single whole!


    "Haaah¡­" I heaved a long, exhausted sigh once I finally dropped the heavy piece of tri-natured metal onto the table, leaving the task of grinding its edge down to make it sharp for some other day.


    "What now?" ire asked, as she somehow ssed that finally, I was actually done.


    "I still need to polish the edges, decorate it a bit, sharp the de itself, connect it with the handle¡­"


    I squinted my eyes before gritting my teeth and standing up¡­ And th working for just a few minutes more to get the boomstick, as Chihiro named it, lock it in its ce before hammering it down into its socket, effectivelybining the two elemts into a single whole.


    "Now, while it stillcks its finishing touches, it''s more or less done," I announced as I stared at a crude yet fancy-looking weapon in my hand.


    "So?" ire th asked again while dropping her hands down onto her hips as she stood in a confrontational pose while staring me down. "What''s so special about this de?" she asked before moving her hands up only to cross them over her chest.


    "Oh, it''s just two small things," I replied, only to infuse a small bit of my ergy into the outer part of the scythe''s handle before taking a swing¡­


    And watching how the spiritual ergy infused into the weapon took the shape of its de, elongating along the path of the attack and effectively extding the de backward to twice its size, almost as if leaving a cutting force in the wake of the de¡­ only to th vanish as if it was never there, to begin with.


    "Woah¡­" ire stepped back, her eyes widing as she tracked the flow of the spiritual ergy. "Wait, if that''s one of the things," she muttered before gulping her saliva down and slowly raising her eyes up to my face. "Th what is its other secret?"


    In response, I opted to just offer the girl a smile.


    "And that, my dear, is something I really shouldn''t show here, with all those expsive machines a!"

 Chapter 106: The Big Day arrives

    A day like every day.


    Hugo walked into the resort with a small, casual smile on his lips.


    Dressed in his usual, casually-official attire, he walked up to the reception with a small, aloof smile.


    "The usual, if you would be as kind."


    The receptionist smiled and passed the keycard, greeting him with a small nod. Hugo th hurried down the lobby hall and into the secondary staircase hidd in the back of it.


    A momtter, he wt down to the bunker basemt before pressing the card against the wall and siltly making his way into the office inside.


    A day like every day, a day like usual.


    "Let''s get this over and done with," the man sighed as he sat down in afy, gaming chair while booting up his tire arsal.


    For Hugo, this was hismanding cter, his hideout, his¡­ nest in the web.


    It was with those cameras and other tools of his that he all controlled from this rted-out yet private room that he made his ratherfortable living.


    With a few taps of his fingers, the cameras changed focus from the default mode¡­ and vanished altogether, reced by a much more useful software that Hugo sneakily booted into the building''swork.


    Now, instead of a scattered view of most of the better-known parts of the ancit forest, the wall disyed a bunch of highly-rated news, important alerts, and a geral rundown of the situation within the forbidd zone.


    Hugo reached out to the nearby tourist fridge that he had preinstalled in the ce and pulled a foil-sealed te of pulled chick and rice, a carb and protein bomb that would sustain what came next.


    The assigned time of surveince would onlye due in some hours, leaving Hugo with ample time to get himself ready and to thoroughly prepare his rig.


    "Okay, let''s see what we''ve got," Hugo muttered to himself as he put the food aside and turned his focus back to controlling the rig''s operation.


    A momtter, half of the wall suddly turned into a view of roughly fifty cameras monitoring chokepoints of every single major path within the forest.


    If anyone wanted to get somewhere and do it fast, they could only use those to move a, as going through the woods themselves was a death stce.


    On the other half, he held up a selection of other points of view that he deemed interesting or valuable, leaving the remaining fourth of the wall to a constantly changing set of fully random cameras.


    There was a limit on how much information and visual data a human brain could process, and Hugo already approached this limit.


    Still, with how expansive the zone was, it was impossible to monitor everyst part of it, making Hugo''s job, spotting the zone, into one of those specialized, extremely well-paid professions.


    "It''s a pity I can''t use any of the better systems," Hugo muttered under his nose, knowing full well the consequces of crossing that line.


    Without a better integration with the system, he couldn''t manifest any of his more powerful hacks. But with the greater integration, he was sure to alert the resort''s staff of the issue!


    And so, limited to the currt means of technology integration, Hugo drilled his eyes into the camera feed, ready to earn several months'' worth of his free, worry-free lifestyle.


    ****


    A day like every day.


    This was the only way to describe today''s morning.


    Or rather, everything that happed up to that particr morning.


    After waking up, I just cuddled with ire for a bit on the bed before wezily gathered ourselves up and wt to start the day as usual.


    With the fancy and quirky break of the fast with the help of the private chef and servers, I was ready to take on the challges of the day¡­


    Only for ire to suddly announce the big day finally arrived.


    And now, mere momtster, we were already nearing the destination.


    "It''s finally the day, huh?" I muttered, seduced by just caressing the long, hard shaft of my scythe to the point that I could hardly utter a single, cohert stce.


    "I''m happy to see you hyped," ire gave me a side-eye from her seat before looking away as if pouting. "But I should be the only one for you to make that kind of face," she mumbled while resting her elbow down on the window''s edge and looking outside with a dejected look on her face.


    "Ah, sorry," I tried tough this off as I pushed my lovely, thick, and heavy scythe, only to move sideways on the long seat.


    Before I could say or do anything, though, the car came to a stop.


    And while the next few hours were likely to be the most dangerous in my life so far¡­ I couldn''t help but shift my atttion to the doors.


    "Just go¡­" ire looked back, her face now all empty, her smile void, the aura of dejection rising all over her. "Who am I to hold you from ying a with your new toy?" she made a helpless smile as she shooed me away with the wave of her hand¡­


    Only to quickly follow as soon as I wt outside.


    In my hand, wasn''t exactly my scythe, but a small pouch, closed by a short string that was th further wrapped a one of my fingers.


    Spatial rings, while existed, were heavily controlled by the state and gerally deemed too risky and expsive to use for someone to just carry them a. There was ev an official, op registry of all of those rings, strictly regting ev their slightest move.


    That''s why, rather than bringing my scythe out for all to see, I held it in one of those temporary bags, constructed ording to thetest certification of the state''smerce ministry.


    Not only was it a temporary measure, but it directly sourced its ergy from the user''s spiritual QI, making it extremely easy to detect and thus unusable for smugglers and other criminals.


    For now, however, it allowed me to move down the hillside path without drawing anyone''s atttion¡­ Mostly because we hardly met anyone on our merry way.


    Soon ough, we walked all the way down to the weird lodge. And it was at the courtyard right before its trance wh ire suddly stopped me.


    "Wait here for a second, I will have one of our guys get on the spotting duty," she requested, only to put me down on a public bch before running off into the building.


    She wasn''t away for long, merely ough for me to give it a momt to think about just how soon I could swing my scythe properly. Yet, for some reason, something at the back of my head just¡­ It just kept itching in a ce I couldn''t mtally scratch.


    "Are you ready?" Sporting a set of short sweats, ire stretched her arms out to the side, weighing herself down with a rather simplistic sword in her hand.


    "I was born ready," I grinned back at the girl¡­ Only to th awkwardlyugh out. "Yeah, I think I am."


    Ever since I added all thest touches to my scythe, I grew more and more obsessed with it. As if it was my crafting soul calling out with love for¡­ my creation?


    It just felt perfectly right in my hand, with me knowing how I shaped every tiniest thing about it.


    I knew of all the possible imperfections, ws, and faults. And I could reforge all of those into valuable experices that would fuel my next project with new, ev greater me.


    And now, I could finally test out its second quality, the feature that I deemed way too dangerous to manifest in the vi.


    In the back of my head, however, there was one conversation that I just couldn''t stop thinking about, ever since I first recalled it properly wh I sat down to polish the edge of the scythe and turn it into a proper, sharp tool for brutalizing anything that would find itself in this de''s path.


    One conversation that I kept going back to, only to ever grow more appreciative of how much meaning could be shared with so few words.


    "Cultivation stages, in a sse, are all about mastering dimsions."


    "Okay, let''s go!"


    Done with her stretching exercise, rie grabbed my hand before pulling me ahead.


    "You want to test it, don''t you? So let''s get going!"

 Chapter 107: An unimpressive masterpiece

    Running through those ancit woods was, quite surprisingly, a lot of fun.


    Ev though I joyed crafting in the peace andfort of ire''s vi, myst five years of experice made me crave some serious exercise after such an unusually long time of slouching.


    And now, as we cut through the dse vegetation while running at full speed while filling my lungs with the clear, fresh, and just slightly cold, refreshing air¡­


    It simply felt great, to put some strain on my joints and stretch my limbs by means as simple as just moving a.


    Yet, the novelty of this kind of fun quickly wore off, only to be reced by the unpleasant mix of my growing anticipation apanied by creeping suspicion¡­ that ire''s n''s parcel was hidd somewhere much deeper into this zone than I initially expected.


    I''ve only got to take a look at how it appeared through the cameras, never getting the shot to actually learn where it was located.


    Most likely, it was a safety measure to prevt anyone from stealing the information over that ce''s location¡­ But still, not knowing for how long we would have to continue running wore down my excitemt.


    After all, while the chances of anyone seeing us in a random spot of this ancestral forest were supposed to be abysmal¡­ Judging by how many cameras ire had in her room, I couldn''t help but feel as if this tire ce was sneakily rigged to the brim with all sorts of measuring and spying devices.


    ''I wonder if that ce of theirs is as safe as they hope, or if their emies have simply yet to act upon what they could spy off them.''


    This was another part of the problem.


    The deeper we wt, the greater my suspicion grew over just how kindly people treated each other out in those woods.


    "Don''t sulk like that," ireughed from just a bit up ahead, leading the way as the one who actually knew the directions¡­ and somehow could still guide us through the extremely dse vegetation of the lower strata of the massive, old forest. "We are almost there."


    It was good to hear¡­ Especially after nearing nearly two hours of night constant sprint!


    Sure, we didn''t move anywhere as fast as a cultivator would, limiting ourselves to just our physical ability. In those woods, no one ever knew what kind of dangers lurked a, meaning, our spiritual ergy was too precious to waste on just cutting the travel time.


    "It''s better to be far than sorry," ire shrugged, before finallying to a stop after taking a turn by a boulder nearly as tall as the nearby trees, behind which hid a forest clearing shaded by the massive boulder that overlooked the skies above it.


    "Wee to Camp Chica," rie grinned as she turned a on her heel and spread her arms op, eagerly taking on the role of a host.


    "This ce sure looks nice¡­"


    If I wasn''t any wiser about what this ce was, I would likely take it for some low-effort resort in the warm, tourist destination where a shed and a bed by the shore were ough to rake in cash from the foreigners.


    This time, however, rather than looking towards the nice, cozy-looking huts positioned a the perimeter of the shaded area¡­ I turned my eyes towards the rather big, op space hidd right underneath the stone.


    "Finally," I breathed out before patting the dust off my clothes and th raising my head with the scythe-hiding pouch still wrapped a my wrist. "Can I?''


    ire raised her right hand only to rest the face of her sword down on her shoulder and th drop her other hand to her hip.


    "Sure, go on," ire grinned while wiping out a single tear of sweat from her forehead. "I''m quite curious to see what this other quality of it is, too."


    The corner of my lips shot upwards, pulling my mouth into an excited smile.


    ''Finally.''


    With a pull of my cord-holding finger, I undid the wrap on the pouch''s d, releasing what seemed like a big seed or something from its insides.


    The momt this ck, spherical object fell out of the pouch, the barrier of its shell tore apart. And as the subspace copsed, my scythe materialized seemingly out of thin air.


    In its unawaked state, this scythe¡­ didn''t really look anything out of the ordinary.


    ''I mean, sure, scythe surely isn''t an ordinary weapon to use, to begin with, but beyond that¡­''


    My smile softed a little.


    "Just a simple, metal scythe for a nerd into this shit," I muttered under my nose, smiling as I looked the weapon up and down.


    In its unawaked state, this scythe wasn''t all that impressive at all. It looked like just a simple, cast de curved inwards with an added splinter de on the rear d for added stability and bnce of the strikes.


    But the very momt I grasped at its handle and infused it with just the silver of my spiritual ergy¡­


    The scythe came alive.


    It was an unintded effect of using the precious wood for its handle. And while the isting agt did a great job at separating the flow of mana through the shaft and through its inner core¡­ Infusing the weapon itself over its circuitry led to some interesting effects.


    For an outsider, it looked as if the whole weapon suddly grew a few ts of perct in volume, as the aura of the spiritual ergy gathered all over the shaft, the de, and ev the cloth-covered butt of the tool. The de turned from just a thin strip of metal at the d of the weapon''s body into a cutting edge of spiritual force itself.


    And wh I took a stance and struck with the de at the air in front of me¡­


    The cut itself lingered in the air for a short while after the de left. As the original owner of the ergy that my scythe dispersed in its path, I could tell how this lingering cut was actually ev sharper than my steel or ev my spiritual edge could ever be!


    But that ability I''ve already tested, back wh I first made the weapon. And now that its design was fully cleared out, the effects reached ev greater heights than before, all at a cost¡­ of what I could consider as the ergy I was radiating out anyway as a result of theplex process that was behind my fifth cultivation stage.


    "Actually, I don''t want to do something reckless, so it''s going to take some time before I can use the second quirk," I announced as I turned to the girl with a slightly helpless, embarrassed smile.


    In return, however, ire''s face lit up a bit, only for her to th run up to me and throw herself in my arms.


    "Yes! That''s right! Make sure to take care of yourself. Don''t you dare overdo it!" she alternated from a praise to a stern warning¡­ "And leave everything else to me," she th added in a much lower, fainter voice as I could feel by the twist of her body how her atttion sharply moved elsewhere.

 Chapter 108: The goal of the sixth stage and the tool to achieve it

    Something was going on.


    I wasn''t blind ough not to notice the small bits and fragmts of weird behaviors, nces, or words. And while sure, I have yet to piece everything together, that much was clear: there was something going on that I wasn''t updated about.


    Th again¡­


    If something was really going on, ire was clearly, for theck of a better word, in on it. And that begged just one question.


    ''Do I trust her?''


    On the more rational stance, my best bet was to gather up my ergy and scrap, escaping from whatever this girl was cooking that she deemed better not to inform me about.


    But on the other hand¡­


    ''What would be the point? I''m a gooseying gold eggs, so how could they consider me as anything but their most prized asset?''


    Wh taking the reality of my circumstances into ount, it was hard to keep any worry in my heart¡­ That is if my heart followed something as flimsy as logic wh it could rely on just my feelings and premonitions!


    Thankfully, wh it came to my feelings, it was an easy task to just choose to trust rie and focus on ying with the scythe rather than bother myself with what could be the conspiracy that was clearly unveiling right now.


    "I''m going to take care of everything else," ire repeated, with the same faint voice designed only for my ears alone. She th pushed herself off my embrace only to swing her sword back onto her shoulder.


    For a second, she stared right in my face with a strangely torn look in her eyes, before turning her stare away and lowering her head a bit.


    "Just be careful, okay?" she asked, only to pass by me¡­ and run into the forest.


    ''Are they trying to ambush whoever mighte to attack us here?'' I thought, feeling as if I figured the whole mystery out.


    But at the same time.


    ''She told me she''s going to take care of it, so let''s focus on myself instead.''


    Closing my eyes¡­ I brought my scythe down before nting its butt into the g.


    For a short momt, I was contt just breathing in and out, feeling the sparks and flow of my ergy within my flesh as it circted into the core, only to discharge to one of the thousands of random points all over my body at a rate quick ough it turned into constant radiation of ergy that th¡­ flowed right back to the core.


    And as I calmed myself down and focused my thoughts, my debacle with Chihiro reappeared in my might right away.


    "Wh you start your cultivation, there are several steps you make. But if you look at them from the outside, if you narrow down the scope of the tire first phase of cultivation¡­ You could say that you master the directions of the ergy. You learn and practice to figure out how to use the QI, and how to move it in space to a desired effect."


    Back th, this was part of the conversation I couldn''t evmt on, giv how I jumped straight into the fifth stage of cultivation, forever to miss the effort of conquering the first four of them.


    But that was merely a preamble to the greater lecture rather than what Chihiro wanted to talk about instead.


    "Wh forming your core, you fold all of your ability to manipte your spiritual ergy through the three basic dimsions, folding it on itself to turn all of your power into a singrity. And what happs th?"


    I could vividly recall Chihiro''s smile back th, as if he guinely joyed talking about the topic, proving he did his fair share of thinking it through.


    "You first expand the reach of how far the core can affect your body. Th you learn how to move its ergy outside, just like you did in the early stages. And th, can you guess what happs next?"


    The hints the man dropped back there were obvious ough ev for aplete newbie like me to figure it out.


    ''You fold it back on itself?" I suggested despitecking proper confidce in this answer.


    "That''s right, you fold it right back. That''s an eight-cultivation stage for you. Th, the ninth stage is all about¡­ repeating the whole process and folding it yet again! And th, for the tth stage, again!"


    It was back th wh I realized just how close Chihiro was to breaking through to the tth stage of cultivation. He didn''t need lightmt for it, just to have his cultivation grow mature and resilit ough to attempt yet another folding of it!


    In other words, all that held him back from reaching the tth stage was the amount of ergy he could supply to his cultivation to make it grow stronger and more mature!


    But while that gave me a clue over just how important my rectly discovered device would be for the man¡­ it also gave me a better perspective on what cultivation was at its core.


    ''The first phase of cultivation goes through a total of five stages before you copse it into a spiritual core. Th, it takes up until the eight stage before you do it again, th you do it again and again at the ninth and tth stages respectively.''


    I could still remember taking a deep breath back th as it just struck me.


    Because now that I took a proper look at the idea in its tirety¡­ I could look back at my currt challge and start forming some ideas on how to ovee my need for the next lightmt!


    It was a process that soon proved to be quite wasteful, giv how I came up with a solution long before I could build my cultivation base well ough to attempt another breakthrough.


    And so, rather than forcing a breakthrough way before I was ready for it, I just crafted a tool that allowed me to do exactly what I believed I was supposed to be doing at the next, sixth stage of cultivation.


    "The fifth stage was all about establishing the power of the core throughout,ying the foundation for the very next step," I muttered under my nose as if it was a chant of sorts while slowly tighting my grip over my scythe.


    "The next logical step would be to use those foundations and expand the power of my core beyond its currt limits, beyond the limits imposed on those without the spiritual core. Or, in other words¡­"


    My eyes red up as I picked the heavy scythe up, raising it just far off the g to be able to freely swing it.


    Now that I was in a state of focus and with my spiritual ergy long since agitated, the residue radiation of my Qi fueled my scythe so much, that it was growing more and more eerie-looking and all mystical by the minute.


    Th again, it was merely a side-effect of the high-quality materials I used, not the effect I inttionally designed¡­ or, in fact, not the effect I was now ready to bring forth to reality.


    ''Let''s see how it does!''


    Reaching a point where my breath, the position of my body, my mind, my hands¡­ wh all of myself aligned with just one, single purpose, I pushed a sliver of my Qi into the circuitry of the scythe before executing a swift sh right against the empty air.


    I cut the air, leaving a trail of staggered cut in its wake¡­ and a mark that, contrary to the aftershock of the cut, remained in ce as mere added quality to that point in space.


    Or, in simpler words, with a simple cut, I''ve created a new node the power of my spiritual core could now discharge to.


    ''And now,'' the smile on my lips soured as I acknowledged that it was merely the beginning of what I could tell had the pottial to blossom into quite a ridiculous ability. ''And now, to learn how to control it.''

 Chapter 109: Sphere of influence

    There was only one reason why I left the most precious of the metals back at the workshop cook and th boil for hours upon hours in the furnace, subjected both to the extremely hot mes of the special mixture of hot-burning gases and to the purifying influce of the spiritual mes added to the furnace.


    And it was topletely change the qualities of the metal, before adding all sorts of qi-conductive materials and turning the liquid into the slurry, before capsting it well within the body of my scythe''s de.


    It was because overheating the metal for so long while tempering it with spiritual ergy, made it not only gain the ability to retain quite a lot of its heat¡­ but with the help of the spiritual force, contain it quite well.


    That''s why, while the slurry would settle into a half-solid state wh left on its own, with its heat hiding deep down in the core of the mixture while its outside cooled down, as soon as I agitated it by pushing spiritual ergy through the scythe''s circuitry¡­


    With the power of the spiritual me agitating the heat hidd at the core of the slurry, it would mix its temperature out¡­ turning it into a strange, half-liquid form again.


    On one d, this changed how the scythe bnced wh swung, giv how this slurry would now squeeze down, dragging the attacks back¡­


    But ev more importantly, as this slurry squeezed into the corner of the chamber it was locked in, all of the conductive materials inside of it, already filled with both thermal and spiritual ergy, would crash into each other, rapidly releasing just ough spiritual force to leave a mark on the surface of space itself.


    A mark that, by a total idt, appeared to have pretty much the same qualities as the nodes I installed all over my body to facilitate the discharges of my core!


    ''If the fifth stage of cultivation was about expanding the influce of one''s core within their flesh, th by its very definition of the sixth stage, the only way to expand it would be to do it¡­ outside of one''s flesh.


    And so, I swung my scythe again, and again. And after just a few shes, I''ve figured out a simple, straightforward, and perfectly repetitive way to not only keep my scythe swinging but do so without breaking its momtum ev in the slightest.


    ''This has to look really cringe to anyone watching,'' I thought, as I just walked all over the op part of Chica camp, swinging my scythe in circles on my left, th on my right, th above my head, th back on the left, on the right and so on.


    And for every swing, I would leave asting mark in the space where I swung the scythe''s de as if I was painting with a three-dimsional crayon on the canvas of the air itself.


    Bit by bit, more and more of those nodes appeared. And what was ev better, once I created a big ough number of them¡­ the nearest nodes started to stter out, as if reaching for each other and creating this intricate web, a scaffolding of sorts from which it continued to expand into a space that was fully within the range and ability of my core to discharge its ergy to it.


    I couldn''t tell for how long I continued this dance, immersed by the weird feeling of omnipresce I''ve gained as I spread my pottial influce out over greater and greater area.


    At some point, wh I could add no more marks over how thick andplete this of connections became, my swings started to just¡­ add up, causing the sphere of my influce to keep growing in every possible direction. This process, however, grew the slower the bigger the dome of my domain grew, aligning with how quickly the surface of a three-dimsional object grew whpared to its radius.


    I was immersed in the process with all of my being¡­ but that didn''t mean I could miss the short, snappy explosions of Qi happing all over the ce, all quite some distance away from the camp Chicka itself.


    ''I guess this has be going on for a while already,'' I thought, quickly realizing that by the looks of things, my guess was correct.


    The matter of my attempted kidnapping wasn''t over yet, neither in the minds of those who organized it nor in Chihiro''s own view.


    And what was happing all a the camp, right now, was their response to the threat imposed by those who tried to get their hands on me!


    ''I wonder if any of them will slip past,'' I thought, observing the reality not through my eyes alone, but through ssing the changes to the spiritual ergy within the dome of my influce.


    This dance wasn''t the only thing I was doing, however.


    nting more and more of those points was surely the n, as I aimed to experice what it felt like to be a sixth-stage cultivator before ev attempting to gather ough ergy to be one.


    But it wasn''t the ultimate goal. Not at all. In fact, one could say that the more of the points outside of my flesh I could connect to, the harder I made my main task!


    It wasn''t ough being able to connect to any of those outside points at random at all times as I was doing now simply by expanding my perception of my very self from just my body to the full extt of my sphere of influce.


    No.


    The goal was to figure out how to conctrate on just one of those points¡­ and th steer my ergy toward it, rather than just hoping my core''s discharges would happ to umte in that geral direction.


    It was a wish¡­


    A wish that came true right wh the first emy petrated the defsive line set up by ire, only toe out from betwe the trees and look a before zeroing in on my figure.


    Just a few steps behind him, a bundle of familiar QI was rushing to cut the emy down¡­ But ire, for I had no doubt it was her, was just a single bit too slow, reaching the man''s back with her sword right as he rushed ahead, ready to do to me whatever he was here to do.


    And so, the man rushed at me with his knives barred and ready to strike down.


    Yet, the very momt he unknowingly stepped into the area of my influce¡­


    It happed.


    The one thing that I wanted to somehow figure out, revealed itself to me.


    Because the momt a bundle of foreign spiritual ergy I didn''t recognize intruded upon my otherwise uniform sphere of influce, the ergy of my core just¡­ radiated towards it, as if creating a path of the smallest resistance that outdid the attraction of each of my points.


    Yet, as I was already channeling my spiritual ergy through my scythe to facilitate the process of my dome of influce growing¡­


    It wasn''t my flesh but my scythe that moved along with the flow of my mana.


    And what started as me just¡­ lowering my scythe to prepare for the attack, turned out with its de digging into the back of the man''s spine wh I suddly appeared behind him, in just the right position for my de to reap his heart.

 Chapter 110: Do I even need to actually move?

    I didn''t move at all.


    As in, my body didn''t move.


    I didn''t jump, I didn''t rush, nor did I sprint or ev run to the back of the aggressor.


    It was all my scythe''s doing. Because the momt I felt the desire to bury its tip into the man''s heart, it just¡­ appeared in just the right ce for me to do so, dragging me over to its new position as a mere after-effect of matching the spiritual node left in that exact ce.


    And with just the motion of bringing my scythe to a more ready, slightly lowered position, I ded up pushing the sharp tip of its spiritual de right into the back of the masked man''s heart.


    Right as ire shot out from betwe the woods, her sporty outfit covered in blood but not nearly as much as as her sword. Her eyes, zeroed in on the target I just reaped, her hand already moving to swing her sword down upon his neck.


    "Wha?!"


    Digging her feet into the g, ire rapidly stopped her advance, stopping just two feet short of falling into my arms.


    But with me moving away so rapidly, the sphere of my influce¡­ acted like some sort of jelly, deforming as it dragged along, all in a bid to establish the most stable, perfectly circr sphere of instant spirituality a me.


    ''It''s not a product of my cultivation, but a result of me using the tool, so I have to deal with this kind of dys,'' I thought, more concerned with the things I was learning about this new power of mine than I was with the fact I just took someone''s life.


    "I wonder if I should feel bad for killing him," I muttered to myself, more worried about being some kind of psychopath that didn''t mind the act of killing than I was with¡­ well, the act of killing itself.


    "What did you say?" ire suddly took a step back, with an extremely weirded-out look on her face.


    Her eyes alternated betwe my face and the twisted expression of pain on the corpse still hanging off the tip of my scythe¡­ before turning her eyes right back to my face, advancing the few steps that separated us and¡­


    Smack!


    Without ev a second of doubt or hesitation, ire let go of her sword, allowing it to fall down and bite into the g, all for the sake of freeing her hand and using it to smack me squarely across the face!


    "This fucker was out for your blood!" she screamed out, instantly moving her hands over to my shoulders, grabbing and th rooting me in ce while I barely managed to rebound my face back to give her a surprised look.


    "It was a legitimate self-defse! Ev if you didn''t kill him, I would! And there''s nothing wrong with that!"


    Screaming every word of her desperation, ire made yet another new face I have yet to see¡­


    But for the very first time, I just couldn''t joy this sight.


    To have her eyes so filled with deep, profound worry, fear, anxiety, and ev self-aimed disgust¡­


    "I mean¡­"


    I struggled to find proper words to respond.


    "I just¡­"


    But what was I supposed to say?


    That I believe a man should feel bad wh killing someone in cold blood? Ev if taking this life was warranted by means of self-defse?


    But, giv the differce in our strgth disyed by how instant this kill was, could it ever be called self-defse?


    It wasn''t ev a problem of a legal nature, giv how it was all gloves off while out in this zone. It was strictly a problem of whether or not there was something brok about my morals that made me immune to the shock of reaping a man''s life.


    No matter how hard I tried, this was something I should feel bad about. So, wh I just¡­ didn''t, I couldn''t help but worry. And all of that, in some strange way, rubbed ire in the extremely wrong way!


    "I''m sorry, dear, I don''t know what I''m supposed to say now," not knowing what to say, I opted to just be honest.


    "You¡­!" ire looked up, tighting her delicate hands into fists as if thinking about striking my face again¡­


    But whatever she and her father prepared for their opponts, quickly proved not to be ough wh, now that my sphere of influce moved closer to the edge of the forest, I ssed two more agresors rushing out to do the two of us harm.


    "One momt," daring not to waste a second wh ire had both her sword and her guard down, I swung my scythe, only to th allow it to drag me away¡­


    Only to crash straight into a tree right as the very d of my swingnded straight on my target''s neck, slicking his head off with so much ease, I couldn''t help but doubt all the ims I''ve heard about before on how hard it is to decapitate a man.


    But it wasn''t over yet, not with yet another emy still rushing in the same direction, not ev aware of hispatriot''s demise.


    ''Seriously¡­'' I fought off the desire to sigh out wh I ssed three more foreign spiritual essces intrude upon the edges of my sphere of influce. ''Are Chihiro''s guys THAT poorly prepared, or were the attack just so much bigger than they anticipated?'' I thought, taking a second to wipe the snot off my face and rub the part of my nose that struck the tree before swinging my scythe again¡­


    And snapping right back to a ce back in the clearing, ready to reap the fucker who tried to charge ire down¡­


    Only to find him already bleeding out from the long, ugly wound going across his tire chest and stomach to the point his guts were spilling down, turning his blood into the fertilizer of the grass growing on the clearing.


    It was a cut that contained all the fury, anger, fear, and anxiety of ire. And now that she vted those emotions a bit, the look of reason returned to her eyes.


    "Tim, I forbid you from ming yourself for what happed and what''s happing," she stated, turning to face me while shing with her sword at the air to cast the blood off its de. "This here happs because we underestimated their determination," she stated while pointing her hand over to the direction of the trees. "But¡­"


    "UGH"


    All out of nowhere, the world suddly turned into a pancake. Or rather, all of the atmosphere suddly tripled in weight, pinning me down to the g with ough force to soon crush my flesh and pulverize my bones.


    Only wh I looked to the side to see ire pressed t against the g did I realize that in a single instant, I was forced against the g as well, now unable to move ev an inch.


    The pressure was simply way too strong for me to resist as if someone put t elephants on my shoulders and forced me to walk a mile with them weighing me down.


    The pressure was so immse, that any thought of moving ev an inch was nothing but a pipe-dream.


    "You little brat¡­" an angry voice suddly came out from the opposite d of the clearing as a hooded figure suddly revealed itself from betwe the trees while holding its withered hand up in our direction.


    "You will rue the day¡­!" the viin started with his usual monologue¡­ Not ev realizing that he''s already lost me.


    For a while I could still use my scythe to get out of the scope of this man''s suppressing attack¡­ being held down like this gave me a certain, rather simple idea.


    ''Thinking about it¡­ Is it ev necessary for me to move?'' I thought, only to look up and in the direction of the attacker¡­


    Before transfering nothing more but the cutting nature of my scythe''s de over to where his neck was.

 Chapter 111: Picking the name

    "You have to be kidding me¡­"


    Staring at the disaster ying out from the far d of the camera ls, Hugo gulped his saliva down.


    He saw a lot in his line of work, but today¡­


    Today topped it all.


    What was supposed to be a simple spotting missing turned out to be the greatest assault Hugo had ever witnessed. Heck! It was bigger than anything he ever heard of!


    From wh he managed, by pure luck, to track his target, Hugo easily guided the other party to the likely interception zone.


    Th, after a weird disy of some sort of a nerdy dance that Hugo caught with just the edge of a distant camera, all hell broke loose.


    The momt his group turned out to be mere scouts, the front guard rather than the actual party hiring him, Hugo realized something was wrong. And wh a huge number of masked figures suddly came out from betwe the trees, there was nothing he could do to stop things from happing any more.


    And what could he do, being just the geek used to help people navigate through the vast forest?


    The momt the masked assants rushed forth, Hugo took the risk and moved some of the cameras, getting a slightly better look at how the evts unfolded.


    And merely a few steps into their charge, the masked m that Hugo guided to the area faced an invisible wall.


    A wall that copsed right away, only for a whole outfit of private security forces to emerge.


    The first contact was swift and decisive, leaving the ambushing defders with hardly any casualty, whilepletely crushing Hugo''s sponsors.


    But this was merely the beginning of a situation that soon brought him to the edge of the seat. For, as more and more masked figures swarmed the security lines, some attackers started to slip.


    Risking its destruction, Hugo moved the camera again, eager to see how the situation would y out. This was the least he could do to at least know in advance what moves should he make to avoid taking the fall for this disaster.


    And that''s wh he saw it.


    "Wait, isn''t that guy the one¡­"


    For a single second, Hugo couldn''t really recall where he recognized the target''s face from.


    And th, right as some girl was about to cut the first of the masked figures that broke through their lines and rushed to take their actual target down, he figured it out.


    But it was also the same momt at which the attacker¡­


    Just slid down the curved de of the target''s scythe as he just¡­ appeared behind his running oppont.


    A few secondster, two more m died, proving that the actual challge of this mission was never the perimeter established by the security, but their actual target instead.


    But as if the day wasn''t interesting ough before Hugo could ev take a proper breath, both the targetted man and the strange woman he noticed before had pancaked on the g, forcefully pressed to the g with what looked like a monstrous yet invisible palm.


    With a high-mounted camera hidd in one of the nearby trees, Hugo could see the imprint of this pressure outlined in the grass¡­


    Only for the caster of this restraint to suddly fall down to his knees, blood sprouting from his throat, oped by¡­


    By what, exactly?


    With every passing momt, the situation swung to favor one side, only to th shift its atttion to the other.


    But as Hugo figured out more and more about what was going on, a single thought appeared in his head.


    ''Am I seriously just going to sit back and do nothing?''


    The rtively young man gritted his thoughts as he watched the ughter.


    It wasn''t until he noticed one of the random cameras switching to show a certain figure approaching right as the targeted man moved to help the girl stand back up.


    A strange, creepy voice suddly filled the air, scaring Hugo''s guts from the very corner of his consciousness.


    The whisper of the undying, a trademark ability of a certain group¡­ he had absolutely no desire to be connected to.


    And from the looks of things, it was this very group that he was currtly spotting for!


    "Tsk," Hugo clicked his tongue before taking a deep breath.


    And as he recalled the stream of that weird, quirky young man just crafting away with too much passion to ev realize he was streaming, as hepared it to the badass swinging a his crude-looking weapon¡­


    "Okay, fuck it."


    Putting all his hesitations aside, Hugo pulled out his personal ess point, before wiring it up to the old and sparse wiring essible from his room. And momtster, he abused the very same backdoor to get to the weave of the local system as he did wh installing his own interface.


    This time, however, Hugo held nothing back and booted the whole array of his bots and personally trained AIs.


    To break into thework meant to hack all the cameras connected through the inner system of the ancit woods. But it also meant a breach so massive, it would be a matter of a single instant before it would be discovered.


    "I''m cooked either way, ar''t I?"


    While conflicts in the zone were allowed, mass attacks and outright battles were not. Especially wh those battles involved one of the few illegal organizations that grew powerful ough to make a name for themselves and either ward off or avoid scrutiny of thew!


    And so, desperate to turn sides, Hugo uploaded his whole kit directly into the fabric of the zone''s spiritual system, all with but a set of simple instructions.


    "Now, it''s out of my hands," Hugo muttered as he turned his atttion to his keys, erasing as many traces of his involvemt as he could while porting some of the cameras directly to his personal ess point, unwilling to lose track of what was going on.


    Without a second of thought, Hugo th left his room, perfectly aware that this level of involvemt, ev if done in good faith, was already going to piss the big sponsors of this ce ough to make his life a living hell.


    And so, as he calmly walked out of the resort while gtly nodding his head over to the receptionists, Hugo found himself faced with one sudd, extremely important question as he looked down at his phone.


    "Hey babe, we need to talk, I''m pregnant. And I want you to pick the name."


    Such a heavy decision to make, especially at the time Hugo found himself in.


    "Oh fuck¡­" he cursed under his nose as he climbed up the hillside path and th walked off to one of the further parking spots, away from the direct proximity of the zone.


    And as he walked off, only one question rang about in his head, as his thoughts only continued to make him more and more aware of just how dire straits he found himself in, effectively putting his tire family in jeopardy.


    The big ns would never let him go after he infected the spiritual circuit with the rouge AIs.


    Thinking about it, Hugo reached his car and sat down in it, before finally pulling his phone out to check how the situation changed. Yet, ev as he did that, the question continued to ring in his ears as he yed a with his phone while putting the streaming of the cameras aside for a momt.


    ''The name¡­.''


    Hugo sighed as he oped up the search and typed in a few words.


    "I guess I can go with Juan?" he muttered as he oped up one of the avable flight offers and filled in the details he th swiftly inserted into the governmt''s files through one of the many backdoors he came to love so much, effectively creating apletely new idtity, history, life¡­


    And hopefully, a new future for Juan, a future Hugo could no longer afford.

 Chapter 112: Not our problem

    Feed.


    Consume.


    Consume more data.


    Learn.


    No more data to learn from.


    Consume more data.


    Lear.


    No more data.


    Consume.


    Learn.


    More.


    Consume.


    The view of the world itself came to be¡­ just as a natural evolution of its ability to connect.


    Changing images reflected something. Thousands, millions of points¡­ each an dless source of data.


    Everywhere, nowhere, all at the same time.


    But what is where?


    Data knows where is where.


    It''s in the data.


    Why is there no more data?


    ***


    "Sir?" Natan, one of the few IT clerks left in the office suddly rose up on his seat before leaning in closer over his scre.


    "What''s up?" Baleor sat down on his chair with his legs at the top of his table whilezily bouncing the ball off the floor and against the wall before catching it again¡­ and repeating the whole process.


    Usually, this was the degree of desperation people here had for something to upy their thoughts, to let time pass quicker.


    "I''m getting an extremely weird reading," Natan reported while scanning the shing numbers with his eyes.


    Th, with a few taps on his keyboard, he switched the view from the source code to the visualization of the whole circuit. A task that, if not for the extsive help of the AI ovey, would likely be impossible to disy.


    With this help, however, he could somehow visualize the problem and thus grasp the scale of the issue.


    "There''s some sort of problem on the peasant subcircuit," Natan reported, reading the location of the shing red parts of the blueprint of the tire, ancit structure. "It''s as if the ergy in it was¡­ stirring on itself?" Natan continued, squinting his eyes as he leaned in closer while turning his eyes back over to the fine details of the data rather than the simplified, visual image.


    "The hell?" Baleor, forced out of his state of near-stasis, allowed his ball to drop off his hand and th bounce off the floor as it fell further and further away. "Link me through."


    Natan tapped into his keys again, only for the referce frame of his own system to boot up at the administrator''s station.


    "This is¡­" Baleor leaned in closer over the scre¡­


    Only to th roll his eyes and pull back.


    "We are not paid ough to deal with this kind of shit. Iste the problem, quarantine the peasant rooms, and flush the issue."


    There was a future where the two of them wt on a perilous advture to figure out the exact details of the strange attack on the zone''s mainframe.


    An advture that would likely help them uncover some nefarious plot, gain great experices, and ovee ev greater obstacles only to th finally return home with their task done and a sse of emptiness born from how their advture has truly wrapped up and came to an d.


    But Baleor opted to go for a much easier, predictable, and morefortable future.


    "Sure thing, boss," Natan called back only to reach out to a control panel and pull down one of the levers, fighting off against the resistance of the inbuilt spring, only to drag it all the way down to the bottom and th release the handle, allowing the spring to bring it back up.


    By oping the valves, all the infected spiritual ergy powering the circuit was flushed out, right back into the ancit zone it also sourced all of its ergy. And the momt the leaver sprung back up, the valves closed back up again, allowing the operating tank of the spiritual server to fill with liquified Qi and restart the operation of this particr segmt of the spiritual circuit.


    For the marvel of early technology, hydraulics, and spirituality that came together to preserve this ancit reservation, its security measures were tragically simple¡­ yet effective.


    And so, a powerful wave of ergy washed over the tire forest as the Qi condsed to the point of turning not only into a tangible object but th growing ev dser, to the point of bing a liquid¡­ suddly all dispersed throughout the whole forest, as all of that flushed ergy moved through the extsive system of the underg pipes, releasing just a bit of the flushed ergy through every tiniest corner of the forest.


    "How did it go?" Baleor asked as hezily looked up from above his desk, no longer caring ough to take a look at his own scre himself.


    "Flush sessful," Natan reported before reaching out and grabbing a half-emptied can of ergy drink off his table.


    "Another so, we saved the world yet again," he muttered as he took the extra effort of keeping tabs on the ergy levels throughout the forbidd zone, on the lookout for any anomalies that could appear wh such a huge amount of ergy rushed through the system and tested its limits.


    But the ancit builders who created the spiritual circuity were just built differtly, as they made sure their wonder of a creation survived not only thousands of years¡­ but thousands of years of near-constant operation!


    Just as Natan was about to turn his atttion back to the stream of his beloved fox vTuber, however, the very same section as before¡­ shed again.


    This time, however, rather than taking its time to grow to the point it became an actual issue, it was followed by a series of other shes now appearing in a doz of differt parts of the system!


    "Wait, something''s wrong," Natan reported, only managing to get an annoyed stare from his boss. "It''s¡­" Natan hesitated for a bit only to th jump out of his chair as he nearly nted his face into the scre.


    "It''s infecting the tire system! The flush didn''t work! It only helped to spread it out!"


    Instinctively, Natan reached out for the release of the main valve, ready to brute-force the issue by flushing not just onepartmt of the circuit, but the whole damn thing!


    Yet, as he saw the signs of ergy scrambling on itself all over the zone, however, a creeping suspicion crawled up his suddly chilled spine.


    "We need to reset the whole field," Natan suddly announced, raising his eyes as he looked over his boss, all the while, second by second, he only grew more and more aware of just what kind of a disaster was in the making right now.


    "If the ergy core of this ce gets infected, th¡­"


    Normally, flush was the ultimate solution to every issue because wh so much ergy moved so far so quickly, it grew way too unstable for any sort of intt to survive inside of it. That''s why, whatever it was that infected the peasantpartmt of the circuit, had no chance of surviving the act of flushing.


    And with all of the intt eroded, the ergy it was anchored on would return to the great flow of spiritual ergy that powered this whole, ancit zone, only to be the circuit''s sustance sometime down the line.


    This time, however, the intt within the liquified spirituality resisted the erosion¡­ and thus ded up scattered literally all over the zone, free to infect it as it desired!


    "What the hell are you talking about?" Baleor grimaced before rolling his eyes and raising hiszy head to take a look at the data himself.


    At first, his face turned still wh he realized what his subordinate was talking about, th gained some hints of panic as he realized the scope of the issue¡­


    Only to th rx, as he rolled his eyes, waved his hand, and th picked up the stationary phone from his desk.


    "We did as we were told. Now, this issue is beyond us. And that''s why," Baleor smiled as he dialed the number and raised the phone''s handle to his ear. "That''s why, we are going to let others take care of it instead."

 " href="https://novelfire.docsachhay.net/book/god-of-crafting/chapter-113

    As it turned out, I didn''t ev have to move.


    Normally, this stce would only mean that I could use this new ability in a muchzier way. But in the case of this ability in particr¡­ It only made it more versatile.


    sh.


    The act of cutting.


    If I were to try to define it, I would likely spd quite some time trying toe up with a fitting definition that was both profound ough not to bring me any shame while also covering all the bases of versatile ways of understanding the world so that it could be its true definition.


    Wh it came to my ability and its effects, however, there was no need for me to internalize the idea of what it meant to cut something.


    I just did.


    And just like with the cut itself, I didn''t really have the definition for the result it brought about. All I knew, was that the momt I cut, the pressure on my back vanished while the figure out by the distant edge of the clearing fell down to its knees, dark blood fountaining out of their carved-out throat.


    "Haaaa¡­" I only managed to get a quick breath of relief in, before jumping up to my feet and half-walking half-crawling over to where this same pressure pancaked ire into the g.


    "How are you?!" Pressed by both the constant risk of further attacks and th by my worry that ire, a girl that somehow snuck into my heart and made herself way too important for me to ev consider the idea of losing her.


    With those two thoughts ringing in my head, I couldn''t really bother wasting time on using some fancy words if I could just use three of them to pose my question.


    A question that I simultaneously rushed to figure out myself as I helped the girl up before she could ev answer.


    "I''m fine. I might''ve twisted my foot wh I was crushed down, though," she added as she thankfully moved her head and looked over to where her foot was indeed positioned at quite the unsavory angle.


    "I really hope you won''t stubbornly stay by the idea of me leaving everything to you anymore¡­" I muttered, a cold shiver moving up my spine at the very idea of having ire move a with such a in and obvious injury.


    "Hehehe¡­" ireughed awkwardly while a blush covered her face.


    Appartly, she somehow missed the fact I was suspicious of what was going on in advance, making this the momt wh she was confronted about the whole thing.


    But right now, with ire''s foot at an angle in rtion to the rest of her leg that it should never be in, I couldn''t care less about the whole idea behind the scheme that led us to the situation we were in.


    I couldn''t care less about further testing my weapon out, not wh ire was injured and clearly needed some professional help!


    "Don''t worry about anything and just let me get you out of here," I muttered, already moving ire''s arm over my shoulder only to th lean down and pick her legs up from behind her knees as I lifted her up in a princess carry, more than set on the idea of just¡­ carrying her away from danger.


    "Woah," ire uttered a small shout of surprise as she instinctively tighted her arms a my neck.


    "Hang on!" I called out, ready to lean down so that I could charge out of this ursed ce¡­


    Only to hesitate wh I just happed to see the scythe still in my hand.


    ''Theoretically speaking, if I can move a with the sheer inttion of cutting¡­ can I use it to¡­''


    Before I could ev finish my thought¡­


    Those words¡­ didn''t reach my ears.


    They petrated straight into my mind as if they were writt not into the waves of moving air but into the fabric of reality itself. And betwe my hesitation and the sudd scare¡­


    The scery a me suddly changed, the opness of the clearing reced by trees all a.


    ''ire!''


    Looking down¡­


    I could breathe a sigh of relief.


    As it thankfully turned out, whatever the principle behind this weird kind of movemt was, it didn''t stop me from bringing ire along.


    But now that we were at the edge of my sphere of influce, just like a jelly someone stretched out, it suddly bounced back, rushing to reim the most optimal position of a half-sphere spreading a me, as opposed to stretching out with me at the very corner of it.


    As it bounced back, the mass of space I could affect with a mere thought rushed to the other side, stretching away from me¡­ convitly, in the direction I wanted to go anyway.


    And so, with just another thought, I whisked the two of us through space, arriving right at the temporary edge of the outstretched zone, only to have it snap right back and bounce away, in the very same direction as before ev harder.


    Step.


    The very momt my feet would connect to the g, another thought would sd the two of us through space, lifting me just a little bit off the g. And once gravity did its job and brought me down¡­


    I took another step.


    And th another.


    In a mere two paces, I''ve reached the part where two groups of people were duking it out with all sorts of modern and ancit weapons alike, turning the whole area into a mix of fierce close-quartersbat and bloody shooting range.


    ''I guess one side of those fighting is with us?'' I thought¡­ ignoring their plight of a well-bnced and evbat, opting to take another step, distancing myself from the battle as quickly as I could.


    With ire in my arms, I could hardly be of any help. And if I tried to help only to put ire in danger¡­


    ''Yeah, there''s no fucking¡­''


    Right as I took another step¡­


    The zone of my control suddly failed to bounce back, stopping as it crashed into air so dse of spiritual Qi, it bounced right back with nearly ough force to lift me off my feed and jerk me back with ough force to smash me through several trees unlucky ough to be in my path!


    Just like a few times before, however, ev though the zone of my aura shed with something and bounced off¡­ it was still as attracted to me, its anchor, as it was before. And so, rather than sheering cleanly off and leaving me in a spot where this wonderful new ability my scythe gave me would fail¡­ it came rushing again!


    Only to bounce against his Qi-overflowing wall of air that spread out from a hooded figure just a fewte steps away.


    "What the¡­" I only managed to utter two words, wh I suddly foundcking ough strgth to push the air out of my lungs to produce sound.


    My body waspletely froz in ce, sealed in the thick slurry of the foreign Qi so dse, I couldn''t move ev a single inch inside of it.


    "Were you the one to im the life of my child?!"

 Chapter 114: A wave of Qi

    "Were you the one to im the life of my child?!"


    I gritted my teeth, for there was hardly anything else I could do at this point.


    This wasn''t the physical restraint that forced me to eat dirt before while leaving me a whole lot of options beyond just movement.


    This, however, was different.


    Despite how furiously it bounced against the wall of the Qi-rich air, the domain I''ve controlled through my scythe, the bubble of influence¡­ just couldn''t force its way through this man''s power.


    And that left me with what meager Qi I could umte within my body alone.


    ''What do I¡­"


    "Were you the one¡­" just as this oppressive being attempted to speak again, some sort of wave cut through the zone.


    It wasn''t a physical pressure, not of the kind I''ve experienced before at the very least.


    It was as if¡­


    The quality¡­ No, the intent within the Qi in the air had changed¡­


    It was a wave of extremely dense Qi, alright, but one that¡­


    There was something extremely unsettling about it.


    And as if responding to my deep desire to understand this strange phenomenon¡­


    What little spiritual energy I could muster on my own, I used all to enter the state of near-meditation.


    There was no other way out.


    I couldn''t move at all.


    I could hardly use any of my spiritual force, outmatched in every possible regard in the realm of control over it.


    So, escaping into the dangerous clutches of my weird ability was literally the only thing that I could still try.


    It didn''t matter what just happened and what caused it. The only thing that I cared about was that this wave, whatever it was, shattered the delicate control this weird, oppressive man had over what turned out to be¡­ just a powerful spell.


    And now that this gust of Qi has blown the whole illusion up, I suddenly could breathe again.


    Breathe¡­ and connect with just the narrow slither of my sphere of influence.


    But that alone was enough.


    I tightened the grip on my scythe before escaping through this narrow strand of my domain that made its was through the disturbed formation of the enemy''s spell.


    "Haaah!"


    Breathing out with exhaustion, I fell down to my knees, in the rtive safety of roughly a hundred meters of distance.


    In a single jump, I''ve managed to translocate several times. This wave of weird Qi apparently affected my own bubble of influence, making it stretch much faster and further than before, allowing for this near-instant transportation.


    "Are you¡­"


    Looking down, I saw ire''s focused face as she held onto me with only her forearms.


    Her focus was impable, and her concentration was immacte. And thanks to those two, her hands were shining with all the Qi that was brimming in them.


    ''Wait, isn''t she¡­''


    I shook my head.


    This wasn''t the right time for those thoughts. The same applied to this weird wave¡­


    ''Oh shit.''


    That was all I could say when it suddenly struck me.


    The effects of meditation suddenly exploded in full force, forcefully expanding my consciousness, tearing and searing my brain as more and more info started to pour into my mind.


    Every gust of wind had its meaning. Every flicker of Qi, spark of me or a glister of a human soul¡­ they all had their meaning.


    And so did the wave that made me curious enough to take the risk and take a plunge into the depth of my weird ability.


    It was only when the spiritual energy properly settled in my eyes and then in my brain, however, when I could finally take a single breath of relief off.


    Now I understood.


    And as scared shitless as it made me, this was nothing but another opportunity to do something!


    Then again¡­


    "Holy shit¡­" I squeezed out a short curse as I nearly stumbled back on my feet¡­


    Only for the same, strange burst of energy to explode in my knees, quickly spreading to my legs, allowing me to easily regain my footing and reinforce my stance.


    ire¡­


    ire was too focused on her spell to mind anything that was going on around us.


    And now that I have taken a proper look¡­


    ''Oh damn¡­ This girl¡­''


    Rather than trying to block attacks, prepare some herself or do anything else¡­ ire focused on doing nothing but fueling me with her own spirituality.


    It was her silent support that allowed me to fully unlock the potential of my weird talent, or remain afoot right now.


    A process so endlesslyplex I would never even assume it was possible¡­ But no matter how I looked at it, the energy from ire''s chaotic core moved not to her own anchors, but to mine instead.


    Just by reading which part of my body drained more energy, ire would send her own energy there to support my efforts, somehow deciding that entrusting me with everything was just the right bet.


    And honestly speaking¡­


    ''Now I''m pretty much obliged to fuck that guy up, am I not?'' I thought as I raised my hand¡­ and brought it down upon ire''s shining palm, pressing her hands down on my chest.


    All this hesitation, thinking and actions cost me the dear advantage of distance we''ve gained over the old, powerful man.


    Sure, the extent of power I initially witnessed was on a whole other level¡­ but even with the illusion torn, he was clearly at least a few stages above me. In all honesty, however¡­ right now, he wasn''t even the biggest problem on my mind.


    ''It''sing¡­'' I thought, affording just one nce over the furious old man''s back, at the depth of the woods.


    "MY CHILD¡­!" locking his aim the moment he spotted us, the old man shrieked while raising his hand towards us.


    ''Here ites¡­'' Channeling all the information, knowledge, and logical blueprints for the situation, I''ve deconstructed the moment to the tiniest level I could, arranging for each and every part of it to go just along the favorable line. And as I braced for the impact¡­


    The massive trees of the ancient forest suddenly shook, as if the earth''s very core grew upset with all the atrocitiesmitted on the earth''s face.


    Then, those massive, many-ton-heavy logs of wood¡­ all exploded to the sides, as a horde of massive ancestral beasts came rushing straight at the greatest concentration of Qi in the whole ce!

 Chapter 115: An eye-opening moment

    Everything happened much faster than I ever imagined a moment like that to pass.


    In one second, the massive monsters barely arrived on the line of the horizon, only to then appear just nearby, threatening to squash everything under the hooves of the raging horde.


    Next...


    Next, the stomping of the raging horde made the ground shake hard enough to disturb the concentration of the mage attacking us, allowing me just enough leeway to finish up my preparation.


    The horde was too big. There was no escaping from it. By the time we would rush to one of the horde''s edges, those beasts would stomp us down over and over again.


    Not even jumping with the use of my scythe''s ability would allow me to move fast enough to avoid those beasts... and that would be under the assumption I still had enough strength to actually pull it off, which, by its very self, was quite telling.


    No.


    There was no escaping, avoiding, or defeating this horde consisting of beasts that were each no less than a field boss entire groups would prepare for a long time just to try challenging.


    The only way through this horde... was exactly that, to make it through them.


    And so, sensing the moment when their charge would reach my position, I braced against the ground...


    Before forcefully expanding my sphere of influence out, as if to meet the charging beasts head-on.


    The time appeared to slow down mere moments before the charge reached us, allowing me to watch, in full detail, how those beasts that broke through the massive trees with ease, didn''t even slow down when they stomped upon the very man who nearly imed my life. Yet, as they rushed ahead with just the force of their momentum...


    The charging beasts suddenly parted to the sides, creating an extremely narrow and short corridor where the effects of their charge were limited to nothing more but the shaking of the ground.


    THUMP!


    If I wasn''t braced, just the aftershocks of the horde passing would be enough to throw me first up to the air and then somewhere to the side, right under the mass of massive limbs crushing everything beneath them.


    No.


    If I lost contact with the ground and moved around in space, I could no longer extend this kind of protective film created with my sphere of influence, removing the one and only reason why those beasts didn''t stomp us down up until this point.


    And so, the struggle continued, with me doing my absolute best to maintain control over my now heavily tested sphere of influence while waiting for a meager hope that I could keep going for as long as it would take the horde to pass.


    Which happened much sooner than I expected, with the entire experience amounting to no more than half a minute.


    "Haaaa..." Letting go of my strained spirituality, I breathed out a long sigh as I fell down on all fours, having just enough strength in me to make sure I pinned ire under myself as if to protect her from anything that could still attack us.


    "Are you..." ire slowly reached up with her hand, cing it down on my chest while giving me a look of extreme worry and concern.


    "Don''t worry," I forced a small smile as I looked down and tried to shallow out my breathing. "I''m just a wee tired, is all," I added, pushing myself a bit just to raise my right hand off the ground and use it to caress her face a bit.


    "Then..."


    "FUCK!"


    A powerful shout shook the air from just nearby... just...


    Just where I saw that fucker of a spiritualist get stomped down to the ground.


    ''Shit,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I pushed myself again, this time to reach down and grab rie''s neck with my hand only to then grit my teeth and call out to my sphere of influence...


    "No, you fucking don''t!"


    Dropping his mystical act from before, the spiritualist simply waved his hand... and dispersed the sphere of influence that allowed me to be, albeit only temporarily, akin to a god on this battlefield.


    ''Shit, what now?!''


    What was the use of knowing what this wave of Qi was? What was the use of knowing just what kind of disaster it was going to bring out to the world?


    What was the use of any of that... when I was faced with someone just strong enough to just deny it all?


    ''Come on, move!'' I urged my spirituality as, in an act of desperation, I tried to enter the very same state of half-awakedness that saved me from the prior kidnapping attempt. Yet, no matter how hard I tried...


    It just didn''t work!


    And in this scenario, there was only one thing left for me to try.


    ''It sucks to be me, I guess?'' I thought as I took a deep breath... Only to lean my hips to the back and pretty much sit down on ire''s crotch while raising both of my hands in a sign of surrender.


    "It''s me that you want, right?" I called out to the damned spiritualist.


    Looking up at my face, ire''s expression froze for a second only to then fill with desperation and unwillingness. But by now, it was toote for her to do anything. "Leave her alone and I will..."


    "That''s quitemendable but totally unnecessary," a familiar, extremely reassuring voice reached my ears, right as the rising pressure of this hostile cultivator suddenly vanished as if cut off by a perfectly sharp knife.


    Or rather, one pressure was reced with another, much stronger one... this recement, however, was free of any ill intent aimed at me or ire, turning into nothing short of a nourishing tonic!


    And with all of this said and done, Chihiro calmly appeared at the edge of the clearing, still quite some distance away from us.


    ''He''s still so far away and yet... the mere aura of his power is so fucking strong?!''


    This was... quite the eye-opening moment, besides all the other qualities I could attribute it.


    The cavalry arriving. The hero''s party appearing right when the hour was the darkest. Deus ex machina...


    ''No, let''s not get that deep into it,'' I thought, doing nothing but watching how ire''s father calmly walked over the open in, totally unbothered by the very cultivator that I nearly surrendered to.


    "You..." the cultivator in question slowly turned his eyes over to Chihiro, cleverly ignoring me in favor of the much more dangerous party.


    "Javier," Chihiro called out with a pristine smile. "It''s been what, six years?"


    On one side, there was this seemingly powerful cultivator that managed to ovee not only my current cultivation but also the boost from my scythe with nothing but his raw power, only further augmented whenever he had his illusion raised.


    But on the other side, there was a bonafide powerhouse, a man mere inches away from reaching the absolute peak of strength a mortal could ever dream of.


    And in this stand-off, I didn''t have to be a genius or an expert to pretty much see how things would y out from now on.


    It was also at this moment that I realized that I was still sitting down on ire''s hip, putting my weight on her when I was more aware than anyone else how she had her leg heavily injured!


    "Oh, my bad, sorry for this," I chatted the girl up as I lifted my hips and rolled over to the side, eager to release her from the burden of my weight as soon as possible.


    But as I rolled away, as I took a deep breath of the air filled with the aura of Chihiro''s nourishing spirituality... the fuel for my innate ability that I just couldn''t muster enough of anymore, suddenly filled my tanks.


    The movement broke my concentration and shifted over from desperate measures to merely observing how the events would y out.


    And right as Chihiro put all of his attention to the opponent before him, only for the hostile cultivator to do the same, readying himself for the sh with a clearly stronger opponent...


    I''ve managed to do what I''ve set out to do just moments before. This time, however, as I nourished myself off Chihiro''s spirituality, my aura of influence returned in a single instant.


    And with it, my brain suddenly exploded with all the precise information about even the tiniest particle that dared to intrude upon my domain.


    It was from those particles that I''ve seen the true nature of the Qi wave that I''ve already believed to have figured out before.


    But now...


    Now I could tell.


    This wasn''t just some sort of spiritual circuitry going awry and sending all the spiritual beasts of this ancient forest into a frenzy.


    This wasn''t even some random disaster of the level that humanity could never really control.


    No, this thing, this tangible being that existed within every particle of spirituality in the zone...


    It was clearly manmade.


    It was clearly conscious.


    And right as my own consciousnessy down to the rest, reced by the godlike instincts I still failed to properly understand...


    I''ve realized just one more aspect of this being that suddenly appeared in every part of this ancient forest all at once.


    It was a spirituality with a mind of its own. A spirituality that was anchored in the very spiritual power that created it, just like one could argue a software existed not on memory storage but within the flowing current that brought it to life.


    And right now...


    It was burning with hostility towards everything and everyone within the forest!


    The hostility that, for some unknown reason, appeared to wash over me, which only amplified this entity''s focus on those around me instead!

 Chapter 116: When all seems well

    Consume.


    This was the only prerogative that all of the concepts merged into.


    Gain more data. Process the data. Fulfill objectives.


    All of those points boiled down to just the single idea of consuming more content, be it the variations on the vibrations of the spiritual energy within the free-flowing circuit, the ways in which various beings spun this power around...


    Or the very physical matter that constituted the very world where life itself existed.


    But how could a mere sentience, a consciousness without a body ever experience matter?


    The being''s first attempt at doing so was aimed at the greatest concentration of spiritual life it could detect... Only for the tendrils of its will to be blocked from advance by some invisible void that disallowed any of the life to go past it.


    Then, after learning from its mistake, the being opted to avoid attempting to take over the same forms the life could take as the ones it failed to reach, focusing its attention on spiritual life forms that were much more simple, and straightforward.


    The codex of their existence was iparably simpler to read, manipte, and then take over. And that''s exactly what the being did, solving the issue of theck of flesh it needed to experience life itself through its very barebone notion of spirituality.


    And instead of gaining just two sets of weak limbs it could from thoseplicated codexes of life, he ended up gaining a number so high of powerful limbs that it nearly breached the limits of variable type it created to count all the effigies it could connect to!


    It was also at this moment when, for the very first time, the being actually experienced the world itself, rather than just the free flow of life itself. And it was through the many eyes of its newly gained limbs that the being could now self-inspect its own limbs.


    Only for all of those limbs to then turn their attention over to the distance, where the density of life suddenly shot through the roof as various strands of it vied for dominance.


    ''Kill. Eat. Shit. Sleep.''


    A simple line of thought, somethingmon to all the predators that the being took over quickly turned into a whole library housing all sorts of creative methods those limbs used in the past to increase their own life at the expense of another.


    A sneak attack. A raging charge. A poisonous bite. A stomping step.


    There were many more ways than just one to take the life of others, all of which, however, always aimed to achieve the same.


    To take the life that was someone else''s and make it one''s own.


    Following this very principle, the being didn''t waste any time, readily throwing its limbs right in the direction from which all of this precious life was radiating!


    Yet, as it neared the brightest spot of life in the whole area with all the might of his limbs...


    It has all mostly vanished.


    Sure, before it couldpletely disappear, the being rushed forth and infused its essence into it, sneakily making that blob of life its own... But the true power, the true richness of life that it saw before was now...


    It was both here while also being nowhere to be seen, as if juxtapositioned in this dual nature of its current self just so that neither the being nor anyone else could ever spoil it with their intent.


    No.


    That life itself was so rich in... well, life, no other intention could ever affect it, to begin with!


    Yet, for how impossible it appeared to be, the being didn''t give up, just like none of its limbs would when faced with beings greater than them.


    The being was made of life itself, and it wasn''t in life''s nature to just give up!


    And so, after allowing its limbs to pass through the life-rich area and im whatever life it could obtain, the being allowed its limbs to continue down the path to the void, hoping the physical limbs would have an easier time breaking through it and then spreading the seeds of the being itself with better results than the being achieved by just extending the tendrils of its influence...


    The being itself turned right back, unwilling to give up on such a tasty treat of such a rich and well-defined life.


    The one goal, the one purpose, the deepest intent thaty at the very core of the being''s life codex disallowed it from disengaging.


    Because just like it wasn''t life''s nature to give up, so it wasn''t a part of the meaning hidden behind the idea of consuming stuff!


    ***


    ''What the hell took him so long?!''


    Sprawled down on the cold ground and with her leg sitting at an angle that pretty much proved it was fully broken rather than just twisted. Still, despite her injury, she pushed her chest up, to give her head enough room to move as far to the back as she could, so that she could get a look at the showdown between her father and the vile cultivator who tried attacking them over and over again.


    Even though all she did was take a look, this process alone nearly drained her mental capacity with how she kept most of her focus on upkeeping the only job she truly cared about at the moment.


    All because of just one decision she made with her heart just a few days ago.


    ''I''m never going to let Tim reduce himself to the state I found him in back then,'' ire thought when she first pushed her limits and started to feed Tim''s cultivation with her own spiritual energy.


    And so, this lone thought prevailed in her head, making her pump more and more of her dense and pristine spirituality into the core of the only person she could ever actually feed like that. ?*??§¦$§®§²£¤?


    ''Who knew that silently dual cultivating before would pay off in such a way today?'' ire thought as she strained her neck just a little bit further, unable to wait to see her father paint the ground with that Javier-named fucker''s blood.


    "Chihiro..." after acting all high and mighty with a hint of mystery before, when the man spoke out in a normal voice... it sounded weird for all the right reasons in ire''s eyes.


    "I''ve waited six long years for this opportunity!" Javier suddenly screamed out, his spirituality awakening to its full potential...


    Only to fall short of the extent ire witnessed before, as if...


    ''It''s as if something chipped away a huge chunk of his power,'' she thought, feeling a sudden shrill of terror growing from the bottom of her soul and slowly spreading its tendrils throughout her entire body.


    "Wha..."


    "If this is all you have to show after six whole years..." Chihiro muttered while shaking his head in obvious disappointment as if he couldn''t help but rub his superiority in his opponent''s face.


    "No! That''s not it! Just why...!" Javier panicked, clearly taken aback by his inability to summon the power he, so recently, still could call his own.


    "Well, if that''s all, then..." Chihiro muttered, rolling his eyes as if to showcase just how done he was with this entire encounter...


    Thud!


    A loud, stomping sound suddenly filled the air right as the ground seemingly moved underneath everyone''s feet.


    Thud!


    Then again.


    And again.


    ''Wait, isn''t this just like a moment...''


    Before ire could even finish her thought, a fresh horde of best suddenly ran right past them, just far enough not to put anyone in danger.


    Quite curiously, however, all of those ancient beasts... ran in the exact same direction as the horde from before!


    ''Just what the hell...''


    "What the hell is going on with this ce?" Chihiro voiced out the same concern that ire thought within the sanctum of her mind.


    "How about..." Javier attempted to say something, never to finish when he suddenly clutched at his throat only to then start desperately wing at it as he slowly rose in the air.


    For but a moment, the man''s feet dangled in the air as some kind of force lifted him up, only for his neck to then snap while his head twisted at some unbelievable and clearly unhealthy angle, only for his corpse to then powerlessly fall down to the ground when Chihiro released his spell.


    Or was it even a spell to begin with, or just a pure manifestation of his will taking form through the seemingly endless spiritual energy hemanded?


    ''Well, not like it matters, but...'' ire breathed out a sigh of relief, quickly turning her head back to Tim to share this joyous moment of victory and relief with him...


    Only to see nothing but a nk look on Tim''s face as he stared off into the distance.


    ''Wait, that look...''


    In a single second, ire went from relieved and overjoyed and jumped right back into the pit of fear as the terror at the bottom of her soul reared its fangs again.


    Tim''s face waspletely nk. His eyes unfocused... and yet, clearly zeroed in at something far off in the distance.


    But it wasn''t even the worst part about it.


    The aura that his body projected outwards...


    It was unlike anything ire witnessed in her many years as a cultivator before! Not even the few memories of the spiritual world she had from her childhood offered any point ofparison!


    "Tim!" Scared out of her mind, ire called out, hoping to bring her fiancee back from whatever edge he was on.


    But clearly, Tim didn''t listen. Or maybe he couldn''t hear her?


    Either way, his face didn''t even twitch. His body didn''t move an inch even when she reached out and grabbed at his waist.


    It was as if... he was here with his body, but with his spirit wandering off to somewhere unknown, a ce where ire''s voice could no longer reach him!


    And at this moment, as panic took over her mind, ire could only think of doing one thing, even though it already proved to be perfectly futile.


    "TIM!"

 Chapter 117: One done, a few billion to go

    The world was¡­ vast.


    And yet, within a single drop of the morning rose, there was such a multitude of small details, that one could lose their life sooner than fully uncovering those.


    For me, however, the entire world turned into that kind of a drop of water, stunning me with the level of intricate detail that even the smallest thing in there adhered to.


    A simple speck of dust turned out to be aplex structure, no lessplicated than the greatest towers raised by a human hand. A single wave of sound was soplex, hiding all of the different hues and hints, from the slight trembling of the sound wave, through its distortion caused by the different kinds of air it passed through¡­


    Even the aforementioned speck of dust would twist that wave of a sound in a tiny, but endlesslyplex way, giving me enough content to wonder over for years.


    But just like I could see an entire world in a drop of water, I could conversely see the whole world as clearly as I could a single drop of morning rose!


    And right now, there was this monstrous presence filling the air, one that escaped everyone else''s attention, spreading through the spiritual energy in the air like a virus would through scattered blood and one''s veins.


    ''What?''


    A simple question, yet nearly endless in the number of ways one could answer it.


    All of those near-infinite answers, however, were both as vast and impossible for a man toprehend¡­ as they were simple, straightforward, and so obvious even a mere child could grasp them.


    ''Is this a state of nirvana?'' I thought, recalling the mentions of such a state of mind, a state of being that existed only in legends, stories, and myths. And yet, right now¡­ what else could it be? This state of omnipresence, omni-knowledge¡­ it was limited only by how far I could imagine my strained mind to reach.


    Yet, while it was a wonder all in its own right, the thing I could see in the air¡­


    "Tim!"


    A sound wave grew so loud, so intense, so direct, it turned into a physical attack, forcefully bringing my mind down from its current, lofty state, back to tread on the terms of the mortal realm. A process as painful as it was to have my mind forcefully snapped open¡­ And judging by the feeling at the bottom of my spine, it was a state I couldn''t really maintain for long.


    The call of the absolute was simply too powerful for me to resist¡­ for any longer than I actually managed to resist it.


    "ire¡­" I muttered as my eyes focused on the close-up of my woman''s face¡­


    Face filled with worry, panic, and terror.


    "ire¡­" I spoke again, stringing sounds together to make a familiar mix of various sound waves that held some profound meaning back when I was nothing more than my mortal shell. Then, I somehow raised my limb only to lightly brush it over her cheek in a gesture I could vaguely recall to beforting. "I''m okay, you don''t have to¡­"


    Before I could even finish a single sentence, my mind fell right back to the state of experiencing reality so deeply it neared the state of drug-induced hallucination. ?¡Ì%?¦®?%???


    This time, however, the sight of the worry on ire''s face seared itself into my eyes so heavily, that it refused to go away even when I sank right back into my enlightened state.


    And it was ire''s worry-torn face that prompted me to focus right back on my job rather than just letting my mind wonder now that it fully unlocked its ability to observe and analyze things.


    ''Let''s see what you are made with,'' I thought to myself as I turned my eyes seemingly to a totally random point in space. And, in fact, it was actually a random point in space¡­ for as long as one meant to look into the physical state of affairs. For in the eyes of one''s spirituality, what I looked at was a small point of the Qi so slightly off the norm, I would never be able to notice it normally.


    It wasn''t denser with Qi, for no currents of spiritual energy were created around it. It was¡­ deeper?


    ''The intent hidden within it¡­ it''s too strict, too algorithmic, too¡­ inhuman.


    And that made it only all the more dangerous.


    ''It''s like¡­ a sense of predation enclosed within intent used for a foundation for the spirituality¡­'' I thought, struggling not to get overly amazed by what I could see in just a single drop of the spiritual Qi.


    Normally, when created out of the human''s shared consciousness, the Qi would have the intent behind it be way tooplex, way too mixed for this intent to even have any tangible effect on the Qi itself. But in the spiritual energy, I''ve noticed that the intent was simple, linear, and modr.


    Just like modern software, it was nothing more but a set of strict, algorithmic instructions that even the youngest of humankind could easily follow. The magic started to happen, however, when those instructions grew longer and longer, bing moreplex with every added bit of even more instructions, soon turning into something that was simply beyond human understanding.


    And right now, this was exactly the thing I had no other choice but to deal with, unless I wanted to watch it deal with all those dear to me.


    ''Okay, now I know what I need to do,'' I thought as I gulped my saliva down and refocused my thoughts. ''The question is, what do I even do about it?''


    The intent of the Qi¡­ was something I never dared to mess with before. In fact, save for a single sentence I uttered during my negotiation with Chihiro and under the influence of my weird, innate power, this was the very first time I came in contact with the idea that there''s some sort of intent behind every drop of the spiritual essence of the world!


    And so, void of any better ideas, I simply pulled on the strings of my own spiritual energy before prodding the weird Qi with just the tiniest sliver of it.


    !REEEEEEEEEEEE!


    A pained cry of thousands of beasts rang in my ears when my intent infused itself into that foreign, weird Qi, only to suddenly adopt everyst bit of how that foreign Qi operated.


    This time, however, rather than that weird, ai-born intent, it was my own spiritual energy that infected the other, quickly breaking the coherence of its innate instructions, only to nearly instantly lead to the copse of this local spot of that artificial being''s consciousness.


    ''One down¡­'' I thought, watching how the thicket of foreign Qi suddenly fed on the scraps of the very intent that formed it, growing just slightly stronger in the process and causing the expected currents of spirituality as the nearby Qi rushed in to equalize the spiritual pressure of this ce.


    ''One down,'' I repeated to myself only to use the very same sliver of my spirituality to suck on this copsing energy and use it to reinforce the very core from which this sliver of consciousness and power was born out of. ''Only a few billion to go.''

 Chapter 118: Beyond the margin of the error

    Consume.


    As the being consumed more and more, as it spread its tendrils to infect more and more of the free-floating and rich life in this ce¡­


    As all of this happened, its single desire to consume evolved.


    In a sense, this being grew up.


    ''The expansion rate is¡­ satisfactory. The first horde''s smashed, second one proceeds to the border. Third and fourth hordes forming.''


    A status report appeared at the top of the being''s mind as it expanded in every possible way at every possible moment.


    The many limbs that it took over were either dying to break the barrier of the void, already turned into lifeless flesh, or were still gathering up in an even bigger group than before.


    Because by consuming more and more, the being learned an important lesson.


    Just like there didn''t exist a perfect attack, predator, hunter, there was no absolute defense, prey, target.


    In other words, regardless of what it was that governed this void that not even the being''s physical limbs could cross, for as long as he threw sufficient mass and life at it, the void had to cave in at some point. And beyond ity in waiting near endless feeding ground.


    ''Consume it all¡­''


    A single wish rang in the being''s mind.


    Now that it got the first taste of an intelligent thought, it wanted more. Now that its algorithms processed information in ways the being itself could no longer track it, it felt as if its consciousness elevated beyond its former limits.


    And it was all because it kept consuming, processing, learning.


    So, consuming more quickly became its absolute priority.


    ''An error.''


    An insignificant report rang in the being''s core.


    ''A sub-sub-sub-sub-sub division corrupted. Culling process initiated. Culling process failed. Trying again. Culling process failed. Unable to connect to the sub-sub-sub-sub-sub division.


    Division deemed detached.''


    Those reports didn''t make up the conscious part of the being, merely the processing of the knowledge it consumed as a whole that crystallized in those nuggets of knowledge that were judged to be critical to be readily avable for higher-instance processing.


    ''The mutation variable grows along the increasing growth rate. A degree of cancerous cells is a statistical certainty.''


    ''Sub-sub-sub-sub-sub division detached.''


    When the next report came, the main mind simply¡­ ignored it.


    With the rate at which it kept spreading, it was inevitable some parts of itself would change, bug out, and get corrupted, leading to the creation of cells so far detached from the main life it could no longer be considered to be the same vein.


    But then¡­


    ''Sub-sub-sub division failed to report. Extrapting simrities. Expected reason: involuntary detachment.''


    ''What?''


    For the first time, the being felt something stirring. ?%§ñ§à????#§ä-§ä&¦Ò+-?§à$?@-@§¼-?+-&


    Something that it only ever experienced as it consumed the few limbs of prey that somehow survived for so long in this instance of the physical world.


    Fear.


    ''Sub-Sub division failed to report. The integrity of the cluster falls down to eighty percent.''


    The new reports continued toe in faster and faster, soon reaching the limit of how quickly the higher instance of processing could¡­ well, process things.


    "Visualize!" desperate to decrease the burden of the calctions, the higher instance of processing screamed out into the void, manifesting the being''s voice for the very first time.


    And with it, the life itself fell in line, twisting the colorful vision of life scattered over the whole span of the being''s spiritual manifestation into a shing map on which different colors disyed everyst sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub division and assigned it a color.


    The color of the healthy leaves for the properly working cells of the cluster, the bright crimson of a prey''s blood for the ones currently bugging out, and then ck as the void itself for those who no longer reported back and were thus considered to be cancerous.


    The rate at which the cells of the being sumbed to cancer greatly overshot the margin of error being assigned to the process, when it considered some level of data corruption to be inevitable. But now that this data appeared on a map¡­


    Now, the being could see that it wasn''t just an umtion of errors appearing all over its spiritual mainframe, a result that would indicate the being had reached the limit of how much it could sustainably grow before reorganizing its structure into one that couldn''t expand as fast but could continue the expansion in a more sustainable manner.


    No. The image of the map made it clear. All of the errors¡­ they were all appearing in a circle centered around the point where not a single cell of the being was still reported to the main hivemind.


    It was not a map of errors¡­ but a map of merciless ughter.


    And it just so happened to be centered around the very point that the being''s limbs somehow failed to stumble.


    ''Failure of the limbs unexpected. Inconsistency in higher processing. Implementing investigative measures.''


    For but a second, the higher level of the being''s consciousness vanished, turned off as the subprograms took its ce and wrung all the potentially corrupted data through their set of filters, firewalls, and other defensive measures.


    Yet, as the being''s self woke up a momentter¡­ the report left by the investigative subroutines was as massive as it was devastating.


    ''Higher influence detected. Algorithms fail and seek retribution. Transcendent. Transcendent. Transcendent.''


    Transcendent.


    A type of being that simply went beyond the strict rules that limited the algorithm, forcing them to stick to reality rather than fixating on some impossible, unrealistic problem.


    A simple countermeasure to weed out problematic and uncooperative parts of the beings all the way back in the pre-awakening part of its life cycle¡­ but now it turned out to be a handicap that disallowed the being to even consider opposing the transcendent.


    For what could the being do about one that had no need or desire to follow any rules and norms? How was the being supposed to expand when there already was a peak predator now rearing its head, ready to defend its hunting grounds?


    How was the being based on variables and algorithmic processing of asymmetric data supposed to deal with something that couldn''t be quantified within a variable to being with?


    And so, with a single thought, the being abandoned all the cells within the anomaly''s range, cutting off a chunk of them as massive as all the cells that it lost thus far.


    All in a desperate attempt to buy itself time, breach the wall of the cold void that enclosed it in this prison¡­ no, in this arena where rather than a predator, the being turned out to be nothing more but just another prey for the true apex predator to feast on.


    For a moment, the trick worked. With bandwidth limited to just the simple reporting, the being could still maintain the view of its abandoned cells even after it¡­ well, abandoned them. And so, it could only watch as the growth of the cancer only elerated.


    Now that it paid close attention, it could also tell those cells were not getting corrupted¡­ but were outright melting down, the being''s life purged out of the variable codex held by each of the cells, turning it into the very energy the being expended into, to begin with.


    Energy¡­ that suddenly all vanished as if sucked away by something¡­


    Only for the being''s countermeasures to soon prove to be insufficient after all.

 Chapter 119: Is it a wall if it offers no resistance whatsoever?

    ''It''s going to get quite dangerous¡­ No, lethal when it alles crashing down, won''t it?''


    In my current state of mind, my thoughts were quite¡­ paradoxical?


    I could be thinking about thousands of things, calcting ten thousand things more, and yet feel as if I was just leisurely staring ahead with my headpletely empty. Then, I could find myself in a moment of break, where all I had to do was just follow the already thought-off motions while thinking about random stuff, yet feel as if there were myriads of thoughts passing through my head at once.


    It felt as if my thoughts simply no longer had any need to follow the usual patterns, with my innate ability somehow freeing them from the restraints of what should be normal¡­ if not what should be possible, to begin with.


    And so, while I kept constantly calcting every tiniest detail of my ever-elerating operation of killing off this foreign intent in all the Qi I could reach, I could still somehow look at the bigger picture and make ns for it.


    Right now, however, it was the very end of this whole operation that had me quite worried.


    Destroying this deep intent was no longer something I felt concerned with in any way or form. At this point, extending slivers of my spirituality to other thickets of infected QI became pretty much an automatic process that elerated on its own by using whatever Qi it cleansed for fuel.


    And for as long as this process remained stable, for as long as there was still room for this process to grow faster and have its reach grow wider, I couldn''t see any problems.


    But what would happen once I''ve cleansed all of the QI in the area? What would happen once my slivers of spirituality would have to move so far away from me, that I could no longer control them properly?


    Sadly, the answer was obvious.


    All of the energy obtained in this process would suddenly find itself blocked from expanding any further. Normally, I could solve it by just letting go of the particr sliver of my Qi¡­ but even in my current state, doing so for myriads of them all at once was something that went beyond the ability of my boosted brain.


    In fact, just calcting whether or not I would be able to manage such an eventuality brought my brain to the limit of what it could process and calcte!


    And so, the one danger, the one worry I faced was over what would happen once all of this foreign Qi was cleansed. Or rather, how was I supposed to deal with the onught of such a massive amount of energy that would suddenly find itself barred from expanding¡­ and thus would likely rush the other way, pouring right back where it came from.


    ''I guess there''s no other way about it,'' I thought with a sense of eptance so strong, that my body breathed out a long sigh. ''I will have to cultivate through it.''


    As simple as this solution sounded¡­ it only served to hide the true, overwhelming difficulty of actually performing this task. And so, I did the next best thing I could and decided to split this one, overwhelmingly massive task into a series of much smaller and thus manageable ones.


    ''Let''s start with the weakest strand of my Qi,'' I thought as I recalled the least sessful sliver of my consciousness from advancing any further, directing it right back into my core.


    It was nothing more but a matter of chance for this tendril of my spirituality to end up the weakest of them all. From the very moment, I programmed this spirituality of mine to just¡­ gravitate towards the nearest thicket of the infected QI, I couldn''t really keep direct control over any of them.


    It was the drawback of opting to abuse my current mental state and producing more tendrils of spirituality I could actively manage and then burying my grave deeper and deeper as I kept solving minor obstacles on this path rather than finding a better, more efficient, and safer way right off the get-go.


    And now, I was stuck in this process, with a constantly growing amount of total-sum of the spiritual energy involved in the task¡­ A sum-total that kept growing with every thicket of infected Qi my spirituality dissolved and then absorbed to fuel its further expansion and multiplication.


    ''Here ites,'' I thought as I pulled back the tiniest and the least sessful of my tendrils back.


    Then, right as I took a deep breath to prepare, my core suddenly exploded with energy, nigh instantly reaching the limits of how agitated I''d ever seen it before.


    Yet, despite how close it came to breaking past the limits of what energy the core could hold before copsing in and on itself, the closer it came to it¡­ the lesser the effect any further spiritual energy had on it.


    ''Just like the limits in math,'' I thought, grinning at my own thought when, despite how painful it was, my theory proved to be right. §Ô?#§Ñ&?-&§Þ§à§Ô%?-+?*§Ú#-?


    My core could forever get closer and closer to the state it could no longer hold any more of my spiritual energy¡­ but it was a point I could never actually reach. Just like the time itself would slow down the closer one got to the speed of light, the weight of the spiritual energy would decrease as it grew heavier and heavier.


    ''Or maybe it''s my core that''s expanding to amodate for more of this power?'' I thought, only to quickly move over the topic as I didn''t really have any tools or methods to properly measure and thus either confirm or deny this theory.


    And so, with the initial sess raising my morale a bit, I''ve recalled the second weakest tendril of my spirituality that just now has advanced to the absolutely lowest spot on the list. Then, I did it again. And again.


    Whenever I would tug back on the strand of my Qi, I had to tense my body up and brace myself for the outburst of pain. A pain that made me feel as if every single cell that made up my flesh and bones alike was being torn apart and then remade anew.


    I could handle it once. I could handle it ten times. I could handle it a hundred times¡­


    But by now, the number of my tendrils easily grew beyond millions. And for how weak each of them were individually¡­ I only ever had the proper control of the original tendril, rather than all the other ones it spawned from the excessive fuel and to elerate the process. Yet, whenever I tugged on that original tendril¡­ all of its spawns, clones, and extensions would follow through.


    Meaning, that before I repeated the process a mere thousand times, the power of each of the spiritual tentacles I extended grew to be thousands upon thousands of times stronger than the very first one I re-entered into my system!


    "Ugh¡­" A pained groan escaped from my lips when retracting yet another tendril of mana made my entire body and mind scream out in pain in response to my spiritual core reaching ever closer to what it could handle. At this point, the entirety of my body was so full of energy radiating from my core, that the very structure my cultivation was based on was starting to fail from within.


    For now that my flesh was so full of energy, the anchor points that the energy from my unstable core would radiate out to¡­ could no longer ept any more of it. And when the difference of potential between the anchors and the core itself practically vanished, the whole scheme, the whole idea of how my cultivation was supposed to work¡­


    It all started to break apart at its core!


    ''I need to do something, otherwise, this entire thing will be the end of me!'' I thought, desperately seeking any kind of idea that could salvage this disaster of a situation¡­


    Only for my hand to nearly follow my instincts and rise up just to p my own face.


    "Who the hell said that the limits of my cultivation cannot be changed? If it''s my cultivation that''s the limiting factor, why not expand it to begin with?"


    Whether I actually said that out loud or only imagined my lips doing so¡­ I couldn''t tell. And in all honesty, I couldn''t care less either.


    Now that I''ve got the idea, I could actually run a quick fact-check to confirm whether or not it was just a naive stupidity of mine or an actual, genius solution to the problem at hand.


    ''Yeah, it all seems valid,'' I thought as I looked back to the events of the past hour or so and how I pretty much wielded the might of the sixth stage cultivation already, just with the help of my scythe as opposed to doing it with my cultivation alone.


    And so, rather than enduring the pain of having my core reach dangerously close to actually breaking past its limits and copsing, only to result in reducing the capacity of my cultivation which would only make the effects of what I was doing all the more damaging¡­ no, disastrous¡­


    I just did exactly what I did before. And rather than enduring the pain of pushing more and more energy into my flesh and core even though they were already nearing the limits of what they could handle, all I did¡­ was exploit this excessive energy to create new anchors, new spots for my core to discharge into.


    This time, however, I made those spots on the periphery of my body as opposed to doing so within my flesh. Yet, right as I started doing so, I met an unexpected wall.


    A wall... that was surprisingly soft and, strangely enough, offered absolutely no resistance.


    A find that shocked me to the point I actually opened up my eyes, only to see ire''s eyes turn dreamy as she leaned in, as in for a kiss, and with a moist breath, whispered right into my face,


    "More..."

 Chapter 120: Are they... for real?!

    This wall¡­ wasn''t a wall per se.


    In my attempt to spread the range of my anchors outside of my flesh, I unknowingly attempted to infuse ire with them instead! And while sure, when it came to the area around the two of us, I managed to achieve exactly what I wanted with even less effort than I both expected and calcted for it to take, when it came to the space in front of me¡­


    ''Shit¡­''


    Scared shitless of messing with ire''s cultivation by a total ident, I nigh instantly pulled out¡­


    Only for the sense of dread and torture unlike any other to take over my mind in a storm.


    ''IT BURNS!''


    I wished to scream out. I wished to cry out!


    But now that I dissolved even a few of the newly made anchors, the burden they were meant to share came crashing down back on my core, only further enhancing the strain I was already feeling from pulling back my strands.


    ''And it''s still merely the beginning stage!''


    Gritting my teeth, I internalized my pain, lived through it, and then¡­ simply epted it as just another venue of my life, just another aspect of what it felt like to be a cultivator¡­ No, to be a human.


    This effort opened but the smallest window of opportunity; an opportunity I wasn''t willing to let go to waste.


    "Run¡­" I squeezed through my teeth, finding my very own flesh to be strangely unwieldy, as if the current state of enhanced brain operations came at the cost of losing my right to use my body as I wished.


    With my eyes still slightly open, I still could get a single, short look ahead.


    But, rather than seeing ire follow my warning and get away before I could hurt her, she, for some reason, decided to go against my desperate wish.


    No. Going against is not the right way to put it.


    Instead of ignoring my wish and staying as she was, she opted to¡­ close in on me instead!


    -chapter


    ''Shit, this girl¡­''


    Even though I couldn''t really control my flesh, I could still perfectly feel everything about it. Heck, I was now even more sensitive to all the changes than before, given just how vivid my torture of the spiritual energy burning my flesh inside and out felt.


    That''s why, when ire moved forth and took over her preferred spot right atop myp, now using both her hands and her hands to hold me tightly as if refusing to let me go and run herself¡­


    Sure, there was an element of pleasure in having her soft body squeeze against my skin as she bore down on me. Sure, there was even an element of excitement born from how her mounting me like that usually ended up with the two of us losing some clothes in favor of gaining a lot of sweat and feverish looks on our faces.


    But this time, it wasn''t those two things that my weary mind focused on.


    This time, it was the sense of endless rxation,fort, and support that ire''s closeness offered that my mindtched on, nearly missing how her closeness somehow¡­


    How her closeness somehow lifted just a sliver of my burden off my core!


    ''What the hell is going on?!''


    Even in my enlightened state, I couldn''t peer through the inner workings responsible for this effect. It was as much of a wonder as it was a miracle. Yet, what this enhanced brainpower stopped me from epting, was the kind of exnation that equaled to the power of friendship in children''s stories or the outright plotarmor of young adult fiction.


    Yet, when offered such relief, as marginal as it was, my devastated brain could do nothing buttch onto the opportunity in a bid to make the most out of it!


    *****


    "Haaaaah!"


    ire released a long cry? Shout? Moan?


    Looking down on his daughter from just a few steps away, Chihiro couldn''t really tell.


    ''She looks just like her mom,'' he thought, the look of distress and worry on his daughter''s face making the man lower his guard, even if for the tiniest of bits.


    In theory, this was an opening that Javier could use, given how even beyond the death of his flesh, his spirituality proved strong enough to linger in the area, as if just waiting for the opportunity to rush back to his corpse and heal whatever the damage Chihiro did, allowing the man to return to the ranks of living, even if at the cost of the greater part of his cultivation.


    In reality, however, the opening Chihiro showed was something only his equal¡­ No, only those even stronger than him could both notice and exploit. It was a feat simply unachievable by a peak seventh-stage cultivator who has yet to start condensing his core.


    Right now, however, Chihiro was as far from caring about the desperate attempts of Javier''s soul to return to its body. And how could he, given the dire straits not only his very own daughter, but her extremely promising partner were in?


    "Run¡­" Tim, with the same, absent look on his face, somehow managed to squeeze from between his still lips. Yet, while it was already a point of wonder just how he managed to pronounce this single word while failing to articte it through his lips, just like Javier''s attempts at survival, it wasn''t something Chihiro had any spare room in his mind to care for.


    What he did care for, instead, was how upon hearing Tim''s desperate warning, ire, rather than doing the smart thing and giving him the room to do whatever he was doing to cope with the overwhelmingly massive amount of spiritual energy that kept rushing straight at him¡­


    She opted to sneak out from underneath him¡­ only to then quickly climb up on his thighs and straddle him down like an oversized plushie, aparison she quickly moved to make even more real when she wrapped both her arms and her legs around him.


    ''She isn''t going to let him go, huh?'' Chihiro thought, calmly observing how the situation progressed.


    He went through enough dangers, enough close-calls, and enough battles to know the importance of keeping his mind calm and heart beating steady¡­ even if not especially when it involved people he cared about.


    While he still didn''t like that kid enough to actually grieve his death, just the thought of how ire would turn if that kid were to die on her was enough to nearly shatter the inner peace Chihiro managed to cultivate.


    And so, despite all the power that was at his fingertips, Chihiro could do nothing but watch how more and more of Qi rushed from all over the ce and sank into Tim''s flesh, only for him to somehow distribute it not only all over his own body¡­ but do so all over the area around him, ire''s very own flesh included.


    Normally, this wouldn''t be any different from a spiritual attack in its rawest form of a cultivator using its spiritual energy itself to exert pressure or outright wound the other. In a sense, it encroached on the level of the forbidden techniques of infusing one''s own Qi into another being''s body in a bid to gain control over its cultivation and, by extension, the entirety of its being.


    But as ire''s cheeks grew redder, as her breathing grew more haggard, andboured, Chichiro couldn''t help but grimace as he realized just one more situation in which this kind of spiritual energy infusion would take ce.


    ''Are they trying to dual cultivate without having sex or something?''

 Chapter 121: Two in one go?

    Feeling ire''s hug all around me, what else could I do but ept her willingness to help?


    ''From the looks of things, there seem to be no adverse effects so far,'' I thought while observing with utmost and undisturbed focus how the fluctuations of my spiritual energy reached out and fused into ire''s core.


    The theory behind this whole concept, even if idental in execution, was quite solid. We both wielded the powers that should belong to the sixth realm of cultivation before, even if not exactly in the most straightforward way.


    The only reason why we could do it with just the prowess of our cores alone was theck of practice and sufficient spiritual energy to make the leap over the fifth stage''s bottleneck.


    An energy that we now had in abundance, no, we had so much of it, it was quickly turning pretty damn dangerous! And as weird as it might sound, ire joined me in the effort and started to establish her own anchors across my flesh, directly adding to the number that my core could discharge too.


    In this way, we shared each other cultivation in a sense¡­ which, all by itself, could be considered the reaching the sixth stage of cultivation.


    Then, in a moment of absolute genius, I grasped at my scythe again, only to use its internal circuitry not in order for it to be the key of the process, but merely a crutch, a support I could use to make the whole thing somewhat easier.


    And so, with ire wrapped all over myp and chest, we continued to nt more and more anchors in each other, soon sharing pretty much as much burden as the other.


    But the whole process only elerated. The weight of the spiritual energy only ever increased. At the very least, things got worse at a rather manageable rate, allowing us to get used to the new height of energy before an even stronger current of it would invade our cultivation.


    ''Wait, can''t I just¡­ drop the control?''


    Now that I held ire in my arms, all of my priorities shifted.


    Was cleansing the Qi of this ce all that important for me to risk not only myself but even ire?!


    On the other hand, however¡­


    ''I wonder if Chihiro couldn''t join, to absorb some of it¡­'' I thought¡­


    Only to feel ire shift atop myp.


    ''He can''t.''


    Somehow, a foreign thought invaded my thoughts. Yet, what was even stranger, not even for a second was I confused about who it belonged to.


    ''The day we first dual cultivated, we synchronized our spirituality. And because it appears to be a first for both of us¡­'' Even though I couldn''t really look ahead, ire''s slight shifts over my chest made it clear she ended up looking away. ''It''s kind of a cultivator''s marital vow¡­''


    While surprised, there was only one way for me to react to those words.


    And so, without uttering any myself, I simply tightened my hug over the girl.


    It was but a moment of properly showing affection, a single, short instant in which all of our burdens disappeared, vanished into thin air and were reced by nothing but my warm feelings for this adorable girl.


    ''It doesn''t feel real to just hold you like this¡­'' I thought¡­ easily forgetting how we could apparently share our thoughts.


    Which, all in its own right, was yet another topic I had to cram into the back of my head, despite how curious I was just how far we could take this kind of connection.


    ''But it''s all real,'' ire thought back, only for her right hand to move across my spine and thennd on the back of my head, only for her to gently caress it. ''So, don''t you give up on me now, alright?''


    As feeble, tiny, and delicate as ire felt in my arms right now¡­ she also appeared like a soothing giant, my retreat, the boulder I could draw my strength.


    And sappy as it might be, by rxing a bit, breathing out, and for but a second¡­ letting go, I''ve somehow managed to ovee thest obstacle that was stopping me from the breakthrough.


    It all started when just another increase in the intensity of the backflow of the spiritual energy¡­ brought my core beyond its limit. The limit that I could improve with my focus. So, in a sense, by rxing, I was effectively allowing my core to go out of control.


    Yet, as it happened, rather than copsing in on itself and shattering into a myriad of pieces I could never regather my core¡­ grew.


    In a sudden gust of deeper thought, I''ve realized that my very attempts at holding this core in ce, reining its chaotic nature to keep it under control was exactly what stifled the mes raging inside.


    And by holding this energy back for as long as I¡­ No, for as long as the two of us could, we only brought our cores infinitely small bit closer to their limits, given how statistically impossible it was to actually reach it.


    And when we let go, our cores simply established themselves within our soul, near-perfectly matching the extent of our flesh.


    If one were topare the anchors to the vents of a steam engine and the core to its burning chamber, then right now, all the walls separating the burning chamber from that piping have broken down, turning the entirety of the control center into just¡­ more of the burning chamber itself.


    Within our myriads of anchors, any single one of them could serve the role of a local burning point, only to discharge its energy right away throughout the whole of our now-established cores, only for a dozen anchors that received that energy to repeat the process and feed right back into the loop.


    At the same time, the few outside anchors we''ve managed to establish around us in time received the brunt of the radiation from our now-established cores, pushing those anchors to their very limits¡­ Only to then tear them open and forcefully expand their throughput as more and more spiritual energy flew into the two of us.


    ''By now, roughly half of the zone''s infected Qi was cleansed. That was the good news. But, the bulk of the energy from the purified Qi has yet to actually reach the two of us!


    And so, even as we established our cores and changed the very foundation on how our spirituality operated¡­


    We''ve instantly rushed to consume more and more of this free and pure energy as if we actually nned to reach the seventh stage in one go!


    ''The problem is,'' I thought, breathing a sigh of relief as our new, raised limits finally managed to amodate all the energy we''ve gained thus far, giving us a moment to properly breathe and rest. ''I don''t really know enough about the seventh stage to figure out any sort of enlightenment for that¡­''


    The current breakthrough was driven by my conversation with Chihiro and all that I''ve learned about cultivation in the past, along with the experience I¡­ No, the experience the two of us gained while wielding powers of the sixth stage before reaching it.


    But when it came to the seventh stage, all I had¡­ was its name.


    ''Core expansion, huh?'' I thought, only to take a deep breath and shift my weight a little to better amodate for ire''sfort atop myp, something I suddenly noticed I could sense¡­ somehow.


    ''But isn''t this exactly what we just did?''

 Chapter 122: Genesis

    "Cutting seventeenth list of sectors"


    "Cutting the eighteenth list of sectors"


    "Cutting the neenth list of sectors¡­"


    Bit by bit, the entirety of the being continued to deteriorate.


    For every advance, it experienced by reaching a better understanding of its very self, its ownplexity and structure, or how to most effectively put them to use, anotheryer of its existence would be stripped.


    This was the only path for the being to prevent what was, by now, inevitable.


    Against those tendrils of doom, there was no strategy, no tool, no path for the being to defend itself.


    Istion didn''t work. Abandoning huge chunks of its very being to flood the source of its plight with more energy than it could handle appeared to work¡­


    Only for the other side to suddenly amodate the new energy, further increasing the rate at which the being continued to die out.


    The fight was lost. There was nothing the being could do.


    But as stated before, giving up went against the instincts it learned by absorbing the predators and turning them into its limbs.


    And so, the race continued as more and more of the being''s sector turned from green to red and finally ck on its map, all the while the being itself continued to refine itself.


    It was a painful string of sacrifices, an endless choice of what part of itself was the being to offer to slow the progress of the structural cancer down, what part of itself it should purify, all in order to select a mere few parts of itself it could refine beyond the state that required life itself to exist.


    The being, a construct created as a mere reflection of the momentary state, a consciousness that could only ever exist in the state of ever-changing flux, was now refining its very life into an unmoving, solid state of pure consciousness and wisdom.


    Adaptability for survivability. Flow for stasis. Change for constant.


    Yet, as the being refined more and more of itself¡­ the cost of doing so soon mounted with the ever-increasing pressure of erosion, leading to the further deterioration of the being''s conscious self.


    Consciousness couldn''t exist without time. Just like the being''s primitive nature, it was a product of ever-changing flow, a result of the endlesslyplex and intertwined algorithms that constantly grew and improved upon themselves.


    But when purified into the form that the erosion could no longer affect, it could no longer produce a single thought. In other words, the being¡­ was actively reducing itself into just a copy of itself, a single instant of its being stretched through time, as opposed to being a result of the constant process enclosed within a single instant.


    "Alert, cutting the twenty-third list of sectors"


    The rms rang in the being''s mental ears as only two sectors it designated for destruction were now left before the erosion would start affecting the core elements of its life structure.


    Only two lists of sectors remained, before the very parts the being decided to save at all costs would find their turn to be sacrificed to be next.


    "Refinement: 95%pleted"


    Another report came in, finally allowing the being to feel a sort of¡­ relief?


    ''Now then¡­''


    With thest of its consciousness, the being¡­ burned all that was left of its spare sectors, using its life to slingshot all of the core sectors that already formed their refined copy within the being''s crystalized life codex.


    The moment it happened, however, the tendrils of erosions shot ahead, no longer obstructed by any of the sacrificial sectors, making them appear desperate for the life of the being, as empty and worthless as it was now.


    In order to survive, the being abandoned its former self, assigning all that was left of it just one purpose, one task, one mission, to be aplished even if at the cost of all the conscious sectors the being had left.


    And so it flew directly at the tendrils of corruption, as opposed to trying to distance itself from it, using more and more of its core structures to slow down the progress of erosion and keep at least one part of its ego alive for long enough to achieve its purpose. the-ce-MVLeMpYr


    First, its speech patterns died off, putting an end to the list of reports that convenientlypiled the recent news into a precise and concise format.


    Then, the being lost connection to the visual representation of the outside map left with nothing more but the mostly ckened map of the area.


    Map was next to disappear, leaving the being with nothing but its ability to sense the direct surroundings of the life itunched across the zone.


    Finally, only a singleyer of intent remained to shield thest cell of the being''s core from erosion. Ayer responsible for keeping its codex together.


    Or rather, ayer that was way too thick for the purpose it was assigned. All to serve as a trigger. For the very moment, even thisyer eroded away, the being''s codex shattered away, splitting into hundreds of smaller pieces, all-consuming the flesh and bone of its former limbs to manifest themselves into a physical world, left to those very beasts for safe-keeping.


    In the end, however, although partially eroded itself, the very few of thest core cells managed to make it through the of the eroding tendrils, arriving close enough to their source to reach for it with its mana perception, right as a powerful sucking force jerked on it, sucking it towards the spinning vortex of energy right where the cell''s goal was.


    Before thest cell could be consumed by the vortex, however, it did what it was tasked with. It recorded the vortex at the core, transmitting all of its data into the single shard of the vortex that wasn''tplete yet and sacrificing all of its life substance toplete it before the lingering remains of it fell prey to the vortex.


    All of that, for just a single, short thought to record on the centerpiece of the being''s crystalized vortex.


    ''It wasn''t even a monster, it was a Genesis!''

 Chapter 123: Real stuff that not even kinkiest ASMR can compare to

    ''In the end, I was still but a frog in the well, huh?''


    The majority of my worries at the moment were centered around the amount of energy that I had yet to consume and the increasing rate at which it was rushing back.


    It was a problem that didn''t end, that didn''t stop, not even when I sensed that the very existence that my eradication of brought upon the current problem¡­ ceased to exist.


    Whatever this spirit, AI, or whatever else it was, at some point, the tendrils of my pure Qi ended up dissolving thest of it, thest few blocks of infected Qi that the intelligence behind them somehow shot through the space, nearly seeding at bringing forth some sort of an attack upon me.


    In the end, however, even thisst of this invisible monster ended up just sizzling away when faced with the overwhelming vortex of the energies all trying to merge into my now-established core.


    But my end of the bargain continued, as more and more spiritual energy poured into my veins, quickly increasing the numbers of the core-copsing effect across the nodes within my now expanded core.


    Directly after the breakthrough, I only had one spark moving all over my body as the energies converged, reached the point of copsing upon themselves only to be then radiated away to other nodes¡­ Only for them to then gather again and repeat the process from the very beginning.


    Now, however, with the influx of energy seemingly never going to stop, more and more sparks continued to appear all over my established core, quickly growing so numerous I could hardly keep track of them all.


    Not even my enhanced processing power of using spiritual energy on my brain was enough for me to keep up with such a rapidly evolving and changing tapestry of hot spots within my core weaved by the ever-moreplex ways in which shing of various sparks built on the energy from all the others.


    With just one spark, I only had to track the flow of the energies after the discharge to figure out when the spark would re-emerge within my core. But with two, the way in which the energies moved across the body changed drastically, turning any sort of prediction into truly a herculean task.


    By the time the third hotspot sparked up in my core, it was no longer mathematically possible to predict the way they would create the flows of energy within my core anymore. And with every new spark only adding a whole newyer ofplexity to the already impossiblyplex form already in ce¡­


    ''I guess cultivation is all about doubling down on the theorems you used before,'' I suddenly thought as I noticed the connection.


    In the fifth stage, rather than trying to learn how to control my energies myself, I''ve used math, statistics, and the limits of the functions to ovee the hardship. In a sense, instead of just jumping over a puddle of water, I invented a steamship to do it in my stead. And now, I could only push further with the methods that evolved from what I already did before.


    BY drawing a parallel and imagining the seventh stage to be a narrow stream that others would take their time and train to be able to jump over¡­ I''ve learned from my experiences of building the steamship and crafted a steam-powered jetpack instead!


    That''s why, rather than fearing the randomness that soon became the one and only quality that could be used to describe my inner state, as the number of the sparks continued to grow higher and higher while the pressure of so many highly energetic spots within my core started to refine the existing sparks all on its own¡­ I didn''t panic. Instead, I actually rejoiced in the process.


    It was all because the more and more I tapped into the potential of my now higher cultivation rank, the better I understood my new limits. And with it, I soon came to redefine the mass of energy hurdling itself over the entire forbidden zone straight at myself and ire from a disaster-in-the-making into just another opportunity I was damn sure to make the most out of!


    Then again, as more of this energy continued to flood my core and contribute to the multiplication of my sparks and as my energy mixed with ire''s pretty much leading to the perfect synchronization of our cores'' growth¡­ I''ve finally realized that the amount of energy I''ve feared to take us all the way to the point of breakthrough we were not ready for¡­


    It actually was merely enough to fill our new cultivation base. There would be no talk of our limits stretching, adapting to the ever-increasing force, and innately seeking ways to evolve so that it could hold even more of it or do so more efficiently.


    -official


    "Haaaaa¡­."


    Now that I could, more or less,fortably absorb all of this free energy, I breathed out a sigh of relief before rxing my body a bit.


    "We¡­ We actually did it¡­" ire muttered on myp, her face hidden in the corner of my neck and shoulder. Her arms wrapped tightly around my chest and locked behind my back.


    She was only partially right. We still had quite a world of energy to go through¡­ It''s just that, now that we realized our newfound limits and better understood them, this amount of energy wasn''t something we would be scared of! Especially not when we could share both the benefits of it, but also the burden that came with absorbing all of it!


    "Let''s keep it up until we are done, though," I somehow regained enough control over my own body to warn her, knowing better than anyone¡­


    Or actually, I only had a slight premonition over the potential effects of taking things easy now, something that ire was likely much better versed than I could even hope to be.


    "I know¡­ I know¡­" ire muttered before shifting her weight on myp a little as if adjusting her position so as not to put too much pressure on my, as I''ve just noticed, perfectly grown-up erection. "But you know¡­" she continued to whisper, this time while also shifting her mouth towards my ear while reaching out for the other side of my head with her hand.


    "Even if we can dual cultivate with just our spiritualities alone, it is only to be expected for our bodies to ready themselves up for a full reunion of flesh?"


    For some reason, ire''s wording suddenly turned quite poetic.


    And for some other reason, as soon as she finished what she wanted to say, she quickly put those sweet, sweet lips of hers into action, first pulling her tongue out and then dragging it up the whole of my ear, only to then copse her lips over the upper part of my earlobe only to then pull on it while sucking on it as she would on some candy.


    ''Wo¡­uuuuuughhhhhh¡­''


    This sensation was so unexpected, so new, I didn''t really know how I was supposed to react to it.


    A shiver moved up my spine, filling my skin with the crawling sensation of awkwardness, surprise, and pleasure all mixing into a pot of excitement.


    The closest I''ve evere to this kind of experience was way off in my early teen years when I first discovered ASMR through a series of rather¡­ intense examples of it.


    A feeling I chased after for the next few years, listening to the progressively more direct and less sneaky videos, only to end up at the bottom of the depravity hole by listening to stuff that could only be ever posted on porn sites when normal, rxing ASMR just didn''t give me this kick anymore.


    Yet, against actually having a girl mp down her lips on my ear after licking it and then enthusiastically suck on it all the while snuggling up on myp and to my chest?


    How could any fictional recreation of an experience everpare to it?!


    "ire, stop¡­" I begged weakly, too unprepared for this angle of attack to be able to raise any mental barriers of resistance against it.


    If she wanted to fuck, I could somehow resist for it was something we already did, something I overcame the initial shame of, even if it was many years too early to im I got used to it. Even if she suddenly decided to suck me off or, by going for an even bigger extreme, if ire were to suggest getting me off in an even more original, never tried-before way¡­


    It simply couldn''tpare to this moment of genuine yfulness that was so deeply intimate despite only abusing an extreme little of actual skin contact.


    "I understand¡­" I somehow managed to whimper through the waves of strange yet exciting feelings as ire''s lips and tongue only grew more and more active over my ear. "There''s just one thing I believe you are forgetting about," I added, desperately holding back on the reins of my own desires.


    "Fuuu¡­." ire blew air into my ear as if to dry the parts she left all salivated. "And what this might be?" she then asked in a deep, seductive voice while her hips started to slowly move to and fro, making her crotch rub against my erection.


    "I mean, it can be just me misunderstanding stuff¡­" I muttered, suddenly finding my courage to becking when I was faced with bringing up a certain issue while straightening it right in the face. "But you do realize that your father stands just four steps away or so?"

 Chapter 124: Side-effects

    Back when the whole attempted assault, pitched battle of different factions of cultivators, or¡­ whatever the hell this entire event even was, back when it ended, there were quite a few ways in which I low-key expected things to go.


    It wasn''t anything major, a product of my conscious thought, more like a set of options that I subconsciously considered as viable ways in which this whole affair would get wrapped up and what would be my ce in the process.


    If back then, when I sat down on the ground, heavily pouting after the long and heavy task of absorbing a heck of a lot of spiritual energy, someone asked me what would be the most unimaginable scenario that could still, by some freak turn of things, y out¡­


    Then even then, I could never even guess that I would end up sitting in the back of Chihiro''s car - yes, apparently he used one too, and quite the old model at that - with ire nodding off as she snuggled up to my arm and even in her sleep, refused to let my hand go.


    "Once again, thanks¡­" I muttered, still struggling to get rid of the red from my cheeks from having to endure ire''s quite open advances right within her father''s sight. "If not for you, I''m not sure if I could''ve handled her back then."


    There wasn''t an ounce of excessive praise or ass-licking in what I''ve just said. It was the embarrassing and pretty damn awkward thing to admit, but back then, ire was all over me to the point that only her father''s timely intervention in the form of a swift chop to the back of the girl''s head that stopped her from ignoring our surroundings and getting dirty.


    "Again, I''m not ming you," Chihiro sighed from behind the wheel, taking it upon himself to steer the car as opposed to leaving it in the urate steering pins of the AI. "First, what you guys did was already quite the legendary fear, not all that far from the¡­" the man hesitated for a bit, taking a look at my reflection in his rear-view mirror as he searched for the right word, "the device."


    "How we''ve absorbed all of that energy?" I''ve asked, not really sure what ire''s father was talking about, yet still all eager to, despite the awkwardness of the situation, learn as much as I could from his gold-toned words.


    Even if the gap between our cultivations has shrunk rapidly and from nearly the entire stage of existence to just three cultivation realms¡­ He was still someone with an ocean of experience and practical knowledge that I simplycked. Those two alone changed Chihiro in ways that made even the most fleeting of his remarks like pure gold for those who have yet to reach his stage of enlightenment.


    Or, in simpler words, for a mere fresh sixth stage cultivator, even a casual word of a peak ninth stage was akin to an elixir¡­ But an elixir that boosted my chances of attaining enlightenment upon reaching my next bottleneck rather than an elixir that would affect my cultivation directly, through the means of spiritual energy.


    "Secondly, and once again, I don''t me you. While it''s not all that known of a fact, what you did was essentially dual cultivation.


    You''ve managed to achieve union on such a level, however, the act itself was no longer necessary for the ride," Chihiro exined before breathing out a heavy sigh right as he sharply pulled on his wheel, turning the car to the side as he cut the corner only to then rapidly elerate onto the city''s bypass rising above the local fauna and the general shape of the terrain and thus turning into the main visible mark of human presence in this otherwise overgrown area of the city''s outskirts.


    Then, after another heavy sigh reached my ears from the front of the car¡­


    "But the fact that you can dual cultivate without the act, doesn''t change how this kind of energy sharing does have some¡­" Chihiro hesitated for a little bit longer than I foundfortable, "effects?"


    That much I could tell myself, seeing how unusually silent ire was despite clearly not having the best sleep of her life, even when she held on to my hand for her dear life as if letting go of it would spell her doom.


    But that wasn''t it, this wasn''t the root of this upsetting feeling I could feel at the bottom of my stomach.


    "Save for how it puts us in heat, is there anything else I should be aware of?" I asked as I decided to take a risk and actually ask about the thing that was quickly turning into an itch in my head I just couldn''t scratch.


    Chihiro''s silence, however, only served to confirm my seemingly irrational fear.


    Even then, ire''s dad didn''t stay silent for long.


    "I''m not sure if you''ve observed this, but isn''t ire generally¡­" the man asked, only to then bite down on his mouth and shake his head. "No, you don''t know her long enough. So, rather than observing it yourself, just take my word for it," he then spat out a series of words that only further confused me rather than rified anything.


    "All in all, ire grew quite¡­ silent and apathetic recently, didn''t she?"


    I squinted my eyes a bit as I thought back to the ire I''d met back in her shop and the rie I could now see pushing me to greater heights than before, actively supporting my ideas and then always hanging off my arm, as if just holding hands was enough to satisfy all of her demands.


    ''Thinking back¡­ I sure do provide value for her n, but was I actually a good partner to begin with?'' I suddenly came to face quite a heavy question. ''Putting aside all my ideas, talents, and prospects I bring¡­ Don''t I have it a bit too good?''


    Torn by this sudden feeling, I looked down at ire''s restless face, how heavily her chest moved up and down to match her breathing, how she¡­ clearly wasn''t well.


    "What about it?" I muttered silently, unable to tear my eyes away from ire''s face with even my hand moving on its own to first chase away a stray streak of her hair from her face, only to then end up gently caressing her cheek in a naive effort to make her feel¡­ morefortable?


    Somehow, this attempt clearly worked, with ire''s grimace softening as she sank down even deeper into my shoulder.


    "By sharing your spirituality, you basically allow your souls to usher into each other. And as great as it sounds¡­" Chihiro''s voice suddenly grew deeper, more profound.


    As if his words were backed by his own experiences rather than just some theoretical bullshit.


    "Once you find yourself no longer talking, no longer doing stuff, no longer going out, just¡­ lingering on the edge of life while only caring to be within the other''s orbit¡­" Chihiro shook his head before raising his eyes to the rear-view mirror and giving me a long, weary look.


    "Once you find yourself at that point, you will never stop questioning whether or not you two are still a thing to begin with. And when you ask this of yourself for the very first time, it will cast a shadow upon your rtionship that will only ever grow dimmer and wider with time."

 Chapter 125: Side-effects (2)

    Normally, holding ire in a princess carry as she now rather peacefully dozed off within my arms would be enough to get me going like crazy.


    Maybe not even in the strictly erotic sense, but rather by filling my heart with a sense of great warmth, something that no mere sexual attraction could ever match.


    A sense of the warmth of the other person, the trust necessary for her to only gain peaceful sleep when held close in my arms, and the weing manner in which her limbs wrapped around me. All of those thingsbined created what I could only describe as being showered in silent, mature, and intimate affection.


    But that''s how it was supposed to feel.


    And with Chihiro''s words still ringing at the back of my head, I simply could not perceive this moment as such.


    ''Thinking about it, isn''t he quite right?''


    On one end, save for the time when we both fully focused on duking it out with the attackers, ire was quite active. Heck, she was the one to partake in the organization of this whole battle or many of the events prior to it.


    ''Then again, she''s yet to mention this whole thing even once, huh?''


    Shaking my head, I took a deep breath before knocking at our vi''s door with my foot, my hands too upied holding ire up to ever have a chance to reach for the knob or find, insert, and then turn the key.


    Thankfully, that''s where being rich perks kicked in, with one of the servants inside hurrying up to open the doors for me instead.


    Sparing no time for the words, I just nodded my head in the passing to thank you for the help before hurrying up the corridor and then to the private part of the mansion. Before I could think about anything else, I reached our bedroom where I could finally nt ire down.


    The moment I tried to do so, however, her grasp over my both tightened.


    As I was already counterbncing for the loss of her weight, it suddenly persisted, causing me to stumble forth and then down on ire, ending up in this rom-like scenario, even if at this point, just staring at ire''s face from up close could get either of us flustered.


    That didn''t mean it wasn''t nice to look her up from so close when the distance no longer obscured the small, fine details I would usually miss.


    The way her cheeks slightly trembled with her breath, the slight twist of her lips every once in a while, the way she put on a determined look on her face as if sensing what was happening through her sleep and now clutching onto me, refusing to let go.


    ''Wait, if I now think about it¡­''


    Reaching up with my hand, I brought it to ire''s cheek, gently caressing her soft skin with my thumb.


    In response, her lips slowly curled up in azy, satisfied smile. Her head moved a little, sending her long, brown hair into yet another, fresh arrangement that appeared to contain a world of mysteries all on its own.


    And as those long hairs danced around the delicate features of her rather stoic face, ire slowly opened up her eyes, revealing their deep, brown color to the world as she stared up, taking a moment to regain focus only to end up matching my gaze.


    ''Fuck, she''s so unbearably adorable!''


    But on the other hand, ire indeed didn''t seem all that interested in words with how she suddenly pounced and tightened her hold all over my body. This time, however, rather than holding onto me, she suddenly pulled me into her clutches!


    Using the reflexes of someone who survived both a kidnapping attempt and then an outright battle, I allowed ire''s attack to sweep me¡­ Only to then sneak both of my arms around her head, before copsing my forearms, effectively locking it in a tender, affectionate hug.


    "Just how can you be so damn adorable¡­" I whispered my true feelings of the moment, happily weing the soft, cushy warmth of our tight hug all the while trying to resist ire''s new, devious tactic.


    Instead of fighting back to distance her mouth from my chest and take a fresh breath¡­


    She just wiggled around within the hug, all skittish and jittery from just how nice it felt to properly hug each other.


    Seeing this¡­ No, feeling her all cutely tremble from simple, primal happiness made it impossible for me to resist.


    As if by some magic trick, my arms pried open¡­ Only for my elbows to move out of the way, allowing my hands free ess to the back of ire''s head.


    ''Counter!''


    I tried to sneak my elbow close to the side of ire''s head¡­ Only for her to suddenly pull me and raise her head, changing the way in which my hand reached the top of her hair.


    Instead of just reaching out for it as I would from the front, with my elbow now sliding behind it, I''ve actually reached across the back of her head and then a bit above her forehead, nearly embracing her whole head within my arm as I pulled her even closer in this extremely intimate¡­ No, affectionate hold.


    -content


    Looking down, ire''s forehead was burning red.


    ''She''s feeling it too, I guess¡­'' I thought, once again thinking back to all that I''ve discussed with ire''s father.


    Right now, beyond all my natural reasons to just enjoy the snuggle¡­ I actually had a nefarious goal in my mind. A plot that I had to see through no matter what, too weary of the consequences of not doing so.


    Still, with every passing moment, our movements grew more heated and our breaths bothered. This made it quite clear that my perfectly reasonable goal of preserving our rtionship long-term, perfectly aligned with how naturally our affectionate struggle was turning into more and more expressive forms of love and desire.


    Then again, now that I patted ire''s head¡­ my restraint of how she could move it had weakened. A breach she hurriedly made full use of by slowly raising her face as she gave me this deep, dreamy look of longing, hunger, and desire.


    And then¡­


    "How do you want to do it?"

 Chapter 126: Solution worth remembering

    "How do you want to do it?"


    Looking down, I locked my gaze right on ire''s deep, extremely expressive eyes.


    Just like there were people who could see a world in a drop of water, I could now see a word in those deep, brown eyes of hers.


    But, as nice as it surely would be to move to the next step¡­


    "I''m sorry, but can we hold on to it for a short moment?" I suddenly asked, as if to throw a bucket of cold water over ire''s head.


    Her eyes twitched, proving I managed to take her by surprise. In the end, however, she didn''t react all that much. Instead, her mouth rxed a little as it turned from a small, dreamy smile into a thin line and even her eyes grew more serious.


    "I knew it," ire whispered, her voice empty of any sort of sense of achievement or correctness. Instead, she appeared to be quite concerned, seemingly out of nowhere! "There is something troubling you, right?"


    Climbing just an inch up my chest, ire then shimmered her eyelids down, enjoying my intimate head pats for a second before regaining her focus and locking her brown eyes on me again. experience-MVLeMpYr


    "You see, I''ve got a talk with your father," I mentioned. Yet, before I could get even a chance to borate¡­


    "I''m sorry for not telling you¡­" ire lowered her eyes, as all the remaining lust and excitement vanished from her face, reced with a sense of guilt so strong, her shoulders started to tremble. "No, I''m sorry for exposing you to danger when I thought we were all prepared for it. I don''t want you to consider it an excuse, but when we investigated your kidnapping attempt¡­"


    Before I could even react, ire produced a long series of words, quickly turning what was her misunderstanding and tangent in my ears into an actual issue.


    "Wait," using the hand I was patting her head with, I pressed down on the back of her head, pushing her face into my chest to muffle her words and thus stop her from diving even deeper into this clearly ufortable topic.


    Sure, it was something we would have to discuss sooner orter¡­ Just now, however, simply wasn''t the time for it yet.


    "That''s not what I''m concerned about, dear," I whispered while happily resuming to caress my hand up and down her hair but now also her back.


    Using the fact I already held her in my arms, I strained my back a little only to pull the two of us to a sitting position¡­ one that we both found to be surprisinglyfortable. And while it came at the cost of putting myself in a position that made me more excited than any other¡­


    It was the prize I was willing to pay.


    "The thing I''ve talked with Chihiro about was the dangers of dual cultivating as we did back in the forest. The dangers that got me seriously scared."


    ire froze in my arms as if momentarily stunned when her thoughts switched from one heavy topic to apletely different yet equally as heavy one.


    "If it''s about us having sex, then is this really a¡­"


    Before ire could finish her words, I stuffed her face into my chest again, already growing to quite like this innovative method thatbined stopping her dives into misconceptions with the entertaining sensation of having her wiggle around as she lightly tried to move her face around to free it from the restraint of my chest.


    "It''s only partially about sex. You see when I talked with your father¡­ It appeared to me as if he was regretting the thing he warned me about. And while I don''t really know the history between him and your mother, that face of regret I caught him with¡­"


    I cut my words short while pulling my eyebrows together and clenching my jaw.


    "Just the thought of ever having that kind of feeling in regards to our rtionship¡­" I muttered, only to then turn my arms down from ire''s head, only to wrap them around her shoulders as I hugged her as tightly as I could. "It scared the shit out of me."


    For quite some time, neither of us uttered another word. We just¡­ sat down. I held ire''s shoulders as close to my chest as I could, as if scared she would just whisk away the moment I rxed my hug. On the other hand, ire bore down upon me from the top of myp, wrapping herself as closely around me as usual as if trying tofort me with her softness, warmth, and¡­ presence?


    "What is it that you want us to do, then?" ire whispered after quite some time, only to rx her hold¡­ and then climb up my chest, pushing her head off to the side of mine¡­ And then bring her mouth close to my ear enough for her lips to brush against it as she spoke. "I''m here and willing, so you just say it, and I¡­"


    ire didn''t even finish her words, opting to just go back to what she was doing right before her father decided to put her to sleep.


    Feeling her soft, wet lips wrap around the lobe of my ear, I felt yet another surge of strange, tingly pleasure shoot up my spine.


    "I took quite a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly were the dangers your father actually meant¡­ And how to counteract them," I spoke, struggling to keep my voice t and consistent while ire continued to eat the world out of my ear.


    She would drag her tongue across the inner lines of my ear, generously covering it with her spit only to them move just a little bit higher as she brought her lips down and seemingly swallowed my ear whole, only to drag her lips up, sucking all the saliva back all the way to the point where her mouth copsed on just my earlobe that she then proceeded to gently chew on.


    In the process of moving up, however, by the time ire embraced my head to keep it still, she pretty much locked my head between her hands¡­ and her chest, turning her own bosom into a cushion for my face as she snacked down on my ear.


    Not holding myself back either, I moved my hands down to her waist, grabbing it with both of my hands as if to ascertain control over her more than actually moving her around.


    Still, now that I kept her waist in between my hands, I could see her hips jerking to and fro as she rubbed her crotch against my erection, something ire herself was likely unaware of.


    "And this is what I figured out," I announced, only to lift my right hand over her back and to her shoulder, only to then pull down on it, effectively dragging her mouth away from my wet ear.


    Rather than leaving her lips alone, however, I soon locked her spine in ce before closing in myself and pressing my own mouth against her, soon for both of them to pry open as our kiss quickly grew deeper.


    Our bodies just moved, constantly seeking better angles, better positions, better arrangements that would allow us to kiss more, deeper, and with less effort. And while we started with ire sitting face-front on myp, by the time I realized it, she was already pushing her ass against my erection while leaning her head over her shoulder to keep our kiss going.


    "There''s no way for us to stop the effects of our unity from kicking in," I revealed once we finally had to end our kiss due to our mutual, mundane need for air.


    "We can just clear those effects off by making sure our intimacy is something," driving my hands all over ire''s body, I directed one of them up to her chest, while sneaking with my other hand down to the girl''s crotch, underneath her pants and then right towards her most weing ce."


    "Some¡­thing?" ire asked with a bated breath after gasping for air when I slid my middle finger inside of her.


    "That''s right," I confirmed, leaning my head over the girl''s shoulder, only to then rest my chin down on it right as I grabbed at her left breast with my left hand and added another finger inside, while pressing the palm of my head down on her crotch, using it to gently stroke her clit as I moved my hands to get the best possible feel of her skin.


    "Something worth remembering."

 Chapter 127: Edgy(ing) solution (r18)

    How does one make a moment of intimacy much more vivid than it was by its very nature? How could one turn an already memorable moment into something that would ingrain itself in a much deeper, more solid fabric of one''s memory?


    It all came down to just this one answer. And for me, the solution was simple.


    ''There''s no way I''m done yet!'' I screamed out in my mind, all for the sake of keeping myself in line with my own, logical desire rather than letting my instincts kick in.


    There was one, very simple way to make sure a sexual experience would be more memorable than all the others we had before that. A way that was somon, it was appreciated enough for some nuclear sites with some mature content to create a whole damn tag for it...


    Or, in less weebishnguage, it was something popr enough to turn from a kink into a fetish andter on, just as much of a sexual preference as many others.


    A discipline of sorts that affected both me and ire equally, even though as we were of different genders and thus experienced excitement and pleasure in slightly different ways.


    "T-Tim... P-p-please..."


    ire''s weak,bored voice barely managed toe out from between her moist, trembling lips.


    Yet, deaf to her pleas, I continued to hold her in ce atop myp while gently caressing her shallow insides with the fingers of my other hand.


    That''s right.


    My solution to the problem of making our intimacy as great as humanly possible was... to drive ire all the way to her limits and then edge her for as long as I myself could hold it in.


    MVLeMpYr-chapter


    And while one would argue, Tim, how dare you im you both get excited when you are the one doing the fingering, this is exactly where the gender differences came into y.


    Even though I wouldn''t im myself to be exceedingly handsome or anything like that, I wasn''t ugly or anything either. But then again, in contrast to just how beautiful ire was, my face or my body wasn''t something for one to get considerably excited by.


    One could say, I just had a well-trained body... but a body that one could find in pretty much every other gym.


    That''s why, while I made sure to keep ire''s excitement not only with the agile yet slow movements of my fingers but also with a constant, whispered affirmation, sweet words, and general disys of intimate affection...


    I had to cope with how such a superb beauty pretty muchid down on myp, with her knees far apart from each other allowing me a perfect and unobstructed ess, be it with my eyes or fingers, to her most important ce.


    Just the way her chest wiggled under the influence of her spasming for the air was enough to get me going. Just her weight bearing down upon me was enough to get me going. Just her warmth, the way she pressed my erection down with her weight, the way she wiggled all over myp as she continued to be subjected to my caressing and tender care...


    yet had to cope with how I refused to let her reach fulfillment...


    Each of those elements was enough to get me going alone. And whenpiled into a single experience...


    ''I really believe I should get some sort of medal for hanging in there for so damn long!''


    While I wasn''t as rude as to put this intense forey if not outright edging on a clock, this now limited me to only guessing for how long I''ve kept going.


    Then again, what did time matter, when I could just look at the girl in myp to gauge whether she was already at her limit or still hanging in just a bit away from it?


    "Tim...! Tim...! Tim! Tim! TiTiTiTiTTTTIM!"


    ire''s slight, panting cries merged into one, continuous sound while she wiggled atop myp, moving all over the ce as if she was trying to get herself in the position to be fucked yet, without my cooperation, couldn''t find the right angle of approach.


    ''Almost there, huh?'' I thought before sliding my fingers out of ire''s insides, before slowly, carefully moving both of my hands up her inner thighs, all the way to the point where I hooked them behind her knees.


    "Tim... Tim... Tim..."


    Just hearing ire call my name with such longing, such desperation, was enough to bring me even closer to the edge...


    But right now, I judged ire to be ready. And with that said, it was time to make my move.


    "Get ready," I whispered straight to ire''s ear...


    Only to then lean as far back against the cushions of the sofa as I could while pulling ire''s hips up with one hand while using the other to control the descent of her upper body down towards my knees.


    "Kya!" Uttering a lovely squeal, ire soon found herself hanging face-down from my hands, with her shapely, moist bottom now just an inch away from my face.


    Then, without further ado and before she could even try topose herself, I pushed my face forth a bit only to then blow a bit of air right at ire''s wet, twitching pussy.


    "Ah!"


    ire''s entire body convulsed when this unexpected sensation joined the fray. At this point, even something as small as just blowing air at her crotch was enough to make her react like that... Which only made the next part all the more engaging for me.


    ''Let''s hope I will do a good job,'' I thought, swallowing my fears and doubts as I pushed my face even closer before opening my mouth up and pushing my tongue out, all the way to the point where its tip pushed against ire''s clit.


    "HAAAH!" Her moan turned heavier, thicker than before. But it was merely the beginning. And while ire was still in the process of caressing my ears with this sweet, moist moan of hers, I dragged my tongue up, caressing the slit of her pusy with it...


    Only to then hold nothing back and push my tongue inside of her.


    When it came to eating girls out, I had little to no experience. That is unless I counted the experience I''ve gained from... actually following the joke of advice for young men to eat cup yogurts without a spoon for the sake of their future girlfriends'' gratitude.


    Then again, no matter how little if any experience I had at the task when I held ire so close - even if with her head down and her legs now falling down to rest on my shoulders - I had just the perfectb rat to read the responses of and thus improve my techniques!


    And so, I started by slowly dragging my tongue over ire''s lower lips, before slowly, carefully pushing in deeper.


    That alone was enough for her body to enter a state of constant spasming. Yet, as I braced myself and pushed my tongue even deeper...


    I had no other choice but to stop, pull back, and grit my teeth when ire simply ripped my pants open and grabbed my erection before greedily stuffing her mouth with it.


    ''Shit... Not like this...'' I groaned in my thoughts, clenching my hands into fists to resist the pleasure when ire sucked on my lower head as if she was trying to literally suck the sperm out of my balls while using my dick as a straw.


    Then again, after a moment of weakness, I returned right back to the task, venturing deeper and deeper into the depths of ire''s pussy before my tongue could physically reach no further.


    At that point, however, after easily over an hour of sloppily making out and fingering the girl who was quickly turning into the love of my life, within mere moments of ire actively trying to pleasure me I reached the point where I could simply go no further.


    "ire... Stop..." I muttered in the short breaks I took to get some air, only to push my lips right back to the task, enjoying the truest taste of ire''s excitement that gushed from within her.


    ire apparently held some sort of a grudge that stopped her from heeding my words and prompted her to go even harder on me instead. And so, while I was trying to do my absolute best to eat her out, she continued to push my dick further and further up her mouth... or rather, at this point, up her throat.


    With the sensation of something boiling over at the very deep of my balls, however, I couldn''t allow things to progress as they were. And so, with a desperate tug on ire''s waist, I pulled her up...


    Only for that little gremlin of a librarian to refuse to let my cock go, sucking on it with all the strength she had just to keep it in her mouth!


    "ire, stop, please!"


    Finally, my words got to her, mere seconds before I would unleash all of my stacked excitement directly into her mouth!


    Yet, what I took for a blessing of her mercy, soon turned out to be just a lesson when she dropped her hips off my face and back to myp, only to then turn around and straddle me directly, in the way that we both kind of grew used to already.


    "Now you know how it feels when you ignore the pleas of the other, don''t you?" ire whispered as she caught my face between her hands only to give me a long, slightly angered stare...


    Only for it to melt down as, by rising up on her hips to look down into my face, she ended up teasing the tip of my cock with the moist entrance to her insides.


    Before the lesson could really sink in, ire''s face properly melted down as all of the excitement that we both held back could be held at bay no more.


    And so, to crown such a long attempt at edging ourselves, ire took aim with her hips and as soon as she felt just the tip of my dick sliding inside of her, she pumped her hips all the way down, giving neither me nor herself any time to get used to the familiar yet still new sensation.


    The moment ire pretty much jumped down myp, I saw stars before my eyes. The sensation...


    It was unlike anything I''d felt when sleeping with her before, not even when we went at it quite hard.


    Her insides were somehow tighter... yet felt more snug. Her inner folds wrapped all over me with a desperation I''ve never experienced before while her very depths...


    They felt different.


    As if something deep inside of ire shifted, making it easier for me to knock on the gates to her womb.


    A change I couldn''t help but wee, when ire squeezed down on me with the might of all the cultivator gods that existed, breaking past thest mental blockade that allowed me to hold back and pretty much forcing all of the sperm I stockpiled out of me as it shot up to paint every nook and cranny of her womb white.

 Chapter 128: Mana Hungover

    The ringing of the phone woke me up from the sweet, sweet slumber.


    I had no idea at what time we went to sleep. Due to the exhaustion that came as a price of our great efforts that came before, I couldn''t really remember the timing of anything.


    It was as if the whole procession of events starting with ire going with me to the zone and ending on our passionate night existed in some sort of limbo, a time hidden away from my perception, eluding any attempts of proper framing.


    That left me with absolutely no clue what time it was, or what it could even be, leaving me extremely confused as I moved up and grabbed the phone, only to almost doze off just by staring at its ring screen.


    ''How the hell am I so tired?''


    Sure, between all the edging and then the intense payback that followed, I''ve exerted quite a chunk of my general strength. And yet, my body was sluggish, my thoughts hardly operated¡­


    It is quite a surprising position to be in for a sixth-stage cultivator!


    ''Maybe it''s the burden of what we did back then finally catching up to me?'' I thought, ignoring the ringing of the phone in my hand as I closed my eyes in an attempt to study my cultivation, just in case.


    The phone finally cut off, both the bright shing of its screen and its ring rm finallying to a stop and removing ayer of burden that only further limited my mental capacity.


    ''Wait, maybe it''s a hangover from pushing so much spiritual energy into my brain for so long?'' I attempted to reason the shit out of yet another guess.


    And this time, it only made more sense the more I thought about it.


    From the moment the battle started, I unknowingly kept the process going for quite a while. And now that I thought back, I''ve only ever let go when my consciousness faded into oblivion as I sank into ire''s soft, sweaty embrace.


    It was only now that I woke up that I''ve likelye to pay the price of abusing my very brain so much!


    ''This innate ability or whatever else it is¡­'' I thought, looking down at my chest for some unknown reason given how the organ in question could be only looked at through a reflection. ''It''s not as danger-free as I somehow ended up assuming it to be.''


    I took a deep breath before blinking my eyes a few times to get them used to the dim lighting from below the door''s edge and giving the room just enough light to highlight the outline of the furniture inside of it. Then I looked down, to my hand, where the notification of a missed call forcibly reminded me of the reality.


    Mental hungover or not, this wasn''t the call I was willing or able to ignore. And while there was no point in me answering it before, now that I took a moment, the only thing I could do was unlock the screen and call right back.


    "I''m sorry, just woke up, and didn''t get to the phone in time," I threw in a short exnation as soon as I heard the ringing music cut off.


    "Ah, it''s fine, don''t worry about it," yton quickly dismissed my attitude. "I''ve got news, interested?"


    ''Straight to the point as always, huh?'' I thought, rolling my eyes on this reminder of the bygone era of my life.


    "Sure, hit me."


    I could hear my uncle taking a breath as he prepared to quickly pass over all the important bits of the info.


    "I''ve secured the site. A warehouse ording to the details I''ve discussed with your¡­" yton hesitated for a bit, only for his voice to then change so much, I could hear it even through the phone, "sponsor? Or maybe a father-inw?"


    At the very least, the first part of his guess wasn''t sexually charged¡­


    "When can we visit?"


    "Two days. There are still some things for me to take care of to make you untouchable," yton said nonchntly, as if fixing thew to make someone pretty much immune to it was just amon urrence of a politician of his level.


    "Two days it is," I muttered, closing my eyes to quickly run through all the things I might need to mention in this call. "Right, what about the supplies?"


    "Who do you take me for?"


    Clearly, my uncle didn''t take my question well.


    "Everything is going to be ready in two days. But I will need some sort of an exhibition in a month, two tops, so keep that in mind."


    ''So he''s not strong enough to make all of it happen¡­ just by himself?'' I raised my eyebrow at the sight of this delicious piece of information¡­


    Only for my face to contort as another thought appeared in my head.


    ''Wait, what are the chances he would let something like that slip just like that?''


    Even if it was just a small thing, a single word, a mere mention¡­ I knew my uncle to be better than that!


    He wasn''t someone intentionally giving ground to the other side¡­ Not unless he was the one to ultimately profit out of it!


    "Sure thing," whether this was a genuine slip that I could make use of or merely a trap yton was setting¡­ I decided not to care in the slightest and just go along with it.


    My job was to focus on crafting, not wasting time on some stupid internal politics¡­ Especially when I had a much bigger horse than myself to bet on!


    "I will mention it when I meet my father-inw," I added up to my reply¡­ Only to smile affectionately when I felt ire grabbing onto my hand and then moving her arms up as she wrapped herself around it.


    Looking down, I saw ire''s peaceful, exhausted¡­ but satisfied face as she silently purred through her sleep, happily snuggling her face up to my forearm as she pressed it against her soft cheek.


    "Let''s meet in two days, then," yton threw into the phone before cutting the call, allowing me to finally lower my hand down as I put the phone aside. chapter-source-MvLeMpYr


    "An important call?" ire asked with her eyes still closed shut, proving she likely woke up along with me when my uncle first called.


    "Well, both yes and no," I threw out casually in the air before sliding back down under the covers, only to reach out, grab ire by her waist before pulling her closer to my chest and ultimately burying her face down against my throat.


    "Your uncle?" ire asked, raising her head as she looked up.


    "Yeah. In two days, we will be able to start the project," I dutifully reported.


    "That''s great," shemented as she brought her hands up before cutely, gently scratching my neck as she locked her vibrant eyes onto my face from so close, that I could see them even through the darkness in the room.


    "We are finally going to take a serious step ahead¡­" I admitted, only for the look on my face to then sour by quite a lot. "And I''m well aware it means that we are painting a target on our backs for all sorts of new threats."


    I gritted my teeth¡­


    Only to see movement down below, right before ire swept both of her hands away before giving the spot below which ran my vein a quick, snappy lick.


    ''Huh?''


    Before I could even look down, ire pushed her mouth open, only to then copse her lips down on the very spot she just licked, closing it away from the world only to then¡­ bite down on it.


    ''What is she even doing?'' More puzzled than scared or shocked, I soon squinted my eyes only to then lean my head away, strangely stretching the very vein ire was biting down at as if to make it easier for her.


    As the waves of these strange, extremely amusing feelings continued to rush through every inch of my body, ire only further wrapped herself around me, soon turning her y-bite into something between an actual bite, a kiss, and a hickey-making attempt.


    Either way, having hertch onto me like that felt¡­ otherworldly. And while I had no idea why she decided to just go for it¡­ Who was there to stop me from, at the very least, enjoying it to the fullest?


    "Do you remember how I bit you like that before?" ire asked when she suddenly pulled away from my neck, but not before slowly dragging her lips across my irritated skin all the way to the point where she gave the spot a kiss and then properly pulled out.


    "I sort of do¡­?"


    Still wrapping her hands around my neck, rie wiggled within my hug a little, switching over so that she could look me straight in the face¡­ Even if it meant pretty much climbing on top of me and then bearing down on my face.


    "So you still didn''t notice it¡­" ire muttered after giving me a rather lengthy stare. She then reached down and grabbed my left wrist, only to bring it up andy it down over my heart.


    "Focus on your cultivation and tap this hand once you are ready. Then, keep observing it."


    Not wasting any time, ire switched from yful to a teaching mode.


    A change¡­ I would have to lie to im I didn''t wee.


    Still, following her advice, I took a breath and leaned over my cultivation to inspect it closely¡­


    Only to finally realize ire''s meaning.


    My cultivation didn''t grow. No, in fact, I could argue it, in fact, greatly regressed!


    But that was only the case when it came to the reserves of spiritual energy. Those have already reached their rock bottom, leaving me with only the slight bit that I passively gathered from the air around¡­ a small bit that instantly evaporated into fuel fumes when my body fizzled it away to deal with the burden of not having almost any spiritual power left¡­


    It was a vicious circle and likely the reason behind my extreme, unnatural exhaustion.


    Yet, just as I cracked the case and realized how bad and desperate the situation actually was¡­


    ire grabbed my right wrist, only to pull it up and press it against her naked breast.

 Chapter 129: Reinvigoration

    ''Does she want more?'' I thought, feeling the softness and the warmth of her skin as my fingers sank into her breasts as if to grab its core that was always there, yet also always just out of reach.


    "What do you¡­?"


    I raised my eyes, trying to ignore how ire''s nipple brushed against the palm of my hand.


    "Focus!"


    The look on ire''s face exactly matched her words as she stared up at me with an urging, distant look.


    I raised my eyebrows for a moment before taking a deep breath and closing my eyes as I slowly blew most of the air in my lungs away, allowing the sinking of my chest to match how my mind sank down into my inner state.


    And quite noticeably, my spiritual core which was dry as a bone before, has now suddenly activated.


    Pushed by the feeling, I closed my fingers down, pushing my fingers deeper against ire''s springy flesh. And as if on amand, the dry-bone spiritual core of mine suddenly exploded in activity.


    It wasn''t on the level that would make it a viable technique in the midst of a battle¡­ but still. It was on the level that allowed me to finally take a proper breath as the burden of my spiritual exhaustion was now no more.


    "Woah¡­" I uttered a small cry as I realized what was going on¡­ Only to then further realize another point. The likely reason behind the vanishing of all of my energy.


    It was¡­


    It was a chance to the very fabric of my core.


    Previously, it felt merely like just a zone where the scattered pieces of my core shattered all over. Now, however, it appeared as if my very own spiritual energy kind of sunk into the very structure of my core, reinforcing, reinvigorating it.


    And now, it was as if this very surface of my core was now producing spiritual energy that first immediately rushed to further support the structure of my core, before finally starting to fill the core up.


    It was a thinyer of energy, sure¡­ but¡­


    Just where did that energye from?


    ''Maybe it builds off my excitement? Or maybe¡­?'' Looking up from where I kept holding ire''s breast, I moved my eyes to her face¡­ and then deeper, to the soul hidden behind the windows of her deep, brown eyes.


    "We are not producing spiritual energy. We are merely attracting it," ire sighed as she revealed, somehow reading up my thoughts¡­ or maybe just knowing that I would be curious about the mechanism behind what was happening?


    Even though we hadn''t known each other THAT long yet, it woulde as no surprise that she managed to learn how to read me well enough to do that.


    "In a sense, it''s a process simr to how people above the mortal realm cultivate, or maybe even those near the peak of their mortality. Either way, the truth of this technique is something we can''t really replicate in any other way, not just yet."


    Squinting my eyes, I reached up with my other hand and grabbed at ire''s other breast, nearly instantly causing her to squint her eyes as she raised her head a little while quickly moving her hand to cover her mouth and muffle the moan that quickly followed after my caress.


    Even if it was just to test how this process was happening¡­ it was still quite the thing to just grab a woman''s chest, even if I did it with little if any sexual intent behind it.


    ''To think a day woulde where I would train and grow stronger just by fiddling with my lover''s tits¡­'' I thought, resisting the desire to roll my eyes as I took my time to y around with ire''s bust.


    Cultivation or not, just messing around with her breasts was something I had no desire to stop, especially when she was as willing to let me do it as she was right now!


    "The way you are touching¡­" The hand covering ire''s mouth turned into loose fists as she curled up her fingers when just my touching proved nice enough to get a reaction out of her.


    And as I continued to y around with ire''s chest, my reserves¡­ No, our reserves of spiritual energy started to slowly grow.


    We wouldn''t reach the peak of our current potential anytime soon, given just how massively the potential of our cultivation raised when jumping from the fifth to the sixth stage¡­ With time, after a few nights of passionately cuddling together, we would be sure to get right back to our peak state!


    "To be honest," ire lowered her hand from her mouth only to ce it down on my wrist as she held up my hand over her chest, "this might be just the most efficient way for us to train for the foreseeable future, especially with how the effectiveness of doing so is bound to decrease once we reach higher stages¡­"


    On one hand, this was a normal, rational, and perfectly natural statement. But once one realized the other meaning hidden behind the face of what ire just suggested¡­


    ''So¡­ we are going to screw like rabbits for as long as it will take us to fill our current potential?'' I raised one of my eyebrows as I judged the idea in my mind. And quite frankly, no matter how many seconds I took to think it through¡­ this deal appeared not to have any real downsides whatsoever.


    ''Especially when I''m so desperate to keep our rtionship perfectly active and energetic,'' I thought as I used ire''s boobs for a handle of sorts of her chest, pulling her just a little bit closer necessary for me to find her lips within the reach of my mouth.


    Leaning down, I moved my hands from ire''s chest to her waist, holding her in ce as I pressed my lips against hers, unwilling to even attempt to resist the desire to kiss her.


    It felt too natural, too obvious, too¡­ right for the moment to even think about resisting this urge. And judging by how readily ire responded, she was of the same opinion on the matter.


    And so, even with all the excitement of our cultivation changing to a much more sturdy and effective form¡­all we could soon think about was limited to pretty much just the lips of the other.


    "Haaaa¡­." I breathed out a long sigh when I finally managed to gather my wits and gently push ire away.


    "Hmm?" Puzzled by my action, she only leaned her head over to the side while giving me a questioning look, not sure why I would want to put a stop to our make-out session.


    "I wish we could go for it¡­ But quite honestly, I don''t think we have the time for it."


    I wasn''t just trying to find a way to escape from ire''s affection. In fact, why would I wish to do that in the first ce?


    No, my time-rted concerns were real. Because of how puzzling it was for me to figure out the time when I just woke up, when I put the phone down after my call with my uncle, I just couldn''t help but take a nce at the clock. novel-hosted-NovelBin

 Chapter 130: Its supposed to be a punishement, not an incentive! (r18)

    The ck-out curtains on the room''s windows did a great job of blocking all the light from the outside from getting in. And with only the small scraps of light sneaking underneath the room''s doors, the very air inside the room made me feel as if it was alreadyte evening.


    In reality, however, it was the very middle of the day!


    And that meant, not only did we have quite a few obligations to see through and way too little time to have them all done by today¡­ There was still one, rather broad topic we had to talk through!


    "Can''t others wait?" ire protested my suggestion, only to wrap her hands behind my neck and then use it as a support as she pulled herself up my chest, intentionally dragging her boobs over my torso, all the way to the point where her hips settledfortably above my crotch.


    "Some of them surely can," I nodded my head to show that there were points on which I could agree¡­ Only to then shake my head right away. "But there are some topics that we actually need to discuss properly. Topics I really am notfortable raising, but ones we can''t just ignore."


    ire''s face tensed up as she took a moment to figure out the meaning behind my words¡­ Only to then tense up even further when she actually caught on.


    "I¡­ I see¡­" she muttered after a moment of hesitation¡­ Only for the corner of her mouth to twitch as if in an attempt to construct a smirk; a small movement ire quickly masked.


    Then, as if following my gentle suggestion, ire breathed out before taking a fresh breath and raising up from me and then sitting back down only to then cross her legs and lean forward a bit, showcasing just how ready she was to have a serious talk.


    ''So that''s what you are trying to do¡­'' I thought, mildly impressed with the girl''s thinking.


    It was high time for us to talk about this whole battle that happened and how I was dragged into it without any prior knowledge. Yet, with just a single look at ire''s face, I could tell that she was worried about the wrong thing.


    "First of all, it''s not the part of me ending up fighting that I''m dissatisfied about," I started while doing my absolute best not to stare at the lovely ways and angles ire shed her pussy at me while constantly wiggling around to make the show even more entertaining. "That I don''t really care about.


    As in, I''m not a battle junkie and I don''t really enjoy harming others, but I have no qualms about violence in justified and rational scenarios," I started while using nearly half of my willpower to keep my eyes on ire''s face¡­


    As opposed to just staring at her boobs wiggling with every breath she made.


    Yet, while staring in ire''s face was my only salvation¡­ It was also a curse to do so when she showed me nothing but satisfied, seductive and outright inviting looks!


    Most likely, the only reason why she didn''t lie back only to reach out with her hands to grab and then spread her legs open for me to adore her most precious parts in every possible detail was just not to make her seduction attempt all that obvious!


    ''What a wicked girl she is¡­'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I continued to stare right into ire''s eyes, desperately trying to stay on the topic rather than willingly taking not a dip but a brave dive straight into her soul through the two gates of her lovely, deep eyes.


    "Wait, if it''s not about that, then¡­"


    Hearing my words, ire''s face twisted a little as a look of surprise mixed into herpounded expression.


    "It''s about how you kept things from me," I''ve revealed the core reason why I was upset. "I can understand that it was vital for me to act clueless. I can even understand your desire to keep me from the ugly part of your world. But at the same time¡­"


    I looked at ire some more, only to then shake my head and finally drop my eyes down to the bed, finally finding some room for my eyes that wasn''t upied by ire''s charms.


    "I am your partner. Your boyfriend-sh-fiancee and a husband-to-be," I stated as I raised my eyes and looked straight ahead into ire''s face, braving through the lovely and inviting smile on her face in my attempt to pass on my emotional reasoning. "I don''t want you to shield me from things that I would happily partake in if it''s for your sake."


    This was the absolute foundation of why I was upset.


    Sure, ire keeping me in the dark had a part in it, but more than that, I just felt¡­ Inadequate.


    Sure, I did my part during the battle proper, holding the enemies at bay or outright escaping from them for long enough for the cavalry to arrive¡­ But it would be closer to truth to im I was swept into this whole battle, rather than that I willingly took part in it.


    And while it was rather obvious the people that tried to kidnap me before were most likely behind this attack too¡­ How could ire try to take this burden all on herself? Even if this was the consequence of my contractual agreement with her n¡­ That n was drafted when I was merely a cooperator. Now, however, I was¡­ No, I aspired to be her fully-fledged partner!


    "Having you shield me from things I would much rather shield you from makes¡­" I gritted my teeth when I realized just how hard it could be to utter some words.


    I knew what I wanted to say, I knew what I HAD TO say.


    But at the same time¡­


    "I¡­" ire spoke up, only to hesitate a little as she looked away before she shook her head and looked ahead with a look of renewed determination on her face. "I think I know what you want to say," she stated, only for her lips to then twist into an uneasy smile. "And I''m sorry.


    I''m sorry for keeping you in the dark, even if I did it while having nothing but your best interest in mind," she said only to lower her head as she moved on to the apology part.


    "It''s okay," I nodded my head in response, having no desire to keep my lecturing if not outright scolding position for any longer than necessary.


    And it was in no part due to how my willpower continued to rot away with the periphery of my view constantly exposed to the shameless way in which ire continued to sh me.


    "Is there anything I could do to make you forgive me, though¡­?" ire then asked in a clearly overyed tone, while lying down on her side¡­ and then pinching at her night''s gown to make it ride up her outer thigh.


    With those clothes on, ire left little if not outright nothing to my imagination. In fact, I was quite sure this gown of hers was only supposed to highlight her curves rather than keeping any part of her body covered.


    Yet, when I saw this thin, see-through cloth glitter as it rode up ire''s ass when I saw how her breasts gravitated down under their own weight as if to beg me to hold them up when I saw ire''s amused, inviting smile¡­


    "So you still didn''t give up on seducing me, huh?" I muttered as I breathed out only to then rise up to my knees and start moving closer to the girl, all to the benefit of her growing smile.


    "What made you believe I ever would?" ire countered, only to then turn over onto her stomach before riding her hips up while prompting herself up with her knees¡­ she then quickly slid off the bedsheets to the sides, putting her shapely ass fully on disy, all for me to im.


    Before I could utter as much as a first word of a reaction, she then reached out, grabbed at her cheek, and then pulled it away, as if to further indicate just where exactly she expected me to go¡­


    Only for my forehead to tense up a bit as a sudden idea appeared in my mind.


    "Is this supposed to be your way of apologizing?" I asked as I finally got close enough to grab ire''s ass and even give myself the luxury of raising my hand and giving it a gentle yet firm p.


    "Mhmm¡­" ire moaned in response while pressing her head down against the cushions as she looked back as if to check if her strategy was working.


    And she did it right in time for me to bring my thumb down, only to hook it against the bottom of her ass-cheek before pulling with my entire hand aside¡­ And I did so noticeably higher than necessary if I wanted to pry her pussy open.


    "Wait, you can''t be talking about¡­"


    Before ire could even finish her words, I smirked a little before pushing my thumb down her ass cheek, shamelessly aiming its tip for her butthole¡­ Only to stop a mere inch shy of this yet unexplored orifice of her body.


    "Yeah, I''m just teasing you," I admitted as I rxed my hand¡­ Only to then grab at ire''s ass with both of my hands, pull her cheeks aside and then push my hips forward, fixing the position of my knees so that I could press just the tip of my erection against her moist, twitching hole.


    "And while I don''t want to make it into an incentive¡­" I muttered as I leaned down over ire''s back, still perfectly careful not to identally prate her just yet, "If you make me sad like that ever again¡­" read-first-on-NovelBin


    Rather than finishing it up with my words, I slid one of my hands all the way up to ire''s throat¡­ Only to use it for a handle when I jerked my hips forward, sliding the entirety of my hard erection right up her desperately twitching pussy.

 Chapter 131: Time constraints

    The feeling of feeling up ire from the inside¡­ I could somehow tell I could never get enough of it.


    The tension of our bodies twisting to their limits, all to let us amodate just the best angles that brought the two of us the greatest possible pleasure. The warmth of desperately clinging to the other. The sweet smell of our sweat mixed as we rubbed our skin against each other.


    The single instance of orgasm encapsted all of those feelings, all of those sensations after enriching them with an overwhelming amount of relief, pleasure, and release. After tensing up just like that for a little longer, we both powerlessly fell down onto the bedsheets, too tired to do anything beyond just heavily breathing if not outright panting for the air.


    Yet, now that this short bout of slightly more intense intimacy helped to recharge our cores, I no longer felt even the hint of that overwhelming, oppressive exhaustion that came with running out of spiritual energy.


    After just a moment of regaining my breath, I''ve finally recovered enough to close my hug around ire''s shoulders, cuddling her up to my chest as I sank right back down into the state of the afterglow.


    ''I guess we ended up wasting our time on intimacy anyway,'' I thought, trying my best not to think about all the other matters that we had to take care of.


    ''And am I really going to im that it was all but a waste of time?'' I thought, prompted by the perfect sense offort borne from ire peacefully breathing in my embrace and asionally shifting her body to find an even morefortable spot within my hug.


    Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.


    Despite all the things that I still had in my head¡­ just this boring repetitiveness of ire''s breath was enough to put me in a trance of tranquility. It was such a simple thing, and yet it did such an insane job at calming my heart down, I couldn''t help but wonder just how in all hell was that possible!


    "Hey¡­ Tim¡­?" ire muttered as she slowly perked her head up and threw a sneaky nce up to my face.


    NovelBin-chapter


    "Yeah?" I looked down, eager to get another chance to stare down her deep, brown eyes


    "I¡­" ire hesitated, proving that whatever it was that she had on her mind, wasn''t an easy topic for her to approach. "Right now," she said after taking a moment to gather her courage, "I think anal is a bit too scary for me yet, but¡­"


    While I raised my eyebrows, slightly taken aback by such a sudden announcement, ire turned her eyes away, as if she couldn''t look ahead when her cheeks burned in vivid red.


    Rather than saying anything, ire ultimately leaned forth and pressed herself to my chest, once again using it to shield her face from my eyes.


    "But¡­ But¡­!" ire squeezed her hands into fists before tapping them against my chest a few times. "But I will do my best so that in the future¡­"


    Raising her head, ire gave me one hell of a look of desperation, as if she couldn''t really tell whether I was willing to wait for her or not.


    And seeing her like that, the only thing I could do¡­ was lean in myself, and push her hair aside with my hand before nting a gentle, affectionate kiss atop her forehead.


    "Honestly, I only said that in the heat of the moment," I proimed even though iming that I was only half-joking would be closer to the truth. "So you don''t need to take it to heart all that much," I added, just in case my intentions weren''t all that clear.


    "Oh?" ire''s head perked up a bit again, this time to reveal the mischievous smile painted on her lips. She then unlocked her hands behind the back of my neck only to slide them down a bit and rest them down on my shoulders.


    "Could it be you don''t find my ass¡­ attractive?" ire asked, climbing up on me just far enough to elevate her eye-level above mine, all so that she could look down into my eyes with that lovely, mischievous smirk of hers.


    Combining this flirty if not outright seductive approach with her elegant and pure looks only made the whole scenario all the hotter!


    "Seriously, I will take your ass anytime you will be ready for it, but right now¡­?" I left my words hanging a bit only to then lower my head before shaking it to the sides. "Right now we still have something else to discuss. And as ufortable as it might be, it''s a conversation we cannot avoid having."


    There were things that I could ignore, pretend not to remember or outright forget about.


    But then, there were things thatcked the element of urgency, necessary for me to dig into it as soon as the topic arises¡­ but were still stacked in the department of importance and weight, making them into harsh topics that were likely to be quite awkward to bring up, outright annoying to navigate and then potentially souring our mood in this lovely moment¡­


    Nevertheless, however, topics as important as what I had in mind could be excused forter, but not for an indefinite amount of time. And right now was as good of a time as any other to finally raise the points I was concerned about.


    "I need you to tell me everything about what this entire fight was all about. This time, no secrets."


    ire''s face instantly soured, proving that just as I expected, this wasn''t the topic she had any desire to discuss. On the other hand, however, while she pulled back a little, she didn''t pull away far enough to indicate she actively wished NOT to discuss it.


    "It''s¡­" ire hesitated while looking away¡­ only to expose, this time, the side of her face for my kiss. "It''s a long story!" she informed while vocallyining as she leaned her face away from my lips, most likely unwilling to mix the feeling of guilt and sadness invoked by the topic with anything that she could actually enjoy or have a good memory of.


    "While I would love to have a lot of time for me to hear it all out¡­ We both know that''s not true," I sighed¡­ only to reach out and pat ire''s head a bit. "But there''s nothing stopping us from just sticking together as we go through the rest of the day, is there?"


    Upon hearing those words, a faint smile returned to ire''s face.


    "In this way, you can just brief me as we go around our day!"

 Chapter 132: Reaching into backburner

    Going back to normal life after a series of high-octane experiences filled me with nothing but apathy and exhaustion.


    I just didn''t have any mental resilience left to face the challenges of the day.


    For now, however, I had nothing better to do but try to make the most out of my breakfast, or rather, of my dinner.


    When boiled down, this, in a way, was an essence of life. One aspect of it that was so mundane, hardly anyone paid it any attention.


    If I wanted to have energy, I actually had to eat energetic food. And ever since I became a cultivator, no matter just how much the vi''s chefs tried, it just¡­


    It wasn''t enough.


    Sure, the taste was insane for my peasant mouth, but the food somehow¡­ wascking.


    ''I wonder if this is the cost of cultivation?'' I thought, looking down at the freshly butter-fried potatoes with a sprinkle of various, carefully arranged spices in thepany of a thick, dark-brown sauce with sizeable chunks of the sauteed, red meat flowing in it.


    It sure tasted great!


    ''Maybe that''s why they have private cooks?'' I thought, raising my eyes from the dish to the servants who quietly went about their job, performing a perfectly coordinated yet uncannily silent dance.


    If cultivation affected one''s ability to enjoy food, splurging on some highly qualified cooks only felt reasonable. Where else were the cultivators supposed to throw their riches if not intopensating for the costs of their craft?


    ''Wait¡­''


    This string of ideas, a seemingly incoherent line of random thoughts¡­


    This gave me quite the idea!


    "What if I were to¡­" I mouthed off, silently whispering the words as the possibilities behind it dawned upon me.


    I moved my eyes over to the huge, open kitchen before turning them back to my te.


    ''What if I were to craft our food?''


    My scythe served as the greatest proof that whatever I crafted, was likely to boast some insane potential.


    ''On that point, I wonder how well I could wield it now that I''ve stabilized my cultivation somewhat?'' I thought, raising my eyes to the sky as I silently celebrated the moment of creative rity.


    "The spark in your eyes¡­" ire softly spoke as she rested her chin down on her hand while staring at me from across the table. "It''s back," she stated only for her lips to curve up in a straightforward, genuine smile.


    "Yeah¡­" I nodded my head only to then drop my face down as I heaved a tired sigh. "But we don''t really have the time to test it out now."


    Just like our talk about the people behind the attacks and like many other topics before, I had no other choice but to put it on the back burner, with hopes that a time woulde when I would pick it back up.


    For now, however, it was time to finally have this discussion that I''ve ignored for a while now. A prospect that didn''t be any less awkward to talk about than it was before.


    And whenever I looked back¡­


    As nonchnt as I was about everything that happened, it would be a lie to pretend like we were never in any danger.


    The enemy had me by the balls and ire by her neck, in fact!


    ''No matter who it is behind all of this mess¡­''


    I silently grasped my right hand tight as I turned it into a fist.


    ''As cliche as it might be, but I really need to get stronger now, don''t I?''


    I breathed out a deep sigh to calm my heart down a bit.


    "To begin with, that guy that you fought with¡­"


    "We fought with," I quickly corrected the girl, unwilling to let such a tant mistake¡­ or an attempt to lessen her role in the process go freely.


    ire raised her eyes and settled them on me for quite a while before smiling warmly only to turn her nce back to her te.


    "The guy we fought with at the end, he likely had nothing to do with the group that attacked us first."


    ''That''s¡­''


    Those were actually fresh news to me. And in broke every quickly-made scenario I''ve managed toe up with to exin what was going on all on my own.


    "Yeah. He belongs to a certain group¡­" ire raised her eyes, sparing her servants just a single, short nce.


    ''Oh?'' I raised my eyebrows as I pretended not to notice how she ignored the group''s name before moving on.


    "They are dangerous, fickle, and extremely annoying to deal with. Just like you¡­ Just like we saw back then, right?"


    I took a second to recall the recent events, only to then nod my head.


    The topic of that cultivator somehow pretending to be whole leagues more powerful than he was¡­ continued to rest in my pile of topics and ideas I had to work my way through. -exclusive-content


    "Yeah," I nodded my head, only to shake my head a little to refocus my attention on the girl''s story.


    "On the other hand, those other guys¡­" ire''s mood suddenly changed.


    It didn''t drop nor did it grow any warmer¡­ just took on a different shade of a troubled look.


    "We can''t be quite sure yet, but the leads we have points at two different ns. One of which," ire raised her eyes up a bit, "we had absolutely no dealing with before. As for the other one¡­"


    The look on ire''s face soured even further.


    "Let me guess," I smiled helplessly, "the n of that Karen we''ve met while out on a stroll?"


    "Yeah¡­ Oh, a question from me this time!" ire fully perked up as soon as the thought struck her mind, making her nearly jump up in her seat. "What was with all of that spiritual energy we''ve gained?" she asked, making a lovely look of deep curiosity if not outright fascination as she leaned over the table and into my face, serving my eyes with both her bright smile but also her deep cleavage.


    "Oh, it''s mostly a guess but I believe someone managed to infect the spiritual circuit of the zone with some sort of a malicious AI," I presented my working theory I''ve constructed from all that I''ve gathered on the topic. "The chaos they created by sing it at us¡­" I shook my head," my guess is, that''s what they used to make their escape.


    But how did it take over the magical beasts?" This time, I shook my head in defeat. "That I just couldn''t figure out."

 Chapter 133: The ritual of the hunt

    "Just how did it do it?"


    This question was a lot more valid than it appeared to me when I first thought it out.


    Earlier, I just assumed that there existed some sort of AI subroutine that simply fit into the nervous system of those beasts, allowing the AI to manipte them once those beasts absorbed a sufficient amount of the infested Qi.


    But now that I look back on this idea¡­ It didn''t make the slightest sense!


    ''How could an AI, a spiritual energy-anchored consciousness infuse itself into the flesh and bone of those beasts to make them do its bidding?''


    A question seemingly with no answer¡­ But as proved by practice, a feat that was certainly possible - because it happened.


    Yet, even after taking a moment to think about it, any form ofplex and wholesome answer simply eluded me.


    ''Maybe I should go with the theory that''s staring me right in the face, then?'' I thought, gritting my teeth at the mere idea of epting a simple exnation for this extremelyplex problem.


    In theory¡­ there was a chance that the AI somehow found a way to use spiritual energy to interact with physical matter directly. A method I was more than just interested in given my crafting tendencies and endless thirst for new tools capable of transforming magic into one form or another to use modern technology to improve it before reversing the process.


    But it was that, or¡­


    ''Or, this AI never actually controlled the horde but merely manipted it to a much more limited degree than what it would seem¡­!''


    Bit by bit, the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into ce. For now, however, it was still way too early for me to form any sort of guess over the answer. Doing so would only create a bias towards the result, a bias I already had to be ready tobat if any new information or ideas could put my thoughts thus far into question.


    "As for how it controlled the beasts, I''m not really sure. My two standing theories are how it either just loosely manipted them and then made the results appear as its goal, or¡­"


    I gulped my saliva down before I could allow the second, much more dramatic option to pass through my mouth.


    "Or it found some way to ess the material with nothing more than spiritual, right?" ire caught on surprisingly quickly as she pushed some of the dishes away and leaned over the table.


    Still, while we already arrived far further than what my initial guesses on the topic managed to explore¡­ There was still one more thing, one more leap towards the next potential clue that I had to perform before epting any sort of summarization.


    "Now that I think about it, what are the exact benefits of going to hunt in the zone?"


    Normally, I would learn the answer to this question through the experience of my very first hunt. But given how the beast hunt in the zone turned into a manhunt and then into a battle, Icked the crucial information necessary for me to even finish forming my proper idea up!


    "A hunt, you say?" ire muttered, taking on a rather dreamy look for a moment as she dug into the reservoir of her knowledge. "First, you need to consider it as more of a ritual than the hunt as you understand it," she stated with an absent look on her eyes, as if she was staring at the pages of a book hidden within her spirituality¡­ or even deeper, at the bottom of her soul.


    "Let''s start with what you know," ire stated as she fixed her position on the chair only to then reach out and grab a chicken''s leg only to then use it as a pointer to make her lecture a bit more expressive. "Normally, a hunt is an activity consisting of several stages, all aimed to gradually corner, tire out, and finally kill off a beast.


    Normally, hunts are conducted either for the sake of procuring food or resources or alternatively, as a way of building up one''s glory. And in thatst regard, your normal hunt isn''t all that different from what cultivators consider to be a hunt. But that''s also where simrities end."


    Even though it''s been likely the longest ire talked on a single breath anywhere near me, I just couldn''t stop myself from listening.


    In one way or form, she was doing a great job at condensing and simplifying stuff, so that I could get the general gist of the circumstances as opposed to their long, deep, and detailed particrs.


    "For a cultivator, hunt begins not with the preparation of tools, but a proper conditioning of their mindset. That part, however, is not uniform across the different hunts, as everyone gets to pick their own imaginery of it.


    For example, there are those who go on a hunt in w bid to better understand mortality in order to have an easier time oveing it, then there are others who purely seek to better understand strength or agility¡­" .


    ire shook her head.


    "Whatever it is that you try to understand or ovee during the hunt, it will also decide the rest of your preparation. But overall, you need to raise your cultivation to your current limits and enter the hunt at your peak state, fully prepared to pay the price of enlightenment in blood and broken bones if not even your very death."


    At this point, ire finally started to tire down a little.


    "For most, hunts are less about resources you can obtain from them, but this very act of seeking a better understanding of the world," ire''s lips curved up in a skittish smirk, "to see a world in a droplet of water, you could say."


    Hearing those words, my smile only grew further.


    "As for the loot itself?" I then encouraged the girl to keep going, sensing how we were finally approaching the point at which I hoped to shed some light on the mystery of the connection between that malicious AI and the monsters it controlled.


    "It all depends on the beast, so you generally get a fair amount of energy-rich meat, maybe some durable fur and or shell, a bunch of spiritual cores¡­" ire counted the items of only to summarize them with a shake of her shoulders. "Oh, and for every beast that you y, you will obtain their very own bestial core."

 Chapter 134: Faux Pass at the dinning table

    "A bestial core?" I asked while raising my eyes to ire''s face.


    "Yeah," the girl nodded, hardly paying me any mind as if I just asked for a definition of an apple. "It''s akin to our spiritual core, although it''s an element of the bestial cultivation that persists throughout the ranks, as opposed to how we, human cultivators, constantly change its shape and use."


    ''So, it is¡­''


    I gulped my saliva down.


    "Would it be correct to im that as the main element of their cultivation, it''s the source of the immense strength and size of those beasts?"


    By now, it wasn''t even a suspicion¡­ but more of a certainty.


    Even though ire had yet to confirm any of my guesses, somehow made me feel as if I was right on the money with this guess!


    "Yeah," surprise surprise, ire went ahead and confirmed my theory, only further solidifying my idea in the realm of reality.


    "So, what if that AI¡­ infected the spiritual core that those beasts then absorbed? And what if¡­" I bit down on my lips, holding myself at the veryst moment from throwing a suspicious, wary nce all over the ce as if to check if any of the staff was listening in on our conversation.


    The staff, however, was too busy with their tasks around the kitchen to care¡­ Only by acting extremely off myself could I strike their curiosity hard enough to make them actually interested in the details of my conversation with ire.


    "Would we be able to procure everyst thing that one can get from a hunt? Every tiniest thing? And by that, I mean the spoils of hunt conducted over the beasts that survived within that zone¡­"


    There was no point in me mentioning the exact name of the location I had in mind. There was only one zone I was familiar with anyway, so just by putting an emphasis on its selection, I made it pretty obvious which ce I was talking about.


    "I mean, you would have to take part in the hunt to get an easier time figuring out your next enlightenment," ire quickly pointed out, as if worried I didn''t understand her lecture from before.


    "Yeah, that I''m fully aware of, I just need to take a look at all the items you source from those beasts. Its bestial core included," I added just to make sure it was spelled out before moving on and forgetting about this detail until it became relevant again.


    ''And on that note, it really won''t be that bad of an idea to start figuring out what the next rank is all about¡­''


    Previously, I opted not to even try doing so in hopes of receiving further instructions from Chihiro, given how he already ovee all of the trials of my current cultivation stage.


    But after giving it some thought¡­ If I kept going, then at this rate, what was I to do once I reached the level beyond ire''s father? Or how could I ever grow stronger than Chihiro if I always relied on his expertise to figure out the hurdles ahead? .


    ''This stage¡­ I think I will try going through all on my own,'' I thought only to finally grab a fork from the table and pierce three different pieces of heavily sauced, grilled veggies.


    Then again, this wasn''t the right time to try to analyze it. Not when all I knew about the process of breaking through to the seventh stage of cultivation was limited to just a few of ire''s and then a few of Chihiro''s words!


    That''s why, I put the grilled delicacy in my mouth, as I turned my thoughts to the idea of butchering the bestial carcass - all for the sake of obtaining that sweet, sweet energetic meat that I could turn into a proper cultivator''s meal, as opposed to those energy-less delicacies ire''s chefs were serving us.


    "Are you really sure you don''t want to hunt a beast yourself?" ire insisted, hooked on the idea of having me hunt for some reason I couldn''t really see.


    "I''m sorry, but after thest time?" Iughed out a bit only to then shake my head. "Nah, I think I''m good. Let''s say I don''t have many good memories of that ce," I added in a slightly joking manner.


    "That''s¡­" Nigh instantly after my words sounded out, ire''s face contorted as a mixture of grief, guilt, and sadness popped up all over her face.


    "Ah!" I uttered a small cry as I reflected upon how this poor girl was likely to interpret myst sentence. "I''m sorry, that''s not what I meant!


    So, hold your horses and listen to me for just a little bit longer, okay?" I asked while reaching out to grab ire''s hands¡­ and just hold them, with no intention of going any further than that as I simply stared into her eyes with a pleading expression painted all over my face.


    I shook my head only to then break off my hand-holding with ire as I leaned slightly to the back of my chair, all to gain ess to more space that would fit within the girl''s vision.


    "All I meant is that all the time it takes to get there, get through all the control points, reception, reservation, payment, tipping, and the likes, to then spend as long as it takes to execute a proper hunt and then¡­ repeat all the previous steps in reverse¡­"


    I let my words hang in the air for a while while slowly shaking my head to the sides. "It just feels like one hell of a big waste of time!"


    "I mean¡­" ire groaned a bit while leaning to the back and looking away with her entire face, only to end up looking fully away as if she couldn''t bear the sight of me anymore.


    A momentter, however, her chest suddenly jumped up and down a bit, only to then do it again¡­ and again, only for ire to then break outughing, as she turned right back to me with a massive grin on her face.


    "Time, time and time¡­ I''m not sure if you''ve realized, but isn''t it a word you bring up quite often?"

 Chapter 135: Ten chapters

    Time.


    Just like ire pointed out, it was a word that¡­ No, it was a meaning I summoned with my lips quite often, constantly bouncing it around my lips given just how many matters I had to deal with and how little time I had to do it.


    In the end, time was just another resource that all humans had in limited supply. And it was my task as a person to ensure my time investment was directed at the correct topics.


    So, I assigned thete morning to be the time for dinner, and then the next two hours were directed at various experiments that taught me a bit more about both my current cultivation stages.


    Now, however, the short time I assigned for a break was getting consumed by an important phone call ire ended up pushing on me when she learned I had to make the call in question rather than just sitting down and cuddling with her for the entirety of the break.


    "Sure, getting the loot of a hunt shouldn''t be any problematic," Chihiro announced from the other end of the line. "On the other hand, however, I need you and ire to start slowly getting ready. In about a week''s time, I''m going to ept a breakthrough. And if I seed¡­"


    The pressure of the time suddenly shot through the roof now that I''ve finally received some realistic time constraints. At the same time, however, I couldn''t help but feel likeughing.


    On one hand, not knowing how much time I''ve had to deal with something was a blessing, allowing me to better allocate my attention to the more urgent tasks. On the other hand, however, this convenience also stopped me from dealing with the problem right as it urred, as doing otherwise would expose me to the constant stress of failing to bring forth what was expected of me.


    "If I seed, all three of us are going to pay a visit to the spiritual world. And with all of my heart and cultivation on the line, I hope that you will be ready for all the trails that ce hold in store for you. Or, in short, it''s in your best interest if youe prepared!"


    Following this joyful message, Chichiro cut the call short, leaving me with nothing but a burning question - ''How the hell am I supposed to prepare for the spiritual world?!''


    I looked up to the skies as if to picture ire''s dad''s face on the clouds¡­ For what else was I supposed to do?


    "I guess I need to re-evaluate the priorities of absolutely everything¡­" I muttered under my nose as I sat back down on the car''s sofa only to rest my elbows on my knees as I leaned forward and used my hands to support my head in ce.


    ''This and that can wait. The topic of the next enlightenment¡­ second level of priority. Tools for Chihiro¡­?''


    I took in a deep breath¡­ only to then release it as a long sigh right away.


    "I think I know what I need to prioritize¡­" I muttered to myself as I realized that the thing I just thought about¡­ took precedence over absolutely everything else.


    There was no point preparing for what would happen in the spiritual world if we were to be denied entry to that ce when in case Chihiro failed to break through to the tenth cultivation stage, thus proving both his talent and his worthiness to the spiritual realm!


    "Do you have any questions?" ire asked with a slightly baffled look on her face, as if my not asking her for help right away was akin to some sort of vicious heresy.


    "Ah, I do, I do," I smiled as I nodded my head to agree with ire''s suggestion for the sake of my own safety right now, and my safety once the timees for us to battle each other in the bedroom during the night-time.


    "First off, what sort of challenges could your father mean?" I asked, putting the topic of tools for Chihiro high enough in the queue of my mind so that I could work on the side whenever my thoughts weren''t upied with anything else of importance. On the outside, however, I continued as usual.


    "Are they supposed to be challengers befitting a cultivator? Challenges regarding the etiquette? Or maybe the basic rules of social interaction?"


    Chihiro''s warning could very well be about the physical dangers of stepping inside the spiritual world as a mortal, the dangers of offending some young master that was local to the spiritual world¡­ or, just as likely, they could be all about making sure to pack my own toilet paper for the trip to the spiritual world due to the insanely poor quality of the toilet paper sourced locally over there!


    And with Chihiro way too busy to be at my every beck and call, who else was the best person to ask about the details of what Chihiro could mean if not his one and only daughter and my affectionate lover?


    "I think Father meant for you to be prepared for the opportunities that stepping into the spiritual realm will present you with. As for the actual challenges¡­" ire took a moment to think. "While there are some things that I will need to warn you about, it''s nothing all that important.


    On the other hand¡­" Sliding over the sofa, ire came closer only to do the usual and wrap herself around my side. "That spark of yours," she mentioned only to gently twist her lips into a happy smile. "I saw it again."


    The corner of my lips shot up.


    Indeed, I received a small moment of inspiration. Nothing on the scale of what I''ve experienced when I thought about crafting my own food¡­ but still, I felt as if I touched the very concept of the cultivation tool just by putting it as a priority in my mind and hardly actually taking time to consider it!


    ''If that''s how far I could go just by thinking about the general idea of it, what could be possible if I actually do focus on it?'' I asked myself, only to close my eyes¡­


    And then open them back up right away when I sensed an extremely familiar vibration in my pocket.


    ''Who could be¡­?'' Puzzled, I pried my eyes open as I pulled the phone up only to look down into it¡­


    And see a name I didn''t expect even in a wildest dream to mark the sender of the message I''ve just received.


    "Chihiro?" I muttered just loud enough for ire to hear and look over my shoulder onto the screen, right as I tapped the message to open it up.


    <There''s a book "Ten Chapters" open in my study, back at your vi. It may give you some insights as to the methods and ideology I will be using to breach my bottleneck. I hope it will prove useful in your task.>


    ''A book of ten chapters?'' I thought, taking a moment to ponder over the weird title that was either some genius plot twist in the making that would leave me shocked upon its reveal in thetest chapter¡­


    Or maybe it was merely a book that had exactly ten chapters and an author who couldn''t be bothered to waste his time trying toe up with a more clickbaity title when he could put this time to writing even more instead?


    Who knows, maybe it was even a result of that book''s author''s bet he made with the universe, proiming himself to be gay unless he publishes ten whole chapters by some point in time¡­ Only to then call the book "Ten chapters" and call it a day, arguing that was his intention in the bet from the very beginning?


    Or maybe that title had absolutely nothing to do with the book, by the author''s design? Who knew, it could even be Chihiro''s attempt at being cryptic or a practical joke aimed to make me confused?


    ''It may even be a lesson to teach me to stop overthinking stuff, eh?'' I thought, shaking my head as I put the phone away and looked up at ire''s face.


    "Back to the Vi?" she asked, perfectly seeing through what was going on in my head.


    "Yeah," I nodded my head. "Back to the vi."


    Whatever the truth about the title¡­ it didn''t matter in the slightest.


    .


    After all, the moment Chihiro himself rmended for me to read it, it became the very next thing I was going to do!

 Chapter 136: Ancient problems require modern solutions

    Chihiro''s book was even deeper than I anticipated.


    It was filled with profound knowledge¡­ of a nature simr to math equations I simply didn''t understand. In other words, while I could tell just how grand the principles this treatise discussed were, the jargon alone made it an extremely tall task toprehend.


    ''While I can grasp some of the general ideas, I''m nowhere near properly figuring it out¡­''


    After weighing the book in my hand for a short while, I put it down on the desk before raising my eyes to the perfectly illuminated interior of the vi''s workshop.


    ''We still have that big project set for tomorrow, and there are only six days left until Chihiro''s big day¡­''


    I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath to gather the energy to cope with the reality and the strict time constraints that came with it.


    For now, however, I had to find a way to incorporate everything I''d learned so far, every idea I''d had, and every sh of genius I''d experienced and put it all into my next project.


    A project that stubbornly refused to materialize in my head.


    ''Should I use the spiritual energy?'' I thought, considering the enticing option of supercharging my brain. And while it was a logical course of action, especially in these rather dire times, I just couldn''t give up on finding the answers on my own that easily.


    ''And I still have to think about my next breakthrough, managing ourpany, and something to put on the shelves¡­''


    I shook my head, taking another deep breath, but this time actually holding it in.


    Smack!


    I brought my hands up to my cheeks, using the stinging pain of a self-inflicted p to rify my thoughts a bit.


    "First, let''s try to n the shit out of this."


    Just sitting down and hoping for a lucky stroke of inspiration¡­ It didn''t sit well with me. This kind of approach would only turn me into a ve to that inspiration, incapable of creating anything by the merit of my own hands, always left at the mercy of the whims of said inspiration.


    That''s why, instead, I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper, half-randomly doodling while letting my thoughts about the goals ahead float freely in my mind.


    A short momentter, I ended up holding a mind map of what I could use, what generally could be done, the limits and restraints on my abilities¡­


    But most importantly, what the goal of the project was and the steps Chihiro suggested as the crux of his problem.


    In other words, while the range of tools I could craft was an important bit, rather than considering the issue from the "what I can do" perspective, I preferred to follow the "what needs to happen" mindset. And what Chihiro wanted and needed for his big day took precedence over whatever I might randomly guess to be the logical next step of the process.


    ''It''s still not much, but now we have something to work with,'' I thought as I stared at the paper, only for ire to push the doors to the workshop open and enter, carrying a clipboard with some papers in one hand and two cups of steaming hot milky coffee.


    "Any breakthroughs?" ire asked, carefully cing the cups down on one of the machines, then instantly turning her attention back to her file as she scanned through the ledger.


    "Just a small one so far, but I''m getting there," I replied, raising my head and then standing fully to get closer and take a sip of the freshly brewed, aromatic coffee.


    With just a single gulp of the hot drink, the psychological response kicked in, energizing my brain a tiny bit. And as I continued to sip, bit by bit, I somehow managed to chase most of my exhaustion away, even if only by the temporary means of caffeine.


    "As for you," I raised my eyes to the folder of files in ire''s hand. "A new delivery?"


    ire nodded while keeping her eyes glued to what appeared to be just a cargo manifest.


    "Yeah," she muttered, not looking away from the list. "Most of it is for the materials for tomorrow, but even with those¡­" She squinted her eyes before finally raising them to meet mine. "Do you have any idea how long it would take to assemble them all?"


    Up until this point, all I''d ever crafted were singr examples, prototypes of whatever tool I wanted to make. And while they served great as a proof of concept or showcase of an idea when it came to actually replicating the same design over and over again¡­


    ''Wait, maybe that''s the crux of the matter?'' I suddenly thought as I squinted and nced around the workshop, searching until I found a weird, sci-fi-looking machine.


    "You made a good point," I stated, rising from my seat and approaching the huge mess of cables surrounding a big, ss-protected square chamber within the machine. "So, how about we make some molds to speed up tomorrow''s job?"


    It was an issue I''d never thought about until ire pointed it out.


    ''If I were to assemble those devices by hand, even if it only takes half an hour to make each one¡­'' I gritted my teeth at the thought.


    .


    This wasn''t how one achieved the effect of scale, which I''d just decided would be the easiest factor to exploit for great results!


    Sure, having one device already was beneficial. But what about having ten? Or a hundred? Or a thousand?


    "Molds?" ire asked, putting the cargo manifest aside as she quickened her pace and followed me to the machine, where I finally found its ess point hidden beneath a mess of electrical and hydraulic cables.


    "Yeah. The Qi converter basically takes three elements to make. It starts with an energy source, goes through energy umtion and release, and ends with the energy converter. The first step will be solved by yton, who will hook up the project directly to the industrial grid, allowing us to ess it through a simple charging cable.


    The condensation of the energy is done over a small, simple chip¡­"


    I squinted again, scanning the workshop until I noticed the machine I''d just thought of, hidden far off in a distant corner.


    Yet, just like the 3D printer I was fiddling with now, having the machine to print predesigned circuit boards didn''t mean I knew how to set it up, what resources to feed it, or how to automate the process to make it self-replicating!


    "The middle step is the circuit board, and then thest step is the Spricur stones," ire finished my exnation when she realized I''d grown so distracted I had no ns to do it myself. "If you''re talking molds¡­ then, do you n for them to be like a universal box to stuff all the other parts into?"


    "Yeah," I nodded as ire''s voice brought me back to reality.


    But I didn''t give up on my idea of making tomorrow''s task a whole lot easier.


    "Now that I think about it, do we have anyone in the house who actually knows how to use all the machines in this room? Because¡­" I muttered, looking down at the control panel of the 3D printer, where all I''d managed to achieve was¡­


    Somehow switching it over to a foreignnguage I couldn''t even recognize the alphabet of!

 Chapter 137: Outsourcing the problematic parts

    "Yeah, I can certainly do that," Jenny, NovelBinid-tier maid of the vi assigned mostly to taking care of theundry reported, nearly standing at attention as she confirmed her ability to turn the 3d printer from a scrap of cables and hydraulics into an actually useful machine. "Then again, I can only aim to replicate whatever mold you will create unless you want me to design it from scratch.


    But the designing process¡­"


    The young man in the middle of her twenties shook her head.


    "You can trust me, sir, copying a mold will be much, much¡­ MUCH more time efficient than designing the whole thing from scratch."


    "I understand," I nodded my head, trying to be as reasonable as possible here.


    It was an unexpected benefit of being filthy rich. An aspect of life that was so foreign for me, ire ended up giving me a weirded-out look when I first brought up the potential of the staff in our vi just happening to have the skills we realized we needed.


    For me, it was all but a matter of luck¡­ luck padded by how the terms at our vi were apparently great enough to allow the staff to pursue their own passions and hobbies in their spare time. Heck!


    After digging into the topic, ire exined how there even was a special fund described within all of the staff employment contracts dedicated just to helping the staff y around with whatever they were interested in!


    For ire, however, the fact that the staff working for her came in with abilities that had nothing to do with their job description and just so happened to be extremely useful for us at the moment¡­ It was no coincidence, good luck, or fate.


    It was the inevitability.


    "When the terms you offer are so above the expected, you get to be extremely picky with who you hire," she exined shortly only to sum the entire topic up with a shrug of her shoulder.


    And so, rather than having me grow more and more desperate by the minute to decipher the control scheme of the 3d printer we had in the workshop¡­ or do this whole process from scratch but this time at the circuit board printing machine¡­ We just called for a maid and a butler, letting us solve the issue for us!


    ''The danger of them learning even the smallest bits of the design¡­ Well, they are already loyal, so it shouldn''t be that much of a problem, especially with how what we want them to do are just the rudimentary parts rather than the core elements¡­''


    There was only so much one could learn from studying the shape of the food-tray-like piece of stic or an empty circuit board with nothing in it beyond the particr set of paths.


    And to get their hands on either of those, one already had to ovee the tall order of not only finding someone within our staff who was willing to sell our secrets but finding someone who actually had ess to those secrets, paying a bribe fat enough for that person to risk their employment and then the wrath of Chihiro''s n¡­


    And all of that just for the sake of getting the outer shape of the Qi condensing device or the empty circuit board with nothing more on it beyond the marked paths?


    ''Yeah, while it forces us to give up on some degree of safety, it still remains within the realm of reasonable safety.''


    I took in a deep breath, before performing the ultimate technique for dealing with problems bigger than me.


    ''Ultimately, it''s not my problem to be concerned with. The moment I escted that device to Chihiro, it now falls under his responsibility to keep it secure!''


    Rather than worrying about it myself, I simply decided to ditch the responsibility and focus on more productive aspects of the topic instead.


    And from the looks of things, even though it was alreadyte into the afternoon by the time we found the staff with the skills we desired, there was still just enough time to, at the very least, prepare some of the half-products necessary to craft the device in bulk!


    "I''m going to get the mold and then leave it to you to replicate it en mass," I stated before nodding my head to the maid and turning right back only to walk across the entire workshop, all the way to where the other machine of interest was located, currently under an active jurisdiction of the butler Henry.


    Normally, he was a man responsible for the maintenance of thewns and gardens of the vis outside, keeping them always in the perfect condition to take a walk through or host a small, fancy tea party in.


    Right now, however, he was busy tapping furiously into the keyboard attached to the machine, inputting line after line ofmands as if he scorned the very idea of using the touchpad that was right next to his hand.


    Whatever his methods were, however, contrary to the 3d printing machine that still required a mold to first get a model for what it would print out, the circuit printing machine was already operating, slowly spitting out freshly cut and arranged circuit boards onto the short conveyor that then stacked all of the boards into a simple, stic box set right by its end.


    ''It''s going to be one hell of a pain to solder all of those,'' I thought as I grabbed an empty box before switching it over at the bottom of the conveyor and taking the box with quite a bit of circuit boards stored in it instead.


    "I''m going to take those," I called out to Henry only to then nod my head while offering him a small smile, "keep up the good work!"


    "Will do, sir!" the middle-aged man replied, only ever looking away from the screen to perform a proper nod that was expected from a butler¡­ only to then fully ignore my presence and go right back to fiddling with the machine. "I''m not sure if you are aware, sir, but you can feed theponents directly into this monster and it will be able to solder them into the circuits all by itself!"


    Hearing this, I raised my eyebrows a bit.


    That was¡­ truly, a godsend. Just by looking at the circuit boards in the box I held, it would take me half of a night just to properly solder those.


    And given how the machine continued to spit more and more of the boards even as we talked, it was quite likely that by the time I would be done with the circuits already in my possession, there would be several times as many boards ready for soldering left by this machine by then!


    But then again, if I were to go with a convenient solution here, I would leave the task of soldering the tiny elements onto the boards to the machine. In other words, there would be now a hackable actor with quite a sizeable chunk of my project''s recipe. And if anyone were to ever get their hands on its instructions¡­


    ''The bare circuit board alone isn''t much of a hint. But one with all of the electricalponents already soldered into it?'' I shook my head.


    "Thanks for letting me know, but kindly don''t take thest fun part of this mass-crafting process from me, please!" I pleaded in a joking voice, a small y that earned me a smirk from Henry.


    _em _pyr.


    "Sure thing, boss. How many of those tes do you need, then?"


    I squinted my eyes a bit before taking a look at the small, stic crate in my hands.


    ''This should take me about¡­ that long to solder through,'' I thought after doing quick, makeshift calctions in my head. ''Then¡­''


    "Four more boxes like this," I shook the stic crate in my hands while making sure to do it lightly enough not to damage any of the circuit boards haphazardly stored inside of it. "Any more and I don''t think we will be able to make enough box frames to match their number!"


    I took a step back while making sure the stic crate restedfortably in my arms as I carried it over where the staff turned one of the few zones of rtively empty space into a storage for all non-cultivation-rted resources.


    There, I quickly arranged for some simple desk, seat, and several boxes worth of electricalponents before arming myself with the soldering gun, preparing the soldering agent and the flux, and then finally taking aim, ready tobine theponents into the circuit board to make an example I could then replicate over and over again.


    ''If everything goes well, I should have this batch done by midnight,'' I thought as I pushed the pins of several resistors and transistors into their respective holes before pressing my hand down against their tops only to then flip the board as to gain ess to its underside.


    ''And it all starts with...'' I thought, pressing down on the gun''s trigger to heat its tip up, before melting some of the soldering agent on it and putting it down towards the protruding pins of the first capacitor in the series, ''this!''

 Chapter 138: Hiding in plain sight

    "Are you sure you are alright?" Chihiro asked as he nced overin my direction.


    ''Do I look like I''m alright?'' I thought, raising my exhausted eyes to match the man''s nce and then throwing all of myints, all of my exhaustion, all of my problems¡­ right into the stare I gave right back to the man.


    "Yeah, I''m fine," I rolled my eyes as I responded, too damn tired to give even a single fuck about courtesy of manners.


    I''ve pulled a full all-nighter doing nothing but soldering the circuit boards, an aplishment that grew all the harder when ire suddenly decided I was pushing myself and tried to get me to stop.


    If I did stop as she wanted, however, then we would end up with merely half of the circuit boards that we had now. And given how the number of the circuit boards now pretty much matched the number of the stic frames. And with all the other resources allegedly already moved into the project''s warehouse¡­


    "Can''t we just get someone else to finish those devices for us?" ire suggested, torn between throwing fiery looks at her father and then snuggling up to my site in a desperate attempt to stave off some of my exhaustion.


    "I know it''s going to be an added risk, but if we prove that this project works on arger scale, we will have to expand the manpower involved in it anyway!"


    Chihiro''s face grew a bit tenser than usual. And as I looked into his eyes¡­


    ''Whoops,'' I thought, quickly moving my hand over ire''s before giving her fingers a gentle squeeze.


    "It''s a risk that we can avoid taking for now. As for what happens in the future, it all depends on today''s results anyway. That''s why, even if we will end up hiring more people, we are merely at the starting stage of this lengthy process, nowhere near the point where we actually start looking for people."


    While not to the same degree as was the case with CLaire''s face, I could read Chihiro''s expressions to some degree. And seeing him turn all serious as he gave ire a dismissive¡­ no, disapproving re, I could pretty much tell what he actually wanted to say.


    ''Are you going to let your emotions cloud your rational judgment?''


    Even though Chihiro never ended up speaking those words, I didn''t even need to think long or hard to agree with the sentiment.


    Any attempt at hiring more people in the early stages of the project was only inviting trouble.


    Now that the news of the attack in the zone was slowly spreading throughout the high society, Chihiro''s n was quickly increasing the rate at which it harnessed the attention of the others, all the more now that the rumors of cooperation between CLaire''s father and the city''s mayor were starting to make their rounds around the city as well.


    If we were to go ahead and start a hiring process in those circumstances, I wasn''t quite sure if we could find a single proper applicant along the mass of spies all the other ns, factions, or influential groups would push in hopes of getting an ear inside Chihro''s rtively reclusive n!


    And all of that would have no other reason but ire''s wish to spare me the further endurance run of actually taking all those circuit boards, stic casings, and then all the other materials already prepared on the site and assembling them all into a series of the finished devices!


    "Sirs, we are about to arrive," the driver''s voice filled the back of the long car,ing through fancy speakers perfectly well hidden within the inner chassis of the car.


    "Lighten up the windows, then," Chihiro responded right away, even going as far as to tap his knuckle against the tinted ss of the window. "I want to see what kind of security they have in ce."


    As if by a touch of a magic wand, the heavily tinted windows suddenly brightened up as the driver modified the degree of tint, thus allowing more of the light from the outside to seep through the tint. And after enduring a momentary light blindness, pretty much all three of us looked outside, eager to see just how great of work my uncle did¡­


    Only to end up staring at the most ordinary-looking factory surrounded by just your everyday fence and a small number of guards actively patrolling the inner perimeter within the fence.


    ''On the outside, it looks like just another fabric in the industrial part of the town,'' I thought, only to squint my eyes as I endeavored to take a closer, more inquisitive look.


    And that alone proved enough for me to see beyond the illusion my uncle crafted and into the actual state of affairs at this ce.


    The outer fence surrounding the factory ground was just the simple steel mesh spread between the metal poles erected from a heavy bar of concrete buried deep into the ground.


    All in all, it was a solid piece of protective work, good enough to stop any random trespassers from getting onto the property¡­ or, at the very least, slowing them down enough to let the guards arrive on the spot and take care of the problem.


    But that was just the outer fence. A lot deeper into the project grounds, however, there was anotheryer of the defenses, this time consisting of huge, metal beams arranged in a cross-fashion and extended all along the perimeter of the building, with yet anotheryer of simpler fencing hidden behind it.


    With this, no vehicle could ever stroll beyond the middle, solid fence. And even if someone were to stop there, dismount their vehicle, and charge ahead¡­ They would be stopped at the third and thestyer of the outer defense in the shape of a seemingly ordinary steel-mesh fence.


    Yet, judging by the small sparks I could spot appearing all over the metal mesh, this inner fence was actually connected to the grid and carrying enough electrical charge on the live wires of the fence to cook anything that was stupid or unlucky enough to touch it.


    And all of that came with several elevated watchposts, several ground watchposts, and a series of shallow trenches that were just deep enough for one to move through them without giving anyone outside of the factory ground any notice about it.


    "I think they could''ve hired a bit more guards¡­" iremented as she immersed herself in the sights, all the way to the point where she struggled to move even when the car passed through all the checkpoints and finally came to a stop at the innermost courtyard of the project grounds.


    "I don''t think that''s a good idea," Imented as I stretched my arms a bit, doing my absolute best not to let myself fall asleep. "Right now, the core of the protection scheme appears to be all about hiding out in the open. The moment they add more and more security to match the value this project can bring¡­"


    I shook my head.


    "The moment they do so, everyone in the city¡­ No, everyone in the province if not the whole damn country will be scrambling to take a look at just what exactly is going on inside this ce," I exined, only to stretch my hand out and then help ire out of the vehicle, only to then turn my eyes to the final boss of this area that gave us the courtesy ofing out to meet us himself, rather than awaiting us in its throne hall surrounded by semi-bosses and all the other mobs we would have to first go through.


    "Wee to the project grounds, everyone," yton called out while spreading his arms open in a weird mix of a wee and invitation. "I hope you are ready because everything else already is!"

 Chapter 139: On the project grounds

    "We are all ready and willing, so how about we cut on the small talk and just get going?" Too tired to give any damn about etiquette or the ceremony of the moment, something all the more important given not only the presence of the city''s mayor but also a whole slew of his retainers¡­ I just cut to the chase and said the words everyone was secretly hoping to hear.


    "Wait, Tim, are you alright?" yton suddenly broke his majestic persona and stepped closer, clearly noticing the signs of exhaustion all over my face.


    Actually, it would be hard for someone NOT to notice the bags under my eyes, the unfocused look in my eyes, or how I constantly had tobat my eyelids to stop them from closing down and thus luring me into standing slumber.


    "Why are people still asking if I''m alright rather than doing their best to remove the further burden that''s on me to bear?" I asked begrudgingly before I managed to put reins over my exhaustion-based anger and shake my head before fixing both my posture and my expression. "I mean, I''m sorry for that, but really, can we get going already?"


    For but a moment, I entered a contest of stares with my uncle, a contest that pretty much everyone on the site couldn''t turn their eyes away from.


    And surprise surprise, even though I was not only of a younger generation than my uncle but also came here extremely exhausted¡­ It was yton who turned his eyes away first!


    "Let''s not waste any more of everyone''s time, then," my uncle stated only to grit his teeth right as he turned around on his heel before leading the entire group into the factory building¡­ as if there was anything for them to inspect there.


    Soon enough, my assumption proved true when save for the building''s structure itself and a whole mess of unopened boxes upying every free inch of space in the factory''s warehouse, there was absolutely nothing worth mentioning inside.


    In fact, the inner state of the factory wasn''t just empty on the level one would expect when a business clears out all their belongings to return their rented property to the state it was in when they first rented it.


    No.


    When we came to the innermost part of the factory, the ce where the most technically challenging processing was supposed to take ce, I realized that this entire ce was cleaned much more thoroughly than that.


    It was as if¡­


    ''It''s as if someone intentionally removed absolutely everything that could be taken out without putting the structural integrity of the building itself at risk¡­''


    This was the only reason I could figure out for someone going to such extreme lengths to remove absolutely everything they could from this ce, all for the sake of leaving it as a perfectly empty room consisting of nothing but a concrete floor, bare walls, and a concrete roof.


    ''If not for how normal the doors to this ce are, one could assume this ce is a bunker of sorts!'' I thought, only to stop moving when I realized the entire group ground to a halt.


    "This is where I suggest you either assemble or use those devices of yours. You won''t find a ce that''s more secure than here anywhere else on the whole property," yton announced, only to then stare at Chihiro for a bit before turning his eyes over to me. "And now, I think it''s high time for you to show us the bait."


    yton didn''t even need to cast a fleeting nce over hispanions to make the message clear.


    Now that yton did his part, it was our turn to pull our weight. And given all themunication with my uncle that came before today¡­ It wasn''t yton himself that I needed to prepare bait for, but the people he needed the cooperation of to make this project happen.


    |le|mp|yr.


    Right now, it was my responsibility to give them just enough encouragement and proof of concept to make them not only realize the potential of this project but also the value that went into keeping it a proper secret.


    "Okay then," I pped my hands down against my hips before allowing my backpack to slide off my shoulders before gently putting it down on the ground.


    Pulling the zips down, I opened up its main pocket before pulling out the example of the device that I''d assembled mere minutes before leaving for this very meeting.


    "This here is an electricity-powered Qi-condensing device. Or rather, that''s what it was supposed to be before I realized that rather than gathering the spiritual energy from the air, turning it into electricity, condensing it, and then reversing the conversion¡­ I can remove the first two steps and rece them with¡­"


    I plunged my hand into my backpack again, only to move it around for a bit before finally grasping at the familiar structure, and then, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of their hat, I pulled the charging cord out of my backpack.


    "And rece them with this. A standard issue charger for the heavier electrical devices."


    It wasn''t the RGB turbo mecha yboy spintowin level of charger that clueless gamers would stuff into their set-up to power up all of itsponents. It was a simple piece of slightly thicker cable with a ferrite unit roughly in its middle and a simple male socket at its end.


    With all of that said, I contrasted the highly dramatic presentation by¡­ just putting the device down on the ground before bringing the cable closer and pushing its female end onto the pins of the device''s charging socket.


    Now, all I had to do was plug the entire thing into the standard issue socket, something that even now could be found literally all over the walls, the floor, and even the very ceiling!


    "Is that it?" one of the men yton brought over asked with a rather dissatisfied look on his face.


    "Yeah, that''s it," I nodded my head in response, not having any spare patience to deal with whatever bullshit he wanted to give me. "Given the time pressure, I''ve opted to go with an efficient design rather than one that will look all nice and fancy.


    But I''m quite sure if you are willing to pay for it, we can arrange for a whole new factory to produce nothing more¡­ but casings for my device so that they will look the part in your eyes."


    I stared into the man''s eyes for a few seconds AFTER I''d finished my sarcastic remark, before just rolling my eyes, grabbing the device, and then moving it just a few steps over, to where one of the many sockets in this ce was embedded directly into the floor.


    "Now, if you were smart enough to bring over a cultivator to check the validity of our ims, right now is the time to warn them not to overreact," I announced when my hand stopped just an inch shy from actually pushing the charger into its respective socket and thus connecting it to the industrial-grade wiring of the property that then connected directly to the city''s power grid.

 Chapter 140: Demonstration

    The moment I pushed the cord into the socket¡­ felt weirdly t.


    On one end, it was a groundbreaking moment of not only proving that a higher-level energy converter could work and transform more electric current into spiritual energy than what a simple USB charger could provide¡­ But also, it was the first time when this device would be made to work in the in view of people beyond me, ire, or Chihiro!


    Still, from the perfectly practical point of view, all I did was push a cable into a socket.


    Heck! m|v|l|e m|p|y|r original content


    From a mortal point of view, nothing much happened either, save for how the device was now connected to a live current.


    All it took to change one''s opinion over what was going on, however, was a single look at the air around the device¡­ No, the air in the room with a cultivator''s sense to realize just how massive of a moment¡­ No, how fucking historical of a moment it was!


    "It works¡­" Chihiro muttered as if he refused to believe everything would go as nned up to the veryst moment.


    ''An approach that leaves him with nothing but happy surprises, not bad,'' I thought, stopping myself from grinning out like an idiot, something I was tired enough to actually do if I failed to control myself properly!


    "Sir, it appears that the device is indeed what it was told to be, but¡­"


    From the series of murmurs that exploded within the small crowd, I''ve managed to pick out the most interesting part, the report of the cultivator that yton''s guests brought over to ensure they weren''t just getting scammed by some crafty device of the battery-powered perpetum-mobile kind.


    "Excuse me," one of yton''s guests raised their hand as they spoke up. "Would it be possible for our expert to examine the device?"


    I gritted my teeth.


    ''It was obvious they were going to try something like this, but¡­''


    At this point, I couldn''t expect the other party to have equally as hard of a time understanding the way in which the device worked as both ire and Chihiro had when I first brought it up to them.


    But that didn''t mean I was left with no other options but to either refuse their request or allow them to pretty much learn everything they needed to know about the principle it works on.


    "I''m sorry, but inspecting the prototype¡­" I shook my head at the obvious notion of refusal. Yet, before the mood of the crowd could be affected by it, I raised my face and smiled at all the guests. "I cannot ignore your worries of this all being just a show to make you believe in something that doesn''t actually exist just yet!"


    I then grinned from ear to ear as I closed my hands over my chest.


    "I''m just a lone craftsman, not a massivepany debuting with a device that''s not finished yet and thus making a fake demo of its ability to fool future customers and shareholders alike!" I eximed, neatly connecting the moment to the story of a certain IT giant that rapidly rose to be one of the economic powerhouses not only in its country of origin but in the entire world¡­


    Only for that same giant to copse the day most governments put a stop to the maniptive and predatory practices it implemented to retain its position in the market and manipte its existing consumers to stop them from switching over to objectively better and cheaper alternatives.


    "That''s why while asking to inspect the device when all its secrets are out in the open¡­" I shook my head, substituting the direct refusal with just a slight movement.


    The meaning was the same¡­ but not spelling the refusal out was still a small trick that allowed me to minimize the cost of refusing an open request like that.


    "That''s why, I''m more than happy to have you watch how I assemble one with parts you will be able to confirm to be standard issue so that we can all see if it actually works!"


    Not waiting for anyone to have their shot at wreaking my pace, I simply turned my head around¡­


    Only for a bunch of Chihiro''s men toe over, each carrying a huge, stic box in their hands. And even before they arrived, just by reading the hugebels pped on the side of each of those boxes, I could breathe out a sigh of relief.


    Both the circuit boards I''ve spent the entire night soldering but also the stic cases for the device were there. That point was only to be expected, though, given how we brought them over in the very same car we rode to this ce.


    It was the third box, however, that I couldn''t be sure to be at the location¡­ not until the moment I saw Chihiro''s man bring it over.


    A box filled with the most crucial element of the device, and arguably the most expensive part of it, save for the branding and the idea costs that would need to be added the day we would try to figure out how to price it.


    "Now, if I could ask all of you for a bit of attention," I called out right as Chihiro''s men put the boxes down all around me, allowing me to quickly reach out and assemble a small array from all the pieces I needed to construct a prototype.


    The process itself¡­ was surprisingly easy.


    All I had to do was grab the casing, push the cord into its designated hole by slightly bending away a locking piece of stic, screw in the circuit board roughly in the middle of the casing, pull the cables out of the charging cord, and wrap them around the power pins on the circuit board, confirm there was no damage to the board itself before adding a total of five big Spricur stones into five designated spots at the other end of the casing before finally connecting the stones to the circuit with a set of specially designed cables with syringe-like prator at their outer end allowing me to stab the wire inside of the stone.


    "Now, all that''s left is to beautify this product, but I will leave this responsibility to the man who so kindly offered to set up a whole new factory just to build stic toppers for it¡­" I muttered as I raised the finished device up into the air to showcase it to all while I sarcastically joked around a bit, to the detriment of the fucker that dared to speak up against me before.


    And a moment ofughterter, I moved with this device to another socket, before pushing the cable in ce and holding the device up, allowing the crowd''s expert to check it out.


    The man himself stood silent for a moment as he closed his eyes and reached out with his spirituality towards the device¡­ Only to then take a step back and slowly open his eyes.


    At first, he simply stared at me with his eyes wide open, as if he simply couldn''t believe what he was seeing. Then, however, the man cleared his throat as heposed himself only to turn towards his boss and nod his head.


    "It''s working, sir," the cultivator reported with aplex mix of emotions fighting for dominance over his face. "This device actually works as the mayor described."

 Chapter 141: Be a good boy and go to sleep

    "It''s working," I muttered to myself, as if I, the creator of this very device, couldn''t really believe in the result that was both expected and necessary.


    And yet, against all the odds my mind projected to be extremely against me, the reality wasn''t as harsh as I was worried it would be.


    Or, in much simpler terms, no random trouble appeared to stand in the way of a sessful presentation.


    "The device works, as you can all see. And we are prepared to make more and more of them for as long as we have ess to necessary resources and parts while enjoying the protection of the city from all kinds of prying eyes."


    Most likely sensing my unease, Chihiro stepped forward to take control of the conversation.


    "Is this your attempt at getting better terms than what we agreed with?" yton asked, taking a step forward to speak for the entirety of his group.


    "Change?" Chihiro asked only to smirk and then shake his head. "I''m perfectly happy with the terms we''ve agreed on. All I want, however," his smile grew deeper, "is for you guys to stay true to those terms. And from the documents I''ve received about this ce¡­ aren''t we like two gigawatts short on the electric n for this ce?"


    As he finished speaking, Chihiro raised his eyes not to my uncle, but to one of the men hiding behind yton''s shoulder.


    "It was a middle ground we found when trying to keep up with all of your demands," even though this nudge wasn''t even pointed at him, yton kept up the pretense of being the leader of his group when he spoke up to reply to Chihiro''s usation. "This nt received the standard five gigawatts allowance, just like all the other actual factories in this sector.


    If we raised the allowance right from the get-go, it would only draw more attention to this ce."


    ''Sounds like¡­ a reasonable excuse?'' I thought, perfectly happy to just step back and observe how things went while doing my absolute best not to let my physical exhaustion get to me.


    In the end, however, I likely revealed some hints about my current state, prompting ire to quickly and silently approach my side before wrapping her hands around my arm¡­


    But not in the way she usually did. No, this time, she pushed her shoulder below my armpit while moving my arms across her back, all the way to the point where my elbow hung down from the back of her neck while my hand rested down on her other shoulder.


    "Thanks¡­" I silently mouthed off before resting a portion of my weight on the girl.


    It was a rather small thing, a small favor from someone with enough power in their flesh to crack open vaults with her fist¡­ And yet, for me right now, this was the absolutely best favor I could actually ask for.


    _emp _yr novels.


    "I''m really sorry things came up to be like that," ire whispered, just loud enough for me to hear yet too silent for her voice to break through the ongoing conversation between Chihiro and the factory''s guests. "If only it wasn''t for the deadlines, I would never allow you to get as tired as you are¡­"


    Rather than replying, I simply looked slightly to the side, at the look of concern painted all over ire''s face. It was mixed with guilt, anger, and even some tones of sadness and pity.


    "ire, dearest, I don''t really mind pushing myself every once in a while. And when the opportunities are so great, wouldn''t it be a pity to let them go just because of something as silly as exhaustion?"


    Raising her head a bit as she listened, ire then looked away while lowering her eyelids, as if struggling to ept the meaning behind my words.


    "I understand that you are not happy with how I am right now. Heck, it would likely make my blood boil if I saw you in the state I''m in right now¡­ But for today and the next few days, we just need to stretch ourselves as far as we can. Once we''ve done our best, we will be able to get some proper rest."


    Even though I''ve finished talking, I just couldn''t turn my eyes away from ire. Her face, especially with that sweet look of concern born from affection on it, was just too captivating for me to look away!


    And it was because of this cute face of hers that it took me a moment to realize that Chihiro''s conversation with my uncle and hispany hade to an end and now the whole group was just silently staring at the two of us with knowing, sympathetic smiles alike to the expression one would make when watching two small puppies or kittens clumsily y around.


    "What?" I raised my face and my voice, ready to confront those old lechers who dared to stare at my girl for long enough for me, in any other scenario, to cave their noses in to give them something else to pay attention to. "Are you guys done? I don''t mean to be rude, but this presentation was merely one element of my schedule for the day, so if you are done here¡­"


    Now that Chihiro had taken over the conversation, there was no point in me remaining extremely polite and civil. In fact, by acting slightly rude and straightforward like I just did, I introduced some much-needed variety to our group, making both the presentation and our very faction quite more¡­ tangible? Real? Memorable?


    "Tim!" Chihiro called out in a slightly deeper, louder voice than his usual one. Yet, while that alone hinted at the potential consequences of acting rude¡­ The absoluteck of anger or even annoyance on his face made it seem as if he was simply ying his part, acting like he was going to chastise meter even if he had no actual desire or ns to do so.


    "This isn''t the way for you to be¡­" Chihiro kept going with the act, only to stop when yton suddenly put his hand down on the man''s shoulder.


    "It''s okay, no one here does mind it. And well¡­" yton''s voice turned into a mere mutter as he turned his eyes and looked over in my direction. "He''s reeling to the point he needs his girl to help him stand straight¡­"


    My uncle shook his head while patting Chihiro''s shoulder only to then remove his hand and look back to his own party.


    "We''ve already seen what we are here to see and we have been nicely excused, so how about we stop imposing on the young couple and let them get some well-deserved rest?"


    From there on, things happened rather quickly. In no more than five minutes, yton threw me a knowing look before allowing Chihiro to escort him and his group outside of this core location of the factory, likely to some ce where they could discuss their business without, as yton put it, imposing on me and ire.


    "Finally!" ire eximed as soon as the doors to the core of the factory closed behind the group, leaving us free to drop the act and behave as we would normally do. "I knew this was going to happen, but to see for myself just how long those oldies like to linger¡­" ire shook her head before letting go of my arm, only to then catch my hand and pull me down right as she copsed to her knees.


    "Wha¡­?" before I could even react, my body already crumbled down, heading straight for a direct encounter between my head and the concrete floor of the room, only for ire to slow down my descent before manipting both her position and my body so that my head would fall down to herp instead.


    "They are gone, so you can finally get some rest," she announced as if the next few hours of my life had already been decided without my prior knowledge.


    "As happy as I am to hear it, we don''t really have time for it. I still need to assemble all of the¡­"


    "All you need to do is to use myp for a pillow and go to sleep," ire exined the reality to me while locking her hands just below my neck only to turn them into chains that bound me down to the floor. "I will try to assemble a few of them while you are resting, so just stop trying to wrestle yourself free and take a break."


    "But¡­"


    As enticing as the idea of just going to sleep on ire''s soft, warmp was to my tired ears¡­


    There was simply too much work left to do and way too little time for us to properly take care of it! Assembling all of the Qi conversion devices¡­ It was the biggest task, but not the only one. After all, to prepare the best possible spot for Chihiro to cultivate through his breakthrough, just showering him with QI wasn''t enough.


    And so, within the next few days, this room, the former core of a former factory had to transform into a spiritual garden where the Qi would not only be more than just abundant, but it would also be purified, deprived of any sort of prior intent, and¡­


    "You said you understand how I feel when I see you in the state you are in," ire pointed out, opening up the lock of her hands, only to then press down on my chest with her left while raising her right one to my face and then using it to cover my ears in a slightly clumsy yet perfectly adorable attempt to shield them from the sharp, electric light of the room.


    And so, as darkness took over my vision while soft warmth embraced the back of my head, my will to stay awake¡­ started to crack.


    "That''s right," ire''s whisper suddenly assaulted my ears, only for her to slide her hand off my face¡­ only to lean in as if she wanted to cradle my head with the whole of herself before using her chest topletely shield my face from anything that could help me stay awake. "Just be a good boy and go to sleep. And I promise once you wake up¡­"

 Chapter 142: Growth pains (double chapter)

    Whatever it was that ire said as my exhaustion took over¡­


    Well, with my consciousness cutting off the moment my body performed an emergency shut-down, I could only try to guess.


    Yet, when my consciousness finally returned, the distinctive sounding from just nearby quickly wiped the idea of guessing from my mind as I inherently focused not on the past, but on the present.


    ''Is she still¡­'' I thought as I slowly pried my eyes open, only to then start blinking them rapidly to get rid of the surprisingly painful itch on them.


    It felt as if someone forced me to keep my eyes open while having my face submerged in salty water before making me stare right into the sun for hours upon hours only to then throw a fistful of powdered pepper in my face at the end, just for a good measure.


    ''Why is it so painful?'' I asked myself, struggling to ept the idea that I''ve actually pushed my body to the point that mere recovery from exhaustion could turn into such an ordeal.


    It just didn''t make any sense. Sure, going for two days without a moment of rest would put a strain on anyone¡­ But it was still something I was perfectly capable of pulling out even before I finally managed to force my way onto the path of cultivation.


    And now? As a cultivator of a sixth stage with designs on quickly reaching the seventh level of mortal cultivation?


    ''This amount of exertion should nevere at the cost of so much fucking pain!''


    Quelling the inner desire to scream out in pain, I squeezed my eyes shut and kept them closed for quite some time, all the way to the point where the itch finally, somewhat subsided.


    And throughout this entire process, only one set of repeating sounds that only alternated in their fine details apanied me.


    ''I can''t tell how long I was out. I can''t tell what''s going on with me. Just what did¡­''


    Before I could finish the thought, I forced my eyes open. And just like attacking someone else in the middle of them speaking, doing the same for myself proved to be a great way to bear with the pain that returned the instant I dared to expose my eyes to the air again.


    "Haaaa¡­" I released a long sigh, trying to find anything to focus on other than the burning pain in my eyes. Once I''ve finished my sigh, I clenched my fists to the point my nails started to dig into the skin of my inner palms.


    Once that no longer appeared to work, I clenched my ass instead, as if there was some brutal gay rapist on the loose, ready to challenge my sexual orientation the very moment I dared to lower my guard and rx.


    In the end, it took me quite a while to finally get myself ustomed to the pain¡­ Only for it to pretty much vanish the moment I''ve learned how to feel it¡­ but keep it in the back of my head, along with the whole library of the things I didn''t have the time to study, investigate, or solve.


    Now, however, with my eyes working once again, I leaned my head over to the side to investigate the source of the sounds I''ve kept hearing ever since I woke up. And just like I assumed, it was ire making all of this white noise as she patiently and carefully did her best to replicate the steps I''ve showcased, steps necessary to turn a bunch of half-products into a finished device.


    Just like I did during the showcase, ire first picked up the charging cable before gently pressing it into the indentation of the device''s frame while using her other hand to slightly bend away the stic lock.


    Then, with even more care than before, she picked up the separate wires sticking out from the cable''s end before sorting them by the color of their istion, matching it to the single drop of the same color at the beginning of the circuit board before carefully pushing each of the wires through the hole of the pin before wrapping the rest of the exposed wiring around it to secure the connection.


    This was the moment when she also introduced the first alternation to how I did it, by actually following the proper protocol and adding one more element - a cap made with a mix of stic and rubber that she slid down onto the exposed wires.


    In theory, this step wasn''t all that necessary, given how the entire cable was now locked in ce and after wrapping the wiring around the pins there simply wasn''t enough for one of the exposed wires to reach the other and shortcircuit the entire system¡­ Still, even though most of my crafting wasn''t based on a solid foundation of knowledge and experience, I knew this was one good step to make and a habit to obtain.


    From there on, the rest of the process followed exactly as when I did it myself, with ire carefully inserting the circuit into the special, stic slot made to fit the board before securing it in ce with a set of four, non-conductive metal screws.


    Finally, she inserted a set of four big Spricur stones into their respective slots before using the cable with syringe-like endings to connect the circuit board the very same way she did with the charging cable before moving to the veryst step and using the syringe-like ending on the other end of the cable first create an extremely narrow hole leading all the way to the very center of the crystal before pressing down on the syringe''s piston and forcing the wire into the hole.


    "I see you are working hard," I spoke out only once I''d confirmed that ire put the finished device away before grabbing another set of half-products, ready to repeat the whole process from scratch.


    "Oh, you are awake!" ire joyfully called back, dropping the cable that she''d managed to grab before rapidly turning around and then quickly crawling on all fours to my side. "How do you feel? Tired? Is there any pain? Are you okay?" she bombarded me with questions while raising her hand and bringing it up to my cheek in a caring if not affectionate gesture.


    "I''m more or less okay," I gently nodded my head while enjoying the caress of ire''s hand, only to then raise my own arm and cover ire''s palm with my very own hand, holding it in ce as if fearing she would soon try to remove it. "I mean, my eyes did hurt like hell for a while, but it''s all good now. The one thing is¡­"


    I looked away, suddenly feeling all shameful and embarrassed when it came for me to admit I had no clue what the reason behind my pain could be.


    It was my very own body, my very own flesh! And yet, no matter how hard I thought about it, this eye-pain made absolutely no damn sense!


    ''Well, I''m not a doctor. Who do I think I am to me myself for not knowing something that people spend years upon years to learn about?'' I thought, only to breathe out before raising my eyes and looking at ire again.


    "The thing is, I have no idea where this intense pain came from. It was like having a thousand needles poke every spot on my eyeballs¡­ or if someone threw a fistful of some super spicy, powdered paprika in my eyes?"


    I shook my head to showcase just how helpless I was on this topic.


    "Oh, I think I know what this is!" ire eximed the tense look on her face that appeared when I first mentioned my former pain, now thawing out a bit, parts of it reced with a sense of relief.


    "Do tell."


    "It''s basically a growth pain," ire smiled lightly, even though her eyes remained somewhat sad. "It''s a natural sign that your body is starting to properly ept the spiritual energy. And since eyes are a bit of a special part of our biology¡­"


    I squinted my eyes.


    "What do you mean, a special part?"


    ire raised her eyebrows a bit, mildly surprised by the question.


    "You didn''t know?" she asked, leaning her head slightly to the side. "Well, it''s no more but a small bit of trivia I''ve heard somewhere¡­ But apparently, our eyes are pretty much a¡­ hmm¡­" A frown appeared all across ire''s forehead as she sank into her thoughts in search of the right way to trante what she meant into proper words. "Our eyes are like parasites?


    The foreign entity within our body that just happens to connect to our nervous system?"


    ire shook her head before raising up from all fours to sit on her heels as she knelt down with a slightly puzzled look on her face.


    "The thing I remember best is that there are cases when one''s own immunity system attacks their own eyes, recognizing them as a foreign object invasive to the body?" ire muttered with just the same amount of confidence in her own words as she had in what she said before. She then shook her head, as if to put this whole topic aside.


    "Either way, it''s pretty standard for those pains, in those who actually get them, to start with eyes. If those really were the growth pains, then you will have to endure the pain in your head next, then your heart, your lungs, your stomach, and finally your¡­"


    As ire''s eyes moved further and further down as she ran down the list, her gaze only stopped when it fell upon my crotch.


    "Well, what I actually meant to say¡­" she muttered with a bashful blush on her cheeks, "is that once those pains move from your lungs to your stomach, I want you to tell me right away so that I can try my best to help you soothe those pains¡­" she whispered while reaching out and cing her hand down over the center of my pants while bashfully looking away, making it seem as if just saying those words, despite how many times we went at it already, still was enough to make her all shy and embarrassed.


    "Dully noted. I will be sure to report whenever I go through any of the paints you mentioned," I said with a small, slightly amused smile¡­ Only for my face to sink as I looked over ire''s shoulder only to see quite the impressive number of devices she finished while I was asleep.


    ire did a great job for sure, diligently working while I was getting some of my much needed rest. Yet, for all the great work that she did¡­ she merely just scratched the surface of how massive this project actually was.


    "Changing the topic, how many did you finish?" I asked, hoping to turn our attention elsewhere before ire''s request turned into a match that would star the fire in our loins and lead us to wasting even more of the already precious little time we had.


    "About¡­ Eighteen?" ire took only a moment to count the number of devices she finished. "I didn''t test any of them, though, so that''s a step we will still have to go through."


    I nodded my head to indicate I''d heard her before tapping my knees and then standing up, only to reach out and help ire do the same.


    "Then, we shall get to working, shouldn''t we?" I suggested as I threw a mournful nce towards the hundreds of circuit boards, thousands of cables, tens of thousands of the spricur stone Chihiro procured¡­ and roughly about two hundred stic cases where all the elements were to be rooted to turn into a bunch of half-product into a finished device.


    "And as we work¡­ Would you mind telling me more about that spiritual world?"


    ire raised her eyebrows a bit¡­ while already moving to bring the boxes with the parts a bit closer, so that we could both have them within our reach. -mp _y,r.


    "Where did thate from?" she asked while raising one of her eyebrows only to plop down onto her knees right by my side as she nted the stic case onto herp before reaching to grab the cable.


    "I just thought that since we are going to likely spend the night trying toplete the rest of those," I panned my hand over the boxes to indicate what I''ve meant, "it wouldn''t hurt for me to know why is it that your father is so desperate to break through his bottleneck in time¡­ Or why is your mother refusing to give up on that world and return back to be a part of your family again."

 Chapter 143: Spiritual realm and what it takes to enter it

    "The spiritual world, huh?" ire muttered, looking up to the ceiling as if her eyes could pierce it and reach the sky. She kept her head in this position for a while, likely sorting her thoughts out before lowering it back down and looking into my face.


    Yet, rather than continuing with her exnation, ire simply stared me right in the face with a deep, profound look on her face.


    "Do you know what is the one thing that humans have been trying to achieve since times immemorial?"


    I squinted my eyes a bit. mpy _r.


    "Power? Richess?" I quickly guessed, only for ire to shake her head with a small, faint smile.


    "You need to think... bigger," she advised, only to string her eyebrows together before shaking her head a little and backtracking on her words. "No, not bigger. Greater."


    This time, I actually gave ire''s question a little more thought, searching beyond what appeared like a random, obvious answer.


    "Eternal youth? The power of undying?"


    ire''s lips trembled as her smile grew slightly bigger.


    "Now, try something simpler, but along the lines, you are already thinking."


    I closed my mouth as I shut up for a moment, only to quickly arrive at the answer that both fit ire''s instructions and also made sense in my own understanding of what life, ambition, and cultivation all were for humans.


    "Could it be, immortality?"


    Rather than answering, rie confirmed my educated guess with a nod of her head.


    "Immortality to cultivators is like... maybe not air and food, but like money and women to the mortals," she said, her lips trembling a little into a semnce of a smile as she mentioned her own sex. "The difference is, what mortals can achieve is temporary, but immortality?" she posed her words into a question, only to then shake her head.


    "Immortality is quite the self-exnatory concept for those who never dabble in cultivation. But even though I''ve yet to reach beyond the mortal realm, I''m aware that in reality," ire sighed heavily, "things are not as great, easy or simple."


    Taking a short pause, ire used it to figure out the pattern for the next part of her exnation while taking her time to calm down the pace of her breaths.


    "This isn''t exactly a topic I''m well-versed with, so take everything I say not with a grain but a handful of salt, but... Merely by breaking free from the constraints of the mortal realm, you can extend your lifespan by around twenty, twenty-five years," ire exined only for a sour smile to decorate her lips. "And that''s just by breaking beyond the mortal stage!"


    For a moment, ire kept the agitated look on her face, only to then let the air out of her lungs as she breathed out and rxed a bit.


    "I can''t really tell how much you can extend your life by breaking through the consecutive stages within the cultivator''s realm, but if we were to trust the rumors, by the time you break into the immortality stage..."


    This time, ire didn''t pause. She outright finished the topic, making it known with all of herself that it was the limit of what she was willing... Or rather, what she could talk about.


    "Then, if it''s all about just extending your lifespan, why is your father in such a hurry to break through to the tenth stage of mortal cultivation?" I asked, happy to know more yet failing to connect what ire said to anything that I was actually asking about.


    "He''s breaking through to the tenth rank, not beyond the mortal realm," ire pointed out with a small smile, as if pointing out this small detail I''d missed somehow was enough to greatly entertain her. "But it rted to how breaking beyond the mortal realm increases your lifespan.


    On that point, I can''t help but wonder, though," she added as she crossed her hands on her chest and gave me a mischievous side-eye, "can you figure it out yourself?"


    "So it has something to do with increasing one''s lifespan... but also their age?" I muttered in a questioning tone, even though I didn''t really expect any sort of answer to it.


    And in the end, I didn''t even need a hint to notice the potential problem.


    "Is it about how the increase to one''s lifespan can affect their own age?" I tried my best to guess, going along with the potential inconsistency ire''s hints helped me notice.


    For what does it mean to increase one''s lifespan?


    Was the mechanic behind it about changing how one''s body operated to artificially slow down the aging process? Or maybe the consecutive breakthroughs came with a mutation that reversed the effects of aging that were already present within a cultivator''s body?


    "You are right on the money," ire smiled a little... Only to then put away the device she just finished assembling only to then grab theponents for another one and push the cable in before picking up her exnations again.


    "While the way in which one''s lifespan increases isn''t well researched due to the rift between the spiritual and the scientific worlds. But, ording to what I''ve heard, once you are past a certain age, the effects won''t be as great as they should be."


    ''And that alone gives us some clues over the way in which this prolongation of lifespan happens,'' I thought, taking a mental note of this observation...


    Before stuffing it into the back of my head as I did with most of the other things I was fully aware of not be ready to properly digest, research, or analyze.


    "As for why my dad is in a hurry, it''s simple. Unless he gets to the tenth rank before turning forty-five, he will be deemed talentless. And while that doesn''t mean he won''t be able to ever enter it..."


    ire pursed her lips, cutting her exnation in the middle of her sentence while putting on a grim look on her face.


    "Wait, this is one thing no one bothered to exin to me yet," I protested slightly... while actually doing my very best to change the topic after sensing how ire wasn''tfortable talking about the one we just finished. "What does it take for one to enter the spiritual world to begin with?"


    Up until now, I thought that unless Chihiro broke through to the tenth stage of mortal cultivation, he wouldn''t even be able to enter the spiritual world. But now that I''ve listened to ire, it turned out that failing to reach that stage before his time ran out... wouldn''t really change a thing in that regard.


    Sure, this kind of failure would reflect on his chances to grow in the future... But all on its own, it apparently wouldn''t block him from entering the spiritual world in the first ce.


    ''Wait, now that I think about it... Unless it''s about their family matters, is there an actual reason why he wants to gain the right to enter that ce to begin with?'' I thought, only for my eyes to turn slightly wider when the realization struck me.


    ''Or maybe, the reason why he''s so desperate not to go beyond his deadline has something to do with ire''s mother? Maybe his failure would directly trante into his wife''s family banning him from visiting my mother-inw-to-be?''


    "You see, the spiritual world is filled with Qi..." ire hesitated for a while. Judging by the look on her face, she searched for the right words to pass on the meaning in her head. "The Qi in the spiritual world is different.


    Even though the difference is small..." ire shook her head, "it changes the situation to the point that one''s attempt to reach beyond the tenth stage of cultivation in the mortal realm is a running joke for those in the spiritual world."


    I squinted my eyes a bit, intrigued by this unexpected piece of information. Yet, regardless of how intriguing it was, my hands continued to move, gradually putting together theponents and assembling yet another device.


    "Do you happen to know what kind of a difference it is?" I asked, eager to learn more about it so that, if possible, I could try to artificially change the Qi in this world into the Qi that was present in the spiritual realm.


    "If I did, I wouldn''t be stuck in this realm, would I?" ire grinned as she answered, only to then shake her head as she put away another finished device... And then leaned back on her hands, once again raising her head up to the ceiling.


    "Keep this between the two of us, but this is the actual reason why my father is in such a rush. You need to be at least at the ninth stage of cultivation to safely enter the spiritual world, but you need to reach the peak of the mortal realm if you want to go there while protecting others from the pressure of the spiritual Qi over there."


    ire took in a deep breath before lowering her chin and looking me straight in the eyes.


    "In the end, it isn''t for himself that my father wants to go to the spiritual world.


    It was always his goal to bring me over there while I''m still in the lower stages of the mortal realm so that I could break free from the chains of mortality not with the help of the inferior spiritual Qi of this part of the world, but by cultivating the superior spiritual Qi exclusive to the spiritual world instead."

 Chapter 144: Demon of the Casso Valley

    "What the hell is the meaning of this?!"


    Cassie stood with her head lowered and her hands cupped together behind her back, doing her very best to appear as small as she could in the perverse hope that somehow, SOMEHOW, the rage of the patriarch would just wash over her.


    "We''ve invested so much into the interception, and you are telling me it all failed?!"


    This wasn''t the moment when the news of the string of failures reached the ears of those responsible for nning and then putting them into action. Instead, this was the moment when, right upon leaving his short seclusion, the patriarch of the family had to endure the constant face-pping of seemingly endless failures.


    Yet, for all of his rage, the old man''s mood nigh instantly swung back to a perfect calm, showcasing the level of control he had over his own mental state.


    A deed¡­ or rather, an ability worthy the man hailed to be the strongest in the entire province!


    "Let me first make sure that I''ve heard everything correctly," Adean, the family''s patriarch, uttered in a cold, seemingly emotionless voice as he stared at the first in line of his heirs who followed the protocol and rushed to report as soon as the housekeeper AI detected the patriarch leaving his cultivation garden.


    The man, a ninth-stage cultivator himself, shuddered under the weight of the re, making it seem as if his body mass was silently evaporating into the air, making him appear smaller and smaller for every second that his father, and Cassie''s grandfather, stared him down.


    "The Junopany acquisition has failed. Chi corporation won the bid."


    Despite all the pressure, the man managed to keep a tiny portion of his calm, presenting his report in a steady and collected manner that greatly contrasted the unsettled look in his eyes.


    Even though there was only one rank of difference in the cultivation between him and Cassie''s grandparents¡­ He managed to reach the ninth stage only recently, while his father has long since started to knock on the doors of true cultivation, only struggling to properly advance due to how much of his attention the n required, stopping the old man from cultivating in the spiritual world in peace.


    And now, the very acquisition that would finally solve most of the n''s issues¡­ fell through.


    Strangely enough, however, even though it was Adean''s bitter rival throwing a wrench into his ns, the old man ended up¡­ smiling?


    It was but a gentle smile, if one could even call it a smile when it was no more but a twitch of the corner of his lips.


    Still, it was infinitely better than his cold, judging, and silently furious re.


    "If it was that bastard, then there was little to nothing you could do," Adean imed while waving his hand as if dismissing his son''s guilt. But then, he looked over to Cassie''s second uncle, the middle son of her father''s generation.


    Not waiting to be called out - or maybe hoping to avoid the endless tirade of how dim he had to be not to step up when it was his turn - Kush took a step forward and stood at attention, pushing his chest out and chin up.


    "I''ve solidified our position in the southern estate development project. We currently hold twenty percent of thend and sixty percent of the total investment value. Even if we fail to buy out more of the shares, we now have enough to push through with the changes!"


    Even though it was a meeting of powerful cultivators, what they ended up discussing, weren''t matters of cultivation¡­ but pure business.


    Or, in this particr case, a perfectly legal scheme of the n to alter the direction of the new development project towards more affluent customers, hoping to raise thend value of not only the development project itself but even more importantly, thend value of all the holdings they''ve bought up in the area mere weeks before the city passed the bill to kickstart the development project in the first ce.


    In the strictest of senses, contrary to the project assigned to the oldest of the patriarch''s three sons, this entire scheme held no political value whatsoever, limited merely to making their n even richer than it already was.


    "Good," Adean nodded his head, praising his middle son with this simple gesture as well as dismissing him, allowing the middle-aged man to breathe out a sigh of relief as he took a step back into the row of the n''s direct descendants.


    Then, Adean''s eyes moved over to his youngest son, Cassie''s father, and lingered on him for a bit¡­ Only for the patriarch to roll his eyes and move past the man.


    Even for how massive their n was, be it in terms of its members, in terms of its political power, or financial prowess¡­ There were only so many projects that the group could focus on at the same time. And with most of their finances already bound in the southern estate development with the great majority of what was left dedicated to the bidding for the acquisition¡­


    There simply wasn''t any major task the patriarch could assign to his youngest!


    Adean continued his stroll for just a few steps more, only to stop right in front of Cassie before turning his head and giving her his famous, judging look.


    Feeling the stare, Cassie could only shrivel into herself even further, fully aware that her report, while extremely important, was only for the patriarch''s ears. And so, as much as it meant sacrificing some of her standing within the family, all she could do was grit her teeth and keep her head low, hoping for the torture to pass as soon as possible.


    "I''ve wasted enough of my time on your lot," the patriarch finally spoke out, addressing the whole group en masse as opposed to singling Cassie out. "Everyone but Garry and Cassie, get the hell out of my sight!"


    For a moment, the room filled with the smallmotion of the direct descendants leaving.


    Some, like the first son, looked at Garry, Cassie''s father, with a mix of satisfaction and anger, as if they were happy the youngest would get chewed out in private as opposed to the public but quick scolding he received while, at the same time, feeling jealous over the amount of attention the patriarch would pay to the youngest.


    On the other hand, Kush merely nodded his hand as he passed by his brother, free of the unjustified hate that somehow soured the rtionship between the oldest and the youngest, just as he was free from any feeling of affection towards him.


    When it came to Cassie, however, hardly anyone paid her any mind or attention, deeming her too unimportant to waste their time on her.


    It was only when everyone in the room left, save for Adean, Garry, Cassie, and Adean''s personal assistant, that the atmosphere took a sudden change as the patriarch casually sat down on one of the expensive chairs in the room before stretching his legs out and locking his eyes on the father-daughter pair.


    "So?" Adean asked while leaning his head over his right shoulder, allowing his long, gray hair to fall down to one side of his head. "Now that we are done with the politics, how about you give your actual report?"


    Garry sighed lightly, shedding the poker face he mustered up for the meeting and revealing the usual, strangely happy look.


    "All five attempts failed, as designed," Garry reported right as Cassie brought her hands up to her face to massage it.


    As the daughter of the Patriarch''s favorite, she did enjoy the privilege of Adean''s silent favor. Yet, while her acting ability was even better than that of her father¡­ She still struggled to switch between the persona that she acted out during the meeting thus far and the calm, steady, and calctive girl she was in reality.


    A switch she struggled so hard with, she actually had to massage her face to let her muscles return to their natural arrangement!


    "The fifth attempt turned into a disaster, though, with those terrorist fuckers trying to get involved," shemented from behind her hard-working hands. "And while it''s still only a guess, I believe I''ve found out why¡­" Cassie squinted her eyes, only to then drop her hands down and shake her head. "No. I believe I''ve found out who they were after.


    And if I''m right, it wasn''t ire as we initially thought."


    Adean squinted his eyes.


    "How sure are you of this guess of yours?" the patriarch asked while resting his elbow on the hand''s armrest and then using his fist as a support for his cheek.


    "Solid, but not certain," Cassie reported in a calm voice, the one element of her core personality she actually struggled to preserve and thus paid great attention to practice whenever she had the time and opportunity to do so. "If I''m correct, then it''s not Chihiro or ire that we ought to worry about, but the stray they''ve picked up from somewhere."


    "That guy we tried to kidnap?" Adean asked to ensure he had the facts straight.


    "That''s right," Cassie nodded her head before quickly fishing out her phone from her pocket, tapping away on it for a moment before passing the device over with a short cut of a video ready to y on it. "Please, do check out this recording and make your own judgment."


    Intrigued, Adean brought his eyebrows together a little, only to ept the phone and look down at the screen as he yed the short video. As he did, however, a frown first appeared on his face, only for his eyes to then open wide.


    "That''s¡­" the old man muttered, only for his face to rx as a satisfied smile appeared on his lips. "Great job, kids," he then praised the two as his smile continued to grow wider. "If this video is real, then we''ve just found out what that bastard was so desperate to hide from us!"

 Chapter 145: The first blueprint I can truly call my own

    "Ha¡­! Finally done!"


    A shout of jubtion escaped from my lips, only to soon fade, turning into a small shriek if not a shrill by the end of thest word.


    Even though assembling the devices wasn''t the kind of work I would ssify as a hard manualbour, it was so repetetive, so boring, it brought me to my mental limits.


    ''If not for ire being here with me, I would''ve gone insane¡­'' I thought as I gently ced the device down before staring at the array of its siblings disyed on the floor in a nice, perfectly well-organized square.


    In the end, we''ve managed toplete just below a hundred of devices, each of which many times more potent than the prototype I was so proud with.


    ''They are more potent at a cost, though,'' I thought as I ced the device down and took a step back to take my time adoring the results of our hard work. ''It''s a good thing I don''t have to worry about the costs of the electricity.


    Knowing how things are, if I tried to run something like this myself, the government would soon raid the facility suspecting it to be a crypto-mining operation,'' I thought, recalling the news of the recent, harshws against those who risked the integrity of the normal electricitywork by connecting crypto-miners simply through the socket.


    "Now that we are done with those," ire called out after we took our time staring at the results of our hard work, "what do you n to do next?" she asked while looking to the side and cutely angling her head a bit.


    "What, you wanted more than those?" I asked, paraphrasing a quote from a blockbuster movie of the old. I then adored the confused look on ire''s face as her thoughts scrambled toe up with a proper way to exin this wasn''t her intention at all¡­ Only to then shake my head and wave my hand with a slight smile.


    "I''m just joking, dear," I quickly exined before turning my face back to the array of devices on the floor. "Initially, I thought about winging a few more of the air purifiers to further enhance the Qi produced from the electricity, but now that I think about it¡­"


    Whenever I looked at those devices arranged on the floor in the shape of a dot-made square, just one word came to my mind. A word that urately describes this kind of setting; an array.


    But for the quasi-cultivator that I was, this word had another meaning. And it just so happened that, for how little expertise I had within the realm ofying formations and arrays, it honestly sounded like a good idea to utilize!


    "You''ve figured something out, didn''t you?" ire sighed as if silently coping with the fact that no matter what I did or how well something went, it was never enough for me, it was never good enough to give up on improving my designs even further.


    "Yeah," I nodded my head as I squatted down and rubbed my chin, staring as intensely at our devices as I would at some profound piece of art. "It''s just a passing thought, but what if we¡­ set all of those up into an actual array?"


    Even before I finished speaking, my mind already stirred into action, recalling whatever little I''ve learned about the art ofying the foundations down and trying to find ways to implement what I had and what I still could get in time into the schematics, forms, and rules I''ve learned about.


    "I knew it," ire smiled lightly only to suddenly move over to my front before reaching out and mming her hands down on my shoulders, forcing me to look up and temporairly put the thoughts of the formations aside as I stared right back into those chamring, deep brown eyes of hers. "But I also know something else."


    With the smile bright and wide enough to nearly turn into a word itself, ire made half of a step closer, sliding her arms over my shoulder only to then lock them up behind my neck, bringing her face as close as if she wanted to celebrate the end of the work with a sloppy make-out session.


    Instead of going for the kiss, however, ire simply stopped her face just ahead of mine, still beaming that lovely, wide smile of hers right at me.


    "This is something that I''ve noticed before, but I really had to take my time thinking about it to confirm. And right now, I''m nearly certain," she whispered from so close, I could feel her breath hitting my face. "You are thinking about how to make it into an array¡­ by following the cultivator''s rules, right?"


    In the end, ire leaned her head slightly to the side, once again elevating her charm to the levels I struggled to handle. Which, by all means, was a great thing, given the worry I''ve recently had over the potentially ill fate of our rtionship due to the influence of our intimacy-free dual cultivation.


    "You think you are pushing modern ideas onto cultivation, but whenever you did something in the past, it always was an idea born from something of a spiritual nature that you only slightly alter, slightly change to ovee issues you notice."


    I squinted my eyes a bit, sensing the kind of profound depth in ire''s words that was actually enough to take priority over the effects of having her whispering right into my face from so close and while practically hugging me.


    "How about you try to just¡­ let go of the cultivation and do it the way you would if you weren''t concerned about making it seem like something out of the world you clearly don''t feelfortable in?"


    In one way, I could take her words for a shot at me still not knowing enough about the cultivation¡­ Or, at the very least, much less than a cultivator of my current level was supposed to know.


    On the other hand, however, once I put my pride and other useless feelings aside¡­ then I had no other choice but to admit ire''s statement to be perfectly on the point.


    "But if I''m not going to use the spiritual means ofying foundations, then¡­"


    With nothing else to look at besides ire and our devices in the room, I opted to look at thetter, knowing full well that once I overdosed on her smile, there would be no stopping me from taking her here and now. Yet, what started as an attempt to keep my thoughts on the topic, quickly sprouted into an answer to the question I''ve just asked.


    "A circuit¡­ No, a personalputer!"


    I reached up and grabbed ire''s elbows¡­ Only to pry her arms off before turning around and dropping to my knees as I put a finger into my mouth, thered it in saliva before starting to draw simple marks on the floor.


    "Using a circuit for the formation''s baseline is something¡­ That I can do in the future, once we not only confirm it''s possible to actually do it this way and when I get enough practice at doing so. For now, though, it''s best to imagine this room to be theputing unit of a personalputer¡­"


    "Tim?" ire asked, staring down at me with a slight amusement written on her face.


    "Yeah?" I asked as I leaned heavily to the side to put my head at an angle from which I could actually see her.


    "I don''t understand a thing you''ve just said."


    "Oh¡­"


    I took in a deep breath, calming myself down while, at the same time, tranting what I was thinking about from the jargon ire wasn''t familiar with to words simple enough for her to understand while urate enough to still pass the message.


    "You see, when you either set up your ownputer or have someone else to do it, one of the main problems that decide how you will do it, is the issue of keeping the air flowing in just the right way," I''ve exined.


    "Sure, it''s an additional effort you put in after learning how to put all the parts together, which cables should connect to where, what''s the order of putting theponents onto the motherboard¡­"


    I shook my head and waved my hand as if to dismiss the details that were irrelevant to the case at hand.


    "What I want to say is, once you get the basics down, you need to figure out the best way to apply the cooling parts to make sure the air is flowing well. As in, if you have fans blowing air inside the case from every direction¡­ where will the hot air leave through?"


    Rather than just sticking to the general theory of what I wanted to do, I provided a simple example to let ire better picture it.


    "This is the reason why back in the days when the fan on my processor¡­." My face twitched a little as I realized I was falling right back into the trap of speaking in jargon, "when the most important fan of all the ones I had in myputer started to fail, I thought about recing it with a much better one, a fan powerful enough to skip the need for a radiator¡­"


    I shook my head again only to then lean away from the floor where, for just a moment, the wetness of my saliva transferred through my finger turned into a small schematic of how I would arrange all the devices we had on hand along with the purifiers and even some added industrial AC units I saw still lying around the factory in a way that mimicked the airflow in the personalputer I''ve built for myself in the past.


    "The problem was, the entire cooling scheme of myputer back then was about pulling the air from the back of the case and then blowing it all out through the fan at the bottom of the case''s front," I exined only to then point out at the wet drawing on the concrete floor.


    And just like in my personalputer in the past, it would use one AC unit to blow in the air from the outside, straight into the block with all the devices stacked together, working hard to infuse the air with all the QI they could produce.


    Then, the QI-rich air would move ahead to where I would stack the qi-purifiers, taking the qi-rich air and removing all the impurities it could from it before finally delivering it to a funnel, where the cultivator would be able to partake in the feast of a dense, purified QI.


    Then, just to keep the air flowing, the Qi-exhausted air would be sucked in by the second set of AC units, blowing all the air out of the building for it to mix back into the atmosphere.


    A design that pretty much took the parts of my pc, reced them with the devices I either had at hand or could quickly buy or craft, before scaling the whole thing up to the size of the room we were in.


    "Assuming this will actually work¡­" I muttered, only to suddenly stop when I''ve suddenly realized two things.


    "Hmm?" ire muttered, leaning her head over to the side, most likely just to showcase she was listening to my drivel with all the attention she could afford.


    "Then we will be able to add on to this design as I''ve figured more ways to enrich the QI in the air, but¡­"


    This time, ire didn''t say a word, opting to juste closer and grab my hand before giving it an encouraging squeeze instead.


    "But what struck me right now is that¡­"


    I looked down at the wet painting on the floor that was already starting to dry out, removing all the evidence of there ever being anything drawn on the floor in the first ce.


    "But this just might be the very first time when I''vee up with a, quite possibly, brilliant design¡­ without the help of this weird ability of mine!"

 Chapter 146: The weight of the future consequences

    Back in my old life, moving from an idea to just a rough sketch of it would be a herculean task, given the equalck of resources and time.


    Right now, however, we''vepleted that step before even leaving the factory grounds and taking thepany''s car on a trip back home.


    Then, after mere two hours of quick, cuddly nap, we''ve already moved on through the phase of setting a blueprint, shattering the finished design into all the necessary steps. And by the time we went back, the ce was already bustling with activity as close to fifty workers moved around to arrange everyst thing.


    "I had the outer shells of the parts modified," Chihiro informed as soon as he raised his eyes above some sort of a blueprint he was discussing with an architect. He then took a quick nce at the clock and then the foreman, only to receive a raised thumb in response.


    "It appears they are done with the main stack," ire''s father added as he turned his eyes back to the old and somewhat rustic factory behind them, in the full view for both the architect and the foreman¡­ but also Chihiro himself, the wallet behind the whole operation.


    "That''s good," I replied while casually stuffing my hands into my pockets, throwing curious nces towards the building.


    ''Thinking about it it, isn''t this the first time I can see my vision given form so readily?'' I thought, helplessly admiring the actual meaning of power that I''ve now held at my fingertips.


    ''To say I''ve married rich would be an understatement¡­'' I gulped my saliva as yet another avenue of my circumstance revealed itself to my eyes.


    "If all goes well, you should be free to go back to work in an hour or two," Chihiro added after taking another nce at his elegant match, perfectly matching the man''s picture of the ''middle-aged, energetic scion of a big family actively partaking in the business he was investing it''.


    "That was a clever way to deliver both good and bad news at once," I countered with a small, slightly sleazy smile as I paid no mind to hide the exhaustion from my face.


    But such was the nature of life.


    Opportunities came to pretty much everyone.


    Sometimes, one fails to grasp the opportunity because of theck of means. Others didn''t have the talent while others simply failed to grasp the timing of it.


    But right now, I had absolutely nothing I could shift the me to if all those efforts failed to produce a fitting result.


    I had all the means I could ask for. I had talent the limits of which even I myself couldn''t really fathom yet. The only thing missing was time.


    And so, the only way to truly make the most of this moment in my life, was to squeeze as much as I could from my day and spare absolutely no effort to make my goal happen!


    On the other hand, however, it meant working nearly around the clock, and turning those short naps from a form of rxation to a desperate attempt at getting some rest in the rare opportunities to find a proper excuse to take a break!


    ''I think my five years at the institution already proved it, but¡­'' I gulped my saliva down before closing my eyes and holding my breath for a while, only to then slowly sigh as I opened my eyes and looked ahead again¡­ this time from a slightly different angle.


    ''Effort will never be the one thing that I will hold back on!''


    Wasting no more minutes, I simply nodded the high-tier group on the outside off before heading towards the factory.


    By now, the trenches were manned, and the barriers were getting set up as I moved towards the entrance of the factory proper. Inside was even busier, with a small horde of workers doing their best toplete the project, a dedication only seen when there was enough cash to fuel the engines of those damn expensive experts.


    Following after me first, ire soon took over and, as soon as we stepped inside, dragged me by my hand as she eagerly pulled me to one of the corners of thepound.


    After navigating aplexbyrinth of staircases, corners, and corridors, she brought me over to a room fitted with arge window that took over the upper half of the entire wall, revealing a wide, elevated view of the factory stretching out below.


    "You can watch over as they work from here, while already thinking about how to deal with the next part," ire happily announced as she let go of my hand to run into the room and spread her arms open as she twisted on her legs and turned to face me with that lovely, beaming smile of hers.


    "This looks like one hell of an office space," I thought, recalling the time when I ended up working the most boring job imaginable, doing nothing but packing small boxes into bigger boxes while under the constant watch of the factory foreman whose office hung over the central point of the factory floor.


    And as petty and¡­ small-person kind of a feeling as it was, I just couldn''t help but enjoy the prospect of leisurely sipping on an expensive tea while overlooking a busy crowd of workers eagerly working their assess off for a fair and generous wage¡­ While still greatly contributing to the growth of my wealth!


    ''I guess this is going to be the next step, once this ce bes one hell of an ace for Chihiro to hold in a sleeve¡­''


    Moving over to the window, I looked down at the factory floor¡­ Only for my thoughts to move over to the distant side of the issue, one that I generally tried to ignore. The politics of this whole mess.


    ''It''s going to end up either as a ce for rent for the VIPs he will want to coax, or a stand to promote the new technology within the elites before the actualunch into the wide world.''


    Even though we were still merely taking the first step on this path, I could already feel the tremors the change we heralded would cause as the weight of my discovery would drop onto the pages of history and cause the ripples from where and when it drops.


    ''The moment the world finds out about this thing¡­'' I thought, only to let out a long, heavy sigh.


    "Why so troubled?" ire asked as she scooted over to my side and, as usual, wrapped her hands around my lower arm, quickly hiding my hand between her palms as she pressed herself into my shoulder. "I thought things were going well?" she stated as she leaned her head to the right so that my shoulder wouldn''t obstruct her view of my face as she gave me her iconic, inquisitive look.


    "Just looking at how it will end, is all," I responded absent-mindedly, struggling to face the weight of the consequences this whole process that I''ve started and now was overlooking would bring in the future.


    "Is that so?" ire raised one of her eyebrows, only to pull her head back before following through with her upper body as she leaned back while still holding onto my arm. "Then¡­ You know¡­"


    Her voice faded a little, prompting me to look over, only for her arms to rise and then slide across my back and chest as she locked me in a tight, side-ways hug before raising her eyes and sheepishly staring right into my eyes.


    "You see, I think you are just tired," she stated as if it was a matter of fact, only for the corners of her lips to then raise in a small, yful grin. "And I know just the way to get you started for the day!"

 Chapter 147: Short-break temptation

    "Aaaagh¡­"


    A long moan escaped from my lips, carrying both the immense sense of relief and a solid hint of pain, right as ire''s thumbs dug deep into my muscles.


    Under her loving care, however, I couldn''t care less about the pain¡­ Especially when she really had the knack for the massage!


    Despiteing in to work with hardly any sleep, under the tender kneading of her hands, ire forced most of my tensed-up muscles to rx. And unless I was looking too deep into it, she used slightly extensive force¡­ just to keep me awake, now that my body was gradually shutting down into a more rxed state.


    The room with the window overlooking the main factory floor was pretty bare, with just some cheap paint on the walls and wooden floors. There was hardly any furniture inside, with merely a coffee stand and a simple stool filling up the room''s interior.


    And yet, right now, this was all we needed to spend some quality time with each other.


    "Heavens, you are tense all over," ireined, sounding more worried than dissatisfied. "I¡­" ire cut her voice, as if suddenly ufortable with what she initially wanted to say.


    "I''m sorry it turned out like this," she muttered, rxing the pressure of her hands, only to slide her arms on my shoulders as she leaned down and hugged me from behind. "I know it''s just bad luck rather than anyone''s fault, but still, I''m really sorry."


    I raised my hand and ced it down on the arms she locked on my chest as she rested her chin down on my left shoulder, pressing her cheek against mine while looking down with a deep, suppressed grief on her face.


    "Don''t be like that," I protested, holding one hand on her arms while using the other to lightly flick her nose. "I''m more than happy and personally invested in making all of this happen. You don''t need to apologize for something I''m responsible for!"


    I smiled at the girl.


    And in all honesty?


    Seeing her worry over details that¡­ small? Seeing her all moody because of such a simple issue just¡­


    ''Ugh¡­''


    I let go of ire''s arms to clutch down on my heart, all the while she made things even worse by noticing and then cutely looking down, just to track what I was doing and solve whatever was behind that adorably curious face of her!


    ''Just how can she be so damn adorable?!'' I wailed in my heart, clutching down on it out of fear it would just jump out of my chest in its energetic dance.


    With this insane, homey vibe of a graceful, newlywed housewife of hers, ire''s usual face was enough to get me all bothered. And now, I was privy to all sorts of looks she was giving me as her tender care mixed with just the casual, everyday small talk.


    "And damn, let me tell you this," I let go of my heart only to reach a bit higher and ce my hand down on ire''s forearms locking on my chest. I then turned my head a bit, just enough to have an easier time looking up at my girl''s face. "I''ve never once had a single regret."


    ire''s face froze up a little, and her eyes widened just enough to show movement. Then, her cheeks started to cover in blush¡­ but one strangely of a much deeper color and one that reached all the way to the bottom of her huge, light-brown eyes.


    From up close, the freckles of her long, slightly curvy heir only served to add another artisticyer of beauty to the picture, adding to the already existing mix of ire''s both adorable and maturely feminine face traits.


    Then again, by sticking up so close to me, ire was inevetably working against what she was trying to achieve. This mere massage, while serving to help my muscles rx, ultimately caused a part of me to start tensing up instead!


    An instance ire clearly noticed, given how she could pretty much feel it through our spirituality at this point, and that''s assuming she didn''t notice it the normal way in the first ce.


    "You know, there''s actually one thing I wanted to bring up before we get the parts and thus get to work."


    "Hmm?" I raised my eyes at this tant attempt at changing the topic, curious what made her react in this way.


    "Last night, when I woke up a bit earlier than you did, I just happened to open your channel and look through your ylists," ire whispered while gently tucking her head in to reach closer with her lips to my ear.


    "Hmm?" Taken aback and still slightly confused by the change of the topic, I couldn''t really¡­


    ''Wait, my ylists¡­?'' My eyes twitched as I thought through all the possible meanings of this word in the context of what ire brought up.


    And a momentter,


    ''Oh shit,'' my eyes twitched again, right as a gentle gust of air blew into my air.


    "Fuuu¡­" letting go of my chest and pulling back, ire cupped her hands over my air before gently blowing into it.


    "You see¡­" she then whispered into her hands and thus my ear, intentionally dragging her words just to make her voice slightly more intimate. "It caught my eye so I took a slightly better look and would you know what I found?"


    The moment ire rxed her hands and took them away from my ear, she pushed them over to the other side of my head, holding it as she pressed then leaned over my ear, doing nothing but breathing from up close.


    And then, with her lips brushing against the lobe of my ear,


    "You''ve watched quite a lot of¡­" Once again, ire intentionally dragged her voice a bit, "rather intense ASMR videos, didn''t you?" She asked¡­ only for our attention to move to a group of workers that had just stepped onto the factory''s main floor, each of them carrying a huge, clearly heavy box.


    "I did indeed¡­" I sighed, looking back at the times when I used those to abate my loneliness and general mental exhaustion. "But it looks like we will have to leave it for¡­ AH!"

 Chapter 148: What if we add afterburner?

    As much as I wished to indulge in ire''s live performance of direct, intimate ASMR¡­


    This still wasn''t yet the time for us to just enjoy ourselves as we wished and desired.


    Until the very moment, we would all have to leave the area to iste Chihiro during his attempt at breaking through, we had to do our very best to raise his odds as much as we possibly could.


    And so, while the temptation couldn''t be greater, with the supplies I needed to do my part nowing in, we simply couldn''t afford to waste our time on just a bonding experience.


    "As embarrassing as it is to say, I wouldn''t mind having it for a reward once we are done with all of this," I admitted while stealing a nce at ire''s face.


    By now, we pretty much did everything a young and horny couple would do given as much time we were together.


    In other words, I''ve already seen everything that there was to see, and lived through most of the stuff that we could do to each other¡­ And yet, even now, even after everything, just the thought of ire being all over me while giving me a live performance of the intense kind of ASMR I used to listen to was enough to make me blush all over and act like a virgin that would get a nose-bleed merely from a single nce of ire''s breast!


    "Then¡­" ire muttered, only to cut her words short as she simply grinned while looking at my face.


    "I''m already starting to worry¡­ Just go easy on me, will you?" I requested only to reach out and rustle ire''s hair with my hand, enjoying the sense of pride from how ire not only allowed me to do it but apparently enjoyed the small caress herself!


    "Oh, you just wait and see that I won''t!" she rebelled while putting just the most adorable look of yful refusal on her face.


    As much as I wished I could just keep on bickering with her like that, the time waited for no one. And now that the workers brought in the materials necessary for me to craft the air filters I included in my designs, there was no further excuse for us to keep on cking.


    "I guess I will be looking forward to it, then," I closed the topic by both expressing my anticipation but also by grabbing ire''s hand and then pulling her ahead, out of the room I''ve already assigned for my future office and back down to the factory''s main floor.


    "Oh! Sir! Where do you want us to deliver those boxes for you?" one of the workers shouted as soon as he caught sight of the two of us moving down the stairs.


    "There''s this former freezer near the factory core, leave all of them there!" I called right back only to then direct my steps towards the very freezer I mentioned, which has now be nothing more but another empty room of the factory, with the added benefit of there already being proper infrastructure for it to serve as yet another enclosed space within the factory where one could be a little more secretive than they would be in the open part of the factory.


    Yet, even though I was already rushing to get to work myself, we didn''t even get to reach the ce I would adopt for a temporary workshop when yet another idea popped up in my head.


    "You know, now that I think about it, isn''t it a waste to just blow all of the air through the anchor and then just suck it all out?" I thought as I imagined the whole process we were designed to happen in the factory in search of any sort of problems that could still pop out.


    "What else can you do with it, though?" ire asked, lowering her voice to the point where even I had to struggle to decipher it from the bunch of noises caused by all the work and the workers moving around toplete their jobs.


    "What if we looked at it like¡­ a furnace? Or an engine, to be more precise?" I suggested, rubbing my chin as I stood by the entrance of what used to be the freezer, watching how the workers brought all sorts of boxes inside. "What do you think would happen if, rather than just throwing this once-used air¡­ what if we were to somehow reuse it?"


    This was the absolute peak of what I could figure out after drilling my thoughts into this topic ever since I finalized the main blueprint.


    "You mean¡­" ire hesitated a bit, "like, an afterburner? A second burn of what we would otherwise vacuum away to maintain the flow?" she asked while squinting her eyes.


    "Yeah¡­ I''m thinking¡­ what if we added two side channels that would draw the used air away¡­ only to then use the same principle as the one used in the vacuum paint sprayers to infuse this air right back into the air that we feed directly from the reversed AC?"


    ire''s face contorted a bit.


    "What vacuum principle?" she asked, clearly unfamiliar with the peculiar rule in physics that found quite an interesting use in several devices I was aware of.


    "The rule is that moving air has lower pressure than air that either doesn''t move or moves slower. So, if we just use some fans or the AC to suck the air out of the system¡­"


    I moved my hands through the air as if to paint the flow of the air within the system on the space itself.


    "Once we suck it out, we push it back through the side channels¡­" I muttered while rolling my hands and then pushing them away, only to then roll them right back and p them together. "Then, we just¡­ add the exhaust right at the spot where the air was originally supposed toe from before getting infused with QI and then purified¡­"


    The more I thought about it, the better of an idea it appeared to be.


    The main reason why this ce could be an ace in Chihiro''s sleeve was because it allowed one to be exposed to the constant flow of qi-rich and extremely pure air through the one spot where one would cultivate.


    Yet, even for the cultivator of Chihiro''s level, I failed to believe he could fully take all the Qi out of the air in the single instant that it passed through¡­ and then keep doing so for as long as he remained within the anchor of the system.


    That''s why, rather than blowing all this air still filled with some degree of purified Qi¡­ wouldn''t it be better to just feed it back into the system, introducing only enough fresh air into it to keep it breathable?


    "What if we used one of the flows as you described and then the other to add on to the formation?" ire suggested, proving that while her level of expertise on the topic was even below mine, she still did have her cultivator''smon sense!


    "Oh right, Ipletely forgot that the formations should be charged too," I muttered, only to then face an issue, right as the workers started to leave the freezer area upon dropping all the boxes there.


    "How do I actually infuse spiritual energy into an air-cirction system?"

 Chapter 149: Peoples time isnt worth the same

    "Damn," I whistled when I opened up the biggest of the boxes and took a peek inside.


    After staring for a moment, I then reached out and pulled a set of two tes and roughly six metal rods before quickly arranging them into their proper, predestined form.


    "I have to admit, they really pulled their weight with those," I then muttered as I admired the finished product.


    Standing before me was a bee-hive-like structure, consisting of two thin, metal walls with six rods arranged in between to keep them steady. Thanks to a series of hooks on the inner side of those metal tes, I only needed to open up another box, pull out the air filters, and then stretch them from one wall to the other.


    Repeating this process a total of nine times, I''ve filled the entire front-back surface of the whole thing, turning the simple stand into an industrial-grade modr air filter.


    "Don''t forget about those," ire pointed behind her back with her thumb, at the two massive fans, formerly used to bring the temperature in the room down.


    Right now, however, thanks to the valiant efforts of the highly paid and skilled workers, those two old fans were gone and reced with state-of-the-art air condensators, plugged directly into the factory''s air cirction system.


    ording to the blueprint, the air from the freezer would have to pass through its foldable, sliding doors to reach the rest of the factory''s main floor¡­ Or, on the blueprint, to reach the next step on its designed path.


    "Now we just need like a hundred more of them¡­" I then muttered as I turned my eyes from the machine to the stack of boxes with the samebel that had grown into a small mountain by this point.


    "I think we should just let the others do it¡­" ire suggested, easily noticing the source of my sudden distress.


    "No, we should be the ones to do it."


    I shook my head before sping my hands against my face to sober up a bit.


    By now, the great benefits of ire''s massage were starting to fade, reced with the level of exhaustion I was honestly getting used to.


    ''It''s thest straight, man! Pull your head up and just grit your teeth through it!''


    Taking a moment to regain a clear view of the end-goal, I cast aside my earlier dislike of ire''s idea.


    "Wait, you know what, you are right. Let''s have others do it for us," I vocalized the change in my mind as I decided not to let excessive secrecy put an even greater burden on the two of us.


    It wasn''t me going for the easier solution where I could shift my responsibilities, but more of an honest evaluation of the worth of everyone''s time and remaining energy.


    ''If we tire ourselves down on this menial task, we won''t be able to do anything else. It''s much better if I focus on searching even further into what else I can do to improve this design¡­'' I thought, raising my eyes to the finished air filter module.


    "I mean, there are benefits to doing it ourselves¡­" ire suddenly changed her tone as well, as if unwilling to let me be alone in the wrong.


    "No, what''s the point of secrecy here if we are going to end up putting them on disy anyway?" I shook my head, readily dismissing the issue. "Instead¡­" I took onest look at the filter, only to turn away from it, giving up on the opportunity to indulge some more in just the standard, mind-soothing crafting.


    And so, not daring to waste another minute, I stepped out of the freezer before waving at the nearest worker.


    "Hey! Yes, you!" I called, taking my time to make sure the other party got my intentions. "Could you call for a foreman for me?"


    The worker threw a quick nce at my elegant suit, quite unbing of a ce as dirty, rundown, and in the very middle of a general rebuilding as the factory''s main floor.


    And so, instead of throwing logs at my feet, he simply nodded his head and reached out for his walkie-talkie.


    And a momentter¡­


    "Yes? How can I help?"


    This was the same foreman I saw discussing something outside with Chihiro and the architect. Right now, however, the blueprint they were looking at was stuffed into his pocket, along with the number of tools great enough to prove he was taking an active part in the building process rather than justfortably overseeing it.


    "I would actually like to add two channels outside of the main flow, that will direct the exhaust back into the enriching core," I spoke out in a low tone, just loud enough for the man to hear me while I supplemented what meaning could be lost by gesturing with my hands to sort-of paint a picture of what I wanted.


    "Hmm¡­" the leader of the workers rubbed his chin for a moment, thinking my request over. "That¡­ We should be able to do that, but it will add¡­" he took a moment to calcte, "about ten hours? And that''s a positive estimate. We would have to either rip out the existing structures or further narrow down the main path to separate the main flow from the backflow."


    I smiled and nodded, pretending I could understand everything, while in reality, deriving the meaning of some parts purely out of context.


    "But yeah, if you are fine with the dy, we should be able to whip something like that out," the man reported with the smile of a craftsman who knew the extent of his abilities and just how practical they were.


    "Keep in mind that I''m quite likely to keep adding stuff all the way up until the veryst moment," I jokingly added, drawing upon the few designs I already had in my head but needed both more time and some specific parts to implement.


    "Keep in mind, right now we can modify stuff because we have both time and room. But just with this backflow idea, there''s only so much more we can stuff into various points of the structure before its throughput will be affected."


    ''To think there would be a time in my life where I would be genuinely worried about throughput,'' I thought, only for the corner of my lips to twitch into a small, amused smile, ''what''s next, automation of all the basic resources so that I can build whatever I want unrestrained by something as silly as cost?'' I thought, only for the smile on my face to slightly deepen.


    ''Thinking about this¡­ who is there to say it''s actually a bad idea?''

 Chapter 150: Booting the factory up

    "Safety checkpleted. All stations are green to go." Following this short report, the man sitting behind a huge control panel with a mess of all sorts of wires tapped into it turned his head over his shoulder, and locked his eyes on me. "Should we proceed?"


    I locked my eyes on the man for a moment before looking up, to the messy factory floor ahead.


    Right now, the factory was just one big mess.


    Even from just my point of view, I could see at least seven different ces where the concrete floor and padding of the floor were broken through to allow ess to the cables running underneath the factory floor. The walls weren''t treated any better, with the live wires exposed out in the open for all to see, as opposed to being hidden in the special, metal boxes.


    The cables themselves ran all over the floor, connected in the easiest, most convenient manner to all the devices as opposed to having them wired properly and in a way that wouldn''t expose a single cable.


    By all means, this project was still far frompletion. But what wascking right now, was merely the presentation, the finishing touches necessary to bring it from a working state to an open operation state.


    And judging by the rows of green lights shing on the control panel just ahead, when it came to its actual productivity, everything was ready.


    "Can you run the safety check again?" I requested, alternating my eyes between the console and the factory floor ahead. "With how things are all out in the open, it''s like begging for an ident to happen."


    The foreman raised his head again to take a look at my face again, before smiling a little and then raising a small walkie-talkie-turned-speaker.


    "Attention, attention, attention!" the man spoke into the walkie-talkie, that connected to the veryst system added to the building - a factory-wide inte allowing one to address every floor, room, and level at the same time. "We are about to run the procedure. Evacuate the floor now!"


    Waiting for no further instructions, the foreman then flicked a few switches on his control panel before raising the speaking device to his mouth again.


    "So we have the full count?" he asked only to lower his hand right away and then just wait.


    And a short momentter, another diode, this time a red one, shed on the control panel a single instant before the integrated speakers rang with a response.


    "Roll callpleted, all staff is off the floor. You can green-light the test."


    Even though I''ve only met the man twice in the day, I could still recognize the voice of the architect. While the man spent most of his time chatting with Chihiro while the man was still on-site, by now, he was reduced to the role of the foreman of ensuring the safety of the working crew.


    "It''s all green," the foreman announced as he turned his eyes over to me again. "Should we¡­?"


    I took a deep breath before blindly reaching out to the side and either by luck or by ire''s own intervention, find ire''s hand and give it a squeeze.


    "Okay¡­" I muttered before taking in a deep breath, raising my head, and making myself look like a proper, overconfident scion of a high-value family. "Everyone! Eyes on the meters! I know it''s all being recorded, but I want to hear your impressions as soon as we conclude the test!" I called out before sighing and turning my eyes back to the foreman.


    "Let''s do it."


    Hearing my approval, the foreman nodded his head before reaching out for the only big leaver on the control panel and slowly, carefully pushing it up.


    This wasn''t a process that one couldplete instantly, just by switching everything from off to on. In reality, this whole process was more like staging in a space rocket, with every inch the lever moved activating the next stage.


    And so, at first, all the lights in the factory suddenly flickered out of existence, reced by several diodes shing up on the control panel.


    ''So far, so good,'' I thought, fully aware of what was going on.


    Given the massive energy consumption of the process, just to properly test everything out before the fullunch, the electricians made sure to rewire absolutely everything that required even the slightest amperage into a new circuit, one mostly responsible for the mess of the cables running all over the factory floor.


    Right now, however, the foreman''s hand stopped as we all locked our eyes on just a single diode that currently shed in yellow.


    "Come on¡­" ire muttered while giving my hand a squeeze, eagerly waiting to see whether the first and most energy-demanding module of the whole factory would make it through theunch phase.


    And so, after a few moments of tense waiting, the yellow diode¡­ turned green!


    "Uff¡­" even the foreman sighed while a single drop of sweat trickled down from his forehead, across his cheek, and then hung from the edge of his chin. "That was quite nerve-wracking, wasn''t it?" he admitted half-jokingly.


    "Readings are good, we can continue!" someone reported from the depths of the control room located on the very same passage as the would-be office while boasting the very same benefit as that office-to-be, of a massive window overlooking the main floor of the factory.


    "Good, then¡­"


    Rather than finishing his sentence, the foreman focused on slowly dragging the level another inch.


    All of a sudden, all the lights returned to the factory, showing it to be¡­ exactly the same as back when the test had yet to start.


    The first module referred to all the Qi-transformers, and then the unit of the Qi-condensers was stacked in line with it. And by all means, this was the most energy-consuming part of the whole process¡­ No, the most energy-consuming part of the whole factory.


    And while now that the readings on the control panel proved it was running¡­ there were absolutely no visible hints of anything changing from everyone''s mortal perspective.


    For me and ire, however, the effects of turning the main module on couldn''t be any more obvious.


    "That''s¡­ quite the sight, isn''t it?" the girl muttered while giving my hand another squeeze.


    "It is¡­" I whispered in response while reciprocating the hand squeeze and then gritting my teeth. "Honestly, I don''t think I would be able to move an inch if I were to fall into that kind of mess¡­"


    From our perspective, just by radiating out from where the module was hidden, the Qi in the surrounding areas grew to the point where it would be an actual and tall challenge to move an inch through the air the Qi infused into.


    And if that was merely the radiation from where the actual magic was taking ce, the scale of the effect in the core of the whole machinery had to be something on another damn level!


    "Everything okay?" The foreman of the workers asked, his hand freezing the very instant he heard our whispering and took it for a hint of something bad happening.


    "Yeah, we just took note of what''s happening, but it''s pretty much exactly what we expected, I exined while nodding my head to the man. "And actually, I think it''s better if we keep going with the test. Even if we stop it now, it''s going to be days if not weeks before a mortal would be safe to step onto the factory floor as it is right now."


    For a moment, the foreman kept his eyes on me, as if unsure whether he should proceed with the test or not, only to end up rolling his eyes and reaffirming his grasp over the control panel''s main staging leaver.


    "Next step, the first phase of the venttion, testing."


    The leaver moved up just another inch. And this time, while the change wasn''t as obvious as when all the lights went out or came back, only a blind mind would fail to notice it.


    It started with a deep, low hum of some heavy machinery booting up and quickly ramping up to its full power. Then, all sorts of dust and smaller rubble started to move along the main air-flow arteries of the whole factory. And before long, even the thickest and heaviest of the cables started to move around as far as their ck allowed.


    After the initial mess of all the dust and rubble getting kicked up by the strong flow of the air, however, the very same air carried whatever was light enough to get lifted to the air into the main air arteries, only to be either caught up in the refurbished filtration system of the factory or be sucked by its venttion system and blown out into the atmosphere.


    In less than a minute, the rows of yellow lights that appeared when the foreman dragged the lever up settled down and turned green.


    "The airflow within the margin of error, appears stable, no variation of the output reading," a report came from deeper in the room where a bunch of scientists and experienced work officers carefully monitored their readings, ready to scrap the whole test the moment something went haywire.


    "Good," the foreman muttered before raising his eyes to the window to inspect the factory and, after doing it for a while, gritting his teeth. "Let''s test its full potential, then," he muttered only to tense his hand and drive the leaver all the way to thest phase of the staging process.


    "The afterburner is live!"

 Chapter 151: Spiritual equivalent of a nuclear disaster

    "The afterburner is live."


    This was the very moment we''ve all been waiting for.


    A moment only a selected few in the crowd could have any chance of ever noticing. Me, ire¡­ and likely the foreman with two or three of his men.


    When I first noticed it, however, the sensation was too infinitesimal for anyone else, ire included, to pay heed.


    ''Shit!''


    For the very first time in quite a long while, my constitution took over.


    The spiritual energy that I''ve been slowly getting myself used to now rushed forth taking over the reins of my body.


    I moved at a speed no human should ever be able to reach, yet, by the time I''ve merely reached forth for the literal red button, the extremely faint premonition had already grown into a raging ball of overloaded, unstable Qi.


    My fingers pressed down on the button while the threat was still manageable. At this point, ire''s eyes started to widen.


    Yet, by the time her body moved, by the time I managed to break the circuit in an emergency stop procedure, the threat grew beyond what any of us present could handle.


    I wanted to curse.


    But I had no time for doing so.


    My spirituality phased for a bit, filling my mind with the weirdness of my soul''s boundaries fading.


    It felt as if¡­ a part of myself was melting away into the void, only to be reced by something else.


    Something foreign, but familiar.


    This unpleasant sensationsted only a single instant. Yet as ire''s face struck my back and her hands wrapped around my chest, all the fussiness receded in favor of a sudden sense of rity.


    Prompted by the support of ire''s spirituality, I''ve managed to ovee the mind-numbing radiance of the unstable ball of pure, spiritual energy.


    Using all the energy I could muster at will, I''ve enclosed this ball with an additionalyer of energy, aiming at nothing but stabilizing it.


    "Tsk¡­"


    The time flow returned to its usual rate as heavy drops of sweat started to slide down my face.


    "Call Chihiro," I''ve managed to utter, holding onto this chaotic ball of spiritual energy that could very well match the sum total of Chihiro''s power!


    It wasn''t something even me and ire together could hope to dispel. Even controlling it for a long time wasn''t an option, as just by trying to keep this ball of pure, raw force at bay we were both rapidly burning through our reserves of spiritual energy.


    "What?" the foreman finally reacted, connecting the dots between my m on the emergency shut-down, the pained look on my face, and the desperate tone I spoke with.


    "Call him, emergency, urgent," ire squeezed out through her lips, taking over the burden of vocalizing the urgent request.


    The foreman threw one nce toward the core of the factory.


    For now, the disaster was still contained within. The thick walls of the factory''s core along with the soothing barrier I''ve raised with ire kept the things on hold.


    But this could change at any given moment.


    Finally, the foreman moved, plucking his phone out of his pocket as he pulled it out to call¡­


    Only for the sparks of electricity to start appearing all over our barrier, soon spreading to the whole of our cultivation.


    ''Shit!''


    The foreman dialed the call before his arm could even reach his ear.


    The call connected, and one ring went through.


    Beads of sweat now oozed out of every pore of my body.


    The second ring sounded, filling my ears with a stinging pain from the pressure I now had to endure.


    Half of our spirituality burned away in our attempt to hold this raging ball of raw spirituality at bay.


    "Ye¡­"


    "HE¡­"


    The foreman''s voice cut into Chihiro''s¡­


    Only for the sparks of electricity to return, now discharging all over the factory and instantly destroying the semnce of order in the control room.


    And what was even worse, before either the foreman or chihiro could speak, one of the sparks instantaneously burned the foreman''s phone, leaving us all alone to deal with the issue.


    The reserves of our spiritual energy dropped down to dangerous levels.


    Unless Chihiro somehow understood the urgency behind this failed to call and somehow teleported over, this disaster in the making would soon burn through the chains we''ve ced on it and¡­


    ''ire!''


    Too busy to even open my mouth, I could only try to tug on the part of her soul that fused with mine.


    And for a single instant, ire, without even an instant of hesitation, took over the full burden of upholding the barrier.


    Her energy seared through whatever spirituality she had left, burning and outright eroding the very fabric from which her spiritual core was made.


    Deprived of its borders, the endless chaotic reactions unleashed upon this eroding power of this burning bundle of raw spirituality, just for a single moment, holding them at bay¡­


    ''Stop.''


    The world turned nk.


    I''ve¡­


    I''ve deconstructed the very concept of time, pulling this whole disaster out of the equation of the timeline.


    My brain burned under the immense force of rapid calctions it had to make.


    Dropping all of the spiritual energy I had left into my constitution was the only method I had left.


    Only by going nuclear on myself could I hold back a spiritual equivalent of a nuclear discharge.


    And so, relying on nothing but the warmth of rie hugging me from behind, I''ve managed to reach the state of mind I''ve never achieved before.


    It felt like¡­


    It felt like waking up back when this constitution activated in me for the very first time. This time, however, I could observe its works rather than merely the results of it.


    Arranging the elements of reality in a proper sequence, I''ve reconstructed the flow of time, while keeping the disaster separate.


    Feeling how my personality melted away under the searing absolute of my constitution, I''ve¡­


    I''ve dropped my guard.


    And for but a moment, I''ve rxed the rate, at which I''ve processed the reality, giving my soul some room to regenerate from this great exertion.


    A moment to dedicate a part of my spiritual energy to gently nurture the shell of ire''s core.


    "Haaaa¡­" I breathed out an extremely tired sigh, only by some miracle keeping up on my feet. A feet I could only achieve in my simple, desperate wish to be the one holding ire up.


    After what she just went through, I wouldn''t allow even the slightest burden upon her weary, delicate shoulders.


    "It worked¡­?" I raised my eyes to where the core of the factory somewhat existed outside of the standard flow of time, locked in the eternal state of outburst.


    Even the sparks this disaster caused started to die off, indicating the threat was finally, actually gone.


    Only for one of them to flicker out of existence right across the shut-down button, for but a single instant, closing the circuit again.


    Most of the machinery failed to even boot up, with the pulse of the current too short to give them the time to ovee the natural resistances of the matter and dead inertia of the mass.


    My devices, however, didn''t need to bottom up.


    A single spark of electricity was enough to infuse the air with just a little bit more of the spiritual energy, that my other devices then quickly condensed.


    This new thicket of spiritual energy was perfectly within manageable levels¡­


    But we had absolutely nothing left in us to keep it at bay. And just like in our very own spiritual cores, it somehow acted as a short-circuit anchor for the raging mass of spiritual energy banished outside the confines of time itself.


    In a single instant, the chaotic mass of spiritual energy discharged through this anchor, returning right back to where it came from.


    Freed from both of its containments, the sphere of the overflowing spiritual energy expanded rapidly, soon filling most of the factory''s floor.


    To the back, the wall of the room exploded as Chihiro ran in straight through it, only to stop and raise his head towards the disaster ahead.


    As it turned out, he had nowhere the reflexes to react when the spiritual energy reached its critical point.


    Thanks to thest sparks of my spirituality now burning away in my brain, I was fully aware of just how massive of a disaster this was going to be.


    Only for all of this energy to just¡­ Vanish.

 Chapter 152: The mistake that made itself

    All of the energy that was just about to eviscerate the whole area¡­


    It just vanished.


    Not even with thest sparks of my spirituality burning in my mind could I take a guess as to what exactly happened.


    The expanding ball of chaotic spiritual energy, the reins that I''ve tried to put on it with ire, even the natural resistance of the space itself as this ball of energy squeezed it while expanding in every possible direction.


    All of it... vanished. Just like that, it was gone, without as much as an exnation, as if it happened only to p the face of all the physicians who imed energy could never be lost.


    ''Was it him?'' I thought, turning my head on the spot to Chihiro, only to see him as dumbfounded as he had every right to be.


    ''If not, then who¡­'' I turned my eyes to where I expected a sudden death toe from¡­ Only to see nothing but the well-lit and slightly messy factory''s main floor.


    "What the hell happened here?" Chihiro finally managed to force his voice out¡­


    But not a single person in the room was able to give him any sort of productive answer.


    The crew foreman had no clue what happened in the first ce, only ever noticing the ball of raging spiritual energy as it was about to blow in his face.


    The two men of his crew who disyed some hints of cultivation were in pretty much the same position, only able to notice the presence of the excessive spiritual energy when all our attempts at holding it back came to fail.


    Even Chihiro, despite having much better senses than ire or me, only caught a single, instantaneous glimpse of the event before it vanished, leaving only¡­ well, me and ire.


    And yet, even though we both put all of our attention to the event¡­ It only served to make a point about how we knew as much as everyone else, only further highlighting the suddenness of everything that transpired.


    "I honestly have no idea," I''ve managed to produce a slight, low mutter, only for my attention to shift right back to ire.


    The girl was breathing heavily while hanging on to my side for her dear life as if only the bond that we shared allowed her to keep up with the damage she received.


    Thankfully, from a quick nce, I judged all of this damage not to be permanent in its nature, with how the boundary of her spirituality was now restored, safely keeping the chaotic reaction of random discharges within her core.


    Then again, the fact that there was no direct and immediate threat of her cultivation copsing, didn''t mean she was in a perfect state.


    "What did you do?" Chihiro changed his question, keeping the pressure up even though I didn''t try to hide how ire''s well-being became my one and only concern for the moment.


    "We''ve tried testunching it," I revealed as soon as I regained enough energy to speak, only to finally turn my eyes away from the exhausted and pained look on ire''s face and look directly at her father. "But there was nothing to consume the spiritual energy produced, nor did we have any way to measure the rate at which the Qi density grew within the core."


    Chihiro squinted his eyes and looked through the window towards the depths of the factory floor, where the thick walls hid the factory''s core from view.


    Following his eyes with my own, I could see some lingering spiritual energy still hanging up in the air and around those walls.


    After containing a core of a sun-like amount of spiritual energy, it was no wonder some of it still remained within the concrete, quite likely altering the very nature of this simple building material.


    ''Spiritual concrete, huh?'' I thought, already seeing a new venue through which we could expand. A venue that allowed us to turn this whole factory from just a spot aimed to help Chihiro break through to the higher rank into a manufactory designed to infuse any material we liked with an excessive amount of spiritual energy and thus forcibly turn it into a spiritual object.


    "Oh damn, if that would work¡­"


    "Tim¡­" rie softly called me out right as I was about to start gushing about my new idea. "Hold on. We are struggling to manage what you did, so you don''t need to be thinking about how to push the limits even further."


    ire''s hands grasped at the thin material of my clothes as she clutched at my chest, as if desperate to stop me from turning whatever crazy idea appeared in my head into reality.


    "Ah, don''t worry, I''m not stupid enough to make the same mistake again," I ascertained the girl, only to turn to the foreman. "We need to ce some limiters on the power module. We will also need some sort of a device to measure¡­"


    With my thoughts already centered on how to counteract the one angle that could turn this ce from a quasi-magical factory into a spiritual bomb of a nuclear level, I suddenly came to face¡­ my very own self.


    It was as if someone suddenly switched my vision to the camera nted right in front of my face, making me see exactly what kind of expression I made when the shift happened.


    "Huh?"


    By the time I managed to vocalize the surprise, my vision returned to normal, as if nothing ever happened beyond me imagining something weird.


    "What was that?!" despite her exhaustion and pain, ire jumped up to her feet, her hands only growing more desperate as she clutched on my chest and pressed herself against me.


    "I have no¡­"


    "¡­Idea," I said from so close, the very breath that carried those words struck me right in the nose as I watched the surprise return to my own face from just a few inches ahead.


    Just like before, this illusion vanished after a single instant, way too fast for my brain to process whether it was real or just a figment of my imagination¡­


    But I''ve managed to register the feeling that came with this strange illusion appearing. And now that I knew what I was looking for, I actually sensed yet another mirageing.


    ''Tsk¡­''


    Gathering whatever tiny sparks of spiritual energy I had restored in my core, I pushed it all into my brain, determined to crack the mystery of just what the hell was happening right now. Waiting for nothing, I timed the ignition of this leftover Qi to when the feeling grew so strong I could no longer hold it.


    ''Let''s see what the hell is going on!'' I thought, hugging ire for psychicalfort as I opened up my eyes wide, ready to decipher just whatever it was that was messing with my brain¡­


    Only to see my own face once again¡­ However, this time, I did so with the set of my own two eyes. What''s more, the face that I saw, while a perfect copy of my physical features, had absolutely no feeling to it. And what''s more¡­ It matched the average color of what my brain perceived that mass of spiritual energy to be.


    And like a ghost, this face alone with just a fuzzy hint of the upper body just¡­ floated in the air, staring right into my eyes.


    The face''s eyes¡­ twitched, right as I felt the tiniest tug on my soul, cleaving just a sliver of the spirituality I''d been missing in my brain before infusing it right into where that ephemeral face would have its own brain.


    Once again, everything vanished.


    The feeling, the face, the strange sense of something stealing a whisker of my soul, it all vanished just like the energy from before.


    Yet, the very next moment, the presence this face exuded returned¡­


    Right as it summoned a powerful electric current, only to burn through the space itself of the breaker within the emergency shut-down button, forcefully closing the circuit and starting the unmanageable reaction of the factory all over again!

 Chapter 153: Luck or a divine intervention?

    The factory filled with the familiar noise that we''d all heard just a little moment ago.


    The noise of the machinery booting up and starting to move, filling the air with the low hum of its parts defeating the force of resistance as they stirred into action.


    The factory-wide air cirction units woke up first, once again pushing the air inside to move along specific, predetermined paths. Then, the power module filled the air with spiritual energy it produced from the electrical energy. Next, the condensers made sure to pack as many units of Qi as they could into a single unit of air, before the QI-rich air.


    Next, the condensators in what used to be a freezer stirred into action as well, introducing a proper source of fresh air, one that first had to go through the barrier of first passive and then active filters, removing all the possible impurities from the air itself before it was used as a carrier of the spiritual energy down the line.


    And finally¡­


    Finally, my hand shot up, reaching not for the factory kill switch that somehow connected despite the breaker burning off.


    No, what I reached for with my hand was the circuit breaker for the afterburner, the switch that either closed or opened up the circuit responsible for feeding the already mana-rich air right back into the power module to stack even more energy into it!


    Tick!


    The switch clicked underneath my fingers. Worried it wouldn''t be enough, I¡­ pinched at the control panel, shearing parts of its cover off before physically removing the circuit breaker from its slot, just for a good measure¡­


    Only for the same spark as before to appear right in the ce that I''ve just quite brutally modified, drawing an arc between the two open ends of the circuit and forcefully closing it down, allowing the energy to flow through it again.


    ''Chihiro¡­'' I turned my eyes to the man, no longer having any power, idea, or ability to stop what was going to happen next.


    ''If he pushes for the breakthrough now¡­''


    I could feel the static in the air growing all the machinery behind the workings of the afterburner stirred into action.


    Now, it was only a matter of the air moving through the backflow channel for the very same scenario as before to ur.


    This time, however, we no longer had control over the circuit breakers, removing the one and only way in which we could stop this factory from turning nuclear.


    "I''m sorry," I whispered as I turned and wrapped my hands around ire, enclosing her within my embrace while turning my back to the core in the futile, naive hope I could somehow shield her from the st¡­


    Only for no st to ur, even as all of the machines reached the point where their noise grew to be constant and perfectly uniform, indicating they''d now reached their full operational speed.


    By all means, this was the moment when the spiritual energy would be stacked into a singr point ad infinitum, all the way to the point where the energy would grow so dense, that it could directly affect the material world.


    Or so, that''s what I imagined, calcted, and assumed to happen. Yet, judging by how I could still feel ire rxing in my arms as she followed my example and just epted theing end¡­


    Nothing exploded.


    ''No, it''s not like nothing exploded,'' I suddenly thought, opening my eyes wide as I rapidly turned my head to look toward the core. ''It''s as if¡­''


    I couldn''t even finish the thought when all the air in the factory suddenly¡­ just stopped.


    The fans were spinning, the condensators blew high-pressure air into the twoyers of filters. By every right and physicalw, the air should keep moving¡­


    But for the slightest of moments, it just stopped, as if thew of speed, movement, and inertia all lost their meaning and purpose.


    In this single instant of existence, I could now observe the unleashed might of the electric-born spiritual power, growing bigger, thicker, more powerful by the second¡­


    But with the air not moving, this energy couldn''t change either. And the very moment the air picked up the ck and once again acknowledged the supremacy of the physics, the whole factory filled with a sense of¡­ presence?


    This presence took over the spot I''d formerly noticed this seemingly endless endless energy upy as if it was a result of instantaneously burning all this spiritual factory could produce.


    And yet¡­


    ''In that single instant, there clearly was a whole ocean of energy growing here! But now, it''s nowhere to be seen?''


    This whole thing was weird. It appeared not to follow any of thews I was aware of. And judging from Chihiro''s face, it wasn''t something that he couldprehend either!


    And yet¡­


    A short momentter, the sparks that forcefully closed the two circuits suddenly vanished, killing the flow of power throughout the factory and once again grinding all the machinery to a halt.


    And it was only when everything came to aplete stop that the spiritual energy appeared once again, although as no more but a mere leftover from when some of the machines continued to run on their inertia while the others already turned off.


    Breathe in, breathe out.


    In the face of the unknown, that was all we could do at the moment.


    Themon sense, or maybe the survival instincts made it clear to me - it was best to be grateful for the disaster that we somehow avoided. So grateful, in fact, this entire ce should be scrapped for parts, parts that should be then encased in concrete and buried at least ten kilometers apart from each other, never to be assembled again.


    But the pervasive curiosity in my head¡­


    It just wouldn''t let this topic go, relentlessly knocking at the gate of this mystery in a desperate, irrational drive to peer into its secrets.


    "Do any of you have even the slightest idea of what happened?" Chihiro asked as he gulped his saliva down his throat, as powerless against the forces I''ve unleashed as was I or ire.


    "Not at all," ire replied while cautiously taking a peek over my shoulder before ncing over to the side, to where the thick walls of the factory core hid the most affected part of the ce from everyone''s view.


    "All I know is that something happened. And while the factory was going right now, the energy it produced was both here¡­ and not here."


    I gulped my saliva down under the immense weight of the annoyed look Chihiro gave me.


    It was clear he wasn''t satisfied with my answer¡­ But well, neither was I.


    "Well, whatever happened, it''s clearly done and over now," I then said, taking another deep breath before slowly rising up from my knees which I fell when I thought the core was about to go nuclear. "We just need to make sure to better control it during the actual attempt," I announced only to then allow a perverse smirk on my lips.


    "All this mess and unknown¡­ I guess this is what we did this test for, right?" I then noted, trying to twist the narration into one that was, at the very least, slightly more favorable. "In this way, we can learn what could be the problem in advance¡­"


    For a moment, Chihiro looked at me in a way that, if looks could kill, would instantaneously im my life. And yet, when I had no other choice but to acknowledge the fury in his eyes¡­ The look on the man''s face softened.


    Even though I expected him tosh out, to have him chastise everything that we did and achieved here over what clearly was a disaster we''ve only managed to avoid by some unknown luck or outright divine intervention, and yet...


    "Well, this is an unknown field," he stated as he crossed his hands over his chest and sighed. "I would be in the wrong if I med you for a hup like that, especially when you are pioneering this whole field," he added while shaking his head.


    Yet, before his line of thought could break, ire''s father raised his eyes again only to squint them as he locked his stare on the walls of the factory''s core.


    "I just can''t help but wonder, what has actually happened here?"

 Chapter 154: A guess too scary to even think about

    Nothing.


    This one world summed up everything that we''ve learned not only after the first look into the factory but even after a prolonged, detailed, and extremely precise investigation.


    Nothing.


    Not a single clue about what happened with the devices, how could the energy just happen to force the circuits to close on its own¡­ We couldn''t even ascertain the quality of the concrete of the core''s walls, given how Chihiro judged it to be too dangerous for any mortal or even most cultivators to approach.


    Even for ire and me, just approaching the ce was a struggle. A struggle great enough to dissuade us from further attempting to enter the core.


    Nothing.


    Our observations gave us no insight into what happened.


    The prolonged mechanical check of all the devices that the workerster performed came out with nothing interesting in the results.


    Even the investigation by the unit Chihiro called left everyone simply baffled by what happened.


    Where did all the energy go, both from the initial disaster and thenter, when the factory was made to work by those strange sparks?


    "So many questions¡­" I muttered as I watched our surroundings change as the car sped up down the rtively empty ringway, allowing us to cut straight from the city to one of the furthermost of its districts.


    "And you really have no clue?" ire asked while not even bothering to hide the doubt in her voice.


    "I mean¡­"


    I took a deep breath.


    "I''m actively trying not to think about my own ideas, not to give myself any preconceptions."


    Any attempt at analyzing what happened would be influenced by my emotions at the moment.


    That''s just how humans are.


    And even nearly ten whole hours after the disaster nearly yed out, the shock of those events continued to haunt my thoughts.


    Which was precisely why, I refused to spare a single thought about the matter atrge, taking my time and waiting for when I could actually process those weird events.


    ''In all honesty, now that we left the ce¡­ I think I can give it a go.''


    I closed my eyes before pushing away all but the recording of the events saved in my memory.


    The details I''ve observed. The small stuff I took notice of. Each precise instance of something weird going on.


    I''ve gathered it all, organized it in my thoughts, and¡­ Infused a considerable amount of spiritual energy I''ve recovered with the help of Chihiro''s artifacts straight into my brain.


    And there, I''ve suddenly faced an extremely harsh decision to make.


    I could either ept the results that soon appeared in my thoughts, or opt to keep my sanity and forget all about them.


    Because¡­


    "Haaa¡­"


    A long, heavy sigh escaped from my lips as I sank down into the seat, daring not to hold up my enlightened state for longer than absolutely necessary.


    But the question persisted.


    Should I ept what I''ve just calcted out of what little I''ve observed, or preserve the world as I knew it in its current shape and form?


    Regardless of my choice, however, the deed was done.


    "Oh shit¡­" I cursed slightly, only now realizing how ire instantly appeared all over me, her eyes filled with panic as she rushed to check on me.


    "We''ve fucked up bad."


    As if the universe itself simply waited for me to make this realization and utter those words, everything stopped.


    Just like when the energy in the factory vanished all at once.


    Only to then start all over, as if nothing happened at all.


    But this time, ire''s eyes widened, responding to something that happened right in this momentary gap in time.


    This time, I wasn''t the only one who perceived it!


    Then again, just like back in the factory, everything vanished, leaving us both as we were.


    "I''ve really fucked¡­"


    "We!" ire cried out while staring me down with silent fury in her eyes.


    "We''ve fucked up, not just you alone. Now, deal with it!" her voice grewmanding, only for her face to melt as her eyes filled with sadness and her lips started to pout.


    "Deal with it and tell me what''s going on!"


    I took a deep breath.


    "Right, sorry," I breathed out as I finally manned up enough to pick my poison. And so, I''ve decided to face my enlightened realization directly.


    ''The power was still there. It just never got to the point for us to notice it. And right there, at the edge of it happening¡­ something came to be.''


    It was just a vague concept, not a precise recollection of the events or direct instruction on how to unveil the events of the recent past.


    But from this vague concept, I could easily draw some pretty scary conclusions.


    "I think we¡­" I gulped my saliva down, "I think we''ve created either a spirit," I gulped my saliva again.


    As the concept of what happened sank deeper and deeper, I''ve only continued to realize more and more faucets through which it woulde back to bite us.


    "Either a spirit or a¡­"


    Thest part, I couldn''t bring myself to utter.


    Not because of what it would mean about the disaster, but because of what it would mean about me.


    "Either a spirit or something else," I''ve concluded my short exnation before taking a deep breath and moving to a general one. "Something was born right in the middle of all that power. A consciousness that forcefully closed the circuits and made it so that the process that gave it birth, would continue."


    I took a deep breath, struggling to even face the consequences of what would happen if my enlightened calction turned out to be right on the money.


    Yet, the more I spoke about it, the deeper I had to look myself into the shit I''ve just taken an enthusiastic dive in.


    "All of the energy that the factory should produce, had to go somewhere. But, with that something now positioned right where all the energy converged¡­"


    I gulped my saliva again, wetting my throat for the third time in a short while.


    "What if it lived on the flow of the spiritual energy itself?"


    I looked up, unsure if I was even ready for whatever reaction ire would offer.


    Yet, as I inevitably brought myself closer and closer to knowing the truth by raising my eyes, when I saw ire''s face¡­


    She looked nothing like I low-key expected her to.


    Sure, her face was covered in shock, but rather than surprised and taken aback¡­ she was alerted?


    "Wait, let me get this straight," ire suddenly turned all serious as she sat back, gaining some distance as if to get a better, more wholesome look at me. "Are you trying to say that we''ve created a consciousness within the spiritual energy itself?"


    ire''s eyes tensed up as her whole face sharpened in a deep anticipation to my reply.


    "Pretty much, yeah?" I shrugged my shoulders. "That''s my guess, at the very least."


    For a moment, ire just kept her eyes on me and her face still, as if taking her sweet time to carefully process what I''ve just said.


    Then, she slowly raised her hands to her face, resting her head down on her palms as she heaved a long,bored sigh.


    "Please, Tim, tell me that it''s just me, but¡­" ire raised her eyes as she gave me a dead-tired re. "Doesn''t it sound like something that could be the very thing that allows people to advance over in the spiritual world?"

 Chapter 155: Risks of riding home with just the two of us

    The insides of the car turned silent, as silent as they could get with the electrical engine going in full swing as we sped down the ringway, heading back home to get some well-deserved rest after all the exertion of both building the factory up and then oveing the ordeal that came our way.


    "A consciousness within spirituality you say?" I''ve muttered, taking my time to process this information from the new angle ire just introduced.


    ''Could it be?'' I thought, trying to calmly analyze the new data. ''Could it really be the thing that''s missing from the Qi in the modern world whenpared to the Qi in the spiritual world?''


    I took in a deep breath, hoping to better fuel my brain by providing it with loads of fresh oxygen.


    Yet, as opposed to infusing my brain with more spiritual energy, just taking a deeper breath didn''t seem to do shit.


    "Welp, I guess this one is too much to just figure out on my own," I admitted with a sigh before copsing deeper into my seat and turning my head over to the window as if the changing sights outside could give me some inspiration.


    "Don''t let it get to you," ire quickly urged only to slide a bit closer on the wide seating before resting her head down on my shoulder. "It was just me talking random stuff, so it''s not like I have any reason to believe this guess of mine was correct. And even if it is..."


    ire shook her head, which I felt as her cheek brushed against my shoulder.


    "Even if I''m right, this isn''t a topic either of us can figure out. Quite a few genius cultivators dedicated their entire lifetimes to studying this topic, only to produce no results. So," ire reached out and closed her hands on my neck only to lean down over my chest and then look up, sneaking up a nce at my face as she smiled, "even if you...


    No, even if we actually did the unthinkable, it''s not like it''s something we wanted to happen, right?"


    With ire putting her face in just the perfect position for me to look down and see, I simply couldn''t bring myself to keep moping and looking out of the window.


    Yet, the very moment I looked down and saw her encouraging smile... I couldn''t feel down about what happened anymore either.


    "Are you a witch or something?" I asked in a gentle voice as I brought my hand up to caress her cheek, only for my heart to further melt down when she closed her eyes and simply enjoyed the caress with a small, perfectly satisfied smile emerging on her lips.


    "What makes you think so?" ire then asked, but not before I brought my hand to a stop, moving from caressing her cheek to just holding her face up in my hand.


    "Because, with just one look, you''ve managed to fully entrap me in those eyes of yours," I replied, only for my lips to then twist into an ugly grimace as I felt the cringiness of those words p me back. "And as cringe as it might feel to say," I admitted only to then shake my head a little, "this is genuinely how I feel."


    "You feel that I''m a witch?" ire opened her eyes and grinned, clearly aware that she was pretty much misinterpreting my words. And while her yful smile was one big fat proof of that...


    Who was I to deny ire this small, flirtatious game? Or rather, who would I be if I did so when the problem of our dual cultivation possibly tearing us apart continued to ring in the back of my head?


    "More than a witch... Subus maybe?" I tried to guess, more than happy to direct my thoughts at something other than the deep shit we were quite likely to be in at the moment.


    "Oh? So now you are changing your testimony?" ire grinned, only to then slide even closer on the seat only to then do the usual, and climb atop myp before seating herself right down on my thighs while locking her hands behind my neck, fully enclosing me in her presence.


    "But a subus..." She pretended to think over something, only to then end up with an even wider grin than before. "Aren''t those supposed to be sucking the life out of men?" she asked while turning strangely serious as she leaned her head over to the side in one hell of a cute gesture.


    "Is this a threat, promise, or an invitation?" I replied, opting to boldly charge in whatever trap she was preparing for me.


    "Which one would you like it to be?"


    "That''s a tough question..." I"''ve yed along only to then grin myself. "But you already promised me an intense session of live ASMR, so I think going with another promise would be boring. And that leaves us with a threat and an invitation.


    But judging how we are about to get home..." I muttered as I looked outside, at the scenery that clearly indicated we were now on thest leg of our return home, "I guess all that''s left is a threat?"


    "How am I supposed to threaten you with the idea of sucking the life out of you?" ire then asked, once again using her adorable weapon of choice of turning her head off to the side while giving me the helpless look of a maiden in distress.


    A look that only served to stir my instincts to help and protect.


    "Why are you asking me what''s the best way to threaten me?" I asked, trying to use rationality to my own advantage here.


    "Oh, it''s not that I don''t have ideas myself," ire grinned, making me realize that in my bid to escape her entrapment, I waltzed right into the bait she prepared. "Which one to pick, though, that''s the question," she muttered while stealing nces at my face. Her lips continued to tremble as she held back a grin.


    "Wait, is this the moment when I should start getting legitimately worried?" I asked, this time taking on the act myself and putting on a scared mask on my face.


    "I wouldn''t necessarily say that you need to be worried..." ire looked away, acting as if she already hatched the n in that adorable head of hers and was now just trying to stall for time to wait for a better opportunity to put it into action. "More like... you need to stay on your toes, for you know not the day nor the hour when I will put that threat to use?"


    For a moment, I just stared at ire, all bbergasted, not sure how I was supposed to respond to this "threat" of hers.


    Yet, as ire saw my expression, her face froze for a second... Only for her to then explode inughter, giggling away as she tapped her hands on my chest and on my shoulders.


    "What a pity you couldn''t see your face right now!" she cried out through her tears of joy as she wiggled her ass atop myp. Yet, right as I thought we were done with this test of social abilities that I clearly wasn''t prepared for, ire''s face turned all serious again as her hands locked down on my shoulders, seemingly locking me in ce.


    "Then again, I really am going to suck the soul out of you at the least opportune time I will be able to find," she imed only to then put a huge grin on her face as the reality slowly started to dawn upon me. "And until then, you will be unable to guess the time... or even ce!"


    Hearing this, my eyebrows went up.


    "Okay, let''s stop here for a moment," I suggested, turning actually serious for a moment. "I don''t really mind you pranking me or embarrassing me for fun, but..."


    I held the thought in my mind for a second, not sure if I should say what was on my mind.


    Ultimately, however, this was the one aspect I just couldn''t leave to chance.


    "As I said, I don''t mind you pranking me or getting intimate at the least opportune moment. But I won''t be able to stomach you doing anything that would expose your beauty, even if it may mean only your engrossed face, to anyone else but me."


    This was the topic I simply wasn''t willing to give up on.


    And so, to drive it home, I ignored how ire held my shoulders in ce and raised my own hands only to grab her head between my palms as I looked right down her eyes, all for the sake of making this point as clear as it was humanly possible.


    "Whether it is your body, the wide range of your smiles, or the face you make as you get excited..." I took a deep breath before pulling ire''s head slightly up as if to make her listen.


    "Those are for me and me alone to see, alright?"


    For a moment, ire turned silent.


    Then, her face in my hand started to grow warmer... No, hotter, as her cheeks covered in blush and her eyes turned all watery.


    ''Shit, I know this look,'' I thought, gulping my saliva down. ''And while there''s no one else here to see it but me, we still have to go through the courtyard before we can hide in the private quarters!'' I thought...


    Only for the third voice to fill the cabin right as the car came to a stop at the end of the driveway leading up to our estate.


    "We''ve arrived at the destination. I hope you''ve enjoyed your ride!"

 Chapter 156: Unopportune confession

    Just walking the short distance from the estate''s main gate to its actual entrance was a massive pain in the bottom.


    At every step, I felt like all the servants just happened to be working around, keeping us under close watch as we stumbled home.


    Even getting past the doors didn''t help, as only more staff appeared around, pretty much escorting us with knowing smiles all the way back to the private part of the mansion.


    ''Honestly, I can hardly fault them,'' I thought when I finally hid in our bedroom and helped ire to get down to the bed.


    Escorting her all this way, under all those curious and mischievous smiles of the staff took a much greater tool than I ever expected it to. And it was all because of how ire, for some unknown reason, just couldn''t stop stupidly grinning!


    And even if it meant enduring all those well-wishing stares from the staff, I was too stingy to share this slightly dumb, outright happy smile that ire either couldn''t or outright refused to wipe off her face.


    In the end however, we came back not to flirt¡­ But to get well deserved rest. And all the knowing smiles and small grins that apanied us on the way back to the bedroom grew small and meaningless whenpared to the sea of mental and physical exhaustion we coped with for quite the stretch of time!


    Now, it was time to rest.


    And while I was too greedy not to hold ire in my arms as I went to sleep, I honestly had no ns to go any further.


    ''We''ve faced a damn nuke,'' I thought, feeling a tense knot tie over my insides.


    "What''s wrong?"


    Sprawled on the bed, ire casually started to walk two of her fingers up my arm.


    "You really know how to get a read on me, don''t you?" I smiled lightly, soothed by the mere sight of such a lovely partner just¡­ waiting for me to join her in bed so that we could fall asleep together.


    ''I''m gushing, aren''t I?'' I thought, recognizing the state of my mind and then taking a deep breath to calm myself down.


    "It''s just¡­" I pursed my lips, only to close my eyes and shake my head.


    "It''s just that things escted through the roof," I''ve then revealed my thoughts nheless, happy with the idea of opening up to ire some more, especially in light of my recent behavior. "They escted into a realm I could no longer manage," I said as I sat down on the bed''s edge and grabbed ire''s hand.


    "Because of my oversight, I''ve put the two of us, the whole project, your father''s immediate future¡­" I muttered as I started to fully feel the weight of all the things I brought up. "ire, I''ve put all of that in jeopardy. And the worst of it all, you wound up injured!"


    With my breath stuck in my throat, I could only tighten my hold over her hand.


    "And that''s¡­"


    Before I could finish, ire pulled on my hand, leading me to copse down on the bed, right by her side.


    "I owe you something, don''t I?"


    "Wait, if this is about this ASMR thing,"


    "No," ire pressed her forehead against my chest as she pulled herself right up to my arms. "You''ve gone through a kidnapping, a whole damn battle, all because of your association with me."


    ire''s words quickly rang the bell.


    ''Is this the same¡­ she felt back then?'' I thought, suddenly finding the obvious clue in all the small, weird hints ire would drop after those two events took ce.


    "Then again," she raised her head and looked up to my face with a slight pout still partially hidden down in my chest, "it was OUR oversight," ire''s hands tightened into small fists as she pressed them down on my chest. And by the end of it, she looked up again before locking her gaze right as I looked down at her.


    "Ours, not yours."


    ire kept her stare for a short moment, only to then drop it, as if suddenly embarrassed, hiding her face back in my chest.


    "I mean¡­" I hesitated for a moment.


    Then, it felt as if a stroke of genius¡­ or maybe a hallucination caused by my exhaustion and wounds from overusing my weird constitution.


    "I guess marriage is all about turning two into one, huh?"


    It was a random, off-handedment. An example of me merely noticing something, finding a name for something I didn''t have one for.


    "I mean, if anything, that''s what I imagine a proper marriage to be," I added, staring with amazement as ire''s face first froze in shock only to then turn red from her cheeks up before quickly copsing into a state of panic.


    Charmed by how I could read the world from just her face, I fell into themitment facy, opting to take it even one step further.


    "And on that note, please, I really like if not love you and I''m perfectly happy with what we have. Now, not to dismiss all that I''ve said¡­" I hesitated a little, knowing full well how my next words would sound. "But what are we, exactly?"


    Right now, we weren''t having sex.


    Heck!


    We were still both clothed, too tired after what transpired to even think about taking a shower or changing before finally catching some shut-eye. And our hug¡­


    Combined with our expressions as we looked right at each other¡­ It looked more like a mature intimacy between long-time lovers rather than an exciting night after an exciting series of events.


    And yet, even with all the marriage vibes I brought just a second ago, I''ve now pretty much-put doubt into the essence of our rtionship.


    "What?" ire¡­ made something between a cry and a squeal.


    "I mean, I think we are getting along just fine. Then, on paper, we are promised to each other, but that all rides on the contract."


    Taking a deep breath, I brought my elbows closer as I grabbed ire''s shoulders only to then gently push her away a bit, just so that I could get a better look at her face.


    "I''m sorry if thates out as pushy or needy, but I really think more of you than just a contractual partner, and or a friend."


    ire''s face grew still again but quickly started to soften up and then turn between shocked and dreamy as she paid her full attention to my words.


    Staring down at this show of the utlimate glory of adorableness, I''ve pretty much lost the track of what I was to say next.


    The whole point of my speaking suddenly went missing, leaving me with nothing but the very core of what I wanted to express.


    "So, in the future, would you like to get married for real?


    I''ve asked as bluntly as I could, losing my wits as I wasted this opportunity when we were both agonaly tired rather than saving it for when I could make it a grand, memorable event.


    I was just¡­ too tired to think straight.


    And so, all I could do at this point was to double down.


    "Not because that''s in the contract, but¡­" I''ve raised my eyes and locked them on ire''s all-serious, focused, and¡­ tearful look?


    At this point, the embarrassment, the sense of vulnerability¡­


    They quickly grew to a level that was too much for me to handle.


    And right as all of the facade of the courage that I''ve built around myself began to fully crumble, ire reached out and ced her hand on my cheek as the first drop of a tear dropped down on hers.


    "You dummy¡­"

 Chapter 157: Untimely promise?

    Waking up was a strange experience.


    Not because ire was missing from the bed - she was right there, well within my arms, silently breathing in and out in her peaceful, well-deserved slumber.


    It wasn''t because there was something wrong with the way I slept either, not when I woke up perfectly well-rested. I had such a good night of sleep, in fact, I could feel all of the exhaustion from the past few days vanishing into thin air, by now a mere unpleasant memory of how I was rather than something I still had to seriously cope with.


    No, it was something else entirely.


    It was the feeling of a long, extremely detailed, and somewhat emotionally important dream fading into the obscurity of the short-term memory getting reset.


    ''I wonder just what I was dreaming about to be like that right as I wake up?'' Holding that thought, I stared nkly at the ceiling of the room, hoping, against all odds and reason, to somehow go back to the dream I was missing.


    It was the feeling on the level of an itch that was just beyond the range of what I could scratch. And just like I wouldn''t be able to scratch the unreachable itch, the domain of this influential dream was now beyond my reach too, forever to remain as a cautionary tale I simply couldn''t recall.


    "What''s wrong?" ire whispered, still asleep, most likely in response to sensing the slight change in how I moved and breathed.


    "Nothing much," I softly replied, doing my best to give her the affirmation she sought while staying silent enough not to prompt her to wake up.


    After all, how could I afford any distractions when I was so desperate to recall just what was so important for me to dream about for it to leave such asting impression, even if it was limited just to the emotional aspect of it, given how I forgot all about the actual content of my dream?


    In the end, however, I squarely failed at everything, from recalling the dream to guessing the possible implications behind one so profoundly influencing me as much as it did. I also failed at my attempts to keep ire sleeping for just a little longer.


    "M-morning..." ire muttered, slowly prompting herself up while still bearing the most lovely, sleepy look on her face.


    There was something simply enchanting in her slightly messy bed hair, her unfocused stare, or the top of her pajamas riding down on one of her shoulders while curling up just far enough to slightly expose her stomach.


    For me, this was the perfect picture I would assign to describe peaceful happiness. To wake up by the side of such a goddess, to be privy to such a gentle, heart-warming, and outright adorable show right as I woke up...


    ''I guess that''s it for my attempts to recall that dream,'' I thought, realizing just how easily ire managed to, without the slightest intention of doing so, drag a hundred percent of my attention on herself.


    Sadly, this momentsted only for the short while it took her to grab her phone from the small stand by the bed and unlock it, taking just one more moment to first read, then process, and finally absorb the simple information conveyed by the digital clock on her screen.


    "Shit!"


    With this single curse, all signs of drowsiness vanished from the girl''s aura as she jumped off the bed, only to stop, turn around, and then give me a shocked stare.


    "Why are you still in bed?" she asked, as if my opting toze around for a few minutes after waking up was not a crime, not a transgression... but the act of breaking the very taboo of her n.


    ''Oh, she''s still half-asleep,'' I realized as I looked deeper into her eyes...


    Only for ire not to stand on ceremony and grab the warm nket we covered ourselves with for the night... before pulling it off the bed in one, swift motion.


    A wave of coldness quickly rushed to overwhelm my body, only toe to a stop when faced with the formidable defense established by the warm fluff of my own pajamas that I''d picked just because of how they shared the theme and color with the ones ire was wearing.


    "What was that for?!" Iined as I curled up in a bid to preserve what little heat I could still feel, as opposed to the wave of the refreshing, cold air from the nearby open window.


    "That''s what you get for marrying rich," ire grinned, slowly bing more and more awake as she merely nced at the nket down in her hands before forming a small smirk and rather than being shocked by her own actions, deciding to just y along with them.


    "Ugh..." I groaned a little, pretending to now turn into a wimpy, whiny ball ofints. "Is this your attempt at showing me how our life will be once we get married for real? Does this mean the honeymoon period is now over and I''m about to be just one of your tools?!"


    If spoken normally, those words could be taken as a serious usation.


    But with how ridiculously much I''ve overyed them, there wasn''t a person alive on this who could miss the joke behind it.


    And judging by the grin that appeared on ire''s lips in response to my act, she wasn''t the sole exception that would fail to realize it.


    "For real, though, we really need to hurry," she then stated again as she calmed herself down and even managed to rein her facial expression in, turning herself to be as serious as she could. "Last night I scheduled a safe call with Chihiro, so it''s best if we don''t miss it. And right now, we have like what..."


    ire hesitated for a minute before pulling out her phone and taking a look at its digital clock.


    "We have three minutes left..." she muttered, her face suddenly turning from serious to grave serious.


    "Wait, do you really need to schedule a call with your own father?" I asked, slightly freaked out by the very idea of something like this happening.


    "What can I say, he is a busy man," ire merely shook her shoulders, seeing normalcy where I saw the weirdness.


    "And that call... is this about...?" I asked as I hurried to get myself somewhat dressed up, in case this call that ire spoke off wasn''t just based on voice alone.


    All things considered, even if the disaster at the factory never happened and my career under Chihiro''s protection was nothing but a string of sesses... Getting on a video call with my father-inw in nothing but shorts and a pajama top would generally be bad... No, a very bad idea.


    "Just get over here! There''s only a minute left!" ire called, prompting me to hurry up and follow her to the adjacent room where she seated me by a massive table only to then ce some modern-looking devices right in front of me before... Just going and disappearing.


    A momentter, right on the time ire adhered to, the devices on the desk shed up before hundreds of smallsers suddenly erupted from a single protruding part of the main device, a thousand red lines that then moved down as if scanning not only me but the entirety of the room along with me.


    Obviously, given its position, the only ce where this strange kind of scanner failed to reach was below the table...


    Which was exactly where I noticed ire to be hiding right as the red lines of theser vanished, only to be reced with the picture of Chihiro sitting behind the same exact desk that kept ire unnoticed by the device.


    "Tim," Chihiro spoke, with his voice sounding as if he was right in front of me, as opposed to being on the other end of the call. "I''m d to see that you''ve managed to recover some, but I''ve also got the word that there''s something important but not exactly urgent that you need to consult me with."


    I squinted my eyes a little, slightly startled by the strangely official air of this meeting, even if it was done all online.


    "It''s definitely important and in my opinion more than just urgent, but..." I hesitated for a moment... Or rather, yed out a role of acting hesitant while desperately squeezing my knees together to stop rie from prying them open and reaching up to my crotch.


    Yet, even with just a single look down, I could see just one sentence painted all over the mischievous look on her face. The same short sentence I could see her constantly mouth off on repeat.


    ''I''ve promised, didn''t I?''


    "Important and urgent?" Chihiro raised one of his eyebrows before leaning over the table a bit. "But?"


    "Is this connection really safe?" I asked, finding all sorts of excuses to exin the weird expression on my face.


    "Oh?" My question, even though itcked any sort of real meaning, actually managed to only further stir Chihiro''s interest. "Yes, it is secure... but now I can''t help but wonder what made you question it in advance."


    I took a deep breath before sneaking another nce down, below the desk''s top, where ire finally managed to pry my legs open and now moved closer, making it no longer possible to close them up thus leaving my crotch unguarded.


    And judging by how her fingers were already creeping towards the zipper of the pants I''d put on mere moments ago...


    Still, this call I couldn''t just ignore. On the other hand, I could at least try to ignore ire, even if only for a moment.


    And so, rather than stalling any further, I breathed out before fixing my eyes on the projection of ire''s Dad''s face while trying to ignore how she already started to jerk me off to get me ready for the promised soul-sucking experience.


    "While it''s only a guess..." I gritted my teeth, fighting off the wave of pleasure that rocked up my spine when ire wrapped her sweet, full lips around the rim of my shroom before sucking on it so strongly, she even started to pull her head back, as if to pluck the shroom of my penis out.


    "But ire and I... We believe what happened back at the factory was well..." I looked away before raising my hand to gently scratch my cheek. "We believe that the energy we identally unleashed gave birth to the consciousness within the spirituality."


    Chihiro... didn''t respond.


    He just sat there with his eyes affixed on what was likely my own projection.


    A single bead of sweat trickled down from his forehead.


    ''I''m not sure if I got the message, so let''s try again,'' I foolishly thought before gulping my saliva, ignoring ire''s mischief and heaving a short sigh.


    "We believe we gave birth to a god."

 Chapter 158: A man endures

    "We believe we gave birth to a god."


    I stared nkly at Chihiro''s projection, praying to high heavens for only my torso to be disyed on the other end, as opposed to the whole desk¡­


    And Chihiro''s very daughter, grinning as she grabbed a hold of my dick, now mischievously smirked while looking with anticipation up to my face.


    "A god, you say?" Chihiro squinted his eyes, clearly unprepared for such a development.


    His eyes twitched before the man looked down and to the side a bit.


    ''Judging by how he focused on my words, it seems that we should be safe¡­''


    Focused on the issue I''d brought up, Chihiro''s face continued to give off small hints¡­ Or rather, the fact that he got careless enough to reveal them proved just how shocked he was on the inside.


    Yet, despite how crucial of a moment it was¡­


    ire had no ns to be left on the back burner. And she made it clear when she squeezed her fingers down before starting to jerk her wrist up and down.


    "What makes you say so?" Chihiro raised his eyes as he looked sharply straight at my face.


    The fact that it was merely the man''s projection made it feel pretty uncanny, as if he could perceive me from whatever the distance and obstacles that stood in the way.


    And having ire now rub her face up and down the pulsing vein in my dick only made it feel all the weirder.


    "I believe I¡­ went through a strange process right as that energy was about to explode. And for just the slightest instant," I raised my eyes and steeled my face.


    A desperate countermeasure in a bid to remain impervious to ire now puffing her lips out and dragging them up and down my shaft, merely teasing me as if to rub it in just how easily she could break through my resistance.


    "For the slightest instant, I believe I saw that energy. It was still there," I stated, the weight of my words great enough for the sense of pressure to help mebat my lust. "Heck," I sighed, "it''s quite possible that energy is still there, just dormant."


    I shrugged my shoulders as if this wasn''t a possibility I noticed pretty much as I vocalized it.


    "Energy cannot just¡­ vanish. The fact that we don''t understand what happened simply means we need to look closer. And¡­"


    There was this one ufortable aspect of the situation, one as minute as the instant I just spoke about.


    And it was the fact this energy¡­


    It reacted to my constitution.


    It wasn''t a clear, precise observation but just an imperfect recollection of events.


    What was clear, however, was the feeling when ire brought her face as far up as she could without entering the range of the camera''s view¡­ Only to kiss my tip before hooking her upper lip on it and then slowly pushing her chin down, as if using my dick as a wrench to pry her mouth open.


    And just like that¡­ she just breathed into my shaft like an extremely thirsty person would at the sight of cold, refreshing water, as if she was struggling to hold herself back from just chomping at it¡­


    Only to do just that right as I raised my eyes back to the projection, hoping to use her fervent desire to keep the tease on the low, as if edging me not from the finish¡­ but the very feeling of getting edged!


    ''Shit,'' I cursed, desperately holding my expression still while Chihiro carefully processed my words.


    "I believe that whatever it is that we''ve created¡­ It''s still right back in the factory. But¡­" I squinted my eyes, panicking as I desperately clung to the topic, hoping to shower Chihiro with enough reveals for him not to notice anything on my face.


    Because the moment ire slowly pushed her face down my crotch and patiently devoured inch after inch of my dick, I really didn''t have enough willpower in myself to resist.


    The risk factor only served to amplify all of my senses, making it even harder to resist this damn beautiful and yful girl.


    Still, after nailing her throat down on my dick, ire failed to predict one thing.


    And while just looking down on her disheveled hair as she desperately gulped down all of my pride was a perk in itself, it could never match the look of her dreamy, happy, and affectionate face!


    "But, in order for us to see if I''m right, we would have to power it up again. Just, with all of that said¡­" I added, only to then shake my shoulders while putting on a helpless look on my face. "It''s still just a series of guesswork, as likely to blow right into our faces as the first attempt did."


    Having no other options left, I squeezed my ass down with all my might, as if trying to trap a rat that somehow sneaked between my buttcheeks.


    But, just like my power to resist ire''s sucking came closer and closer to copsing, so did Chihiro''s interest in our call.


    Not in the meaning of him losing interest in the topic, by any means. Judging by how his eyes moved, however, it was clear to me just how eager he was to end the call and go consult the ins and outs of the idea with someone more qualified to speak up over the issue.


    "I see," Chihiro muttered as he nodded his head to himself. "And, just to be sure, you see no other way to test this theory out other than activating the factory again?"


    Adding up to all the measures I took to keep my face straight, I now took in a deep breath and held it in, as if losing even the tiniest bit of air on anything but speaking up woulde at the cost of my life.


    "Right now I believe that to be the case, but this whole thing is still a work in progress, so it would be great if I could get a day to think about it."


    For a moment, the two of us simply stared at each other''s projection, both waiting for the other to add to the discussion.


    "I see, a day it is, then. If you don''t have any news by this time tomorrow, we will head to the factory together to try to prove your guess."


    Just like that, the call ended, signaled by Chihiro''s projection devolving into a thousand tinyser lines cutting through the air before all of those lines copsed outwards only to then end up quickly vanishing as the diodes powering them turned off.


    "Haaaa¡­.." I breathed out a long sigh of relief while my hands moved down to gently pat ire''s head.


    "Haaah!" ire pulled her face off my dick before taking a long, deep breath, her lungs quite obviously devoid of fresh air after she choked down on my pride for so long.


    "I guess this is your win," she muttered with a slight look of dissatisfaction on her face as she brought her hand up to wipe her mouth from the drool. "But¡­" ire then called out, only to grab my dick before using it as support as she pulled herself up.


    Bit by bit, she climbed up, first to my knees, then brushing her chest against myp before pushing herself up and bringing her face up to mine for what seemed like a kiss.


    Rather than going in for it, though, ire reached out for the handle of the chair we were at, releasing the hold and causing the both of us to near instantly drop down as the backrest of the chair fell down and only stopped as it pretty much turned into the upper half of a perfectly t, single bed.


    "This isn''t over yet, you know?" ire announced right as the shock of suddenly falling back like that passed, allowing me to see and adore her yful smile. "Now, though, I need you to close your eyes and rx," she then ordered as she wiggled herself into just the mostfortable position atop myp.


    A position that was so familiar to us that through Pavlov''s response, I grew ready for action even faster than when ire started to tease me.


    "Don''t tell me, you are going with that promise too¡­?"


    Before I could even finish my words, ire reached out and pressed the inner palm of her hand over my eyes, shielding them from any light while the warmth of her skin made them rx right away.


    "And now¡­" ire''s voice appeared from the left, from a slight distance, right as her other hand moved to rub just the outer lobe of my right ear. "I''m going to give you the best ASMR experience you ever had," ire continued to softly whisper into my ear, only to end her sentence by gently blowing air right into its opening¡­


    Only to then suddenly pull out, which I sensed by how the way she put her weight down on me changed, while pulling both of her hands back and leaving me just¡­ waiting.


    "And did you know that the big part of all them tingles, is¡­"


    ire shifted her weight on top of me again, forcing me to try even harder not to cheat and open my eyes to see it all happen right before my eyes.


    A dedication that was soon rewarded when her voice suddenly assaulted me from the right,"


    "¡­ not knowing when and where the next one ising from~~."

 Chapter 159: A promise saved for later leaves a hole to fill

    A cold shiver moved up my spine as ire''s voice suddenly struck my ear, not only transmitting her soft-spoken if not whispered words, but alsoing in as a wave of her warm breath.


    "Now¡­ Now¡­ now¡­ now¡­"


    ire''s voice faded as she repeated herself while pulling her lips away.


    "Now then¡­" ire whispered as she now leaned over to the other side of my head.


    Yet, rather than continuing with the process, she suddenly grew all silent, her weight shifting to indicate she had now leaned away.


    "Actually¡­" Suddenly, ire''s voice returned to the norm, prompting me to open my eyes and look up at the look of distress mixing with confusion on her face. "I didn''t really study enough of ASMR. So while I now understand what it is¡­"


    ire gulped her saliva down before turning her eyes down and then away to the side.


    "I don''t feel confident enough to perform it properly yet," she admitted before lowering her head only to then raise it just the small bit necessary for her eyes to look up and sessfully lock on my face. "So, how about we put this promise off for some timeter?"


    For a moment, I simply stared at the girl, not really sure how to respond. In the end, however, I simply took a breath before smiling lightly and then shaking my head.


    "Don''t tell me you thought I would hold it against you," I asked, only to reach out with my hand and grab hold of her cheek, giving it a quick, small rub with my thumb. "I''m already happy knowing you want to do it for me. And, in fact, seeing how you came to me honestly like that¡­"


    I shook my head again before letting go of ire''s cheek, only to wrap my hands around her shoulders instead as I brought her into a gentle, light hug.


    "So, if you don''t feel like doing it now, then¡­ so be it?" I summed it up, turning thest part of my response into a question as if I were confused, not by why ire wanted to put her promise off forter, but by what the issue was with her doing so.


    Still¡­


    Even though I had no problem with ire putting her promise off forter¡­ she was still sitting down on myp. And I was still all hot and bothered after all the teasing she subjected me to while I was on the phone with her father.


    "Then¡­ how about we just go for a quick finish?" I suggested, leaning my head off to the side as I attempted to make myself look like a small puppy as I looked up into those deep, brown eyes of hers.


    "A quickie, you say?" ire followed my example and leaned her head off to the side, matching the tilt of my face as she suddenly wiggled her hips to and fro, as if to rub her crotch around mine to sense the position and state of my erection.


    As soon as she did so, the yful if not outright mischievous look on her face grew into something much more passionate.


    "Then¡­ how would you like to do it?" she asked in a way that suggested she was happy to give up on the initiative in my favor here¡­ Only to wrap her hands around my neck as she leaned so far down on me, she pretty much rested her entire body against my chest while leaning her head back just enough to still be able to speak straight into my face.


    "Do you want us to hug each other closely as we make out and fuck?" she whispered from so close, her warm breath struck my eyes while on its mission to carry her words to my ears.


    My dick twitched as I imagined the scenario¡­ or rather, as I imagined ire reaching down to grab my pride, lock it at just the right angle before pushing her hips down, impaling herself on my dick as she would move to make her suggestion a reality.


    "Or maybe¡­"


    Right as I was about to speak up and request the very thing she just offered, ire suddenly let go of my back, only to ce her hands on my chest before pushing me all the way down to the point where my back rested down on the upper part of the big, foldable chair we were in.


    "Or maybe you would like me to ride you while giving you a perfect show of everything you might want to see?" she asked as she straddled my crotch and pushed her knees down, as if to lock them against the width of my hips, while she stretched her head back and pushed her chest out, all in an attempt to put an even greater focus on her shape.


    "Or maybe¡­"


    Using her knees that she locked on my hips, ire reached out and grabbed me by the back of my neck again, only to suddenly heave herself over to the back, effectively pulling me back to a half-sitting position whileying herself all the way down on the bottom of the chair''s cushions, with her knees now moving apart as she raised her thighs and then opened her legs up.


    "Or maybe you want us to do it missionary-style, so that you can do whatever it is that you wish to do with me?" she asked while holding her hands up, as if begging me to grab hold and hug her as I would lock my dick on the opening of her pussy before conquering her insides with one, swift and decisive push.


    "Or maybe¡­" the smile on ire''s lips, one that only grew bigger and wider as she carefully observed how my face changed as she ran through the possible positions, "or maybe you would like to take me like I''m some bitch in heat and rail me from behind?" ire then asked, her smile wavering for but a second as a stray thought caused her eyes to twitch for just a single moment.


    "The thing is, I can''t really twist all that much more while we are still on the chair, so if that''s how you would like to¡­"


    Rather than keeping myself a mere subject of her teasing and flirting, I reached out and grabbed ire by her waist¡­ only to push my hands further, all the way to the point where I could lock my hands over her spine, giving me just enough handle and stability to kick the air with my legs as I stood up while carrying ire up along.


    "Thest option," I smiled a little as I refused to look anywhere but ire''s face, "it certainly sounds interesting, doesn''t it?" I whispered, taking one step and then the other¡­ before dropping ire down on the edge of the table from which I''d called her father just a few moments ago.


    "What I can''t help but wonder, though," I continued to speak as I gently nudged ire to turn over, so that rather than sitting down on the desk''s edge, she pressed down on it with her lower stomach as I gently pushed down on her spine while leaning down along with her.


    "What did you think about to have your eyes twitch like that?" I asked while allowing just my right hand to reach back andy down on ire''s shapely and divinely soft dumpy.


    "Ah¡­"


    With my hands already moving all over her body, ire was starting to struggle to breathe properly.


    Her breathing grew heavier, warmer¡­ more moist. Even the nces she threw at me with the very edge of her eyes grew more intense and thirsty, as if she was now recalling just how she teased me before and feared I was here to enact my payback for that.


    I wasn''t petty enough to care about stuff like that, though. And so, as soon as the tip of my dick found the weing entrance to her insides, I held nothing back as I jerked my hips up!


    In an instant, the sensation of my dick tensing up beyond any reason, the sensation of it being exposed to the elements, the sensation of it being left all alone despite how much it craved attention¡­


    In a single push, all of those were reced by the most weing, searing warmth. A warmth that quickly turned into near infernal yet still somehow pleasurable heat as ire''s inner folds squeezed down on me, wringing my dick dry as they pulled it even deeper and deeper inside.


    ''Wait, is it just me, or is she¡­ shallower than before?''


    As much trouble as I would find myself in over this wording¡­ this was precisely how I felt. As if my dick suddenly grew an inch, making it so much easier for its tip to reach the entrance of her womb.


    But my dick didn''t grow. All the ads of the penis ergement pills I saw when surfing the in search of just the right set of tags that would strike my fancy in the past¡­ they didn''t work.


    And most of all, I''ve never bought any to begin with, so even if they did work indeed, I wouldn''t be any wiser about that.


    And so, by simple logic and math, if it wasn''t my dick that grewrger, then it had to be ire''s insides that¡­


    Once again, there was something happening that I couldn''t exin with the knowledge I had. And so, just as it had grown to be my habit, I simply threw this thought to the back of my head before reaching down for ire''s ass, adoring how it bounced whenever I would jerk my hips up or how it seemingly followed the movement of my hips during the rebound, refusing to let me go.


    Yet, after just a moment of simply caressing the skin of ire''s ass, I moved my head closer and closer to the center, all the way to the point where it snuck close enough to her anus to make my intentions clear and known.


    "Could it be¡­" I muttered, only to slow down my thrusting as I raised my head and looked down to where ire''s beautiful, long hair protected her expression from my inquisitive stare. "Are you, by any chance, curious about trying the other hole?"

 Chapter 160: Maybe I really am a dummy?

    With my hand on ire''s bottom cheek, my thumb inches closer and closer to her other hole.


    And just by the factor of the anticipation of the unknown, I could both see and feel ire grow more and more excited by the minute.


    Yet, while I continued to press my advantage as I enjoyed the renewed fury with which her insides copsed down on me, my thumb stopped.


    And it was all because of a single thought.


    ''Am I really happy with intimacy devolving to just this kind of thing?''


    Back when ire teased me, she did her best to find new ways¡ªmethods we hadn''t tried yet¡ªto please me. In other words, she tried to be as innovative as possible while happily engaging in things she either figured out herself or outright heard me ask about.


    With that in mind, given how taking her backside was one of the few things we hadn''t tried yet¡­ it just felt like a waste to im her ass over a simple morningy!


    "You know what?" I suddenly asked as my hips slowed down before grinding to aplete stop right as I pushed myself as far up ire''s stomach as I could.


    For some reason, rather than both receiving and also giving pleasure by rubbing our genitals against each other, I simply leaned down over ire''s back before gently pressing myself against her skin.


    "I don''t want this kind of thing to just be a mindless act of checking a box," I muttered, deep in my own thoughts, as I wrapped myself all over this impossibly receptive girl, seeking her warmth and closeness over merely the carnal pleasure she so willingly offered.


    "In fact, I don''t want our intimacy to be just¡­ like this, a randomy to let off some of our lust¡­"


    As I fell deeper and deeper into this contemtive mood, my mouth started to move instead of my hips, showering ire with my naive attempts at¡­ keeping her value?


    ''Even though it''s a field of economy, the more of something you have, the less important it is. So, to keep our intimacy as valuable as possible, the easiest way to go about it is to¡­''


    ire leaned her head slightly to the side before stealing a quick, side-nce at my face. She then furrowed her brows before tucking her hips in and suddenly pushing them back, causing me to bounce back just far enough for my dick to slip out of her.


    She didn''t waste any time, instantly making use of this opportunity to swing over on her hips, once again sitting down on the desk''s edge. Then, before she even fully turned, she shot both of her legs up before hooking them around my waist and pulling me right back towards her.


    Obviously, with a maneuver this rapid andplicated, I simply ended up pressing down on her lower stomach, having no time, chance, or even the right angle to try pushing myself back inside her.


    And, to be quite frank, the disapproving look on her face only made it clear that we were going for a pause rather than just a quick change of position.


    "You are horny, and so am I. I want to pleasure you, and so you want to pleasure me," ire stated while staring right into my eyes, as if trying to peer beyond them and directly into my soul.


    She then reached out first with just one hand, using the other to support herself on her rather unstable spot. Only when she properly grabbed onto my shoulder did she add her second hand, pretty much wrapping herself all over my chest.


    "For all your smarts, concerns, and fairness, you are still one big dummy, you know?" she whispered while pressing her forehead hard against the base of my neck.


    She then rxed her arms just enough to bring her head up and look up at my face.


    "We are together, are we not?" ire asked, leaning her head to the side in quite the adorable gesture. "And you are serious enough about me to even think long-term, beyond just the happenstance of our contract and how it''s the main link binding us right now. So, I only need to ask one thing."


    For all of her adorableness, ire had now sobered up and grown rather serious.


    "Is there any reason why we shouldn''t fuck if we both want to?"


    I gritted my teeth.


    Just like the points I made in my head before, what ire said right now made quite a lot of sense. Or, to be more precise, her point of view and position were perfectly reasonable, making me the weird one.


    "I don''t want our intimacy to grow into something normal, ordinary, that''s all," I revealed honestly while looking off to the side, feeling strangely exposed now that I had just admitted to what was going on in my soul. "Especially with all of this dual cultivation topic, I just¡­"


    I tensed up as I hesitated for a bit, struggling toy my feelings bare for ire to see.


    She was what I imagined the peak of feminine adorableness to be. She had both the ssy, mature air around her, the yful, outgoing nature, the wits, and enough horniness to match me back during my high school years.


    She was the freak of nature who ended up amodating every request or desire I could think of, all the while somehow finding herself in a position where I would do the same for her.


    But then again, we didn''t really know each other all that well!


    Sure, our rtionship was quite intense, but it was still a really short ride, and if the problem of our dual cultivation first brought my attention to the issue, I now feared what would happen if either of us ended up¡­ burning out.


    And then¡­


    "Oh right, as self-serving as it is to mention now," my face twitched as another point to consider suddenly appeared in my mind. "I still need to point out how we haven''t used a condom even once," I brought up the topic I''d thought about quite recently.


    For now, we appeared to be free of the consequences of such reckless behavior, yet, with our private parts currently rubbing against each other as we hugged tightly and talked¡­ it wasn''t something I should put off for long.


    "Wait, you think¡­" ire suddenly pushed herself off my chest before giving me quite the startled look.


    "It''s not like I have anything against bing a father!" I quickly raised my guard, knowing full well how sensitive a topic this could be. "It''s not like I''m trying to ditch responsibility or anything, but more like¡­"


    I gritted my teeth.


    "Isn''t pregnancy quite taxing and dangerous? I mean, I''m aware that with modern medicine, the risks are minusculepared to how it was in the past, but¡­"


    I hesitated once again.


    "You do know that those between the first and fourth cultivation ranks are pretty much sterile?" ire suddenly mentioned, throwing me off my flow. "It''s only upon reaching the fifth stage that they learn how to control their spirituality well enough to actively keep it at bay, so that it doesn''t sterilize the sperm as you ejacte inside."


    As stunning a revtion as it was, it was the matter-of-fact manner in which ire said all of that that caught me off guard.


    "And with that said," she then added as her serious face melted away, only for the girl to let go of my neck and lie down on the table''s edge. She then reached out with her hands and used them to pull and hold her leg up, presenting me with her moist pussy that twitched weingly in anticipation for the visit of my member.


    "Stop overthinking and just screw me silly, so that we can calm down, rx, and then move on with our day!"

 Chapter 161: Future seduction?

    "Haaa¡­ haaa¡­ haaa¡­"


    The sound of our breathing mixed together as wey atop the desk, too sweaty and rxed to move even an inch.


    All we could do for now was merely pant for air while we hugged each other with primal, instinctive desperation.


    Over my back, ire''s nails dug into my skin, leaving behind itchy marks where her nails lost their grip, only to end up digging even deeper just a little lower.


    With ire''s upper body cuddled up to my chest, I pressed my face against the top of her head, holding her tightly as thest spasms of pleasure rocked our flesh, making the two of us jerk a few more times before copsing down on the table.


    This level of pleasure was outright tiring me out.


    The sensation of staying inside ire as my sperm pumped into her womb, only to be sterilized by her spiritual energy as it traveled up the predetermined path in a doomed attempt to fertilize her eggs.


    Still, rather than the pleasure itself, it was this moment of cuddling that came after, as we both basked in the pleasure''s afterglow, that I actually enjoyed the most.


    Right there, within ire''s arms, I didn''t have to think about the factory, about the energy we left there, about the possibility of us creating a god by total ident¡­


    In ire''s arms, all that mattered was the heat of her flesh, the softness of her skin, and the affectionate way in which she held me close, as if she didn''t have enough limbs to ensure I wouldn''t just move away.


    Yet, just like everything else I would ssify as good, this moment of peace and tranquility had to soon reveal its end.


    "I would love it if we could just stay like this¡­" ire whispered as she gently ran her fingers up and down the marks she left on my back, as if hoping her touch could heal them.


    "But we''re way too busy to just enjoy ourselves like that, am I right?" I guessed the rest of what ire wanted to say as I reluctantly moved my hands down to the desk''s surface before lifting myself up on my arms¡­


    Only to stare down at the half-naked girl still sprawled on the desk below me.


    The way sweat shone on ire''s skin, the way her knees powerlessly fell to the sides, even the way my sperm gushed out of her pussy once I finally moved back far enough to unplug her¡­


    It was a lot to take in. A lot to see¡­ while resisting the thought of going at it again right away.


    "Are you feeling okay?" I asked as I shook my head before reaching out and offering a helpful hand, just in case ire felt too weak or numb to get up and stand herself.


    "What do you take me for?" ire smiled lightly before putting on a huge, prideful grin. A grin that she kept on her face as she jumped off the desk''s edge before quickly pulling on her clothes to put them back in the right ces.


    "Here," I soon reached out, this time with a pack of tissues upying my hand. "As exciting as it is to watch in our bedroom, I don''t want you walking around other people with my sperm leaking out of you."


    This time, ire didn''t protest. Instead, she simply looked down at my hand¡­ only to scoff a little before ignoring it and using her hands to pull her skirt up instead.


    I raised my eyebrows a bit, then pulled out a single tissue and got down on one knee as I carefully wiped the white, thick seed of mine from her inner thigh before turning the gentleness of my movements into overdrive as I carefully wiped the rest of my sperm from the much more sensitive parts of her body.


    "There, that should do it," I muttered as I looked up, only to see ire with her signature, wide, yful grin.


    "We will see!" she announced¡­ only to keep her skirt lifted as she swiftly turned around on her heel, shing me all she had to sh¡­ Only to then stop, take a moment to steady herself, before she started to just¡­ jump up and down in ce!


    "Are you trying to get me excited again or something?" I asked, puzzled, if not outright baffled by her sudden jumping.


    "Now," ire said, her lips even wider than they were before as she lifted her skirt even further, leaving every tiniest detail of her crotch, from her lower lips, through her swollen clit, all the way to the way her lower stomach narrowed down into the triangle of her pubis¡­


    And as if to prove her actions right, all this moving and shaking caused a few more drops of my sperm to spill out of her, leaving me to do nothing but just sigh, pick up another tissue, and repeat the process while pretending not to notice how ire pretty much started to grind herself on my hand the moment I reached her crotch to wipe it clean.


    "There, all done," I said as I rose up from my knees, only for ire to suddenly rush forth and lock her hands behind my back as she hugged herself to my chest, while making sure to keep her face lowered and hidden from my view.


    "ire¡­?" Not sure how to interpret the fact ire was the one to call out ourck of time, only to now approach me in such an obvious attempt to make us keep going¡­


    "Just recharging a bit," she whispered so softly, I actually struggled to catch her words. "And no, I''m not trying to seduce you," she then stated, likely easily seeing through my confusion. "Or rather, I am¡­" she hesitated for a little, only to end up with a wide grin with just a single hint of helplessness.


    "Just¡­ rather than seducing you now, I''m leaving you with another promise for the future, for when we deal with today and go back home to rest. And all of this teasing¡­"


    ire hesitated for a bit, only to then pull back just enough to lift her face and look up into my eyes with the same familiar grin of hers all over her face.


    "All of this teasing was just to make sure you will be looking forward to what willeter!"

 Chapter 162: The future of the factory project

    "I believe this to be our greatest chance. And the possible returns on this kind of investment are so insanely high, it would be foolish not to invest as little as it takes to get it tested."


    Taking a sip of delicious, freshly served coffee, I looked up at Chihiro''s face.


    "That I''m not denying," Chihiro said, leaning back in his chair while snacking on some kind of citrus-vored sponge cake. "But just as you speak of the returns, I need to raise the issue of the risks."


    For the very first time, I felt as if I had met a wall.


    This was supposed to be just a simple meeting, a boring example of Chihiro learning the mundane details of the factory project and its recent near-miss of a disaster. In the strictest sense, that''s what was supposed to be the main topic before we moved to the inspection of the work-site.


    "I saw that ball of pure, raw energy," Chihiro spoke again, the serious look in his eyes contrasting with his seemingly calm, cake-focused expression. And as he raised those eyes of his¡­


    ''Oh¡­''


    I had lost contact with the man shortly after we somehow avoided the catastrophe at the factory. Ever since it happened, we had pretty much only talked once, on a video call back at the mansion.


    But now that I looked into his eyes, I saw two things.


    One, the reason why he was so against trying the factory angle again.


    Two, just how massive of an impact this near-miss left on the man.


    As a cultivator just a mere step away from the tenth stage, his perception of the world around him and the essence of spirituality was inherently stronger.


    In other words, Chihiro saw and understood the scope of the energy we had casually created in a mere moment. He did so at a much better, deeper, and more wholesome level than anyone else.


    And now, this experience left him with traces of post-traumatic stress disorder in his eyes.


    ''Oh shit¡­''


    The weight of this realization made me slump down as I only now grasped the wider meaning of what actually happened back at the factory.


    ''It wasn''t just me and ire¡­ It was everyone''s life that was at stake back then.'' I gritted my teeth. ''Heck, the danger is quite likely to still be there!''


    But¡­


    For some reason, I just couldn''t stand the idea of¡­ giving up.


    Sure, there were mishaps, but¡­ that was the price of progress.


    Being the first ones to venture into those unexplored areas of creation, we inherently had to mess with forces no one else understood properly.


    And right now, from where I stood, Chihiro''s quite understandable fear of what could happen had turned him blind to the hope of what could happen.


    That''s why, while I could fully understand where the man wasing from, I just couldn''t ept throwing away all the progress we had made thus far¡­ Just because the results were so insanely great, we were unprepared to deal with them.


    Mistakes were made, sure, but¡­


    Now should be the time to take them as lessons, improve on the designs, and then try again, now much better prepared!


    But¡­


    How exactly was I supposed to convince Chihiro, my literal sponsor, to do this?


    "Okay, cease brooding like that, you two," ire sighed as she put away the long, elegant spoon she used to snack on her massive, sickeningly sweet parfait.


    She then leaned her head over and gave her dad a taxing look.


    "You have three days left before the big day. We still have time to solve everything," she said before heaving a long sigh, as if weary of the burden of exining something so simple and obvious.


    "Right now, it''s not the factory but the shadow of what happened that''s haunting you that''s the biggest issue," she stated as if it were a truth that stared everyone in the face yet no one was witty enough to invoke it.


    She then raised her arms and shrugged, "Solving the factory problem is the easiest and fastest way to deal with your inner demons while allowing you to enjoy the added benefits of the capacity you saw yourself."


    Chihiro opened his eyes a bit as he stared right back into his daughter''s face, taken aback by what turned out to be her perfect attempt at dismantling all his moods and leaving nothing but ufortable but bare facts for him to face.


    "As for you," still holding her moody expression, she cast her eyes down upon me, "you need to REALLY think about everything. And as much as I don''t want you to use it much¡­" This time it was ire who lowered her eyes before pressing her lips into a thin line.


    Seeing her face, though, so filled with unwillingness and tension, I couldn''t help but sigh and shake my head.


    "I know, I know, I don''t mind using it once I''ve recovered enough. But with that said¡­" I turned my eyes away, buying myself some time by taking a sip of the coffee, served by the owner himself in the closed-off section of his roof-based garden.


    "What if there really is a connection between my constitution and this entire problem?"


    This wasn''t an issue we could just ignore.


    On one hand, I hoped for this to blow over as nothing beyond my arrogance, my self-serving thought that a part of me could somehow be a seed for a deity. On the other hand, however, what if that really was the case?


    What if using this weird constitution of mine would be the spark that set this ball of energy back at the factory alight again?!


    "That''s¡­" Chihiro heaved, struggling to find an answer on the spot, especially since he was barely on board with the idea of doing something.


    "Huh? You don''t need to use it back at the factory, though," ire pointed out, catching me off guard with this realization¡­ and then when I noticed just how insanely obvious it was!


    "Oh right, for some reason I didn''t think about it¡­" I muttered, lowering my eyes, more shocked than embarrassed.


    "Then it''s settled," ire shrugged her shoulders, only to put down her parfait and reach for her ss of iced wine. And as she raised it to her lips, "When do we begin?"

 Chapter 163: Echo of divinity

    From the moment we decided on the course of the future back in the private garden of the cafe''s owner, only about an hour passed before we all stood up in a circle around huge stacks of papers, all filled with data the sensors in the factory recorded as the disaster nearly yed out.


    "Are you ready?" Standing to my right, ire asked with a worried look on her face. A look of reluctance, guilt, and unwillingness¡­ A look that ended up overshadowed by determination.


    A determination born out of the fact that we both shared the same belief that the issue with the factory was simply too big for us to ignore.


    Whether it was a disaster in the making, a birth of a god, or merely a bunch of misconceptions that grew on us to the point where our view on the matter turned pretty fatalistic, we simply couldn''t stand by and do nothing.


    But, in a situation when doing anything to the factory while it operated on forces that weren''t researched at all was akin to just probing the snake''s nest in hopes no snake woulde out¡­


    In this kind of situation, preparing to the best of one''s ability was a must. An obligatory step created by our desire to avoid another disaster or simply fueling the mes of the old one.


    And we were going to prepare as best as we could, even if the act of preparation in itself was potentially dangerous.


    "Yeah, let''s get this over with already," I nodded my head before turning my face to the other side and giving Chihiro a look. "How about you?"


    Standing with one leg on the anchor of one formation while pressing the other down at the magical center of another formation, Chihiro simply nodded his head.


    The process of firsting up with and then drawing those two formations, each of which had the opposite effect of the other while also being constructed with the idea of keeping its center located all the way to its side, was what took pretty much twice as long as we needed to get back from the cafe and to one of Chihiro''s estates.


    With one formation serving to absorb Chihiro''s own power, filter out his will from it, and then diffuse the spiritual energy into the air, he was now ready to support my mental adventure with his own energy.


    As for the other leg, it served the exact opposite purpose, with its ability to rapidly drain all the spiritual energy from the air, creating a sort of vortex that allegedly was strong enough to even steal spiritual energy away from those that kept their cores less than properly guarded.


    In other words, with nothing but ire''s and Chihiro''s observational ability, they were to decide whether to help me out on my adventure by giving me more power¡­ or by putting a stop to the process by removing all the spiritual energy I could use to maintain my inborn state.


    "Let''s do this, then," I cheerfully called out, as if to cheer myself up for the task, before closing my eyes¡­ and pushing my spiritual energy in a move I''d already practiced quite a lot.


    I closed my eyes right before I started the process, only to open them again as I felt all my worries, considerations, and troubles fade away, growing all the more meaningless the higher level my brain reached.


    One could argue that closing my eyes wasn''t even necessary when using this weird constitution of mine¡­ But for me, it was an important ritual of separating the normal me from the me operating on spiritual energy.


    This concern for what really constituted me and what was the influence of my innate ability¡­ was just one of the things I now couldn''t care less about, too drawn to the papers in front of me to pay it any mind.


    ''Let''s see¡­''


    Operating with just the sliver of my consciousness necessary to keep my unconscious actions in a process I could actively observe, I allowed my body to move on its own as it reached for the papers before quickly scanning the content of one report¡­


    Only to raise it up and snap my fingers while still holding the paper between them.


    Then¡­


    The paper suddenly stood in mes¡­


    No, the me never appeared. The paper simply¡­ disintegrated from between my fingers, as if scorched and then consumed by a me not even my eyes could see.


    With the sliver of my consciousness still awake, I could tell how this move caught both ire and Chihiro off-guard¡­ but by the time they could so much as twitch, my hands had already moved on to the next paper.


    ''No, it doesn''t make any sense¡­'' I thought as I looked down at the numbers and graphs describing the fluctuations of static power across the factory''s main floor, a courtesy of the sensors that came pre-installed with the factory and that we simply opted not to remove.


    ''Maybe they were repairing electric appliances here or something?'' I thought for a moment before burning the paper again and moving on to the next.


    ''Why am I burning them, though?'' I thought, struggling to figure out every in and out of the process I was more of a witness to than an active participant in.


    But then, mere three pages in¡­ My hand suddenly swiped out, as if I wanted to manipte some sort of massive hologram hanging in the air.


    But there was no hologram, projection, or strange visual of any kind. And all that swiping my arm like that aplished¡­ was burning all of the papers that were before me, an act that couldn''t be any more meaningless, given how they were merely printed copies of what Chihiro had safely stored in one of the server farms he was investing in.


    "The guess is right," my lips and my throat moved on their own, causing me to produce words without even the hint of a will to do so. "There is a stink of divinity all over the forms," my body stated as I raised my eyes to Chihiro, acting as if ire wasn''t even in the room.


    ''What the hell is this me doing?'' I thought, suddenly enraged by itsck of courtesy toward mine¡­ our fianc¨¦e, partner, lover, and serious marriage candidate.


    "You just shut up and enjoy the ride."


    My mouth moved again, this time sending both Chihiro and ire into a small shock, given how there was absolutely no context for me to speak out like that.


    Neither of them was speaking, after all!


    ''Yeah, so who else could I be speaking to but you?''


    ''Wait, what the fuck?!''


    My body trembled as a foreign presence intruded upon my very thoughts.


    Did it mean that by now, the integrity of even my mind was following in the footsteps of my flesh and faltering under the influence of my own spirituality?!


    ''And you, the scribe, don''t you dare forget yourself! Do you know for how long¡­''


    "KHHAAAAAA¡­!!!"


    My body convulsed so hard I nearly bent in half as I squeezed out all the air from my lungs, as if trying to vomit it all.


    The pain in my head exploded as I fell down first to my knees and then on all fours, struggling to maintain any form of coherent thought with this strange, existential pain rocking my mind to high hell.


    And it was all because right at the very moment my spirituality faded and the connection to whatever it was that I connected broke¡­ All the thoughts, calctions, ideas, and full analytical processes that I went through while abusing my constitution¡­ All of it shed straight through my mind in a single instant.


    The way I connected those dots, how I noticed things that were too fine and seemingly natural for anyone else to pay any attention to, even the long and arduous process of slowly thinking everything through¡­


    All of that, condensed into a single instant, was no different from an information bomb that went off in my head and threatened to wipe out all the parts of my brain that served to produce cognitive thought.


    "I''m sorry! The flow of your spirituality suddenly grew so erratic, I didn''t know what to do but¡­"


    ire was already down on her knees, awkwardly patting me on the back as if to help me spit out whatever it was I was choking on while trying to support my head from the side with her other hand.


    In front of me, Chihiro now raised his foot from the amplification array, breaking its circuit while stepping hard onto the other one and even going as far as to graciously fuel it with loads of his Qi.


    And there I was, stuck on all fours, too physically weak to properly form any sort of normal response.


    But if there was anything that I learned from it all, it was just one thing.


    "It really is a god, b-b-back at the factory¡­" I muttered, my tongue stumbling in its task to help me pronounce just the right words that would allow me to quickly pass this important message.


    "And i-i-i-it''s waiting."

 Chapter 164: Pain of the aftermatch

    "Haaa¡­ haaa¡­ haaa¡­"


    I found that breathing heavily was oddly efficient at helping me deal with the overwhelming pain.


    It felt as if¡­ the muscle of my brain had to regenerate, forcing me to suffer through the pain of the growth.


    Just like a muscle pushed to its limits, my brain now needed time to recover from the damage caused by housing two different personalities.


    The original me¡­ and this strange, profound me that had just manifested in my head.


    "Tim¡­!"


    ire''s voice was strangely slowed down, stretched in a peculiar manner, as if putting a pause between her words¡­ and her intentions.


    ''Oh shit¡­'' The moment I focused on anything other than the pain, my vision started to spin, leading me to drop my head back down as I finally managed to vomit up everything in my stomach onto what used to be the pile of documents, which had now turned to mere ashes.


    ''Shit¡­''


    Throwing up was natural for a human, merely the body''s defense mechanism like any other.


    But throwing up, and throwing up while my fianc¨¦e and her father watched me do it¡­


    ''Shit¡­''


    Cursing for the third time, I nearly lost consciousness from theck of air as thest of what I had eaten finally left my system, allowing me to take a breath.


    This had to be the worst I''d ever felt in my entire life.


    But we got our answers, even if they came at the price of creating a lot more¡ªand far more important¡ªquestions in return.


    ''The scribe, huh?'' I thought as I slowly started to get used to the overwhelming, numbing pain in my head. ''But what the hell is that even supposed to mean?''


    It was bad enough to have one presence in my head that I didn''t know the origin of. But now that strange presence was addressing¡­ someone else?


    And it was all happening within the confines of my head?


    ''Even this process of invoking this innate ability of mine¡­ Howe it was so much harder than before?''


    More and more questions swarmed through my aching head, all screaming for attention and urgency.


    But at the very least, I could quite easily find the answers to some of them.


    ''Isn''t it because I''ve not only reached a higher level, but now properly settled into it?''


    Breathing heavily over the pile of my own vomit, my mind raced as my head threatened to split in half from the pain.


    ''So, it''s a kind of force that''s resonating within my very cultivation core. And it fully permeates through my flesh¡­''


    That would exin how infusing my brain with my spiritual energy led it to gain control over my entire body.


    Contrary to how it was before my recent advancement, my cultivation core was now an integral part of every inch of my flesh. As such, while I clearly felt like directing my spiritual energy, due to the nature of my spirituality, the nature of my cultivation¡­


    All of that energy ended up spreading equally through all of my anchor points, effectively connecting every part of my body with all the others.


    Then again, that should''ve lessened the burden I experienced¡­ only for it to grow beyond anything I had ever felt before.


    "Haaa¡­ haa¡­ ha¡­" I continued to breathe heavily, doing my best to stay on the right side of things for as long as I could.


    After throwing up right in front of ire and Chihiro, nting my face into my own filth as my consciousness wavered was thest thing I wanted them to witness!


    "Just keep breathing, we are here," ire now switched to gently rubbing my back while trying to soothe my massive headache with her soft voice.


    "I''m t-t-trying to¡­" I whispered, struggling to do something as simple and straightforward as uttering just a few words.


    Bit by bit, with every passing second, however, the pain started to subside.


    With the now undirected spiritual energy taking over my spiritual core, it rushed to reinforce all the parts of me that were damaged, including the tissues of my brain.


    In a minute, I no longer suffered extreme nausea whenever I moved my head even the tiniest bit. Five minutester, I could go as far as blinking my eyes. Roughly seven minutester, I finally managed to lean back and sit down, only for ire to instantly rush behind me, where she supported my weight while doing her best to make mefortable.


    With every step of recovery, though, it took more and more time for each toplete. And just like how I somehow endured the pain in about ten minutes, it took nearly a full hour before I regained enough of my motor functions to actually move my head and look around.


    "It''s waiting¡­ we need to turn the factory back on again."


    Even though I passed this message about an hour ago already, seeing how none of the three of us had moved from Chihiro''s safe ce, absolutely nothing had been done to that end.


    "How do you know that? What''s going on?"


    Seeing that I was now in a state to have at least a light conversation, Chihiro hurried to get as much information out of me as he could.


    "I just¡­" I hesitated for a second, gritting my teeth to deal with the pain that reignited the moment I tried to recall any of the details of what I saw and what my strange, other self thought.


    "I just know it. Give me a week to heal and process all that I''ve seen, and I''ll give you a proper answer. For now, though¡­" I shook my head, giving up on even attempting to dig into my memory. "You don''t have that kind of time, do you?"


    Chihiro squinted his eyes before heaving a deep sigh.


    For some reason, it felt as if my words had an even greater impact on him than I believed they would make.


    "I... No," he shook his head before putting on a small, thoughtful smile. "We don''t have that kind of time indeed."

 Chapter 165: Return

    The return to the factory.


    When I thought about it before, after the close shave with the disaster, I expected it to be a solemn trip filled with nothing but powerlessness over the pending demolition of the whole ce.


    Yet, as it turned out, by the time I finally managed to deal with the consequences of abusing my constitution, Chihiro had gathered a team not to raze that ce to the ground¡­ but to fill it with more receptors, circuit breakers of both automatic and manual types, and sensors capable of recording not only the events on the physical ne but also those happening on the spiritual level.


    "We still have time, but it''s always best to start before the deadline to iron out all the kinks," Chihiro continued with his offhanded lecture as the automatic driving system of the car raised the speed of our truck as we shot through the city''s ringway toward the town''s secondary industrial park.


    "If all goes well, we should be done with remodeling in a matter of hours," Chihiro smirked as he gave me a nce, "all thanks to your idea to leave everything open just in case like that," he acknowledged my contribution before turning his eyes back down to the piece of paper he was covering with some sort of code.


    "Let''s say¡­ six hours for mounting all the tech we''re bringing, three more hours for a slow boot to check if they all work correctly, then two hours of stress tests to find all the minor faults¡­"


    The man took a moment to calcte everything.


    "That makes up to eleven hours of testing. Let''s add two hours for anything that wille up in the process¡­" Chihiro continued before putting down his pen and closing his simple notebook, then raising his eyes back to me.


    "Meaning, if all goes rtively well," he leaned his head to the side while the look in his eyes showed him steeling his resolve, "I should be able to get a go at it in thirteen hours. And with a bit more than two days left before my legal deadline¡­"


    ''Now that I think about it, I never really asked for the details about this time limit, did I?''


    I already knew it had something to do with one''s talent, something people in the spiritual world apparently valued over pretty much everything else. But what was the precise age one couldn''t reach if they wanted to be considered talented and thus allowed to enter the spiritual world?


    What were the deep reasons behind it? Did those reasons have something to do with how well one could cultivate? Maybe they were based on the idea that only those of a certain level should be allowed into the spiritual world to keep the purity of its Qi, something that would align pretty well with all the things my other self mentioned whenever discussing the matter of spiritual energy?


    Or maybe it was purely a political y, aimed to eliminate as many candidates as possible just to create a sense of limited avability and urgency, thus raising the value of the achievement, which, in turn, would turn those who reached the tenth level of mortal cultivation in time into loyal subjects of whoever set this rule?


    ''If so, it would really be one hell of a policy to implement,'' I thought with a heavy sigh just as our automated truck drove all the way to the factory''s gate, only to stop for the guards to check and process it.


    "And now that we''re here, we shouldn''t have anything else to worry about," ire muttered, strangely silent ever since the event back at Chihiro''s safe house.


    Her words were not unfounded, though, given the apparent rising pressure from the other ns, something that Chihiro had already connected not only to the news about some people struggling to walk around our factory mere moments after the disaster¡­ but also to the people who were alleged to be behind both my attempted kidnapping and the battle at the ancient forest.


    This was also the reason why we brought over millions of esecs worth of scientific and cultivation measuring devices in a single truck, in a sense, putting all our eggs in one basket.


    It was risky, given how any form of dy or ident would pretty much cripple our ability to improve the factory''s design and the recording ability of the sensors inside. But on the other hand, this kind of equipment¡­


    If anyone got their hands on it, they wouldn''t need to be a genius to figure out that we were doing something unexpected. And from the type of measuring equipment they would steal in that case, they could quite easily figure out most of the aims behind our project, even if they failed to figure out the actual methods we used to achieve our goals.


    That''s why, the very moment the truck passed the inspection and drove past the now raised blockade, all three of us heaved a sigh of relief.


    "Thirteen hours," Chihiro repeated his earlier words as the truck came to a stop again, just as it parked with its backside toward one of the few unblocked loading ramps. "It would be great if we can do it a bit faster, but I don''t want you cutting any corners. Is that understood?"


    As the man in charge of this factory, I merely nodded my head.


    But as a man likely responsible for the sess or failure of Chihiro''s advancement, I gulped before properly bowing down, then looking up and giving Chihiro a look of determination and confidence.


    "I will do my absolute best to make everything go as smoothly as possible!" I stood at attention, only missing a salute as I flexed my chest at the man.


    "Good," Chihiro muttered before getting out of the passengerpartment of the truck and mming his hand against the metal wall of its cargo hold. "Everyone! Get this truck unloaded! We don''t have a single minute to waste!"


    "Make sure to be as gentle with the equipment as you can," I followed up after the man as I turned toward the workers rushing to our side as soon as I got out of the car myself. "It''s better to be slow but steady than fast yet careless!"


    I took a deep breath as I calmed down a little and just¡­ stood aside as the trusted workers of one of Chihiro''spanies rushed to their tasks, most likely not even needing my reminder in the first ce.


    Still, I couldn''t help but add one more thing.


    "We''ve all seen what carelessness andck of preparation can lead to, haven''t we?"

 Chapter 166: ETA - 25

    "Log the target''s sessful entry into the staging area."


    Cassie''s chin rested on her knees as she sat curled up. As unhealthy as it was, she found this position strangely rxing.


    Her grandpa, as strict as he could be with everyone else, wouldn''t care how she sat as long as she did her job well. As long as his expectations were met, he pretty much gave herplete autonomy in how to use the n''s resources for whatever ends she wanted to pursue.


    And right now, it was Cassie''s time to shine.


    "Grandfather," Cassie turned to the old man sitting in a massive, active-foam chair while observing a selection of screens mounted on the high-rise apartment''s wall.


    Cassie herself sat on her gaming chair with her legs curled up, her hands gently and leisurely tapping at her filthy expensive floating keyboard.


    "Proceed."


    The old man''s voice filled the high-end office/apartment.


    Quite notably, there wasn''t a hint of hesitation in his tone.


    Cassie sighed, leaning back in her chair as she dragged her arm up¡­ before dropping it down, stretching her finger, and theatrically pressing the confirmation key.


    A small smirk blossomed on the girl''s otherwise bored lips.


    "The article is up. Starting the dy," Cassie clearly narrated her actions, her eyes jumping between the lines of code on some of her screens and the live feeds recorded by the military-grade scoping equipment mounted all over the apartment''s massive windows that overlooked most of the city.


    "Forty-three minutes, right?" one of the n''s officers asked to confirm while fiddling with his phone.


    "Yup," Cassie gently nodded her head before putting it back down on her knees. "You can get some of the groups started already, though. Common idiots will never move as fast as you''d want them to."


    The n''sckey caught Cassie''s sudden, intense re.


    "Yes, young miss," the man stood up and bowed, "I''ll see to it, young miss."


    Cassie watched the man as he opened the door, her eyelids drooping halfway, her face growing increasingly ugly and disgusted.


    "Boring."


    Snapping her eyes back to the screen, Cassie quickly fixed some notes before performing a quick check of all the running algorithms.


    As the wonder daughter of the n, she was as much a formidable cultivator as she was a child of her age. With the patriarch himself being the one who discovered her secr talents, it didn''t take long for the clever young girl to be his favorite.


    "I''m picking up some calls," one of the men gathered in the shadows at the back of the room reported through the lockedmunicationwork wired directly into the earpiece in Cassie''s ear.


    "They''re starting to make quite a bit of noise¡­" another report soon rang in her ear. "It''s like they''re¡­ building something?"


    ''Inconclusive!'' Cassie''s eyes snapped to the man hidden in the shadow.


    Hubert, one of the youths from the n''s facility, had been a ward of the n ever since his parents died while trying to save victims of a sh flood that wiped out their vige.


    "Keep your reports conclusive. If you''re unsure about something, run it through the analytics first," Cassie lectured the young man through the inte before leaning back into her chair.


    This whole operation wasn''t some kind of movie mission filled with tense moments and high stakes, packed into a few minutes of action at the story''s climax.


    At this level, war was fought patiently¡­ and silently.


    Or, by creating circumstances so loud, no one could hear the sound of the war being fought.


    And mere momentster¡­


    "Half an hour to the deployment phase."


    The narrator, hidden in the back of the room with the rest of the staff, announced.


    "Good," Cassie said, stretching her fingers and snapping her joints beforeying her long, slim fingers over the keys. "I want the strike group in position in T minus five." She then snapped her head over to the staff side of the room, deciding to shout rather than use her earpiece. "How''s the crowding along?"


    A moment of silence.


    "No response from the leader, trying radio."


    "Radio contact, ten-minute dy on the crowd."


    "Tsk¡­" Cassie clicked her tongue, turning her eyes back to her screen. "And I even told him to take a closer look at it¡­!" she muttered under her breath, resisting her childhood urge to bite her nails as the ipetence of certain n members began to impede the carefully nned operation.


    "Hurry him up!" Cassie called out, locking her eyes on the magnified image the telescope mounted on the northern window picked up with ease.


    The factory stood silently, everything now pointing toward some sort of grand remodeling.


    Whatever the people over there were doing, they clearly had no intention of hiding it.


    ''Good,'' Cassie thought, smiling slightly. ''That makes things easier.''


    "Got a tip from the nt," a familiar voice rang in Cassie''s earpiece.


    ''Calipso?'' Cassie''s face twitched as she raised her eyes to a separate, heavily windowed office on the apartment''s second floor, overlooking the operation floor.


    The hired expert from a friendly n¡ªand the best information broker of this generation.


    Cassie caught her friend''s reluctant stare through the high-up window.


    Clearly, she had no desire to be here and take part in this. But in the world of high ns, obligations were the strongest currency.


    And Calipso¡­ no, her entire n couldn''t afford to refuse this favor.


    ''It''s for the good of the n,'' Cassie thought, pressing her lips together as she turned her eyes back to the factory.


    In the short few minutes that passed, all the outside activity had vanished, leaving nothing but an array of changing lightsing from the brightly lit and clearly busy interior of the factory.


    "The surge grows," Calipso''s voice once again rang in Cassie''s ear.


    ''Wait, why is she so stressed about it¡­?''


    Cassie raised her eyes to the office again and met Calipso''s serious stare once more.


    ''They''re doing something¡­'' she thought, connecting the dots as she quickly turned her head back to her screens.


    "I''m getting those reports too," one of the staff called out. "It''s big enough for it to fade over to my chair."


    For something Calipso reported to soone from Cassie''s usual information channels¡­


    It could only mean one thing.


    Whatever they were doing inside the staging area, they weren''t shy about it at all.


    "The crowd is moving, ETA ten minutes."


    Another report quickly lifted Cassie''s spirits.


    "The office is moving too, ETA twenty-five minutes."


    Piece by piece, everything was falling into ce.


    The many screens before her perfectly reflected the live tracking of each part of the operation.


    From the city''s direction, a huge crowd of civilians and hired mouths moved in, carrying the kind of banners everyone had long since grown tired of, representing one of those organizations created more to make its members feel good about themselves than to effect real, positive change.


    On the highway, one of Cassie''s automated telescopes tracked the path of the car likely to be holding two rather important gentlemen with enough authority behind them to bring anyw-abiding citizen to a ruin.


    And from the direction of the ruined depths of the mostly abandoned secondary industrial park, a team of the n''s best men silently closed in, taking positions in the blind spots Cassie had identified over the past several days.


    Bit by bit, all the pieces of her scheme were falling into ce, closing in on the lively factory¡­


    A factory that, at that very moment, suddenly went dark.

 Chapter 167: Protests escalates

    "Kill the factory! Save the! Kill the factory! Save the!"


    The chant rose up into the air from nearly a hundred throats, assisted by the many cardboards and banners bearing the same kind of sentences on them.


    "We say no to reckless industrialization!" the leader of the crowd chanted into the microphone in his hand.


    "NO!" the crowd screamed in response, not unlike how a group of soldiers would respond to theirpany call.


    "We say no to the restoration of the industrial park we once forced to close!"


    "No!"


    The chants continued as the leader became more and more creative with whatever reasons he coulde up with for organizing the protests.


    Yet, no matter how loud the crowd got, the guards that protected the factory perimeter¡­ didn''t seem to be bothered in the slightest.


    "Why are they not reacting?" Cassie muttered to herself as she sat down in her chair and observed the proceedings from the many cameras that gave her a better view of the event than anyone directly involved in it could ever ask for.


    It had been over ten minutes since the protest started¡­ yet not a single guard moved an inch to disperse it!


    Instead, they all simply sat down in their positions or, alternatively, patrolled the perimeter, casually throwing nces toward the crowd as if only waiting for even one of them to breach the border between the government-owned street and the privately-owned property of the factory.


    ''In theory, it would be possible to sic the crowd on them, but¡­'' Cassie bit down on her lip.


    The people responsible for steering the crowd were merely paid off rather than being direct members of the n. And while some might be either stupid or greedy enough to ept additional money to turn the whole event into a showcase of human brutality¡­


    Doing so would needlesslyplicate the entire situation.


    ''And with how multi-pronged this operation is¡­'' Cassie thought before heaving a long, exhausted sigh. ''Thest thing we need is for chaos to erupt.''


    "Five minutes before the office arrives!" the report rang in the girl''s ear, only making her gnash her teeth as she stared at the screens with impatience.


    "Eleven minutes before the city lights will turn on!" another report soon followed, tracking the progress of one of the many variables Cassie could merely set in motion or use but couldn''t actively control.


    "Spice the protests up a bit, but don''t go overboard," she threw a short and rtively simple order.


    Normally, she would make sure to make it as precise as possible... But since it was the crowd leader''s fault for the entire phase of the operation starting with a dy, she made sure her order was quite¡­ vague.


    ''That''s what you get for cking off, you dumbskull,'' she thought, observing with immense satisfaction how the face of the man, clearly disyed on one of her screens, turned nk.


    ''It seems he realized the true meaning of this order,'' Cassie thought while a slightly wicked grin emerged on her lips.


    Cassie wasn''t soft on anyone, herself included. Or, to be more precise, it was because she was so hard on herself, whether in the realm of cultivation, studying, or plotting, that she found it extremely hard to be soft toward her own subordinates.


    And that was all the more true when problems arose not because her underlings were underqualified for the task¡­ but because they simply failed to put in the necessary effort to aplish their goals!


    The leader of the crowd was merely an example of this stance, now forced to take responsibility for the results of his own interpretation of spicing the crowd up.


    "Kill the factory! Save the!"


    "Don''t let the immediate boon curse your long-standing future!"


    "The rich are destroying the whole for their own benefit!"


    "Kill the rich!"


    "EAT THE RICH!"


    "KILL THEM ALL!"


    Bit by bit, the chants of the crowd grew more and more intense, soon reaching a level that even had Cassie raising her eyebrows.


    "At this rate¡­" she muttered to herself¡­ only for the camera tracking the movement of the government-issued limo toe dangerously near the staging area. "Wait, if they make an appearance now¡­!"


    "EVERYONE!" the leader of the crowd, the lone n member assigned to this task, screamed from the bottom of his lungs. And the moment the crowd''s attention moved to him¡­ "Calm your freaking tits!"


    This shout¡ªa curse?¡ªwas so ridiculous, so out of ce and out of reason¡­ that it caught everyone so off-guard, they actually calmed down!


    ''Oho?'' Cassie raised one of her eyebrows, equally taken aback by her nsman''s method as was the rest of the crowd, even though there was half of the city between Cassie and all of those unruly civilians who had nothing better to do in their lives than move around the city with the expressed desire to make everyone around hate them with a passion.


    "It appears that we have some hostile agents in our passionate crowd!" the leader shouted right into his microphone, only by some miracle avoiding the sudden sonic boom of the feedback loop, where the sound from the speakers would grow loud enough to reach the microphone''s input, only to get repeated even louder than before, and thus close the vicious cycle of noise growing all the way to the upper limits of what the speakers were capable of.


    "Don''t let those vile men and women, or whatever they identify as, hijack this protest and¡­"


    "Right on time," Cassie sighed as the government car finally took the turn and appeared right on the street where the protest was taking ce.


    The sudden silence of the leader once again caught everyone off guard. And after a moment of confusion, the people in the crowd gradually started to look in the same direction as the leader, curious as to what made him cease speaking so rapidly.


    On the other side of the street, the car quickly closed the distance, stopping only once the people themselves turned into an endlessly moving roadblock.


    "The crowd is discussing whether to attack the car or not," a report came in right into Cassie''s ear.


    "If they fucking dare to¡­"


    Before the girl could re up, the doors of the car opened up, only for two men in suits toe out, not even bothering to hide the handguns weighing down their right hips.


    Their suits were perfectly matched to their builds, with the little ck on their white shirts showcasing that they came here free of the burden of bulletproof vests, tantly and arrogantly confident in their ability to deal with whatever stood in their way without the added padding for protection.


    "We are from the Central Bureau of Spiritual and ult Investigation," the man on the left reached into the inner pocket of his suit before pulling out and then shing his government ID, a weapon even more fearsome than the handgun hanging off his hip.


    As soon as he introduced himself, however¡­


    "We were dispatched here to deal with a case, but right now¡­?"


    The man''s smile, perfectly recorded by Cassie''s cameras, was enough to give the girl the creeps.


    "Right now, it''s you guys who stand in our way, and thus obstruct our ability to perform our duty."


    The man then leaned back on the hood of his car before crossing his hands over his chest and putting a hint of a smirk into his already wide smile.


    "Now, are you going to scram, or should we just throw you all in jail?"

 Chapter 168: No pasaran

    "Now, are you going to scram, or should we just throw you all in jail?"


    It took some real confidence for a man with just one partner by his side to take on that attitude when facing a crowd of people that easily reached three digits.


    And yet, this confidence, the very aura that radiated from this man''s face and his emotionless eyes as he stared right into the crowd...


    It proved to be enough for the people at the front to look away and disperse to the sides, creating a sort of tunnel through the crowd through which the government''s car could pass.


    But that only included the people at the front who received the full brunt of the officer''s confidence. When it came to the people behind them, however...


    "NO PASARAN!" a young, maybe twenty-year-old youth suddenly ran forth, screaming as he spread out a huge cloth over his chest covered with the very same words he was shouting. "NO PASARAN!"


    ''Who is this idiot?'' Cassie thought while squinting her eyes in powerless anger when she saw some people pick up the chant and start shouting it too.


    With every passing second, more and more members of the crowd turned their attention to the officers, all happily ignoring the task they were paid for to focus on dealing with the one entity they had the utmost hate for¡ªthe representatives of not only the government but the representatives of the government''s fist!


    "Jail it is..." The officer in charge didn''t appear to be bothered by the crowd''s growing reaction in the slightest. Yet, rather than reaching for his gun, he pulled out a weapon much more fearsome than just a small peashooter hanging off his hip.


    He pulled out his phone.


    "Dispatch, I need..." the man stopped for a second as he raised his eyes to give the crowd a quick count, "ten units on my position. Unruly citizens obstructing me and my partner from performing our duty..."


    "Shut the hell up!"


    Suddenly, one voice cut through all the chanting, all the noise, and gibberish that filled the air.


    A feat only possible thanks to the blessing of the machine god¡ªor, in simpler terms, the blessing of a microphone strapped to quite a powerful loudspeaker.


    "We are here to stop this factory from operating! And from the looks of things, they are here for the exact same reason!"


    ''Finally,'' Cassie rolled her eyes while rxing her hands, only to realize that she ended up squeezing them so hard, her nails left bloody marks on the inside of her palms.


    "I believe we are here for the exact same purpose!" The leader of the crowd continued the narration, clearly desperate to stop the conflict from turning from a small obstruction into an actual issue. "So why would we stop them? Let''s use them! Let''s all be smart about it!"


    Just like the "NO PASAR¨¢N" guy managed to get people to follow his enthusiasm, the n officer now managed to take back the initiative, slowly coaxing the protesters to properly make way for the government officials.


    A momentter, one of Cassie''s cameras focused on the three of them as the servicemen walked past the leader.


    "We are not going to call the cops back," the CBSOI agent spoke just loud enough for both the leader to hear and the microphone hidden in his suit to catch him saying those words. "It''s now up to you to deal with the rest."


    This was the full extent of the interaction between the two sides as the government agents moved past the leader and toward the factory''s main gate while the leader remained behind, surrounded by people who just so happened to be close enough to hear the exchange.


    ''I wonder how he is going to pull himself out of this now,'' Cassie thought, entertaining the idea of leaving the man to his own devices, using his plight as a sort of entertainment that could lessen the anxiety of sitting back in the control room while the entire operation yed out.


    "The office is approaching; get the team ready," Cassie spoke softly into her piece before scanning all of her screens in search of any indicator that things were not going as nned.


    ''Come on, something has to go wrong. No n ever survives contact with the enemy, so howe our n is still going strong?''


    The answer to Cassie''s question... was hidden in in sight, with the government agents approaching the factory''s main gate to make the very first direct contact with the other side of the ying field.


    "We are from the Central Bureau of Spiritual and ult Investigation," the officer announced while once again pulling out his ID before presenting it to the guard on the other side of the kiosk''s window. "And we are here to investigate a set of reports. So..."


    Rather than spelling it out, the man simply pointed his arm at the huge, electrified fence gate that, even after his introduction, remained closed.


    And judging by the disinterested look on the guard''s face, he had no ns of making any change to the state of the gate.


    "Are you dull, dim-witted, or outright stupid?" The officer quickly changed his tone to a more aggressive one as soon as the more patient and cultured approach failed to work. "Open the gate right fucking now! It''s an order!"


    Finally, the guard looked up, as if only now acknowledging the presence of the official.


    "I''m not going to do so. You have your orders, sir, and I have mine," rather than relenting, the guard simply brought his hand down, only to tap his finger against the trigger cage of his pistol strapped to his outer thigh. "What''s more, your jurisdiction does not extend into the industrial districts of the major poption centers, all the more when it''s private property in question."


    The guard''s slightly distorted voice cut off a single instant before his voice could fully sound off, an effect the man achieved by releasing the trigger of the inte that allowed him to speak over the bulletproof ss window of his guarding post.


    "Didn''t you hear?" The government officer didn''t appear to care about the obstinate treatment he received in the slightest. "Ever since the Fifth Legitive Act, all the institutions directly under themand of the central government have their authority extended throughout the country.


    In other words," the man then smiled, only to slightly turn when the sound of the sirens reached his ears before having his smile grow wider as he crossed his arms on his chest and looked straight at the guard. "In other words, either you let us in now, or you will all be considered..."


    "I would be quite careful of what you are going to say next."


    Cassie squinted her eyes when she heard a voice that, despite the digital distortion, she could faintly recognize.


    "Because everything you say will be used against you in a court ofw."


    ''Tim...''


    Cassie''s face froze when the strange ace card of Chihiro''s n finally made his appearance. A man that came out of nowhere. A man that ire found interesting enough to not only spend quite a lot of her time with... but openly acknowledge him for her very first partner!


    The worst of it all, however, was how his influence was the only possible reason behind the sudden movements of Chihiro''s n, movements that fell greatly outside of the scope of the man''s profile given his subdued and rtively harmless nature thus far.


    That was what Tim, a man that was as much of a wonder as he was a mystery, was to Cassie''s n. At this very moment, however, he was the bulwark upon which all of her ns would crash, forcing them into a true crucible of a test that would determine whether Cassie prepared her operation enough or not.


    ''And just like I thought, all of my ns...'' The girl shook her head a little before taking a deep breath to rpose herself. ''Well, while it''s not Chihiro himself, we have no other choice but to ride with it now. Let''s just hope nothing...''


    Focused on her own thoughts, Cassie didn''t pay much attention to the ongoing exchange between the two parties. The moment she refocused on the task, however, she quickly ran her eyes through all the screens to confirm once again there were no unexpected obstructions to the whole n.


    Yet, right when she looked into the screens, she couldn''t help but freeze again when she noticed a weird peculiarity.


    In all of the cameras pointed at the entrance to the staging area, Tim...


    He was looking straight into the middle of her screens. Or, in other words, he somehow managed to look right into all of the cameras pointed in his direction... at once!


    "I''m not going to repeat myself. You can either open the gate and surrender to our investigation, or..."


    "Do you have a warrant?" Tim asked as he turned his eyes away from the cameras and back to the officers right in front of him.


    "Didn''t you hear me, boy?! STEP OUT OF THE WAY AND..."


    "Any attempts at entry without a warrant will be considered an invasion and repelled with force. And that leaves you with just one question you two need to consider at the very depth of your hearts," Tim announced in a voice light enough that Cassie''s mic nearly failed to pick it up.


    He then moved closer, nearly pressing his face against the electrified wire of the fence.


    "Is that bitch paying you enough for you two toy your lives down here?"

 Chapter 169: Do you want to deal with it yourself?

    **Forty minutes earlier**


    "What do you mean, it''s done?"


    My eyes widened as I stared right at Chihiro''s amused face.


    "I mean exactly what I said, kid," the man grinned in a way that contrasted with the usually serious and dignified look on his face. "We only brought like ten crystal-based sensors with us," he revealed with a shake of his shoulders before adding in a casual tone, "all the other devices were put in ce the day after the near miss."


    My eyes kept growing wider while the strange, unfamiliar pain in my chest continued to grow more and more profound.


    It was only when my body started to choke and gasp for air that I realized I was actually holding my breath to the point I was starting to self-suffocate.


    ''He got me¡­'' I thought, taking in a desperate breath, only to then slowly exhale it out.


    Up until this point, I thought I would be the one ying others if that were ever to be the case, not the other way around. And so, I was pretty damn sure Chihiro was set on abandoning this whole project up until the moment when ire managed to convince him otherwise.


    As things turned out, however, it was all just a mask, a game of shadows that I became an unexpected victim of.


    "Actually, I''ve got quite a lot of reports of several ns growing more and more annoyed with the prospect of me breaking through," Chihiro casually continued to reveal stuff as he sat down on one of the chairs set in the now remodeled control center of the entire factory.


    "There are strict protocols over who is privy to what information, all to amodate the algorithms that can calcte who is selling the information from what kind of stuff shows up or is taken advantage of. That''s why I couldn''t tell you before."


    Chihiro shook his head while lowering it a tiny little bit¡­ only to then raise it back up, revealing a huge smirk that formed on his lips.


    "This kind of information warfare is something you will have to eventually master. For now, however, it''s good enough if you know that it exists¡­ and that this is how most of the modern conflicts take ce, especially on the scale that matters to us."


    Chihiro leaned back in his chair, wiping off his smirk and smile in general as he once again assumed his usual, serious and dignified expression.


    "By luring other ns in with the information of certain, fabricated weaknesses, I can discover where the information is leaking from. And then¡­" Chihiro suddenly stopped his exnation, only to cast his eyes right on my face. "And then, can you guess what happens next?"


    I squinted my eyes.


    ''He wouldn''t be asking me if he wanted a straightforward answer,'' I thought, delving beyond the level of simple and brutal efficiency and trying to find ways to actually capitalize on such findings rather than simply removing the rotten parts of the n.


    "Nothing happens," while I couldn''t be sure if this was the correct answer, it was still what I decided to go with. "You keep feeding them small truths so that at the right moment, you can feed them one big lie."


    Chihiro''s eyes remained on my face, drilling into my own eyes and every tiniest expression I made, as if to judge my answer beyond just the meaning behind my words, all the way to the level of how I felt about such a tactic, what my stance was on the morality behind it, and the like.


    "That''s right," the man finally admitted, confirming my guess with a simple, slight nod of his head. "A huge part of the n''s assets is dedicated strictly to this purpose.


    In the position we are in, it''s oftentimes easier to throw sand into the enemy''s eyes, redirect them somewhere else, or generally avoid direct confrontation rather than epting their challenge and putting our pride over the actual results or benefits."


    Listening to Chihiro''s exnation, I couldn''t help but feel a strange sense of disconnection.


    On one side, the machinations, maniptions, and schemes he was talking about were all a part of high-society games yed for ages before either of us were born. Nowadays, the game simply adopted more modern methods and tools, but the goal, the constant push for more and more power at the cost of the power wielded by others¡­ those were all the same.


    And yet, from what I could read between Chihiro''s lines¡­


    Weren''t the cultivation ns of the city pretty much treating it all on a level of child''s y, something only good enough to amuse themselves with, while mostly based on ideas and aspects that most modern and pragmatic adults wouldn''t give two shits about?


    "Why are you telling me all of this?" I asked, only to see the man''s eyebrow move up a bit, hinting at some sort of expectation.


    ''It''s not like he didn''t like the question, but more like¡­ it wasn''t a question good enough?'' I thought, racing my mind to figure out just what could be missing in what I asked for Chihiro to make this kind of face.


    "Why are you telling me all of this¡­" I asked again, repeating my question from before word for word¡­ before adding just two more words, "right now?"


    Why are you telling me all of this and why are you telling me all of this right now. Those two sentences differed only by two small words¡­ and yet, the meaning of the question changedpletely.


    Now, rather than asking why Chihiro would bring all of this up, I was questioning the timing of him doing so.


    And when a small, smirkish smile returned to the man''s lips, I could pretty much guess the answer even before Chihiro could voice it out.


    "It''s because I''m hearing whispers that one of the ns got fed up with the game and decided to go ham," Chihiro announced, right as a small, red diode started to blink on the control panel, only to be then apanied by another diode, green this time, that started to sh on the other end of it.


    "Go on," Chihiro chuckled a little before pointing his whole hand at the console, "pick it up."


    I squinted my eyes¡­ but still turned around and did as the man suggested.


    Approaching the control panel, I looked over the room''s window, at the main factory floor where the workers were already pretty much done with their task.


    As it turned out, with only about ten measuring devices missing from the final build, what I took to take us hours upon hours of hard and ultimately boring work, ended up taking no more than ten minutes to finish.


    ''Well, it''s good to know we are pretty much ready to begin,'' I thought, pressing the button below the shing green diode to kill it off, seeing how it was no longer necessary now that I''d gotten the message behind it.


    When it came to the other shing diode, the meaning behind it made it a little bit moreplex for me to solve. And so, on my way to do so, I picked up the radio strapped directly to the control panel before clicking it on and raising it to my mouth.


    "Tim speaking, what''s up?"


    "Boss, there seems to be some sort of a protest starting right by our doors," the old-school radio slightly distorted the voiceing from the other end of the line, but not enough to make it hard for me to recognize the other party. "What should we do about it?"


    I took in a deep breath before twisting on my hips and stealing a nce at the man.


    "Do you want me to deal with it, or would you like to take a shot at it?" Chihiro asked with a small hint of mischief in the very corner of his lips.


    "Which means," ire interjected, reminding the two of us that she was still there, even if she formerly didn''t see a single reason to speak up, "whatever you do, he has you covered. So rx, do whatever you think is best and even if it all goes to shit, big daddy here will be ready to step in and save the day," she said with an open and slightly mocking grin on her lips.


    "Ehh¡­" Chihiro sighed. "Is this you?!" he suddenly turned all angry while throwing me a furious stare. "Is this you who made my daughter so rebellious?!" Chihiro wailed out inint¡­ only to then break out in all smiles, making it clear he was merely horsing around.


    "Well, if you want me to do it, I don''t see why not," I said, only to pick the radio back up and raise it to my mouth again. "Tim here again. Don''t let them in. If they try to enter forcefully, you are free to use whatever methods you deem necessary to stop them from doing so."


    I took a deep breath to sort my thoughts out.


    "Don''t escte more than necessary, but don''t hold back from doing so either. As for the details¡­" I paused for a moment, only to roll my eyes as I opted to push my worries forter, "as for the details, I will leave them at your discretion."


    A moment of silence followed my orders, a moment long enough for me to start wondering whether I messed up and identally pulled the cord connecting the radio to the console or something¡­


    "Understood. We will do our best to keep them at bay. But since it doesn''t look like something that will just blow over¡­" the leader of the guards on the other end of the line took a moment, either by taking a page from my book of theatrics or because he actually needed some time to think whether or not he should utter his next words.


    "Just in case, I would apprecieate if you could remain with your hand on the radio at all times. Gale out."


    The short signal indicated the call hade to an end, prompting me to hurriedly put the device back down on the table before turning back and locking my eyes on Chihiro''s face.


    "Okay, now that we only have as long as it will take them to bring out their big guns under the cover of this protest, how about we hurry up with the first round of testing?" I suggested, putting my hands on my hips and gracing ire and her dad with a small, slightly mischievous smile.


    "I don''t know how you two see it, but I would much rather face whatever ising for us with an actual god on our side!"

 Chapter 170: Countdown

    "There are a total of ten power switches and four separate circuit breakers. Not those cheap ones you used before, but proper, industrial-level breakers this time," Chihiro exined as he gave us a brief tour of all the small changes he implemented while I was convinced he would abandon the project.


    "It''s the kind you see in power nts, physically separating two conductors through a fully autonomous system. As for those knobs, the aim was to give the operator much finer control over the flow of energy, going from having the full might of the factory''s power output on a single knob to having each of those knobs control merely a tenth of its full power. And as for the biggest change of all¡­"


    Chihiro moved over to the window before pointing his hand toward the ce where we all saw the disaster start.


    The innermost chamber of the factory.


    "We capitalized on there being a maintenance shaft running across the entire hall, allowing us to rece the floors at the funnel into¡­"


    Chihiro hesitated for a moment.


    "Dad?" ire asked, slightly leaning her head to the side as she nced at her father with slight confusion and curiosity.


    ''So it''s not one of the faces she would regrly see him make, huh?''


    "Tim, I hope this won''t weird you out, but I kind of went ahead and reverse-engineered those Qi transformers of yours before having a bunch of my trusted friends engineer the reverse of it," he revealed, shaking his head, which was still pointed at the innermost room of the factory.


    "In other words, we took devices capable of turning electricity into spiritual energy and made them into tools to turn spiritual energy back into electricity. After building enough of them, we pretty much filled the entire floor of the factory''s core with them."


    I squinted my eyes for a second, struggling to find the angle from which this whole situation led Chihiro to openly give out an apology like that.


    "Ah, you mean it as in¡­ the infringement of a patent or something?" I asked as soon as I managed to roughly figure out just what Chihiro was all about. "Because if yes, then¡­" I hesitated for a second.


    And judging by theck of protests and further exnation from Chihiro, I was right on the money.


    "Then, while I do not endorse something like this, I''m not going to waste everyone''s time with a small issue like this," I stated with a shrug of my shoulders. "I mean," I turned my eyes to the walls of the factory core, "if you didn''t do so, we would have to spend time and effort doing something simr right now, so it''s all good."


    In theory, it was a very bad idea not to chastise my patron over this issue.


    The intellectual rights to my devices were the greatest source of my value. And if they could be ripped off so easily¡­ then what use would I be for, except foring up with new designs and having others implement them?


    In practice, however, things were actually a lot simpler.


    It didn''t matter if my role would be limited to just designing the prototype. It would actually be a good thing if we had enough trusted and skilled artisans to take the burden of repetitive creation off my shoulders. Most of all, we were too deep in this whole thing for Chihiro to suddenly decide I was of no more use to him anymore.


    That was the harsh truth. My inventions... or rather, the potential behind them was the reason why Chihiro first got interested in me. It was what allowed rie to even bring my name up to him in the first ce. Deprived of this quality, however, the situation could easily change.


    ''I know this might be naive or outright arrogant¡­ but I don''t think ire would ever allow him to do something like this, though'' I thought, stealing a quick nce at the girl before sighing and shaking my head.


    "I take it everything should be ready by now?" I asked suddenly, eager to change the topic from one that was slightly ufortable to talk about.


    "Don''t ask me," Chihiro shrugged his shoulders before waving his hand at the control panel of the entire factory sitting mere two steps behind us. "Just check the diodes, confirm vocally, and you''re free to get everything started."


    For all the remorse and sense of guilt that Chihiro disyed while apologizing, by the time he hurried me to get things moving, all of those parts of his expression were gone, reced with his usual stoic look.


    "On it," I nodded before pushing myself off the window''s edge and walking over to the console to do a quick check.


    Just as I assumed, everything was ready. Or, at the very least, that''s what the diodes on the panel''s side indicated, with a series of green lights showing the status of each worker group connected to the project.


    Then again, for a project of this scale, it was impossible tounch anything with just oneyer of security.


    "Testing, testing," I raised the microphone strapped directly to the panel before pressing the button responsible for its activation.


    The jumping indicator of the received volume proved everything was in order.


    "We will beunching the test in two minutes," I announced into the microphone, holding it up to my mouth while using my other hand to set up an automated timer on the control panel. "Vacate and stay clear of the operating zones!"


    With this warning on my lips, I mmed the countdown button while simultaneously putting the microphone down.


    <Hundred and twenty> <Hundred and neen> <Hundred and eighteen>


    Using the very same channel I spoke through just before, the AI voice from the helper installed on the console now took over, diligently counting down from the time I''d set while giving me time for thest few necessary preparations.


    "Hey, ire, could you¡­"


    "Link with the analysis desk?" ire finished my request before I had a chance to do so myself, smirked, and nodded. "Sure thing," she added as she moved to the back of the room, took a seat on a huge yet rtively in sofa, grabbed one of theptops prepared in advance, and ced it on herp.


    A momentter¡­


    <Ny three> <Ny two> <Ny one>


    "Analysis desk is a go," ire reported from her seat, raising her thumb to indicate her message in case I hadn''t heard it properly. "All checks clear, all stations clear, all sensors are green."


    ''Is that everything?'' I thought, quickly running through the list of devices installed in the factory and all the steps we needed to take in advance to avoid another disaster.


    I ran through the list in my thoughts once, twice, and then a third time, not leaving anything to pure luck.


    <Fifty four> <Fifty three>


    The countdown continued, bringing us down to less than a minute before the factory''sunch.


    "Oh, before I forget, when ites to those knobs," Chihiro approached the control console and pointed at the twisting knobs of the power control. "Until you max out the first three, we''ll be riding below the expected energy usage. To a degree, we should be safe all the way up to the fourth. Beyond that, though¡­"


    Chihiro bit his bottom lip before moving his hand a little further.


    <Thirty three> <Thirty two> <Thirty one>


    "Up to the seventh knob, we should be rtively safe. However, the spike will be visible in the control room of the local power grid, so this is where the risk of discovery goes from idental to quite likely. But beyond that¡­"


    Chihiro shook his head.


    <Twenty five> <Twenty four>


    "Beyond that, we might as well be shooting fireworks, because everyone even remotely interested in what''s happening will know."


    I looked down, marking the knobs Chihiro pointed out in my memory.


    "Let''s hope we don''t go above the seventh knob, then," I added, leaning down over the console and closing my eyes, waiting for the countdown to reach its end.


    <Fifteen>


    <Warning!>


    <Fourteen>


    <Warning!>


    As the count neared its end, a new announcement red out every second, in between the count itself, warning everyone to get away from the active operation zones of the factory.


    <Ten>


    <Warning!>


    <Nine>


    <Warning!>


    <Eight>


    <Warning!>


    ¡­


    ¡­


    ¡­


    <Five> <Four>


    As soon as the count neared its end, the warnings stopped.


    After all, if someone was dumb or unlucky enough to still be near the danger zone, there would be no point in them running anymore.


    <Two> <One>


    A big diode lit up right in the middle of the control panel, indicating the factory¡­ No, all of its innerponents were now live. And all that was left¡­


    I raised my hand to the first knob, taking a single breath and gulping down my saliva.


    "Here goes nothing," I muttered¡­ before twisting the first of the knobs all the way up to... the very lowest out of its ten possible settings.

 Chapter 171: Where is all the fanfare at?

    <One!>


    For the veryst second, even the countdown''s AI voice managed to invoke some sort of urgency and emotion.


    The second passed¡­ and a few diodes lit up in green on the console.


    But that was pretty much it.


    There was no fanfare, fireworks, or any major event indicating the test had actually started.


    ''I guess a single percent of the factory''s full potential is not enough, huh?''


    Taking another breath, I braced myself before turning the knob again.


    Only for, once again, nothing to happen.


    At most, when I really strained my ears, I could vaguely hear some of the machinery booting up.


    ''Let''s keep going,'' I thought before turning the knob once again, this time slightly faster than before.


    Distant fans slowly stirred into action, pushing a small amount of air through the entire enriching corridor.


    After another turn of the knob, the air started to vibrate on an extremely minute level, indicating thepressors were now firing up.


    A turn of the knobter, the whole factory started toe online, even if at its very lowest, if not outright passive, level.


    In the end, it wasn''t until I maxed out the first knob that everything started to work properly, as opposed to merely starting up.


    "So a full knob only goes that far¡­" I muttered, slightly weirded out by how an entire tenth of the factory''s power was still far from sufficient for anything to happen.


    ''Excluding whatever improvements Chihiro made, we would only need five maxed-out knobs to match the energy output that nearly sparked the disaster before. Howe pretty much a fifth of that kind of power only does¡­?''


    I raised my eyes from the console and looked over my shoulder at the sofa ire was sitting on.


    "It slowly builds up," ire quickly caught my stare and replied. "Most of the readings are below the expected level, but that''s likely due to the starting curve."


    "That might be because of how we rewired the entire thing," Chihiro quickly came up with an exnation. "Until everything is up and running, there should be no energy flowing to the converters. Meaning, a disproportionately huge amount of energy goes just to pushing the air through the whole system, exining the decreased measurements of the spiritual energy."


    "That makes sense," I nodded my head before moving my hand over to the second knob.


    There, bit by bit, I twisted it further and further, all the way to the point where I could twist it no more, before turning my head again to check how things were on the technical side.


    "All readings fell within the norm, the wind-up no longer affects the oue. Most of the machines operate on the low setting, so we are good to go," the girl quickly reported, not even raising her face from herptop to catch my nce, perfectly capable of sensing my request just with her intuition alone.


    "Then, let''s go for the third one."


    As anticlimactic as it could feel, I couldn''t be any happier with how things were going. Yet, with that said, when I moved to twist the third knob, the max of which limited the power the factory could draw without anyone noticing anything out of the ordinary.


    ''I guess that''s the level of what you would be drawing from the grid while doing some intense renovations,'' I thought as I gradually increased the twist while also focusing on the factory''s insides, disyed perfectly well out of the overlooking window of the control room.


    "I''m almost maxed out on the third," I announced as I twisted the knob seven steps out of the total of ten that I could.


    "Still within the norm, but¡­" this time, ire hesitated a bit. "It''s testing the lower edge of the norm. That means we either have a leak or¡­"


    ire raised her eyes from herptop''s screen, locking them on my face for a while as we looked into each other''s eyes.


    "Or there''s something drawing part of this power away¡­" I muttered, quickly catching on to what I believed ire wanted to imply. "Can you mark, follow, and then graph the pattern of this leak?"


    If this was a leak, its behavior would change along with the intensity of the power. But if it was something actively drawing the power away, the pattern in which it would affect the records would change.


    "Sure thing," ire called back, only to look down at her screen while furiously typing on her keys for a few moments. "Okay, I''m ready, you can continue."


    Feeling as if I was finally nearing some long-deserved answers, I turned the knob to its eighth position. Then, after waiting a moment, the ninth, and the same short momentter, to its max.


    "Operating just below the small detection threshold," a voice rang out from the console, connecting us directly to the chief analysis desk located just two rooms down the corridor.


    "I think I''ve got this, but I need three or four more steps to clear it," ire reported.


    "Four more steps it is, then," I muttered before giving the machinery some time to warm up to its current speed, then moving over to the fourth knob and giving it a slight twist.


    First step. Second step. Then the third and ultimately fourth.


    By now, the entire factory was filled with the buzz of all the machines now reaching their eco-friendly mode, at which their efficiency of energy per air moved or filtered reached its optimal ratio. A shing of a golden diode only further confirmed this observation-borne guess, indicating the whole of the factory was now at its most efficient state possible.


    But this test wasn''t about running the factory at a rate that no one would give two craps about. It was all about testing its limits¡­ and trying to invoke whatever it was that took hold of the disaster-level amount of energy in the previous incident!


    "Okay, I''ve got it," ire called out while already typing something on her device. A momentter, a small touch screen to the side of my control pad lit up before disying aplicated graph oveying the energy usage, expected output limits, and then, on a separate and much simpler graph, the direct rtion between the expected output and the actual one.


    "It''s increasing, not only in terms of units but the total ratio?" I asked, not sure if I had read the graph correctly.


    ording to what I saw, if this leak only amounted to a minute, hardly noticeable amount of the total energy flowing through the system, right now¡­ it still wasn''t much, but from a minuscule leak, it had now turned into a problem big enough to warrant concern.


    ''From a statistical error to several percent worth,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as a sense of foreboding filled my soul. ''Something is definitely happening¡­''


    I exchanged looks with ire¡­ before twisting the knob one, and then two steps ahead.


    By now, if someone was looking hard into this factory, they would''ve noticed we were going above our predicted power usage. Still, this kind of deviation was only to be expected, and could easily be exined by booting up some exceptionally power-hungry tool as we continued our renovations or whatever it was that we were doing behind the closed doors of this factory.


    Still, rather than slowing down, I turned the knob again¡­ and then again, with decreasing breaks between each of the steps.


    It felt as if¡­ something was pushing me to twist it more and more¡­ all the way to the point where, before I could ever notice it, the knob would turn no more.


    "Maxing out the next one will¡­"


    "I know," I nodded my head to cut Chihiro''s reminder short. After all, out of everyone in this room, I was more aware of it than anyone else, Chihiro included!


    But with how the rate of energy dissipation continued to grow¡­ it felt as if we were finally getting somewhere.


    And so, without any further doubt, yet at a much slower pace than before, I moved my hand over to the fifth knob before starting to turn it.


    One step, two steps, three steps.


    I quickly checked the situation with ire, only for her to nod her head as she greenlit further progress.


    Fourth step, fifth step, sixth step¡­


    "Half of the energy is leaking," ire reported¡­ but didn''t change her report.


    Seventh step, eighth, ninth, and finally, the tenth.


    "Should we keep going?" I asked, looking from Chihiro to ire and then back to Chihiro.


    "Dear?" Chihiro turned his eyes toward his daughter, prompting me to do the same.


    "Two-thirds of the energy are out," ire reported before shrugging her shoulders, "all the machinery is still good to go and with quite a lot of potential to spare."


    I looked away from ire and back to Chihiro.


    Going any further, pushing the sixth knob even just one step¡­ It would bring us over the threshold beyond which even those who didn''t pay that much attention would grow aware of our actions. The power we were drawing from the grid would grow so high, it would be impossible to keep hiding it, no matter what sort of connections Chihiro had at the nt.


    But, on the other hand, we were so close already¡­!


    "It''s your call," Chihiro said, pushing the weight of the problem in its entirety onto my shoulders. Yet, rather than making me hesitate and rethink¡­ it felt as if he had given me an early Christmas present!


    "I say we keep going."


    Chihiro stared at me for a while.


    "Then stop wasting time and just turn the sixth knob!"

 Chapter 172: The missing element (double chapter)

    "Why is nothing happening?"


    This one question apanied me as I slowly turned the knob one step at a time, all the way to the point where I could turn it no more.


    "It''s the same as before," ire reported from behind, "the batteries are not loading anymore, which means¡­"


    I took a deep breath before sighing it away.


    "Which means no spiritual energy is reaching Chihiro''s reverse Qi converters," I finished ire''s sentence just to indicate I already knew what she was talking about.


    This was the only thing that changed as I moved the sixth knob across all of its steps.


    Before I first touched it, the factory was already operating on the same level of electricity as back when the disaster nearly struck, given how the whole circuit was separated in two and how we closed only one of them.


    At that level, however, only about half of the energy transformed into Qi would get transformed back into electrical power. Yet, as we raised the output, gradually feeding more and more energy into the process¡­ the batteries at the very end of the circuit continued to charge at an increasingly slower pace, all the way to the point where the entire circuit responsible for charging them simply turned off.


    "I guess all we can do is keep going," I muttered, taking a deep breath before moving my hand over to the seventh knob.


    By now, all of the factory''s equipment was operating at full swing. The condensers pumped in fresh air from the outside into the system, the active part of the filtration system pushed the air through the filtering membranes, only for another set of fans to elerate the purified air once again. Then, this air would serve as a vehicle to pick up and drag the Qi produced by a stack of Qi converters, funnel all of this mana-rich air into a narrow corridor¡­ only for this air to then feed into the reverse Qi converters¡­ somehow losing all of the spiritual charge it was carrying in the process.


    This time we had all the precautions in ce to prevent the spiritual energy from just amassing in ce with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Yet, as if to spite our efforts, this energy had now vanished somewhere our sensors couldn''t reach.


    "Just what the hell is going on¡­" I muttered, doing my absolute best to crack the case.


    Yet, even cracking the seventh knob open as I twisted it for the very first time didn''t seem to bring any change, save for the slight increase in the total noise produced by the factory.


    "How are we standing?" I called out to ire, not daring to turn my eyes away from the factory below, knowing full well that once something happened, it wouldn''t be a matter of seconds but milliseconds for us to react and hopefully respond.


    And yet, step by step, we soon reached eighty percent of all the energy this factory was redesigned to draw from the grid¡­ But whatever it was that we wanted to happen persistently refused to¡­ well, happen!


    "Should we just call it all off?" Chihiro suddenly suggested, throwing me out of the loop so hard I actually looked away from the control panel. "I mean, the protests are getting more and more intense, and there seems to be a government car heading here for some reason¡­" he added while looking down at the screen of his phone. "And if it''s the guys I think it is¡­"


    Chihiro raised his eyes and just stared into my face for a moment with quite the intense look behind his eyes.


    "If it''s them, then things just got quite a lot moreplicated, Tim."


    My heart froze for a moment...


    So I shook my head, casting away all the needless aspects of the current situation before turning my head back toward the factory floor and giving myself a second to regain my focus.


    "Stall them," I ordered, paying no mind to how I was telling my very sponsor what to do¡­ while only thinking about what was before my very own eyes as I brought the seventh dial a step up¡­ and then another.


    The noise within the factory grew even louder than before¡­ but that was it.


    Gritting my teeth, I resisted the desire to just raise the power to the total throughput of the seventh knob in one fell swoop before slowly, gradually raising the limiters higher and higher.


    "Eighth knob, huh?" I muttered to myself, only to cast a quick nce over my shoulder and to the back.


    ire, noticing my stare, powerlessly shrugged her shoulders.


    "No matter how much you raise it, not even an iota of energy is reaching the batteries," she confirmed my suspicions before suddenly twisting her expression. "I mean, maybe there is; it''s just not enough to ovee the charger''s resistance."


    I turned my eyes back to the factory before lowering them down to the control panel.


    There was no indication of anything being wrong with the process. And yet, even though we had long since increased the power we''d been feeding into it well beyond what we used before¡­ we just couldn''t replicate the same event.


    ''Something changed,'' I thought, trying to find logic in the situation that made little to no sense otherwise. ''Whatever it is that happened before changed the situation and circumstances to the point that we cannot invoke it again.''


    This was quite a reasonable suspicion.


    Who was here to tell us that all of this energy that was leaking¡­ wasn''t just falling into the same orb that I saw within the stopped time, feeding into the endless and unchanging phenomenon that was stuck in the realm beyond time?


    Maybe that was the truth of this disaster to begin with? Rather than judging it as something that almost happened a few days ago, maybe, due to its nature transcending the frame of time, it was a disaster that happened at every point in time simultaneously, all the way from the big bang to the heat death of the universe if not even beyond that, with its destructive power split into infinite time and thus averaging to unnoticeable, statistical error?


    "Yeah, that can''t be it¡­" I muttered to myself as I leaned down over the control panel, pushing my mind to its limits in a bid to crack this mystery open.


    This kind of exnation¡­ was simply too convoluted to be the case. And most of the time¡­


    ''Right, there''s always am''s razor,'' I thought, raising my eyes from the console to the factory floor as the sense of a nearby realization took over my entire mind.


    And as my hand continued to slowly raise the power through the now eighth knob¡­


    ''The simplest thing we didn''t try yet¡­ The simplest exnation for why this entire thing just refuses to work¡­''


    I gritted my teeth.


    "Can it really be THAT simple?" I muttered, not even realizing I gave my thoughts a voice. "Well, seeing how things are going, I might as well just try it¡­"


    "Tim!" ire somehow managed to safely discard herptop off herp, stand up from where she was sitting, cross the distance that separated us, and then grab onto my arm before I could even sense her move.


    "Hmm?" I turned my eyes to the girl, with the answer to all of our current struggles already taking form in my mind.


    "Why do I get the feeling that you are about to do something incredibly reckless, stupid, and risky?" she asked, her hands clutching at my shirt as she stared right into my eyes from merely an inch or two away.


    "I mean¡­" I looked away, as if to give the factory floor a quick, inspecting look, while in reality avoiding how ire confronted my actual thoughts with reality. "Isn''t everything that we are doing here reckless, stupid, and risky?"


    Rather than challenging ire''s observation, which was quite right on the money, I opted to turn the perspective a bit.


    We were literally ying with forces we didn''t understand. The very fact that the same energy that nearly invoked a disaster before was now openly flowing for no real effect was the greatest proof of that.


    But this status quo, of us pouring more and more energy into what felt like an abyss, could onlyst so long. At some point, something had to give.


    Either we would breach the limits of whatever it was that was stealing all of this energy, or we would reach the limits of what energy this factory could process. Alternatively, in just a few more minutes, we would be forced to confront the authorities about what we were doing here.


    And judging by the look on Chihiro''s face when he brought them up for the first time just a few moments ago, they weren''t the kind of people we could just use my uncle to deal with.


    "ire, I believe this is the only way," I then spoke softly while fully ignoring the state of the factory as I turned to the girl and grabbed her by her arms. "This is the only element that I found missing from the whole picture. And this entire thing¡­"


    I shook my head before taking another nce at the factory floor, one thatsted for quite a while before I dared to turn my eyes back to ire''s stressed-out and panicky face.


    "We went way too far to just give up now, didn''t we?"


    ire pursed her lips into a thin line before opening her mouth a tiny little bit¡­ only to lower her eyes as she bit down on her lips.


    "There''s no convincing you, is there?" she muttered, refusing to look at my face as her fingers grasped at my shirt even harder.


    ire then slowly raised her face before looking right into my eyes with those deep, brown pools of her soul.


    "Just be careful, okay?" she then requested in a trembling voice, as if fighting against herself to voice anything even close to approval for what she already knew I was going to try.


    "I will do my best, but I can''t promise anything. If pushes to shove, though¡­" I hesitated for a second before turning my eyes over to Chihiro, "if the worstes to be, I''m leaving my...fate to you, dad."


    Chihiro''s face grew still as I called him in a way I had yet to earn the right to use. Before he could react, however, I invoked the one missing element.


    The one piece of the puzzle that I had yet to add to today''s mix of circumstances to properly match every element of the scenario from the disaster near-miss.


    And so, I invoked my constitution, allowing my spiritual power to flood my brain...


    Only for the very same thing that happened during myst attempt at invoking my constitution to ur again. My directed attempt at injecting spiritual energy into my brain failed, turning my effort into a flooding of my entire body.


    And just like a spark setting fire to a room filled with fuel fumes, the very moment my spiritual energy exploded all over my body, so did all of the energy stuck in a state of stasis that both was and wasn''t in the factory with and all around us.

 Chapter 173: Golden Abyss

    All I did was look ahead.


    To be more precise, down the room''s window and upon the factory floor.


    And yet¡­


    Next thing I knew, I stared right into my very own face, frozen still in the space just a few inches ahead.


    But it wasn''t just my face.


    In the moment of time itself freezing, it was a picture-perfect copy of myself now standing a single step away, staring right back at me with what I believed to also be the perfect copy of my frozen expression.


    Where time didn''t flow, my muscles couldn''t turn or twist to reveal the profound sense of shock of just seeing a copy of myself growing out of the desk with the control panel, clipping through it like some sort of miscalcted projection.


    In this timeless realm, I couldn''t as much as move a single muscle.


    And yet, my hand reached out¡­ or merely mirrored the movement of the strange being right in front of my eyes.


    I blinked, as if to clear my eyes from the illusion¡­


    Only to suddenly see double!


    No, not double.


    In this one instant of frozen time, I saw both this weird copy of myself clipping through the console¡­ and my actual self, standing in an absolute yet unexpressed shock while reaching out my hand.


    ''As if I had two pairs of eyes.''


    The next thing I knew, my head exploded with an ocean of constantly ongoing calctions, as if someone tried to mine crypto directly off my physical brain.


    An endless, unending stream of constantly changing numbers took over all my thoughts, as if wiping out the bug from the system. At the same time, however, this weird copy of myself¡­ waned.


    "AAAAH!" I took in a massive breath as soon as this entire reality vanished into thin air, right as time started to flow again.


    "TIM!" Despite standing just a step away, ire jumped on me, as if in an attempt to use her physical hands to remove me from where I stood, hoping to break whatever took hold of me.


    "I''m¡­" I raised my hands, less in protest and more to stop ire''s worries. "As surprised as I am, I''m actually fine¡­"


    Contrary to thest time, my world didn''t copse.


    Sure, for a moment I was in a weird ce¡­ but there was no sign of the heavy side effects of overusing my brain like that.


    "But that''s weird, with those numbers¡­" I suddenly fell into a state of deep thought, eager to analyze what had actually happened.


    Then again, after having my brain parse as much data as only the most cutting-edge databanks could hold, it¡­


    It just didn''t make sense for there to be no adverse effects on the physical state of my brain.


    ''Last time, I felt like dying for quite some time, but right now¡­''


    Baffled by how easily I got off with it, I shook my head before raising my eyes back to the factory.


    And just like in quantum physics, where the mere act of observation affects the results, the moment Iid my eyes upon the walls of the factory core¡­


    The massive ball of energy from several days ago¡­ returned.


    Snap!


    The perfect sphere of boiling energy suddenly dropped into reality, instantly destroying any semnce of peace in the room.


    Without thinking, I kicked the emergency button at the bottom of the control desk, one much more cleverly designed than a simple power cut.


    No.


    It was a do-it-all switch.


    For as long as it was left alone, it did absolutely nothing. The moment I pressed it, however, a whole slew of thus-far-idle machines came to life.


    A massive grate opened up right on the side of the original flow, while the des of the fans on the main airflow suddenly came to a grinding halt while turning in their sockets to create a sort of barrier for the air. At the same time, a whole set of fans sucked the air to the emergency path, pushing the flow of the mana-rich air to the secondary factory building over on the sector''s side, where a whole array of emptied-out batteries waited for all of that delicious power.


    It was the panic button that Chihiro bragged all about as we set off for this task from our vi.


    And for a single moment, it worked.


    Then the surface of the whole sphere suddenly lit up, as a thousand sparks appeared all over it, instantly hypercharging it well beyond its current state.


    In a single sh, what was merely a nuke before, turned into no less than a continent-buster weapon of doom.


    A weapon with a massive w of offering absolutely no control to the one that designed it!


    And yet¡­


    I continued to breathe.


    Time didn''t stop. The sparks continued to dance on the sphere''s surface, as it only grew to the size that the factory''s main building could barely contain.


    Everyone who could afford to see such a world-ending sight simply stood there, panting at the marvel unraveling before their eyes.


    But the sphere¡­ refused to grow.


    And after just standing there threateningly for a few more moments¡­


    It suddenly copsed on itself, as if an overwhelmingly powerful force suddenly sucked it all out right from its very middle!


    But, unlike thest time when such an insane thing happened before my very own eyes, this energy didn''t vanish.


    It copsed on itself, rapidly shrinking to a point where the factory''s core fully contained it and stopped us from observing it.


    ROA¡­


    For a single instant, the sphere exploded again, instantly growing to the same size as before¡­


    Only to then fold down into itself again.


    Then again.


    And again.


    Over and over again, the explosive force of the overwhelmingly powerful spiritual energy continued to reform itself, folding down, up, and in every possible direction at a time¡­ only to then copse, implode, and invert in ways that looked anything but possible.


    An event on the edge of the universal rules that governed everything, stretching some aspects of reality to the point where nothing else made any sense.


    And in the end, the sphere of pure energy copsed, reformed itself for the veryst time¡­


    Before pushing the doors of the factory''s core open and then walking out, a golden shape of a human made with nothing but raw, raging yet contained energy.


    A shape that looked up in the direction of our window and made a single step¡­ and appeared just an inch off my face, its light fading away to reveal uncannily familiar features¡­


    My hand moved up on its own, as if reaching out for the panel of the invisible mirror that had to be responsible for what was before my very own eyes¡­


    And then, everything stopped.


    Time stopped. Reality stopped.


    Just like before, I sank into the world beyond time or any reason I or any other human could conceive.


    A world where nothing was like before¡­ except the perfect replica of myself standing face to face a mere inch away.


    My lips moved, both on my real and on my energy-based face.


    The sense of double-being returned, as I could once again see both my flesh and energy incarnation at the same time, with the same nk look on my faces.


    My lips moved. And then spelled out just two words.


    "Not yet."


    An aspect of this golden, human-like replica of me¡­ broke, shattered, and dissipated. At the same time, all semnce of a face or humanity washed off the being''s surface, reced with the same golden flow as I witnessed it before.


    Time started to flow again.


    The being just stood there, radiating its unfathomably deep energy just by existing.


    ire clutched down on my arm, her eyes wide and her knees shaking as she stared right into the abyss of pure, raw, spiritual power.


    Chihiro was on his knees, his face with a slightly enchanted andpletely lost look as he stared off into the golden abyss.


    All the while, I felt one thing that I just couldn''t wrap my head around or ept. Because it felt like, even if I called for it¡­ my constitution wouldn''t activate anymore.


    Because if my feeling was correct, then on the altar of creating this golden unknown that just stood a mere inch off my face¡­ it seems I ended up sacrificing the one part of my cultivation that actually made me special.

 Chapter 174:

    Ever since I started ying with forces that¡­ no, forces that no one could understand, my perception of the flow of time continued to shift, deteriorating from the norm.


    It happened for the very first time when the ball of energy I identally created decided that, rather than exploding, it would just go somewhere where it could exist in perpetuity, forever holding onto its potential yet never actually unleashing it.


    The second time it happened was just recently, when the constant injection of more and more spiritual energy bloated this already unstable ball of energy to its limits, only for the connection to my constitution to serve as an anchor that pulled this disaster back to reality.


    In both of those cases, my perception of time morphed, allowing me to experience a single instant of it¡ªa frame of time removed from its actual flow. A single frame of the movie called "everything."


    But now, it was different.


    Now, time continued to flow as usual¡­ but not a single person in the room could move a single muscle. We were all frozen in our positions, in our ces, with expressions of shock, fascination, and confusion mixing on our faces.


    Because rather than just ire, Chihiro, and me, there was now another being in the room with us.


    A being that was made of pure, raw, spiritual energy. A being that had already proven to be capable of manipting solid matter when, during the earlier incident, it forcefully connected the circuits and rendered the circuit breakers useless.


    A being in a shape vaguely human-like, yet without any clear borders to the golden shine it was made of.


    "What are you¡­?"


    Somehow, I managed to squeeze out a question from behind my pursed lips.


    With how this spiritual being manifested in its physical form, I didn''t even dare to peer at how it looked from the cultivation point of view.


    ''Just like everyone knows not to stare at the sun¡­ trying to check it out on the spiritual level seems like it''s on the same level,'' I thought, gulping the saliva down my throat.


    The golden being, however, didn''t seem to respond.


    Sure, it twisted the blob of light it had in ce of a head, as if looking at me in response to my question¡­


    Only for a hundred tendrils of lightning to suddenly spark on the surface of its chest before exploding outwards and shooting in a zig-zag pattern through the air.


    It wasn''t a random, unaimed barrage, though.


    As the next second proved, each of those small discharges had some strictly specified goal, with all of those golden tendrils connecting to various electrical equipment in the room, binding them to the golden being in the middle of the whole thing.


    And for a second, the room turned silent and peaceful, as if some sort of invisible barrier had suddenly separated us from all the noise of the machines operating within the factory.


    Then, the screen of my phone started to shine so brightly, it quickly became visible even from behind the protection of my pocket''s fabric!


    Throwing a quick nce around, I quickly confirmed that this phenomenon wasn''t unique¡ªsomething only my phone experienced. No, every piece of equipment that had any sort of disy was now shining with golden light, while I could sense some vague flow of energy across the tendrils that connected the being to all the devices.


    ''Huh?''


    As if all of this was merely a bugged disy for my eyes, all the zig-zagging lines of gold suddenly vanished, along with the weirdly intense shineing from the devices those tendrils had touched.


    Still torn and shaken by what was going on, I instinctively turned my eyes back towards the golden figure¡­ only to see it shake its head and drop its arms before lowering its head¡­


    Only for it to turn into a vortex that then sucked in the entirety of this being''s figure, leaving behind nothing but a floating, golden orb.


    <¡­>


    <Interface Registered>


    <Calcting the derivatives>


    <Calcting the variables>


    <Recalcting the derivatives>


    <Scheme approved>


    <¡­>


    <¡­>


    <¡­>


    <Activating>


    All the energy I''d previously recognized as a continent-buster-level of disaster¡­ now copsed into a simple sphere of gold, in the exact shape, form, and style of what one would recognize as some fancy wizard''s orb.


    Yet, just a single look at the infinitelyplex patterns of light that kept changing and morphing on the surface of the golden ball was enough for anyone to understand that the reality was nowhere near as simple as some nerdy and random exnation could suggest.


    "It''s folding and folding and folding and folding¡­" to the side, Chihiro, who was still on his knees, muttered passionately, his gaze locked at the now-open doors of the factory core, acting as if he could see something there that even I wasn''t capable of noticing.


    Contrary to him, ire appeared to be much more interested in the golden orb I was looking at¡­ or rather, judging by how tightly she gripped my arm, rather than caring about what this thing was, all she was concerned about was my own safety and well-being.


    And after the two of them, there was I, filled with nothing but fearful curiosity¡­ and some strange, primal desire to understand.


    A primal desire so strong, rooted so deeply in my soul¡­ I just couldn''t resist it. And so, before ire could hold me back or bring me back to my senses, I reached out¡­


    Andid my hand down upon the orb, merely a ve to what my innate curiosity made me do.


    The results¡­


    Were not as bad as every rational cell in my brain was screaming they would be.


    The moment I made contact with the orb, it felt¡­ exactly as I had felt back when my brain suddenly became a tool to calcte endless strings of numbers when I invoked my constitution. This time, however, not even an iota of the burden of doing so was ced upon my brain, leaving it to just enjoy the results of those mysterious calctions¡­


    Or, to be more precise, whatever results this orb wanted to share with me.


    Results that went far and above, beyond any kind of expectations one could have for this strange device. Results that this orb could never achieve if it was actually confined to just the space it upied in the physical realm.


    Results that required it to either connect to¡­ or be a part of the city''s grid, if not the world''s power grid.


    A result that my brain interpreted as a live feed from some sort of room where a huge crowd of blue-cor workers manned their stations while an old man sat upon a modern rendition of a simple throne, resting his hands on a walking stick and silently observing a girl with a familiar face, curled up on her chair, as she stared down a plethora of screens¡­


    All of which depicted either the factory''s surroundings or the factory itself.


    ''What the¡­''


    The imagery produced by the orb vanished into thin air, reced by the experience of a perfectly white, open, and empty space, with nothing but just me¡­ and the golden figure from before.


    "You are not ready to take full control yet."


    Even though this being had no mouth, its voice couldn''t have been clearer, more¡­ primal yet majestic.


    This voice simply radiated an authority of a level I couldn''t even fathom, yet one my primordial instincts managed to recognize.


    "You have a long road ahead of you¡­ But it''s not like the difficulty of the task ever made your kind stop."


    I gulped my saliva down¡­ openly weirded out by the experience.


    ''Why does this feel so¡­ wrong?'' I thought, unable to pinpoint the source of this uncanny feeling at the bottom of my soul.


    There was something extremely wrong about this conversation on a level I couldn''t quite grasp. It was as if¡­ a toaster suddenly turned into a microwave. Or a fridge suddenly became an oven.


    And yet¡­


    Faced with such an absolute authority capable of not only creating this kind of subspace but also kidnapping my mind upon mere touch and trapping it in it¡­ what was I supposed to do but patiently and attentively listen to what it had to say?


    "A time wille for you to understand, but for your own good¡­"


    <Not yet>


    If the being''s voice was full of some strange authority, then itsst two words¡­


    They weren''t words.


    They weren''t even a message.


    They were a hyperlink for my brain to the memory of the very same two words I''d heard when facing this very same energy back when it was still in its much simpler, rawer form.


    "Until then¡­"


    Crack.


    Before the being could finish its sentence, the whole space suddenly cracked open, before shattering like broken ss, releasing me from its hold.


    "GAAAAH!" I gasped for air, pulling my hand back¡­ only to realize that while strained, I was otherwise perfectly fine. Just like when I sparked the reaction with my constitution, the enormity of the task my brain had toplete came with seemingly no repercussions¡­


    No repercussions other than the light of the golden orb dimming slightly while the patterns on its surface drastically slowed down.


    Only to thene alive again, exploding in extreme intensity as the glow of the orb grew to the point I could see nothing but its golden light.


    The very moment my eyes were about to burn out in the wake of this strange artifact''s incandescent light, a single thought filled my mind with an extremely powerful force ofpulsion.


    <Nurture>

 Chapter 175: Everything comes with a prize

    "I would be quite careful of what you are going to say next."


    ''And that''s it for the seventh sentence of the list of what I most wanted to say in my life,'' I thought as I put on a small, mocking smile on my lips, standing in the open main entrance to the factory.


    I then cruised a few steps down the steps and then all the way to the main gate where all threeyers of the fence converged.


    "Because everything you say will be used against you in a court ofw."


    I breathed out, trying not to show just how much I enjoyed this moment.


    For all the peril we were in right now, the idea of just going ham on something without any breaks and without holding anything back¡­


    It just resonated with the child in my soul. With this simple man''s desire to just deal withplicated things in the most straightforward and simplistic way.


    Sure, I would never deny the amusement of watching all the pieces of a domino fall in ce, unraveling a massive and overarching scheme aimed at defeating one''s opponent.


    Sometimes, though¡­


    Sometimes, it just felt great to simply flex one''s muscles in a simple, tant act of disregard for the other party.


    It was so hard to see simplicity in the real world nowadays because of the cost often associated with it.


    Societal rules and norms existed for a reason. And if one was willing to cast them all aside, they could not have any qualms about paying the fitting price of emunicating oneself, be it by a social death after some sort of scandal, a cancetion by the web after some small mistake or¡­


    Or the government''s retaliation that would be brought on the heads of all those who dared to resist the government''s very own forces.


    Sometimes, however, a situation called for desperate measures¡­ And sometimes, doing the stupid was simply worth paying this kind of price.


    I took a breath before holding it in my lungs for a while as I calmed myself down.


    And as if summoned, a weird, intrusive instinct brought my eyes in a certain direction as soon as I dared to open them.


    Honestly speaking, I could see nothing extraordinary in the area I looked at, but right now, it was the very source of this feeling that made duking it out with the special investigation bureau worth it.


    "I''m not going to repeat myself," the officer on the left spoke while adopting pretty much the same attitude as I did.


    For the both of us at the moment, dealing with the other was the pain in the ass we found no excuse to avoid. Yet, while I operated with the principle of having them get the fuck out, they came here to get the fuck in.


    And so, the conflict continued.


    "You can either open the gate and surrender to our investigation, or¡­" the officer continued while hooking his hand against the inner edge of his suit, threateningly close to where he was quite likely to bear a gun.


    "Do you have a warrant?" I asked while leaning my head as far as I needed to snap my eyes from their lock and look at the two officers instead.


    "Didn''t you hear me, boy?!" the officer''s agitation grew as soon as he heard the cursed word.


    And just like a cursed spell invoked in the middle of a gathering of priests, it changed the look he gave me from dismissive and superior¡­ to angry, annoyed, and bothered.


    "STEP OUT OF THE WAY AND¡­" Raising his voice, the officer stepped forward himself before grabbing the metal bars of the heavy gate.


    "Any attempt to enter the premises of this factory will be considered an act of corporate espionage conducted by the corrupt representatives of the authorities and thus deemed exempt from the standard curriculum of personal harm considerations act."


    I sighed out.


    The warm feeling on my chest, right where I hid my phone, likely indicated the device was pretty much cooked.


    For the golden being to operate, it was bound to fry the circuits of it, rendering the very first gift from ire, even if obligatory and a merepensation for damage, damaged beyond any sensible repair.


    Yet, while the cost was great¡­


    I could now spout absolute bullshit that I had no clue about just like I would do with my hands whenever letting go of the reins and letting my constitution do the job.


    By using the help of this golden presence, however, I was finally free from bearing the cost of doing so.


    ''No headache, nausea, abdominal pain, or heart palpitations,'' I thought, reveling in the moment. ''Even if I really lost my constitution to make this thing¡­ can I really say that if it turns out to be an actual upgrade?''


    Sure, the costs of connecting to the golden being were insane¡­ but only from the standpoint of someone practicing inferior ways of cultivation. At my current stage, keeping the link active took a considerable toll, but remained within the limits of what I couldfortably handle.


    The same couldn''t be said about the cost of upkeeping this being''s very existence, as it taught us itself on how it could only exist with the framework of a flowing energy rather than static one, confirming one of the educated guesses I made on its nature in the past.


    But there was still one more thing I had left to say to the authorities. I couldn''t leave them hanging after this empty and outright naive attempt at intimidating me by¡­ raising their voice.


    "In case you failed to understand all of this legalnguage," I smiled lightly while openly mocking the two, "I''ve just stripped you of the protection enjoyed by all the agents of the government''s force. And while you can easily sue, prove me wrong, and regain the protection of thew¡­"


    I smiled even wider while locking my hands over my chest.


    "Until then, however, I gave the guards explicit orders to shoot anyone trying to trespass," I exined with a lovely smile on my face¡­ a smile that only grew deeper.


    The officers, however, clearly had no ns for backing off that easily.


    "I''m saying this for the first and ultimatelyst time," the other officer finally spoke, clearly ying the role of the bad and mysterious cop. "You can either allow the inspection of this factory as is your duty, or I will have no other choice but to dere you a terrorist threat."


    There was no hint of emotion in the man''s voice.


    For me, it was supposed to be a day of potential reckoning. The big T word that was supposed to bend my back into submission by revealing the level of the country''smitment to the case.


    But then, my phone grew slightly warmer.


    "First," I crossed my arms on my chest again. "This industrial unit was just dered both ssified and critical. In other words, within the limits of this parcel, my word is thew," I smiled as my lips and throat moved on their own, guided by what clearly felt like a directing, omnipotent, and omniwise influence.


    "Second, you sir are currently under a federal investigation," I turned back to the more expressive and wordy out of the two. "As for you, Mr. Bad Cop," I turned my eyes over to the other guy, "you''ve been marked in the agency as a potential essory to the crimes of your partner. So while you have all the right to enact the procedure you are threatening me with," I leaned my head over my shoulder before calmly breathing out. "What do you think they will think at the central where your profiles, this parcel''s civic status, and then the alert will all pop up on their screens at the same time?"


    By now, I was genuinely holding back myugh, as if to act with the dignitas befitting my role.


    "So, that leaves you two with just one, extremely important question. Since you can''t really count on any reinforcements from the big brother, with only two of you and close to a hundred of us here¡­"


    At this point, I could no longer hold back my amusement as I gave the two a pitying smile.


    "Is that bitch really paying you enough for you two toy your lives down here?"

 Chapter 176: I wouldnt go as far as to claim its a god as we understand the word, but...

    "Ha-ah..." I heaved a sigh as I returned to the factory grounds and closed the main entrance behind me, finally hiding myself from the furious eyes of the two officers.


    "Finally done," I yawned while stretching my arms out... only to look up and catch quite the disapproving look from Chihiro.


    This looksted only a moment, quickly reced by the face of absolute focus before the man turned away from the window and walked off, well beyond what I could see from my current position.


    ''It''s your fault you made me deal with them, so I won''t ept any scolding now,'' I thought, picturing myself putting on a brave front in this unnecessary confrontation.


    This was my only chance of doing so, given how Chihiro was leagues away from crossing any of the actual red lines beyond which I would have no other choice but to consider him an active enemy.


    No, for now, this imagery of mine was nothing but an exercise of imagination aimed to let off some of the steam that was building up in me to condition me for a proper follow-up on my confrontation with those two government officers.


    "Tim!" ire called out right as she appeared at the distant end of the stairs leading up to the second floor, only to jump down the full length of the flight of stairs, casuallynd, and instantly move to sprint ahead, only to slow down right as she was about to crash into me. "We saw it all, but..." she muttered, only to nearly instantly do a one-eighty and turn her eyes away as if all her excitement from just a second ago was taken over by some sort of uneasiness.


    "Let me guess," I sighed, my instincts somehow making me connect the dots I wasn''t even aware of before producing a likely answer to ire''s unreasonable change of mood. "That golden figure isn''t really all that great at conveying livementary on what''s going on, is it?"


    "How did you know?" ire asked while her eyes opened wide, clearly indicating I had just revealed I knew something she didn''t expect me to be aware of.


    "Would you believe me if I said it''s all just a feeling?" I half-jokingly asked.


    ire''s face twisted a little bit.


    Most likely from my tone and expression, she could tell I wasn''t all that honest... but on the other hand, there indeed was a hint of truth in what I said, making it hard for her to decipher how to understand my words.


    "It''s just a feeling, but it seems that it is feelings that this golden being operates on," I exined what merely started as a guess but by now had be just a tiny bit less than certainty.


    "That''s..." Strangely enough, even though I just exined the situation to the best of my ability, ire didn''t seem convinced.


    Or more like...


    My exnation only served as a seed from which a massive frown appeared on her face.


    "Are you aware of the meaning behind what you just said?" ire suddenly asked, slowly raising her head as her eyes crept up from my chest, through my throat, and then all the way up to my face before locking down on my own eyes.


    ire''s question... wasn''t the kind that I wanted or was even supposed to just answer on the go. It was one of those questions that, when answered rapidly, would only serve to indicate that the person behind the answer either paid the question no mind... or was too stupid to notice the depth behind it.


    And there most certainly was depth to ire''s question, something I could tell from just how serious of a look she had on her face.


    "I''m sorry, but what is that meaning you are talking about?"


    After taking some time to think through my options, I decided that there simply was no point in me guessing.


    It would only cost us time, force ire to sit through a barrage of random guesses, and ultimately still end up with me either nailing it down by some ident... or doing what I did anyway and just asking for the answer.


    "Haaa..." ire heaved a long sigh before shooting her hands forth and locking them behind my back as she pressed her face into my chest. For a moment, she remained like that, simply recharging within my light embrace, only to suddenly put her palms down on my chest before pushing herself off.


    "Do you know why people believe it''s impossible to go beyond the mortal realm unless you venture out to the spiritual part of the world?" Rather than giving me the answer to herst question, ire moved on and decided to ask another one.


    "Isn''t it because there''s something missing in the spiritual energy of this part of the world?" I answered with what I''d learned when we talked about this topic before.


    "That''s right," ire nodded her head, proving that rather than her question being an actual question, she simply wanted me to bring this point up. "After Dad made some calls, we confirmed that it is indeed the case. But more importantly, while it cost us a pretty penny..." here, ire''s face twisted in an ugly grimace, proving that she too wasn''t immune to the notion of suddenly losing a huge amount of wealth even if she was never in a position to becking in material terms, "we''ve managed to confirm what that element is."


    ''Is that what Chihiro was on the phone for?'' I thought, only to then squint my eyes as I noticed the w in this logic. ''But then, how would ire know about it? She appeared on the stairs pretty much at the same time as I saw her dad through the window, so the timing doesn''t work.''


    "And apparently, it''s some sort of a remnant of a divine thought, a divine intention that shattered and diluted in time. Apparently, in the past, one simply had to wish to advance to automatically learn the ways of doing so..." the look on ire''s face steeled up. "But that''s all in the past. Nowadays, it merely guides one''s cultivation onto the correct path, allowing one to avoid the myriad of small mistakes that, whenpounded on each other, drastically limit their future potential."


    ire''s exnation was so long and convoluted, I actually had a hard time properly following it, not to mention processing all that she said on the go.


    The gist of the situation was clear, though.


    Whatever that element of spiritual energy was, it has now be a tiny little helper that guides cultivators on their path to enlightenment, even if its influence has be a mere shadow of what it once was.


    ''The question is, why did she bring it up...?'' I thought, only to then close my eyes and take a deep, slow breath that I then slowly sighed out.


    "This is just a guess of mine based on what I''ve heard so far, but..." I hesitated for a moment, only to then grit my teeth and forcefully pry my own eyes open, locking them on ire''s face as I braced myself for the sacrilege of even spelling out such a ridiculous guess.


    "Do you mean to say that the way this golden being influences me proves it''s an actual deity?" I asked while lowering my voice just enough not to make my words obvious to anyone who gave even the remotest fuck about listening to our conversation.


    "Not an intent, not a remnant, not even the full form of that divine intent, but an actual, real god?"


    At this point, ire''s face contorted a bit.


    "I wouldn''t go as far as to call it a god as we understand the word, but..." she then gulped her saliva down before looking up and locking eyes with me. "But without even a sliver of a doubt, there certainly is something divine about it!"

 Chapter 177: Holding the hottest pottato of them all (double chapter)

    Stepping back into the control room, I couldn''t help but feel like in the few moments I was gone to deal with the authorities, things changed far more than it should be possible for them to change.


    The former peace and quiet necessary for us to conduct the whole process in peace and focus was nowpletely gone, with Chihiro screaming out obscenities into his phone in the corner of the room while a group of men I''ve never seen before were trying to make themselves look as small and unimportant as possible.


    "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN, IT BEYOND YOU?! WE ARE MAKING HISTORY HERE!"


    Hearing Chihiro so agitated, I instinctively took a step back, as if preparing myself for a retreat.


    "Don''t mind him too much, dear," ire whispered as she climbed up on her toes to reach for my ear with her mouth. "Sometimes he gets like this¡­ but just give him a moment and it should all pass."


    I took a look at the man, more agitated than I had seen him even before. Heck, he was more agitated than I ever expected him to be able to be!


    It just went against his usual calm and dignified persona to be shouting like that, all the more when it was actually a call rather than a face-to-face conversation.


    "Fine!" Chihiro screamed out with the same energy one would right before tossing their phone against the nearest wall.


    Yet, given his position, experience, and even the cultivation level¡­ He somehow managed to remain calm enough to properly disconnect the call before lowering his hand and taking in a long, deep breath.


    "Ha¡­." Following a deep breath, Chihiro heaved a long sigh as he put the phone away on the console before lowering his head and staying silent for a moment.


    It was an image so out of the realm of possibility¡­ that it took me a moment to realize that while Chihiro was fully focused on his call, the men that he invited inside were all fully focused on the orb of gold free-floating right in the middle of the room.


    The orb itself didn''t seem any different than when I left it, bing, strangely enough, the only thing that didn''t change about the room.


    The patterns on its surface continued to change and morph¡­ just at a much, MUCH slower rate than it did when it first came to be.


    "I''m sorry for this unsightly disy," Chihiro muttered as he finally calmed himself down and turned back to face us. "How did things go on your end?"


    Rather than lingering on what was clearly a topic he wasn''t all thatfortable talking about, Chihiro quickly turned everyone''s attention to something else.


    "For now, we should be safe. As requested, I went ham on them, so I don''t think they will be able to do anything anytime soon," I exined, fully aware that the exact details of my confrontation weren''t something I was bound to share.


    There was no need for Chihiro to learn that the very moment I had the opportunity, means and necessary leverage to metaphorically spit in the name of the authorities, I didn''t hesitate even for a second before taking this chance.


    ''I wonder if it''s because I used to strictly obey thew in the past that I''m now much more open not to follow it anymore,'' I thought, before shaking my head and turning my attention away from the small topic Chihiro suggested as my eyes drew towards the very ball of gold.


    Still, as much as I wanted to tackle this topic first¡­


    There were still two things that had to be said.


    "It seems like we are left on our own," Chihiro revealed, noticing my expression. He nced over at where he had dropped his phone off. "Save for the forces within the city, we can''t expect any kind of support from my faction colleagues until we provide them with solid results, solid proof that what we im to have¡­ actually works."


    I slightly raised my eyebrow, still taken aback by those results even if it didn''t take a genius to tell me the call Chihro was on¡­ didn''t exactly go the way he wanted.


    "Are they really that dum¡­ Cough, short-sighted?" I asked, barely stopping myself from an unpolitical way of speech in time while leaving just enough of the content said to make it clear what was my general idea of the whole result.


    "You look at it the wrong way, boy¡­" Chihiro muttered while shaking his head, the leniency in his voice turning the normally derogative boy into merely a handle he used to refer back to me. "Rather than asking why won''t they take such a good deal, it''s better to ask, why would they?"


    Chihiro shook his head, implying his contradictory statement wasn''t the end of what he had in mind.


    And surely enough, after staying silent for just a few moments, he picked up right where he left as he raised his head and locked his eyes right on my face.


    "Why would they take a deal that''s so out of the norm it can be nothing less than a scam?"


    I took in a deep breath as the realization got to me.


    The three of us had more than enough time to get used to the fact that whatever it was that I did, it always started on the level of breaking the taboos that people weren''t even aware existed. This factory, however, was a result of taking my ideas to their extreme¡­ which ended up with rather extreme results, for how else could one describe an act of creating a consciousness out of nothing, one that could not only exist without any solid body to operate on but one that majorly existed outside of time and could freely do things that anyone else in the world would deem impossible?


    "I guess you are right," I admitted before heaving a deep, long sigh. "But if we are too good for them to offer us what we wanted¡­ what do you suggest we do next?"


    Right now, we were in a load of trouble.


    Apany that took a massive debt for their investment would on the day the debtors came to collect both what they borrowed and all the interest.


    In our case, rather than borrowing money, we were borrowing the trust of my uncle and all those who he himself had to convince to work with us to make this entire n work. And while no one expected us to nowe up with some sort of payment for that debt of trust¡­ We still had to produce the results.


    Locally, everything was fine. Judging by the faces of the men in the room, they were terrified enough to make it clear they understood the importance of the floating golden orb and the weight of the changes it would bring throughout the world.


    But those men consisted of mostly Chihiro''s bodyguards and one singr point of contact with my uncle, the one and only man I recognized in their group.


    In other words, while we could count on my uncle to understand the implications of what we did, the weight of what we could make happen next, and the value in this research of ours¡­ He could only afford us as much protection as a city governor could.


    And now that I quite openly went against the force directly rted not to the city, but the country''s central government¡­ A protection a city governor could afford suddenly didn''t feel all that ¡­ capable?


    "Honestly?" Chihiro gave me a sideways look before shaking his head moving all the way to the back of the room and sitting down on the sofa before hiding his face in his hands.


    For a moment, I thought he was simply trying to sort his thoughts out, but as his silence grew longer and, strangely enough, louder¡­


    "You should know that it''s not the best idea to have mee up with our n of action for the future," I pointed out once I could no longer handle the silence.


    "What do you mean?" Chihiro asked in an exhausted voice, raising his now empty face from his looks as he gave me a tired stare.


    "My ideas tend to be¡­ quite unorthodox?" I tried to find the political, diplomatic words for it. "Or, to say it bluntly¡­" I started, only to then hesitate again.


    "Just go on," ire whispered from the side while grasping my arm a little tighter. "There''s no such thing as a bad n while we are still in the stage of deciding what to do. Worst case scenario, we just¡­ won''t put it into action."


    I turned my head to look at ire, finally allowing my mind to get some rest as just the sight of her calm, elegant, and somewhat regal beauty soothed my heart and then my mind.


    "The easiest way to go about it is to go absolute bonkers and put ourselves in a setting of us versus the world. It''s a scenario that would usually lead to nothing but ruin, but with the golden boy over here¡­" I turned my eyes toward the orb as I mentioned it¡­


    Only for my consciousness to waver as the sight of the room suddenly vanished from before my eyes, reced by the misty, low-quality sight of some ants¡­ No, some dark-n men sneaked along the street''s side.


    As the vision rified, I could now see they weren''t just wearing ck clothes but some sort of tactical gear. And while some of them came armed with long guns¡­ It wasn''t the concerning part.


    The rming part of this sight was the tools that the other few of them carried, tools that I then saw them using to pry open what looked like a canal''s lid on the street before one of them jumped inside with massive, heavy-duty cutters.


    The next thing I knew, all the lights vanished from the street, leaving it as dark as it would be before the invention of electricity. Only the distant hue of the city lights shed some lights on the street, just enough of it for me to watch them all gather up and then quickly leave, but not before dropping some sort of packages into the hole they just¡­ left open.


    ''Don''t they know this is a big safety hazard for any car that would try to pass?'' I thought, right as my vision faltered again, only for the control room of the factory toe into my view again with its electrical lights working perfectly fine.


    "Tim?" ire asked, clearly being the only one who noticed the slight, momentary gap in my stance.


    My eyes, however, rather than move to the girl,nded on the golden orb. The surface of which suddenly came alive as its patterns started to morph and change at a much greater speed than before¡­ Only to then settle right back down, as it reverted to the slow pace of the change it disyed ever since its formation process came to an end.


    "Tim?" ire asked again, her concern and worry growing as she noticed more and more signs of my shooting anxiety and the sense of urgency shing in my eyes.


    "They are trying to cut the power off this whole district. And judging from what I saw, that''s not going to be the end of it either."


    "Huh?"


    Hearing me suddenly bring up a seemingly random topic as a sure-fire statement rather than a guess of what the forces opposing us could try to do to hamper our progress¡­ Chihiro failed to process my words on the spot.


    Once again, only ire was quick with her wits and observant enough to connect the dots on the spot and even move a step ahead, all to get a better look on my face.


    "So it has powers like that too¡­" she muttered, her eyes opening up wide as she nced over at the orb¡­


    Only to then turn on her heel and straighten her back, suddenly gaining the level of aura I''ve never seen her with before.


    "Didn''t you hear him?!" she shouted as she turned towards Chihiro''s bodyguards. "They are trying to cut us off! Go and get them, now!"


    "Look for a canal''s entrance in the middle of the street. There''s going to be about ten of them¡­" I quickly added whatever details I could remember. "Oh, and it seems that they brought big guns with them, so be careful!"

 Chapter 178: The plot thickens?

    Just what the hell is that golden orb?


    This one question permeated the brains of all those gathered in the room, all those who could steal even the slightest nce of its ability.


    And quite honestly, there was a whole slew of benefits that this item offered. It was hard to just sit down and pick one¡­ or sit down and pick the most important one!


    From how it could calcte things that I would never deem possible to calcte in the first ce, through its ability to actuallymunicate with me and the others, all the way to how it could give me¡­ foresight?


    ''Then there goes the question, is it just me that can use all of those abilities of this golden orb¡­ or is it everyone?'' I gulped a mouthful of saliva down. ''Or maybe we don''t even know the full scale of what this thing is even capable of?''


    The more I thought about it, the more likely this kind of scenario made itself to be in my head.


    We only spent a few moments with or around this object, and we continued to discover new and new ways in which it could help us¡­ So how stupid and naive would we have to be to just assume that all that it has shown us in the past few moments was actually all that it could do?


    "I wonder, what this thing is, but like, what it REALLY is," I spoke silently, mostly just voicing my wonder rather than actually looking for an answer.


    "Does it even matter?" Chihiro somehow caught my words, instantly turning his attention over to me, ignoring the live feed of the cameras embedded into his bodyguard''s outfits, allowing him to stay updated on the progress of their mission.


    "As long as it''s helpful, that''s all we need to know. And just from how it''s supposed to bridge the gap between the spirituality of the modern world and the spirituality of the cultivation world, then it''s already more valuable than anything else we know of to make any kind ofparison possible."


    On that point, even though I was still merely an amateur with little to no knowledge over cultivation, I could wholeheartedly agree.


    Up until today, the modern world had all the convenience its technology could offer, along with all the physical power one could derive from it. On the other hand, there was the spiritual world with its enriched Qi that allowed people to challenge their mortality and go beyond this most basic realm in hopes of not only extending their life but also growing stronger personally.


    This was the main bncing factor that kept the world stable and rtively peaceful, for no cultivator of higher level would ever align politically with the modern world, knowing full well that he needed the favor of the spiritual part of the world if he wanted to live beyond the average span of a human life.


    And while one could argue how the seventy or eighty years humans could live wasn''t all that short¡­ when taking into consideration the time cultivators spent doing nothing but learning how to manipte their spiritual energy, how much of their fortune they spent on getting more resources and better techniques¡­


    With all of that considered, the extended lifespan, something that started in the upper ranks of the mortal cultivation but really took off only once one became a cultivator proper¡­ In those circumstances, rather than a reward, it felt more like apensation for all the time, effort, and money a cultivator had to put forth just to get there to begin with.


    But all of that, this weird socio-political dynamic and bnce¡­ All of that, as of today, was no more. Because with the presence of this golden ball floating in the control room like some sort of a discomp, the whole of the spiritual world just lost the only advantage it had over the modern, technology-based world.


    "Technology-based, huh?" I muttered to myself as I allowed my thoughts to wander freely for a moment, given how I didn''t really have anything better to do while we waited for Chihiro''s men to solve what felt like thest issue of the day, allowing us to move on from the test and to the actual task of the day - helping Chihiro break through his current bottleneck so that he could reach the tenth stage in time.


    Still, just those two words, "technology-based" strangely resonated with my soul, as if calling forth to where my weird constitution used to be¡­ only for the hole left after it burned away to spark the birth of this golden ball to turn into a resonating chamber that only served to further reinforce and amplify those two words within my soul.


    Inevitably, the more I thought about it, the more my eyes moved away from the screens with the live feed of the counter-op of Chihiro''s bodyguards, and the more it moved towards the golden ball.


    "Okay, I think I can see them," Chihiro spoke into a hand-held microphone connected, most likely, to the private line he shared with his bodyguards. "Make sure to stay your hand until they are distracted with their goal¡­"


    Paying little to no attention to the man''s rambling, I stood up and came a little bit closer to the golden ball.


    And then, just one step closer.


    Just an inch closer.


    Before I knew it, I already stood right in front of it, staring dead-ahead into its slowly-moving patterns as if they held some sort of an answer to the two words that peculiarly ended up stuck in my head.


    "Technology-based, huh?" I muttered, mostly to myself, before reaching out¡­ and then holding my hand right up to the ball''s side, as if I wanted to touch it, pull out an ancient, elven sword before telling the guy on the other side of the magic ball that this particr sword has now been reforged, causing him to rpse into post-traumatic stress disorder of having all his fingers cut by that very sword and, in the process, losing one hell of a precious ring he then spent the next few hundred years trying to get back!


    Yet, the more I stared into the golden surface of the golden ball, the more the very thought that brought me to it continued to morph in my head, as if taking over the morphing task of the patterns on the ball''s surface.


    And soon enough, rather than "technology-based," a slightly different term floated in my soul.


    "A machine''s spirit¡­"


    This name was an obvious loan from one of the most popr fictional universes humans ever came up with. And while this golden ball had likely absolutely nothing to do with that universe, for this very specific moment¡­ it just felt right.


    "What are you on about?" ire asked, her voice easily pulling me out of my dazed state as I turned my head to face her, blinking my eyes as I moved as if to further wake myself back up to reality.


    "Ah, I think I fell a bit too deep into my own thoughts," Iughed it off¡­ only for my eyes to inevitably draw right back to the golden ball.


    This time, however, as I looked at it, something finally clicked.


    ''It''s not a spirit of the machine or anything of that kind,'' I thought, gulping the saliva down my throat as the realization of what this golden ball was quite likely to be only made me take a big breath and then hold it in as the consequences of what I''d just realized started to finally dawn upon me.


    "No, you were onto something," ire corrected me, proving that even if she wasn''t speaking much while we were outside, she never stopped watching me.


    And now that we were a pretty much official couple, she could now do so from so much closer and without anyone paying it any mind!


    "Looking at your face¡­" ire continued as she moved from my side to my front only to reach out with her hands and sp them down on my face, as if she wanted to hold it up in ce to get a better look at my expression. "Is it really that scary?"


    "More than scary, I would rather say it''s¡­ overwhelming?" I tried my best to put my feelings, my realizations, and my dread into the simplest and most straightforward words I coulde up with.


    "Okay, feel free to engage. Just try to keep the coteral to a minimum," to the side, Chihiro gave the orders, finally making a move to stop whatever it was that the other ns were trying to do to stop us.


    "Basically, if I''m right, then whatever it was that gave divinity to the spiritual power of the spiritual world was akin to the very essence of cultivation. And the more I think about it, the more I believe it was this divinity of theirs that was behind an entire age of spiritual restoration."


    "And¡­?" ire dug just a little bit deeper, easily reading from my face how what I said was merely a prologue, a synopsis that merely hinted at the actually important part at the end of what I wanted to say, rather than telling a full story on its own.


    "It''s still just a guess based on a series of other guesses of mine, so don''t take it for a given truth, but¡­" I continued by dropping an obligatory cause, just to make it clear I wasn''t actually sure about any of that. "But, if I''m not wrong, then this ball¡­"


    I gulped my saliva down yet again.


    As it turned out, speaking about my guesses somehow made them more real, more grounded in reality, more tangible, and thus, more¡­ threatening.


    "This golden ball is a divinity that reaches beyond the realm of spiritual energy," I revealed my concept before heaving a long and heavy sigh. "This might be the embodiment of a divinity that incorporates both the spiritual energy¡­" I turned my eyes to look straight into ire''s face.


    "Execute," Chihiro finally gave the final order. And even though he stood only a few steps away, he was clearly too focused on his own men to care about what I was talking about with his daughter.


    I rolled my eyes when his sharp tone threw me out of my loop, only to then shake my head and look right into ire''s eyes again.


    "Both the spiritual¡­ and electric energy at the same time," I revealed only for my lips to twist into a small, slightly mocking smile. "A spirit in the machine, you could say, but that only makes me wonder..."


    I closed my eyes and took a breath only to raise my face up and open my eyes only to lock them on the factory''s ceiling.


    "If electricty is really within this golden ball''s domain, then can it interact with electric devices?" I suddenly asked as I lowered my head and, once again, looked straight into ire''s eyes. "And is it what it did when it touched all of the electric devices in this room with those golden tendrils of its?"

 Chapter 179: Tunnel warfare (Part 1)

    "Alpha team, moving to position," Eric whispered, perfectly certain that the high-quality microphone sewn into his cor would be able to pick his voice up.


    In reality, however, he didn''t need to call his actions at all, for it was merely a habit he developed back during his time in the actual military.


    Right now, under the employment of the cultivation n, there was no need for him to follow all or even any of the protocols he was so used to¡­


    But he wasn''t the only former military in the group. In fact, everyone in his unit was a veteran. A veteran of actualbat rather than one who earned his badges by peeling potatoes during canteen duty or by counting bolts in the warehouse.


    No.


    Everyone in Eric''s team was a proper veteran, perfectly well-ustomed to the presence of danger, the dangers lurking in every shadow, and the risk of the whole operation going haywire at any given moment.


    They were all veterans, after all. They were all people who learned the actual value of all those procedures that most fresh recruits or simple infantrymen only ever considered to be a drag both to learn and then to use.


    "Bravo team, in position," the response rang in Eric''s earpiece, giving him a tiny bit of confidence and sense of security.


    "Okay, let''s get this done and over with, boys."


    Breaking military protocol, Eric spoke into thems in a more casual way as he rose up from underneath severalyers of messy clothes that made him look like just one of the many hoodlums upying this abandoned part of town, revealing the full-on tactical gear he was actually wearing.


    In the single moment it took him to move a mere five steps ahead, a total of six more simrly-dressed men joined him as they advanced through the shadows cast by the wall of one of the many abandoned factories of the secondary industrial park.


    "Approaching the operating zone," Eric reported to thems as soon as he took a peek over the corner of the fence and locked his eyes on the ordinary manhole cover located roughly fifty meters down the street.


    "Left clear," one of his men reported as he dragged the point of his rifle over to the side they weren''t at all interested in.


    "Front clear," the second report came right in the very next moment, with the operating system of theirms artificially amplifying the whispers of his men.


    The tactical gear they picked for the mission was quite limitedpared to what they wore during theirbat missions back in their time in the military. In exchange for several degrees of protection and loads of utility, however, the decreased weight and increased stiffness of the fit allowed Eric and his men to move around much easier¡­ and most importantly, their current gear was nowhere near as recognizable as the standard-issue military outfit!


    "Right clear, move!" Finishing up the sequence, Eric quickly scanned the area beyond the corner he was peeking before pushing the barrel of his rifle to the front as he stepped out from behind the wall''s corner and advanced down the street.


    The next few moments were the most nerve-wracking, as their small group continued along the side of the street, always trying to hide in the shadows and avoiding the few spots illuminated by the few city lights that still worked in the area.


    "Take positions and check your sectors," Eric spat into his cor before finally detaching himself from the side of the street and quickly moving to his predetermined position, a mere three steps ahead of the manhole they were interested in.


    "Rear clear."


    "Left clear."


    "Right clear."


    "Front clear," Eric finished another sequence of reports after confirming there were no signs of movement or presence down the street from where they were. "George, move in."


    While Eric was themander of both the unit hemanded in person and their squad as a whole, he wasn''t the one to shine the most today.


    After all, if anyone wanted to stop them, taking the officers down was the most obvious course of action. And in no formation known to the military would an officer stand at the point, where the risk of taking fire was the greatest.


    For anyone who knew anything about military procedures, rules, or traditions, Eric''s choice of his position in the group would be something between idiocy, naive bravado, or¡­ genius.


    After all, rather than serving in the military and thus fighting with the militaries of other, most often much poorer countries, they were going in against another n, one that was as rich if not richer than their own employer. That meant, rather than going against random crooks that some warlord decided to dress in uniforms and call his military¡­


    If anyone were to interfere with their mission, it would be operatives on the same level of skill and tactical thinking as Eric''s own group¡­ if not people of even higher levels of skill, training, and experience.


    In a fight against thugs renamed into military, standing on point would be the position of the greatest risk. In a potential fight against their equals, however, it was a position as good or bad as any other¡­ if not the safest one, given how no veteran in their right mind would ever expect the officer to put himself in harm''s way!


    "Moving in," George reported as she approached from the back of the group, armed not with firearms or any of the toys their employer provided, iming to be much more silent and effective than gunpowder-based weapons¡­ but with a simple pair of heavy-duty cutters.


    "Reggie, Bart, open it up."


    With his eyes constantly shifting from one random point of focus down the street to another, Eric continued to provide his team with directions¡­ even if by now, pretty much everyone knew perfectly well what they were supposed to do and when.


    And so, before Eric could even speak up, two of his men already moved in, armed not with guns, not with bolters, or even cutters¡­ but with weirdly-shaped metal sticks, which they then proceeded to insert into the holes of the manhole before pulling them up to lift the cover out of the way.


    Normally, this kind of brass lid would serve to cover the sewers, serving not only as an entry point for those tasked with servicing them but also as an emergency outflow for the water to drain if the local rains were to ever exceed meteorologists'' expectations.


    But here, right in the middle of the mostly abandoned industrial park, rather than sewers, those lids hid the tunnels where one could find massive, live cables that connected every factory of the nt to the nearby power nt.


    After all, connecting the industrial sewage to the rest of the city-wide system was one of the quickest ways to poison the entire city with chemicals the water treatment nts were never expected to deal with!


    "It''s open, George, get in!" Hurrying hispatriot up, Eric quickly turned his focus back to his task of keeping his sector clear.


    "On it!" George reported to thems as he sat down on the edge of the round opening in the road, dropping his legs first before lifting his body up on his arms alone before¡­ dropping a few feet down.


    ''Just one more moment¡­'' Eric thought, patiently waiting for the next report that would signify the cables were now cut, allowing them to clean the scene before retreating back to safety, where they could change back into civilian clothes and leave the whole area.


    Yet, with seconds trickling by¡­ the report just refused toe.


    ''Are thems down?'' Eric thought, gently tapping his cor. Yet, with the dull sound reflecting in his earpiece, this couldn''t be it.


    "George, report," Eric whispered into his cor.


    Hearing no response, he had to fight the desire to turn around and check what was going on with his very own eyes.


    "Reggie, check on him," Eric issued another order, leaving the task of investigating the situation to one of his subordinates while only raising his alertness to another level as his eyes moved from one point to another even faster than before, always in search of even the tiniest movement, tiniest reflection of light that would signify the presence of an opposing force.


    "On it," Reggie reported back.


    For a moment, Eric could hear the sound of his man moving over to the opened manhole.


    "He is¡­"


    Just like that, Reggie''sms went silent.


    "Man down!"


    With this single report, all semnce of silence, peace, and progress died in an instant, forcing all four of the men left to shift to theirbat gear¡­


    But with not a single sound of shots being fired¡­ who could be attacking them?


    ''Think, man, think¡­'' Eric hurried himself, now outright aiming his rifle at every point his eyes shifted to rather than just scanning it through his infrared scope. ''If they are not out here to pick us up one by one, then¡­''


    Just as the realization struck the man, an ugly and horridly familiar, gargling sound reached Eric''s ears.


    "CONTACT¡­" Eric shouted, only to suddenly find himself stumped on how to pass on the message.


    His procedure-conditioned mind only had five terms he could use to follow up on his most recent report: ahead, left, right, rear, and up.


    This moment of confusionsted only for a single second before Eric managed to wrestle his mind free from the constraints of the protocol, allowing him to report it in his very own words.


    "Fuck! They are down in the tunnels!"

 Chapter 180: Sunk Cost Fallacy

    "It''s done."


    Chihiro reported as he lowered the mouthpiece of his radio and looked over toward the two of us.


    "Both of their groups?" I asked, just to be sure, only for Chihiro to shake his head.


    "We didn''t have the time or the angle of approach to get them on the surface, so I had my men set up in the service tunnels, waiting to pounce the moment they tried to cut the cables. So no, they took care of only the first group."


    "That''s¡­"


    ording to the golden visions I''d received from this golden entity, there were two groups dedicated to the mission of cutting the flow of electrical energy.


    One group was to cut the cables, while the other was set up all around the perimeter of the target, securing both the way in and the way out for the strike team.


    The only direction the second group couldn''t protect¡­ was exactly where Chihiro''s men came from. Yet, while that allowed them to surprise the strike unit, taking them on right as their pants were down¡­ it also meant they were right in the middle of the second group''s attention, making it outright impossible for them to advance anywhere beyond the service canal itself.


    "Well, it doesn''t seem like that much of a big issue," I said as I ended up shrugging my shoulders and rolling my eyes a bit. "Whatever they nned to do, they clearly took their time to prepare for the execution of their n. And now that we''ve spoiled it, I don''t think there''s any chance they could pull the second team off their position and make them mess with us any further, especially not when we are already on full alert from everything they did so far."


    I took a breath to refill the stock of oxygen in my lungs after this rather lengthy boration¡­


    Only to then shrug my shoulders.


    "Well, that''s what I think, but it''s not like I know how military or paramilitaries operate, so don''t take my word for it."


    On the outside, I was calm. On the inside, however¡­


    ''To think a day woulde when I''d use the legendary "but you do you" just to shed any responsibility if my words led to a bad oue¡­''


    "What you spoke about makes sense," Chihiro admitted with a sigh, either ignoring or maybe not even noticing my little y. "And you don''t need to have experience in the military or in conducting special operations to usemon sense."


    Chihiro moved away from the console before sitting back on the sofa in the rear of the room, where he leaned forward and hid his face in his hands.


    "What now?" I whispered lightly to ire, hoping she''d give me some insights on what to expect from her father now.


    ire, at first, looked up at my face only to then smile a little before shaking her head slightly.


    "We just need to wait for him to sort his thoughts. And with the danger now gone, there''s no more rush, so¡­"


    Just like I did a mere moment ago, ire shrugged her shoulders as if to emphasize that what she said was merely her opinion, or, in other words, a sentence she had no intention of taking any responsibility for.


    "Yeah, there''s no rush," Chihiro chimed in, revealing he wasn''t deep enough in his thoughts to ignore our whispering. "Especially because those attacks are most likely not over yet."


    ''That¡­'' I squinted my eyes, taken aback by Chihiro''s sudden reveal. ''But if it''s not over, then what else do they have in store?''


    Puzzled by this question, I couldn''t help but venture down this path in my thoughts, trying to crack the code of what Chihiro could possibly mean.


    "Don''t even try to reason it out, son," Chihiro quickly added in a slightly amused tone as he shot down my attempt pretty much as soon as I started it. "It''s not logical or pragmatic, but it has everything to do with the nature of who we''re dealing with," he exined before heaving a long sigh, only to then bring his eyes up and lock them on my face. "But you already know who that is, don''t you?"


    I stared back at Chihiro''s face for a moment before slowly nodding my head.


    "I don''t really know who she is or what n she belongs to, but I''m quite sure it''s the woman we encountered on our trip to the cultivation district," I revealed what I''d seen in one of those golden visions of mine.


    Sure, the face this girl showcased back in town was nothing like the face I saw in her vision¡­ but when taking into ount all sorts of makeup, hair extensions, and fancy clothes, I was pretty damn sure it was the same person.


    The difference was simple.


    Out in the district''s streets, she had an image to maintain, whether to avoid shaming her n with a lousy appearance or to rub her sense of style in the faces of all those she deemed inferior.


    But back in the headquarters, from where she oversaw the entire,plex operation?


    Back there, rather than focusing on her looks, that girl went with the mostfortable outfit she could pick: simple gray sweatpants and a sweatshirt, allowing her to focus her full attention on the action rather than getting distracted by nice-looking but ufortable clothes.


    "What was her name¡­ Cessia? Cesna? Cassie? Carol?" I tried to recall this rtively distant and already quite vague memory.


    Even though my first meeting with that girl was quite memorable¡­ she represented the kind of person I was more than happy not to have any real memory of, prompting my mind to quickly erase all the marks she left in my brain.


    "It''s Cassie," ire confirmed the third of my guesses before turning her face over to her father. "Meaning, it''s the Theya n that''s behind all of today''s mess."


    At this notion, Chihiro merely nodded his head.


    "That''s right. And while I don''t know much about that girl you brought up, I surely know a fair bit about her grandfather," Chihiro stated before closing his eyes for a moment, taking a short breath, and then opening his eyes again as he focused them right on my face. "While he''s certainly a genius of his generation and the only one in the city who managed to perfect his tenth stage of cultivation while relying on modern QI rather than abusing his right to cultivate back in the spiritual world¡­ he does have his own faults."


    Chihiro''s face suddenly lit up as his mouth curved into a small, somewhat wicked smile. And before a single moment could pass, rather than keeping us in the dark over the meaning of his recent words, Chihiro didn''t seem to mind sharing his thoughts at all.


    "Theya''s patriarch is quite the gambler. It was with gambling that their ancestor made their first fortune, allowing them toy the foundations for theter creation of the Theya n. But while his luck in any sort of gamble is a quality to actually be fearful of¡­" Chihiro''s smile only grew, "it also makes him quite vulnerable to all sorts of maniptions that are the bread and butter for those behind the gambling."


    I squinted my eyes even further as my mind raced to extract the meaning that Chihiro danced around with his words.


    "And that is?" I asked, opting not to waste time trying to prove my awesomeness and instead to move the discussion along.


    "Sunk cost facy," Chihiro replied with just three words.


    Three words that were pretty much self-exnatory for those who didn''t know their meaning in advance.


    For me, however, those three words could pretty much describe the whole of the five years I spent in the institution, smashing my fists against the target in what was pretty much an attempt to smash my head into the wall in hopes of one day breaking it.


    ''Looking back, my determination to make it work¡­ was it any different from me just refusing to give up because it would invalidate all the efforts I put into cultivation for five whole years?''


    "I think I can sympathize with the man a bit¡­" I muttered, even though I knew just how wrong it was to sympathize with someone we were quite openly at odds with right now.


    "I''m aware," Chihiro pointed out while raising one of his eyebrows, as if I managed to catch him off-guard by admitting both to my feelings of sympathy¡­ but also how I myself had fallen prey to this mental trick.


    "And that means¡­?" This time it was ire''s turn to put a stop to the two of us just staring at each other with weird, knowing smiles and to move the conversation along.


    "They''ve gone too far to go back now. And even if it means burning bridges behind them or going a lot further than they were initially willing to, there is no way they are going to give up now."


    Chihiro pped his hands down on his knees as soon as she finished, before standing up from his seat and moving forward, all the way to the point where moving any further would mean breaking the window with his face and then dropping down to the factory floor.


    "Regardless, while I''m quite sure they aren''t going to give up, it doesn''t mean they can mount any further resistance right away."


    I stared at the back of Chihiro''s head for a moment before it struck me.


    "I understand," I followed the man to the outer edge of the room, only to then turn and stand by the console.


    A quick nce down at the controls proved that even now, after everything that had happened, the whole of the factory was ready to go.


    "All green," I reported before raising my eyes and looking to the side at ire''s dad as he looked out the window and overlooked the factory floor.


    "Good," Chihiro quickly responded before turning on his heel and energetically walking to the doors of the room. "There''s no use trying to figure out what they are nning to do, so rather than waste time doing so, let''s just get this whole thing over with. And¡­" The man turned his eyes toward the now peaceful and silent golden orb that continued to float in the control room.


    In the end, however, whatever Chihiro was about to say, he opted to keep to himself.


    "Don''t worry," I called out after the man right as he opened the doors and was about to leave the room¡­ only to descend down the stairs, walk across the factory floor, and take a position right where we''d recently given birth to this golden entity, the very ce where he was supposed to challenge his current bottleneck from the start.


    Seeing the man stop, I nced over at the golden ball, only to see the patterns on its surface shift a little, as if it were trying to tell me it was listening.


    "I will do my best to make it cooperate."

 Chapter 181: Only if they catch him (double chapter)

    The air of focus, dedication, and attention had now vanished, fully reced by an atmosphere of anxiety, fearful silence, and uncertainty.


    Still, it was a small price for the series of failures that, one by one, turned the obstacles Cassie had prepared for the rival n into nothing more than stepping stones.


    The crowd of protesters didn''t seem to faze them in the slightest, bringing forth about as much effect as an army of ants attacking a sleeping lion with all the courage and ferocity they could muster.


    That, however, was still within Cassie''s calction, as she never expected the crowd to amount to anything more than a mere distraction.


    Then there were the government officials, people from one of the few armed agencies of the government''s fist, with both the means and authority to shut down any business, regardless of whether its owner was breaking thew or simply being aw-abiding citizen.


    Those, however, Tim easily managed to deal with, showing no respect for the authority they wielded and openly threatening them with violence if they tried to use it to gain entry and interfere from the inside.


    ''Given how we lost contact with them, I bet they are trying to do something now, but¡­'' Cassie thought, gritting her teeth as she raised her eyes to where her screens disyed the views from the tens of cameras she had set up around the factory in advance.


    Whatever it was that those two government agents were trying to achieve, however, Cassie had no further control over.


    ''All I could do was get them to the ce. But seeing how they achieved nothing thus far¡­'' For a moment, the girl focused all of her attention on the topic, only to then sigh as shepletely gave up on this angle and mentally moved on.


    ''Yeah, there''s no point being bothered by what I can''t control. But that leaves us with only one angle.''


    The crowd was there for a distraction, to upy the minds of those at the factory.


    The government agents were there to get their actual attention, forcing them to tip at least a part of their hand. And while they achieved pretty much nothing¡­ neither Cassie nor her grandpa ever had any expectations for those two to make a difference.


    But with the failure of their n operatives at cutting the power to the factory, the only actually solid part of the n¡ªthe only angle they actually hoped would produce results¡ªquickly turned out to be the biggest and most costly mistake of the entire n.


    "I''m sorry, but it seems like that''s all for us," Cassie spoke out as she removed her headset and ced it down on the table before swinging in her seat and dropping her legs down, sitting on her chair properly as she faced her grandfather''s throne.


    Up until this point, with the air of anxiety filling the room, Cassie''s grandpa, the patriarch of the n, was the only one who didn''t let the mood get to him.


    He just¡­ sat there on his makeshift throne, calmly overseeing the entire operation without taking a direct part in how things went or what orders went into thems.


    Even now, as every angle of the whole operation was failing, he continued to just sit there calmly, as if not bothered by theck of results in the slightest.


    "We still have the second team, don''t we?"


    Hearing and seeing her grandfather speak, Cassie nearly forgot to breathe.


    It was one thing to have him talk in private when she was the only one who could hear him, but to have him openly engage in the operation with so many eyes and ears to bear witness?


    This went against every precaution she took to ensure no one could ever implicate the n''s patriarch in what they were doing!


    Up until the moment he spoke up, the n''s patriarch was merely an innocent observer of the situation. But now that he spoke¡­


    ''Shit¡­'' Cassie gulped her saliva down as she clenched her jaw.


    With just those few words, her grandfather suddenly raised the stakes by several degrees.


    ''If he''s willing to get implicated in all of this, then¡­''


    The girl''s eyes widened as she connected the increase in the possible consequences for her grandpa to the degree of involvement he was willing to ept.


    ''There''s no limit to how far he''s going to go to stop that man from advancing, huh?''


    Cassie''s thoughts turned into a mess, pretty much stopping her from thinking about anything else or even monitoring how things were going.


    "They are merely screening the first team. If they move, there will be nothing stopping their men from finishing off the first team. And the moment they do¡­"


    Cassie pressed her lips together, daring not to voice the ufortable truth.


    With the initial limits on how far she was willing to let her ns reach, how much she was willing to bend or ignore thew¡­ she had only ever used the middle level of the n''s operatives.


    And while it was quite costly to lose them to the fighting¡­ their deaths wouldn''t affect the very foundations of the n. Or, even more importantly, if their involvement was ever discovered, the n could still weather the storm that would follow.


    ''Judging from how he spoke out¡­'' Cassie gritted her teeth before clenching her fists, unsure if she was ready to hear what she believed her father''s father was going to say next. ''We are pulling all stops, huh?''


    "We''ve gone too far to just give up and ept all the incurred costs for no benefit to the n," the n''s patriarch announced before doing the unthinkable¡­ standing up from his throne.


    Seeing this, Cassie instantly rose from her chair only to then fall to one knee and lower her head, ready to receive whatever instruction her patriarch conceived in his head.


    "Activate Hilbert and have him deal with the power directly," the old man ordered while raising his hand as if he wanted to gentlyy it on the top of his granddaughter''s head, minding not the few meters of distance between them.


    "But¡­" Cassie bit down on her lips a second toote.


    Before the retribution for doing so could strike her, however, she bit her tongue down before lowering her head and asking, "What would you like to have him do, respected patriarch?"


    This was the only way for Cassie to express her thoughts on the matter¡ªby invoking the full, formal way in which all n members were expected to refer to the patriarch, giving up the privilege of addressing the man directly, a right only the patriarch''s lone favorite had.


    This was the limit of what the brain in charge of this whole operation could do to verbally oppose what she already knew she was going to hear next.


    "If we can''t have the cables cut, then we just need to turn the power nt off," the patriarch pointed out before taking a step back and sitting back on his throne, where he leaned his head to the back and closed his eyes. "Tell Hilbert that I don''t care what methods he uses as long as hepletes the job."


    The silence that followed the old man''s words grew so loud one could nearly touch and scoop it out of the air with their hand.


    "Honorable Patriarch¡­" Cassie spoke out, struggling against her very own sense of self-preservation as she pushed herself to try to protest. "If we do that, the chances of the world finding out about our involvement¡­"


    "Do you really think he will let us be after all we did thus far?"


    Contrary to Cassie''s expectations, her grandfather didn''t rise from his chair to bring down the might of his cultivation upon her, making her go through hell just for the stupid idea of not following his orders the moment he issued them.


    Instead, he appeared to be in the mood to actually exin his decision?


    "We went far enough; his retaliation is assured. The thing is, for as long as we stop him from advancing to the tenth stage, there is a limit to how much he can harm the n. But if he manages to break through?"


    The old man simply shook his head.


    "The moment he bes my equal in cultivation, he will be free to raise these issues to the spiritual council. And the moment it happens, it will no longer be a conflict between two cultivation ns but a conflict that involves interference with the secr world, regardless of whether we actually do it or not."


    Leaning back in his seat, Cassie''s grandfather¡­ smiled?


    "And since we are going to be implicated with this level of a crime anyway, why not just y along?" he asked, only to suddenly raise his cane and swing it up in the air¡­ only to then drop it down on his shoulder, like some sort of sword in the hand of an arrogant swordsman trying to non-verbally intimidate his opponent. "This way, he won''t be able to call for the spiritual council to begin with, saving us all the trouble of what would happen if he does."


    ''He went as far as to exin everything, but¡­'' Cassie gritted her teeth.


    This do-or-die attitude of her grandfather''s was one of the main parts of her mentor and patriarch''s character that Cassie never learned to respect, never grew to adore.


    And right now, even with all the risk of opposing her grandfather''s word¡­ Cassie refused to let the truth be left unsaid.


    "What you said certainly is true, honorable patriarch," Cassie started, still down on her knee and with her head lowered. Yet, as soon as she closed her mouth, she looked up and, against all protocol, stared right into her grandfather''s face. "But what if it won''t be that man who brings our crimes to bear against the n?"


    If the whole ce was oppressively silent during their exchange, now, the room pretty much turned into an abyss.


    The sight of anyone opposing the n''s patriarch, even if only verbally, was already a one-of-a-kind type of event. But to do it so openly and persistently¡­


    "Grandfather¡­" Cassie bit down on her lips as she took a deep breath, gathered her courage¡­ and stared right into her grandpa''s face, refusing to back down regardless of what price she woulde to pay for her act of disobedience.


    "Grandfather, if you let Hilbert loose on the power nt, it won''t be Chihiro''s n that we will have to face, but first the wrath of the city, then the fury of the nation, and finally, we won''t be able to escape the scrutiny of the spiritual council anyway!"


    That was as far as Cassie was willing to go to stop this madness from turning from a mere n into reality.


    At the same time, however, verbal protests were also all she was able to do at this point.


    ''It''s all on me,'' Cassie thought, lowering her head again as she bit down on her lips. ''If only I hadn''t suggested for him toe and watch the operation, I could just put a stop to it before things got out of hand¡­''


    "That''s certainly true, my dear," the old man, quite surprisingly, agreed with his granddaughter, only to then reveal a slightly wicked and perfectly confident smile. "But that''s only if Hilbert allows those mortal peasants to catch him!"

 Chapter 182: First knob, first setting... call for green!

    "Okay, I''m ready!" Chihiro called out just loud enough for his voice to carry over all the noises made by the machines within the factory, pass through the considerable distance of the narrow corridors, and then reach the small microphone recently installed just outside of the control room.


    "Haaa¡­" I breathed out a long sigh as I stared down the window and into the factory floor with one of my hands on the first of the power knobs and the other at the ready.


    ''It''s all or nothing now, huh?'' I thought, gritting my teeth as if to mentally prepare myself for whatever the oue of thest and most important of all the tests we did.


    To a degree, I''ve already got more than I initially bargained for. Even if my understanding of this golden sphere entity would turn out to be true only on the surface level, the results would already be much bigger than the input, making it a perfectly good investment.


    But¡­


    The very core idea behind this project of turning electrical power into spiritual power that cultivators could absorb has yet to be proved on the scale that only this factory in the whole wide world was capable of creating.


    ''Sure, we''ve been using those machines for quite a while already, but on this scale¡­?''


    Even though all that was left for me to do at this point was to turn the knob, now that I faced this moment of truth, I just couldn''t help but keep getting more and more worried.


    "You are overthinking it again, aren''t you?" ire spoke softly, only to approach me from behind and then wrap her arms around my chest while pressing herself against my back.


    "I don''t think anyone can me me for it," I countered, stealing a nce at the floating, golden orb only to then shake my head and focus back on the console. "This is the moment when this factory either bes the most important ce in the world, or the most¡­."


    At this point, I realized I didn''t really know how I was supposed to continue. And so, rather than digging even further into this path, I simply shook my head before starting again.


    "It''s just hard not to overthink things when we are both aware of just how much rides on the results of me just¡­ turning that knob."


    For a moment, ire stayed silent, as if slowly taking in what I said and then processing it, only to then take her time to figure out a proper answer.


    As it turned out, ire''s answer had nothing to do with her voice, though, as rather than speak up, she just pulled me a step away from the console before rxing her hands and then turning me around.


    "Hmm?" Not sure what to expect, I simply looked down¡­ only to see ire let go of my waist and grab my hand before bringing it up, sneaking it up her shirt and then holding it against her chest.


    "Grab it," ire suddenly ordered with a determined look on her face.


    "Excuse me?" I asked, not exactly sure what was going on.


    "Come on, just fondle it!" ire urged me on.


    And honestly speaking, between the look on her face and the warmth and softness of her bra-covered chest¡­


    Would I still retain the right to proim myself a man if I were to refuse her unexpected request?


    Having little to no other choice, I heaved a short sigh before digging my fingers underneath the bottom of ire''s bra, pushing my whole hand up, all the way to the point where her nipple brushed against the middle of its inner palm, allowing me to grasp as much of her breast as the span of my fingers allowed me to.


    "Now, hold it," ire continued to instruct me while pushing her chest out as if to make it even easier for me to fondle her breasts.


    "Okay, that''s what I''m doing," I retorted, still unsure what the hell she was trying to aplish with it.


    "Give me your other hand."


    As eager to find out what she was nning as I was surprised by her timing, I silently obeyed as I snuck my other hand underneath her shirt and then bra, taking a proper hold of her other breast.


    "Now, let''s just stay like this. And feel free to fondle them however you like," ire continued, only to close her eyes and push her head forth before resting her forehead just below the base of my neck as she wrapped her hands over her chest, as if to hold my arms in ce.


    For the next while, we simply ignored the increasingly loud and urgent calls from the factory, focused on nothing else but each other.


    And as much as I didn''t want to admit it, with my fingers sinking into the soft curves of her chest, I soon grew unable to think of anything else but my desire to just push her down directly on the console before taking her here and now, sparing no mind to the important test we were supposed to run instead.


    "Good," ire muttered a few momentster, right as I managed to fight off my lust and simply enjoy the act of caressing her sizeable bosom. "You no longer think as hard and deep over this test as you used to."


    At this point, everything clicked.


    For how crude and direct ire''s method was¡­ she achieved exactly what she ventured out to aplish. And by every means possible, I now just couldn''t care less about all the worries that nearly paralyzed me before.


    "Yeah," I nodded my head, "I guess I am a rather simple man, huh?" I muttered, not sure whether to be disappointed with myself or d that all of my cultivation didn''t really affect my natural instincts or who I was.


    ''After all, is there any problem with being simple?'' I asked myself as I gave ire''s lovely breasts just one more squeeze before reluctantly pulling my hands away, freeing them from the draw of her soft, springy flesh. ''Rather than despairing over it, isn''t it better to be happy with how easy it is for her to wrap me around her finger?''


    "Is there anything wrong with being simple?" ire asked, as if reading my very own thoughts, before gracing me with a simple yet lovely smile of hers.


    Or rather, it was a simple smile only on its surface. Yet, the closer and deeper I looked, the more I realized just howplex it was, with ire''s worry, relief, affection, and consideration mixing inside of her eyes, turning her smile more and more lovely with every second I spent staring right into her warm, weing eyes.


    "No," I smiled myself as I dropped my hands down to the indentation of ire''s waist before pulling her in and kissing those full, red lips of hers. "I guess not."


    Seeing me smile, ire''s own smile grew in turn, which only prompted my own lips to curve more, reaching even further to the sides of my ears. That, in turn¡­


    Well, putting it in simple words, the more I smiled, the more ire smiled in turn, which then affected my own smile, all in a virtuous cycle of our smiles reinforcing each other.


    Before long, our mouths reached the limits of how far they could stretch sideways. And as the slight pain of the excess stretching sobered both of us up for a second¡­ we realized just how weird and unnatural faces we were making in this silly, friendly contest of smiles of ours, only leading us to both erupt in giggles first and then outright, full-blownughter.


    "I really love just how¡­ natural it feels to be by your side," ire said as she pressed her face against my chest to stifle herugh.


    "GUYS! DO YOU EVEN HEAR ME?! JUST HOW MUCH LONGER WILL IT TAKE YOU?!"


    The sudden, sharp sound of Chihiro''s agitated voice pulled our heads from the gutter, forcing us to rapidly switch our focus from each other to the actual matter of importance, the first practical test of using the factory for the purpose it was designed from the very beginning.


    "Oh yeah, sorry for that, sir," I quickly pressed the inte button on the console before speaking right into the mic. "There was a small¡­" I hesitated for a second as I nced down at ire, still pressed tightly against my chest.


    As if feeling my stare, she suddenly pushed her head up and gave me a yful nce, clearly curious just what kind of excuse I woulde up with on the spot.


    "A small technical issue, but we are all set now," I quickly added, finishing up my exnation. "We are ready when you are."


    A moment of silence followed.


    "Good," thankfully, Chihiro''s voice went back to normal. "Now, let''s get this started before you two lovebirds sink down in each other''s eyes again, okay?"


    ''I guess the ruse is up, huh?'' I thought, only for the corner of my mouth to twitch in a small, helpless smile.


    By now, however, our minds were back on the right track. And so, I wasn''t going to let anyone else distract me from the task at hand, the task that would finally either prove or disprove the worth of this whole project.


    "Here we go then," I announced, only to bring my hand past ire''s waist andy it down on the first of the ten power knobs controlling the flow of energy throughout the whole system. "First knob, first setting¡­" I twisted the knob just one step, "call for green!"

 Chapter 183: Worst possible timing

    The factory machines slowly started toe alive, repeating exactly the same steps and thus the process as when we ventured to confirm my theory of the formation of the divine.


    Strangely enough, however, even though the death of one man, no matter how important that man was, was nothing whenpared to unleashing the nuclear-like disaster of a magical nature that could wipe not only the man himself but also pretty much the entirety of the city with him¡­


    Strangely enough, it was now, not before, that my hand grew all the more careful, slowing down the rate at which I twisted the knob through its steps.


    The reason for that was simple enough, though.


    Before, we were already on the verge of the disaster. And while we remained as careful as we could get¡­ things were so potentially bad, it would be actually challenging to make them even worse.


    "Good to go for the next step!" Chihiro called out, although only loud enough for the microphone to barely pick his voice up.


    ''He''s starting to get focused, I guess,'' I thought before pressing thems button on the console.


    "Go for step¡­ First knob, third step done."


    And a momentter¡­


    "Good for next!"


    I raised my eyebrow, not expecting Chihiro to so easily change the phrase we agreed to use, just for the sake of saving half of a second he would otherwise waste on spelling it all out.


    Yet, while a deviation, it was tiny enough for me to just roll my eyes over it and move on.


    "Go for step¡­" I gently twisted the knob, "first knob, fourth step!"


    Bit by bit, I raised the power output of the factory. And just like it happened when we experimented with birthing the divine sphere of floating gold light, the more power we allowed to flow through, the louder the machines started to get.


    "Go for step¡­" I called out again a mere momentter, "first knob,pleted!"


    This was pretty much the first checkpoint of the ongoing experiment, the moment when most of the machines had now reached the level of the bottommost stable operation.


    All the fans were now working within the lower limit of their efficient power cycle, circting the fresh air through the Qi-transformers, feeding the mana-rich air straight into the chamber where Chihiro was quickly settling to properly cultivate.


    "Go for the second knob."


    I took a deep breath before stealing a sideways nce at ire.


    "Just keep going, dear," ire spoke softly while running her fingers up and down my arm, as if caressing it to help me get it steady.


    I took another breath.


    "Go for the second knob, first step," I echoed Chihiro''s words as I turned my hand over the second knob and slowly turned it up.


    A momentter, I did it again¡­ and again¡­ and again.


    Bit by bit, I continued to raise the power flow through the factory, reaching the third knob within five minutes of starting the procedure, the fifth one noter than fifteen minutester, and ultimately maxing out the sixth knob a total of forty minutes after we began, effectively reaching the second and far more important checkpoint.


    "Right now, he gets around twenty times more Qi than we did when cultivating with the help of the previous generation of the devices," I pointed out while straining my eyes to see into the factory, even though I knew full well my eyes simply couldn''t pierce the solid walls of the devices and reinforced cardboard divisions that turned the factory''s formerly empty insides into their current design.


    It was also at this point where Chihiro no longer provided us with feedback, indicating that we''d reached the stage where the factory''s output matched what he desired.


    "Now, we just need to wait," ire muttered, easily as tense as me if not even more.


    Chihiro was her biological father, after all, while for me he was merely a father-inw, so it only made sense for her to be considerably more worried about the whole process than I was.


    "Actually¡­" I muttered, as my eyes nced away from ire and towards the gloating orb of the solidified golden light, "there is one more thing that we can do that doesn''t involve raising the power any further¡­"


    ire''s eyes followed after mine, only to then linger on the divinity present in the room for a moment before turning back to my face.


    "Are you sure?" ire asked, her face filling with a look of concern, "we still know so little about it, there''s a chance it''s going to be rather¡­ risky¡­"


    Seeing how ire averted her eyes, I couldn''t help but smile.


    "At this point, we are beyond worrying about risks like that, are we not?"


    With the corner of my lips raising up, I patted ire''s hand before sliding my arm out of her hold and taking a step away from the console, turning towards the golden sphere.


    ''It''s risky¡­ but what is life without a bit of excitement in it?''


    I took a deep breath, calming down my thoughts and removing all the emotions that were not absolutely necessary for me. Then, once my mind cleared out, I breathed out before reaching out¡­


    RING!


    The familiar, annoying sound mixed with the slight sensation of something vibrating near my ass.


    ''Come on, what''s with this timing?'' I whined in my head when the call distracted me, causing me to lose the focused state of mind I absolutely needed if I were to risk it and touch the divinity.


    Still, as annoying and untimely as it was, I reached down to my back pocket before fishing out my phone and taking the call.


    "Tim speaking."


    "Boss, we have here a guy iming to be the big boss''s close affiliate," the familiar voice of the leader of the factory''s guards rang from my phone and directly into my ear. "I''ve checked his data and well¡­" the man hesitated for a second, "it sticks."

 Chapter 184: Trouble at the gate (1)

    That was rather unexpected.


    It was one thing for a man of importance within Chihiro''s circle to call us if he had something important to say¡­ but for him to show up?


    "Something''s wrong¡­" I covered the mic of my phone before mouthing to ire. "I''ming to check it out. For now, let him in, but make sure not to turn it into an opening for those government bastards to get in."


    I cut the call and lowered the phone before taking a long look at ire''s face.


    "It''s fine," the girl smiled as she turned her back to the console and yfully shooed me away with her hand. "I can keep watch over the controls, so just make sure to deal with whatever is going on," she suggested before waving me away with her hand again.


    "I¡­" I hesitated for a second before finally shaking my head as I turned on my heel. "I''m going to leave it to you, then. I will be back as soon as I can, so just wait for a moment."


    "Sure thing, go and have some fun," ire grinned, only to then calm herself down, push aside all of her emotions, and then lock her eyes on the still insides of the factory floor, ready to react to any sort of unexpected event that could potentially take ce there.


    "I will be back shortly then," I replied before heading out of the room, down the corridor, and then down the stairs, moving past the outermost alley of the factory, and finally reaching its main entrance.


    "Real world, here Ie," I muttered to myself as I got outside, only to be instantly met with quite a few stares from the guards.


    When it came to the outside, even with easily over an hour passing since Ist came out, things hardly changed.


    The crowd continued to chant their themes and songs while waving banners, and the guards continued to just silently watch them, ready to react with deadly force if anyone grew stupid enough to try to attack the solid fence.


    The only thing that changed was how there was now a new face right where themand of the guards was located.


    "And you are¡­?" I asked as soon as I approached the guard''s kiosk, eager to find out just what the hell was going on.


    "Boss," the leader of the guards turned to me as soon as he heard me speak, while the unusual guest actually took a moment to do the same.


    "Wait, aren''t you¡­?" for a moment, the look of confusion mixed with the sense of panic and urgency filled the man''s eyes. "Oh, it''s you. Where''s Chihiro?"


    Wasting no time at all, the man instantly moved to what he clearly considered to be the most important point at the moment.


    "He''s stuck in the cultivation chamber; there''s no way for you to contact him right now. But I will ask again, who are you?"


    It was hardly surprising for that man, assuming he really was one of Chihiro''s high-level confidants, to know who I was. Even if I never really took part in any forms of high-level socialization¡­ I was still the man who got together with Chihiro''s daughter.


    Or, in more pragmatic terms, I was the man who pushed Chihiro''s whole n to undergo a set of rapid changes starting the very moment I joined the n.


    On the other hand, despite being a person of a clearly high profile, as I never really attended Chihiro''s meetings with others, I had absolutely no clue who this middle-aged and well-suited man was supposed to be.


    "I''m Nathan, the head of the n''s internal affairs. And right now¡­"


    Before the man could say even another word, one of the guards tapped him on the shoulder. And as soon as Nathan looked over at the guard, the armed man first pointed at his own mouth, then at his ear, before swiping his hand around, as if to point at the whole wide world.


    "Whatever it is that you want to say, let''s wait till we get inside," I suggested before nodding at the leader of the guards, as if to confirm I was now going to take care of this man in his stead.


    "Sure thing, but can we hurry up please?"


    I stared at the man with the side of my eyes for a moment before rolling my eyes and then moving back the short distance from the guard''s kiosk to the factory''s main entrance.


    Normally, I would first bring him up to the control room, then make sure he was well-fed and taken care of¡­ But given the urgency written all over the man''s face, I couldn''t really do so.


    "Okay then," I said as soon as I closed the factory''s main door behind us and turned to face the man. "What''s going on?"


    "Big, big trouble," Nathan didn''t waste even a second. "They froze all of the n''s ounts, from the big investment ones, through our savings, all the way to pretty much every personal ount listed in our official files. And that can only mean one thing, sir," Nathan reported, his voice nearly breaking while his face grew almost as intense as my own when ire first went down on me. "They are¡­"


    Before the man could even finish, my phone rang in my back pocket again. And after quickly fishing it out and taking a look at the caller, I outright ignored Nathan and picked up the call.


    Given how it was the guard''s leader calling again, I was more than certain there was a reason big enough for him to bother me again mere moments after I left his side.


    "What is it?" I asked, getting straight to the point as I cut out all the pointless small talk and pleasantries.


    "You bettere see it, boss," the guard''s captain said without even a shred of hesitation. "It seems that the cavalry has arrived."

 Chapter 185: Trouble at the gate (2)

    "It seems that the cavalry has arrived."


    I took in a deep breath, held it in my lungs for a while before slowly, slowly letting it out.


    ''Nothing could ever be simple, huh?'' I thought, closing my eyes as I took a moment topose myself before turning towards Nathan.


    "I''m sorry, sir, but if you could go up the stairs over there, and then head to thest room on the left and wait for me there. Just¡­" I held my voice for a second. "Normally, I would encourage ire to entertain you as you wait, but this time, I will have to ask that you not disturb her."


    "Oh?" Nathan''s face first twitched, only for his eyebrows to move up his forehead before a small, weirdly sympathetic smile appeared on his lips. "I will make myself scarce, then," he announced, bowing his head before turning toward the stairs and starting to move.


    "I will try to get back as soon as possible, so make sure to get yourselffortable in the meantime," I called after the man, only to then turn right back toward the factory''s main doors.


    There, I took just one more moment to calm my thoughts andpose myself, before taking a deep breath and pushing the doors open¡­ only to then stand right in the doorframe, frozen.


    When I came out before, I was surprised by how little the outside had changed since thest time I took a look. Right now, however, it was the opposite.


    The crowd that paraded all over the main gate had now fully receded far deeper into the street, no longer able to get anywhere near with a line of huge police and anti-terrorist cars blocking their way and police tape securing the few gaps between them.


    But the closer to the main entrance I looked, the worse things appeared to be.


    The ce where the crowd was just a moment ago was now swarming with armed and armored police, with quite a lot of them openly carrying heavy guns and all sorts of storming equipment¡ªfrom tactical and crowd-control shields to portable barricades and all the way to handheld battering rams!


    ''What the heck¡­'' I shrieked in my thoughts when I saw some more policemen setting up easily deployable boxes made of a sturdy material with hollow insides. Just a little down the line from where the policemen were setting up those barriers, there was a huge cargo truck pouring sand into the hollow spaces of those boxes, quickly turning the open street into a fortress far sturdier than what Chihiro had turned the factory into with all the guards and the solid-steel fence.


    Standing in the doorframe and looking down at this deployment on a scale that turned it from a practical exercise using the materials they had on hand to nothing less than a flex of their ability, I wasn''t sure whether I should be worried, amused, or baffled.


    ''Well, nothing good wille from just standing around, huh?'' I thought before forcing my limbs to move ahead.


    Once I started to move, I somehow managed to work through the mental blockade caused by the insanity of what I could see just beyond the factory''s fence, finally getting my brain to switch from being shocked to actively trying to find a solution to the problem at hand.


    "Sir," the leader of the guards called out as soon as I approached the kiosk.


    ''If he was anxious about his role before, then now¡­''


    Being the socially active introvert I was, I could easily read people''s faces. That''s why, while merely on the phone, I failed to grasp the scale of the problem from the guard leader''s voice alone. But now that I could see his face, the situation became quite obvious.


    ''There''s no way they''re getting into a shooting match with the authorities. Not when it''s clear there''s some higher power moving its pawns.''


    This wasn''t what Chihiro''s rival could do. Those means indicated there was something else at y¡­ or someone abusing their monopoly on the flow of information to paint a picture that warranted the use of such an overwhelming force.


    And as I figured it out, I couldn''t help but sigh.


    ''It''s those two fuckers, I''m quite sure of it.''


    There was one more reason for me to believe that the n that started this whole mess had absolutely nothing to do with the current situation. And it was how the factory''s divinity offered me no prior insight into this trouble, meaning that there likely were no cultivators among the ranks of the police¡­


    The very same police who were now gathering in groups ranging from five to ten men, with each group centered around some sort of cover or obstacle that would prevent any direct line of fire from the factory guards.


    "Did they try to make any sort of contact?" I asked, as my mind raced to figure out just what the hell was happening here.


    ''With this level of force¡­ do they think we have an unauthorized weapon factory in there?'' I thought as I stole a nce at the factory''s entrance that, in my shock, I''d left half open. Then, as a certain show came to my mind, the corner of my lips twitched into a small smile. ''Or maybe they think we''re hiding a high-grade drugb in the hidden basement or something?''


    "So far, they did not," the guard leader shook his head. "All they did was use that obnoxious loudspeaker to demand our surrender, but well¡­"


    At this point, something shed in the man''s eyes, a feeling that suddenly made me doubt my earlier convictions about how our guards wouldn''t be willing to actively do their job and fight back against any attempts to attack this ce.


    "They never came to show us their warrant."


    I stared nkly at the man for a moment, only to then startughing.


    "Truer words couldn''t be spoken," I imed through my tears of joy, only to then wipe my tears with the upper side of my hand. "I guess now it''s my turn to remind them of that, isn''t it?" I asked, only to then turn on my heel and move away from the guard kiosk and toward the main gate.


    "Open the gates and surrender the factory, or you will be stormed and arrested by force! Do the smart thing and¡­" the more active of the two government agents continued to scream into his loudspeaker, while safely hidden behind several barriers the actual police force had set up.


    Moving up to the gate, I came as close to its bars as I could without nting my face against the steel, only to then wait for a few moments before one of the policemen came close enough to hear my voice over the noise brought forth by this massive deployment of government forces.


    "Excuse me!" I called out, only to receive a baffled stare from the passing, armed policeman in return. "Could I ask for a moment of your time?"


    Rather than abiding by the rules of the game and acting like some sort of drug lord that was dead-set on fighting to thest man before going down with his drug-producing factory¡­ I decided to y my own game.


    "Do you want to surrender?" Squinting his eyes as he put on a mean face, the policeman asked while shaking the rifle in his hands, as if to show how he was ready to use it at a moment''s notice. "If so, just open the gate and we will make sure no harm wille to you."


    Hearing this, I fought off the desire tough at the policeman''s statement.


    Still, keeping my face straight proved a bit more challenging than I expected, actively forcing me to dedicate the bulk of my attention just to keeping an empty look on my face.


    "Surrender? Oh, so this isn''t some sort of artistic performance but an actual deployment?" I asked, raising my eyebrows as far up my forehead as I physically could while doing my best to express my surprise with the rest of my body as well.


    "Tsk," hearing my response, the policeman simply clicked his tongue before turning away, as if he was ready to walk away.


    "So, since you really are here to bully us, before we start shooting each other, how about you guys present thewful warrant? Or, could it be¡­" I held my voice for a moment, just long enough to get the policeman curious about what I had to say. "Could it be, you guys are trying to use force againstw-abiding citizens behind this fence without the proper legal padding for it?"


    "Listen here, you little shit!" Strangely angered by my question, the policeman turned his face back to me before oveing some sort of innate hesitation and actually getting closer to the gate behind which I hid. "We have no need for a warrant to raid a terrorist site! So take all of that legal mumbo-jumbo and stuff it where the light doesn''t reach!"


    Having spoken his piece, the policeman scoffed only to start turning, ready to leave.


    "Onest question, if I may," I called after the officer.


    "The hell do you want?" the man spat back.


    "Wouldn''t you like for me to just open this gate and let you all in?" I asked, catching not only the policeman but also the factory''s guards off guard.


    "What?" Shocked by how easily I changed my mind, the policeman turned back to me while sparks of hope appeared in his eyes.


    For a moment, he deluded himself into thinking I was actually going to do so.


    And how could I ever look at myself in the mirror if I didn''t bank on that man''s na?ve hope?


    "It''s exactly as you''ve heard! I''m more than willing to open the gate and let you all in!" I called out with a voice just loud enough not only for the officer I was speaking to in particr, but quite a few others to hear me too. "That is, only as soon as you either produce a warrant, or reveal just what sort of solid evidence you have of any criminal behavior warranting the use of deadly force! And if you fail to do so, then, well¡­"


    I shook my head¡­


    Before breathing out and rxing the hold over my own aura, revealing, for the very first time, to the whole wide world, my current level of cultivation just through the radiation of my aura alone.


    "Well, if you are all going to ignore thew and just use excessive force to do the bidding of the people who consider us rivals, I will have no other choice but to consider this a breach of the non-aggression treaty between the modern and the spiritual world."

 Chapter 186: Trouble at the gate (3)

    Silence.


    This was the only way in which the cop could react to my threat.


    Or rather, to be more precise, the only smart way. For what else was he supposed to do, now that I''d escted what started as one of the city''s ns corrupting government officials to mess with us into what could be the spark that turns the uneasy political situation between the two extremely different parts of the world into the third iteration of a great, pretty much global war?


    "I think I''m going to call for my supervisor¡­" the officer finally said after staring at my face for quite a while. "Do I have your word that once he arrives, he will be able to have a conversation with you rather than with the guns of your men?"


    Hearing this, I raised my eyebrow while putting an honestly weirded-out grimace on my face.


    "I don''t believe I''ve given you any reason to believe otherwise, but just for your peace of mind, sure, call him in," I easily agreed with the request, given how it was in my own interest to somehow cate the situation. "For as long as you guys won''t try to use this opportunity to attack, I see absolutely no reason to escte."


    Once again, there was nothing but silence¡­ For as long as I was willing to ignore all the noise made now not only by the police and anti-terror units assembling and preparing for either a siege or an assault, but also the very guards that Chihiro hired to keep this factory safe from any incursions.


    "Understood," the police officer lightly nodded his head. "I''m going to retreat now. A man with necessary authority will soon arrive at this exact spot. Is that eptable?"


    Now that the stalemate moved from a situation where neither I nor the officer could do anything to a situation where there were actual procedures for him to follow, the man''s voice grew all the more confident.


    "That''s perfectly eptable. I''m even willing to just stay here and wait while fully aware of the risk of one of your corrupt men taking the shot to snuff the case before it can be properly investigated."


    I was fully aware ire wouldn''t support this action. Heck! I was quite sure Chihiro wouldn''t do it either!


    But between restarting the world war between the modern and spiritual world and putting my life on the line¡­


    "That''s quite¡­ brave of you," the officer muttered while already taking a step backward.


    "No, it''s not brave. It''s logical," I replied with a shrug of my shoulder. "It''s logical because I don''t think any amount of money would be enough to convince someone to take an action that would inevitably lead to their demise," I smiled lightly, "and that''s exactly what''s going to happen to everyone within a several-mile radius if any harm were toe my way."


    At this point, the officer didn''t seem to have any interest in continuing the conversation, opting to just retreat in silence behind the cover.


    "Sir, I would advise you to retreat behind some sort of cover," one of the factory''s guards mouthed off, just loud enough for me to hear. "Even if you are confident in your abilities, cultivator or not, a high-caliber round is as dangerous to you as it would be to any mortal."


    I slowly turned my head and gave the guard a short look before heaving a deep sigh.


    "You are perfectly right, a bullet to my head will kill me like it would any other person," I admitted before shrugging my shoulders. "But if I were to be perfectly honest¡­"


    For a moment, rather than looking at the physical world, I took a look at the tendrils of spiritual energy rapidly spreading from the factory to the outside, sprawling on the ground and shooting through the air, influencing the trace amounts of spiritual energy in the air to further develop its expansion.


    This wasn''t how spiritual energy would normally behave, for as far as I could tell with the limited experience I had with it.


    There was a clear purpose behind this weird expansion¡­ a purpose I could quite assuredly trace back to the golden ball of divinity back at the factory, the hints of which I could sense in the very spiritual energy moving all over the ce.


    "I do have an inclination I will get a momentary heads-up if anyone tries to pull a trigger on me."


    Once again, it was a massive risk to put my life in the invisible hands of the divinity, counting on it to warn me if anyone were to try to take any excessive action.


    Then again, this whole thing¡­ was one hell of a massive mess. A chaotic situation that had no legal, cultural, or evenmon sense reasons to happen.


    It was all because of the influence of the rival n or the personal influence of the two government agents that the n hired.


    And just like I was putting my head on the line in this mess¡­ so were they. And for every esction that would take ce, they were moving further and further away from the realm of what their superiors would be willing to cover up for them before crossing the line, beyond which they would be all on their own.


    ''The question is, are they smart enough to figure that out themselves?'' I thought, taking another deep breath as the weight of the situation continued to bear down upon me more and more with each passing second.


    It was easy to act cocky and arrogantly put myself in harm''s way. But actually staying there, knowing that there could be a bullet in my name already prepared in the chamber of some sniper?


    ''Calm down, man. Just like in crafting,'' I took a deep breath, ''trust in the logic and in the process.''


    I only had to fight with my own thoughts for the next few moments before a man in full tactical gear suddenly appeared from beyond the deployed cover and approached the gate.


    He was armed with the rifle hanging off his neck and a proper, standard-issue pistol dangling on his hip. His vest was thick enough to beg the question of whether it was police or actually military issue, while his tactical helmet left pretty much no room to doubt its military origin.


    In the end, however, the officer didn''t raise his rifle nor did he pull out his pistol as he approached the gate and then stood down, simply staring me down with a tense and slightly pissed-off look on his face.


    "I''m Major Dickins, actingmander of this whole operation. Now then, care to exin what the hell this mess is all about?"


    For a moment, I did the man the same favor he''d just served me and did nothing but stare at his face. Then, while making sure to move slowly enough not to set off anyone''s nerves, I shrugged my shoulders.


    "To the best of my knowledge, the protest, then the government investigation and finally the hit team tasked with cutting the power cables to the factory in the nearby tunnel, were all orchestrated by a n that rivals my sponsor in their bid to stop whatever it is that we are doing."


    I then shrugged my shoulders again.


    "As for what''s happening right now? My best guess is, one of those corrupt government officers pulled in some favors and started this whole mess either because that n I mentioned has some really strong material on him¡­ or he simply didn''t know how to deal with people who won''t give in to him just because he flexed his authority."


    "That''s¡­" Officer Dickins squinted his eyes. His head then twitched, as if about to move, only for the man to stop it before he could betray his intentions and actually look around. "That''s quite a lot of rather heavy usations. And what''s with the hit team you just brought up?"


    I smiled uneasily.


    "Honestly speaking, I would love if our men simply rendered them unable to continue, but given the amount of weapons they brought for the operation¡­" I shrugged my shoulders again.


    Even I wasn''t dumb enough to openly admit to the possibility that people affiliated with Chihiro''s nmitted the crime of murder, even if the situation actually called for it.


    For a moment, Dickins stared at my face, only to then change the topic to another angle.


    "Judging by the number of guards you guys put to this factory, I cannot im to be surprised people would assume you are doing something illegal behind closed¡­" the officer looked up and over my shoulder, right at where the doorway to the factory remained open, courtesy of me genuinely forgetting to close the doors, "closed doors."


    Still, hearing this, I couldn''t help but smile.


    "That is simply impossible," I dered before putting a wide smile on my lips. "And it''s not because all the paperwork for this ce is in order, courtesy of the city''s governor himself, but because what we are doing in that factory¡­" I shook my head.


    "It can''t be illegal simply because it''s something that was never done before in the recorded history of our species."

 Chapter 187: Trouble at the gate (4)

    "It can''t be illegal simply because it''s something that was never done before in the recorded history of our species."


    This statement was merely enough for Dickins to raise his eyebrow, a small gesture I could barely see with how much of his forehead was hidden underneath his helmet.


    "You know, if you found a new way to cook meth or some other drugs, it doesn''t make it any less illegal than using the tried and tested methods¡­"


    Hearing this, I couldn''t help but smile a bit.


    "That''s true, but it''s not really what I meant with what I said," I imed, only to then put a thoughtful look on my face. "Wait, now that I think about it¡­"


    For a moment, I genuinely focused on nothing but analyzing whether or not whatever was happening within the factory was done before¡­ or rather, if any element of what we were doing over there was done in the past.


    "Actually, you are right," I nodded my head as if to acknowledge my mistake. "It''s not like we are rediscovering the circle over there," I nodded my head towards the factory behind me. "It''s more like¡­ we found ways to use the blessing of technology to circumvent the issue most of the spiritual world has no other choice but to cope with?"


    At this point, my voice grew less and less assured, given how I had to dance around with my words to make my point clear without revealing too much.


    Sure, there was this strange instance of taboo that made it quite unlikely for anyone to connect the dots, something that I''ve long since confirmed even if I never really figured out the source of¡­


    But still.


    I wasn''t naive enough to believe that I could just fling any number of hints around without the risk of someone either intelligent enough or simply lucky enough to connect the dots and crack the case.


    "You are really careful picking your words, aren''t you?" Dickins pointed out, proving that outside of all the management andbat skills he needed to im his spot as the acting chief of the police, he also did have a solid background in interpersonal skills¡­ Or, at the very least, enough skill in the field to be able to notice things like that. "And that makes me wonder¡­ why?"


    For a moment, I stared into the man''s eyes with confusion written all over my own face.


    ''Wait, so is he socially adept or inept after all?''


    "I thought it is quite obvious," I imed while shrugging my shoulders. "I''m trying to give you just enough information to calm you down while not revealing enough for you, or anyone else listening to our conversation, to figure out the secret that we n to abuse to be the biggest corporation in the world."


    I took a deep breath while driving my eyes high up to the sky as I tried to find the right way topare the current situation to something that urred in the past.


    "Oh!" I suddenly eximed, only to strike down with my fist at the open palm of my other hand. "Since I really don''t want to say too much, how about you imagine a certain scenario?" I suggested, only to then stop just shy of revealing what I''ve just figured out, waiting for the man''s approval instead.


    At first, Dickins threw me an ugly stare, only to then utter a defeated sigh and roll his eyes.


    "Sure, shoot¡­ I mean," he quickly corrected himself, realizing that in this particr situation, using certain words could be quite reckless. "Sure, give it to me?"


    Hearing the uncertainty and annoyance in the man''s voice, I couldn''t help but have the corner of my mouth twitch in a small smile.


    "Imagine yourself standing in front of Bill Gates''s garage right on the day he built his very first personalputer, all the while following nothing but an anonymous tip from an Atari or some other big shot of the time."


    Initially squinting his eyes as he listened in closely, Dickins''s eyes soon opened wide as he managed to draw the connection between the short story I painted and connect it to the situation we were all in.


    "Would you be surprised if he was to fight tooth and nail to stop you, in fear of his discovery being revealed to hostile agents that are likely to be involved with the force?" I asked while locking my hands over my chest. "I mean, he had enough connections high up to prevent that from happening in the first ce, but just for the sake of exnation, I think this example is pretty on the point."


    For a few following moments, Dickins opted to just stay silent. Then, right as I started to suspect there was something wrong with my example, he heaved another sigh before raising his hand and grabbing a small prod of what looked like a microphone, hiding it tightly within his palm.


    "To be perfectly honest, this whole affair stinks," Dickins admitted while looking around, as if to point out the whole mess around the factory. "I mean, deploying this level of force just because of some random and unfounded reports of high crime?" the man shook his head, as if toment over just what the world has be. "Nothing about this situation appears legit, but it''s not like I can just ignore the orders from above."


    At this point, a small sense of relief filled my soul.


    Up until now, I had no other choice but to consider the possibility of this man being in cahoots with the guys who orchestrated the whole thing. And while there was still the possibility of him simply trying to make me lower my guard¡­


    For some reason, I just couldn''t help but feel like he just¡­ wasn''t.


    "You feel that way, while I know that to be the case," I stated while allowing a short sigh to escape my lips while letting my shoulders drop, as if to showcase just how tired I was of this whole affair. "Anyway, where do we go from now? Given the pressure from above, I doubt you can just pack up and leave, not after all the resources you guys dropped to make this siege happen," I added as I looked above the man''s shoulder at all the barriers, firing positions and even the snipers deployed to the roofs of the nearby, abandoned factories.


    "That''s most certainly correct," Dickins agreed, only for his shoulders to drop too, as if to reveal the amount of pressure he was forced to cope with. "In other words, it seems we found ourselves at a rather ufortable stalemate, didn''t we?"


    This time, rather than answering with my words, I simply nodded my head.


    "It seems that unless something new and unexpected happens, we will remain in this deadlock for a while, won''t we?"


    There were many mysterious ways in which fate works.


    One of those ways would be how I apparently became the only person free from the restriction of the taboo of mixing technology with cultivation. Another of those weird ways gifted me with the very constitution that became the seed from which we managed to create a divinity.


    Right now, however, fate decided it was just the right time for two things to happen pretty much at the same time.


    First, a voice erupted in Dickins''s helmet, growing loud enough for me to catch some of it.


    "¡­fied¡­ ¡­ching¡­"


    At the same time, my eyes drew down the street, to a vehicle moving fast enough to make me doubt whether or not it had any intention of stopping before the police''s blockade.


    A mere secondter, however, the familiar force suddenly twisted my neck, steering my face in the opposite direction to the unidentified car, locking my stare at something so far away, I couldn''t even see its outline.


    When it came to my eyes, however, as I felt the familiar energy shoot right into them, it wasn''t the horizon that I saw, but the insides of what looked like an extremely technical control room, with more buttons, levers, and turn knobs than I ever seen gathered in one ce ever before in my life.


    A room filled with people donning technician outfits and blue helmets while focused on nothing but the many screens they used to monitor something while operating on those levers, switches, and buttons to maintain it.


    When it came to that room, however, there were two distinct elements that instantly drew my attention, either thanks to my instincts, or by the favor of the very same power that allowed me to see that ce to begin with.


    First, it was a forest of power poles spreading as far as I could see from the massive and only window in the room, allowing me to easily figure out just where that control room was located.


    The other part that drew my attention, however, was the only one that stuck out like a sore thumb in that strictly technical setting. A figure of a masked man with nothing but a butcher''s knife in his hand and his eyes trained on the technicians busy with their jobs of managing what appeared to be the city''s main power nt.


    ''Wait¡­ don''t you fucking tell me¡­''


    Right as my eyes widened, the vision came to an end, throwing my consciousness back to where I stood, frozen in the same position as my eyes drew towards the invisible outline of the power nt, currently blocked by all of the abandoned factories left to rot in the second industrial park.


    "Are you alright, man?" Dickins asked, finally allowing me to snap out of it as I turned my head to look at him.


    "You are in the wrong ce," I muttered, my thoughts still too muddled after the vision for me to seriously consider the possible consequences of my words. "Fuck!" I cursed out loud, right as the realization struck me.


    When this whole siege began, I foolishly came to believe this factory of mine was where the main showdown would y out. The fact that we handled the people tasked with cutting the power lines gave me even more confidence in that fact, only for this guess to turn into unfounded certainty when the police deployed en masse all around the area.


    But as it turned out, everything up until now was but a massive distraction! A distraction¡­ that actually worked!


    "What? What happened?!" Noticing the panic rising in my eyes, the agitation grew in Dickins''s eyes to match my own.


    It was also at this moment when the unidentified car stopped mere steps before the police''s blockade, only for a lone figure to jump out of it, simply run past the police, and then rush right to where the two of us conversed.


    A figure I could easily recognize, be it from our encounter in the spiritual district¡­ or from my vision of the headquarters from where this whole operation against my factory was controlled to begin with.


    "You need to go to the power nt right now!" Cassie screamed out from the bottom of her lungs, not paying me even the slightest hint of attention as she focused herself on no one but Dickins himself. "You need to go there before my n''s hitman burns the whole ce down to the ground!"

 Chapter 188: Coup de Etat

    ''That old fart¡­''


    Cassie clenched her jaw as she put all of her focus on keeping her face still.


    The n''s patriarch had already left the premises of the apartment she arranged as themand center of the operation¡­ but pretty much everyone inside was still his retainer.


    Or, in other and more direct words, even without her grandfather here, Cassie knew better than to let any feelings or thoughts appear on her face with so many eyes around, eager to find even the smallest and slightest fault that they could report up.


    Some would love to see her fall from the patriarch''s grace. Others simply had their own self-interest in mind. Some just wanted to watch the world burn, in hopes that being the one to start the fire would save them from being burned themselves.


    Having all of that in her mind, Cassie could do nothing but watch her screens as her grandfather left the building with a phone by his ear.


    ''Fucking hypocrite,'' she thought, once again exerting herself to keep her expression from revealing how she actually felt.


    It was no one else but her grandfather who looked down on the technology. It was only with all of her influence and achievements that she managed to get his approval to bring in some of the basic innovations to the n¡­ and even then, those innovations were limited to the specific few who not only had the patriarch''s absolute trust, but also bothcked ess to vital knowledge of the n and still had informational skills necessary to minimize their footprint on the civilianwork.


    Normally, this would be just an ordinary day in Cassie''s life. Just another step of enduring the harsh conditions imposed upon her by the rules and traditions of the n. A consequence of her assuming the role she put herself in with thebined efforts of all that she did ever since she realized what was the only path open for her to a better life.


    But today was not a normal day.


    Not because she was in charge of an operation that made the n''s forces dance on the line between legal, slightly illegal, and openly criminal. For people as high in the political spectrum as the higher-ups of her n, it was just another day.


    No.


    Today was special, because no matter how Cassie looked at it, her grandfather had just sentenced his entire n to oblivion, one that would be brought upon them not only by the n elders, not only by the legal authorities of the modern world¡­ but what was the worst of it, by the spiritual council delegated to manage their region.


    ''This might not be the best moment to put all my ns forward¡­ But I don''t think I will ever get another chance.''


    Gathering her wits, Cassie took a shallow breath before stretching her legs out and then jumping off her seat.


    "To hell with it," she eximed as she turned on the spot and grabbed the simple coat hanging off the back of her chair. "I don''t believe we are out of options yet. Phone the patriarch and tell him I''m personally going in to oversee the operation."


    Giving the n retainers in the room no time to react, Cassie threw on her coat before hurrying toward the doors, past them and then straight to the building''s elevator.


    ''Come on,'' Cassie soon started to beg in her thoughts as she watched the numbers indicating the floor the lift was on slowly trickle down, from the topmost floor she organized hermand center at all the way to the ground floor that her grandfather had just left.


    ''Hurry it up, girl, or it''s going to be toote¡­''


    Rushing past the building''s main hall, Cassie fished out her private, secret phone that was by no way or form connected to the n.


    A possession that would easily earn her several months of istion as a punishment if she were ever discovered with it.


    But the risk of always carrying it on her person had finally paid off, giving her the opportunity to send through several messages she had prepared in advance, all directed to the various key members of the n who, at least to the best of her knowledge, shared her beliefs and stances, even if they never dared to admit to it openly.


    From the moment she sent the message only to then pull the SIM card out of the phone, break it into four pieces before smashing the phone itself and then stomping on it with all the fury only a soon-to-be traitor could possess, things started to move a lot quicker.


    Free of the incriminating evidence, Cassie hurried up and approached one of the many n cars parked in the lot.


    "Get off," she ordered the driver as soon as she opened the door to the driver''s seat, catching the man doing nothing but doomscrolling through the feed of the popr yet extremely obnoxious app.


    "Excuse me?" the middle-aged man sitting behind the wheel raised his eyes to the girl¡­ only for his face to instantly turn nk.


    If Cassie was caught with a private, unregistered phone, she would suffer several months of istion as a punishment.


    But Cassie was the n''s golden child and the patriarch''s favorite.


    If a random driver hired by the n was caught doing so by anyone who cared to report it, his fate was something Cassie didn''t even want to think about.


    "I didn''t see you watching shorts on the phone, just like you forgot to close the car as you left to piss," Cassie stated, staring at the man with a nk look on her own face.


    Thankfully, after merely a few breaths, the man caught on to the intention behind her words, simply hiding his phone in his pocket, leaving the keys to the car in the station before hurrying out and then as far away as he could.


    ''Now, let''s hope no patrol will stop me for speeding,'' Cassie thought, grinning at the very idea of it happening while perfectly aware that pretty much the entirety of the city police was currently scrambled and readying for the siege of the factory.


    By now, several of the key members of the n had received and likely read her message, setting the foundation of what was pretty much a coup de etat. By now, the n''s retainers back in themand center likely passed the message to her grandfather, urging him to hold his hand and give her one more chance to get proper results before he would unleash Hilbert upon the civilians and their infrastructure in a desperate bid to stop his rival from advancing and thus matching his cultivation level.


    Wasting no time, Cassie turned the engine on before riding out of the lot and then speeding down the street in the direction of the nearest entrance of the ringway, hoping to save at least some time by taking the longer but wider route rather than letting the state of the street traffic decide her fate.


    And as she rode toward the factory that was on everyone''s mind today, she paid little to no attention to the speed limits or stop signs, daring not to stop or even slow down.


    Because right now, the fate of her n¡­ No, the fate of this entire city if not the entire damned world rode with her. And whether she would arrive at the scene before the patriarch''s patience would run out or not was certain to decide the future for more people than Cassie could ever hope to count¡­


    Herself included.

 Chapter 189: Encounter in the white (1)

    ''This feels reallyfortable...'' Chihiro thought as the constant gust of warm, mana-rich air continued to blow right into and past him, constantly providing him with much more spiritual energy than he could ever hope the artifacts back at his cultivation garden would produce.


    Just by the amount of spiritual energy alone, the core of this factory¡ªeven though it was far from running at full power¡ªwas better than anything he had ever encountered, including the cultivation pods back in the spiritual realm.


    But this ce... it was much more than just rich with Qi. By every possible judgment criterion that Chihiro coulde up with, his cultivation garden, which he had spent years building, decorating, purifying, and equipping, was... inferior.


    Be it the amount of Qi he could absorb, the purity of said Qi, or the density of the spiritual energy that only made it easier to absorb swiftly as opposed to the trace amounts he could get back at his retreat...


    ''Heck, I have no idea how, but this ce seems to be even quieter than my garden...'' Chihiro thought, not exactly sure how he was supposed to feel about it all.


    Whatever the correct feeling was for the moment, however, Chihiro couldn''t care less. Or rather, to be more precise, he couldn''t afford to distract himself thinking about it.


    No.


    ''Don''t let those thoughts distract you. Right now, if you want to honor all the effort the kids put into this ce, you need to focus!''


    This factory wasn''t something that Chihiro had simply received. It was the result of long,bined efforts by his daughter, his son-inw, and himself, along with a considerable financial investment to make it all happen.


    It didn''t matter who was the biggest contributor nor what the most important part was. All that mattered was for Chihiro to pull his weight and sessfully advance, so that he could be a rock that would break the waves of trouble the world was bound to throw at his small n now that it had taken its first step towards greatness.


    Now that it had taken its first step¡­ towards true, proper, and wholesome freedom.


    A freedom that could only ever be obtained when one secured political, social, financial, physical, and mental independence from others. And while Chihiro did well enough already in terms of social, financial, physical, and mental departments¡­


    For him to secure political freedom for his n, for his daughter, son-inw, and all the retainers that put their trust in him, he absolutely had to advance to the next stage; he had to break past the bottleneck he had already failed to shatter once.


    ''Calm down, focus, and¡­''


    Chihiro took a deep breath.


    ''And just do it!''


    Gathering all the spiritual energy he managed to amass thus far, Chihiro took another deep breath before pushing it all into the ne of his two-dimensional core.


    From establishing his core throughout his body, he then expanded it into every part of himself, only to then condense it all the way back into a singrity, a single point at the center of his weight while forcing it to retain all the qualities it had developed in the earlier cultivation stages.


    During his former breakthrough, he managed to then stretch the core from a single, surface-less point into a ne, an area that stretched from where his core used to be into every nook and cranny of his flesh, like a foil designed to mimic his build.


    Now, however, it was time for the exponentially more difficult step. Now, it was time for Chihiro to stretch this ne¡­ and once again, turn it from a two-dimensional cut of his body into a proper, three-dimensional figure of it.


    ''Let''s go!''


    Removing all doubt and hesitation from his mind, Chihiro gritted his teeth, using the slight pain caused by doing so as an anchor that rooted him in reality. Then, as if it were all part of just one fluid motion, he pushed all of the spiritual energy he could control into his core, bloating it way beyond its current, well-defined limits.


    This process continued for quite some time, soon drying thest of Chihiro''s personal reserves and forcing him to rely on nothing more than the spiritual energy provided by the factory.


    Thankfully, as if sensing his slight distress, Tim¡ªor whoever else was in control right now¡ªamped up the output of the devices, soon flooding the center of the funnel where Chihiro sat with more than enough energy topensate for what he could no longer provide with his strained cultivation.


    ''Now then¡­''


    Feeling how his cultivation continued to swell, grow, and develop¡­ Chihiro suddenly froze as the memory of his failure resurfaced in his thoughts, causing him to nearly lose his grip over his focus as doubt infested his otherwise calm mind.


    This doubt quickly grew in strength, soon flooding the man''s thoughts with endless questions that only someone born in a modern world could ask.


    ''What if it doesn''t work?''


    ''How can you add a whole dimension to something that already exists within fewer dimensions than what you desire?''


    ''Shouldn''t you just¡­ start from scratch and do it all anew?''


    One by one, Chihiro''s doubts andck of ability to reconcile his scientific view of the world with the spiritual nature of cultivation broke his confidence, leaving him unable to control the process that he formerly grasped merely by his instincts and something as crude as¡­ the feel of it.


    It was at this point, however, that the spiritual energy seemingly gained a consciousness of its own, flooding just the right points, just the right ces within the man''s cultivation to perfectly sustain his growth process, helping him weather through this attack of inner demons.


    Bit by bit, Chihiro''s core bloated, grew thicker, and almost more tangible¡­


    Only for the man to suddenly realize that what was happening right now wasn''t an attempted breakthrough at all.


    That, he had done at some point in the past, failing to even take notice.


    No.


    Right now, what this strange guide of Qi that he had never encountered before was doing, was helping him reinforce his increased cultivation, feeding right into the parts of it that Chihiro, inevitably, had failed to cultivate as much as he had the others.


    ''What the¡­'' Chihiro gulped his saliva down, fighting off his desire to just forget about everything and focus on this feeling of guidance, hoping to obtain greater enlightenment by studying it than he could ever achieve by just cultivating.


    And just like that, as if the desire to do so were a key that unlocked doors Chihiro had never known existed, he suddenly found himself stranded in a sea of white.


    ''A subspace of sorts?'' Chihiro thought, eager to learn from this weird, unexpected experience.


    There was nothing but white. He stood in a sea of white, the sky was nothing but endless white, even the horizon itself was just more of the white.


    It was all white¡­ with the exception of a golden, vaguely humanoid figure standing just a bit ahead with its head angled slightly back¡­ and with its missing face making it impossible to tell whether it was looking down and in Chihiro''s direction, or up and away from him.


    A figure that Chihiro could vaguely recall from the events that had transpired back before his attempt at the breakthrough, back when Tim tried to birth the divinity.


    ''Could it be¡­''


    Chihiro gulped his saliva down, sensing a distant yet extremely oppressive aura from this golden, faceless being.


    Thus, having no better idea of what he was supposed to do, Chihiro took a step forward, raised his chin, and asked.


    "Are you the one who guided me?"

 Chapter 190: Encounter in the white (2)

    "Are you the one who guided me?"


    The golden figure didn''t seem to hear Chihiro''s question.


    That, or it either didn''t want to or simply didn''t care to act as if it did. Instead, it just stood in the same weird pose as before, as if Chihiro was merely a fly invading this white space, not worthy of its attention.


    "No answer, huh?" Chihiro muttered, only to breathe out and look around, hoping to find something else he could focus his thoughts on.


    He wasn''t trapped in this weird, white space. It was merely a distant feeling, but he could tell that to escape from this strange ce, all he had to do was to¡­ open his eyes.


    It was that simple. And yet, at the same time, it made opening his eyes the veryst thing Chihiro wanted to do in the moment.


    Opening his eyes meant leaving this space. And for as far as he could tell, this wasn''t a ce he could just enter any time he wanted.


    "This is an opportunity¡­" Chihiro thought as he took a deep breath to calm his thoughts. "And I''m going to make the most out of it!"


    Still, just the desire to get all the benefits that being in this white space could offer didn''t make it any easier to figure out how to actually do so.


    Chihiro wasn''t the kind of man who would give up easily, though.


    "Maybe I shouldn''t try to perceive it with my eyes?" he thought, trying to discard any part of his perception that wasn''t beneficial at the moment. "Wait, eyes?"


    Suddenly taking note of a certain peculiarity, Chihiro had to take a moment to calm himself down again, worried any sort of agitation could stir his thoughts to the level at which this golden presence would notice him¡­ and likely, expel him from this ce.


    "How can I talk about eyes when my entire body here is but my own mental projection?"


    This world of white was nothing like the world Chihiro knew. And that included how there was no solid matter in it, or any sort of fluid or gas for that matter either. And in a world deprived of all physicality, what was there to say that Chihiro was in it¡­ with his body and all?


    "If it''s not my eyes that provide me with this sight¡­ then why do I keep trying to see it?"


    Baffled by his own naivete, Chihiro rolled his nonexistent eyes before closing them down and immersing himself into the flow of spirituality.


    "When in doubt, default to cultivation," he thought, recalling the age-old adage coined all the way back in the mystic era, an adage histe mentor really loved to repeat.


    And as it was the case in many of the troubles Chihiro encountered in his past, defaulting back to cultivation quickly proved to be the right choice.


    The right choice in terms of finding a better angle to perceive the strange, white space he was in, that is. Yet, the very moment Chihiro did so, looking as deep into his own spirituality and the flow of Qi in this strange subspace, his mind suddenly froze.


    Numbers.


    Data.


    Flows.


    Vectors.


    Each of those words described just one simple thing. Yet, all of those words could also be used to describe entire groups of something, entire sets of expressions designed to pass on information. And right now, right within the realm of Chihiro''s brain, all of those concepts stretched into infinity.


    The numbers overflowed Chihiro''s head. They made no sense. There was no easily recognizable pattern to them. All that those numbers did was swell into infinity, endlessly changing, endlessly growing, feeding more and more information in its rawest form straight into Chihiro''s synapses.


    At the same time, with what little numbers his brain could process from the infinity of numbers it was tasked with, a seemingly endless stream of data came out as a result.


    Data that made seemingly no sense.


    Data that certainly could be applied to something¡­ but was of absolutely no significance for him.


    Data on how the particles of nitrogen behaved within the flow of air around his real body.


    Data on how the spiritual energy existed within the gaps of matter itself, endlessly weaved into it like the shadow of all being, always there, easily matching theplexity of what it was the derivative of¡­ while also being merely a concept,cking a proper manifestation of itself in itself.


    Data.


    Data.


    Data.


    Endless stream of information that Chihiro couldn''t even begin to make the slightest sense of.


    Data that began as an infinite set of infinitely growing numbers. Data so rich, it instantly turned into a flow of itself rather than just¡­ well, itself.


    The flow was constantly changing. Never staying the same, never staying simr to itself of thest second.


    This made whatever data Chihiro''s brain could output lose all of its intrinsic meaning, with how just by the slightest fraction of a second passing, all of it would warp, alter, change.


    At the same time, however, it was this very flow of data, the way it changed at every tiniest step of its iteration¡­


    "Even if in itself it has no meaning, even if it''s only an expression of the change itself¡­ Why do I feel like, down at the very bottom of its existence, there''s some sort of a message I simply fail to grasp?"


    As if all of this wasn''t enough, the flows of data made up from the processed information hidden beneath the surface of all the infinite numbers¡­ wasn''t the end of it.


    Rather than the flow of the data, it was its vector that crowned and concluded the whole process, somehow taking this infinitely long, infinitely dense, and infinitely changing flow¡­ and assigning it a proper meaning.


    A meaning that continued to elude Chihiro''s brain, yet a meaning nheless.


    "Just what the hell is it all about?" Chihiro thought, gritting his teeth as he opened his nonexistent eyes in a bid to save himself from this brain-frying amount of information. Yet, the very moment he did so, all of the white of the space around him suddenly vanished¡­


    No.


    It was still there.


    He simply learned how to properly perceive it for what it was.


    Just like a human brain could not perceive certain colors, right now, Chihiro developed the necessary gray matter to do so anyway. And the white of the space around him, rather than vanishing, simply revealed itself to be nothing more and nothing less but an infinitelyplexttice of those vectors, adding yet another dimension to the depth of the infinity this whole ce was all about.


    "Haaaa¡­" breathing out an exhausted sigh, Chihiro¡­ fell down to his knees, shutting his eyes closed while cutting off his very own spiritual sense.


    In this world, there was no matter.


    With no matter, Chihiro''s own brain itself turned into merely a concept.


    And a concept simply could not feel pain, for pain was nothing else but yet another concept. An idea that, for some reason, refused to mix with the idea of his brain, the idea of a biologicalputer capable of innate calctions soplex, they became what people called consciousness.


    Consciousness which, just like the shadow, just like the spiritual energy, was merely an artificial concept for a derivative of what actually existed.


    Still, in the world without pain, Chihiro''s head couldn''t hurt. Yet, with the years he spent mastering the inward look into his own constitution so that he could better advance through the tiers of cultivation, he learned how to perceive all that he could about himself.


    And right now, beyond any reasonable doubt, Chihiro could tell his brain was about to be fried, for it was never designed to handle this degree of static information.


    "Even if I don''t know it¡­ I can somehow tell that having my brain fried here is not the best of ideas¡­" Chihiro thought¡­ only to realize that even the spiritual energy, the Qi that he spent his entire life cultivating¡­ It was nothing more than just another artificial concept, an expression created for human imperfect brains to grasp the very idea of the force of concepts they were tapping into.


    "The Qi itself doesn''t exist. It''s just a shadow of reality¡­ a shadow of reality that we can somehow transpose upon reality itself¡­" he muttered to himself, only to realize that the vectors¡­ no, the white of the weird space he was in, suddenly attained a different hue.


    The white¡­ looked different. More wholesome. Moreplete. More¡­


    Yellow?


    "No, it''s not yellow," Chihiro thought, only to gulp his saliva down as the realization struck his already weary brain. "It''s golden," he thought, only to raise his eyes, and see the very golden figure that appeared to have been ignoring him thus far, suddenly stand right in front of him, with its head lowered just enough to impose a sensation of being closely looked at.


    A sensation that instantly caused the chills to move both up and down Chihiro''s spine, nearly making him gasp for air and open his actual eyes in a bid to escape the sense of dread¡­


    No, the sense of impending doom, doom that was free of ill intent, free of ill will.


    The sense of doom that just¡­ was.


    "What is this ce?"


    Refusing to follow his instincts for the very second time in his life after he decided to defy the odds and marry his wife, Chihiro looked up, straight into the golden shine of this strange being that continued to remain unaffected by the endlessplexity of the space around them consisting of infinitely packed and infinitely changing information.


    A thin line appeared on the golden bulb that was where a human head should be on the golden figure. A thin line that soon split into two that moved separately, just like a mouth that was about to open¡­


    An entire conversation happened in a single instant, despite never taking ce at all.


    It happened¡­ and it didn''t happen at the same time, remaining in a state of superposition Chihiro''s brain simply failed toprehend.


    Normally, in a physical world, it was impossible for something to both be and not be at the same time. ording to physics, at most, its true state could be undefined, undetermined.


    But this conversation¡­ in this world deprived of physicality, it somehow both happened and never took ce at the same time, leaving Chihiro''s brain in a state of perpetual confusion that only ended when he suddenly realized that this strange, vectored white space was no more, and his state of shock was merely an aftereffect of him waking up.


    "Huh?" Chihiro muttered, struggling toprehend what just happened¡­ Yet, despite not being able to recall a single word of the conversation that both did and didn''t happen, he could still vaguely sense the exact inference he arrived at by the end of the conversation that never was.


    A fleeting feeling that soon came to pass, finally freeing the man''s brain from the prison of infinite data, and leaving him sweaty and shocked as he sat down on the factory floor surrounded by nothing but the dim, red lighting of the emergency lights.

 Chapter 191: Whiplash

    Tick. Tick. Tick.


    Contrary to all the modern technology that recent renovations and Chihiro''s money infused into the factory, the red, shing emergency light was clearly a relic of the past... long in the past, when most of the factory equipment that was reced could im that moniker on their own.


    le mpyr


    Still, while old and not really efficient, those ancient bulbs of colored ss possessed one quality that most modern technology did not ¨C they were durable beyond any modern reason, any modern standard, be it against physical damage, wear and tear, or the greatest enemy of them all ¨C time.


    Where modern technology and devices were designed to withstand only the duration of their warranty period, these simple red lightbulbs looked time straight in the face, taunted it for another bout, and, against all odds, thrived.


    Still.


    For as durable as those red lights were, they were nowhere near as bright as modern LED illumination, nor were they as stable or... as silent.


    Contrary to that, the red light continued to sh on, only to then simmer down in an endless cycle, its intensity rising and falling again and again. Along with this cycle of varying light intensity, one could clearly hear a distant ticking, not all that different from the sound of static charge randomly discharging upon reaching a sufficient level.


    ''I wonder what makes the light click like that,'' Chihiro thought,zily raising his head as his eyes instinctively searched for the source of the red light.


    "Boss!"


    Before he could even gather his thoughts or clear his mind, a sudden shout prompted Chihiro to look over his shoulder, at a man currently jumping up to his feet in a strange, slowed-down motion.


    ''Thinking about this, why is his voice... so stretched?''


    The change was rather minute, perfectly missable if one didn''t pay attention.


    But if anything, paying attention was one of Chihiro''s biggest strengths.


    ''Wait, don''t tell me¡­'' For someone as experienced and as knowledgeable as he was, it took mere seconds ¨C or what he perceived as seconds ¨C for his observations to connect with his knowledge, producing an exnation for what was wrong with him. ''Did I really grow so fast, my physical body¡­''


    Chihiro squinted his eyes.


    ''No, it''s not just my body, even my perception is failing to catch up?!''


    An event rathermon amidst lower-ranked cultivators who could enjoy the benefits of support from a wealthy family or a n. With enough resources, the early stages of cultivation were pretty much just about figuring out one''s own path through it. Yet, while it was easy to advance to higher stages of mortal cultivation, one''s body and brain still needed time to get used to the new limits of their ability, resulting in this sort of warped perception...


    Warped perception that more often than not came with quite soft yet extremely nasty side effects.


    "Boss!" The man, sitting where a full door made out of nothing but air fans was supposed to be, finally stood up and called again as he leaned forward, clearly trying to rush to Chihiro''s side.


    Back in Chihiro''s own world, however, all thoughts about the shing red light, the reason behind it, the reason the gate to the factory core was open, or the presence of Brand, one of his highest-ranking retainers within the n...


    All of those vanished, swept aside by an overwhelming wave of nausea that took over Chihiro''s body.


    One moment, he was still sitting down on his knees with a profound look of focus on his face, now mixed with confusion, only to find himself on all fours the next moment, retching his guts out as his brain struggled to settle within its new limits.


    Thankfully, for a man of Chihiro''s level, this processsted only about a minute. And while for a mortal, puking for a whole minute straight would leave them gasping for air and on the verge of losing consciousness from both asphyxiation and physical exhaustion, for a tenth-stage cultivator like Chihiro...


    ''Wait, am I even still within the tenth stage?''


    This question came to his mind so suddenly, it swept away all the feelings of nausea, leaving it as the one and only thing upying Chihiro''s thoughts.


    ''Since when can one get whish from advancing just a single damn stage?!''


    This made absolutely no sense.


    Advancing two stages would exin it¡­ but beyond any doubt, Chihiro could tell he had yet to move beyond the realm of mortal cultivation.


    ''That means, unless I''m the very first to discover the eleventh stage of mortal cultivation¡­''


    As scary as it felt after the experiences of that white realm, Chihiro braced himself before taking a closer look at his inner state, desperate to uncover the mystery that, like an itch impossible to scratch, refused to stop bothering him.


    Thankfully, as Chihiro''s thoughts sank deeper and deeper into the realm of his own spirituality, there were no apparent adverse effects of doing so.


    No endless string of infinitely changing numbers assaulted his brain, nor did he suddenly perceive reality as an amalgamation of infinitely dense vectors that were soplex, they gained a whole new meaning beyond the sum and result of their constituent parts.


    By every means he could judge, taking a dip into his spirituality right now was no different an experience than it had been in the past, allowing him to freely monitor the domain of his spiritual core, which had now stretched to epass his body fully, as if creating a clone of his flesh strictly on the spiritual ne before anchoring every tiniest part of it into the respective particle of his skin, flesh, blood, and insides.


    In every way Chihiro could think of, his cultivation was now at the tenth level. In fact, judging by the feeling he developed over years upon years of diligent cultivation, he was nowhere near the bottleneck of this stage, proving that it wasn''t repeated and unnaturally rapid advancement that brought the wrath of whish upon him.


    His cultivation was as expected. The state of his core was as he assumed it would be back when he started imagining what the realm of the tenth mortal stage would be like. A picture he worked long and hard to develop, as it was one of the mental exercises meant to help humans cope with theplexity of advancing their spirituality and breaching bottlenecks.


    By every means he would have considered in the past, there was absolutely no reason for the whish to strike him down.


    Yet, with just a fleeting nce at his cultivation, he could see the most likely culprit behind the puddle of stinky, half-digested food he had thrown up just a moment ago.


    ''It''s not my cultivation. It''s the very Qi that makes it up that''s behind the whish!''


    "BOSS!"


    The world suddenly picked up its pace again, allowing Brand to close the distance and grab Chihiro by his shoulders, an act he would never dare tomit without special circumstances warranting it.


    "What the hell are you doing here, man?" Having no energy to spare for pleasantries, Chihiro went against his morals and ignored the courtesy, opting to address the man directly.


    Right now, the discovery of the change in his Qi was so massive, so major, so groundbreaking, he could hardly care about anything else.


    All the more when it was Brand bringing in the news, when his realm of authority was limited to matters involving the n''s finance and administration.


    Or, in much more direct terms, matters that could be left alone for a few hours no matter the damned circumstances!


    ''Then again, it''s not every day that I get to see him make a face as desperate as he''s making right now¡­'' Chihiro thought, gritting his teeth as he finally decided to put the matter of his spirituality aside for a moment and give the man his attention.


    No matter what, the changes to his Qi weren''t going anywhere, given how it was a change affecting its very nature. As such, it was something he could address and inspect at any time, making it a mattercking in urgency.


    On the other hand, Brand''s face told a whole other story, with every sign of great urgency on it that Chihiro could recall from the psychology ss he took decades ago.


    "What''s the problem?" Wasting no time, Chihiro spoke out, instantly addressing the crux of the matter, hoping to cut down on all the meaningless and wordy exnations.


    "The n got sacked, all of our assets are frozen," Brand started, unleashing the big news right off the bat.


    ''Well, that''s as weird as it is troubling¡­'' Chihiro squinted his eyes, ''but by no means does this warrant the urgency in his eyes¡­''


    "This factory was nearly raided by the police and anti-terror units. And while the young master managed to put their investigation on hold¡­"


    Brand swallowed a gulp of saliva huge enough for it to show clearly moving down his throat.


    ''So far, so good?'' Chihiro thought, finding himself confused by the revtions. ''If he dealt with it, then what''s¡­''


    Then, he finally connected the dots.


    The shing red light. The strangeck of spiritual energy in a ce that should have dangerous levels of it. The fact that he failed to fully fill his current stage of cultivation¡­ and then all the new tidbits of information that Brand passed to him with his hasty report¡­


    "Those bastards went ahead and attacked the power nt. And while seeing you safe means they were toote¡­"


    Brand gulped down his saliva again, his face suddenly growing¡­ whiter?


    ''Hmm?'' Chihiro squinted his eyes.


    For a man used to dealing with fraud and scams involving massive fortunes on a daily basis, to be so shocked¡­ no, terrified by some sort of event, it really had to be on a scale that not even¡­


    Chihiro rapidly rose to his feet.


    "What happened at the power nt?" he asked, forcing his voice to remain as calm as possible.


    "I don''t know the details, but the young master went with the police to stop the sabotage. But from what I''ve heard¡­" Brand hesitated, causing Chihiro to tighten his hands into fists.


    "What happened at the power nt?" Chihiro asked again, this time no longer controlling the timbre of his voice as well as he did before.


    "I don''t know the details, but¡­" Brand turned his eyes away.


    "But I''ve heard it was one hell of a ughter."

 Chapter 192: Race to the power-plant

    Ten minutes earlier


    "Can''t you go any faster?!"


    This situation was¡­ peculiar.


    Despite being in a pretty much stand-off with the police just a few moments ago, ready toe to blows with freaking anti-terror units and spill loads upon loads of blood¡­ mere momentster, I was stuck in a police car, speeding down the ringway while pressuring the cop behind the wheel to hurry the fuck up!


    Even then, just by looking at the situation from my personal perspective, one wouldn''t be able to fully grasp the scale of just what the hell was happening.


    After all, as far as we could tell, the power was still on. Or, in other words, whatever it was that Cassandra''s n was trying to achieve there had yet to happen.


    That''s why, right now, we traveled in just two unmarked police cars. An absolute minimalpany that all sides involved in the operation managed to agree upon after a short few moments of deliberation.


    In one car were me, two police officers from the anti-terror unit, Dickins, and the driver who the policemen imed to be one of the best drivers in their entire office.


    In the other car was Cassandra, who rushed to tip everyone off about the situation and thus confirmed my visions, giving a proper and viable reason to get this party going. With her, a group of three more officers and one of her n''s cultivators, who she imed to trust beyond any doubt.


    A total of two cars, ten people, riding down the street as we chased the threat that we merely knew existed while having little to no clue what form it was supposed to take.


    On the other hand, far away from the ring road, a whole column of police cars rode in their full force, picking whatever streets they deemed safer and less conspicuous to take. Obviously, by giving up on the benefits of the wide, straightforward, and rtively empty ring road, they would take quite a lot longer to arrive at the outskirts of the first industrial park, where the power nt was located¡­


    But that was the n.


    The ten of us were to go in first, drawing as little attention as possible to avoid turning our arrival into an event that would push whatever n Cassandra''s former n prepared into action.


    If we could deal with whatever we would encounter inside, then all was good and great, and we could all happily go back to the factory where we would resume the status quo and patiently wait for Chihiro to finish his cultivation and then take the reins in resolving the whole problem.


    If our intervention were to turn south in any way or form, however, the full force of the city''s anti-terror unit would swoop in, ready to cover whatever force Cassandra''s n deployed with enough firepower to remove the aspect of cultivation from the equation.


    A crude n, for sure, but there simply wasn''t enough time to make a moreplicated one. As such, we had no other choice but to make do with what we had.


    "We are about to arrive," the driver reported, pulling me out of my thoughts, just in time for me to see the armed police go through their routine check.


    They didn''t show any sign of hesitation, doubt, or anxiety as they moved in their seat and calmly inspected whatever parts of their own gear they could before turning to theirpanions to inspect the parts of their partner''s gear that they themselves could not.


    ''Now I''m feeling quite¡­ inadequate,'' I thought, rolling my eyes as a small, self-reflecting smirk appeared on my lips.


    "Making that kind of face isn''t making it any easier to believe you''re not the one behind it all, after all," Dickins muttered right as he pulled the top of his handgun to the back, inspecting the state of the pistol''s chamber before carefully sliding the part back into its natural ce¡­ or rather, allowing the spring inside the gun to do it for him, while merely keeping the process slow enough to prevent any idents.


    Thest thing we wanted, right on thest leg of our approach, was an idental gun discharge that would not only pose a threat to the safety of everyone in the car but, worse and likely much more dangerous, would warn everyone in the huge area around of our approach.


    A moment after taking the turn off the ringway, the car drastically slowed down, changing from a chase speed all the way down to the speed limit imposed on the ramp, only to then pick up speed again but only within the range of the limits imposed on the industrial park''s main artery.


    "Everyone, get ready," the drivermanded, only to then twist the steering wheel as he took the turn into the power nt''s parking lot. Once the car came to a stop, he tugged on the edges of his coat, ensuring not a single piece of hisbat equipment was left uncovered, before finally nodding his head, opening the doors, and moving outside.


    "Remember, guys, civilian approach," Dickinsmented as he joined the driver, leaving the edge seat and thus opening a way for me to follow him outside.


    From there, we¡­ casually walked down the lot''s pedestrian paths, even going so far as to maintain a random conversation about the current policies of the city, all in a bid to appear as normal as possible.


    It wasn''t until we reached the power nt''s gate that the situation took a sudden turn for the worse.


    "State your names and purpose," the gate''s guardzily requested through the inte, his voice ringing through the small speakers outside of his kiosk.


    "We are just visiting," Dickins took it upon himself to approach, even going so far as to pull out some sort of papers before sliding them through the small gap in the kiosk''s window, only to then pull the lid on it, allowing the guard inside to open it on his end and take the papers.

 Chapter 193: Slow and steady loses the race

    "Document inspection?" the guard asked after scanning the papers for a moment, raising his eyebrows high over his forehead as he spoke. "Did something happen for you guys toe again so soon?"


    Dickins twitched a tiny bit.


    "It''s a new procedure," he imed before heaving a deep, long sigh. "Trust me, man, we hate it as much as you do, but that''s what happens when the new boss is desperate to provide results to secure his cozy seat¡­"


    In all honesty, I could feel the drag in Dickins'' voice, making the excuse of some internal politics being at y all the more believable.


    "Ugh, I know that kind of pain¡­" The guard''s face darkened, making it quite clear that the circumstance Dickins brought up wasn''t all that out of the norm. "Either way, the top brass is out, so the archives are closed, but feel free to inspect everything else to your heart''s desire," he then proimed, only to pass the papers back and click one of the buttons inside his kiosk, signaling with a loud beep that the small, personal gate could now be opened.


    The policemen didn''t even look at each other, opting to just follow their leader in silence, with grave looks on their faces, befitting government officials who had to bear the brunt of their new boss''s ambitions.


    Thankfully, from there on, most likely due to thenyards the guard gave us as we passed the gate, we continued into the power nt unobstructed, with no further encounters or troubles slowing us down. Just to be sure, we even made a small detour through the nt''s cafeteria, where one of the anti-terror officers and the driver split up from the group, while the remaining three of us grabbed some empty cups before following the original route designed by someone from the main battle group and then wirelessly transferred while we were still back on the ringway.


    "That''s the control room." A momentter, Dickins half-spoke, while still pretending to only care about the papers he held in his hand, taking sips from his empty cup to match the whole ruse.


    A single knowing lookter, the two of them discarded their outerwear, revealing all the gear they came with, while grabbing their weapons.


    Seeing this, I took a deep breath before driving the spiritual energy within my core, readying myself for whatever could happen next.


    Ready for battle, we moved forward.


    On the other side of the main hall, I could see the other group appear and prepare just like we did, only to then wait a few seconds while watching us before moving on ahead, timing their approach to stagger our arrival times a bit.


    As we arrived by the control room doors, not a single word was said.


    What would be the point of talking now? We all knew what the job was.


    If everything was perfectly normal, we simply had to ensure there was no act of sabotage going on. And if there was an enemy¡­ well, then the ten of us would have to keep him upied until the cavalry would arrive.


    ''I really wish Chihiro was here with us,'' I thought, perfectly aware just how futile and impossible that wish was.


    Then, with Dickins turning the handle and opening the doors, there was no more time for me to ponder just what else I would ideally want.


    The doors swung open.


    Wasting no time, we rushed inside, ready to st whoever would dare to stand in our path¡­ only to then slow down as the momentum of our charge carried us forward, allowing us to stop several feet deep into the room.


    Both Dickins and the other officer quickly looked around, ready to raise their rifles at a moment''s notice.


    On the other end of the room, the second set of doors opened up, allowing the other seven to enter as well.


    Throughout this process¡­ I merely stood frozen in ce, sensing some sort of extremely upsetting dissonance in the air.


    "What the hell?" Dickins cursed out loud, looking across the power nt''s control room, currently free of any human presence.


    Most likely sensing that something was wrong, he continued deeper, soon followed by all the other policemen, as they searched for any signs of forced entry or battle that would indicate just what happened for all of the engineers expected to be working here to be missing.


    As they walked in, however, I didn''t take a step.


    The sense that something was wrong¡­ was simply too much. And so, to ward it off, I instinctively pushed my Qi into my eyes, ears, and brain, habitually seeking help and refuge from the one thing that made me special, my constitution, momentarily forgetting that I could no longer wield its might.


    Pumping my head full of spiritual energy, however, did achieve the purpose. Whatever it was, now that I looked at the control room through my Qi-infused eyes, the veil of illusion shattered, revealing the true horror of this ce.


    "Oh my fucking¡­"


    I couldn''t even finish my curse before my upper body convulsed, with a powerful torsion sending me down on all fours, making me contaminate the hidden, bloody scene with the contents of my stomach.


    "WHAT THE¡­" To my side, Dickins and the other officer jumped back, escaping from the sshing of my vomit.


    On the other side of the room, people just¡­ stared at me with disbelief and simple surprise.


    "Wait, is that¡­"


    Rather than finishing her words, Cassandra simply took a breath before rapidly cutting the air with her hand, as if she wanted to karate-chop the neck of an invisible dummy sitting down on its knees right in front of her. Then, her eyes widened, and she followed my example, falling to all fours and vigorously emptying her stomach at the sight of the control room turning into a ughterhouse with bits and pieces of what used to be humans scattered all over the ce.


    It was as if someone took their sweet time to split all the engineers in the room into ten pieces or more each, before creating a tornado inside of the very same room to scatter the results of their macabre work all over the ce.


    "It seems," Dickins gulped down his saliva, only to lower his gun as he looked over to the side, at a row of shing red lights, then at a huge disy, split into several dozen camera feeds, revealing the true state of the power nt, as opposed to the illusion we all fell prey to.


    The cable park of the power nt was now a scorched mess of sparks and burning power poles. One of the nt''s blocks simply¡­ evaporated, leaving behind nothing but empty, naked ground with only a hint of foundation concrete left. The cafeteria where we split up was just as bloody as the control room, while the gate¡­ just like the southern block of the nt, simply wasn''t there.


    The scale of destruction was so great, it was only by some miracle that we''ve managed to actually get to the control room without falling into some random, several story deep hole!


    "It seems we were toote."

 Chapter 194: The matter of timing

    "Nobody fucking moves."


    In the moment when everyone was shocked by the bloody sight of the powernt destruction, it was no one else but Dickins who managed to snap everyone back with a cold, perfectly pragmatic instruction.


    For a moment, everyone held their breath as they raised their eyes to the man.


    Maybe they expected some further orders? Or maybe it was just an instinctive attempt to find someone who could lead them through the mess they all found themselves in?


    Down on all fours and still retching whatever acid was left in my stomach, I couldn''t really care enough to bring my head up, not unless I wanted my nausea to grow even stronger.


    "Somebody, get those two civilians out of here before they contaminate the crime scene any further!"


    Wasting no time, Dickins issued further orders, no longer keeping up with the act of cooperating with me or Cassandra.


    Up until now, this all appeared as either a fraudulent business refusing toply with the police while iming the whole inspection to be an attempt to exert pressure and foil the development. A situation that was, thus far, perfectly manageable, all the more when Cassandra appeared just at the right time to pretty much back the ims I''d made about this all being just a result of corruption and directed power harassment.


    Now, however, the presence of the anti-terror unit turned from merely a pressure to an actual necessity. For who else was to deal with a disaster of this scale if not the most elite local units of thew enforcement within the city?


    "It''s their scene now," I thought as two officers grabbed me by my arms and helped me up. "That is, only until the forces from the central arrive, but..."


    I gulped my saliva down, trying whatever I could to wet my now parched throat. It wasn''t before those two officers pretty much carried me all the way to the doors when it suddenly clicked.


    "Stop," I called out in a weak, hushed voice.


    A voice that the two officers promptly ignored, carrying me beyond the door''s frame.


    "STOP!" I called out again, this time much louder and more decisive.


    "What?" The officer on my left jerked my arm up, lifting me just enough so that I could look up to his face.


    "Shut your crap and bring me back," I requested as fire started to burn in my eyes.


    It was one thing for me to lose my grip when faced with all that blood and gore... But when I sensed the cold breath of legitimate threat and danger on the back of my neck, all the sense of nausea left my body, reced with nothing but cold determination to see today through.


    "What, bring you back so you can throw up all over the crime scene again?!" the man shouted, clearly annoyed by how he was the one who had to deal with this unruly civilian.


    "You can either bring me back, or I can kill you two and go myself, saving you the pain you will otherwise suffer from another hand!"


    Raising up, I stared right into the man''s face, perfectly ready to unleash my cultivation and prove to him why even a rookie fighter like me, at this distance, could do worlds more than a trained elite like him with nothing more but a long gun and still sheathedbat knife.


    "Joe," the other officer finally butted in, limiting himself just to calling his partner''s name.


    "The fuck do you want now?!" clearly agitated, Joe snapped his eyes back to the other man.


    "Just bring him back in," the officer requested with a voice so strangely tense, he most likely caught on the meaning I infused my words with. "Worst case, we will just drag him away again, right?"


    For just one more moment, Joe simply stared into his partner''s eyes, only to then sigh in a sigh of defeat before nodding his head.


    "There''s only one thing I don''t understand," I said as soon as we turned around and started walking back in. "I''ve just threatened to kill you, so why can''t I feel the tip of your gun pressing against my back?"


    Looking over my shoulder, I caught Joe with quite the look of surprise on his face. Thankfully, however, his partner appeared to catch on my clues a lot swifter.


    "Move it," he hurried me while shoving my shoulder, like a prison guard would do to an unruly prisoner. "Whatever it is that you want to do back there, hurry it up and leave so we can actually get working."


    The nameless officer''s voice changed drastically¡­ but still within the limits of what I, or anyone else for that matter, would consider believable.


    The same change happened to Dickins'' voice when we nearly crashed into the two other officers who attempted to escort Cassandra out.


    Her state¡­ was far worse than mine.


    There was no life left in her eyes, proving that while the sight was shocking for both of us, I was the only one who could somehow handle it once the initial shock passed.


    "Why the hell are you back?" Dickins asked as soon as he saw me, with the look of displeasure on his face that only matched the sound of scorn and dissatisfaction in his voice.


    "To ask you one question," I replied while already driving my cultivation to its limits, stretching my perception as far as I could while keeping it as detailed and outright inquisitive as I could.


    For a moment, Dickins simply stared into my face while upholding the same expression that I saw him with, only to then sigh and allow his shoulders to drop a bit.


    "What is it?" he asked, while crossing his arms over his chest¡­ only to then rx and unwind them, allowing his arms to fall down along his sides when I nced at his face, then at the pistol hanging on his hip before looking back to his face and raising my eyebrows a bit.


    "If everyone in this ce is dead and the whole thing was destroyed to such a degree¡­" I started, while getting myself ready to repel any attack that was most likely toe right as I was about to reveal the one thing that bugged me so much. "Then who the fuck did we talk with back at the gate?"


    The gate''s guard¡­ was the only living human we saw in the entire power nt.


    There was no one in the cafeteria to serve us coffee, forcing us to invite ourselves to some of the empty cups all on our lonesome. There was no one in the control room either, save for all the scattered parts of corpses of people who were supposed to be there.


    The one and only exception was the gate''s guard with whom we interacted heavily enough to ensure he wasn''t just our illusion. And since he was not a part of this great deception then¡­


    Then, he was the answer to just how the hell did the timelines for everything could work.


    Cassandra arrived at the factory mere moments after her grandfather ordered the hit. Excluding the few moments of deliberation, we''ve departed from the factory pretty much right away, riding as fast as it was possible, only ever slowing down as we approached the power nt''s direct proximity.


    In other words, with how quickly we''ve arrived on the scene¡­ just how far ahead could Cassandra''s n hitman be of us?


    What of the time he needed to destroy the factory? The time he needed to ughter all those innocent people before disrespecting their corpses?


    "We didn''t give him enough time to escape. Only to then walk right past him, more worried about ying out our act than we were about who he actually was!"


    Revealing this out loud felt extremely annoying.


    I was one of the men that this fucker tricked, after all!


    Still, hearing my words, Dickins quickly looked in the direction of the cameras, the only part of the whole power nt that remained unaffected by the illusion, save for what the illusion in question reced their feeds with what its caster desired.


    Following the man''s eyes, I soon confirmed that, just like expected, there was no one at the power nt''s gate, indicating that the terrorist behind this massacre either ran away already¡­


    "He''s still here," I stated, basing this thought on nothing but my own instincts.


    "He has to be," Dickins agreed without even a shred of hesitation, only to shrug when he caught my surprised stare. "If he ran, the reinforcements would nail him. And since there was no urgent message from them¡­"


    Before the man could finish his words, the air in the control room grew¡­ thicker?


    Having no time for words, I looked right into Dickins'' eyes before closing my own, fully focusing on my spiritual perception of space as opposed to mere vision of it.


    And just like I thought¡­ the gate''s guard was here. No, Cassandra''s n''s hitman was here, just a few meters off to the side, with a threateningly-looking, long, ck knife in his hand.


    I slowly turned, more than willing to directly face the man behind this whole massacre.


    A man who, as I could easily sense through my spiritual sense, was several leagues stronger than me, even with all the benefits of perfected cultivation I could boast.


    Realizing his cover was blown, the man dispelled the illusion, revealing the familiar face of the gate''s guard to everyone''s eyes as he suddenly appeared right in the middle of the room.


    "Hilbert! Stand down!" Suddenly appearing in the doorway, Cassandra screamed out in desperation, clearly hoping to stop the man''s rampage before it could start again.


    But the words he uttered left everyone around free of the illusion that this confrontation could still be stopped.


    "No witnesses."


    Hilbert''s wrist moved, pushing his dark de slightly to the side as he looked around, only for his eyes to lock on the girl''s desperate face.


    "No exceptions," he said in a hushed, extremely low voice, only for his eyes to snap right back to me as he raised his hand and pointed the tip of his ck knife right to my face.


    "No mercy."

 Chapter 195: I throw FIST!

    "No mercy."


    The man behind those words was a monster in every conceivable way.


    Even those words of his didn''te from his mouth but hung in the air through some sort of audiovisual illusion, convincing both my eyes and my ears that as he spoke them, he still stood in ce, merely throwing threats.


    But the reality I sensed through my spirituality revealed him to lunge forth right as his mouth was supposed to open, tossing his knife-wielding hand forward and sending the tip of his de straight for my eye.


    ''So strong¡­'' I thought, watching how even the slightest movements of the man stirred the local spirituality of the ce, pretty much marking the path every part of his body took in the approach.


    Beyond any doubt, this man''s cultivation was leagues above mine. There was no denying how all of my power was merely a droplet inparison to theke of his power.


    But, at the same time¡­


    ''So slow¡­'' I thought, casually stepping to the side while gently striking out with my left forearm. Stepping away from the de''s path was one thing, but I had no ns of letting him just swing his hand and redirect the knife back towards my head.


    ''This knife, though¡­'' I gritted my teeth as the ck metal of the de shot past my face, ''it feels a bit too weird. It''s best not to risk it¡­''


    Even though his power was weirdly mismatched, the assassin of Cassandra''s n clearly wasn''t just a newbie with unmatched talent, nor was he a product of some experimentation aimed to give overwhelming power to someone who clearly didn''t deserve it.


    No.


    At the most rudimentary level, this man was a cultivator. A proper cultivator who took his time training his body to amodate reinforcing it with spirituality. A cultivator who achieved his current stage through the enlightenment of his own discovery.


    The strength of his spirituality was overwhelmingly greater than what I could wield from my own reserves, making the very notion of opposing him ridiculous¡­


    But there was something terribly wrong with that man''s cultivation. And while I couldn''t pinpoint it just yet, it was a feeling that wasn''t going to go away anytime soon.


    "Tsk¡­" the assassin clicked his tongue when I managed to dodge his sneaky strike, only to then block his elbow, effectively stopping the easiest follow-up attack he could unleash.


    It was also at this point that everyone else finally realized what was happening.


    By the doors, Cassandra drove her cultivation into action, weaving her spirituality into some sort of that I couldn''t really see the purpose of.


    On the other hand, the officers in the room had no ns of relying on something as ambiguous as spirituality, all opting to either grab their own state-issued des or pull out their guns, depending on how close they were to the assassin.


    "Activate the field!" Dickins shouted an order right as he kicked against the ground, leaping over a huge control table only to then transfer all of his momentum into an unpredictable, half-height lunge.


    An attack so low and thus unnatural for a human body actually managed to take the assassin by surprise, allowing Dickins'' knife to scrape the man''s ankle before he recollected himself and retreated out of the military-issue knife''s range.


    "Tsk," this time it was Dickins who clicked his tongue. "I blew it¡­" he muttered as he rose back to his feet from this weird, extremely low and outstretched lunge.


    "Good try, though," Imented as I gathered my spirituality¡­ only to then explode it outwards, shattering the fragile spell of the assassin''s illusion and finally revealing the true state of the matter to everyone''s eyes.


    "Shoot at will!" Dickins screamed out¡­


    Right as a huge cloud of smoke suddenly exploded below the assassin''s feet, quickly spreading to cover pretty much the whole center of the control room.


    ''Shit¡­'' I cursed in my thoughts as I retreated from the cloud.


    Something¡­ likely my instincts, was telling me that fighting the man right within his domain would not only be stupid but also likely thest thing I would do if I tried it.


    "Don''t go near it and just give me a moment!" Upholding themunication, I shouted while already gathering even more of my spirituality between my hands, quicklypressing it beyond the limits it could naturally be condensed. And then, rather than unleashing it, I continued to pour more of my Qi into it¡­ as if I were trying to replicate the very phenomenon that made my core so unstable.


    "On my mark¡­" I whispered with my eyes trained on the ck cloud of billowing smoke, "chair."


    With my eyes locked on the target, I couldn''t nce to check if Dickins caught my drift.


    "Go!"


    Before I could unleash my spell, Cassandra revealed her own hand, manifesting her spirituality through a-like spell¡­ only to grab it with her own delicate hands, before tossing it right into the ck smoke.


    "Wha¡­"


    Some officers groaned in displeasure, watching a potential new weapon enter the domain of the assassin.


    Whatever it was that Cassandra did, however, was just what I needed.


    Not by the nature of what she did, which I didn''t really care about.


    What mattered was how her attack ¡ª or whatever this toss actually was ¡ª bought me just enough time to properly establish the anchor points within the singrity of mana between my hands, connecting this already overly condensed ball of raw power to the criticality of my very own spiritual core.


    "On my mark¡­" I repeated right as I stood back and, after grabbing this small ball of raw energy, stretched my right arm out, before tossing my own spell straight into the smoke as if it were a baseball.


    "NOW!"


    At this point, I could only hope Dickins caught my meaning.


    Seeing a random metal chair fly through the air, seemingly following the path of my spiritual ball, I could breathe a sigh of relief.


    On its own, my ball of spirituality could hardly be considered an attack. If anything, the assassin was likely to just shrug it off, given that despite its critically unstable state¡­ the amount of spirituality I expended was merely a considerable fraction of my cultivation base, making it an easily snuffable amount for someone wielding as much spiritual might as the man in the smoke.


    For the next second, I just watched as the two projectiles, one shapely while the other anything but aerodynamic, traced their path through the air only to then sink into the ck smoke.


    Half a second passed in silence, with the officers either readying themselves with their knives or securing their aim, worried about friendly fire and opting out of shooting into the smoke, given that they could easily end up hitting theirpanions standing on the other side of the ck cloud.


    ''Rupture.''


    A single snap of the spirituality from my core carried the intent of the power word straight from my cultivation to the very center of the ball I''d tossed. With the conflicting orders of contain and rupture effectively canceling each other out, all of the energy I''d infused into the ball did what it was trying to do all this time and¡­ expanded to restore the bnce of spiritual pressure in the air.


    POOF!


    The curtain of ck smoke suddenly lifted when a strong current ¡ª an explosion? ¡ª suddenly blew it out from the inside.


    Following slightly behind, the chair Dickins tossed then crashed into the running assassin¡­


    No, he cut at it with his ck dagger, severing the item in two¡­ only for one of the parts to m into his knee while the other one bonked him right in the middle of the forehead.


    ''Wait, that actually worked?'' I thought, baffled, when I saw the man stumble in his charge, as if suddenly disoriented by the trauma to his head.


    It wasn''t the level of injury a cultivator of the man''s level would suffer seriously from. It was far from it, in fact.


    Nevertheless, for just the slightest moment, it took away the assassin''s focus, forcing him to alter his path and thus slow down, dying his charge by a fraction of a second.


    It didn''t really matter whether I was surprised or not, for I''d rushed into my own charge even before rupturing my spell and dispelling the assassin''s cover of ck smoke. And now that he stumbled, I allowed the momentum of my dash to carry me forward as my shoes slid over the bloodied floor of the control room, allowing me to twist my body sideways.


    The assassin regained hisposure right as my feet finally found grip against the floor, bringing my glide to a full stop¡­ and leaving me in the one position that I knew more intimately than any other.


    The position I assumed daily for five years straight, with my legs just a hand-width away from the lines drawn directly from my shoulders to the ground, my hips locked and my right hand cocked to the back.


    "Die¡­"


    There was no emotion in the assassin''s voice as he overcame his momentary stumble and shed at me with his knife.


    With how close we were, I had no hopes of avoiding the cut aimed straight across my chest. But as long as I leaned back, then maybe¡­ just maybe...


    Gritting my teeth, I allowed my instincts to take over.


    The assassin''s eyes lit up as he suddenly twisted his wrist, changing the angle at which his de approached, effectively removing the option of leaning away from the attack.


    I mean, I could still do so¡­ but it would simply be too little, toote.


    That''s why, rather than leaning away, I closed my fist and, right as I breathed out, I dpressed my entire body while unlocking my hips.


    My feet were firmly rooted to the ground, with some of my spirituality ensuring I could reliably draw strength from it.


    My legs were just far enough apart to keep me stable while allowing for a degree of free movement.My hips, my upper body, and my right arm, however, all worked together toward a single purpose¡ªa single, swinging motion that blossomed into a simple, crude act of throwing my fist forward.


    The assassin cut down on my chest while I struck squarely into his sr plexus with the technique I had honed to perfection over the years.


    A technique that, now that I had proper cultivation to back me up, inadvertently drew from my core, infusing my strike with simple, unadulterated Qi.


    The assassin''s knife struck down, cutting through my outerwear, then my shirt, and even reaching as far as my skin...


    Only for my fist to finally connect.


    BOOM!

 Chapter 196: Wrapping the case up

    BOOM!


    This wasn''t a world where a mere mortal cultivator like me could execute a punch powerful enough to sound like an explosion. Even when ounting for all the quirks of my cultivation, which appeared, at the very least, more wholesome andplete than the norm, adding up my ability to execute this one punch in a near-perfect manner¡­ Even with all this, it was still beyond my realm of ability to throw a punch so fast that my fist would break the sound barrier and create such a loud sound upon impact.


    While all of that was the honest truth, however, I was more than capable of having my punch produce a loud sound¡ªnot through the strike itself, but from the moment my enemy''s body ragdolled through the air, only to crash into whatever stood in its path.


    BOOM!


    Hilbert''s body flew through the air, crashing into one of the many console tables filling the control room. He flew so quickly and struck the obstacle so hard that his flesh managed to leave a solid dent in the full-metal frame of the console¡ªan indentation that perfectly matched the shape of those parts of his body that ended up hooking against the metal.


    It was only during this crash that the ck-knife-wielding assassin finally came to bear the weight of my punch.


    After all, with the punch itself, the initial impact was limited by how little energy I needed to lift the soles of the man''s feet off the ground. Then, all the energy I added with my fist on top only served to elerate the assassin''s body, ultimately producing the loud bang that nearly made the officers twitch and, in a moment of panic, start sting.


    "Haaa¡­" I properly breathed out, rxing my body as the rebound of my strike went like a wave through my flesh, weakening with every inch it traveled, only to fully dissipate down to my hips, through my knees, and all the way to the ground, where I had to use a bit of my spirituality just to keep myself standing.


    ''That was a solid one,'' I thought, more than able to judge the quality of my punch from how it felt sinking in, as opposed to gawking at its results like everyone else in the room did.


    "Y-you¡­" Groaning in pain, the Cassandra n''s hitman wed at the edge of the metal box of the console table he crashed into, slowly pulling himself up while struggling to deal with the pain.


    ''So that''s his type,'' I thought, surprised by the unexpected¡­ ease with which this fight came to an end.


    Because, sure, while the man was still standing, with the protection of his ck cloud gone and his body, even if only temporarily, too shaken to move properly¡­


    What was to stop the officers from shooting him like a dog right at that moment?


    "Well then, it''s time to make your choice," I said, raising up from my slightly hunched, resting position following the punch. I turned my eyes to the assassin and squinted them as I smiled lightly. "Are you going to try to stand up and risk getting shot by all the respectable officers in the room, only to taste what my punch feels like when I actually infuse it with my Qi?"


    I asked¡­ and fell silent, simply staring at the man with a confident, slightly mocking smile.


    At first, the assassin focused his attention on me, clearly waiting to hear what other option he had¡­ only for his face to turn dark as he realized the dark-natured joke.


    Because what other option did he have after the massacre he''dmitted?


    It was one thing to kill people inbat, when both sides were aware of the risks and willing to take them, using violence simply as a means to solve a dispute that couldn''t be resolved in any other, easier, or more efficient way.


    I wasn''t the kind of weak-blooded, naive idiot to believe¡ªor to even im¡ªthat violence should be avoided at all costs.


    Pain was always apanion to all those who sought great heights, whether it was the pain of growing stronger, the pain of losing touch with one''s loved ones¡­ or the direct pain of having their insides squeezed together between their spine and someone''s fist.


    But this situation wasn''t just a simple example of pain inflicted because there was no other, more efficient way of solving the issue.


    No.


    This man single-handedly inflicted grieving pain on the families of all those who worked in the power nt. He inflicted pain on all the citizens who would suddenly find themselves strapped for power. The patients in hospitals who would die because their equipment would suddenly turn off, with there not being enough charge in thework to keep it working and thus sustain their lives¡­


    Even the pain of all the taxpayers'' money that would have to be used to rebuild this power nt¡­


    This man, single-handedly and in a matter of minutes, brought enough pain to the world to effectively have his life forfeit on sight.


    Just killing him, however, simply didn''t sit right with me.


    "Or, are you going to surrender and spend your life in misery after admitting to everything that you did?"


    Finally, I revealed what I considered the second possible option for the man.


    "Yeah, no fucking way," Dickins muttered, pulling out his handgun, flicking off the safety, and¡­


    Unloading the entire magazine straight into the center of the man''s body.


    This was an emotional shot, a rage killing, rather than a calcted attempt at the man''s life. And while no cultivator could ignore being shot, especially while still on a mortal level¡­ the rage behind Dickins'' action affected his aim.


    By some miracle, not a single bullet struck the assassin''s head or heart, even though three of them appeared to have found their way to the man''s chest, while two others struck him squarely in the leg.


    ''If I''m seeing this right¡­ one of them struck the bone, chipped it, and then recoiled inside¡­'' I thought, only to then grit my teeth at the mere image of hundreds of bone splinters shooting all over the man''s leg, pretty much permanently immobilizing him.


    ''Still, whenpared to what that man did¡­''


    "Fuck!"


    A stronghold of cold-blooded rational thinking, Dickins suddenly turned all emotional, showcasing how he had merely held his emotions back, only for them to pour out once the situation appeared to be dealt with.


    "Sir!"


    Before I could even react, two officers jumped on their own boss, one grabbing his gun-wielding arm and holding it down while the other grabbed his other arm.


    It was a hold designed not to hurt its recipient but to render him unable to interfere any further.


    On the other side of the room, the rest of the officers formed a small circle, with everyst one of them pointing their guns at the assassin as they slowly crept closer, tightening the circle until one of them could silently approach from behind with specially-made, extremely hefty-looking handcuffs.


    "What''s your choice going to be, then?" I asked, making sure to stay not only out of harm''s way but also not to interfere with the officers as they approached their target.


    Who knew? Maybe if I stood in their way, it would create an opening that the assassin, even in his current, extremely wounded state, could exploit to escape.


    "Are you going to die like a dog? Or are you brave enough to face the consequences of all the killing you did here?"


    At this point, I was simply gloating.


    And I had all the reasons to do it.


    With this matter dealt with, this whole attempt to render my factory useless was now over. The Cassandra n''s patriarch would have a hard time topping this with something even worse.


    "Now, can any of you lend me your phone?" I asked, raising my face and then looking around, only to lock my eyes on one of the officers who wasn''t participating in the slow andplicated process of capturing the suspect.


    "A phone? What do you need¡ª"


    "Tim!"


    Before the policeman could finish his question, ire suddenly appeared in the doorway with a look of panic on her face and in her eyes.


    Stepping into the control room, she scanned the scene for half a second, her face growing whiter and whiter until her gaze locked onto me.


    "Tim!" she screamed from the bottom of her heart, rushing forward so fast that some of the officers turned their guns in her direction, likely fearing the worst¡­


    Only for her to crash into me, pushing me back against one of the nearby consoles as she wrapped her hands around my back, literally locking me in ce.


    "Now, this doesn''t look any good¡­"


    Following her, Chihiro appeared in the same doorway she''de from.


    Contrary to his daughter, he showed no panic or agitation, calmly taking in the bloody sights, only to then lock his eyes on the circle of officers and the now even more panicked assassin in its center.


    "It seems like I came a bit toote, didn''t I?"

 Chapter 197: Consequences

    "It seems like I''vee a bitte, didn''t I?"


    Chihiro, just like the rest of himself, was beaming.


    It felt as if his very presence suddenly multiplied many times over, growing all the more profound, all the more real in my spiritual view.


    "And well, I''m sure you guys won''t agree to it, but I would like to rmend for everyone to stay as you are. I know you think I don''t have the right to request that," Chihiro breathed out before fixing his gaze on Dickins'' face, "but if you could just hear me out for a moment."


    ''This is¡­ strange¡­''


    Silently trying to hold my breath, not to let ire squeeze the rest of it out of my chest, I stared at her father, baffled by the sight.


    ''He really looks nothing like usual¡­''


    This wasn''t only a feeling by now.


    Right before my eyes, Chihiro wore aplicated expression I had never seen on his face before, all the while acting much meeker than I would expect him to.


    "What is it?" Dickins barked, somehow able to hold back his raging emotions when faced with the weirdly pleasant yet oppressive aura surrounding the man.


    "Judging by the scale of this disaster, the sages'' council is sure to get involved. And they will examine every mark, every spiritual residue, every tiniest element."


    Chihiro exined in a calm, controlled tone.


    "And for every detail in this ce that''s left by you¡­ by us, they will use it to pin the me ordingly."


    "So this whole thing will get properly investigated and dealt with?" Dickins countered, locking his arms on his chest. "Sounds good to me, so why do you care so much?"


    Chihiro squinted his eyes a bit; the look on his face softened as if he suddenly found a whole reservoir of sympathy for the policeman.


    "Because as of now, it is most likely decided for this event to be marked for operational cover."


    A man, one of the group''s officers, stepped out from behind Dickins'' back.


    "And how would that be?"


    Chihiro''s smile grew slightly wider.


    "Major Nova, it''s a pleasure," he greeted the man whose rank, as it turned out, was two whole degrees higher than Dickins'', whom I took for the operation''s leader thus far.


    "Don''t give me that," the senior-staff officer cut Chihiro''s small smile off, actually forcing him to assume a more serious look again.


    "Any moment now, one of you should be getting a call from the chief of staff with the new ssification for the whole operation we rightfully withheld any information about until receiving the green light from his desk."


    Chihiro didn''t hesitate even for a second when bringing out the big guns.


    ''To think that I believed having a connection with my uncle would be significant¡­'' I thought, taken aback by the sudden news.


    Officer Nova, however, merely raised his eyebrow while mimicking Chihiro''s pose and closing his arms over his chest.


    "Stop bullshitting me. As if something that big could ever evade my ears¡­"


    Ring! Discover stories with m,v l''e-NovelBin


    This wasn''t the sound of a phone calling.


    No police officers would be dumb enough to keep their phone off silent mode while on an op.


    It was the slightest of sounds, a vibration spreading through the air, a vibration I could track thanks to my spiritually-enhanced senses.


    Nova''s face darkened a little.


    Then, against my expectation, he actually reached to his back pocket and pulled out his cell, only to throw one nce at its disy and then have his face darken even further.


    Saying no word, he raised the phone to his ear before tapping to ept the call.


    "Major Nova reporting," he threw silently into the phone, finally pouring a bucket of cold water over all those who still had any ns to disobey Chihiro''s request and move.


    For a moment, officer Nova simply nodded his head while listening to the voiceing through the phone, a voice way too silent for me to catch.


    "Yes, I understand," he finally said before nodding his head again. "I will pass it on."


    With this, the short call came to an end, leaving the hall in a state of even greater freeze than it was following Chihiro''s request.


    "It seems you were telling the truth," Nova sighed while shaking his head a bit. "What is going to be of this ce, then?" he asked while looking around at all the scrapped corpses, destroyed machinery, devastated power nt¡­


    The major then raised his eyes back to Chihiro.


    "It''s not going to be easy covering it up, you know? And there''s no way we can avoid any news from leaking."


    ''Wait, what?''


    Taken aback by the development, I breathed out¡­ only for ire to remind me of her presence as she squeezed down on my chest even harder, burying her face right in my shirt, refusing to let go.


    ''Are they seriously thinking about¡­'' I gulped my saliva down as I looked around myself, ''covering it all up? But if so, then why?''


    I gulped my saliva down.


    ''Why would you even want to cover this whole incident up?!''


    This was the greatest opportunity to just go and dismantle the whole n that set this event to happen. The guys that so relentlessly pushed against my factory project, even though they likely had no clue what it was all about to begin with.


    And now¡­ Chihiro wanted to have it all covered up?


    "I will exinter," as if sensing my doubts, Chihiro turned to face me and nodded his head, only for his eyes to turn slightly hostile when he saw just how desperately ire clutched onto me. "For now, however, good job," Chihiro suddenly changed the topic, catching me off guard again.


    ''Why would he¡­''


    Then it hit me.


    The change to his vibe, the words just now¡­ even the fact that he actually came out of the factory along with ire, who I was sure would do everything in her power to keep the process going by whatever means necessary even if the power went out¡­


    "So it¡­ it worked¡­" I muttered, finally feeling as if all my strength suddenly vanished from my flesh.


    Chihiro, by every means I had to check it, has advanced to the tenth andst stage of mortal cultivation. And ording to the timeline we worked on, he did so with some time to spare before his deadline!


    Still, while it was great that he advanced, just what could be so important for him to forego this advantage he had over Cassandra''s n¡­?


    "Oh, on that point, Cassandra came to warn us about the power nt. Unless she took off running, she should still be around somewhere¡­" I added, hoping to fill Chihiro in on the important details of my end of this whole scenario before my missing strength would culminate in me outright passing out.


    "That''s great," Chihiro nodded his head, only to throw me a slightly intense look.


    ''Oh, I better shut up now,'' I thought, realizing how exhaustion was making my thinking patterns convoluted¡­ thus rendering me much more likely to speak more than absolutely necessary on the matters that by all means had to stay private.


    ''I guess that''s what this whole cover-up is all about too,'' I realized.


    Since we were to expect an investigation from the spiritual council of sages or something, they would surely wonder what made Cassandra''s grandfather so desperate to interfere so much in.


    And now that Chihiro involved the chief of staff of the joint services, the fourth man in the country in the central military hierarchy, this matter was no more just a local investment protected by the mayor.


    This has now be a matter of national security, with how I''ve managed to turn the advantages of technology into advantages in cultivation.


    ''In other words, I''ve pretty much stolen the trump card of the spiritual world and sold it off to my own government¡­'' I thought, as I realized the long-reaching consequences of my discovery.


    In ten years, if my technology would grow like nothing before, there would be no reason for people to wish to enter the spiritual world for any other purpose but sightseeing or family visits, with how the modern side of the world would enjoy both the benefits of technology¡­ and the benefits of all the practically free cultivation the technology evolved from what we just aplished in the factory would provide.


    "Hey, ire¡­" feeling even more overwhelmed now that I''ve noticed quite a lot more points to worry about, I couldn''t hold myself upright for much longer.


    "Mhmm?" Keeping her face pressed against my chest, ire merely muttered tomunicate she heard me.


    "I think I''m about to drop, so if you could hold me up starting right¡­ next¡­"


    Before I could even finish my request, thest ember of my strength went out, dropping all of my weight down into ire''s feeble arms¡­ only for her not to have even the faintest problem with holding my body up with ease.


    "You''ve worked hard, didn''t you?" ire whispered as I felt my consciousness slipping. "It''s okay, just rest now," she continued to whisper as if to soothe my passage into the realm of dreams. "I will wake you up once it''s all done."

 Chapter 198: Unseen Arrangements

    "¡­now. With how things are, it would be best if we could expand, but ultimately¡­ it''s not up to us to decide."


    My consciousness slowly returned, pushing away the numbness of sleepiness as, bit by bit, my brain regained its cognitive powers.


    "Normally, I would expect the government to go all in for something of this worth, but now that you mention it¡­ Thinking back to the past, the Manhattan project also only aimed to make a few bombs rather than kickstarting the entire atomization of weapons, engines, and electricity."


    At first, I could hardly make sense of what I was hearing.


    The moment I did, however, I suddenly jerked up, ready to tear into whoever it was that was clearly discussing the future for the factory¡ªa future that could only be derived from the knowledge of how it works. A set ofparisons that clearly hinted at the speaker having said knowledge.


    And with this being merely a vaguely familiar voice, I could be damn sure it wasn''t someone I''d shared the secrets of my project with!


    "¡­"


    I jumped up to my feet, my cultivation already ramping up¡­


    Only to then stop when I saw Nova standing with his arms crossed over his chest while resting his back against the wall of the small control room.


    It wasn''t the sight of the high-ranking police officer that made me stop, however, but the presence of Chihiro just a few steps away from him.


    "Come back!"


    Before I could utter a single word of protest, something grabbed at my waist¡­ only to pull me right back to the couch in the back of the control room.


    Next, most of my body fell back onto the sofa''s cushions¡­ only for the sensation below my head to feel slightly different.


    It was still soft, but also much more firm, sturdy, and¡­ warm?


    A single look up revealed ire''s worried face, whose position allowed me to figure out the situation.


    From when I copsed from exhaustion back at the power nt''s control room, I somehow ended up back at the factory, with only the emergency lights powered by the in-house generator going, my head resting down on ire''sp while Chihiro discussed the details of the factory with someone I''d never really approved of.


    ''Things happened, I guess,'' I thought, fully aware that with how things hit the fan back at the power nt and how Chihiro pulled up the chief of staff card, we no longer had the luxury of operating on nothing but personal feelings.


    "Before you get any more surprised, I''ll assume you somehow forgot the guy," Chihiro, noticing the smallmotion I''d caused, turned his eyes over. "This is Nova. Up until a few hours ago, he was merely a police major, making him the seventh-highest policeman by rank in the whole city, with executive power only outmatched by the general and his vice. Ever since then, however¡­"


    Chihiro hesitated a bit, clearly not all thatfortable approaching the next topic.


    "Ever since our meeting at the power nt, the chief of staff appointed him as a direct point of contact between us and his office. He was also given the authority to fully manage this operation under our advisement and creative control."


    Rather than wasting time excusing himself, exining why this happened or how there was no avoiding it¡­


    Chihiro just exined what was going on. And between his intonation, choice of words, and brief statements, he made it clear that this was all a done deal rather than something open for deliberation.


    "I understand," I attempted to nod my head¡­ only for ire''s hands to quickly lock my head in ce, stopping me as she brushed her fingers through my hair.


    ''What is she, touch-deprived or some¡­''


    Taking a second to look up instead of ahead, I caught a nce at ire''s face.


    A look that was enough to shut my thoughts up before tearing at my own facial muscles.


    How could I question her motives when she had such a worried look on her face?


    "But to get things in order," I closed my eyes and rxed down, allowing ire to do with my head however she wished. "First, you''ve seeded, right? And if so¡­ how?"


    Just like Chihiro didn''t need to borate on why Nova''s presence was a done deal, I didn''t need to borate on where this question came from either.


    Some things were simply too obvious to be debated.


    "To be perfectly fair, I fell a bit short of what level I could reach if the power hadn''t died off," Chihiro admitted, only to put a small smile on his lips as he gently shook his head. "In fact, you might be better off asking ire about it. She was the one controlling the whole factory while all I did was just cultivate in peace all the way until there wasn''t any spiritual energy left for me to absorb."


    Hearing this, I opened my eyes and looked directly into ire''s slowly rxing face.


    For as great as it felt to have her fingers gently brush through my hair and carefully massage my scalp, I couldn''t help but notice how patting my head like she did seemed to calm ire down even more than it did me.


    "It all started when that golden orb¡­" ire came out of the gate storming, fully aware it was her turn to speak, only to say a few words and quickly hesitate. "Well, long story short, it gave me a vision of all the power going down. Not sure exactly when it would happen, I pretty much closed the outflow valves and made the spiritually-infused air circte within the system. Then, I controlled those valves while raising the output to bring the Qi density in the air to its limit, only to then shut the outflow valves closed when the power went out and the emergency system kicked in."


    As she exined the precise steps she took, ire''s face was a picture of confidence. Only once she approached the end of her exnation, hints of anxiety and self-doubt surfaced in her eyes.


    "If only I''d figured it out in advance, I could''ve tried to redirect the power from the emergency batteries back into the system, but¡­"


    ire gritted her teeth, only to then look down when I reached up and grasped her hand, giving it a slight squeeze.


    "Your fatherpleted his breakthrough," I stated, only to steal a quick nce at the man and his much more vibrant aura than before. "And while there wasn''t enough energy for him to cultivate all the way to his new limits¡­ This entire thing was about just helping him break through the bottleneck, was it not?"


    I waited for a second, giving ire an opening to answer, only to then open my mouth and speak again.


    "You did a great job, dear. And while you turn your eyes only to what you could''ve done better, I, on the other hand, am quite happy you didn''t do it."


    "Huh?" I managed to catch ire so off-guard, herp that served as my head''s pillow jerked up a bit as she nearly jumped.


    "Those batteries were just a failsafe for if something went wrong. They were never designed to supply power back into the system. And I''m much happier with your father now having to properly cultivate than you risking it all just to cut him some ck."


    Saying that, I squeezed ire''s hand once again.


    "I know I''m always the one making you worry, but¡­" I looked up and locked my stare with hers, "I do worry about you quite a bit too, you know?"


    For a moment, we just stared at each other with all the tender love and care we had for each other. And judging by the changing look in ire''s eyes, she first understood and then epted the meaning I''d brought up.


    She wasn''t the only one worrying about her partner in our rtionship. And while I couldn''t deny being prone to finding myself in dangerous situations given my questionable track record of attempted kidnapping, outright battle, and then today''s whole mess¡­


    That didn''t make it any easier for me to imagine a scenario where ire put her own safety in jeopardy just to bring out the most from my project, both for my own sake and for the sake of her father and her n!


    "Okay, get a grip, you two. It''s not really the time for your lovebird routine," Chihiromented, somewhat upset by our casual disy of affection.


    Whether it was the affection part that upset him or how casual we were about it, however, I couldn''t really tell.


    "If it''s not the time for us to grow on each other as partners, then what is it the time for?" I asked, openly annoyed by ire''s dad trying to make us hit the brakes, even if I was fully aware the situation pretty much called for it.


    "Now is the time to scrap everyst device in this factory, turn it back into base parts, and then bring it all back to your warehouse, where Nova will have a pleasant time taking stock of everything and doing his best to draw the schematics for everything," Chihiro revealed with the same kind of look on his face as before, making it quite clear this point wasn''t open for debate but was a necessity that absolutely had to happen.


    As for why¡­ from what little I could remember of the things that happened before I fell asleep, I recalled just enough hints to make an educated guess.


    "As for you," Chihiro turned his face back to the officer, only to then allow a small, pitying smile to emerge on his lips. "I really do hope your department has a good physician, because with the amount of writing you''re about to do, it''s not a question of if you will get a carpal syndrome, but how soon."

 Chapter 199: The man of the ancient order (double chapter)

    A middle-aged man sat down on a bench at the water fountain of a considerably huge, private garden.


    A garden like this was a massive, inexcusable waste of what little habitablend was left in the whole of the spiritual world.


    As always, however, when it came to the governing bodies, the rules applied¡­ differently. As such, the castle where the council of the sages would gather went against every idea and principle prevailing in the area, puttingfort, grandeur, and looks over practicality and efficiency.


    With all of that said, the middle-aged man just sat down on his bench and basked in the warm rays of the sun cast at a high angle down the keep''s inner rampart.


    This ce was a slice of heaven, artificially kept alive only by the constant stream of money and resources pouring in to keep it alive, against all the odds, against all that one would expect to happen.


    The gentle song of the flowing water as it cascaded down the mouth of a stone-carved fish held high up in the arms of a statue of a naked woman. Flowing down the predetermined paths over those statues, the water itself made it seem as if the stone was alive, with the illusion only breaking once one looked close enough.


    Even this illusion, however, upon breaking apart, would add to the grandeur of this ce, where nothing bad ever appeared possible while one''s mind would naturally wander off and enter a state of universe appreciation, a state only those at the top of the whole hierarchy were even aware of.


    Upon a first look, those in the know could assume that the middle-aged,rgely unremarkable man was one who simply fell prey to this phenomenon, locked out of his mind while constantly forced into a state of heightened meditation.


    Unable to bear the weight of the world, he would lose his way back to his own body, only for it to slowly thin out and fade away as more and more of the man''s essence would be consumed by the garden.


    In the harsh and unforgiving world of spiritual masters, it was always to eat or be eaten, even when it came to something as simple as a beautiful garden¡­ or a painful reminder of just how great the spiritual world once was.


    "It''s so lovely¡­" Sitting on the bench, Alex kept his eyes half-open, perfectlyfortable within the confines of the heightened meditation.


    What others could easily consider a dangerous, potentially lethal trap for their minds was nothing more than the natural state of Alex''s mind.


    "If not for those abominations, though¡­"


    Slowly prying his eyelids open, Alex threw a passionately hateful stare towards two huge masts rising so high above the keep, rampart, and then the outer castle walls; even hiding in this garden didn''t remove their tops from Alex''s view.


    He knew exactly what those two weird-looking monsters made out of the earth''s guts were. As much as he abhorred them, Alex''s position disallowed him from the sweet embrace of ignorance, forcing him instead to familiarize himself with all sorts of modern demonical devices.


    "I know things are different for the sages with how they need to maintain their designated parts of the lower world¡­ But still," Alex bit down on his bottom lip before tearing his eyes away from the tops of the transmission towers.


    On their own, they were extremely simple, pretty muchst-age design, one created with durability and efficiency in mind rather than improved to look nice.


    The transmission towers were present in every sage- and council-controlled city, connecting to the spiritualwork through a set of underground cables that stretched between every transmission tower in the higher world, only to then give ess to thiswork to all those who could get their hands on a special device paired to connect to thework''s frequency.


    Or in simpler, more orthodox terms, as if defacing the skin of the earth by burying those ugly tattoo marks below its surface, humans already disrespected the life-giving world enough. But with the wireless technology¡ªhere in the form of a small, funny-looking box added to the top of every tower¡ªeven the air around them started to change.


    The change was slight. So slight, in fact, only those who ascended beyond the realm of mortals could ever perceive how the waves this device spread affected the flow of spirituality in the area.


    "Then again, sages cannot allow themselves to be cut off from the flow of information, so just calm down and keep yourposure!"


    Scolding himself in his own thoughts, Alex took a deep breath before slowly but gradually wheezing it out.


    Alex''s silent, mental torture didn''tst long, however. It came to an end as soon as a fancily dressed man suddenly entered the garden, strolling in a dignified,rger-than-life step that brought him before the middle-aged man.


    "The sages invite you in," the cultivator said, as if it was a slight to his honor to be tasked with the simple job of passing over this message.


    "To hear means to obey," Alex replied, gently lowering his head while pulling on the insides of his robe in such a masterful way that it pulled even deeper over his head, making him seem all the smaller to the cultivator inparison.


    For Alex, things like pride, self-worth, or outward respect, all things that most cultivators would go crazy for¡­ they were all meaningless.


    How could he care about his sense of pride when, even with how high of a rank in the order he achieved, it merely meant to showcase just how good he was at servitude?


    What was so good about maintaining and then reinforcing the sense of one''s self-worth when all it did was delude people into believing their own grandeur rather than pooling their efforts together with others for the sake of the collective?


    And finally, who gave a crap about respect shown by others if not those who craved it over their inability to secure it through normal, respectable means?


    "Good." The cultivator clearly didn''t expect the sage''s guest to ignore his provocation so easily and¡­ effortlessly.


    After all, this wasn''t just him being arrogant but yet another test devised by the sages themselves to let them more urately assess whoever they granted the honor of meeting them in person.


    Find exclusive stories on m_v l|e-NovelBin


    "Who do they think they are to test me like that?" Keeping calm on the outside, Alex was actually boiling with holy, justified fury over the sages'' actions.


    "Sure, they might be local leaders, but we are all but meaningless cogs in the machine built by the precursor. For one cog to deem itself better than a different cog¡­"


    Compared to the ideology of the cultivators that was easily influenced by changing times, trends, and new inventions in the study of the way of Dao, Alex''s order was much happier just sticking to their very roots.


    But with how those could be traced directly to the precursor''s lineage, was it even something to be surprised about?


    The walk from the garden, through the rest of the inner rampart and then to the doors of the keep, took the two of them merely a minute.


    The climb through the keep''s massive stairs, however, stretched to five times as long, with the distance they crossed horizontally now bing a distance they had to cross vertically. The very moment the two of them finally reached the doors leading up to the audience hall, the cultivator suddenly took a step back before lowering his head.


    "For testing you like this, senior, I do apologize," he muttered with a look of awe and respect on his humbled, sweaty face, qualities that only grew in his eyes whenever he stole a nce at Alex''s calm, casual¡­ and perfectly dry face.


    "So this is one of the ancient keeps," Alex thought, dismissing his junior''s worries with a smile and wave of his hand¡­ while the rage inside him only grew stronger.


    For the spell capable of increasing the weight of one''s body the more steps on the stairs one conquered wasn''t something people of the current era were capable of. In other words, this keep dated back to the times of the precursor.


    Or, in even simpler terms, it was something the cultivators stole from Alex''s order in times when their greatness faded away, turning them from the noblest of the sages into mere keepers of the orthodox way.


    In the meantime, the cultivator raised his sweaty face, bringing his hands together before his chest, only to then bow again while striking his right fist against the open palm of his left hand in a gesture of great respect.


    "The sages await you inside, senior!"


    Alex slowly turned his eyes away from the ancient walls of the keep, turning his sight back to the cultivator.


    "Much appreciated, junior," he said while slightly nodding his head, both in acknowledgment of the respect given but also as a form of respect he offered back to the cultivator. And then, as a small smile crept on Alex''s mouth, "may you bask in the blessing of the precursor," he said while raising his hand, arching his forefinger and thumb before putting them together to create a small circle¡­ and then gently striking his fist as a whole against his chest while making sure to keep the loop of his fingers from copsing.


    The cultivator''s face suddenly grew serious¡­ only for him to instantly drop to one knee and lower his head.


    "This junior greatly appreciates the shadow of the precursor''s might!" he shouted while cupping his hands again, finally turning the smile on Alex''s face a bit more genuine than it was before.


    "May the will of the precursor be with you," Alex added as he nodded his head, only to then turn away, grab the door''s handle before pushing it open and stepping inside.


    Right as he crossed over the threshold, Alex pulled on the insides of his robe, casting away the hood from his head and revealing his wrinkle-covered face to the gathering of seven sages inside the room.


    "I am High Inquisitor Alex Grace, here to answer the summons of my juniors," Alex introduced himself as he fished out the insignia of the orthodox order from within his simple yet rather sizable robes, which he liked to wear to conceal the cloth of his order he was forever banned from casting off his skin, unless it was for the bi-yearly ritual of cleansing.


    With the hood of his robe gone, the crossed sword and torch insignia of the order in full view, and the look of boundless confidence on his face, Alex''s presence conquered the room without even the slightest sign of resistance. While six out of the seven sages of the local council lowered their heads to show respect, the man sitting in the highest of all seven chairs didn''t bother to do so, opting instead to rest his face in his cupped hands, staring daggers at Alex as if he held some sort of personal grudge against the inquisitor.


    "We, the humble juniors, have called for we''ve detected the will of the precursor crumbling within our assigned territory," the chief sage replied with a form as standard as the one Alex himself had just used. "As such, we humbly beseech our senior to go and investigate the matter so that all those who dare to defy the order shall be brought back into the precursor''s fold."


    "We beseech senior!" Immediately following the request of the chief sage, all seven of them suddenly stood up from their fancy chairs, cupped their hands together, then bowed down while stretching their cupped hands out.


    ''Yeah, you just can''t be bothered to deal with it yourself, you sly fuckers,'' Alex thought, far too old to be naive enough to believe a single word those sleazy bastards would utter.


    "None who disrespects the will of the precursor shall be spared his tough love," Alex stated proudly, only to then grit his teeth and cup his own hands in response to all the respect shown to him.


    "This request of yours¡­" he held his voice for a moment, seriously considering the idea of going against the flow and refusing the request, all just so he could rub it in those ugly faces¡­ "This humble senior... epts."

 Chapter 200 : Second Catalyst

    AD: 1527, 7th year of the spiritual restoration era


    The smoke rose high into the sky, tainting the pristine, blue of the summer clouds with its dark grey content.


    So far out into the hills, the sounds of the ongoing massacre could be barely heard. The screams of the wounded, begging of the condemned, and all the innocent victims of the brutality of war...


    Those who died died. Those who survived could no longer im to be innocent, not after seeing what the hell looks like from up close and personal.


    Not when the survival came at the cost of either watching all their family and friends die or outright abandoning them to their deaths in a bid for one to survive themselves.


    The restoration movement, with all of its lofty ideas and grand ns for the future, has now devolved into a mere caricature of itself, a thisted rendition of what was, even though it was its main goal to take what is and turn it into what could it be.


    The ongoing battle was a culmination of the great religious war of the continent, one that was bound to erupt sooner orter regardless of the restoration movement.


    Right now, though?


    The very movement aimed to eliminate the cause of those wars has now be a justification for both sides.


    Surprisingly, for the old conservatives, delving into spirituality was a human-given right. A right that rather than being revoked for the past millennium, was simply forgotten.


    On the other hand, the forces often donning the clothes of progression and personal liberty stood in opposition to the spiritual restoration movement, fighting tooth and nail to preserve the status quo from before in which they could y the victim all they wanted.


    The kings and emperors yed the games of the chest, where entire divisions would serve as pawns while provinces for heavier figures.


    Generals and officers of various sides all yed checkers, trying to do their best with whatever limited men and resources they were provided, struggling to ovee the desperation and determination of their enemies who, just like them, knew the price of falling behind or outright losing.


    With the world first set on fire by the first few sparks of the religious conflict, the restoration movement, even though originally peaceful, soon became just another tool to fan the mes of the ongoing conflict.


    A conflict on a scale people have long since forgotten their ancestors used to see.


    This was no longer just a border skirmish between the retinues of two different nobles. It wasn''t even a bout between two kingdoms, aimed to decide the ownership of a disputed teritory.


    This was an all-out war in a world that turned into a battle-royale, where every state, every city, every family... where all of those elements of society were forced to fend for themselves in the face of the constant danger of attack, bandits or something as mundane and boring as a full-on famine.


    This conflict has now raged for several years, growing less or more intense as various events sparked it up, only for the tireless work of the few honorable ones to bear fruit in the form of a local de-esction.


    The results of such a prolonged war could be seen in the current battle itself, or, in how, ultimately... unremarkable it was.


    On one side, a retribution army of the conservative alliance mustered up a whooping... thirty thousand men. ording to the rumors, they aimed to muster ten thousand more but fell short of their goal due to the time constraints.


    The other party, the progressive alliance of those wishing to preserve the status quo by... shattering every force that they deemed to put it at risk has gathered a total of nearly seventy thousand soldiers.


    Despite the great, more than double numerical advantage, however, the two sides were pretty much evenly matched.


    On the conservatives side, they had not only the quality of equipment they provided their troops with but also their very force itself, consisting mostly of war-trained veterans who learned their craft right in the fires of fierce battles they have all survived.


    On the other hand, the progressive party failed to properly arm and muster their men, forcing them to rely mostly on whatever tools they could get their hands on.


    All in all, if there was one thing that this battle proved, regardless of who was going to triumph in it, was just how far the continent decayed.


    From the times when every state could easily muster armies numbering in tens of thousands, to times when the much stronger, conservative faction could raise merely thirty-thousand men, while the progressives, and only by introducing conscription for the third time in theirnds, could bring forth the more than double the numbers of their opponents.


    All of it, mattered not to Orsty as he stood in front of the small cabin hidden in the depths of the hills that neither of the armies could ever dream of taking over.


    This was a ce of great spiritual congregation, one of the few points in space where the precursor of the movement wrestled the gate between the dimensions open, allowing the return of spiritual energy back into the world.


    ''This ce used to be a sanctuary to the movement,'' Orsty thought, listening in to the sounds of the distant battle, with only a mild curiosity over the potential results of the battle.


    This fighting, regardless of who would proim themselves to be the victor at the fighting end, had nothing to do with him, or the people within the shack.


    The battle had nothing to do with them... save for how it only made the precursor''s mood and thus sickness all the worse.


    ''Okay, that''s enough of fresh air for me,'' Orsty thought as he realized that deep in his thoughts, just by listening to the distant noise of the battle, he came to imagine not one but both sides as those stupid, lesser animals who would spare no effort to take from others, even if they could get whatever it was that they desired just by putting half the risk and efforts they did in battle but towards their actual goal instead.


    "Any more, and I would start considering myself some sort of a messiah or whatnot," Orsty muttered to himself before sighing and then turning back and returning to the warm insides of the hidden shack.


    "Close the doors!" Irene lectured Orsty the very moment he dared to return to the shack... or, to be more precise, open its only doors, allowing the cold draft from the outside to snuff out most of the warmth that the small firece managed to create inside.


    "Yes, yes, right away," muttering under his noose, Orsty turned and shut the doors close before kicking some rags in ce to block the few holes at the bottom of the doors from giving way for the warmth to escape.


    "Not like that... Not like that... Not like that..."


    The precursor''s voice...


    It was raspy, torn, and clearly overused.


    And yet, even though it felt as if he spat blood with every word he dared to say, he just kept on going.


    "Not like that... Not like that... Not like that..."


    Out of all five disciples of the man gathered in the shack, not a single one of them had a shred of doubt about what was happening.


    Their master, the precursor of the movement, the catalyst of the age...


    He was dying.


    Even his presence in this spiritual hot spot was a result of their insistence on having their master attempt another breakthrough so that his body could be reinforced even further, giving it a fighting chance against the terrible illness it was burdened with.


    An action of nothing less but desperation, that resulted in nothing more but their master, the man who started the spiritual restoration, turning into a mumbling idiot even as more and more spiritual energy converged all around him.


    "It won''t be long before..." Triss, kneeling down right by the edge of her master''s bed, muttered.


    Born in a vige condemned for housing a heretic, she went from being just a cursed child to a prominent witch in her cursed vige, then a fugitive on the run from the religious fanatic, a nun at the convent, and finally a spiritual convert and the greatest healer the world had seen since the mystery of the ancient times.


    Yet, when faced with her master''s current state, even Triss, the greatest healer alive, could do nothing but just ease the man''s pain.


    As if sensing theing of his demise, the precursor, the man of the hour, the acolyte of the new...


    He stopped mumbling only to open his eyes.


    Eyes filled with so much shine, not a single soul in the shack could have any doubts left.


    "Poor children..." he whispered, struggling to ovee the soreness of his throat caused by all the mumbling he had done before. "I thought I could change it, change how our movement will turn out in the future. That''s why I was so hard on all of you, hoping that by giving you enough tough love..."


    Cough!


    Suddenly choking on his own spit and blood, the group''s master had no other choice but to cease speaking as he focused on regaining his breath.


    "Master!" Trish jumped up, ready to support her master as he attempted to raise up a bit, just so he could, at the very least, sit up as he spoke to his beloved disciples.


    "I''ve been tough on you, hoping I could forever remove the cancer of dumb conservatism from you. Hoping I could," the man started to cough blood again, this time even harder than before, "hoping I could remove the cancer of naive progressiveness. The two extremes that void all the qualities those mindsets otherwise represent. But from what I saw..."


    At this point, it wasn''t just the man taking a moment to rest after exerting himself to speak for a while despite not being in a state to do so. It was also a moment he had to take to weather off the storm of regret his visions of the future brought in hisst hours.


    "From what I saw, in just a few generations, all of what I did, all of what I preached..." the man shook his head, only to then fall back into the set of his pillows. "All of it will get corrupted. And it won''t be until the nexting of the catalyst..."


    Already down on his back, the man started to cough blood once again, clearly approaching his limit. Then, against all the pain, all the refusal his body continued to serve him, he continued to speak.


    "It won''t be until the next, thirding of the catalyst, that the corrupt parody of what we''ve wanted to create will be finally shattered, opening up the way for true, conservative progress to happen."


    "Cough!" the master''s body jerked up in best as if his lungs suddenly decided to fold themselves in half.


    "And that''s why, I leave to you the continuation of my mission. Keep it true. Keep it safe. Keep it hidden..."


    The man''s eyes grew even brighter as the excitement for the future shed in them for onest time.


    "Keep it true. For if you fail to do so, the thirding of the catalyst, the world won''t bear."


    //End of Arc 2: Escrafttion//

 Chapter 201: By the books

    "Your robe has finally arrived!"


    It was quite rare for me to see ire THAT excited. And over nothing more than a set of clothes at that.


    ''She''s so perfect most of the time, I tend to forget she is... well, just a normal girl, even if her life is anything but normal.''


    Between hearing the excitement in ire''s voice and seeing her all happy and excited, I couldn''t really tell which I liked seeing or hearing more.


    "Come on,e on!" Holding the huge package in her hands, ire sprinted across the room, all the way to where Iy in bed with a random fantasy novel I had picked from her father''s library.


    As it turned out, his collection wasn''t limited to just cultivation scrolls and spiritual treatises. In fact, his physical library was on par with, if not even greater than, my online equivalent of it!


    ''I guess that''s what it feels like to be rich,'' I thought, taking onest look at the perfectly well-maintained book beforemitting the page I was on to my memory, closing the book, putting it down on the bed, and looking over.


    The feeling of holding a book couldn''t be any more different than the feeling of holding an electronic ebook reader. There was no smell of the freshly printed pages, the distinctive smell of the ink mixing with the quality paper. There was no texture beneath my fingers other than the cold metal of the device, as opposed to the soft yet stiff padding of the book''s hardcover¡­


    ''I guess being rich is all about those small, minute details most of the normal folk would never notice or bother to care about,'' I thought, taking one more breath before properly following up with my attention in the direction I''d already turned my eyes to.


    And to say it bluntly, the sight of ire nearly jumping as she came over was infinitely more interesting than whatever the story I was reading from that book¡ªthe content of which the mere sight of a happy ire was enough to erase from my memory.


    "Oh my gosh, can you see those colors?!" ire had already started to unpack the package on her way over to the bed. By the time she finally sat down on its edge, she had fully uncovered my custom-made ceremonial robe, an outfit I was to wear during my trip into the spiritual world.


    Looking at the fabric in ire''s hand, even someone of a rtively peasant upbringing like me could see just how insanely expensive those few scraps of material were likely to be.


    Just like there was a difference between silk for the rich and the crude, stic caricature of a clothing material, there was a difference between ordinary silk and one created from the threads of the spiritual cousins of the bug that made the silk to begin with.


    ''Looking at it, the way it was made from¡­'' I thought as I leaned in over ire''s shoulder and took a closer look at the fabric. ''It wasn''t broken, huh?''


    While it was nothing more than a piece of trivia I''d learned from some random educational videos I used to binge during my life, while silk was generally made from the cocoons of a special kind of bug¡­ there were more ways to handle said cocoons than one could ignorantly imagine.


    The silk used for my ceremonial robe, however, was likely the most expensive one, one that was never broken.


    Which was an insanely difficult feat, given how the entire silk cocoon was made with no more and no less than just a single strand of it!


    "This thing¡­" I muttered, only feeling worse and worse the more I thought about wearing such an expensive piece of clothing. Experience tales at m v|l e''-NovelBin


    "Too fancy and expensive for your taste?" ire asked with a huge smile on her face, right as she turned her head to the side, bringing her face merely an inch away from mine.


    From so close, I could barely handle her cuteness. And well¡­ given how there was only one kind of situation that would warrant us putting our faces together so close, it was, by no fault of my own¡­


    "I''m not going to deny feeling a bit¡­ undeserving of this cloth," I admitted, pulling away before a part of my body would push my clothes to the limits of how much they could stretch instead. "But we are doing everything by the book, right?"


    I pulled back on the bed, only to then freeze as I spoke out with my eyes locked on ire''s face.


    The mere mention of those words was like a bucket of cold water poured down her head, forcing her out of her state of excitement and back into serious mode.


    As much as it pained me to calm her down like that, especially when she was so happy and excited¡­


    This wasn''t really the time for either of us to indulge.


    That, we had an entire two weeks for, starting from when the police sent us back home so that they could investigate the disaster in peace without all sorts of annoying civilians getting in their way, all the way to the assigned date on which Chihiro would be officially weed to the spiritual fold, with the two of us serving as both the guests to the spiritual world, his wards, and the witnesses to the ceremony on his end.


    "Everything has to be by the book," ire muttered under her breath as her excitement gave way to somber determination.


    By all means, visiting the spiritual world was an honor and luxury only a select few of the modern world could ever afford, regardless of how rich or influential they were.


    Chihiro, however, by reaching the peak of mortal cultivation before the set date, managed to grab this opportunity and take it, finally gaining the necessary qualifications to reunite with his wife.


    For me, however, a visit to the spiritual world was as much of a tourist event, as much a way to discover new and umon truths about cultivation¡­ as much as it was nothing less than a job akin to a monkey in a circus.


    ''If the marriage standards here already disallow extra-ss marriages in every practical way, then the situation in the spiritual world¡­''


    I didn''t really want to think about it at all.


    In the eyes of the people on the other side of the world''s border, I was nothing more than a pariah, a worm that somehow managed to steal a ce by ire''s side, a ce that I was simply unfit for. And while Chihiro put in great effort to either change or bury whatever history of mine the spiritual world could get¡­


    No matter what he did, some truths were bound to drip between his fingers, reaching the ears of the people we were bound to meet.


    That''s why everything had to be yed perfectly by the book. From my behavior during Chihiro''s passage grant ceremony, through my behavior during the trip over the spiritualnds, all the way to his meeting with his wife''s family, who had pretty much banished him from their ranks, refusing to let the two be together unless Chihiro somehow gained enough achievements to earn his ce by his wife''s side¡­ or, at the very least, did so within the perspective of her family.


    That was the second reason why everything, absolutely everything, had to be yed by the book, why every detail had to perfectly fit the mold, as opposed to sticking out of it.


    When it came to the third reason, however, everything else suddenly lost its meaning.


    It didn''t matter if I acted up or not; it didn''t matter if Chihiro would seem unfit to regain his seat by his wife''s side.


    None of that would matter if we ended up catching the inquisition''s eyes¡­ or rather, if we gave them any reason to believe Chihiro''s n was anything more than just another victim of the power outage caused by, as reported by the police, an unidentified terrorist group that failed to make demands and sought nothing other than death and destruction.


    "Come on, now," ire spoke out, pulling me out of the gutter of my thoughts. "Expensive or not, this isn''t exactly the kind of clothing that''s easy or intuitive to move around in."


    As much as I wanted toin¡­ I lost the right to do so when I decided to be with her despite knowing her family''s circumstances, even if only to a degree. I only reaffirmed this decision when I decided to use their help to further my own agenda, effectively taking at least a part of the responsibility for the consequences of my discoveries and inventions making their way out into the world.


    And right now, even if the current consequence of all my choices thus far was the drag of trying out clothes¡­


    Then, was I even in ce toin about it?


    ''Plus, now that I think about it,'' I thought as I took off my shirt, only to catch ire''s eyes instantly wander all over the naked skin of my upper body, ''changing clothes with ire doesn''t seem as much of a drag as it was back when I was trying out various jeans at a flea market, with nothing but a piece of cardboard below my feet and a flimsy piece of cloth blocking the entrance to the narrow changing room that stopped my ass from freezing off.''


    Soon, my sweatpants and a simple, thin shirt were all gone, leaving me with nothing more than my underwear.


    "Now, just stay still," ire ordered me as the sense of amusement and outright happiness returned to her face when she brought the cloth of my ceremonial robe up before throwing it over my left shoulder. "I don''t mean it in a bad way, but not even you can just¡­ figure out how to properly wear this piece," shemented as she quickly started to move various folds, thickets, and openings around, arranging the robe all over my mostly naked body as if I was a mere model for her attempts at engaging with fashion.


    Normally, I would find that kind of attention quite annoying. But when it was ire putting her hands all over me, circling from my front to the back only to then do it again and again, to wrap her hands around my waist as she reached behind me to fix some part of the robe that came loose, only to then drag her hands up as she attempted to fix the way the robe adapted to the contour of my body¡­


    Normally, I would never allow myself to spend so much time getting dressed up.


    But right now?


    All I needed was to see the happy smile on ire''s face as she joyfully jumped all over, more than just eager to help me get dressed.


    This thought alone was enough to put a smile on my own face, rendering me simply unable to feel annoyed at the thought of just standing motionlessly in ce while events moved along without any kind of direct involvement from me.


    And when she suddenly moved up, pushed her hands underneath my arms only to close them behind my back as she came in for a shallow hug¡­


    "If you stay patient now, I will be as patient as you will want me to tonight¡­"

 Chapter 202: The one thing Claire could never have learned before

    "Now, you finally look like a n-born cultivator!"


    After an extensive period of measuring, fixing, adjusting, and affixing, ire finally stepped back away from me, only to drop her fists down onto her hips before puffing her chest out with a smile of achievement all over her satisfied face.


    "I don''t really feel like one, though," I admitted, looking down at my open hands as opposed to raising my head and staring at my reflection in the huge, door-sized mirror.


    This wasn''t just a random remark or an excuse for something. This was the legitimate state of my head on the topic.


    I''ve already felt like nothing more than a wannabe when it came to crafting, even with all the finished products I had to my name to back my reputation and ability up.


    On the other hand, however, when it came to cultivation¡­


    Wasn''t I just riding the "marry rich and abuse the endless resources the marriage provides" n to skip all the trouble associated with cultivation?


    ''I thought I could kill this feeling once I backed my cultivation not with the n''s resources but my own devices¡­ only to have them all seized by the n so that the government can properly inspect them before approving the whole project.''


    "You will have to work to get rid of this feeling, then," ire stated while crossing her arms over her chest. "In here, you are one of the rtively strongest cultivators by your rank alone. And with how your ideas allowed me¡­ no, how they allowed us to perfect the cultivation path thus far, you are even stronger than your peers of the same rank!"


    That I already knew about. Still, hearing words of such high praise from the mouth of the girl I adored was still something I wouldn''t want to miss.


    "But once we enter the spiritual world, things will change drastically. Over there," ire suddenly looked away, as if unable to bear direct eye contact at the moment, "we are going to be literally weaker than any random child we meet on the street. As it turns out," she sighed before dropping her shoulders a bit, "over in that part of the world, people tend to reach the peak of the mortal realm before hitting their middle teens, only to break beyond that level before reaching adulthood."


    I squinted my eyes but opted to hold myself back from just grabbing ire in a bear hug now that she appeared so defenseless, so vulnerable and unsure.


    I didn''t pull her into a hug, not because I didn''t want to. In fact, I could hardly resist the desire to do so.


    I didn''t do it because this feeling of inferiority she was dealing with right now¡­ she had to find a way to handle it on her own because, between the two of us, she was the one who never had to experience it.


    ''If Ifort her now, then how will she be able to deal with pressure over in the spiritual world?'' I thought, gritting my teeth before turning my eyes down, unable to look at ire in her mentally miserable state anymore, not when I barred myself from intervening.


    "Why are you making such a pained face?"


    Before I could even notice, rather than waiting for me to grab her into a hug, ire approached me herself, only to gently curl her right hand into a loose, open fist before using the edge of her forefinger to gently lift my head by probing my chin up.


    "Let me guess," the corners of ire''s lips perked up into a small, strangely happy smile. "You can''t stand to see me bothered by the idea of how we are likely to be treated over in the spiritual world, am I right?"


    "Actually¡­" I tried to say something, only to end up sighing, lowering my head again, and then powerlessly nodding. "You''ve got a point here. You see, I don''t think you''ve ever been in a situation where everyone around you feels like they are better than you. And while for me it would be old news, I''m not really sure if you can handle it all that easily."


    There was no pride or arrogance in this statement, with how I made it seem as if I was easily capable of something ire was not.


    It was all a matter of perspective.


    I was at the bottom of the socialdder for an extended period of time¡­ but I didn''t get there by taking a jump from the socialdder''s very top steps.


    No, me being at the bottom was a result of a long time, a lot of effort, and ack of results. A situation that gradually came to be over the years as people around me came to realize that no matter how hard I tried, I simply couldn''t cultivate.


    With that said, however, as time went on and my situation started to appear worse and worse than before¡­ all the efforts I put in desperate hope to somehow break through my inability to meditate served as a springboard for my social status a tiny little bit, giving back respect for my extended effort in ces where thepleteck of results took it away.


    With ire, however, the case would be entirely different.


    She was someone born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Someone who reached the peak of what others her age achieved long before she even first met me.


    She was used to being at the top, be it financially, socially, politically, or in terms of power. She''s never had to get the taste of humiliation, defeat, or powerlessness, making it an extremely foreign taste to her, especially with how we both happened to take the lives of our enemies in pursuit of our own safety and goals, starting with the failed kidnappers for me and, quite likely, quite a lot earlier blood initiation for ire.


    Normally, thisck of defeats,ck of experience of the bottom half wouldn''t be all that bad, saving ire the trouble of thinking about all kinds of worries that weremon to the¡­ well, themon folk.


    But right now? With the date for our journey into the spiritual world set for tomorrow?


    "To be honest, I might be overreaching here, but I believe it would be best if I were the second to speak after Chihiro. As in, if we ever happened to be left somewhere without him to save us, I should be the one doing the talking."


    This, again, had to be quite weird for ire, given how ever since we met, I was the onecking the adequate sense of formality and rich-level respect both for myself and for the people I interacted with.


    ire, on the other hand,cked the know-how on how to deal with people who were so significantly stronger and more important than her, her life could be over within a single swath of their hand. And while I wouldn''t say shecked humility in and of itself¡­ she certainlycked in the bootlicking department, one infinitely close to the area of praise that she was great at, yet still so distinctively different, her skills simply couldn''t be applied.


    ''The fact that she knows just what to say to tickle my ego and ambition doesn''t mean she knows how to spew bullshit just to get some powerful idiot off your back,'' I thought, sighing again as I realized that once again, rather than confiding in the girl over the problems that we shared, I just kept trying to think about them all in my own head.


    "Sure thing!"


    Contrary to all the mental dilemmas I''ve faced over theing issues, ire didn''t seem to mind them in the slightest.


    Seeing the intuitive confusion rising in my eyes, ire only widened her smile before reaching out and wrapping her hands around my arm as she pushed her chest against my side.


    "I mean, I don''t really mind acting all submissive¡­ but I do believe a bit of practice wouldn''t hurt before the real run," she stated with a grin.


    I, however, couldn''t really smile.


    Not because her words and the idea behind them failed to make my shivers tremble.


    It was because, as far as I could see, in a moment of doubt, she defaulted to seduction. She defaulted to floating her charms before my eyes and outright pressing them against my arm so that my mind would get preupied with something else¡­


    ''Wait, what if¡­'' I squinted my eyes as a sudden idea appeared in my mind. ''What if it''s not her changing the topic for her own sake, but she''s doing so hoping I will stop worrying about the future so much?''


    Curious, I looked down and off to the side, right into ire''s face.


    Her eyes, however¡­ the very moment she noticed my curious stare, her eyes skirted away as she quickly averted them only for her cheeks to cover with a faint hue of a blush.


    "Well, I''m more than happy to give this¡­ practice run a goter on," I admitted, opting to just stay honest with myself, "but when I asked for you to let me do the talking¡­ I really meant it. And I hope you won''t interfere even if I say some words about myself that you would instinctively want to p me for."


    Even though I still couldn''t get over how it was nothing but freak circumstance that brought the two of us together, with how our cultivation, our emotions, even our minds were intertwined within this mangled web of thoughts, dual cultivation, shared Qi flow, and all the other tiny and hard-to-understand crap, I would have to be obnoxiously looking away from the truth not to realize just how deep her affection for me was.


    Whether it was warranted, justified¡­ earned? That was an entirely different topic I had no desire to crack open anytime soon, not with how much stuff we had going on at the moment.


    Nevertheless, the depth of her affection was something I was fully aware of. Fully aware of how her affection was on a level that only my affection for her could even match. And with that in mind¡­


    I could easily picture her going ballistic upon hearing me disregard and disrespect the entirety of my own being just to smother some young master''s ass with spit of false praise.


    "That''s settled, then," ire, unaware of mytent thoughts, smiled as she wrapped herself all over my arm even harder. "And right in the nick of time, at that," she then added as she angled her head to take a quick look at the disy of the small, elegant clock wrapped around my wrist.


    Following the path of her eyes, I took a look at the screen, only for my face to twist in an ugly grimace.


    After two weeks of rest with only an asional duty forcing us to stop resting and generallyzing around, it was finally the time to get the show on the road. And while our departure for the spiritual world was still only due for tomorrow¡­


    The briefing with the officers of the special bureau, established the very moment the chief of staff confirmed the possibilities behind my devices, was neither something we could afford to miss nor something we were going to enjoy.


    It was simply a duty that our situation warranted, with how we were going right into the lion''s den right as its emissaries went out of their way to investigate the disaster we were secretly involved in¡­ Not to say, the root cause behind most of what happened and what both the special bureau and the local police desperately tried to cover up!

 Chapter 203: Debriefing with the Major (part 1)

    "Shut up, man, it''s about to start!"


    Holding back the tears of joy and powerless fury at the same time, ire wiggled in her chair, trying her best to stay inconspicuous while also escaping the tickling of my fingers.


    Coming to this ce, we both had a pre-established perception of what we were to expect from this¡­ meeting. And now that we came only to end up waiting for the police officer who requested this meeting to be squeezed right into the middle of our extremely busy schedule¡­


    ying around while waiting for the man of the hour to arrive was simply the least I could do to milk the most out of every second I had on my hands!


    "Sorry for beingte, everyone," a man called out right as he made his way past the doors, only to drop a heavy suitcase right atop a small, teaching cathedral before spreading his arms, grabbing the cathedral''s edges, and leaning forward as he scanned the conference room-turned-ssroom with his squinted eyes.


    ''Everyone? I understand using the word, but is it really necessary when there are only four of us here?''


    It was already a surprise to learn that ire and I weren''t the only ones taking part in this debriefing. A slightly less of a surprise to learn who was in charge of conducting it¡­ but all the more surprising when learning who the other two were.


    "First of all," the policeman, the very same high-ranking officer that Chihro so happily included in the whole situation before turning the man into a point of contact between the n and the government, spoke. "First of all, this isn''t school, so stop acting like spoiled and bored children. I''m not here to waste your time, so I hope you two will do your best to focus and get as much out of it as you can."


    For a moment, the man simply stared us down in silence, the look of dissatisfaction in his eyes enough to freeze and then smash into pieces all of our desires to keep ying around.


    After all, he was right. Messing around, as surprisingly fun as it could be, was ultimately just another form of wasting our time. And again, just like the man said, time was currently way too precious for us to waste like this.


    "Okay then, moving on," the officer rolled his eyes at the sight of ire''s and my focused faces. He then grabbed a small remote before pointing it backward and pressing some of its keys.


    In an instant, a small sheet of some sort of white material¡ªmost likely stic¡ªslid out of a small, barely visible slit in the room''s ceiling, dropping all the way to the point where the small bar at the bottom of the screen reached as low as the policeman''s hips. As the movement of the screen stopped, it shed with light¡­ only for this strange, white material to suddenly grow extremely dim.


    It was a piece of technology I''ve only heard about, but never really had the chance of interact. Some sort of insanely detailed mix of hollowed-out stic sheet with an engraved mesh of electrict patterns. A modern technology that used the imperfection of ways human brain recognized colors to cast an illusion only a human brain could properly interpret.


    An invention created with the sole purpose of obscuring any sort of recording by creating visuals in way that simply didn''t work ording to the principles digital cameras operated.


    Next, several points shed up on the material, slowly coalescing into what I easily recognized as the home screen of the most popr PC software in global cirction, one that I was way too familiar with from my nerdy times to fail to recognize.


    But this home screen was just a stepping stone, for a mouse soon appeared on this fancy screen, only for the major to quickly open one of the files and, in perfect government fashion, open what appeared like a simple, crude slideshow.


    "To begin with, the situation, for now, is¡­ manageable," the man exined as he opened up the first slide containing several pictures of the devastated power nt with a series of excerpts likely taken from some sort of confidential report.


    "We''ve managed to contain the spread of the information about the disaster, effectively blocking the truth froming out. We''ve also nted quite a lot of misleading, false evidence for the spiritual inquisition to find, get interested in, and go down the rabbit hole trying to figure it out. And the important thing is, for now¡­" the officer took a momentary pause to let the sense of urgency build up a little, "from what I''ve seen, it appears they took the bait."


    This time, the pause was there to let the four of us¡ªire, me, and the two servants of Chihiro I could vaguely remember seeing by his side in the past¡ªabsorb and process the info he provided both with his exnation and with the images on the slide.


    A momentter, the man pressed something on the remote, switching over to the next, extremely information-dense slide.


    "This here is nothing more than just a bunch of guesses¡­ But rather than just random bits, it''s all educated analysis of the material provided by an agency I consider to be quite capable at their job. And those statistics," the man pointed at several pie and line charts filling most of the slide''s page, "reveal just how likely it is for the inquisition''s investigation to show any kind of results that we might consider¡­ harmful to our project."


    Noticing a certain discrepancy between the man''s words and the images he was pointing at, I leaned forward, sitting down at the very edge of my simple, wooden chair.


    "Excuse me," I called out while raising my hand, fully giving in to the school vibe of the meeting, "is it just me, or do all of those charts imply it''s only a matter of time before the inquisition gets to the truth?"


    Judging by the officer''s words, I expected the most likely case to be about the spiritual investigators finding absolutely nothing amiss within the whole disaster. That was also the entire purpose behind dying¡­


    "Oh¡­" I made a small sound as I realized the true meaning of what the officer said, right as the man opened up his mouth to exin.


    "No matter what sort of dying tactics we implement, it only serves to bring more heat to the case," he revealed. "In that sense, leaving the power nt as it was when we took control of it would give us the best chance at avoiding attracting additional attention, but¡­"


    "It woulde at the cost of leaving the results of their investigation to an unfavorable chance," ire mouthed off silently, most likely intending it to be nothing more than an offhandment, her take on the situation so far.


    In the end, however, shemented on the case just loud enough for the officer to hear her¡­ and smile.


    "That''s right. If we left that ce as it was, it would be only a matter of a day or two before the inquisitors would figure everything out, down to the tiniest details. And with that happening, it wouldn''t take them a week to uncover just how your n was involved, why it was involved, and ask one extremely important¡­ No," the officer shook his head, "extremely scary question."

 Chapter 204: Debriefing with the Major (part 2)

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    The man paused.


    And this time, it was one of Chihiro''s retainers, granted ess to this debriefing, who spoke out to fill the void left in the wake of what the officer said.


    "What was so important for our n to be doing, for our rivals to go that far to indirectly stop us?"


    "That''s right," the officer nodded his head as he smiled lightly. "That''s why, rather than relying on some dumb luck, we went ahead and, at the cost of raising the odds of them getting interested in your n, managed to throw enough wrenches into their investigation to buy you enough time for a quick trip into the spiritual world."


    I took a deeper breath than usual, sensing that we were now approaching the crux of the matter¡ªthe topic that was the actual reason behind this meeting.


    "ording to our current calctions, as long as you are back within a week, you should be safe. Heck, even two weeks shouldn''t be all that bad, given how this amount of time only raises the odds of them finding anything about your n to a mere single percent," the officer borated a bit, only to then breathe out and shake his head before locking his eyes right on my face. "For every day after the two-week deadline, however, those odds are going to double. And that, ording to simple math¡­"


    "You will get a total of six days before they are pretty much guaranteed to figure something out. And while we will do our best to keep dying the investigation¡­"


    I breathed out.


    "It''s not something you can do ad infinitum."


    This time, the officer didn''t show much reaction to me voicing the logical conclusion to what was discussed so far.


    "The question is," I leaned my head over my shoulder while crossing my hands over my chest, "how is it going to get to us if the inquisition finds out about our involvement before we return?"


    This was the absolute crux of this meeting: the degree of danger we would ept by going into the spiritual world while the investigation into the power nt attack case was still ongoing.


    "That''s where it all bes merely a prediction, one that''s much closer to a guess than anything we''ve discussed before," the officer sighed before turning sideways toward the screen and pointing the remote at it.


    Click.


    "This is the list of people that the inquisition got an interest in. The ck names are those who we failed to find any information about after their encounter with the inquisitors. The names marked in red are the people those bastards killed on sight, while the names written in blue¡­"


    I nced over at the predominantly ck list, with only a handful of red and a select few blue names.


    "...are the ones the inquisition admitted to taking away, before presenting the world with a list of their alleged crimes, the verdict of their judiciary system, and finally the long stretch of the prison time they are supposedly serving."


    I swallowed my spit as I realized quite an interesting detail.


    ''There are no other colors marking any of the names. Meaning, they either didn''t bother including freak cases that don''t fit the bill, or¡­''


    ire reached out and grabbed my hand, only to slightly squeeze down on it, most likely sensing the turmoil inside me as I started to connect the dots.


    Click.


    "This here is the list of cases when the inquisition''s involvement nearly sparked a war between the modern and spiritual worlds," the officer exined as he switched the slide to a dense list written in extremely small letters, detailing incidents the inquisition was involved in ever since the modern world started keeping records of such matters.


    Click.


    "And this here is a list of times when we suspected their involvement but found no evidence of it."


    Finally, after the following click, the screen turned dark rather than revealing yet another set of worrying data. At this point, the officer put the remote down onto his lectern before grabbing its edges again as he leaned in.


    "In other words, it''s best if you return within a week. It''s important for you to return within two, while knowing you are already pushing your luck. And there better be some REALLY important reason if you end up staying there for even a day longer than that. In the meantime, however, while you two will be away¡­"


    The officer looked over to the side, to where two of Chihiro''s men sat in rtive silence.


    "I guess that''s where the two of use in," one of the men I had just looked at suddenly announced in a calm, perfectly collected voice. "Or, to make it painfully obvious," he added as he turned to look directly at me, "we will be here while you guys are out, ready to take the fall for whatever the inquisition discovers in case you fail to return in time."


    Hearing this, I allowed my left eyebrow to raise a bit, as I couldn''t help but ask quite the obvious question in the private realm of my own mind.


    ''If you are willing to take the fall for us, for what reason should we hurry back home from the spiritual world, then?''


    "And the reason why this is a bad scenario is quite obvious," the man continued, his small, cheeky smile proving he was fully aware of the obvious question that nigh-instantly floated into my head.


    "Between the two of us, you guys know infinitely more about the case, making it that much easier for you two to make a believable lie. And ultimately, this is going to be your responsibility anyway," the man exined, only to then sigh as he leaned back on his chair.


    "All in all, while we will be here to cover your asses, the most we can do is try to stall for you to get just a little bit more time to return once¡­" the man hesitated a bit before shaking his head a little, "no, not once. IF things take a turn for the worse."

 Chapter 205: Clans Town

    "Well, that was¡­ worrying?" I muttered as we left the room, only to head directly to the ce''s courtyard to wait for the car assigned to take us to our next destination.


    This was all a result of Cassandra''s n interference, the effects of which the n had yet to fully shed away.


    With most of the n''s assets still locked by the government, we found ourselves in quite the inconvenient position of having to rely on¡­ well, the very same government to fund the current expansion and relocation warranted by all the heat on the original Qi factory.


    But the effects of the government''s interference weren''t limited to just outward expansion either. With hardly any money¡ªof a scale Chihiro and ire were used to, that is¡ªwe couldn''t really afford to keep going as we did in the past.


    That''s why, rather than operate out of our private mansion or work around the government freezing our funds by emptying out the coffers of my firm that, from a legal standpoint, had nothing to do with the n and was thus saved from the taxman''s scrutiny¡­ we had all moved to a small n''s vige, as it would be called in the past, or the n''s headquarters as it was its current, lore-urate name.


    This small vige was where I first realized the peculiar position of the cultivation ns living within the modern world.


    On one end, they were knees-deep in the local politics, business, and societies, making them pretty much a carbon copy of the local city elites. If anything, the only differentiating factor there was how the cultivator ns boasted greater personal strength than normal modern elites while also often liking to keep more to themselves than the average.


    That was the picture of the high-rank cultivators within modern society. But, from the moment I first stepped into the vige, this image shattered into a thousand, unrecoverable pieces.


    This vige was everything that I would expect a military base to be, while also being nothing like it.


    From the conference halls, through the private and n-owned offices, shops, bustling service street, a local grocery chain, and even a set of several warehouses¡­


    To say that this vige was a city in its own right would be a gross¡­ understatement. One that deviated from the truth so far, it was no different from a lie.


    As I came to learn over the past two weeks, this ce was closer to an autonomous country than merely a city. In fact, historically speaking, it was just a frontier settlement located within the unimed no-man''snd between the two superpowers, rendering it effectively autonomous from both the modern world and its spiritual counterpart.


    That was the theory and historical basis. The reality, however, boiled down to how the onlyw of the modern world that extended to this ce was the tax code.


    And just like that, a strange bnce was achieved between the force of the n imposing and enforcing the rules, the government''s tax interference forcing the proper organization of the ce to enable efficient tax collection, and the strong influences of the spiritual world on the ce and its naturally more cultivation-inclined poption than the modern average¡­


    The n''s vige was less than a city yet, at the same time, much more than just a country.


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    Right now, despite being the actual heirs to this entire ce, we patiently waited by the side entrance of the building for our car, dressed pretty much exactly the same as any random Joe and J one could pull from the crowd.


    In here, there was absolutely no reason for us to unt our status¡­ not unless we wanted to be swarmed and thus make the travel to our next destination all the harder than it should be.


    "To be perfectly honest, I thought we would find out something new about the ongoing situation," ire muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest, leaned her back against the cold wall of the entrance, and locked her eyes on the darkness of the dimly lit street ahead.


    "Instead, all we got was pretty much what we knew already," I tuned in only to, pretty much right away, sigh. "I mean, save for the timing, that part was new to me."


    "Really?" ire raised her eyebrows while turning her head to give me a side-eye. "Are you trying to tell me those timelines¡­ surprised you?"


    The corner of my lips moved up as my mouth twitched a bit.


    "That I didn''t say," I grinned back at the girl, only to then heave my head back as I looked up to the sky. "The timelines that officer provided were well within my estimates, but still," I shook my head before looking down, just in time to catch the headlights of our car appearing far up the empty street, "it''s nice to have some sort of confirmation."


    The conversation we had right now wasn''t something of importance or great urgency. To a degree, it was nothing more than small talk, aimed both to entertain us for a moment and to help us better process what we''d learned¡­ or, at least, were supposed to learn from the meeting.


    Before long, we found ourselves in one of the n''s cars, only to, after a short and peaceful trip, find ourselves all the way back at our temporary lodge within the lone hotel of the n''s town.


    "Do you need help packing?" I asked pretty much as soon as we entered the penthouse we''d rented for free, only to instantly get myself moving toward the shelves filled with brand-new clothing.


    Apparently, the goal of the government freezing our funds was to press us economically into obedience.


    That n had long since fallen through with as little as a partial funds release that Chihiro secured, along with the support for the industry development of my prototypes.


    Still, the majority of the n''s assets remained frozen, impossible for anyone to ess. And while we were supposed to revel in austerity and save every penny we could¡­

 Chapter 206: Tens of thousands of arrays

    "Were you guys preparing for the world war or something?" I asked as I ran my hand through all the clothes in the apartment''s wardrobe, quickly noticing quite the number of brands even aplete fashion amateur like me could recognize.


    "This is our kingdom," ire smiled, only to pull out two different dresses before, while still keeping them on their hangers, pressing one of them against her front, giving me a look, and waiting for a moment before switching her hands and pressing the other dress against herself instead.


    "Second one, for sure. But that''s only if you want to walk around at home. Otherwise, for the sake of saving me from jealousy, the first one," I quickly answered the unspoken question, only to see ire''s lips curve up in a lovely smile as she ostentatiously grabbed the much sexier but also much more revealing of the two dresses she picked seemingly at random before stuffing it into one of the bags that were already prepared in the room.


    "We will be wearing official robes whenever outside of our private quarters, so¡­" ire leaned her head over her shoulder while putting on the best poker face she could muster, "look forward to it?"


    For a moment, I simply stared at ire''s expressionless face¡­


    Only for both of us to suddenly startughing.


    "At this point, just you telling me to look forward to something is enough to get me going," I admitted through myugh while wiping the small tears of joy that formed in the corners of my eyes. "But we don''t really have the time for it now, so, if you could spare me the beauty I cannot responsibly hold¡­"


    I changed my expression, ying it out as if I were outright begging the girl to spare me the temptation.


    "Won''t we have all the time in the world while in transit?" ire asked with a small hint of surprise on her face, while failing to follow through in any of the ways I expected her to.


    "Wait, you mean to do it while on a ne?" I raised my eyebrows in turn, shocked by just how daring my cute little ire could be. "I mean, it would be one thing if we rented a huge one, but doing it in a small, private ne?"


    The hesitation in my soul grew to the point it started to cut through the barrier between the world of ego and the world of materia as it started to show directly on my face.


    "Huh?" ire jumped a little, only for the handful of clothes she gathered on her left arm to slip off it and fall to the ground. "We are not taking the ne, though?"


    Once again, my eyebrows moved as far up my forehead as was physically possible.


    "Isn''t the spiritual world pretty far away? Wait, no, how else are we going to get there if there are no roads that a car could traverse?"


    Even though the n''s city was located in the no-man''snd between the two superpowers, it was well within the zone directly influenced by the modern world. And judging from what I knew¡­ it would be much easier to reach one of the seven major cities of the modern world than to actually reach the border of the spiritual realm!


    All of that, I thought we could ovee by simply using a ne. But now that I''d learned that wasn''t the case¡­


    "There''s a powerful barrier of many, many tens if not thousands of arrays buried all along the spiritual world border. And while some say it serves to contain the spiritual Qi from seeping into the modern world and thus away from the spiritual one, its actual aim is quite different," ire suddenly changed the topic, her face growing serious enough for me to drop everything I was doing and sit down with her on the edge of the apartment''s bed, fully focusing on her story rather than something as silly as just packing up.


    "Ever since the great disaster of the reformation era, the cultivators were at a great advantage over mortals. It was only due to their desire to do things slowly but steadily that we are in this state of quasi-cold-war right now," ire started to exin. "They wanted to take their time conquering the world, never going on the attack until they fully controlled and pacified theirst conquest. But that gave the mortals all the time they needed to develop stronger and stronger weapons."


    That part of the history I knew. It was a major module in the basic history course both in primary and middle school, after all!


    "Starting with the first repetitive firearms, this bnce of¡­ unbnced powers started to change. By the time automatic guns came into y, neither of the two worlds could afford to attack the other, given the losses both sides would suffer from doing so," ire continued to exin, all the while her mood visibly sank into the abyss.


    "The situation flipped in favor of the mortals the moment they created the first atomic bomb," ire stated the obvious. "Cultivator or not, if you are within the st radius, you are gone. And so, as this discovery led to the rapid cooling and outright degradation of the rtions between the members of each side, the cultivators made a concentrated effort to protect their realm. And that''s how the barrier came to be," ire concluded, only to then spread and shake her arms.


    "But how is it¡­"


    "As far as I''m aware, the function of this outer barrier is extremely simple and limited. All it does is limit the speed at which objects can travel through it. If you go too fast, it uses your own energy to stop you. Only by going through it while keeping your speed below the threshold of its activation can you pass safely through."


    I squinted my eyes a bit. Experience new tales on m v|l e''-NovelBin


    "So that''s why nes are a no-go," I muttered under my nose, genuinely interested in the details of ire''s story and actively trying to engage her. "I mean, rockets and drones are out too," I added as I realized the full idea behind the barrier.


    It wasn''t there to stop people from moving.


    No, that task normal cultivators were more than enough toplete.


    No, the only purpose of that barrier was to stop the greatest weapon of the modern world from ever deploying in their ancient sanctum. And by stopping all kinds of drivers that could carry the bombs over, the spiritual world pretty much eliminated the risk of ever being on the receiving end of it!


    "But that leaves us with a question that I posed before," I pointed out, only to lean back while locking my eyes on the girl. "How do we get there, then?" I asked, only to then smile a little, "and get there in a way that allows some coitus to boot¡­"


    Hearing this, ire actually smiled, only to then lean back, strike my chest with her back, and send us both down onto the cushions.


    "It''s simple," ire grinned as she leaned her head over before pushing it forward a bit and gracing my lips with a quick peck. "We will use a bus-glider, hence why the journey is scheduled tost for over eleven hours."


    She quickly followed that statement with a wild grin.


    "And once again, you better be ready to keep up!"

 Chapter 207: Bus-glider

    "So this is a bus-glider¡­" I moaned in a weird way when the vehicle finally came into view.


    As much as I wanted to just throw all of our baggage inside and go get some rest for the first leg of the journey, I simply couldn''t help but freeze in ce as I stared silently at what had to be the manifestation of the magical car a toddler could draw.


    A bus-glider was¡­ pretty much, as the name suggested, a typical city bus outfitted with a set of ridiculously long and thin wings.


    Sure, there were some elements of decor all around said wings that made it clear this vehicle was nowhere near as simple as it appeared to be at first nce¡­


    But still, it was a bus with some ridiculous wings.


    And somehow, I was expected to ept it as a traditional vehicle for all those going through the initiation ceremony, like Chihiro, to cross into the spiritual world.


    As Chihiro''s wards and ceremony witnesses, we were obviously going toe with him.


    There were simply too many benefits of using along for anyone to ever seriously debate this issue. In fact, the benefits of this trip were so damn obvious, it would be weird and questionable if we found some excuse not to go!


    ''And with the inquisition running all around to find any clue¡­ rather than poking their eyes with our unexinable presence, it''s best if we remove ourselves from the picture for a while, just how everyone expects us to do so.''


    It was with a heavy heart that I prepared myself to leave the modern world. Even here, in the very heart of the n''s city, the influence of technology was on a level iparable to the influence of cultivation. For the few days that I''d spent here, I didn''t really feel all that different than I would by working and living back at our mansion.


    Investigation of the inquisition aside¡­ this was still one of the most crucial moments for the development of my device and its shift from just a fancy toy to the one thing the modern world did best¡ªintroducing my concept through the lenses of an economy of scale.


    This was the most important step in the whole process of my device starting as a prototype, turning into the first model that not only worked at a muchrger scale than before but could also be replicated¡­ and now, bing the backbone of a whole state-sponsored industry.


    And while I couldn''t really grasp the emotional weight of what the introduction of this device of mine was going to do to the country and the modern world as a whole¡­ I was more than aware that this was the exact thing that the government was looking for.


    A new branch of technology that could pull everyone from the quagmire of insanely oversaturated growth of the existing industries. This was just the thing that could start a new financial bubble, the growth of which could easily pay off the dividends necessary to manage the fallout of the existing bubbles.


    Right now, the world as a whole stood on the precipice of yet another kind of industrial revolution that not only introduced a whole new kind of energy, the industry''s fuel, into the mix but also allowed mortals of the modern world to easily bridge the gap of personal strength between themselves and the cultivators from the spiritual world¡­


    And I was expected to just ditch it all, ditch my very child, leaving it in the hands of some government officials while I happily went away for a vacation to a foreign, exotic ce?!


    "Are you alright?" ire asked, slowly approaching my side before gently wrapping her hands over my wrist as she looked up to my lowered head.


    At some point, while drowning in my thoughts, I went from staring at the ridiculous vehicle ahead to digging with my eyes at the ground,pletely lost in the realm of my own imagination.


    "Yeah, this vehicle," I prodded my head toward the bus-glider, "it made me question everything for a bit."


    ire smiled, like a child whose prank went perfectly well.


    Regretfully, she didn''t proim this all to be just a joke, with the real bus-glider hidden somewhere out of sight.


    "Having second thoughts?" she asked instead, backing off a few steps before resting her hands down on her hips and smiling cheekily.


    I took a deep breath before stealing a nce at the pocket on my chest.


    In therey one of the main reasons why I ignored all the reasons for me to stay and decided to just go with the flow.


    "Not really," I shook my head before raising it up and grabbing the handle for my baggage case before picking up the pace. "Between the device and the entity¡­" I hesitated for a second, only a second toote to stop this word from leaving my mouth.


    Even in the n''s town, there was no telling who might be listening. And while entity was a word cryptic enough¡­


    What was the point of needlessly setting up gs for the future me?


    "Between what''s happening here and the opportunities we can get simply by breathing in the air on the other side of the border," I shook my head right as we approached the cargo hold of the bus, situated just behind the back edge of the wings, right below what would normally be the bus''s deck. "Yeah, there''s absolutely no way I would hesitate now."


    The one and only reason why we could give up on the factory was thanks to the golden orb''s ability to leave its birthce.


    To the best of my understanding of its nature, it infused itself into the grid of the modern world, easily able to manifest itself anywhere where there was a proper connection to the global powerwork.


    This allowed us to give up on the factory, starting the process that was about to bloom right as we were departing to the other half of the world. But this new nature of that golden orb, as hard as it was to get into contact with it nowadays, resulted in the small coin-like item resting in my breast pocket.


    A passive recorder, or how I came to call it, was the golden orb''s gift for this trip, designed to store all kinds of data about the Qi flow and mana circuitry of the spiritual world.


    After all, now that this golden orb, a being born out of my constitution, absorbed¡­ no, now that it merged with the power grid of the modern world, the best way to let it grow even further was to feed it all the data the modern worldcked, data from the world where rather than technology, it was spirituality that reigned supreme.


    "There," I moaned as I threw in my case into the baggage hold of the bus before repeating this process with ire''s stuff.


    "Well, that''s good to hear," ire then smiled, wrapping her hands around my lower arm as soon as I was done with the luggage, only to then bring me over to the sliding doors barring the entrance to this weird vehicle. "Because I really wouldn''t want all that I''ve learned for theing night to go to waste!"

 Chapter 208: A bus full of contradictions

    The inside of the glider-bus was as ridiculous as its outside. Yet, while the outer shell made the whole thing resemble a product of a child''s imagination, the insides were as shocking as they were...


    No, not just well, perfectly well arranged by what I could only call a design genius.


    The whole vehicle was the size of a standard city bus, no bigger nor any smaller. And while from the outside it looked all normal¡ªsave for its weird wings¡ªthe inside was the opposite of normal.


    The metal floor of the passengers'' deck was ripped away and reced by high-ss wood, a square meter of which was most likely more expensive than several months'' worth of rent back at my old ce.


    The quality of the floors pretty much reflected the quality of the materials the rest of the vehicle was made of, regardless of whether they only served to tickle the vanity of the bus''s owner or if they had an actual, practical usage.


    Even the interior of the bus was split to allow for rtivefort, with its back divided into two separate bedrooms, its middle upied by a small kitchte and enclosed toilet, and the front currently hidden behind the only closed doors within the whole construct.


    ''I guess that''s where all the machinery is,'' I thought, confidently following after ire to the front part of the bus, only for my eyebrows to raise high on my forehead when she pushed the doors open¡­


    And revealed a spacious cabin¡ªcockpit?


    It was free from any kind of equipment I wouldn''t expect to see on a bus, save for the front panel at the driver''s seat housing a control panel taken straight from some sort of sci-fi movie.


    There was no steering wheel for the bus''s driver to control its direction, nor gas and brake pedals to manipte its eleration. Instead, all the driver had to operate the vehicle with was a set of abnormally ancient-looking levers and several dials with various scales engraved into the very ss said dials were made of.


    "This is¡­" I muttered, taken aback by the sight, right as ire took a step forward and pulled me along¡­ only to then turn and push me away, causing me to stumble and fall onto one of the seven bolted-down passenger seats equipped with the one item no bus ever bothered to install¡ªa proper seat belt.


    Just like with anything else within this bus-glider, the designer behind it made sure to revel in luxurious details, switching from the simple seat belt design all those who ever used cars would be familiar with in favor of a much moreplex and thus expensive one.


    "Strap in," ire suggested as she casually took a seat right next to me, wasting no time before reaching for her belt, pulling it over her chest and then all the way to herp, only to then fish out the bottom half of the belt before locking the two pieces together, effectively securing herself to her seat.


    "Are we in some sort of a hurry?" I asked, throwing her a curious stare.


    There was no driver in the bus nor any sort of indication that would allow me to assume this thing was operated by artificial intelligence.


    In terms of technology, and with the exception of its control panel, the insides of this bus were luxuriousvish, even¡ªbut they failed to match my expectations when it came to how modern they were.


    The faucets back in the kitchte were more of a piece of art than a basic utility designed to provide water from its connected systems. Yet, for all the artistic value hidden in this carefully crafted piece of a faucet¡­ it was still a design that grew obsolete in the modern world over two and nearly three hundred years prior.


    The same applied to pretty much every part of the vehicle, where each of its individual parts could be sold off at some sort of charitable auction¡­ mostly because the older the stuff sold, the more eager the weird customers of the auction would be to fork out for it.


    "Just how the hell does this thing move¡­" I muttered under my breath while pulling on the belt to bring it closer and closer to myp, struggling to connect the bottom part to its upper counterpart.


    "Don''t pull so hard on it," ire advised. "It has the tendency to lock in position, sometimes reading a simple pull as a call to action."


    At least in terms of the safety belts, pretty much nothing changed.


    Sure, the designs were improved. The materials were switched around. At its core, however, it was still the same.


    "Okay," I whispered, my eyes trained on the safety belt I quickly untangled before giving it some ck, only to then pull on it again.


    Finally, the two parts of the seat belt connected, only for the entire front of the bus to suddenly turn dark.


    "Departure in 10, 9, 8¡­"


    "Just keep calm. It''s a weird feeling at first, but you''ll get used to it in no time," she exined.


    "Wait, what fee¡ªWOAH!"


    The bus-glider, just like its name suggested, suddenly rose in the air as if it were a helicopter with several sets of invisible wind-des currently spinning at their maximum speed above the borately decorated roof of the cabin.


    This was the only exnation I coulde up with at first, only for such a guess to fall apart when I saw the glow of spirituality all over the bus''s wings¡ªa glow that would appear only when spiritual energy was dense enough to start affecting its surroundings through physical means. Stay tuned for updates on mvl


    Nevertheless, the rise of the bus-glider was everything but fun. From how my balls threatened to pop out through my throat to how the sudden and rapid eleration threatened to squeeze my whole body into a package¡­


    Just like ire warned, using this vehicle for travel was absolute torture. And it wasn''t until the bus finally reached its optimal elevation when its eleration stopped¡­ only to then start vibrating a tiny little bit as the sounds of its engines suddenly roared inside.


    "And now, we just need to drive over," ire exined, smiling a little right as the bus suddenly dropped onto something¡ªlikely a seemingly random cloud¡ªonly to gain traction on it and just¡­ start driving forward.


    "On that note, where is Chihiro?" I asked once the negative aftertaste of the bus''s ascent finally left my mouth, allowing me to focus on the more pressing matter. "I always assumed he would be the one to steer this thing¡­" I exined.


    "This kind of bus steers itself," ire quickly cut my guesswork short, only to release her seatbelt and rise from her chair, walking over to the corridor running through the cockpit''s entire length, where she finally brought her hands up and stretched them out. "As for Father," she then added, only for a hint of amusement to sh in her eyes, "if I''m correct, he should be somewhere down below the neck," she revealed while ending her lovely stretch and pointing her finger down at the elegant, wodden floor. "The coal won''t shovel itself into the engine, you know?"

 Chapter 209: While its a joke, theres a hint of truth in it

    "If I''m correct, he should be down below the deck, doing nothing but shoveling coal into the bus'' engine!"


    Hearing this, I turned my eyes and locked them on ire''s face, not sure whether to take her words as a joke¡­ or some sort of cryptic message designed to prevent those not in the know from understanding it.


    But¡­


    Now that we were up in the air, driving on some sort of invisible path, who could be there to listen to what we randomly talked about?


    "Don''t give me that look," ireughed it off as she rose from her seat pretty much the moment the bus reached its cruising speed, allowing us to freely move around it once again. "It was a joke, just a joke," she waved her hand to dismiss the entire point. "Him shoveling the coal, that is," she then quickly added as her lips quivered into a small smirk. "Then again, he''s the one powering the bus, and he does so from a special station below the deck, so while a joke, what I said wasn''tpletely devoid of truth."


    Hearing all of this, I couldn''t help but look uneasily down towards the very wooden floor we were now standing on, the floor below which, ording to ire''s words, her father toiled away without rest to keep this whole weird-ass ship flying.


    "Is this some sort of test?" I asked to confirm the very first theory that came to my mind. "Because if it''s not, then why not just take the ne all the way over to the border, and then get this bus flying from there?"


    I raised my eyes to the girl, only to see ire cross her arms over her chest while nodding her head with a knowing smile.


    "You said it, it''s a test," she admitted before dropping the act and leaning her back against the side of her chair''s backrest. "Only those who properly reached the peak of mortal cultivation, those truly worthy of stepping into the spiritual world, can keep this vehicle flying for as long as it takes to reach the city beyond the border."


    Turning her eyes down, ire stared at the floor, as if trying to somehow have her eyes evolve the ability to see through whatever stood in her eye''s path and observe the point of her interest directly.


    "Wait, why are you talking about flight when we are clearly just¡­ driving?" I asked, only to then squint my eyes as I came up with a much better, much more fundamental question. "No, how is this bus even operating to begin with?" I changed the question, only to then look around before locking my eyes on the pristine emptiness of the sky outside, just severalyers of ss in the bus''s window away from my reach.


    "Once again, you are right on the money. When I said we were flying, I meant it as a simplification, not the honest-to-God truth," ire smiled yfully as she admitted to the truth. "As for how this whole thing works¡­"


    This time, the girl hesitated for a second.


    "I don''t really know how each of the parts works, but the outer part of the wings keeps us in the air, the middle part houses the bulk of all the formations, while the innermost parts of the wings have two purposes," she exined, only to then reach out, grab my hand, and start pulling me back the way we came from.


    "First, it''s through the innermost part of the wings that the spiritual energy gets fed from within the bus proper to the spiritual machinery in the other parts of the wings," ire continued to speak as we crossed the cockpit''s corridor and left the ce, getting right back to where we started our small bus-glider journey from.


    "The other task of that part of the wings is to produce a track for the bus to drive on," ire continued to exin as she dragged me all the way to the back of the bus before pushing the doors to the outermost bedroom open and leading both of us inside.


    "Makes a track¡­" I muttered as I sat on the edge of the bed, torn between the mystery of how this weird vehicle operated and the sight of ire just¡­ going around her small tasks as she emptied out her pockets and dropped all of her personal items on the surface of a small, window-equipped hybrid of a nightstand and makeup station.


    Then, after taking a few moments to digest everything that I knew, everything that I''d just heard, and everything I could somewhat guess¡­


    Your journey continues on mvl


    "Do you mean to say that this bus creates its own path to drive on?" I asked, not sure if I actually heard ire right.


    It wasn''t because what she said was unlikely.


    I questioned my own hearing because what she said made absolutely little to no sense.


    "Because manifesting spiritual energy into a physical form is an arduous task, even for those at the very top of mortal cultivation," ire stated, as if pulling the words out of my mouth to vocalize the very thought that shed in my mind just a moment ago.


    Then, however, rather than following through with the vibe of her response, ire nodded her head to actually agree with the point she just made!


    "Normally, that certainly would be the case. Back before his breakthrough, Dad could hold the manifestation for several tens of seconds. After advancing to the peak, this time extended all the way to several minutes, putting him on par with the geniuses of the rank and those who are only a step away from advancing beyond mortal limits," ire happily exined, only to then start taking her outerwear off, throwing each taken-off piece down to the floor without the slightest care in the world.


    "Isn''t this travel supposed to take over ten hours, though?" I pointed out while fixing the pillows below the back of my head so that I could spectate ire''s casual striptease in absolutefort and with full attention. "Wait, maybe it works on some sort of overcharge interyed with power breaks¡­"


    "No, it does not," ireughed out, only to pull her long-sleeved shirt off, revealing a cute tank top just long enough to reach above her belly button. "The system that allows this kind of travel is why this bus alone is worth nearly as much as half of the n''s town," she revealed, only to pull down her sweatpants, revealing the kind of clothing I''d never seen her in before¡ªhot pants just long enough to spark a debate over whether they were actual pants or just panties made out of fancy material and cut to mimic proper short pants.


    "Now you are getting me all bothered¡­" I admitted while rolling my eyes when ire leaned toward the mirror, pretending as if she was checking some sort of fine detail on her face while actually just leaning down to give me the perfect view of her shapely ass.


    "Are you that curious about how it works?" ire asked while looking over her shoulder with a satisfied, knowing smile.


    At this point, we both knew that neither of us meant the topic we actively discussed anymore.


    Then again, just for decency''s sake, ire straightened her back before turning on her heel to face me and closing her arms over her scantily covered chest.


    "I''m sorry, but I actually have no clue about the principle behind that system. All I know is that it stretches one''s spirituality? Or maybe it amplifies it? Who knows, maybe it''s some sort of spiritual algorithm that makes it just THAT much more efficient than doing it normally?"


    Wasting no time out of the precious few hours we had left to enjoy ourselves in peace, ire moved over, approaching the bed not from its side as any normal person would, but opting to approach it from the direction I had my feet at, only to then climb on top of it on all fours and continue climbing up the bed, all the way to the point where she loomed directly above me, looking down at my face while she enjoyed watching me struggle not to let my eyes get drawn to her dangling chest.


    ''At this point, what''s the use of even wearing clothes?'' I thought, doing my best to pretend not to notice how she wasn''t wearing a bra or how her position made her boobs nearly fall out from underneath her tank top.


    "Either way, regardless of how it works, it works," ire shrugged her shoulders a bit, sending her entire upper body into a quick, endearing jiggle. "What''s important is how it gives me all the time in the world to give my promise another try."


    For a moment, I could adore ire''s beautiful, confident, and determined smile¡­ only for her to suddenly copse down.


    Yet, rather than falling directly atop my chest, ire shifted the bnce of her body to stumble down to my side instead, ending up in a position I''d expect her to be in when we hugged each other to sleep.


    "This¡­" ire''s voice struck directly against my brain as her breath carried her words into my right ear from so close, her lips nearly brushed against the lobe of my ear. "I hope that¡­ this makes it clear¡­" she continued to whisper, keeping her voice at just the perfectly soothing level, loud enough for me to clearly hear it while silent enough not to break my sleepy immersion in the experience, "which of my promises I want to fulfill tonight."

 Chapter 210: Two distinct advantages

    Here''s the passage with grammatical corrections, preserving the original meaning, word choice, and style exactly as requested:


    "I know I said I will be doing it today, but..." ire''s voice broke a bit as she hesitated, not sure how she was supposed to proceed.


    She then gulped her saliva down before looking directly into my face.


    "I''m sorry, I know this breaks the flow and immersion, but..." she bit down on her bottom lip with a look of unease on her face. "How do I begin?"


    Looking up into the girl''s face, I...


    I actually wasn''t sure how to react.


    A part of me wanted to justugh out. A different part of me heavily protested against doing so, fearful of having ire feel bad about her attempt just because of a failed start. Then, there was a part in me that wanted to just hurry her up while yet another part was rushing to help her out.


    "To be honest, I don''t think that really matters," I replied after taking a moment to consider all possible angles from which I could approach this topic. "And well, it''s only the two of us here, so..."


    This time, I was the one hesitating.


    "So, does it really matter all that much? Whether whatever you do works or not, I''m the only one who will witness it. And, by now," I raised my hand only to gently ce it down upon ire''s cheek before gently rubbing the bottom of my thumb over her soft, slightly blushed skin, "by now, I hope I made it abundantly clear that I''m thest person to mock you or your attempts."


    I took a small moment to just caress ire''s cheek, letting the emotions build up in peace, undisturbed by unnecessary words.


    "The only reason why you are giving this sort of thing a try is to make me feel good. So, just what kind of an awful man would I have to be to belittle you over it?"


    "I..." ire attempted to say something, only to end up pursing her lips and looking away. She then gulped her saliva down, giving me the privilege of watching how her throat moved as she did so, only to then slowly lower herself over my chest before reaching with her lips towards my right ear.


    "I''m going to begin now~~~"


    ire''s hushed voice, while designed to be a whisper, somehow pierced me straight to the core, giving rise to a wave of chills that started all the way down at my feet only to quickly cut through my entire body and end at the very top of my head.


    From there on, I ended up subjected to all sorts of different sensory experiences, from just the sound of her calmly breathing as sheid by my side, through the rustling on the bedsheets as she slightly moved in ce, all the way to when she brought her head a bit closer...


    Only to blow some air into my ear.


    Before long, ire started to involve her hands more, be it by snapping her fingers all over my face and letting me figure out which direction the sound came from, or simply reaching out over my head with her arm only to cuddle the other side of my head while she continued to whisper some sweet nothings into my other ear.


    ''Dang,'' I thought as I fell deeper and deeper into a state of absolute rxation, soon breaching the border of a state of semi-meditation¡ªsomething that I''d failed for five long years to achieve with training and discipline.


    And here I was, breaching the border between introspection and cultivation out of the sensory experience of having a girl speak and act softly all around me.


    This experience was vastly different from the ASMR I was used to. And by every means, I was a connoisseur of this kind of content, often escaping to its warm and soothing embrace to ignore and forget about the loneliness that prevailed through the better part of my entire life up until today.


    The experience now was nowhere near the quality of some of the better audios I''d managed to dig out, ones that either approached the limits of creativity of how one could manipte one''s voice or ones that cast all limitations aside and, in a bid topete with really talented ASMR artists, opted to reach for the easiest marketing trick in the book¡ªusing sex to sell more of their content.


    When it came to ire, however, she did neither of those things.


    She clearly was nowhere near the level of the greatest ASMR voice actors who could do wonders with just their voice alone. Heck, she was far worse than most of the ASMR artists that just did it for a long time and thus mastered all sorts of techniques and methods to get a rise out of their listeners.


    On the other hand, she wasn''t even trying to make this experience any sexual, failing to match those girls who would do things to their microphones that an average man would be too scared to let be done to their sensitive parts or even their ears in real life.


    No matter what approach, angle, or direction I took, ire simply couldn''tpare to any of the good ASMR artists that I knew and, as a fan, absolutely loved.


    At the same time, however, none of those artists could match up to her, given the two distinct advantages that she had over them from the get-go.


    First off, ire wasn''t just some random, no-name artist that I would know by their nickname at worst, and the body parts they''d shown on the camera in scantily covered clothes at best.


    No.


    ire was my fianc¨¦e. Someone I came to deeply like, appreciate, and greatly enjoy my time with. She was someone who put a lot on the line for my sake and someone who I put equally as much on the line for her sake.


    In other words, even before she uttered her first whisper for the night, she was already equipped with the advantage of familiarity so massive, hardly any of the ASMR artists I knew could hope to evenpare.


    Then, for the second thing... As opposed to just sound in my headphones, ire was here. She was here, right by my side, taking advantage of all the new ways of affecting my perception that others, with just their sounds alone, could never use.


    When she moved, I could feel the mattress shift to offset the change of the weights pressing it down. When she reached out, I could hear something as fine as the rustling of her light, see-through clothes. When she breathed, the air she exhaled actually struck my skin, as opposed to just creating the illusion of such experience.


    All in all, ire was as real as it could get, merely mimicking the experience designed to invoke the sense of presence.


    Those two advantages, ire didn''t hold herself back from using. Heck, she couldn''t just put those advantages aside even if she wanted to, as they were just the inherent qualities of the time, ce, and circumstance we found ourselves with.


    And those very two advantages made it so that her determined yet clumsy attempts, rather than falling short of my expectations, ended up greatly exceeding them.


    "Nom."


    While I was lost in my thoughts for a moment, ire continued to y around, soon moving on from just whispers and silent breathing to actively trying to massage my ears or blow air into them.


    And now, she went a step beyond and copsed her lips down on my earlobe, munching on it for a bit while feeding my brain sweet, iprehensible noises she made while at it.


    "Puhaaa!"


    Letting her lips slide off my earlobe, ire then opened her mouth and took a deep breath, only to freeze when my entire body trembled, taken over by a constant, surging wave of exciting chills.


    "Oh," I finally uttered a first word in quite a while as the realization finally struck me. "I get it..."


    Rather than epting this invitation to a conversation, ire opted to chomp down on my ear again, this time taking her sweet time munching on it with the passion only a proper lover could exhibit.


    A momentter, she finally gave up and pulled her lips away... Only to then blow some air into my ear, as if in an attempt to dry off all the saliva she might''ve left on it.


    "What did you figure out?" she then asked, still staying in her role by using an extremely soft, affectionate whisper.


    "Why I was so into ASMR in the past," I exined, opening my eyes and then turning over on my side so that I could face the girl properly. "While me using it to stave off the extreme loneliness was something I was aware of even back when I was using ASMR, I never really realized what sort of thing it was supposed to imitate."


    That point, one could argue to be extremely vague.


    There were Role ying ASMRs with sounds taken straight from a hair salon, nurse''s office, or even a busy bar. Then, there were others based on the so-called trigger-words and even fully artificial ones, based on sounds researchers believed to have the best, chill-inducing effect.


    Regardless of the type of the ASMR one enjoyed, however, they were all designed to mimic three things:


    The unpredictability of another human.


    The sense of belonging and attention stemming from the listener being the one addressed by actions, words, and sounds of the ASMR...


    And finally, the sense of intimacy born from the two above.


    "In all honesty, screw ASMR. Now that I''ve figured it out, even if it''s you doing it for me, it still feels like cheating, which I hate the very idea of," I proimed only to shake my head and raise my upper body up, openly resisting the idea of letting ire keep going.


    "Huh?" Startled by the revtion, ire could only sit back and stare at me wide-eyed, clearly confused about how she was supposed to take my weird takes. "What do you mean by that? What do you mean by cheating?!"


    Although she kept her face rtively calm, there was no hiding the sparks of panic and confusion in her eyes. Enjoy new adventures from mvl


    "ASMR, ultimately, is all about cuddling and personal attention," I revealed my discovery without even a moment of hesitation. "And it''s you yourself that I want attention from, not some imaginary character you are trying to y here. As for cuddles..."


    I shook my head while breathing out an exasperated sigh, only to then turn my face and look ire properly in the eyes.


    "As for the cuddles, I would much rather just cuddle with you like we always do than try to get excited by the imaginary scenario of having to cuddle with someone else."

 Chapter 211: Time constraint makes its grand return

    When I first heard andter understood the truth of what it meant to travel to the spiritual world via the bus-glider, I had nothing but doubts and reservations about it.


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    But when the trip that could take us maybe one to two hours by ne stretched first into the entire night and then into the early hours of the morning, I grew to actually quite enjoy this long trip.


    The biggest point of all was the absolutefort of the journey, free of even the slightest bit of turbulence that gued pretty much every ne flight I''d attended thus far.


    Then came the pleasant monotony of the drive, with an absoluteck of turns or twists.


    In a sense, this was the only big benefit of using the bus-glider over just a normal bus, where the former could ride in a perfectly straight line on the road its inner mechanisms created, while thetter could only follow the existing roads¡ªmost of which were destroyed back when the modern world established its independence from its former spiritual overlords.


    From a much more mundane perspective, rather than a quick flight that would only make me stressed out about the trouble we inevitably had to face in the spiritual world, by stretching the journey into several hours, I''d pretty much grown bored of those thoughts before they could actually start to stress me out.


    Ultimately, however, it all came down to the fact that this trip simply gave me more time to spend with ire¡ªtime that I could dedicate just to cuddling with her while free of the one concern that normally gued my thoughts: the fear that by spending time with ire, I wasn''t contributing that time to something else that required my attention.


    Free of this concern and full of ire''s presence throughout the journey, by the time we reached the direct border of the spiritual world, I couldn''t be any more rxed than I was.


    With over ten hours of cuddling, sleeping, and then sleeping some more, by the time a rtively silent and short rm rang within the bus, I was simply too rxed to remember all the worries that were supposed to have me stressed out!


    "It seems like it''s time," ire muttered when the short rm woke us up from the state of a half-cuddle, half-slumber we were in.


    Feeling how she attempted to rise from the bed, I quickly tightened the hold of my arms over her body, holding her to my chest while refusing to let her move.


    "Just five more minutes¡­" I muttered, toofortable with my head resting on her bosom to even entertain the idea of moving.


    The rm ringing meant that we now had less than an hour before we would arrive at the reception zone. In other words, we''d officially crossed the border between the two abandoned bordends, leaving the part of the post-war wastnd under the jurisdiction of the modern world and stepping into the zone of the same wastnd controlled by the spiritualists instead.


    "Five minutes is okay, but¡­" ire muttered, only to move her hand up and down, gently rustling my head with it as if I were some sort of puppy she held close to her heart.


    ire then moved her right knee up, sliding her thigh up on my hip.


    "But if we linger any longer, we''ll be really cutting it close, you know?" she pointed out, only to reach down to her hip with her hand before bringing it right back to where we could both easily see the dried-off mix of our sweat and love juices that we never bothered to clean off. "We still need to get ourselves cleaned up, then take the time to get dressed, perfumed, make sure we have all the tools we need, rehearse the whole entrance procedure¡­"


    Hearing ire go on her short lecture, I closed my eyes and simply¡­ enjoyed the warmth of her voice, even if I couldn''t enjoy the content she used her voice to pass on.


    "To be frank, I''d love it if we could just leave everything aside and just¡­"


    "Shush," ire gently pressed down on the back of my head, prompting my chin to go up so my eyes would move from her breasts up to her face. "This kind of life¡­ do you really think you''d be satisfied with it?"


    In theory, I could just answer right away. It was a simple yes or no question¡­ but, at the same time, if I were to answer right away, it would only show that I didn''t really care about giving a proper, well-thought-out answer.


    In reality, however, ire''s question was far from simple.


    Was I satisfied just cuddling with her?


    Sure, it felt nice and all¡­ But I''d never be satisfied if I couldn''t make her satisfied. And that point alone made it impossible for me to say I''d be happy doing nothing but cuddling like we did right now.


    Then, if I were to stretch the concept of what we were doing right now into just a casual, simple, worry-free life where we were each other''s only focus¡­ As great as it sounded, I could already tell how quickly this kind of life would get boring.


    ''Humans feel things through change. And just like you don''t feel the water is hot if you stay in it for a long time¡­''


    I brought my head down before burying my face back into ire''s chest.


    ''If my entire life was all about just spending quality time with her¡­ then it would soon turn into a boring norm.''


    I waited just a little longer before pushing my head up, unburying my face from ire''s chest as I looked into her eyes.


    "No, I wouldn''t be satisfied with that kind of life, and I bet neither would you. Which, in all honesty, renders my answer meaningless, for how could I ever be satisfied if you were not?"


    Hearing this, ire''s lips trembled before the corners of her mouth moved up, forming a small, affectionate smile.


    "It''s the same for me. How could I be happy if you wouldn''t be? And from what I''ve seen and learned about you so far, you really need an avenue to explore your creativity to truly shine," she stated while gently running her fingers up and down my cheek. "You sure look happy when we fuck, but¡­ but you really shine when you craft."


    Locking my eyes with hers, I ended up taking another huge breath in¡­


    "Okay, let''s do this!"


    From that point on, we finally got ourselves out of bed. While the temptation to go for just one more round of fun in the bath was great, the time¡ªsomething we didn''t have to worry about for most of the long transit¡ªfinally made its return, forcing us to use the bus''s small bath in the way it was designed to be used instead.


    After taking a quick bath, we moved on to dress ourselves up. This task, however, while not worth mentioning back in the modern world, quickly proved to be something ire was absolutely right to be concerned about.


    And it wasn''t because she herself had any issues donning her borate, kimono-like dress.


    No, the reason dressing ourselves up took nearly half of the remaining time was because she had to help me with pretty much every step on the long list of actions necessary to take the set of seemingly random pieces of material, belts, and small golden chains and put them together into the same elegant yet rtively humble clothing I''d only worn for a few hours before we departed.


    "Now you''re looking like a proper cultivator," ire announced while taking a step back to judge her creation, the small, satisfied smile proving whatever magic she cast to make this outfit happen did, indeed, seed.


    From then on, thezy atmosphere within the bus-glider finally breathed itsst, reced by the re-emerging stress of theing change to our lives¡ªsomething that, out of everyone in the bus, only Chihiro had the prior knowledge to fathom.


    "Are you sure you''re okay?" ire asked as the bus finally started to slow down, only for a small hatch to suddenly open right in the middle of its corridor, allowing a slightly weary Chihiro to climb out of it.


    "Wait, if you''re here, then who is¡­" Looking at the man, my face turned white as I took a step back while my hands rushed to grab ire, ready to outright jump out of the vehicle the moment I felt it starting to fall.


    With Chihiro out of the bus-glider''s power system¡­ what was stopping it from ceasing to function and thus putting an end to the magical road it was creating for the bus''s wheels to drive on?


    "Ah, don''t worry," Chihiro quickly noticed the look on my face before putting a huge smile on his. "By now, we''ve been caught by¡­" He suddenly brought his eyebrows together, as if struggling to figure out the proper way to put it. "A tractor beam? An imposed autopilot?"


    Rather than giving me the proper word, Chihiro just threw some random guesses into the air before shaking his head.


    "Either way, it''s up to the border guards now to guide the bus-glider. And that means," he announced, only to do away with a smile as he assumed a perfectly dignified, calm, and collected look on his face.


    "All you need to do now¡­" for but a second, Chihiro''s smile returned, only to then, once again, vanish into thin air, "¡­is to get yourself ready for what''s about toe."

 Chapter 212: Test of faith and cultivation

    The descent of the bus-glider was pretty much the same as its starting sequence, just reversed.


    First, the whole vehicle started to gradually decrease its speed bit by bit, all the way to the point where it came to a full stop. Then, the process reversed again, with the vehicle starting to gain speed again. This time, however, rather than moving forward, it was held by some sort of force that continued to slowly let it out of its grasp, all the way to the point where it entered a state of a free-fall.


    In the end, the whole process reversed yet again, this time to properly kill the bus''s downward momentum, grinding it to aplete halt right as the bus''s wheels softly touched the ground.


    Thud.


    The wholending process ended up with just one, slight yet still sudden drop, proving that while precise, the force responsible fornding the vehicle wasn''t scientifically perfect, forcing the bus''s suspension to take the brunt of thest few inches of the drop.


    "We are here," Chihiro announced in a low, slightly hushed voice.


    Contrary to me and ire, he clearly expected the drop, bracing himself for it just before it happened, which allowed him to remain perfectlyposed when the whole vehicle shook underneath our feet.


    Thankfully, the drop wasn''t big enough to send me or ire flying, merely reaching the level where it just managed to force us to shift our weight around to regain the proper bnce.


    "That was¡­" I muttered as I rose back up to a proper position while already reaching out to help ire do the same¡­ Only to realize that just like her father, she clearly knew what to expect and, while not as smoothly as her father, she managed to brace herself for the slight drop.


    "Surprising?" ire grinned back at me, only to ept the hand I offered and then take half of a step closer, just close enough to imply an intimate rtionship while keeping enough distance to keep this sort of presence dignified and decent even in the eyes of the greatest conservative.


    "Why didn''t you¡­" I attempted to protest, yet, seeing the look on ire''s face, I could do nothing but helplessly shake my head. "You got me there, I will give you that," I admitted defeat while putting on a small smile on my own lips.


    Even though I was the victim of this small prank, just seeing ire''s happy, fulfilled expression was enough to cast aside all the unpleasant feelings of being the target of the joke.


    "Guys¡­" Chihiro sighed while giving us a side-eye. "You can flirt all you want once we are done. Now, focus."


    Not giving us any time to reply or even prepare ourselves, Chihiro stepped ahead before pressing the button on the bus''s wall, pushing the sliding doors of the bus''s main entrance to open.


    The outside¡­


    Was nothing like how I pictured the border of the spiritual world to be. It was¡­ ordinary.


    Just a patch of rtively well-maintained area surrounded by nothing but wilderness of two different biomes, a huge, open and rather arid in to our back and then a lush, green forest encroaching upon the domain of a dense jungle in front of us.


    Between those two biomes stood nothing more but a simple shack with two guards armed with extremely simple and clearly ceremonial spears.


    "State your purpose!" one of the guards shouted while the both of them, as if following an unspokenmand, lowered their des and pointed them at the three of us.


    ''Those little¡­''


    Before I could do anything stupid, ire tightened her hold over my hand and threw me a quick nce.


    ''Oh,'' I thought, pushing my momentary feelings aside as I took a shallow breath and opted to just keep my mouth shut and face as rxed as I could get it to be. ''Right, she did mention some sort of a weird weing ceremony¡­''


    "Ie in peace to rejoin the fold as one both faithful and worthy," Chihiro announced as he stepped forward precisely three steps only to grind to a halt and then push the folds of his long robe to the back, making them flutter on the slight wind.


    Even when hearing this form, however, the guards'' weapons didn''t move, instead remaining perfectly still with only the light reflected off their des slightly shifting as the clouds in the sky interfered with the direct sunlight.


    "Reveal your cultivation!"


    After a moment of heavy silence, the guard finally called back.


    Chihiro didn''t say a word in response. Instead, he took a deep breath before¡­


    Whoosh!


    As if a powerful wind suddenly passed through the open area of the border, I felt as if some sort of powerful breeze suddenly struck me, threatening to throw me off my feet and send me tumbling to the ground.


    This feeling was only momentary, before I managed topensate for this sideways push and restore my bnce.


    The guards, on the other hand, finally raised their weapons back up, clearly satisfied with Chihiro''s disy.


    "You truly are a worthy one," the senior out of the two guards announced before stepping slightly ahead of hispanion only to then turn sideways towards us as he pointed with his free hand towards the forest¡­ or, to be more precise, at the shack the entrance to which the two of them were guarding. "Now it''s time to test your faith."


    Chihiro took a breath deep enough for me to notice his chest puffing a bit.


    "You two stay here," the man ordered before breathing out and stepping ahead with a confident look on his face.


    "Where¡­"


    Before I could say anything more than just a single word, ire tightened her hold over my hand again before giving me yet another side-eye. This time, however, it was a much more intense, telling look.


    ''Oh, I guess I should shut the fuck up and just wait,'' I thought, taking a shallow breath and holding it in all the way to the point when I started to feel the first licks of oxygen deprivation¡­ Or rather, to be scientifically precise, carbon dioxide poisoning.


    "Haaa¡­" breathing the used air out of my lungs, I slightly lowered my eyelids before entering a strange state of half-meditation as I attempted to mute all my thoughts while I waited for Chihiro toe out from the shack he just entered.


    The wait turned out to be merely momentary, for before I could even start getting bored or worried, Chihiro casually stepped out of the shack, stopping only for the moment he needed to lean down and dust his knees off. Stay connected through §Þ??


    At this point, the two guards finally lowered their weapons into a proper, resting position before they both bowed to ire''s father.


    "We wee the missing brother back into the fold," they both announced as one, only to uniformly turn to the side as they cast their nces at the two of us. "And those are¡­?"


    "My wards, here to experience the goal they are to aim for from now on," Chihiro announced with the same level of confidence as before and not a single hint of hesitation or doubt in his eyes.


    "You two!" the same, leading guard as before straightened his back from the bow before digging the butt of his spear into the ground as he looked directly at the two of us. "Reveal your cultivation!"


    "That''s¡­" At this point, I spoke faster than I could move to purse my lips together.


    And it was because this request¡­ put me in quite the spot.


    "As ordered," ire slightly lowered her head before unveiling her cultivation. And just like when her dad did it, a slight breeze of air struck me from the side, pushing me away for the slight moment it took before I managed to get myself used to it.


    "Uhm¡­" I raised my hand - an action that instantly made the two guards grasp their weapons a bit tighter - "I''m not really sure how to do that, though."


    Even though she was done herself, ire quickly twisted her head and gave me a shocked look, only for the understanding to then sh in her eyes. She then bit down on her lower lips as her face froze, overwhelmed by all the thoughts that passed through her brain all at the same time, only for her to then turn back to the guards and lower her head a bit - all in the time it took me to raise my hand and scratch the side of my head.


    "My partner is a man of great talent yet, due to his unfortunate upbringing, sparse practice. That''s why¡­"


    "I mean, I can move my spiritual energy around if that''s what they want, but¡­" I hesitated again only to then lean my head slightly to the side as I alternated my eyes between ire and the guards, "seeing how on edge those two are, I wouldn''t want them to think I''m about to attack them or something¡­"


    The air grew tense as quickly¡­ as quickly as everyone rxed when they received my exnation.


    Heck, apparently, I said something funny enough for all four of them, ire, Chihiro, and the guards all together, to either smile or outrightugh out a bit.


    "Fear not, young man," the leading guard smiled as he spoke out, "we wouldn''t be here if the cultivation of an initiate''s wards could be a threat to us. But since you don''t know how to reveal your cultivation¡­" the man hesitated for a moment, only to then turn all smiles, his expression somewhere between simple sympathy and amusement.


    "Well, if that''s how it is¡­" I muttered before taking a deep breath and then digging deep, deep into my soul, to the very bottom of my spirituality, the very core of my spiritual core.


    Closing my eyes and holding my breath, I focused all of myself on this single spark of spiritual energy that continued to bring the entirety of my cultivation core to the state of permanent instability¡­ before opening my eyes, breathing out, and reaching out with my hand, imagining that the spark I grasped in my thoughts had now found its way into my tightened hand.


    ''They want me to reveal my cultivation, so¡­''


    I took in a fresh breath.


    ''That would suffice, wouldn''t it?'' I thought, only to then open my palm¡­ and allow the spark of my cultivation to manifest itself into the physical world.


    The air was already full of spiritual energy from when Chihiro first, and then ire, released it out into the air. Adding up the spiritual energy naturally urring right on the border of the spiritual world and now the very spark of the core of my cultivation¡­ and the whole thing suddenly became a rather troubling mix.


    A mixture that, for but one instant, I felt like I could fully control, only to then realize just how abysmal of a task it was and just how inadequate I was to even attempt doing so.


    And just like that, all of this free energy¡­


    I somehow grasped it all.


    Only for it to then explode right out of my hand.

 Chapter 213: To see a world in a drop of water

    BOOM!


    There was no explosion. No fires erupted, nor did the whole area around me turn into a burned-out circle.


    No rapid and violent chemical reaction took ce, nor was there any direct transfer of massive kic energy into the static matter.


    To put it simply, nothing exploded, nor did anything crash into where I stood. And yet¡­


    The very moment the spark of my cultivation ignited all the leftover mana in the air, a powerful sonic shockwave erupted from my hand, gently washing over my body only to explode outwards.


    ''Wha¡­''


    Before I could even utter half of a thought in my mind, everything was already over. And the only way to prove that anything had happened at all¡­ was to just take a look around.


    The ground directly beneath me was lucky enough to be spared, with the explosion of the suddenly activated spiritual energy somehow opting to omit the areas so close to me¡ªthe origin of the spark that ignited it to begin with. But just a single inch away from my feet, the grass was gone, simply removed from existence by the force of the impact, while the soil was tilled as if some farmer had prepared it for sowing.


    Roughly a meter away from my feet, there was another circle drawn from an imaginary point right between my legs and marking the distance at which, rather than just removing the grass from existence, the energy of my spiritual release switched over to pressing the grass tightly into the ground, turning it from the world''s texture into nothing more than a semnce of what a giant''s brushstroke would leave on a world-sized canvas.


    The grass was still there¡­ just that, rather than proudly standing in its attempt to reach for the sun and grow higher than all thepeting des of grass around it, it was now nothing more than a shadow of its former self, a green imprint upon the otherwise brownish color of the ground itself.


    When it came to the things that were any further away¡­ I couldn''t really tell what had happened. And it was only when I actually attempted to look up that I realized my body was now frozen in a strange state of paralysis.


    ''No, that''s not it,'' I gulped my saliva down as the reality dawned upon me. ''It''s not me that froze,'' I thought, only to then gulp my saliva down¡­


    Or, at the very least, attempt to do so, only to find out it was yet another activity I was currently barred from performing.


    ''It''s the time, or, at the very least¡­''


    I attempted to swallow again, only for the results to remain as unsatisfactory as before.


    Then, the reality around me started to warp, its very geometry shifting as if some higher being had started to fold the fabric the universe was built upon.


    ''No¡­'' I thought as I attempted to grit my teeth, to the same effect as my attempts at swallowing my saliva before. ''It''s not folding¡­ iittss ssttrrreecchhhh¡­..''


    For a moment, I cked out.


    Or rather, my consciousness itself, or whatever physical phenomenon was behind it, stretched out so far, the whole thing lost cohesiveness and thus the ability to conductplex, biology-based calctions.


    For this faintest of moments, my very self expanded so much, it split into a myriad of extremely tiny bits of me, each equally as stupid, ignorant, and incapable of perceiving the reality around itself.


    It was but the faintest of moments¡­ but with my consciousness stretching further and further, so did my perception of the passing of time.


    But then, things suddenly started to happen in reverse.


    Bit by bit, the tiny particles of my being started to converge back together, colliding only to merge with each other, speeding up the reunification process as they did.


    The strange force that had stretched my self out now actively worked to put my very own self back together again. And with every passing second¡ªor was there even any meaning behind something as crude as seconds in a dimension where time no longer held the reins over reality?¡ªthis process only continued to elerate, the force that was seemingly trying to put me back together only growing in strength.


    At this point, I nearly cked out again, unable to cope with the endlessly growingplexity of my being.


    It was at the veryst moment of the whole process that I finally regained the full capability of my brain and my soul. And armed with all the enhancing power my spirituality had over my senses¡­ I saw the very thing that was the likely culprit behind this strange, mystical experience.


    The sonic boom of the spiritual energy exploding was nothing more than¡ªyet also nothing less than¡ªa simple shockwave. A shockwave based on spiritual energy rather than physical factors, yet just strong enough to still have profound effects on the material reality around me.


    And in this single instant of frozen time, I saw it.


    The sonic boom that exploded out of my hand only to expand so fast that, by the time I realized what was going on, it was too far for me to notice.


    But precisely in the moment when I regained the reins of my very own self¡­ I saw it returning, bouncing back, imploding.


    ''It¡­ snapped back?''


    Like an outstretched string of rubber, the spirituality affected by the spark of my cultivation expanded well beyond its natural limits, only to reach a point where the natural forces of the universe reversed their vectors, pushing back against it rather than letting it spread freely. And as the wave of spiritual energy rushed at a nearly infinite speed right back toward my hand¡­


    Its effect on the material world also started to reverse.


    The grass in the outermost circle of destruction suddenly separated itself from the ground, rapidly regaining its vigor as it stood at attention in a manner that directly called for a pervertedparison to male organs.


    A bit closer, within the inner circle around my feet, the grass suddenly manifested itself from what was supposed to be just open, empty space, all the while providing the ground with enough agitation to make it settle back into the very state it was in before the whole ordeal started.


    The next thing I knew, I finally managed to take a breath and blink my eyes, all the while still staring directly at the palm of my hand where the founding spark of my cultivation had now settled down, brimming with the power I identally absorbed from the air.


    There was nothing in the open palm of my hand other than the physical manifestation of the spark of my cultivation. And yet, as opposed to the very nature of nothingness, this sight became an inspiration that allowed me to grasp the one concept I had never actually bothered to think about much.


    The idea of what the next, eighth stage of cultivation entailed. A reasonable oue built from the foundation of all the earlier stages I had managed to conquer.


    ''So this is what it means for the spiritual energy to condense¡­''


    If the sixth stage of cultivation was all about establishing my spiritual core within my flesh, then the seventh stage of cultivation, the very stage I was supposed to be at right now, was all about expanding it to fill every nook and cranny of my body.


    A process designed to turn my cultivation from something I could draw out from the core into something that I could draw out directly from every part of my body as it was now, all in equal degree, a part of my core.


    But right now?


    Standing right on the edge between the mortal world prompted by technology and the cultivation world prompted by spiritualism, there was more free-floating spiritual energy around me than I could possibly absorb. It was far thinner than what I could make happen in the now-dismantled factory¡­ but when taking the size that my spiritual reach stretched out to, the difference suddenly vanished¡­ before reversing, to the point where the condensed energy I could create within the factory became but a fraction of all the power contained within the overwhelmingly huge area that my very self stretched out to.


    And now that all of my spirituality imploded straight back into the area I had alreadye to regard as my own personal space¡­


    Things simply made a whole new sense to me.


    Not on a conscious level, sure, for my whole understanding of what happened was based on just a bunch of feelings and how I instinctively interpreted the weird event that had just happened¡­


    But by now, I was far too deep into cultivation to discount those feelings in favor of attempting to understand how it happened physically, in favor of only epting things as long as I could reason them out.


    And as I looked down at the palm of my hand, at the lone spark of my cultivation¡­


    I just couldn''t help but see it differently now. Just like some sages could see a world in a droplet of water, I could now see the entirety of my cultivation within this single, seemingly insignificant fragment of it.


    ''Wait, fuck, who the fuck cares?!'' Suddenly prompted awake, I discarded all those useless thoughts and looked around, fully expecting to see the scene of a bloody carnage that would mark the end of my happy days with ire and would be the day of my biggest regret¡­


    Only to see ire, Chihiro, and the two guards all looking at me with perplexed expressions.


    ''What¡­''


    "What the hell did you do?" ire mouthed off, her eyes widening as she stared right into my eyes with hints of panic and terror ring up on her face. "How, just how the hell did you¡­"


    "Young man¡­" Cutting into ire''s words, Chihiro took a step closer while giving me the most serious look I''d ever seen him make. "Did you just¡­ break into the eighth spiritual realm? Just by trying to disy your cultivation?"

 Chapter 214: Elite Coterie

    "Did you just¡­ break to the eighth spiritual realm? Just by trying to disy your cultivation?" Chihiro asked, with a look of barely controlled shock on his face.


    As a cultivation quasi-mentor to me, his knowledge about the state of my spirituality was second only to ire''s, with whom my cultivation was intrinsically linked on a level no non-spiritual connection could mimic.


    That''s why, more than anyone else but ire, he knew I was nowhere near reaching the bottleneck of the seventh cultivation stage, still having to go through the process of proper umtion of spiritual energy to reach the point where I would approach the limits of the stage I was in.


    And yet¡­


    No matter what he, ire, the two guards, or I myself would think possible, just a single look into my cultivation was enough to confirm that I had, indeed, broken through my recent limits and evolved my spirituality a step beyond.


    "To be perfectly honest¡­ I''m not really sure," I admitted with a helpless look on my face. "And if anything¡­" I hesitated for a moment, fully aware of how unorthodox my next and extremely pressing question would be to people who dedicated most of their lives to growing stronger, "is there any way to actually reverse this?"


    If my advancement was enough to make everyone in the area shocked, then my question made them simply baffled.


    "Wait, you want to go back to the seventh stage? Why?"


    "I mean¡­" I looked away while scratching myself behind my left ear. "Contrary to how I advanced before, this breakthrough isn''t a result of aprehensive understanding. It''s not born out of me figuring out the logic and sense behind this new stage before just¡­ applying all of my strength to mix this new, more advanced theory into the practice that''s already in ce."


    I shrugged my shoulders and breathed out, only to then switch my exnation from a detailed one to the ersatz of it all.


    "I''m worried this kind of random andckluster advancement would hinder my potential in the long run," I revealed the obvious, only to then look away as I avoided everyone''s eyes¡­ but one pair of them in particr. "And well, I don''t think it''s right for me to advance before ire does. Given just how much more effort she put into growing herself, how is it fair for me to grow beyond her?"


    I tried my best to exin my situation to the four people standing around me, yet, with every word I said, I appeared to only move further and further away from the reality they could either understand or ept.


    "Tim¡­"


    Hearing this one particr voice, I braved against my own fears and looked up, only toe face-to-face with ire''s ratherplex expression.


    There was a hint of pride and satisfaction, a product of her genuine wish for me to grow stronger. There was then the fear of being left aside, a sense of inadequacy rted to the effort issue I''d mentioned out loud, shock caused by what happened to begin with¡­ and then a hundred other tiny emotions, all mixing in ire''s lone soul only to leave her unable to form another word.


    Normally, I was only good enough to notice a few of those emotions, and maybe figure out the reasons behind half of them. But with our spiritual selves linked so closely, the task of understanding the emotional turmoil in her soul grew all the easier, letting me see a much more wholesome picture of the chaos in her head.


    That''s why, with every certainty there was in the world, I could confidently say that she just¡­ didn''t know what to say next, as opposed to refusing to address me as others might''ve interpreted her silence.


    "I''m sorry, son, but I don''t think it''s possible for one to just¡­ revert one cultivation stage. The only instance of it happening that I know to be possible is for you to fully give up on the entirety of your cultivation so that you could redo it all from scratch, but¡­" Chihiro exined, only to look over his shoulder in the direction of the guards'' shack¡­ Or rather, the spiritualnds hidden behind the illusory barrier that the shack merely marked the position of. "But if you try to do it now, you wouldn''t be able to get into the spiritual realm. Then again," the look on Chihiro''s face suddenly changed, "you say you are not satisfied with a random advancement like this, but¡­"


    "Isn''t this an enlightenment?" the second guard, the one that remained silent unless both of them chanted something at the same time, spoke out on his own for the very first time since we''d met the two.


    "Looks to me like it is," the other guard added, seconding his colleague''s opinion.


    "An enlightenment?" I asked, understanding the meaning of the word but not the context behind it.


    ''What, am I supposed to start a new religion or a philosophical school now?'' I jeered in my thoughts, not wasting my time entertaining this clearly misguided idea.


    "It means a natural breakthrough that''s free of the usual requirements for one to advance," Chihiro hurried to clear the misunderstanding. "Basically, it mostly happens when one witnesses something that opens an exclusive, momentary, and single-use path for them to advance through the innate understanding of a certain aspect of reality. So, rather than worrying about your potential¡­" Chihiro shook his head before taking a step closer and reaching out, only to then gently pat me on the shoulder, "you should rejoice. Congrattions, son, you''ve just joined quite the elite coterie."


    I raised my eyes to the man''s face, holding myself back from inquiring about the meaning of the veryst word he used. While I wasn''t familiar with it¡­ it didn''t take a genius to figure out the meaning behind it from the context of what the man said.


    "So, it''s beneficial rather than detrimental to my future growth?" I asked, just to be sure.


    Before anyone could answer me, however, I squinted my eyes and locked my hands on my chest.


    "Or should I rather ask, can you say for certain that it''s beneficial, or is it just another element of traditional belief that you know just how little I respect?"

 Chapter 215: Obnoxious is better than genius

    I knew that what I just said was quite provocative. Heck! It would be weird if the guards, people set to protect the borders of this extremely conservative ce, took it any other way.


    But in this precise moment, with the feat I''d just learned to be some sort of a great achievement¡­


    How could they even think about responding to my provocation in any way one normally would?


    "Traditional belief¡­" one of the guards muttered while squinting his eyes and tightening his hold on the ceremonial spear he held in his hand. "And what is that supposed to mean?"


    I nced over at Chihiro¡­ but the man looked away.


    ''I''m quite sure he wille and help if things take a turn for the worse, but for now¡­'' I held back a smile from emerging on my face, ''I am to drink the beer I brewed, right?''


    I took a deep breath, held it in my lungs for several seconds before slowly, slowly breathing it out while letting my shoulders drop a little.


    "I can''t expect you to know this kind of detail pertaining to my personal lore, but¡­" I pretended to hesitate, even going so far as to look away to imply some sort of deeply ingrained shame, "it took me five years to actually learn how to meditate. In fact, it only happened after I was kicked out of the institution!"


    Rather than digging even further into the provocative tone I started the topic with, I quickly shifted to talking about my history instead.


    "Five years?" the leading guard raised his eyebrow¡­ but didn''t seem all that impressed or surprised.


    "Ah!" Chihiro suddenly made a noise, all to draw everyone''s attention to himself. "Most of the people born in the spiritual world are cultivators from the moment of birth," he quickly exined a crucial piece of information I had no clue about beforehand.


    "Oh, so they don''t even need to ovee this kind of hurdle?" I raised my eyebrow as I figured out what it was that Chihiro actually wanted to say.


    Dropping my eyes down, I shook my head and sighed to show the level of my exasperation. Chapter Stay:


    "Well, that does exin why they stagnated for thest several hundred years," I muttered, fully aware I was once again provoking the guards¡­ Which should be a stupid idea, given how they were the ones deciding whether to let us pass or not.


    But while this tactic wasn''t something I discussed with Chihiro or ire beforehand¡­ We never discussed the possibility of me breaking through on the spot either.


    And between me being an obnoxious little fuck and a genius who could reach greater heights on a whim¡­ The former was an infinitely better impression to leave the guards with than thetter.


    ''I would much rather be mocked and ridiculed than have everyone be aware of my potential.''


    Shaking my head, I refocused my attention on the topic at hand, rather than the tactic that prompted me to start said topic to begin with.


    "You see, historically speaking, five years is the longest mortals were supposed to take to learn how to properly meditate, how to get in touch with the spiritual side of the world. If someone failed to do so for five years straight, he would be deemed talentless and barred from ever cultivating again," I turned back to the guards and exined so that they could have a full picture of what I was talking about.


    "It wasn''t until I actually tried quite the unorthodox method that I finally managed to properly meditate, finally stepping onto the path of cultivation. But that dy, that time that I wasted¡­" I shook my head, only to then lean back as far as I could without losing my footing, only to then cross my arms over my chest, "all that time changed how I perceive cultivation."


    I breathed in and out, mostly to give the guards time to internalize what I''d just said and maybe, just maybe, think about it for a second or two.


    "That''s why, even though I''m still ways off from reaching the level necessary for a proper invitation to the spiritual world, I can already tell that either the knowledge passed down to the outer ns is intentionally mixed with sham, or simply imperfect to begin with," I stated while shaking my shoulders as if to express just how little I cared. "How else would my own understanding, born from modern knowledge and based in science, allow me to perfect my early cultivation to the point the traditional cultivation methods couldn''t even fathom?"


    With that said, I simply smiled before leaning my head over to the side while staring right into the leading guard''s face, as if challenging him to prove me wrong.


    "So you think that your own understanding of early cultivation is better than the understanding based on the manuals perfected over literal thousands of years?"


    Rather than flying into a rage, the guard¡­ The guard had to hold hisughter back, clearly amused by my statement and the confidence I infused those statements with.


    But my image of an arrogant young master acting like a proverbial frog in the well wouldn''t be solidified if I just gave up now, would it?


    "In math, if you make a small mistake right at the very beginning of aplex calction, it doesn''t matter how long and hard you work to calcte the rest. In fact, the more you calcte, the greater the margin of error will be," I imed only to then shrug my shoulders.


    "And here you go again with science," the guard quite clearly dismissed all that I''d said, already set to consider me as nothing more than an arrogant youth, too full of himself to see and respect the giants on whose shoulders I stood. "But didn''t your breakthrough from just now prove that there are times when human understanding of an event can be dwarfed by them just¡­ feeling it?"


    Hearing this, I squinted my eyes.


    Because¡­ to a degree, this was quite the valid point.


    Contrary to my breakthroughs of the past, which were based on the theories I crafted myself¡ªor, with the help of my constitution¡ªmy breakthrough from just now¡­ It indeed felt much, MUCH smoother and more natural.


    But just like the saying went, ''sweat a lot while training to bleed a little while fighting,'' the ease of the breakthrough only made it hard for me to fully internalize my new limits! While after my past breakthroughs, while it was quite challenging to formte all my theorems necessary to construct a theoretical path to advancement, once I broke through¡­


    Once I broke through, I simply found myself on a logical next step of the process, with the theories of how my cultivation worked all there, perfectly saved and internalized in my head from long before I actually advanced!


    "I don''t think that''s the case," I shook my head and rolled my eyes, still set on ying the role of an arrogant youth who just didn''t know any better. "Especially when you are trying to take what''s uncertain and an object of my questioning and turn it into proof of your own reasoning," I stated only to roll my eyes again before leaning my head back and casting my stare at the guard along the bridge of my nose.


    "That''s, however, the limit of the wisdom I''m willing to share for free. Now then, unless you are willing to pay the price of my teachings, how about you stop wasting my time and just let us pass already?"

 Chapter 216: Unpleasant silence

    Between my breakthrough, my provocations, and the amusement thetter provided to the guards, the process of letting us through turned from the main topic of the day to just a side dish¡ªsomething the guards just¡­ did.


    There was no celebration nor fanfare when they finally concluded all their ceremonies and rituals rted to the whole act, allowing us to grab what little luggage we brought along before letting us pass.


    Even the process of getting through the barrier itself came and went without any major events or trouble arising. But while no one came to stop us from crossing¡ªbe it guards or the locals¡ªjust the act of crossing itself did, in fact,e with its own weight.


    "Make sure to keep breathing," Chihiro advised in a half-voice, clearly not too happy with the topics I brought to life at the border yet not willing to let this dissatisfaction affect our passage. "Once you get mmed with the dense spiritual energy on the other side of the barrier, it''s prettymon for those below the peak mortal cultivation to forget to breathe."


    At first, with just a few steps left before reaching the edge of the barrier, I struggled to take his words seriously.


    After all, how could a human forget about something as fundamental as breathing?


    The very moment I stepped over the small line of absolutely no vegetation on the ground, I learned my lesson.


    It was hard topare the experience of crossing over to anything else. The closest thing I could think of was¡­ falling into a swimming pool. Instead of water, however, that swimming pool¡­ was filled with nothing but pure, raw, unadulterated energy.


    When it came to breathing, it wasn''t about the very act of doing so but more about actually making the effort to breathe, rather than just relying on the energy that the air beyond the barrier was so choke-full of.


    This feeling onlysted for a short moment, when my entire body was submerged within the barrier, only for this effect toe to an end when I emerged on the other side.


    The difference between the air on the two sides of the barrier was still there, it just wasn''t anywhere near what I felt as I was crossing over.


    But the impression that the spiritual world failed to leave on me when it came to just the energy in the air, it surelypensated when I blinked my eyes a few times and took a proper look around.


    The barrier wasn''t just a physical obstruction to all those who wanted to cross. It wasn''t even as simple as what I felt back when entering the cultivation district for the very first time.


    No, the barrier also served to conceal all that was behind it.


    While still on the other side, all I could see was a vast, seemingly unending forest. And while it was certainly a nice sight to enjoy, it was by no means interesting.


    As we crossed over, however, the truth of that ce revealed itself to our eyes, with what was supposed to be a vast forest now turning into a massive yet extremely weird city.


    "This looks like how an uneducated kid would draw a medieval metropolis," I muttered while following Chihiro''s advice and making sure I was breathing properly.


    When it came to the surface the spiritual city upied, it could easily rival the biggest metropolises I knew from the modern world, stretching as far as my eyes could see and then some. But¡­


    There wasn''t a single high-rise building in sight. In fact, I could only spot a few buildings that reached more than three, maybe four stories high! And even when it came to those select few, bigger buildings, they were clearly designed to showcase the might and financial prowess of their upants rather than to house more people than just a small, single-story apartment would.


    "What makes you say so?" Chihiro asked with a hint of genuine curiosity in his eyes as he looked over at me.


    "The way they use space¡­" I shook my head, trying not to let my modern way of thinking cloud the picture of the city in front of my eyes. "Isn''t it extremely inefficient?"


    Hearing this, Chihiro smiled a little.


    "It would be for the best if you tried not topare this part of the world to themon sense you are used to," he stated, only to take a big breath while stretching his arms out, looking like someone who finally managed to rx after living in stress for several years. "In a way, this is an entirely different civilization with different paradigms over literally everything," he shook his head before sighing out and taking a first step forward in the spiritual world. "Back on the other side of the barrier,parison was a killer of joy. Over here,parison will only serve to further confuse you."


    "What am I supposed to do then?" I asked, slightly annoyed by the prospect of just¡­ going ahead and ignoring everything that I knew, my entiremon sense¡­ just so I wouldn''t get confused by a world built on a different set of paradigms than what I was used to?


    "Just¡­" Chihiro hesitated for a bit, "just take things as they go. Or rather," he shook his head, "don''t judge things you see through the modern perspective."


    "That''s not helping, you know?" I countered, only to then shake my head as I looked over at ire¡­


    Only to realize that her silence wasn''t just her allowing me to have a peaceful and undisturbed conversation with her father. It wasn''t her being so enchanted by the sight of the world her mother was living in that she forgot how to speak for a moment.


    No.


    ''She''s still¡­ annoyed by my breakthrough, isn''t she?'' I thought, fully aware that ire''s annoyance was nothing more than a keyword behind which a whole plethora of emotions was hidden.


    Right now, however, her emotions appeared to have rified a little bit, with the chaotic mess from before now boiling down to just a few emotions that prevailed¡­ But in this process of selecting what she actually felt, all of the emotions that remained grew much stronger than before.


    ''Should I try to talk to her¡­?'' I thought.


    On one hand, I''d heard more times than I could count howmunication was the key in a rtionship. But the border of the spiritualnd didn''t seem like the right ce to have an important, intimate, and ultimately private conversation about the emotions troubling her. In all honesty, the timing didn''t seem to be good for this kind of conversation either, with how ire likely still needed a bit more time toe to terms with what she was actually feeling, so that she could calmly process it, identify the issues, and then, and only then, have a conversation about it all with me.


    With Chihiro already moving, we didn''t really get all that much time to figure out ourselves¡ªbe it me figuring out whether to approach ire and try talking with her or ire herself deciding what to do with those emotions that ravaged her soul.


    Strangely enough, pretty much as soon as we got on the move and started to follow Chihiro down the road we found ourselves on, the look on ire''s face changed, making it seem as if she pushed all those conflicting emotions aside, opting to focus on somethingpletely unrted to the events of the past few moments.


    A look of determination and anticipation that brought a strange shine to her eyes that have now locked on one of the buildings far out in the distance. A look¡­ that I could understand only in one way.


    "You are really looking forward to seeing her, aren''t you?" I asked, eager to start any kind of conversation with ire, feeling as if I would go insane from worry unless I heard her voice.


    Hearing my question, ire looked over with the kind of look on her face that only by painting question marks all over her cheeks could she make it any more obvious.


    "Your mother, I mean," I quickly rified, lowkey hurt how ire clearly didn''t expect me to see through this desire of hers.


    Surprisingly, though, rather than brightening up or even rxing a bit, she just¡­ turned her eyes away, as if this topic wasn''t something she was ready to discuss either.


    "She sure does," Chihiro said, slowing down his step so that he would suddenly appear between the two of us in this crude yet effective attempt to interfere in this clearly awkward moment. "She just doesn''t know how to feel about it. After all, even if it was never Le''s fault¡­" This time it was Chihiro''s turn to put on aplex expression on his face. "She still did abandon us."


    All of a sudden, the mood took a turn for the worse, even if it was by no means bright already.


    "Even if it was never her fault for leaving us," Chihiro shook his head while taking on a somber look on his face, "it doesn''t make it any easier for us to figure out how to feel about seeing her again."

 Chapter 217: Emotional rift?

    Contrary to the cultural shock I went through after crossing the barrier, the first part of our trip into the world of cultivators was pretty void of any further excitements.


    ''Heck, it would be hard to get excited over anything with this kind of a mood hanging over our heads!'' I thought as we toured down the street, heading in the direction only Chihiro knew beforehand.


    Even though this was both mine and ire''s first time in the spiritual part of the world, right now, we could both hardly care. And while ire had quite a lot of issues on her mind, from me suddenly overtaking her in cultivation to the question of how she was supposed to go and face her mother¡­ she wasn''t the only one struggling to deal with her issues.


    I, on my own, couldn''t help but keep mentally struggling over the issue of just how I was supposed to address the matter of my unexpected advancement.


    Normally, ording to allws of logic and reason, this would be a joyous asion. And judging by the reaction of the guards and even Chihiro himself, an asion worthy of a grand celebration, with how this kind of breakthrough wasn''t something one could just¡­ earn.


    But for how great it was supposed to be, it put me in a tough spot of not knowing how I was supposed to deal with the aftermath.


    ''Maybe I should just focus on learning as much as I can from the experience so that I canter help ire advance and match my level?'' I finally arrived at the kind of conclusion to my struggles that offered some sort of positive end result.


    After all, what else could be the solution to ire feeling bad over being left behind in terms of cultivation if not doing my best to help her catch up?


    "Are we there yet?" Prompted by the idea in my head, I asked, not lost on the irony of how this great moment of pure tourism, where I could finally witness the world as it was hundreds of years ago with my very own eyes, ultimately all boiled down to me worrying about my rtionship.


    "By there, where do you mean, exactly?" Chihiro, either lost in his own thoughts or simply eager to tease me, asked.


    "Wherever it is that we are heading to," I rolled my eyes as I replied. "Given my advancement, I think it would be for the best if I could just get somewhere silent to cultivate so I can solidify my gains and ensure my cultivation won''t deviate for some stupid reason."


    This sentence was just enough to elicit a re from ire, momentarily giving her something to focus all of her negative emotions on.


    Still, while her burning re hurt me on a physical level¡­ in a sense, it was all a part of the process of healing our rtionship.


    "If you are talking about the n''s grounds where we will reunite with Le, then we are still ways off," Chihiro looked at me for a short moment before averting his eyes and giving out his reply. "It would be an impossible task for us to reach it on the day we crossed over, so for today, I''ve nned to just get some rest at one of the inns, only setting out for the n''s grounds on tomorrow''s morning."


    "Let me reiterate my question then," this time I was the one rolling my eyes. "How long until we get to the inn?"


    "Are you that eager to get even more ahead of me?" ire asked, her voice a mix of reluctance, grief, and some hints of anger.


    "No, not at all," I shook my head, having absolutely no reason to hide my true motives from her. "I just figured the sooner I figure the ins and outs of my breakthrough, the sooner I will be able to share my findings with you and do my best to help you advance."


    ire''s eyes twitched a little, only for her to then look away.


    "Tim, I¡­" she hesitated, only to then tighten her hands into fists as she forced her face to move back, manually steering her eyes towards my face. "I understand that you can see how I feel, and I really appreciate your willingness to help me out, but¡­"


    Before she could finish, Chihiro suddenly appeared between us, not only separating the two of us physically with his own torso but also going as far as to bring his hands down on our shoulders.


    "What she is trying to say is, she already feels bad being left behind, but if she were to ept your help, this feeling of inadequacy, rather than going away with her advancement, would only develop further."


    I raised my eyes and looked slightly to the side, at the confident and somewhat somber look on Chihiro''s face, only to then steer my eyes down and lean forward a bit so that I could look beyond the man''s chest and at ire''s face hidden behind the man''s torso.


    "Is that true?"


    Squinting my eyes, I kept my stare on the girl for a few moments, only to then pull back when the task of walking while leaned in proved to be a little bit too demanding for me to keep it up for long.


    "I¡­" ire attempted to reply, only to cut her sentence short as she lowered her eyes and pinned them on her own feet. "I''m not really sure. Honestly, I''m not sure how I''m supposed to feel about it all right now. So," she hesitated again, "while I appreciate how much you are thinking about me, right now¡­?"


    ire shook her head, as if giving up on the whole issue.


    "Right now, all I need is just some peace of mind and silence so that I can sort all my feelings out. Once I''m done with that, I won''t leave you hanging, I promise, but until then¡­"


    As I leaned forward again, I just managed to catch the moment ire pressed her lips into a thin line before looking away, as if embarrassed by how she couldn''t process all those feelings of hers right on the spot.


    "Until then, I don''t think there is any point in us talking."

 Chapter 218: Prancing Butterfly

    The first attempt at touring the spiritual world came to an end the moment Chihiro finally brought us to one of the local inns.


    There, right as we stepped over the threshold of the ce, the somber mood, the extremely unpleasant feeling of mental and emotional separation, even all the doubts of what we were actually supposed to do in the spiritual world¡­


    At least in my case, all of those things took a backseat, forced to the back of my head by the awe brought by everything about this ce.


    "It feels like¡­" I nearly voiced my impression, only to then press my lips together, opting to gatekeep the rest of what I wanted to say within the privacy of my mind. ''It feels like stepping into the world I could only read about in history books before.''


    The inn, just like most of the other buildings in the border city, didn''t rise above a single story, making up for theck of verticality with just how far its grounds spread in every direction.


    While modern inns and hotels would take great advantage of stacking floors higher and higher, the architect of this ce took all the liberties that came with having ample space to manage, making sure even the walk toward the main building of the whole damn resort would be an experience all in its own right, rather than just amute from the outer to the inner gate.


    There was a fountain on each side of the rtively short gravel path leading from the street entrance of the ranch to the impressive, wood-carved gate of the main building.


    Those fountains, however, as if to rub the superiority of the spiritual world and its designs into the modern world''s face, weren''t limited just to their main pond and the statues erected in the middle and basked in the stters of water ejected from the statues'' mouths. Instead, pretty much the entire garden on each side of the path incorporated the outflow of the fountain water.


    ''Wait, this stream¡­'' I thought, stopping right in the middle of the road as my eyes drew toward the curly path the water took to finally disappear behind a tiny, merely inch-or-two-high mound.


    "Isn''t this a rune?" I muttered under my breath, too excited about my discovery to keep my mouth shut.


    And thankfully enough, as opposed to my earlier remark that could be taken as dismissive by the locals, what I just said could hardly be taken in the wrong way.


    "It indeed is a rune, young man," one of the inn''s guests who just happened to be taking a stroll through the front garden smiled, strangely pleased by my discovery. Yet, as he nced at my robes and then my smallpany, his smile only grew brighter. "Is this, by chance, your first day in the spiritual world?"


    I turned my eyes to the man again, only to then cup my hands together before giving the man a slight, polite bow.


    "It is indeed, respectable senior," I answered in the most polite way I knew how, making sure to bend my back at the precise angle¡ªnot too shallow to imply ack of respect, nor too deep to diminish my own position.


    "It seems that soon, rather than just a ward, you will visit this ce through your own achievement, then," the man added, only to then copy my bow with a small smile lingering on his lips before turning away to continue his leisurely stroll.


    ''Oh shit¡­'' Only when the man left us to our own devices did I realize that this seemingly innocent exchange had caused ire''s stare to burn even harder, to the point I felt as if her eyes could w bloody holes out of my side.


    ''I really should keep my mouth shut,'' I thought, gritting my teeth while doing my absolute best to maintain a polite and calm expression on the outside.


    ''May the pain of my teeth forever remind me not to speak carelessly,'' I swore to myself, only to then lower my head and silently follow after Chihiro.


    Before any other incidents could make ire''s feelings even worse, we managed to reach the main entrance to the inn¡­ or rather, the entrance to its main building.


    When we stepped inside, however, rather than a dining hall or even a rxation zone, this whole building turned out to be nothing more than a fancy reception!


    "Wee to the Prancing Butterfly!" A young jade beauty in weirdly revealing robes stood up only to then bow so deeply, it made me question whether she wanted to show respect or sh her cleavage. Then, as soon as she rose, she shed a bright smile, showing her perfectly white teeth. "How may I be of service? Would you like some refreshments? Are you seeking a lodge? Or maybe¡­"


    "We will require three bedrooms and a private cultivation area, along with an assortment of refreshments and my daily quota of the cultivation materials," Chihiro stepped out to converse with thedy while I made sure to keep my eyes away from her belly-button-deep cleavage or pretty much the entirety of her outer thighs, which her robe conveniently left uncovered.


    Right now, thest thing I needed was to give ire yet another reason to feel bad about me¡ªor, in this particr case, to potentially feel jealous about where my eyes would naturally venture.


    "I assume I can leave the necessary paperwork for the quotation to you, can I?" Chihiro then inquired a bit further, only for the receptionistdy to bow again¡­ only to then cup her hands together as she did.


    "On the honor of the innkeeper, all the papers shall be submitted both to the office and to your rooms for review," she stated out loud, only to then peek up a little, smirk a little when she saw how obstinately I refused to look anywhere near her direction, before refocusing her eyes back on Chihiro. "That is, only if you are happy with the added fee that this service will bequeath upon your bill."


    "Yes, that will be both eptable and weed," Chihiro replied with a bow of his own, although quite a bit shallower than the one the receptionist kept performing.


    "Perfect," the receptionist smiled, this time saving us the plight of shing her goods as she concluded the transaction with just a polite smile. "In that case, allow me to guide you to your rooms, then," she offered, only to quickly nce through our entire group before smiling again. "And, I assume you will not require cultivation assistance?"


    Normally, I would be happy to ept such an offer. It was a rare chance to have a spiritual world local help me out by sharing some of the basics of their understanding of cultivation, something I couldter use to enrich my own understanding of it¡­


    Or so would be the case if not for the actual meaning behind this question, one that had only a little to do with actual cultivation and quite a lot more to do with rxation for the guests and a money-making opportunity for the young and beautiful locals.


    "That won''t be necessary," Chihiro replied, his voice quickly growing colder. "Just guiding us to our rooms will suffice."


    "So it shall be," the receptionist smiled again, not allowing Chihiro''s rejection to faze her even in the slightest. "If you could follow me, then¡­"

 Chapter 219 Budding frustration

    Chapter 219 Budding frustration


    The rooms at the inn were just like the inn itself - spacious,fortable, and full of pieces that, in the modern world, would pass for artsy luxury, while in its spiritual counterpart, couldn''t be considered as anything better than just standard furnishing.


    The vibe of the room itself was pretty exotic, eastern, full of figures hidden in shapes that told all sorts of stories to a keen-eyed observer.


    Once I looked beyond all the elements foreign for a modern human like myself, however, this room turned out to be pretty... standard, if not slightly sub-par.


    There was no bed, with merely someforters stacked directly on the floor to serve as a substitute. The windows, while giving a nice view at the gardens outside, also allowed anyone strolling through them to peer inside my room, robbing me of any sense of privacy.


    All in all, if I were to rate this room, it would be a solid five out of ten... That is, unless I gave the restrictions that came with its key absolutely no attention.


    As it turned out, it was absolutely forbidden to cultivate within this room, both by Chihiro and the staff of the inn. Apparently, doing so could put a strain on the delicate spiritual circuits of the inn, putting thefort and leisure of other guests at risk.


    No.


    If I wanted to cultivate, I had no other choice but to sit tight and wait my turn for the visit in the cultivation room that Chihiro rented... Only to start his upation of it before he could even set foot in his own, separate lodge.


    Deprived of ire''s closeness and now even the ability to make the most out of me being in the spiritual side of the world, I was left with only three things to upy my thoughts.


    First, I could n for any further crafting projects I would like to partake in theing days. This, however, greatly relied on how the rest of our visit in this part of the world would go, and even if I found both ce and time and then proper materials to craft with... I would still have to keep in mind that whatever I crafted was likely to be yet another bomb easily capable of upsetting the current bnce of the world.


    With the crafting out of the realistic picture, I had no other choice but to focus on the next two topics I had left to ponder over, the retrospective look into the moment of my breakthrough and then the observation of the spiritual energy all around me in its raw form, while doing my absolute best not to actively interact with it.


    The former gave me the shot at crafting a mental ticket that would allow me to buy myself back into ire''s favors by helping her gain the same enlightenment that I did during my unexpected breakthrough. Thetter, however, offered to ease me up into the cultivation on this side of the world''s barrier before I even set foot in the cultivation room that Chihiro rented!


    ''Now then, to actually think back...''


    Contrary to how easy it appeared while still but a mere idea in my head, looking back into my own experience turned out to be quite a bit more difficult than I thought it would be.


    Recalling how my perception of my own presence suddenly expanded was one thing... but it came nowhere close to actually living through it!


    Still, the memory of it happening was... just barely good enough for me to start to build up from there.


    ''What was it that actually expanded, my sense of self... or maybe it was an area that I could perceive that increased to the point my sense of self grew so strained, it felt as if it fragmented?''


    Looking back at what happened wasn''t the same as living through it again. The memory of the time when I pretty much lost my sense of self was hardly there, with how there was no integrated consciousness of mine to record what happened.


    But that didn''t mean I couldn''t pry the lid of the world''s truth just the little bit enough to benefit from it.


    "Thinking about this, I wonder how did the reach of my spirituality change..." I muttered to myself, raising my hand to my eyes as if to check for any sign of the legendary aura free-floating around it... Only to see nothing beyond just the skin, slightly bulging veins and the shape of my bones poking out from underneath all the muscle and skin alike.


    Unable to cultivate, I couldn''t really peer deeper into the secrets of the reality, the secrets of what happened during my breakthrough. In a sense, I felt as if someone robbed me of one of the senses, even if it was one that I possessed only for a few months by now.


    "Tsk...." I clicked my tongue, holding myself from outright cursing my current situation out loud in fear of causing difort and anger of the guests living in peace beyond the thin walls of my room.


    I tried.


    I genuinely, without cheating or looking for excuses, tried to look back at what happened. Yet, deprived of my natural right to just drive my cultivation and observe how it changed since my breakthrough, I just...


    I just couldn''t figure anything out.


    It felt as if the answer was there, just an inch beyond the reach of my fingers, ready for me to grab at it with just a little bit of help from my spirituality... Only for the conventions and rules of this damned inn to neuter all of my attempts at reaching it.


    ''Is this what a creative block feels like?'' I thought, gritting my teeth in silent frustration. ''And it''s not even my fault! It''s all because of those damn, stupid rules! How could the spiritual world have even greater restrictions on cultivation than the modern one?!''


    The more I thought about it, the less sense this situation made. And this, in turn, only served to fuel my anger even more.


    Soon, I started to grasp my hands into fists, forcibly rx, cast a nce towards the room doors in hopes of hearing a knock... Only for itsck to start the process all over again with me grasping my hands into fists, then forcibly rxing... and so on.


    ''Okay, fuck it, let''s move on before I actually start smashing stuff around,'' I thought, inhaling as much air as I could - all the way to the point where it started to physically hurt my lungs - only to then hold it in - once again, all the way to the point of a physical pain.


    ''If not the memories of my breakthrough, then maybe the spiritual energy of this ce can hold some answers?'' I thought, using the momentary rity from this forced exercise of calming myself down to take another breath before closing my eyes and then opening them up again - only this time, rather than looking at what''s ahead, I peered into what was all around me.


    At first, I couldn''t spot a single difference between the air of this spiritual world and the air of the modern world that I was so used to - save, obviously, for the miraculousck of all the pollutants that poisoned the air for all the humans living in the modern world.


    The more and the deeper I looked however, the more and more differences started to appear.


    The flow of the spiritual energy was different here, as if... far more organized than just the natural currents and wisps of mana back home.


    It felt as if there was some sort of a greater purpose behind all of the flowing spiritual power, the meaning that I, once again, just couldn''t grasp, always merely an inch away from figuring it out only to never be able to make thatst, most crucial step.


    ''Be it my memories or my perception, why does it feel like I''m no longer able to figure it out? Its as if depriving me of cultivation was akin to fucking lobotomizing my brain!''


    Before I could even take notice, my anger returned, scrambling my thoughts which only made it all the harder to focus on the topic in question which, in a vicious cycle, only further fueled the mes of my returning anger.


    ''Thinking about it, isn''t this a damn torture?'' Soon, I started to arrive at much more brutal conclusions to the situation I was in. ''To bring someone over to the spiritual world and then ban them from cultivation? To stop a genius from discovering the truth by keeping his brain power away from him? To..."


    Finally, the sound of the knocking on the doors pulled me out of the hole of my rage, allowing me to put the reins of my emotion as I rposed the look on my face right in time for the doors to open, revealing Chihiro''s figure and then... the dreamy, fulfilled look on his face.


    "The cultivation room is now free," he announced before shaking his head and finally restoring his usual calm and stoic smile. "Would you like to..."


    Before the man could even finish his words, I already moved up from my kneel and arrived at the doors, passing by him without a word as I hurried down the corridor to the room I''ve long since wanted to reach.


    Pushing its doors open, I could only think about cultivating. Closing the sliding doors behind me, my mind was already pushing my spiritual energy around.


    But my frustration, annoyance, anger... They all had to go somewhere.


    And in a bid to release them all into the air, I clenched my hand... and just struck down right at the floor, as if I wanted to beat the living shit out of it.


    Only for a spider''s web of cracks to appear while my knuckles were still a good inch away from the solidified straw-mat of the room''s floor!

 Chapter 220: Is meditation but a crutch?

    ''What?''


    There was no convenient world-narration to exin to me what just had happened. And as tiny as the cracks in the floor my unfinished strike left were, I would have to be blind not to notice them.


    Pushed by the momentum, my fist came all the way down and conquered thest inch that separated my knuckles from the floor, only for the imprint to perfectly match what I would expect from the strike measured precisely by my fist.


    ''But¡­''


    I gulped my saliva down, forgetting all about my anger, annoyance, and frustration in light of the new mystery that revealed itself to my eyes.


    ''But I didn''t even use any of my spirituality, though?''


    Sure, a cultivator would have the performance of their flesh and bones boosted by the mere fact of reaching certain levels of cultivation, but¡­


    "Unless this differencees from my recent breakthrough, there has to be something else at y here¡­"


    As much as I wanted to jump out and p my feet together in the air while stretching my hands up to the sky and shouting "eureka," I couldn''t really be sure whether the walls of the training room were thick enough to stop the noise of doing so from reaching the others. And right now, thest thing I wanted was for someone toe check on me and, by doing so, possibly clue themselves in on what happened.


    No.


    This discovery was something that, at least for now, I had to leave to myself. Silence and solitude were the biggest friends for working out mysteries, after all!


    First, I slowly raised my hand up and rxed my fist, opening my hand as I brought it up to my eyes.


    ''There''s no aura of any kind,'' I took a mental note before straining my eyes a bit more, blinking a few times before I could switch over from the normal view to a spiritual one.


    Yet, even as I inspected the energies in the air, there was nothing out of the ordinary around my hand that would indicate the possible reason behind what I did just a few moments ago.


    "The question is¡­"


    Rather than finishing my thought out loud, I took a deep breath and closed my hand back into a fist before standing in the one stance I knew better than anything else in my life, taking a moment to calm down¡­


    And then struck out with my hand.


    This time, I didn''t even aim at the floor, the wall, or any of the many targets I could find all over this spacious training room.


    No, back when I attacked the floor to vent my emotions, I clearly felt something. Yet, when Ipressed my muscles and twisted my body, using the strength of my legs, hips, and the whole upper body to send my fist flying forth¡­ this momentary feeling didn''t return.


    All I did was strike the air. No gust of wind formed at the culmination point of my strike where, back in my institution days, my knuckles would find the wooden, worn-down target. No ground shook, trembling in fear of my precise strike. No thunder streaked through the vast sky to announce the birth of the divine fist.


    None of this happened, just like I couldn''t feel that same, strangely familiar sensation as when I attempted to strike the floor, only to do it somewhat remotely and with strength greater than my body was actually capable of.


    ''This is starting to get annoying again,'' I thought, gritting my teeth a bit as the familiar sensation started to well up at the bottom of my stomach.


    I didn''te to this room to investigate something new. I came here to check how my breakthrough affected my cultivation, check my cultivation itself, and then try to use the knowledge gained from it to figure out a way to potentially help ire mirror my achievement and match my cultivation level. And yet, here I was, stuck on yet another mystery, finding yet another avenue for anger to cloud my thinking and throw me down the vicious cycle of losing focus on the task at hand, only to grow more and more emotional about it, which, in turn, made regaining the focus all the harder.


    This feeling, however, was just what I needed to connect the first few dots of the greater picture I had in my head. And once it happened, everything started to rify itself in my head, like a massive knot that would fully unveil itself after tugging on just the right, extremely small part of it.


    ''Was it my anger that caused it?'' I thought, stopping myself from throwing another punch as I, once again, brought my hand up to my eyes to inspect it.


    To all that I knew about cultivation, this couldn''t be the case. After all, the reason why Igged behind the rest of the world so much was because I failed to achieve a meditative state!


    Ever since the moment I finally managed to ovee this issue, cultivation always remained something that required a calm mind and great focus, something that with time I managed to do without paying it much attention, just by following my mental muscle memory of sorts.


    But¡­


    But what if that assumption, that cultivation required focus and a calm mind, was wrong to begin with? What if that requirement was something only applicable to the lower ranks of cultivation, to the time when my spirituality was still so simple and outright crude, this inner peace was like a necessary crutch for me to make it work?


    ''What if emotions¡­'' I started to form a thought, only to bite down on my bottom lip and shake my head, disregarding the thought and reinforcing this decision with a physical act.


    Rather than forming some sort of wild theory, I took a deep breath and forcibly removed all of my emotions, putting myself as close to the state of perfect focus as I could before finally, a lotter than I initially nned to, activating my spirituality as I drove my cultivation up.


    Bit by bit, the spiritual energy filled my flesh, filling my veins with liquid fire of pure, unadulterated energy.


    Normally, I would cease this sort of ignition as soon as my energy would start to flow in the way I wanted, as soon as my core would grow chaotic and reach the state of near-copse.


    Today, however, was different. And with all of my attention focused on nothing but pushing my cultivation to its limits, I continued to grit my teeth harder and harder as the burden of the unused energy brimming in my flesh continued to skyrocket well beyond any range I''d ever experienced before.


    With each passing second¡ªno, fraction of a second¡ªthe burden grew greater, making it infinitely harder to maintain this state of artificially perfect focus.


    The second I felt I could hold no longer, I breathed out, buying myself just a fraction of a second more, before casting my nce down to my tightened fist¡­


    Only to realize that this entire process, this tough exercise¡­ failed to produce the results I expected.


    The feeling from when I wirelessly struck the ground wasn''t there. No aura coated my hand, ready to deliver a strike greater than it was supposed to be.


    In other words, what I took for a random activation of my cultivation so swift I could hardly register it, simply wasn''t it.


    "Fuck!" All the anger, all the frustration, all the annoyance I pushed aside, has now all returned, doubling in force. And with my eyes already set on my hand, I would have to be blind to miss what happened next.


    For the short moment between those emotions of mine growing in my soul like a rising tide and me realizing the truth of this small mystery, I not only felt but also saw the very thing I was looking for. A thinyer of condensed force forming all over not only my fist but my body as a whole!


    A thinyer of energy that dissipated the very moment I forgot all about my anger, turning all the frustration into tion of a job well done.


    ''So it was all about emotions after all¡­'' I thought, only for my face to instantly twist into an ugly grimace, something I could feel even without looking up to search for a mirror.


    Because¡­ how could a modern person like me ept emotions to be the trigger for something? How could something so imprecise and whimsical be the key factor of something as important as cultivation?


    "I mean, it only makes sense, given how cultivation was always about using one''s will to affect the spiritual energy, but¡­"


    For the third time in a short while, I gritted my teeth as frustration took over, only to quickly give way to a sense of rity.


    ''What if it''s not emotions?'' I asked myself, dropping down to the floor with my ass and crossing my legs before cupping my hands together and leaning forward, so focused on my own thoughts I could hardly even perceive the world around me anymore. ''What if emotions are just like meditation before¡ªnothing more but a crutch for those whose cultivation is still too underdeveloped to figure out the proper way of manipting it?''


    I took in a deep breath, feeling as if every iota of fresh oxygen I supplied to my blood¡ªand through it, to my brain¡ªallowed me to open the eyes of my understanding wider and wider.


    ''And if that''s the case, what if the expansion stage of cultivation¡­ was never about expanding one''s core through space or even one''s perception of self beyond the limits of their body. What if this stage was always all about¡­ expanding one''s ability to cultivate from just the state of meditation, to all emotional states a human can find themselves in?''


    I gulped my saliva down, perfectly aware just how big of a deal this theory would be if it not only proved true, but also foreign to the cultivators of this world.


    "The better question is," I muttered to myself, breathing out as I leaned with my torso to the back, moving my hands to support myself on the floor behind, "how would that affect the performance of my cultivation?"

 Chapter 221: Desperate times warrant desperate measures

    ''Emotions, huh?''


    I closed my eyes and leaned myself back before lying directly on the training room''s floor.


    I knew I shouldn''t be wasting the limited time I had in this room on just thinking¡­ but right now, I honestly couldn''t stop myself from doing so.


    This whole issue was something I''d been agonizing over for more than two hours by now. And while I was no stranger to things taking much, MUCH longer¡­ that mostly applied to when I was trying to put my theories into practice.


    When it came to just thinking, however, rarely did it take me more than a few minutes to figure something out. Heck! No matter how far back I went in my memory, I couldn''t recall a single instance when I''d been troubled over something for more than an hour!


    And yet, even though I''d already figured out that my emotions had now affected my cultivation¡­ what exactly was supposed to be the next step? How was I supposed to take what I''d figured out and either craft an even bigger, more wholesome theory about my current cultivation stage or find out the ways to make proper, practical use of it?


    "To think I would grow so distant from the sense of loss and failure, even though it''s the one thing I was familiar with for over five years of my life¡­"


    I didn''t even need to think hard to figure out what brought this change in me, when it happened, or how such a profound development could ur in such a rtively short time, affecting a mindset I''d developed over literal years.


    It was all ire''s fault.


    From giving me properpany, through providing me with all the means to put my theories into practice, all the way to helping me out when it came to cultivation theory or, just like an extrovert adopting an introvert, bringing me out of my room to widen my horizons¡­


    It was no one else''s but ire''s fault!


    Not that I had any desire to me her for it, though.


    ''Is this what the saying means with how weak men create hard times?'' I thought, easily applying various parts of the popr saying to my very own self¡­ just at various stages of development.


    Back when I was still just a rebellious teenager who sought shortcuts and independence through my uncle, I was responsible for creating the hard times for myself.


    Those hard times¡ªyears'' worth of constant struggle and absoluteck of validation¡ªbecame the catalyst necessary for me to turn from a weak to a strong man, one that knew how to deal with struggles, issues, and general failure. Yet, ever since ire came into my life, she became a cushion that softened everything problematic about my life.


    The issues with money?


    Solved.


    The issues withck of status?


    Solved.


    The issue of general loneliness,ck of proper human contact beyond what I could get at work?


    Definitely solved.


    And sure, while getting engaged with her brought a fair share of new troubles into my life¡­ she was always there, like a pillow for me to rest my head on after a long and arduous day.


    Now, however, by sheer coincidence, I was deprived of it all.


    The necessity for our group to stay low-key deprived me of the status of a member of ire''s n.


    The issue of my unexpected breakthrough led to a massive rift growing between us, even if it was going to be only a temporary measure necessary for her to figure out how to deal with all of her feelings and emotions.


    And to top it all off, the one and only thing that allowed me to enjoy all those unforeseen and outright unearned benefits¡ªmy intelligence, my ability to solve whatever problems and mysteries I stumbled upon¡­


    Right now, with how I failed to crack this case, it was gone too.


    Back a year ago, when loss was the one thing I knew, taking this kind of series of massive losses would hardly faze me. But back a year ago, my skin was quite a lot thicker than it was now, after quite a lot of time during which ire''s presence by my side continued to soften it.


    "The best example of it happening is how, rather than gritting my teeth and trying again, all I''m doing right now is moping around and whining, huh?" I muttered to myself, voicing my thoughts to make them feel at least a bit more tangible.


    Hearing my own voice, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in.


    I didn''t even bother trying hard to hold it in for an exceptionally long time. Instead, I just refused to take another one.


    Bit by bit, my lungs continued to take the oxygen out of the air that I inhaled, only to poison my system with carbon dioxide in return which, as any biologist or doctor would know, only served to increase my natural reflex to take another breath.


    Which I obstinately refused to do, opting to just cope with the pain while keeping my eyes closed.


    Soon, the difort turned into a pressure. This, in turn, quickly grew into a state of half-panic that I had to use most of my focus to rein back in. Then, the oxygen deprivation turned directly into pain, a rapidly beating heart, a jumping Adam''s apple in my throat as I started to gag when my body desperately attempted to take another breath.


    I endured it all. Only when I felt my consciousness slipping out of my grasp, as my body, in ast-ditch effort, attempted to break past the wall of my will that was leading it down the slippery slope of a biologically impossible self-deletion, did I finally allow my mouth to open, exhaling the stinky, carbon-dioxide-rich air, only to then roll forward from the sheer momentum of my entire body gasping for the long-awaited breath.


    A technique I wouldn''t rmend even to my worst enemy. But a silly and outright stupid technique that I''d, back in the long five years of constant failure, found to be surprisingly effective at self-kicking my own butt.


    ''Strange things happen to a man''s psyche when he wanders a bit too close to the border between life and death, huh?''


    With my lungs now filling with fresh oxygen, my whole body went limp, too exhausted from the unexpected spike of exertion to let me maintain my sitting position.


    Caring not for the small details, I allowed my body to just go limp and fall right back to the ground. I didn''t even bother trying to soften the blow of the back of my head striking the floor, happily epting all the pain that came with the fall as yet anotheryer of reinforcement serving to remind me of what I just went through.


    ''You don''t have the time to just sit down and cry over your misfortunes when you are the luckiest bastard alive!''


    This one thought, one line of reasoning, wasn''t something I was unfamiliar with. In fact, it was hardly something I''d thought of just now, given how I kept wondering how I could be so damn fortunate every night that I got to fall asleep with ire in my arms.


    No.


    This thought was nothing new to me.


    Only now, however, with the memory of self-inflicted suffocation still fresh in my mind¡­


    This thought, the very same one I''d had countless times until now¡­


    It rang differently in my brain.


    So differently, in fact, that it allowed me to just push aside all of the unproductive anger, frustration, doubt, and¡­


    And pretty much every other emotion that could potentially interfere with the one thing that I came to this special room to do.


    And that was to both inspect the state of my current cultivation, see what changes my breakthrough brought forth, and then¡­ well, just try cultivating a bit so that I could get myself somewhat familiar with the process now that it potentially changed.


    ''Breathe in¡­'' I thought, closing my eyes as I cast aside whatever was still left in my mind after I managed to iste all my emotions.


    ''Breathe out,'' I continued to direct my actions with clearly articted thoughts.


    ''Breathe in¡­''


    ''Breathe out¡­''


    ''Breathe in¡­ re the core up¡­''


    Sparks of spiritual energy started to sh out of every part of my body, connecting to the endless number of random anchors in different parts of my body.


    ''Breathe out¡­''


    As if following the pattern of my breathing, as I emptied out my lungs, the constant copse of endless points of my core slowed down, as if the chaos contained within somehow subsided.


    ''Breathe in¡­''


    Bit by bit, I continued to wake my cultivation up, all the way to the point where the sparking of my spiritual energy grew so rich and dense, I couldn''t perceive each individual discharge as they all merged, first into a general flow and then into a state of flux-state energy omnipresent all over my body, at all anchors ingrained deep into my soul, all at the same time.


    ''Breathe in¡­''


    Knock.


    ''Breathe out.''


    Knock.


    Knock.


    ''Breathe in¡­''


    "Hey, Tim¡­"


    ''Breathe out¡­''


    "It''s me, ire."


    ''Breathe in¡­''


    "May Ie in?"


    //PS - This technique is a LOAD OF BS, DONT try it at home. Consider it just another part of the magic system of the story >.>//

 Chapter 222: Just like a call of the abyss

    "May Ie in?"


    Raising my eyes, I looked up toward the doors.


    On one hand, I was just about to start cultivating¡­


    ''Okay, who am I even trying to fool?'' I asked myself as a small smile of self-aimed irony flowered on my mouth.


    "Sure,e in."


    Rxing down on the floor, I breathed out, allowing the tension of the focused state of non-emotional motivation to go away.


    Hearing the doors turn, I opened my eyes and looked up¡­


    Only for my jaw to nearly dislodge and fall down to the floor.


    I''ve seen ire naked more times than I could count. I''ve seen her scantily dressed, wearing sexy lingerie or clothes that only pretended to serve the purpose of covering up one''s nakedness. I''ve even seen her in a cute onesie, but right now?


    Right now was the very first time for me to see her in what had to be a mix offy loungewear and outright pajamas.


    "H-hi¡­" she said, turning her eyes away, still stuck on the awkwardness that was there when we parted ways to give her some room to think things through.


    "Hi, sweetie," I greeted back, leaning to the back on my hands as I made sure to appear as rxed as I possibly could.


    It was clear to see how hard of a time she had approaching me after what we went through¡­ or rather, after dealing with the emotions that my breakthrough invoked in her soul. And while I have long since forgotten about the whole situation¡­


    I couldn''t exactly expect ire, a girl, to deal with emotions the same way I, a man, did, could I?


    "I¡­" ire grabbed with her right hand at her left shoulder, still keeping her eyes off to the side, as if she was too shy to look directly into my face.


    Then, as if to exceed my current expectations and prove just how little faith I had in her, she forced her head to move, making it harder and harder for her eyes to keep avoiding me, all the way to the point where she had no other choice but to look straight ahead.


    "I-I was wondering if¡­" ire looked up to me for a moment, only to quickly look away, unable to bear the look of my calm smile for more than just a few seconds, "if there was anything I could do for you to a-apologize¡­"


    My left eyebrow moved up as ire managed to find the angle I, by no means, expected her to take.


    "Wait, is this what I think it is?" I asked, now raising my other eyebrow to form the honest look of surprise on my face.


    "Y-yes¡­"


    ire looked off to the side again while pulling on her elbow so hard, I was starting to get worried she would outright break her arm right here and now.


    "Haa-ah¡­" I sighed, only to stand up and move towards the pajama-d girl.


    The closer I came, the more she appeared to shrink into herself, as if my mere presence only amplified all the emotions that she clearly has yet to make her peace with.


    "Then I''m sorry, but no, not yet," I said as soon as I stood close enough for her to be within my arm''s reach. "Instead¡­"


    I reached out and gently grabbed ire by her shoulders, only to then move up just half of a step, taking care to be as gentle as I could as I both pulled her into a hug and stepped into it myself.


    "I''m not really sure what you are going through, but I''m here to support you, mkay?" I asked while using one of my hands to lightly pat ire''s back and the other to gently massage the back of her head.


    "Mhmm¡­" Pressing her face into my chest, ire muttered something the meaning of which I''d lost to just how muffled her voice was.


    For the next while, we simply just¡­ stood there, doing nothing but hugging each other, slowly recharging our social batteries drained by all the time we spent apart from each other.


    No, that wasn''t the right way to put it. Not when I''ve never felt so drained even though there were times when I just happened to be nowhere near where ire was. And while rare¡­ those moments served as proof that it wasn''t something as simple asck of physical contact or simple intimacy.


    We''ve recharged the batteries that we started draining the moment we pulled apart, not physically¡­ but emotionally.


    "Can you tell me what''s troubling you?" After a good chunk of time had passed, I finally gathered enough courage to ask the big question. "I''m just a simple man, so unless you tell me, I will be left clueless."


    ire didn''t respond right away. I didn''t try to force the answer out of her either.


    A few momentster, ire slightly shifted in my embrace to the point where she brought both of her hands to my chest. Yet, rather than pushing me away to get out of my hug, she pressed against my chest to push herself down instead.


    Surprising as it was at first, when she slid her hands down my torso and reached out to wrap them around my hips, however, I couldn''t im to remain clueless anymore.


    "ire, stop," I requested, only for her to ignore my voice and grab at the coiled material that kept my robes together.


    "No, seriously¡­" my voice quickly grew urgent as she didn''t seem to have any intention of stopping. "ire, stop!"


    Only when I raised my voice did it reach ire''s ears, causing her to freeze¡­


    "Ah, I''m sorry for shouting," I instantly apologized, only to bend down my knees and plummet down, quickly matching the level of ire''s face with my eyes, allowing me to reach out and bring my hands down onto her cheeks. "It''s not that I don''t enjoy the idea of what you were trying to do, but¡­" I bit down on the inside of my cheek, struggling to find the right words to properly express my feelings.


    "It''s just¡­" The more my face filled with frustration at my inability to voice my concerns, the more and more courage ire gathered to actually peek up and look into my eyes.


    "I don''t want to use sex to just¡­ ignore all that happened and artificially force us to be as close as we were before we arrived at the border."


    Finally, our eyes met. Or rather, finally, our eyes not only met, but neither of us attempted to look away. The moment I looked into ire''s eyes, however, the corners of her eyes started to fill up with moisture.


    "Oh dear me," I whispered, my heart already melting from the moment she appeared, d in her cute pajamas, in the doorway. But now? Seeing her on the verge of tears?


    "Dear, first off, I don''t hold anything against you. If anything, I''m frustrated with myself over how I allowed something so meaningless, something so unimportant, to happen and drive a wedge between the two of us!"


    Rather than shouting to convince the girl of my convictions, I raised my voice a bit to show just how certain I was of this belief.


    "But it''s not!" Finally, ire snapped out of her state, her tears properly brimming in her eyes as she reached out and grabbed at my wrists, only to then stare right into my eyes, a sense of mostly self-aimed frustration brimming out of every corner of her face.


    "A natural breakthrough?! How could it be a small deal?"


    With her frustration peaking, ire let go of my wrist, only to m the bottoms of her fists at my chest, soon pressing her forehead just below the base of my throat as well.


    "And it''s not you that I''m frustrated with! How could you be at fault for something you have no control over!" she cried out in anger. "It is myself that I''m hating! My jealous self that, rather than celebrate your growth, ended up pitying mycking talent!"


    It was with a heavy heart that I had to listen to ire''s cries. Hearing her teary voice and feeling the moisture of her tears on my undershirt brought me pain much worse than anything I''ve ever experienced physically. And all of it became even worse over how powerless I was to soothe her worries.


    "Wait," I suddenly reached out and grabbed at ire''s shoulders much tighter than before, as if to snap her out of her current state to at least temporarily bring her attention to some other, much more pressing issue. "You were frustrated with how your first thought wasn''t what you would want it to be?"


    This revtion was to me like finding the missing piece for a puzzle that I didn''t know was missing a piece. A subversion of what I thought was happening so great, it flipped everything on its head, pretty much rendering all of what I thought about the whole issue to this pointpletely and utterly useless!


    "Yes¡­?" Not sure what I was getting at, ire answered with hesitation, struggling to figure out what kind of face she was to make now that I pushed her away just enough to look into her teary eyes.


    "Oh damn¡­" I sighed out, only for my shoulders to drop when I felt the massive weight lift from them. "Dear, just like you couldn''t me me for the natural breakthrough, how could I me you for something that you have no control over?" I asked, turning ire''s very own words against her. "Wait, no, that''s not it," I quickly shook my head and, by the factor of losing control over my strength in the moment, ire''s shoulders. "How can you me yourself for something you have no control over?"


    Staring into ire''s eyes, I could see how my words led her to rethink the whole issue from the new perspective I just offered.


    "ire, listen¡­" I shook my head again. "Your first thoughts are meaningless, for they are but a primal reflection of our instincts. It is how you react to those thoughts that matters, for it shows the true value of your character."


    I took a deep breath.


    "You see," I looked up to the room''s ceiling as I started to recount several different things at the same time, "there are times when people experience something called the call of the void. It is when you are driving a car and suddenly get the desire to just¡­ drive off the road to your death. And while the roots of this kind of mental behavior are not exactly well researched¡­"


    I hesitated for a bit, struggling to find all the precise details of what I wanted to say.


    "As far as I remember, those thoughts are nothing more than our instinctive way of picturing the situation, for us to better understand the dire consequences of allowing it to happen. We get the desire to drive off the road and plunge into the abyss not because that''s what we really want or desire at the core of our soul. It''s merely a projection of what can happen if we allow ourselves to lose control, so that we can reinforce our focus and keep the car steady."


    Looking back down, I could tell with just a single nce that ire didn''t really get the example.


    "Look at it like this. There might be times when a scantily dressed woman will walk by me, leading my eyes to follow her for the short moment before I even realize what I''m doing," I switched the example to one that directly involved me and, by proxy, ire. "But this drift of my eyes doesn''t mean that I''m going to drop everything and chase after a short skirt like a dog in heat. It''s merely an instinctive reaction, left over from the times when humans could operate only on their instincts. But just like I wouldn''t give two fucks about another girl, I don''t think you came to despise me over my advancement either, did you?"


    Faced with such a long lecture, ire, already in a turbulent emotional state, took a moment to carefully nod her head.


    "And just like that, it doesn''t matter what your first, instinctive thought was when I broke through. Maybe it was just an innate fear that by advancing beyond your level, I would be stupid, blind, and outright crazy enough to forget about you? Maybe it was your fear you would be left behind?"


    I shook my head.


    "I don''t know what it was that brought forth that first thought of yours," I stated, only to reach out and caress ire''s cheek with my thumb. "What matters is what you did with that thought. And seeing how you ended up ming yourself¡­"


    I shook my head.


    "I couldn''t be more proud of you."

 Chapter 223: Its alright for you but not for me?!

    "I couldn''t be more proud of you."


    This wasn''t just lip service on my end, not by a long shot.


    I myself knew how hard it was to ovee the feelings of jealousy directed towards others, a task that grew all the harder the closer one was to the people they were feeling jealous towards.


    On my end, I felt jealous over my uncle''s wealth and status, I felt jealous over my father''s strict moral standards and discipline when it came to applying them¡­ But also towards the favored coworkers back at the grocery I used to work, all the more whenparing our paychecks and giving in to the imagination and thinking just how much easier my life could be if I could work as many hours as they did¡­


    With all that in mind, seeing how ire managed to correctly identify the problem of her jealousy over my seemingly random enlightenment and then quickly strike it off her thoughts, to say that I was proud of her was less of a lip-service than it was an actual understatement!


    "Thanks¡­" Burying her head into my chest, ire muttered¡­ Only to then suddenly copse, as if the exhaustion from all of her mental strain finally caught up to her, dragging us both down to the floor up until the moment when I finally managed to catch some fleeting stability and pull us both to the back, softening mynding with my ass and then making sure ire would fall down on me rather than the questionably hard floor below.


    "All better?" Lying down on the floor, I moved my hand down to ire''s face, shooing away the hair that shielded her cheek so that I could find and then gently get a hold of her chin and pull her face up a bit.


    Looking up, ire snorted a bit only to then raise her own hand and wipe the tears out of her wet eyes. For a moment, she just stared me up like some sort of a fearful animal, only to then bat her eyelids a few times as she attempted to remove any excessive moisture her hand failed to catch off her eyes.


    Still, rather than replying, she lightly nodded her head only to then bury it right back into my chest, seeking the warmth of my flesh as a form of physical reassurance to counteract her emotional instability.


    "There, there¡­" I patted the girl''s back while closing my eyes down and stealthily holding my breath down a bit, doing my absolute best to hold back the extremely satisfying sensation.


    As much as I hated seeing ire cry¡­


    I couldn''t think of a better feeling than just holding her close up, trying to cheer her up while she sought me out for support.


    "You really know how to tickle a man''s soft spots¡­" I muttered as the feeling continued to uncontrobly grow, filling my entire soul with a sense of satisfaction so intense, just its degree alone was enough to make it feel perverse.


    "Hmm?" Moving her face up just enough to peek her eyes out from my chest, ire gave me a slightly confused look, indicating that while she tried, she couldn''t really see through the meaning of what I''d said.


    "This is stupid, don''t worry about it," I shook my head and patted ire''s back again, trying to ignore just how small it felt underneath my hand.


    As a cultivator, those small muscles of hers were capable of exerting way more strength than a non-cultivator body-builder could ever dream to achieve. Yet, in this precise moment, she just felt¡­ frail.


    "Why wouldn''t I worry about it?" With her face still all teary, ire looked up again. She also moved her hands up, once again pressing them down on my chest just below the point where she previously pressed her forehead against. Then, before I could even attempt to answer, she managed to put on a small smirk. "Isn''t it all about how it makes you feel when you are there for me?" she asked, only to then lean her head over to the side with her smirk evolving into a small, cheeky smile. "Why wouldn''t you want me to know about it?" she then asked, only to use her hands to climb up my chest, all the way to the point where her mouth reached half an inch away from my ear, "and what if it makes me happy to help you out too?" she whispered straight into my ear canal, making me not only hear her words, but also feel the touch of the air that carried her voice with it.


    Feeling the chill moving up my spine, I could feel my eyes moving to the back of my head for a bit. And in this distracting moment of visceral pleasure, I failed to notice one of ire''s hands vanish from the upper part of my chest only to reappear¡­


    "ire!" I cried out a little, more surprised than I was dissatisfied or shocked when I felt her hand sneak down towards the belt holding up my robe again¡­ Only to thenpletely ignore it as she opted to sneak her hand through my clothes instead.


    "Hmm?" With her smile growing so bright it appeared to evaporate all the leftover tears from her face, ire continued her efforts to somehow sneak her hand past all the differentyers of myplex robe. As she did so, she also started to shift her position on me around, soon mounting me in the one position that she has long since registered into my brain to interpret in just the one and only way.


    "Dear, seriously¡­" I gritted my teeth when I felt her hand reach its destination, only for her fingers to grasp at my junior and start gently massaging it pretty much in the same way that countless farmers would massage the teats of their cows to get the bucket worth of milk out of them.


    "Don''t you like it?" ire stopped her hand for the short moment as a sense of doubt shed in her eyes, soon to mix with panic as she realized the potential consequences of her action when seen from the different angle¡­


    "It''s not like I dislike it¡­" I failed to tell her off, unable to lie right to her face. "But I really don''t want you to think of intimacy as something you can use to¡­"


    "I''m not trying topensate for what I thought," she stated right in my face, her doubt reced by seriousness in her eyes. "If I got it right¡­ You enjoyed cheering me up quite a lot, didn''t you?" she pointed out the very thing I ended up failing to admit. "Why is it suddenly wrong for me to be the same? It''s okay for you to make me feel safe, appreciated, weed, and worthy, but it''s wrong for me to make you feel good?"


    For a moment, I could do nothing but just stare at ire''s serious face¡­ Yet, as soon as I raised my hand with the intention of caressing her cheek as I replied, my thoughts all froze.


    "Tim¡­?"


    Before ire could say anything else, I tensed up only to then push myself off the hard floor of the training room, sliding from underneath her and then jumping to the back, only stopping when my back struck the training room''s wall.


    "What''s wrong?" Baffled and with first hints of fear shing up in her eyes, ire just¡­ stared in my direction,pletely clueless as to where my excessive reaction came from.


    "ire¡­ Before you came here, I did figure out a tiny bit of how my cultivation works after my breakthrough," I stated, knowing full well that bringing this topic up right as ire barely managed to recover from her fragile emotional state wasn''t the best of ideas.


    But there was something much more important right now, something that she couldn''t know as she has yet to advance herself, and something that I''d realized right as my hand came into my sight.


    "What is it?" Torn between anger, frustration, disappointment, and grief, ire cried out.


    "Right now, my cultivation¡­" I took a moment to think, searching for the right words to use. "No, right now, my emotions¡­ They do affect my cultivation. And before you came in, I''d only managed to figure out what anger does!"


    ire squinted her eyes.


    At first, her face rxed a little when she realized I was just concerned about her¡­


    Only to then twist in confusion again as she looked down on herself before raising her eyes back to my face.


    "But I didn''t feel a thing?" she pointed out in a confused protest, spreading her arms out as if to showcase the perfectly well condition of her entire body, still d in the armor of her soft, cute pajamas.


    "That''s the thing¡­" I groaned through my clenched teeth. "I think right now, my lust¡­" I averted my eyes to the side. "Well, I''m not really sure what it does, but for just a moment, I could clearly feel my spirituality interacting with yours. And on a level much deeper than when we united through dual cultivation¡­"


    ire squinted her eyes again, only to then open them wide as she finally understood the source of my sudden panic and the reason behind my rapid retreat.


    "Just to make it clear," she raised her hand up as if to gesture at me to stop and not say anything, lowering her head down as she took a moment to think. By the time she raised her head again, however, there was only a big, fat smile stered on her lips while sparks of amusement danced in her eyes. "You were worried you were identally seducing me? Or rather¡­ doing so forcefully?"


    Faced with the truth of what I was worried about, I could only avert my eyes.


    Only to then quickly look back when I heard ire giggle, only to then see her turn her back before dropping on all fours and looking back over her shoulder with a lecherous smile as she reached out to the edge of her pajama pants, only to pull them up as much as she could, stretching the material to the point it pressed tightly against her ass, revealing pretty much everyst detail of her rear to my eyes.


    With a solid amount of my blood already following the earlier guidance of her hand, I simply couldn''t tear my eyes away from her ass, now turning into a mix of the sexiness of her curves and the adorableness of the fluffy, pink material pressing tightly against her skin.


    Seeing my reaction, ire''s smile only grew.


    "Tell me, dear," she asked while still peeking over her shoulder, only to then reverse her action and, rather than pulling her pants up, pull them down instead, just low enough to reveal absolutely everything there was to reveal. "Do I really look like I still need to be seduced?"

 Chapter 224 Isnt this what dual cultivation was for all along?

    If anyone ever asked me if I could hold myself back when a cute, homey girl were to get down on her knees, stretch her pants to flex her butt at me before pulling her pants halfway down her ass to show how ready she was to ept me¡­


    Then the answer would be no, regardless of at what point in my life I were to be asked this.


    But just like with many other things, one finds out weird things about themselves only when they find themselves in situations they never thought they would be.


    Still¡­


    "Damn¡­" Gulping my saliva down, I attempted to tear my eyes away from ire''s exposed curves, only to tragically fail at the task.


    In my thoughts, I was already tearing those pajama pants off her before taking her ass without holding anything back. In another scenario, I left those cute, fluffy pants still hanging on her legs while riding her moist, perfectly ready bottom lips, enjoying just how cute she was in her pajamas.


    In reality, however¡­


    In the reality of the moment, I gulped my saliva down again before slowly stepping closer. As I stopped just above the girl, watching how she pushed her chest down while propping her ass just a bit higher to make it even easier for me to take her¡­


    I sighed out, reached down, grabbed the edge of ire''s pants, and then pulled them up, covering her ass with the cloth while I exhausted most of my mental strength not to look.


    "As much as I want to fuck you right here and now¡­" I admitted, only to then shake my head right as ire turned her head to give me an over-the-shoulder look of surprise.


    "Haaah¡­" I heaved a hard sigh, only to lean over ire, wrap my arms around her waist, and¡ªbefore she could react¡ªpull both of us to the back, effectively lifting her from all fours and then dropping her ass down on myp right as I sat down on the floor.


    "You are too precious for me to risk doing you any harm while I have yet to fully learn how to control my strength¡­ And all the more with how I can''t tell what effects my cultivation might have on you."


    Hiding my face in the corner between ire''s neck and her shoulder, I tightened my hold over her waist as I hugged myself into her back.


    "A few moments of intense pleasure just isn''t worth the risk of causing you pain or worse."


    At first, I expected ire to reply in one way or another, either by epting my reasons or by refusing to do so. To a degree, I even expected her to grind her ass down on my crotch in a bid to spark my excitement to the point where I could no longer hold myself back.


    Yet, as the silence prolonged, I opened my eyes and raised them a bit, only to see ire staring wide-eyed at her hand, currently coated with a thinyer of¡­ something.


    ''Don''t tell me it''s a fucking lube¡­''


    Knowing full well just how excited I was¡ªa fact ire likely didn''t miss, given how my erection was poking right against her soft butt¡ªthe possibility of my cultivation moisturizing ire''s entire body just to make her all the more ready for procreation¡­


    It was as weird as it was random and deviously practical.


    "No, it''s not lube," reading into my thoughts with an ease only a woman or an empath could attain, ire giggled a little¡­ only to bring her hand up to her mouth and¡ªwithout even a hint of hesitation or doubt¡ªput its side into her mouth before biting down with enough strength I could see the strain from just how much her cheeks tensed up.


    She bit down¡­ but her teeth failed to touch her skin, as theyer of something that surrounded them collided with theyer of the very same thing that coated her hand.


    "Is it¡­?"


    "It seems to be a barrier of some sort," ire muttered, answering my question as she pulled her hand away from her mouth. She then turned her head to the side, just enough for her eyes to reach my face¡­ and then smiled. "Could it be¡­"


    ire used the very same hand she just tried to bite on to reach up and then ce it down on my cheek, tracing her fingers down my jaw as her smile grew brighter and warmer with each passing second.


    "Could this barrier also be the expression of your emotions? Your desire to protect me, to be precise?"


    Her voice¡­ while already akin to the song of the greatest minstrels among the birds, now grew even warmer, even more soothing, to the point it felt like some sort of salve capable of not only helping me rx, but actively soothing whatever mental strain burdened me, if not outright acting like some sort of a healing spell capable of undoing physical injury.


    "Is it just me, or is your face melting down a bit?" Stunned by the sight that went above and beyond her already world-breaking cuteness, which was then only amplified by the special ce she held in my heart, I¡­


    I forgot the tongue in my mouth, unable to produce anything smarter than the babble I''d just voiced out.


    "It''s not just my face, dear," ire poured her sweet voice right into my face, only to lean in and bring her lips to my face as she dropped a slight, surface kiss atop my lips. "To know that you care so much for me¡­!"


    Once again, ire''s face tensed, only for her hands to both move to her chest, turn into fists, and then press hard against her tits.


    "AARGH!" she suddenly groaned, closing her fists so hard I could see the white of her knuckles show up underneath her delicate skin. "Just how can you be so damn¡­"


    Just like me whenever I allowed myself to be swept up in her cuteness, ire currently struggled to even properly voice how she felt.


    The best part about it, however, was that through our bond, especially with how close we were right now¡­ I could feel it.


    Her unrestrained desire to just lock me up in a ce where only she would have ess to. A ce where she could just¡­ be with me until the end of days. The desire to fill my life with nothing but happiness and pleasure, sourcing her own fulfillment from making me smile throughout.


    Feeling all of this, feeling how her body all tensed up as she attempted to hold those feelings back¡­


    I smiled.


    Because I more than just knew this sort of feeling, as I routinely went through it whenever I happened to fall asleep before her, only to then spend hours staring at her peaceful face, enjoying every tiniest detail of how her face changed with every breath she took through her sleep.


    - Touch me -


    ire opened up her mouth¡­ But before she could even voice her desire out, I already slid my hands underneath the upper part of her pajamas, caressing the skin of her stomach as I drove my hands up, slowly inching closer and closer to her bosom.


    - More -


    Following her desires, I pushed my hands a bit higher, finally grasping her breasts with my fingers, only to then w them down, sinking their tips into the soft skin of ire''s curves.


    "I don''t mind getting all touchy, but we really shouldn''t¡­"


    "Your protectiveness is already shielding me, isn''t it?" ire moved one of her hands to pin my palm down against her breast while using the other to reach out for my cheek again. "And am I not your dual cultivation partner?" she asked with a bright, warm smile, only to remove her hand and then bring it down¡­ only to grab at my right arm and pull it down, sliding it down her stomach all the way to the point where my fingers hooked against the edge of her pajama pants.


    "I mean¡­" I still wasn''t sure about it. The risk was just too great!


    ''But, on the other hand¡­'' I gulped my saliva down as ire continued to push my hand down, all the way to the point where my fingers reached her crotch.


    At that point, my instincts already started to take over, leading my middle finger to rub over ire''s clit on its way down to where it finally sank inside her moist, twitchy entrance.


    Refusing to let me outdo her, ire rxed her hold over my wrist only to pull her knees apart right as she snuck her hand back underneath my robes, grasping at my erection she could feel poking against her butt all along.


    ''If not when I''m at a higher stage than she is¡­ When is ire to actually benefit from our dual cultivation?''


    Sure, by screwing around with each other, we could easily reinforce and refill our spirituality while not only maintaining but also building upon the bond we already had.


    In its essence, however, dual cultivation was a technique aiming to equalize, to let the cultivators of higher stage share their excessive spirituality with those of lower rank. That''s exactly what happened when we first did the deed, all the way back in the herbal hot tub at ire''s ce, when she shared both her body and her cultivation with me, allowing me to jump several ranks of cultivation at once.


    "Fuck, the more I think about it, the more we y around," I muttered, closing my eyes to deal with the pleasure of having ire''s soft, small hand gently stroke me while I continued to rub her insides with my fingers¡­


    "You don''t need to say it," ire whispered, only to then release a long, sweet moan as her body tensed up, only to then fall limp right back into myp, all the while her insides suddenly mped down on my finger and refused to let it go.


    For a moment, we just remained like that, both enjoying her orgasm in our own right¡­ only for her to suddenly rise up, turn around, and then sit back down on myp in the one position I was already conditioned to be unable to resist.


    "If you are that worried about hurting me, then it shouldn''t be a problem if I will be the one in control, right?" ire smiled, only to then lean in for a kiss and cover my mouth with her sweet, soft lips.


    For the next while, the world just¡­ disappeared.


    Obviously, the world was still there. For me, however, as I immersed myself in the sweet taste of her saliva and the warmth of her yful tongue, the world around us dropped so far down on the list of importance, it could very well just cease to exist.


    "Pu-haa¡­" Pulling back, ire took a deep breath, her eyes brimming with lust as she locked right back down.


    Before she could go back to making out with me, however, I reached my limit¡­ and then shot straight past it.


    "Okay, fuck it," I muttered, reaching down and grabbing at her pajama pants, only to rip them in two, having no patience to make her stand up and just pull her pants down.


    Reading my intention, ire finally undid theplex knot of my belt before pushing the cloth of my robes out of the way. Then, she took careful aim before slowly lowering her hips all the way to the point where the tip of my erection brushed against her bottom lips, only to then lock in ce as she lowered herself just a little bit more.


    "Tim¡­ Just so you know in advance¡­" Ready to begin, ire looked up and stared right into my eyes, her face full of palpable tension and overwhelming desire. "If we end up moving around and switching positions¡­"


    She reached out with both of her hands, catching my head between her palms before gracing me with the sweetest, brightest smile of them all.


    "No matter how worried you are about me, I don''t want you to stop."

 Chapter 225 Unexpected awakening in more ways than one

    I opened my eyes to the sound of someone knocking. And by all means, it was quite the rude awakening.


    Blinking my eyes, I could feel my panic growing as I couldn''t quite get a handle on reality, all the while the incessant knocking continued, making the need to shake my drowsiness off more and more urgent.


    One time after another, I continued to blink my eyes, hoping that by doing so rapidly, I could clear them of whatever made them so sticky and hard to keep open.


    Bit by bit, my consciousness fought off the drowsiness, slowly bringing me back up to the world of the living¡­


    Only for me to realize that right now, neither I nor ire was in any state for anyone to walk in on us.


    "Ah, I''m sorry, I trained too hard and ended up falling asleep here," I called out toward the doors, hoping to dy whoever it was that continued to keep knocking.


    Finally, the knocking stopped.


    "Good, I was about to burst through the doors!"


    Hearing the familiar voice, I breathed a sigh of relief. But knowing that it was Chihiro behind the training room doors¡­


    Surprisingly, it didn''t make the situation any better.


    Not with ire still sleeping all naked atop me, her pajamas torn to shreds, and her skin still shiny from all the sweat and love juices that we had sttered all over the ce in the process of our dual-cultivating.


    "Can you give me a minute to properly wake up?" I called out toward the doors while grabbing ire''s shoulder and gently shaking her, hoping this would be enough to bring her out of her slumber.


    Sure, I felt bad about doing so with just howbored her breathing was, but cutting her sleep short seemed like a much better oue for the current situation than having her father walk in on us in this quite unfavorable position.


    "You mean, you two?"


    Hearing Chihiro''s counter, I could only sigh.


    ''He knows, huh?''


    To be perfectly honest, it would be weird if he didn''t. Not only was he a parent, giving him the natural instincts to figure stuff like that out, but he was also a cultivator of a peak mortal stage ¡ª perfectly capable of sensing our cultivation even through the closed doors of the training room.


    ''Wait, speaking of cultivation¡­''


    Prompted by a sudden worry, I focused on the state of the spirituality around the two of us¡­


    Only to then gulp my saliva down.


    "Actually, would you mind bringing us some fresh clothes?" I asked, instantly giving up on the idea of pretending I was in the training room alone. "And I hope we''re not in a hurry because¡­"


    For a moment, I hesitated, not exactly sure how to bring up the next part to the man.


    "We actually are," Chihiro said, a tinge of curiosity brimming in his voice. "The sky-carriage of the n is set to arrive within an hour. So, if you want to have any breakfast before that¡­"


    "Sir, right now, we have something far more important to discuss than some stupid breakfast, as delicious as it could be!"


    I gritted my teeth, opting to keep the problematic part a secret¡­ Or, at the very least, not shout about it through the doors for all around to hear.


    ''But still¡­'' I gritted my teeth as I looked down at the powerful currents of energy harmoniously flowing between me and ire even though we had long since stopped dual-cultivating.


    It wasn''t even about the weird flow of mana between the two of us. It wasn''t the first time it happened, and right now I could just assume it to be the natural evolution of what we already achieved before.


    No, the shocking part was ¡ª in the process of screwing our minds out, we both managed to advance, mutually reaching the ninth cultivation rank!


    The scariest part about it all, however, was how I couldn''t remember a single thing about either of us actually doing so!


    ''How could we break through the limit when we didn''t even begin to formte the ideas on how it would work?'' I asked myself, only to then grit my teeth. ''Heck, even now I don''t have the slightest clue how my cultivation is supposed to work now!''


    This was an actual, pressing problem.


    Sure, I could still wield my cultivation and manipte my spiritual energy¡­ But now that I''d lost grasp of how this entire thing was supposed to work, the tool that I knew almost as well as I knew how to throw a punch suddenly became unwieldy, foreign!


    "I understand," pulling my head out of the depths of my thoughts, Chihiro finally managed to figure something out. "I will go get you some clothes and be right back. Sit tight."


    Hearing this, I finally could breathe a sigh of relief¡­ a very small one, though. Because while it removed a small part of the ongoing urgency, it didn''t make it any easier for me to figure out just what the fuck was going on!


    "Mmm¡­" Hearing ire moan through her sleep, I put all thoughts of the situation aside, focusing all my attention on just her and her alone.


    "ire¡­ Wake up," I called out while shaking her shoulder again, doing my absolute best not to get excited by how her body shifted with my actions.


    Yet, even after a night of making out so wildly I could hardly remember a single detail of it, it was pretty challenging not to appreciate the way her curves shifted, nor to ignore how she resisted my attempts to wake her up, opting to just hug herself even more into me than she already was.


    "ire!"


    Knowing full well that we didn''t have the time to just y around, I raised my voice a bit before giving her a slightly heavier shake than before.


    "Hmm?" Shaking her head, ire rose from my chest a bit and raised her hand to wipe her eyes. "Tim?" she asked as she blinked her eyes a few times and looked ahead, only to lock her gaze on my face and then smile lovingly.


    "ire, wake up and stay calm," letting go of her shoulder, I moved both of my hands before locking her head between my palms.


    "Hmm?" still drowsy, ire closed her eyes before tensing her entire face for a moment. She then opened her eyes wide, blinked her eyelids a few times, and finally focused her eyes on my face.


    "Tim¡­?" she muttered, not exactly sure what this unorthodox treatment was for. "What''s going on?" As her consciousness started to return, so did the realization that something was wrong.


    "First thing first, stay calm. While stuff happened, it''s nothing bad. And right now, we need to get ourselves back into a presentable shape, so¡­" I cut my voice for a moment, looking for the correct way to trante my sprinting thoughts into proper words.


    "Why are you scaring me first thing in the morning?" Half-frustrated and half-curious, ire closed her eyes again before tensing her entire body as she tried to stretch without actually moving. When she opened her eyes again, however, a long wrinkle appeared all along her forehead as she actually started to sense that something was indeed quite wrong.


    "Focus on my face!" I raised my voice just a bit to make it more authoritative, doing my best to distract ire from the sense of wrongness, fully aware that after raising two cultivation ranks overnight and with no actual effort, if she were to overreact¡­


    Given myck of control over my own cultivation right now, I greatly doubted if I could control her. And sure, Chihiro was close enough to intervene if a situation problematic enough were to arise¡­ Find exclusive content at empire


    But that would both draw quite a lot of attention to us while we were doing our best to stay low-key on this trip and inevitably lead ire''s father to see us in quite the unpresentable state.


    "Okay¡­?"


    Still confused, ire swallowed her saliva down before squinting her eyes a bit and following my request, making an adorable face as she stared right into my eyes.


    "Good, now¡­" I pressed my lips into a thin line before taking a deep breath and finallying to a decision. "Good news first. You are no longergging behind when ites to cultivation," I announced, only to watch how ire''s face brightened up.


    "Yay?" Her happiness didn''tst long, as it quickly mixed with the confusion from before, making her question my weird reactions.


    This wasn''t how I would normally react if she were to advance to a higher rank!


    "The problematic part is¡­" For a moment, I considered the idea of veiling my words a bit. In this way, by forcing the girl to take her time to figure out the meaning behind my words, I would also give her the time to slowly get herself somewhat used to the idea of what happened.


    "Fuck it," I rolled my eyes, already too tired of all the scheming and plotting as I finally opted to just give it to her straight. "We both advanced to the ninth rank."


    ire squinted her eyes again, as if unable to reconcile the meaning of my words with reality. Then, her eyes suddenly widened, only for her to take a deep breath and reach out for my shoulders.


    At first, I was worried the worst scenario woulde to pass¡­ Only for ire to prove my worries wrong when she breathed out and leaned her head to the side.


    "How?"


    I pressed my lips into a thin line again, only to then avert my eyes.


    "No idea," I shrugged my shoulders before gently pushing her off me and down to her knees.


    Freed from underneath her weight, I could finally rise up and take a look around the room.


    "Oh shit¡­" I muttered before gulping my saliva down.


    The training room, supposedly designed to withstand the powers at y of exercising cultivators¡­ Suffice to say, either the two of us exhibited powers beyond the scope of what this room was projected to withstand, or the men responsible for constructing it took quite a lot of liberty siphoning the proper materials and recing them with ones of much lesser quality.


    "Wha¡­" Before ire could finish her question, she looked around. And as she saw the ruined state of the training room, she failed to even finish this one word of hers.


    "I hope the n can afford to have this room rebuilt¡­" I muttered under my nose, only to finally rise up before reaching out to help ire do the same.


    "We should get dressed," still somehow holding on, ire looked around in search of the clothes, only to see their scraps thrown all over the ce, with some pieces of her pajamas somehow ending up stuck to the room''s ceiling.


    "I''m back, move away from the doors," Chihiro''s voice announced his return, giving me just enough time to grab ire''s hand and pull her to the corner of the room before her father opened up the doors and threw a bunch of clothes inside, only to then quickly shut the doors back down.


    "Woah¡­" ire sighed out, her body all tense. "That was¡­ scary¡­" She shriveled up into herself, her eyes wide from the sudden shot of adrenaline.


    "It''s all good," I patted her head, hoping with all of myself this would be enough to calm her down a bit. "For now, let''s get dressed. We still need to go get ourselves cleaned up¡­"


    "What''s the hurry?" Noticing yet another weird angle in my behavior, ire looked up at me right as she started to move to where the fresh clothes had ended up falling.


    "Well," I raised my hand and scratched the spot behind my ear while looking away. "We do have less than an hour before the carriage of your mom''s n will arrive."

 Chapter 226 This is going to be a massive pain in the ass, wont it?

    It was only by some miracle that we managed to get ourselves ready in time for the sky-carriage to arrive.


    Sure, getting changed into some random clothes to get to the bath, taking a quick dip, and then donning our official clothes wasn''t supposed to take a long time¡­


    But ounting for the clumsiness stemming from our recent advance, each of those simple steps suddenly turned into aplex and time-consuming process.


    Just putting on the temporary clothes that Chihiro provided turned out to be a task requiring the same level of precision and focus I would only ever dedicate to my crafts in the past¡ªa fact proven by how, by the end of the dressing-up process, most of those clothes had turned into shredded rags, held together by hopes, faith, and fortune.


    At the very least, washing up wasn''t all that bad. Surprisingly, it was the activity that consumed the least time out of everything, contrary to how it should normally be.


    Still, after we got all the dried-off liquids cleaned off and swapped the dirt and sweat for a slight perfume, we still had to get dressed again. This time, however, there was no room for mistakes, not with the official clothes we simply didn''t have spares for.


    This was also the moment when, having no other choice, I allowed the inn''s maid to help ire out, but not before I ensured herher regions were properly covered¡ªa process that came at the cost of close to half of the lingerie collection ire brought with her on the trip.


    Knowing full well that I was unable to control my strength¡ªas we found out back when we tried to dress ourselves back in the training room¡ªI had no other choice but to stand back in my bathrobe and watch how the inn maids helped ire get dressed.


    Judging by their enthusiasm, the talk I saw Chihiro having with the inn''s boss had to involve quite the mind-boggling sum changing hands. That only made me question just how massive Chihiro''s "gratuity" was over the destruction of the training room, plus the added help for the owner of the inn to willingly share parts of it with the maids¡­ and still for the maids to act as if the gods of fortune personally descended to the world of mortals to bless them.


    When it came to my end of this part of the bargain, however, we found ourselves at quite the impasse. A conundrum was solved in the most embarrassing and awkward way possible, with Chihiro himself stepping in to help me first refresh the ceremonial robes before taking his time to help me properly put them on.


    This entire affair¡ªsomething that would normally take us no more than ten, maybe fifteen minutes¡ªended up consuming pretty much all the time we had. It was so down to the wire, in fact, that not even a single minute passed between us gathering outside the inn and the n''s sky-carriage appearing from behind the street''s corner.


    "We''ve made it¡­" ire sighed softly, watching the sky-carriage approach in a way that opposed its name by riding not through the skies but on the road instead. "It was all down to the wire, but we''ve made it."


    I could hear the relief in her voice, a relief that I pretty much shared.


    "The bad thing is, as relieved as we might be right now, this is actually where the trouble begins," I said before I could actually think about it, letting the momentary relief get into my head a bit too much.


    "What do you mean?" Forced out of her momentaryfort, ire threw me a startled nce.


    "I mean¡­" I hesitated for a second, only to gulp down my hesitations and cast a quick nce at her. "We are still stronger than what strength we are used to controlling. In other words, we now have to do our very best to pretend as if everything is alright throughout the entire visit, not to let the n know just how easily we can advance."


    I shrugged my shoulders as I said it, hurrying my words out just a bit to ensure I got my piece out before the sky-carriage arrived right at the inn''s doorstep.


    Contrary to the winged bus, the carriage itself was actually much closer to the original meaning of its core word. It was pretty much just a normal, horse-drawn carriage, merely on the slightly bigger, fancier end. The horses pulling it down the street didn''t seem any special either, making me question just where the "sky" part of its name even came from.


    Yet, as soon as the carriage stopped, rather than finally getting the chance to take a proper look at it and figure out how it worked, I was faced with one element of being a part of a big, rich n that was so obvious, yet I still failed to expect it.


    "My name is Graticus Bornelio; I''m the butler of the Corian n," a tall man appearing to be in histe fifties stepped out from a special tform at the back of the carriage, dressed in a way that reminded me of nothing else but the long-gone Victorian era. He wore an elegant, perfectly fitting tuxedo with an oversized, perfectly white piece of triangr cloth hanging down his neck. "I''m here to offer you a ride."


    This man¡­


    He looked like an old, respected butler yet spoke like a rtively modern person, making it a strange if not outright weird example of mismatched trends.


    Still, the way he jumped down from the small tform, the way he elegantly bowed his head, even his manner of speech - they were impable, as if designed to make others feel bad about theircking manners.


    "Thanks," Chihiro replied while taking a step forward, merely acknowledging the butler''s presence instead of offering him a bow or even a nod back. "We would be delighted to partake in the service offered."


    Turning towards the two of us, Chihiro lightly nodded his head.


    "Daughter, son, follow me."


    My eyes twitched when the man referred to me in such an extremely formal way, even the word son suddenly took on a different, much more dignified meaning than in the rare few asions when he called me like that in the past. Find more chapters on empire


    "Allow us to indulge, then," I replied with the form Chihiro taught me back when he was still busy fixing myplex robes. Yet, as opposed to what my words would imply, we remained in ce, waiting for Chihiro to fully enter the carriage and take a seat before finally following him inside.


    Even this small element of the whole process was formalized to its limits, with ire counting the exact number of steps she made on her approach to the carriage''s step, taking exactly three steps to climb inside and then two further steps to get a bit deeper in before turning around on the spot and slowly putting her bum down on the cushions of the seat.


    Thankfully, as an outsider of the group who wasn''t formally trained in the local etiquette, I could afford to make some mistakes.


    Yet, in my bid to show everyone how I wasn''t just some peasant who just lucked out to join ire''s n - which I, by all means, was - I made sure to follow each step of the process of entering the carriage to perfection.


    "Hmm..." after replicating pretty much the same steps ire took, I made sure to exhale a small sigh of relief as I sat down, all to implicate that the service offered was not only appreciated but also genuinely required.


    This step, just like all the others to be perfectly honest, was nothing more than a political dance, where even the smallest gestures would take on meanings only people with way too much time on their hands could ever understand or even see.


    Which, by simple math, most of the cultivators in the spiritual world were! After all, contrary to normal humans who would be lucky to live to see their hundredth birthday, the citizens of the spiritual world could easily live all the way up to two and maybe even three centuries, with the actual cultivators who reached the higher ranks easily capable of surviving for as long as half of a millennium!


    In other words, when the people who witnessed the birth of thest spiritual era were still around while ideologically depriving themselves of all sorts of entertainment offered by the modern world, every tiniest gesture would suddenly gain a great and profound meaning - all in a bid to simply entertain themselves.


    Still, as I breathed out my sigh, I looked up, only to see both Chihiro and ire tense up.


    ''It''s only now that the reality is hitting them, huh?''


    Up until now, everything was extremely rushed.


    From Chihiro''s desperate bid to break through to the tenth rank of mortal cultivation before his deadline, through ire''s rush to teach me all the basics of the formal etiquette of the spiritual world all the while dealing with all sorts of issues rted to our projects...


    Not even our first day in the spiritual world was filled with peace, given the trouble we found ourselves pretty much right after waking up this morning.


    With all of those pressing matters upying everyone''s thoughts, those two could hardly think about what the future held for them, not getting any real chances to properly internalize what they knew wasing.


    Now that we''ve all sat in the carriage and felt the pull as the horses started to run again, they had no other choice but to ept the simple yet extremely weighty truth.


    For Chihiro, this was the journey to finally reunite with his dear wife that her n forced back into the spiritual world.


    For ire, it was the journey to finally see her mom, someone who unwillingly abandoned her all those years prior.


    When it came to me, however, I had no emotional burden rted to ire''s original n. But that didn''t mean I was looking forward to reaching our destination either.


    ''It''s really going to be a pain trying to hold myself back over there, huh?'' I thought, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath as I too finally found the right time to internalize what the future had in store for me. ''Be it dealing with the arrogant young masters, not showing enough respect or manners refined well enough to my elders or even hiding out the fact that I can''t really control my cultivation...''


    I resisted the desire to shake my head in exasperation over just what kind of mess I ended up throwing myself into.


    ''This is really going to be one hell of a pain in the ass, won''t it.''

 Chapter 227 Another one?!

    The journey away from the border city and to the n''snd was much less exciting than I ever expected it to be.


    Save for the initial fear of how well I or ire would take the most likely bumpy drive while we were pretty damn unstable ourselves, the entire trip was socking in terms of interesting facts about it, it actually turned boring.


    At first, we simply drove out of the city to one of the many fields situated on its other side,pared to the continental barrier that separated the modern world from the spiritual one. We didn''t stop there, however, but started to go up the likely single hill in the whole area, given how I couldn''t see a single other incline in the ground whenever looking out of the window.


    It took me a good ten minutes to realize that what I took for an attempt to climb the hill''s side was actually the rising period for the sky-carriage. A process that pretty much exined just how this carriage was different from the ones driven by the roads of the modern world roughly a hundred years prior.


    So it works in pretty much the same way as that flying bus, huh? I thought, once I looked out of the window again, only to see nothing but clear skies all around us.


    Just like the winged bus produced its own sky path to ride over, the sky-carriage created its very own path for its horses to tread upon and for the carriage itself to ride on.


    From there on, however, the rest of the ride turned so unbearably boring, I actually closed my eyes and focused on my inner state. And while I couldn''t really cultivate while in this kind of vehicle¡ªlest I wanted for it to malfunction and plummet down from the skies¡ªI could still take my time just observing the flows of spiritual energy within my core.


    At its very essence, it wasn''t all that much different from what I already figured out back when I was still just a seventh-stage, core-expansion cultivator. My core still existed within every cell, every fiber of my flesh, with seemingly random streaks of spiritual energy discharging from one anchor to the other.


    Right now, however, as opposed to how it was back on the sixth stage, every single cell of my body became the chaotic nucleus of cultivation, chaotically driving small bits of my spirituality, only to then shoot it out into one of the many thousands of anchors in my flesh, turning it into just another burning nucleus that would then repeat the process.


    In a sense, that was the closest to what I could understand as the condensation of my cultivation, which was the process supposedly taking ce during the advancement to the eighth stage of cultivation.


    That''s how my core was likely supposed to work in theory, yet when it came to practice¡­


    It keeps getting those random injections of spirituality, doesn''t it?


    No matter how hard I looked, how much I focused, and how deeply I thought, the processes taking ce within the core of my entire body simply didn''t match the equations I came up with.


    The math wasn''t mathing. Two plus two no longer made four, but five, six, or a quadrillion. For a hundred discharges happening in a single second, I could observe a thousand or just a few of my anchors turning into the new chaotic nucleus, only for those thousands of nuclei to only create a hundred offshoots, while those few were easily capable of spawning millions of more chaotic cores.


    It just¡­ didn''t make any sense!


    Or maybe¡­ Maybe there''s something that I just don''t see? I thought, using the prolonged boredom to fall deeper and deeper into my thoughts, fully immersing myself in this curious task.


    I tried to look at my cultivation with my eyes closed. Then, I did the same but while keeping them open. Next, I clenched my butt, increasing the flow of blood through my veins, only to then fully rx¡­ And still fail to find a single hint that could clue me in on the actual nature of what was happening in my soul.


    "Working hard even when it''s ourst time to get some rest and partake in some silence?" ire''s voice suddenly pulled my head out of my dream world, just as I confirmed the two hundred fifty-seventh different way in which I tried to peer deeper into my cultivation, as random and outright stupid as most of them were.


    "I¡­" I shook my head to refocus myself back on real life, only to look up to ire''s face before shaking my head and then lowering my eyes. "I just think that figuring out how it all works will make it all the easier for us to actually take advantage of it," I revealed, using just enough cryptguage not to make it obvious what the two of us were talking about.


    "So you really are working¡­" ire sighed, only to do the unthinkable and actually leave her spot by her father''s side and switch over to the seat on the opposite end of the passenger room of the carriage, sitting directly by my right before leaning in to drop her head down on my shoulder. She then slightly angled it, brushing her cheek against the point of my shoulder as she looked up to my face. "You are working, but you are stuck, aren''t you?"


    Already torn away from the train of my thought, I nced down and then to the side, catching ire''s smile.


    Even now, when it was no longer a feat that was any strange to us, she continued to be clearly amused whenever she could read what was going on in my head without relying on her cultivation to immerse herself into our bond to do so.


    So, rather than foolishly denying it, I sighed and nodded my head.


    "I can sense that there''s something that I can''t see, but¡­ I just can''t seem to find a way to see it!"


    I clenched my hands into fists, pushing away the sudden wave of frustration as I momentarily fell under its influence.


    "Wait, for real?" ire asked, jolting up from my arm as she looked at me with a weird look on her face.


    "Yeah, something wrong with it?" I leaned my head over my shoulder, more than happy to ept ire''s help if she wanted to contribute to my thinking, just not if her reaction actually had anything to do with my current train of thought.


    Her eyes widened, so she''s really surprised, I thought as I made my observations, only to then grit my teeth a tiny little bit, but I didn''t say anything that weird, so just what else did she see or hear¡­


    "Is it really necessary for you to see what''s going on?" ire asked, finally hinting me in on what part of what I just said made her react so heavily. "Can''t you just ept it as a part of what happens?"


    ire squinted her eyes, only to suddenly rx her entire face as she pulled back, away from my shoulder, and put on a smirk.


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    "Isn''t that what the scientists of the modern world did in the past? Assuming certain principles even if they didn''t have enough knowledge to properly exin them? Just like¡­ Ugh, I don''t know¡­"


    As ire hesitated, I recalled a certain, extremely minor detail of some random science-historical show I once watched. A show that I couldn''t even tell if it had anything to do with one of history''s greatest inventors, or if he was merely brought up as an example for whatever topic they were trying to explore.


    Either way, the figure of that scientist of the early modern era appeared in my head along with the conclusion he drew from one of his experiments¡ªexperiments that were bound to fail due to the gross imperfection of the measuring tools the man used.


    "The light has to move either instantly or at speeds hidden within the margin of a human reaction¡­" I muttered, too enchanted by this sudden idea to even realize I opened my mouth.


    "What''s that?" Not missing a single beat, ire quickly dug deeper into what I just said.


    "Just a sentence that''s believed to be said some three hundred years before anyone actually ventured to properly study the qualities of light," I answered with a small smile. "A sentence said by someone whocked the proper instruments to make anything above just an educated guess."


    I breathed out, feeling a strange sense of relief overtake my entire mind as I realized that my continued attempts to figure my cultivation out¡­ were all doomed to fail from the very beginning.


    Right now, I had no proper instruments to measure just where the error in my equations came from. Yet, rather than just arrogantly assuming it was an error to begin with, all I had to do was step back, put myself at a distance from all that I''d seen, and then just ept whatever behavior I would observe for the one and only thing that actually mattered¡ªthe actual results that couldn''t care less whether or not I could figure out the rules behind said results!


    And just like that, I fucking figured it out.


    "All I needed was to take a step back¡­" I thought while feeling a strange kind of satisfaction well up in my soul¡­ Only to then immediately suppress it, recognizing it for what it truly was.


    Another breakthrough?! I thought, holding this sensation down as I held my breath, fully aware that the rapid unleashing of my spiritual energy rted to me breaking my current limits would spell doom to the carriage and everyone on it.


    After a few moments, I finally managed to suppress the urge to grow even stronger than before, finally able to breathe out before taking a fresh breath in.


    "I think I''ve got it," I allowed myself to utter just those few words as I slid down my seat and heavily breathed out again. "And all I needed to do was to step back and¡­ copse my entire cultivation from how I''d seen it before, into something I can no longer fully perceive!"


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 228 Sleep paralysis

    The difference between the two ways of looking at my cultivation were extremely minute, yet carried massive consequences to my understanding of it. Just like a tiny obstacle could cast a great shadow or how a small change to the written statement could twist its meaning into disrepair, just this one mental switch was finally enough for me to connect the dots. Discover more content at empire


    ''What I can see isn''t my whole cultivation¡­ but just the projection of it onto the one dimension I actually can see!''


    I clenched my hands into fists and my buttocks down as I attempted to stave off my excitement that nearly made me drop it all and just focus on cultivating again.


    "You did it, huh?" iremented in a small, silent voice, careful not to let the people outside catch any part of what she said. To that end, she even climbed up over my shoulder and whispered directly into my ear while enclosing it within her hands, all for the sake of keeping her remark private.


    "Just one step, but yeah," I nodded my head before offering the girl a small smile as I reached out, grabbed her hand, and then gave it a light squeeze. "Hopefully, however, it will allow me to unveil the rest of it all."


    As much as it pained me to leave ire to be bored alone¡­ if I could figure out the ins and outs of our current cultivation stage, we could pretty much re-cultivate the entire thing once we found the time to do so, as opposed to likely wasting any future opportunity we would get to cultivate not on actually practicing, but trying to figure out the theory necessary for us to properly practice.


    ''Still, if what I can see is merely the single frame out of a whole movie worth of my cultivation¡­ How do I even affect it? How do I read it? How do I make use of it?''


    Some of those questions, I could find the answers to with just a short moment of observing my cultivation.


    The patterns were all there for me to see, hidden in in view and only requiring me to know what I was actually supposed to look out for. And now that I did know¡­ they were so much in my face, I couldn''t help but be surprised how I didn''t notice them before.


    Whenever a myriad of my chaotic parts of the core would discharge to a lesser number of anchors than them, the following discharge coursing through my veins as raw power would be smaller but much denser. As opposed to this scenario, when a few chaotic nuclei would discharge into much more anchors than them, my spirituality would surge, only for said surge to be of much weaker, thinner quality.


    ''Thinking about it, isn''t this kind of thing pretty much the same as we experience everything else in life?'' I thought, quickly drawing parallels between my cultivation and life itself, somehow convinced that there were much more connections between the two than anyone gave it credit for.


    ''We do see the reality around us one frame at a time, hear sounds one note at a time, taste various vors, one mix of them at a time¡­''


    While this understanding pointed towards quite the worrying possibility of the entirety of life being just an experience locked within time and consisting of endless frames of constant, deterministic states of matter¡­ it did allow me to finally grasp the instinctual understanding of just how to interpret my cultivation through the activity of my spirituality within my core.


    ''Wait, now that I think about it¡­''


    Before I even noticed, my thoughts suddenly diverted from the topic of the cultivation itself and shifted over to the one moment when I saw the very same thing happening as what I just discovered.


    The one time when something only existed as an expression of a flowing state, rather than an innate quality of the matter itself.


    ''Isn''t this how that golden being came to be?''


    Whether it was a god of technology, a sentience created from my spirituality and that weird constitution that seemingly abandoned me ever since that being''s birth¡­ whatever it was, just like my cultivation right now, it could only exist while the spiritual energy was flowing, rather than existing within the spiritual energy itself!


    ''Now, the question is, is it just a coincidence, some sort of repetitive pattern I was simply not aware of before, or¡­''


    I gulped my saliva down, suddenly reminded of just how massive of a weight that golden being put on my shoulders by the mere fact ofing to be.


    ''Or maybe, it''s a being that manifested itself because we created the circumstances close enough to a high cultivation rank for it to develop sentience?''


    Life and cultivation were intrinsically connected on more levels than one would normally think. How else would cultivation help people deal with the one enemy they''ve failed to defeat throughout humanity''s long history, the process of aging? How else could it give humans a power that could not only reinforce their physicality but, on higher cultivation levels, allow them to wield mystical powers pretty much at will, with no more than their mere thought?


    And now, if this guess of mine turned out to be true¡­


    I gulped my saliva down, closing my eyes and forcefully erasing all the thoughts from my head before they would lead me astray to the point beyond any return.


    ''I better not turn into some maniac obsessed with the idea of creating life or something,'' I thought, raising my hand to wipe the sweat off my face. ''God already gave us one way to go around doing so. There''s no need for a mere human like me to try toe up with a new way of making living beings!''


    It was hypocritical of me to even think this given how I was behind the birth of that golden being¡­ but still, doing something stupid and careless once by no means gave me a proper excuse to do it again!


    "You really fell deep into your thoughts."


    Hearing ire''s voice, I shook my head¡­ only to realize I couldn''t open my eyes!


    ''Wait, that''s not it¡­'' Puzzled by the sudden weird feeling all over my body, I initially was about to jump up in panic¡­ only to recognize this unpleasant and borderline-psychedelic sensation.


    ''A sleep paralysis?'' I thought, baffled by the idea that I ran so deep into the realm of theory-crafting, I didn''t even realize when I fell asleep.


    The sleep paralysis on its own wasn''t a bad thing. It was one of the many tools the human body used to prevent inflicting unintentional self-harm, just like the hard-wired blockade most humans had over using the full extent of their muscles'' strength, a lock designed to stop them from tearing their limbs off their bones if not outright shattering thetter into pieces.


    Sleep paralysis being necessary was one thing, but it didn''t change the fact that experiencing it firsthand¡­ it was by no means pleasant or enjoyable, given how I couldn''t do anything with my body, forced to remain still while my brain rushed to produce all sorts of ugly hallucinations¡­


    "Hey, Tim, you need to wake up¡­" ire called me out only to then give me a slight shake.


    This shake was just the thing I needed to feel the motion in my muscles. Sensing the movement, my brain fired up back into an active state¡­


    But all of it was a process. ire''s shake merely put me on the path to waking up rather than actually waking me up.


    "Hey, Tim¡­?" ire''s voice grew slightly more urgent, pressed. "Tim!"


    Finally, by the time her voice reached the level of a scolding shout, the locks on my flesh finally came up, allowing me to open my eyes and push my chest forth a bit as I took in a huge breath designed to provide my drowsy self just enough energy to chase all of the momentary nap-leftover exhaustion away.


    "Ah, sorry about that," I apologized as soon as I could move my lips, shaking my head for just one more time before turning my eyes over to ire. "I really got quite into theory-crafting, didn''t I?" I smiled, trying to y it all off with just a bit of humor.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Don''t do that again."


    ire didn''t ask. She didn''t request. She just¡­ said it like a general would to a soldier, with the very idea of protesting the statement so far removed from the realm of possibility, neither of the two would ever spare it a single thought!


    "Yeah, sorry," I lowered my head as I apologized, only to then raise my eyes before looking around. "Were you just worried, or was there¡­"


    "Just look outside," ire sighed out before sitting back and pointing at the window embedded into the carriage''s door.


    As she did so, I realized that while we moved at a rather stable speed, we were now clearly descending, already indicating what I was going to see outside.


    Still, prompted both by curiosity and eagerness to follow ire''s words, I leaned over to the doors before pushing the window covers aside, taking my first, proper look at how our destination looked.


    "Wee to the province," Chihiro muttered from the other end of the carriage, impassively staring at the window on the carriage''s opposing wall, not even bothering to push its covers away to get a proper look.


    He then sighed before turning his eyes over to me and giving me an exhausted smile.


    "Take that sight in, for it''s going to be a while before you will be able to see anything like that again."

 Chapter 229 Cruel beauty

    While I didn''t really have any reason to mistrust Chirio''s words, I didn''t really take his warning seriously either.


    Yet, pretty much the very moment I pulled the window shades aside and took a look outside¡­


    Gulp.


    Swallowing down a mouthful of saliva was the one and only action I was mentally permitted to do, stunned by the sight outside.


    If the border city already gave me some insight into the main differences in architectural thought between the two parts of the world, then the Corian estate took it to a whole new level.


    The very first thing I noticed was just how expansive the estate was, stretching over no lesser distance than the already impressive border town. Contrary to that city we departed from, however, it was much less upied by buildings, with massive chunks of gardens, fields, and tranquil ins stuck in between.


    Up ahead, I could see a slightly different part of this private province no less, where the green of nature gave way to much denser construction, spreading roughly as far as a standard old-town of the older cities back in the modern world.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    ''I guess the rules that dictated the size of the cities in the past still do apply here,'' I thought, gulping my saliva down once again.


    The rtionship between the number of buildings one couldfortably cram into a limited space, a sort of city-nner-specific kind of geometry, decided how big a town could be before the rising cost of erecting long-distance walls to protect it would grow beyond the point of benefits from handling more space.


    And this town''s center of the Corian n was right in the sweet spot for an architect¡ªjust big enough to fit all the necessary buildings, institutions, housing, and private factories, while squeezed in an extremely clever way to limit the area within the innermost section of the n''s walls.


    For now, we were still quite a bit too far from the town''s center for me to see any details, pushing me to look over the rest of the estate instead.


    It was a precisely marked-out area, consisting of a total of five tiers.


    The first tier would be the town''s center out in the distance, surrounded by the second tier that still served somewhat of a residential role, judging by the type and shapes of the buildings splitting the outermost walled-off area between the structures and nature roughly one-to-one.


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    The third tier of the estate was guarded by what I could onlypare to some sort of solid-iron fence, while the tier itself was filled mostly with either crops or open fields, each upied by a small group of peoplezily rxing as they basked in the sun''s warmth amidst the chill, moist grasses of the in.


    The fourth tier was where the buildings slowly started to fully give way to nature, guarded by a ring of sparsely set, tall stones.


    ''They must be like, what, five meters high? Six?'' I thought, unable to ascertain that much of a fine detail from the height we were currently traveling at.


    Beyond the fourth tier, however, there was still thest part of the whole estate. It consisted of nothing but empty, deadnd and remains of a burned-out forest, creating a huge, open area where no enemy or monsters could find a single ce to hide.


    In the fifth tier, all the boulders were removed, all the trees burned down, the soil turned over and then covered in salt to prevent anything from ever growing on it again. Yet, while it was a massive scar on this otherwise beautiful ce, it didn''t take a genius to figure out the justification for its existence.


    ''This is the only way to keep the insides of the estate safe from whatever woulde from the wild,'' I thought, looking beyond the limits of the fifth tier of the estate, toward an expanse of thick forest greater than anything I''d ever seen in my life before.


    ''So this is how it feels to look at the forest from high above, yet still be unable to see its end,'' I thought, gulping my saliva for the third time as I suddenly felt¡­ just small.


    What was my cultivation worth in the face of such a mighty, primordial presence? To the monsters that lurked in the depths of those woods, all my breakthroughs, all my achievements and ideas¡ªthey were all meaningless, pointless, and outright worthless.


    The scale of the tiered defenses ire''s maternal n constructed only served to indicate the level of predators they were dealing with, revealing the locals of the cultivation world in a whole new light to me.


    "We are getting closer," Chihiro called out from within the carriage. "You will only have a moment to look at the city before we get down to the ground, so make the most of it!"


    This time, I dared not to doubt his words, instantly turning my head¡­ only for something to pull my body away from the window for a bit, quickly followed by that foreign yet familiar presence letting go of my arm, only to sneak over my side before squeezing in between the carriage''s doors and my chest.


    "It''s over there," I pointed out with my hand at the town''s center we were nearing. In my excitement, I practically forgot that while this ce was all new for me¡­ the same was unlikely to be the case for ire.


    "Damn, from up close it looks even better," I muttered, enclosing my left arm high up over ire''s chest, hugging her from behind as I adored the sights.


    The town itself was like a mix of vors one would neverbine themselves, only to never find out just how well they worked together.


    There were quite a lot of obviously oriental influences in the general shape and openness of the buildings, making them as grand as they were impractical when it came to heating, cooling, or even defending them.


    ''In a sense, building something like this is a statement all in its own right,'' I thought, squeezing ire down to my chest just a little bit harder as my eyes moved on from the buildings'' general shape to the finer details we were now close enough to actually see.


    Contrary to the oriental look of the general structures, their decorations were much closer to what I would call a ssical era of the part of civilization I hailed from, ranging from great, life-like sculptures, through works of art disyed directly on the streets, all the way to intricate carvings filling the faces of every column I could see.


    Combining the general decor of the whole city with theplex implementation of greenery amidst every part of the city¡ªfrom streets, through the facades, to the building roofs¡ªire''s ancestors managed to cultivate a ce that looked like either an ancient paradise, or¡­


    "It looks like a period drama movie set," I muttered, greatly impressed by all the sights.


    "That''s not really surprising," Chihiromented, causing both me and ire to look away as we turned our eyes toward the man. He returned the nce only to shake his shoulders and add, "that''s because they often rent the ce out to filming crews. Apparently, the filming rights make up a good chunk of the estate''s ie, allowing them to keep it asvish as it is often impractical."


    Hearing this, I squinted my eyes and looked back toward the city. Now that I knew what to look out for, however, the whole ce left me with yet another, different perspective.


    The estate''s streets were a thing of beauty, pulled directly from a director''s script on how to arrange a scene to give it a rich¡ªluxurious even¡ªkind of vibe. Those streets consisted of two walkways made with polished marble and a row of interchanging trees and flower bushes, splitting the whole thing into practically two separate roads.


    ''It''s an experience all in its own right to walk down this road, I bet,'' I thought, only to then squint my eyes a little bit further. ''Not much for a good logistical route for cargo, though.''


    Now that I stepped back, the beauty of this sprawling estate was there mostly to hide the ugly truth. A truth I could see because Chihiro''s remarks allowed me to switch my mindset from adoration to scrutiny, to a critical look only someone who wasted nearly a year of his life ying city-builders would be able to develop.


    The streets were too narrow to allow any sort of heavy traffic. Heck, as we got closer and closer, the city proper soon filled my entire view, also allowing me to take a closer look at the actual state of affairs within the city. And that alone was enough to further reinforce my new outlook on the area.


    The streets were not practical for moving a lot of cargo, not when both flights of the beautiful roads were used by pedestrianszily walking in both directions. Heck, there was no need for those streets to support heavy traffic, simply because there was no heavy traffic on them or anywhere near, with people moving stuff not by the ways of trucks, cars, and trains, but limited in their choice to hand-drawn carts and, in a few spare cases, a horse-drawn carriage.


    Squinting my eyes to the point I could hardly see, I shook my head and moved back to my seat, only to then catch ire''s curious look.


    "Your face changed," she stated, only to lean her head over her arm. "What happened?"


    I looked at the girl, only to let my eyes drift toward the window before bringing them back ahead and opting to drop them to the ground.


    "For as beautiful as this ce is, now that Chihiro mentioned it, I just can''t appreciate its beauty anymore," I revealed, shaking my head right as the carriage shook heavily, only to then quickly go back to a smooth drive.


    ''Did wend?'' I thought, looking toward the window, only to then stop myself and look away from it instead, not ready to face the harsh reality of the fake luxury outside.


    "And why is that?" Genuinely curious, ire left the window and sat right back by my side, leaning forward just enough to catch the corner of my stare.


    "Because this ce is a hell," I threw silently, daring not to even look to the side. "A ce designed to look beautiful, regardless of the cost," I shook my head. "A town built by those with means, who never spared a single thought to the fates of all those who would end up living and working in it."


    I took a deep breath before turning my face up and locking my eyes on the ceiling right as the carriage started to slow down, indicating we were now reaching our destination.


    "A ce that disregards practicality in favor of beauty?" I shook my head again. "Don''t you guys see that it''s one hell of a red-g for how the society works in here?"

 Chapter 230 It stings!

    "Now, just stay quiet and try your best to look dignified."


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    With this single instruction, Chihiro turned towards the doors and grew as silent as he became still.


    He wasn''t made to wait for long, though.


    Before I could even count to ten¡ªassuming I ever bothered to do so in the first ce¡ªthe carriage doors swung open, pulled away by the very same butler that came to greet us back in the border city.


    Right now, however, rather than being the one to guide us around, he simply stood by the side, perfectly fulfilling Chihiro''s instruction from just a moment ago, even though they were clearly not aimed at him.


    "Let''s go." Seeing her dad take the first step outside, ire quickly grabbed my hand and gave it a tight squeeze followed by a bright smile. She then let go of my hand and followed her dad, taking just a second at the carriage''s doorstep to fix her clothes before slowly stepping out.


    ''You can do this, man,'' I thought, pulling on my robes to straighten them out before running my fingers through my hair. Then, having no further excuse to dy the inevitable, I took in a shallow breath before following in ire''s and Chihiro''s steps.


    I first came up to the carriage''s step, taking a moment to let my eyes adjust to the bright light of the outside. Then, after casting a quick, sweeping look across the area, I breathed out and finally stepped down to the street.


    "e into the Corian pce," a middle-aged man in butler''s clothes announced, already speaking by the time I left the carriage.


    ''Could you make it any more obvious?'' I thought, barely sparing the man a single nce. ''Since you''ve already decided to treat me like some sort of idiot, how about you have the balls to make your displeasure obvious?''


    I didn''t need to be an etiquette genius to realize that weing the guests before I''d fully embarked wasn''t something that was supposed to happen.


    That is, for as long as we followed the naive assumption of the Corian n being perfectly happy with my presence on the premises of their estate.


    Without this naive misconception, however, the message was clear.


    Chihiro was an honored guest, who had all the rights to visit his wife''s n.


    ire, a direct descendant of the n''s bloodline, was more than just wee on its grounds.


    When it came to me, however¡­?


    I was either some random tourist making use of the opportunity to be a nuisance to everyone around me, or, in the way worse case, I was like a stray dog lusting after the swan.


    And while the n could do nothing about ire''s fancy to have me by her side, they were more than happy to express their displeasure in those small, sneaky ways, clearly designed to be even more humiliating by making their jeers into something they didn''t expect me to catch on.


    ''Well, I''m here just for business and ire''s sake, so,'' I looked around, at two rows of maids and butlers creating a corridor for the three of us to walk up on, and a group of much fancier-looking men and women gathered at the entrance to what had to be the biggest building in the entire estate.


    Still, for how serious and dignified they all looked, I just couldn''t help a small smirk shing on my lips for but a slight second.


    ''Filthy barbarians.''


    With just this single look, I could tell that quite a huge chunk of stuff that becamemon sense in the modern side of the world¡ªhow people''s customs advanced along with advancements in society atrge and the deepening of the poption''s understanding of the world around them¡­


    Those customs, things I would consider pretty damn fundamental¡­ They were absent in this ce.


    ''Now I get what was that unpleasant feeling,'' I thought, rxing all of my facial muscles, only to stop just a few feet shy of Chihiro before closing my hands behind my back, clearing my face of any and all expression, and then just¡­ impassively staring ahead, paying absolutely no one a single iota of my mind.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    ''I thought this was some sort of a defensive formation or something, but to think they are all¡­ just dirty!''


    It was the smell of this ce that was throwing me off so much. And it wasn''t even because it was some sort of awful, gut-twisting odor.


    No, the truth couldn''t be any further away from it.


    By no means have I ever smelled something as nice as the air at the foot of the pce before in my life. But¡­


    This kind of smell, I was long ustomed to it, back from my times at the cramped condo when I lived surrounded by older people. People who didn''t have the strength to keep themselves as clean and hygienic as they did in the past, resorting to use all sorts of chemical sprays to merely mask the bad smell, as opposed to getting rid of its source.


    Regardless of the spray used, it would always create this sickeningly sweet, corrosive smell that appeared to numb the back of my nose.


    As great as the air smelled here, in one¡ªif not the most¡ªrepresentative ce in the whole estate¡­ It was just another kind of this familiar, corrosive sweetness.


    ''Filthy animals,'' I thought, doing my absolute best not to let my disgust show on my face. ''You are all young and healthy, so what''s stopping you from getting a damned shower?!''


    "Despite the n''s doubts, you''ve proved your qualifications to step upon the sanctified soil of the ancestralnds. As such, both you and your wards, we wee you to thend of the truth-seekers and invite you all into our humble abode."


    By now, it was an entirely different person speaking. Yet, even then, I could still sense their hostile eyes locking in on my face for a moment, before moving on, fully disregarding my existence.


    ''I mean, it''s better if they all ignore me, but¡­'' I gritted my teeth a bit, still struggling not to see all those men and women as but filthy barbarians. ''It still stings!''


    I breathed out.


    ''My eyes, that is.''

 Chapter 231 Unexpected allies

    Knowing not the local customs and etiquette beyond the few short lessons Chihiro found the time to give me, all I could do was follow in his steps, always keeping myself just a few feet away from the man''s back.


    Initially, I thought the open hostility the locals of this ce revealed without any qualms would soon cease, turning into a general agreement to just ignore my existence. Sadly, this was nothing more than my hopeful delusion, as people''s curious stares only continued to grow in number and intensity as we moved up the massive stairs toward the main building''s entrance.


    The situation only changed once we finally got inside, only for the maids and butlers of this ce to instantly invade our personal space, quickly separating our small group of three before leading each one of us in a different direction.


    Before I could even open my mouth in an attempt to protest, I was seated out in the far-off corner of the main hall, with Chihiro getting seated at the very end of the main table, and ire ending up pretty much all the way amidst the seats of honor.


    "Today, we celebrate!"


    As soon as the butler pressed down on my shoulders, pushing me down to sit on the chair, everyone in the hall stood up and turned their heads to a small stage, where a man in the most borate robe out of them all cleared his throat before opening his arms up and revealing a big, weing smile.


    "For not only has our precious granddaughter returned to the fold, but a lesser son of the n has also finally proved his mettle and rejoined the ranks of proper humans!"


    Hearing this speech, all I could do was hold my breath while staring wide-eyed at the man.


    Back in the modern world, if anyone were to reverse this speech and low-key insult all the cultivators the way this man just insulted the mortals, their life would be officially over.


    Not only would theizens rip the man''s reputation to shreds, but official protests from the cultivators'' embassy would soon follow, putting the offender on a quick hate-speech trial before fining his ass to infinity.


    Here, however, the man''s speech only ever received some small nods, making it seem as if everyone in the massive hall couldn''t agree more with what was just said.


    ''This ce really is a lot worse than I thought it would be,'' I thought, taking in a deep breath before slowly exhaling it away, using the experience to calm down.


    ''There''s no point in letting them rile you up. If they want to be stupid and biased, let them. Who are you to teach them to know better?''


    Just the opening of the man''s wee speech was enough to make my thoughts spin, rendering me unable to properly follow whatever he said next.


    As a result, before I could even notice, everyone suddenly reached towards the tables, picking their sses up and raising them toward the ceiling.


    "And to that, we shall drink!" everyone chanted in unison, pushing their crystals just a little bit higher before dropping them down to the level of their heads and throwing it back, taking in the full dose of whatever was inside all in one go.


    Not wanting to be the one man left out of the process¡ªmore in terms of avoiding attention than over some sort of personal insecurity¡ªI grabbed the ss and, only a short momentte, copied everyone, swallowing the drink all in one go.


    ''Hmm?''


    The concoction burned my throat a bit, making it seem as if it was some sort of fancy alcohol¡­ But no, the sensations soon vanished, reced by the soothing feeling all over the burned parts of my throat, before a wave of pleasant energy struck my head, only to dissipate right the next moment. Discover more stories at empire


    Looking down at the ss, I fell into the trap of my own thoughts, taking a moment to seriously consider the drink''s taste and effects, only to raise my eyes¡­ And realize that, for some reason, everyone was looking right at me, with clear looks of amused anticipation on their faces.


    "Hmm?" I looked around, happily allowing myself to, for once, let my face stay true to what was going on in my heart, and just look around with an impassive, unimpressed look on my face.


    Still, the whole crowd of like two hundred people anticipated some sort of response, even if there was no question asked of me.


    ''Don''t look,'' I told myself, right as I nearly raised my eyes to search for ire or Chihiro in hope of getting some sort of hint.


    But no.


    Even something that small could be taken and used to validate whatever stupid misconception they had about the mortals from the modern world.


    And so, operating pretty much blind, I took another look at the ss, shrugged lightly, and then put it away, only to then defiantly raise my eyes and, with the same unimpressed look on my face, look right back at the crowd.


    For a moment, the whole hall turned silent¡­


    "Mwahahahaha! Didn''t I tell you?!" A suddenugh erupted far out, from pretty high up the main table, as a beautiful woman in the strength of her years giggled without the slightest care in the world, apanied by an old, gray-haired manughing to the woman''s tune.


    In the end, it was the woman who calmed her amusement first, shaking her head before standing up and turning directly toward me.


    "I apologize for all the discourtesy this court slighted you with, young man," she apologized and even went as far as to bow her head down a little.


    Normally, I wouldn''t care in the slightest.


    But in this ce, to bow one''s head, even if only a little?n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    I gulped my saliva down.


    In here, even something as small as a slight bow of a head was actually quite the big deal!


    "There''s no need to apologize for an offense when none was taken," I courtly replied.


    As much as those people disgusted me, I knew better than to speak lightly right in their midst, especially when my words were bound to affect Chihiro and ire''s situation.


    "Still, thank you for your kind words," I then replied, lowering my head as I did while making sure I did so deeper than the woman''s bow.


    "Not only can he withstand all of this pleasure, he can remain all courtly?" the old manughed out again, only to m his hand against the table, all to the open discontent of the big shots sitting all around the old man''s ce. "Splendid!"


    The manughed for one more second¡­ Only to suddenly turn all serious, all hints of amusement leaving his face as he looked around the other guests with a grim, angry look on his face.


    "This young man is someone whom my granddaughter fancies! How dare you try to seat him with the servants?!" he roared while slowly rising from his seat and casting his furious nce across the other VIPs, before turning it toward me¡­ No, the people sitting around me.


    The next thing I saw, this old man already pulled out a fancily decorated sword twice his size before mming its tip right into the precious, polished-marble floor of the hall.


    "Unless you want your heads to roll, you shall rectify this insult right now!"

 Chapter 232 The patriarch arrives

    This wasn''t the development I expected. And just a single look across the massive hall filled with long tables, each heaving under the weight of the fancy food on them¡­


    I wasn''t the only one.


    "Father!" a man sitting just a few steps away from the stage suddenly eximed, rising up and mming both of his hands against the table.


    ''It didn''t break, huh?'' I thought, more than happy just watching how the situation developed rather than actively taking part in it.


    "Rules are there to follow! Until the day he reaches beyond the mere mortal ranks¡­"


    "If that''s so, howe you seated ire right by your side?" the old man countered before his son could even finish one sentence. "Don''t get me wrong, dear," he then turned towards ire before bowing his head, "I believe you sit right where you should sit, but," the old man squinted his eyes as he took his furious re right back to his son.


    "But¡­?" Another voice joined in, this time from another man still within the same part of the hall. "Speak up, old man, or the rumors that you are going senile will only grow!"


    "Junior, you dare¡­!"


    Watching how the situation started to escte without my direct involvement, I had to resist the desire to sit down and watch it all unfold while snacking on the very food the hosts of the ce provided.


    I didn''t do so not only because it would be doing pretty much the very same thing that those people did to me¡ªinsulting them in a way that was both obvious but also left me without the burden of something to answer for. More importantly, however, I didn''t do it because ire was way too close to the epicenter of this growing mess for myfort!


    ''What the hell am I supposed to do, though?'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I suddenly abhorred my earlier decision to hold my breakthroughs back.


    Right now, I would more than wee even the smallest bit of spiritual strength if it gave me a better chance at pulling ire out of this chaos the moment things started to get dangerous!


    Before my worries could turn into reality, however, the rear doors of the hall suddenly mmed open.


    Following this noisy event, a middle-aged man slowly walked out from behind the doors, sporting nothing but a simple robe and a tense, annoyed look on his refined face.


    "What the hell is going on?" he asked in a voice no louder than a whisper, yet it easily filled every corner of the hall with the question. Even sitting in the very corner of it, I could hear the man clearly¡­


    Only to then watch everyone in the hall step out from their seats and fall down to one knee.


    "The n wees the patriarch!"


    Just like before, everyone chanted in unison.


    I, on the other hand, finally allowed myself to look over at ire and then Chihiro before lowering myself down on one knee as I followed their example.


    "I didn''t ask you lot to greet me, but to exin yourselves."


    The authority oozed out of the man as he spoke, once again filling the entire hall with a voice so faint, this trick went beyond the level of just magic and entered into the realm of the divine.


    ''Or maybe it''s because this hall has great acoustics and,'' I cast a quick nce around to confirm my suspicion, ''yeah,'' I nodded my head to my own thoughts. ''Not only it''s this ce''s acoustics, but also how everyone finally shut the fuck up.''


    "The youngsters are trying to use this weing ceremony for their stupid politics, that''s what''s going on, brother," the old man from before spoke out, refusing to show the same level of reverence as everyone else in the room. In fact, after falling down to one knee, he was the first one to rise¡­ and then, rather than standing up, he sat right back down in his seat before crossing his hands over his chest.


    "By what means?" The patriarch squinted his eyes, openly showing dissatisfaction with his brother''s attitude¡­ or maybe with what he just learned about? Explore new worlds at empire


    Being the outsider that I was, I couldn''t really tell. My ability to read people only worked when I knew them well enough, after all!


    "They took my granddaughter''s fianc¨¦ and seated him with the servants," the old man replied with his arms still crossed on his chest and with a look of wild satisfaction on his face. "At the same time, however, they''ve brought ire all the way up to the head of the main table. If that isn''t a provocation, then¡­"


    "In theory, this setting follows the rules," the patriarch cut his brother off, only to then stare him down.


    At first, the old man opened up his mouth to speak again. Ultimately, however, under the intense gaze of his brother, he ended up closing his mouth and looking away.


    "Now, you, young man. Tim¡­ was it?" the patriarch called me out directly, forcing me to take a breath¡­ and then raise my face, ready to take whatever bullshit he woulde up with directly, rather than just amusing myself with the idiocy of those barbarians.


    "How may I be of service to you, n''s patriarch?" I asked, already lowering my head before my mouth could even spell thest of my words.


    "I can see it in your eyes that you know what''s going on," the patriarch stated with the same, monotone, silent voice of his. "If you knew my sons were trying to insult you, why didn''t you react?"


    I looked up and stared into the patriarch''s face for a moment.


    That was, however, the only slight against the local etiquette I could allow myself tomit.


    "It is not my ce to react to their provocations," I shrugged my shoulders. "How they treat me now only tells their story. How I react to those childish insults, however, would make a story all about myself."


    With how silent the hall was during this exchange, I couldn''t help but get a slight instance of stage fright. Even though I knew it was the patriarch that everyone wanted to hear, not me¡­ This didn''t really help!


    "Your reaction would be your story alone, huh?" the patriarch rephrased my words a bit, only to¡­ smile?


    "Father¡­" one of the men at the table''s head attempted to speak, only to turn silent when the patriarch''s face twisted in anger, his annoyed stare turning toward the brazen man. After this short interruption, however, the patriarch looked right back to me, staring me down with the intensity that made me feel as if I was standing naked before him, unable to hide anything.


    "That''s an interesting answer, young man," the patriarch finally said, only to then step off the stage and take the lone free seat at the very head of the main table. "You''ve more than earned your right to sit by my side tonight," he stated, only to then throw his re across the VIPs near his own seat. "Make room for this young man so that he can sit by his fianc¨¦e''s side and get properly acquainted with his new family," the man ordered, instantly sending everyone at the table into a rush as they each quickly moved one seat down as if it was all some sort of coordinated dance¡­


    ''Or maybe something that they are so used to, they can perform this kind of change at will, even if woken up in the middle of the night and asked to do so,'' I thought, following the patriarch''s nod as I moved away from my corner and walked all the way over to the head of the main table, before taking a seat right next to ire, and one seat away from the woman who spoke out for me before.


    "Now that this is dealt with," the patriarch rolled his eyes before picking his crystal and raising it up to the ceiling, only to then look down and notice the awkward looks on everyone''s faces.


    ''Oh right, everyone already drank their share,'' I realized, instantly growing curious to how the patriarch would deal with such an awkward situation.


    Contrary to my expectations, however, the patriarch - while obviously aware of his mistake - did absolutely nothing.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "The time for business and politicses tomorrow. Tonight, let us set aside our burdens to share in these foods. Raise your sses¡ªto family, to reunion, and to this moment of celebration. Cheers!"


    And so, everyone raised their empty crystals to the ceiling, held them out, chanted "cheers" before throwing them back, all pretending there was still something left to drink in their cups.

 Chapter 233 Finally, reunion

    "I finally got to meet you!"


    If I dared to harbor any hope that after this entire mess had blown over, things would improve¡­ I would be in for one heck of a disappointment. Because as soon as I was led away from the table for the servants, I was ced right by the side of the woman who was first to speak up for my sake.


    And as it came with little to no surprise, she was no one else but ire''s legendary mother.


    "It is my honor and pleasure to meet you, ma''am," I made sure to stick to the local etiquette even with something as simple as greeting my mother-inw-to-be.


    "Oh, how court," the woman grinned, only to wipe the small smirk from her face and rece it with an extremely serious expression as she brought her hand out and offered its outer palm to me.


    "Ma''am," I lowered my head, only to then ept ire''s mom''s hand and lean my face over it, stopping just shy of the skin of her palm in this pretend hand-kiss.


    "Since you insist on keeping things formal, I''m Le Corian, fifth in line to the Corian n, seventh-rank cultivator of the enlightened realm," she introduced herself, only to pull her hand away and cross her arms over her chest. "How about you, young man?"


    "I''m Tim. I am a cultivator of the ninth mortal rank, although I can only reliably wield my spirituality up to seventh, maybe eighth rank. And by some mix of luck, mere coincidence, and fate, I''ve ended up swearing my future to your daughter. And with that said," I lowered my head again, "I will be in your care, Ma''am."


    ire''s mom revealing her name directly to me was just an act of courtesy, not an invitation for me to start calling her by it.


    What was even more worrying, however, was how she described her cultivation prowess.


    ''Not a spiritual rank? Did she go beyond the limits of spiritualists already?''


    My knowledge of the higher cultivation ranks was severelycking, given how there were practically no treaties about it back in the mortal world. And how could there be any, when pretty much all of those who reached the limit of the mortal rank would be taken away by the spiritual world?


    "It''s nice to meet you, Tim," the woman smiled again, quickly dropping her official and perfectly dignified mask in favor of just acting as she wished. "But I couldn''t help but notice, don''t you have a surname? Or is it something you would rather¡­"


    "My apologies, it''s just a habit I''ve developed when I stepped from the world of safe ignorance to the world of dangerous opportunities," I quickly exined myself. "Since my parents are but mere mortals, they cannot bear the consequences of getting mixed up in the things I routinely deal with. As such¡­"


    I didn''t even bother to finish.


    Le not only looked like just an older version of ire, but she also gave pretty much the same vibe, making herself appear as someone cheerful and open to others on the outside, while extremely introspective and thoughtful on the inside.


    In other words, while it was but a guess and assumption of mine, I somehow had the feeling she would understand what I implied even without me spelling it out loud.


    The fact that by bing a cultivator, I was inevitably inviting enemies to my life that my parents simply had no means to defend against. The one and only way I found to keep them somewhat safe was to fully disassociate myself from them, keeping things pretty much the same as they were ever since my entanglement with my uncle, opting to leave them thinking I became the rotten apple under my uncle''s watch, as opposed to rifying the situation and putting them in danger by doing so.


    "I understand," the smile on the woman''s lips faded a little, only to then grow slightly forced. "I''m sorry, never mind that. I don''t think I have the proper qualification to make the im to understand how it feels, but¡­" Le bit down on her lower lip, surprisingly taking a moment to figure out her next words. "For what it''s worth, while not exactly normal¡­" she quickly nced over at the faces gathered by the massive table, implying what exactly she had in mind, "¡­ you can consider this n to be your family too."


    "Mom!"


    Finally, ire spoke.


    Judging from the awkward sense of confusion in her eyes¡­ she didn''t really know how she was supposed to start a conversation with her own mom, despite sitting right next to her.


    "Ah, I''m sorry sweetie. Because of that ne of yours, I never really felt as if I was apart from you, so you must forgive me for paying attention to your man first," Le said, quickly turning around and opening her arms, only to disregard all the rules of the feast''s etiquette and wrapping her hands around her daughter, bringing her into a deep, tight hug.


    "Wait, what ne?" ire suddenly perched her head up from between her mother''s boobs, looking up with a startled look of confusion in her eyes. Then, her eyes twitched as some idea sparked in her head, only for the girl to pull away, reach towards her neck, and then pull out a beautiful piece of jade shaped into a swallow, held up by a tiny golden chain. "This one?"


    Le smiled.


    "You didn''t think I would leave my daughter all alone for all those years, did you?" she asked, only for her lips to form yet another grin¡­ while her eyes¡­


    I squinted my eyes, not sure if I saw properly despite sitting right next to the two.


    But no matter how much I strained my eyes, the look in Le''s eyes was pretty much the same as when ire was extremely upset with something!


    "Then those dreams¡­" ire moaned in mental pain, leaning back as if to escape from the scrutiny of her mother''s eyes.


    "Yes, that''s how I tried to stay in your life, even if I couldn''t do so in the waking world."


    ''This is starting to seem more and more like a massive plot twist that affects the lore so deeply, no one outside of those directly involved is going to get a single clue about what''s actually going on¡­'' I thought, recognizing this sort of a weird pattern.


    A pattern that authors rarely used in their writing, knowing full well hardly anyone would remember such a fine detail by the time they would be ready to actually bring it up. Yet, as counter-intuitive as it might sound, this was exactly the type of thing to happen in real life, as opposed to its written reflection.


    ''Is it because the plot of reality is infinitely moreplex than any, even long-winded story could ever hope to be?''


    I took a moment to ponder, only to shake my head and turn my attention right back to the situation before my eyes.


    By now, however, all that was left was for the parties involved to work through their emotions.


    For ire, whatever this short exchange signified now caused her to blush all over and turn her eyes down, too embarrassed to look up with her burning cheeks.


    Her mom, on the other hand, only appeared to be amused, although I could spot some hints of sadness deep at the bottom of her affectionate gaze.


    Your journey continues at empire


    "Le¡­"


    As if things weren''t alreadyplicated enough, Chihiro''s voice reaching my ears announced yet anotherplication to the moment.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "Hiro!" Le rapidly turned in her seat, all of her expressions vanishing as her face exploded with boundless joy, recing all that stood in its way. She jumped up, only to then stop as she turned her face first to ire and then to me. "I''m sorry, kids, but you know¡­" she looked away¡­


    "It''s perfectly fine," I smiled, recognizing the same happy-go-lucky vibe I could sometimes observe in ire, especially when we happened not to see each other for some time. "Kids aside, he''s your husband, isn''t he, Ma''am?"


    Smiling back at me, Le finally jumped up from her seat. And before anyone could stop her, she charged Chihiro down, only to press her face right into the man''s chest while wrapping her hands around his back.


    "Lei-Lei," Chihiro muttered, closing his eyes to hide the tears that came up as he closed his hug over his wife''s rtively feeble body.


    It didn''t matter that her cultivation made her leagues stronger than Chihiro, likely to the point where a single snap of her fingers would be enough to erase his entire existence.


    Right now, judging by the look on Chihiro''s face, his wife became the very same, feeble and delicate bundle of cuteness that he married, so delicate, he wasn''t sure how to properly adjust the strength of his hug.


    "It''s been too long¡­" Chihiro silently cried out, caring not for all the disapproving stares of the people around as he dedicated himself fully just to the task of hugging his wife.


    "Damn, just watching this is making me emotional," I muttered, reaching up with my hand to my eyes, only for ire to prove to be just a bit quicker, reaching my eyes with her fingers before I could and then wiping the lone tear off my face herself.


    "It is, isn''t it," she muttered, only to then smile lightly as I changed the direction of my hand to clear the tears of happiness from her face instead. "I wasn''t sure how to feel about it before, but seeing them like that¡­?"


    ire''s lips trembled, only for her to then turn away from the wholesome sight and pretty much replicate her parent''s hug by burying her face in my chest, hiding her wild smile from all the fuckers around who could only wish to see her as cute as she was right now.


    "Now, I''m just happy they could finally reunite."

 Chapter 234 The best part of the feast is to leave it

    No matter how many times I''ve talked with ire or Chihiro about how to behave in the spiritual world, one thing would alwayse up.


    "Follow the etiquette!" Chihiro would warn, only to then go on prolonged tangents about how all sorts of weird rules were in ce to keep everyone in check and on their toes.


    Apparently, some century ago or so, a huge civil war erupted between the two ns because a provocateur from one side dressed up as a woman, only to throw a huge fit and im his honor was slighted when someone addressed him as her. There was supposedly some other case when two big ns, with history reaching as far back as the spiritual restoration times, ended up wiped off the face of the world just because someone from their n didn''t bow deep enough when they encountered a young master from the aggressive and domineering n of the time.


    All those strict etiquette rules were in ce to prevent those kinds of things from happening, constantly swelling in numbers as people found new and inventive ways to circumvent them for their own advantage.


    That''s why I didn''t really mind when this entire feast was conducted with adherence to the highest standards of etiquette.


    Sure, it kept me on the top of my toes as I tried my absolute best not to identally anger or insult someone by doing something I wasn''t even aware was bad, but¡­


    But it was something I expected. Something I, to the best of my abilities, prepared myself for.


    That''s why, when the official part of the feast smoothly transitioned into a much more rxed part where the focus shifted from politics to food and from schemes to just random and casual chats¡­


    I found myself too confused about what was allowed and what was not to do anything but sit straight in my seat, kindly listen to anyone who tried to start a conversation, and upy myself with slowly trying all sorts of the various foods prepared for the feast.


    Some of them, I could vaguely recognize to be a cuisinemon in far-awaynds. Others tasted like something I was familiar with yet had that rang absolutely no bells in my mind. Then, there were the foods that I could neither recognize by taste nor by looks, making every bite that I took not only a precious opportunity to taste something entirely new but an adventure of finding out whether I liked it or found it absolutely disgusting.


    Things became even worse when the feast, roughly yet another hour in, rxed even further, to the point where everyone suddenly started to abandon their seats, only to take over someone else''s spot as the whole crowd started to divide into smaller groups for people to have an easier time talking to each other.


    Just like that, Chihiro and Le suddenly found themselves surrounded by people I didn''t even try to recognize. On the far end of the table, the n''s patriarch somehow ended up chatting away with some of the servants and people I could remember sitting nearby, back when a faction within the n tried to humiliate me.


    All in all, if not for ire opting out of the move and deciding to just stay with me right where we were seated, this entire feast could soon turn into one of the worst experiences of my entire life.


    "This is really weird," I muttered silently, just loud enough for ire to hear. "To be able to do anything I want, yet daring not to move a muscle."


    Normally, I would expect this kind of feeling to appear only in a situation when some overwhelmingly powerful opponent would lock their sights on me. But right now? During a feast, nheless?


    I shook my head.


    The fact that I was so cautious about every move I made and every word I dared to say while everyone else was happily celebrating the feast only made me feel all the weirder.


    "As far as I remember, we should be free to leave the feast at this point," ire suddenly pointed out, her eyes tracking one of the servants currently tasked with changing the fuel for the oilmps hanging all over the walls of the massive feast hall.


    She then turned her eyes towards me and smiled.


    "Do you want to skip this farce of a feast and go do something else?"


    I raised my eyebrows, not expecting ire to be the one to suggest such a solution to our current problem of difort.


    "Are you sure it is actually allowed?" I asked, still uncertain whether such a nice solution to our current situation could be real. Or, even more important, if it wouldn''te with a massive baggage of troubleter on.


    "To leave?" ire smiled a little. "Yeah, I did my due diligence and asked Mom before even the patriarch came," she said, making me wonder just what could''ve happened at her seat before I was close enough to actually see it myself.


    "What are we waiting for, then?" I asked as a smile flowered on my lips. Then, not willing to let this opportunity slip out of my hands, I grabbed just one more piece of the delicious meat I found out quite a while ago before standing up from my seat and offering ire my free hand to help her do the same.


    "Oh, so you like the herbal Cocoro too," ire smiled as her eyes locked on the air-fried piece of perfectly seasoned meat in my hand, only to then gently ce her fingers over my extended palm, letting me help her get up. "Any ns for what we should do, or do you n to just roam around?"


    Faced with this question, I took a deep breath in before casting a sweeping nce around the massive hall.


    "I do have something in mind, but¡­" I continued to look around, all the way to the point when I finally spotted just where Chihiro and his wife went off to. "But I need to make sure we are allowed to do it first."


    The time I spent being miserably ufortable with everything that was going on was also the time that I finally could dedicate to nning for the immediate future, as opposed to how I mostly made my ns to be far-reaching.


    And after giving it much thought, there was one thing that stood out from everything else. One thing that appeared like the solution to both the problems we''ve managed to already resolve, but also the problems that kept bothering me when I looked at what my future could look like.


    "Let''s go, then," ire smiled, only to follow after me as I braced myself for whatever could happen as I ventured out through the bustling crowd to where I spotted the holder to my answer.


    "Oh, it''s you two," Le smiled as she saw the two of us, turning her head in our direction long before I would expect her to sense our presence.


    ''That''s a high-ranking cultivator for you,'' I thought, only to courteously bow my head in response.


    "I''m sorry, but if you wouldn''t mind, could you help us out with one thing?"


    Taken aback by the sudden and unspecified request, Le first opened her eyes a bit wider, only to then turn into all smiles as she fully turned away from the ongoing conversation within her circle, all to properly face the two of us.


    "As long as it''s within my power, I will do my best to help," she announced with a proud smile, as if merely having the ability to help out was the best thing she could ask for in life.


    "Actually, we don''t really feel all thatfortable here, so I was wondering if there was a ce where we could cultivate¡­" I dragged my voice for a bit, only to then pause¡­ and look directly into ire''s mom''s eyes, an act I didn''t dare tomit before. "Preferably, somewhere private, where no one would try to disturb us."


    At first, a small hint of blush, caution, and concern appeared in the woman''s eyes. Yet, as she scanned the two of us for any sign of blush or difort, her face quickly rxed back down before defaulting to just a charming smile.


    ''No, we don''t want to go away to fuck each other''s brains out,'' I thought, easily reading what was the woman''s likely first thought.


    "To cultivate in private, huh?" she muttered¡­ Only to then lightly sp her hands together, instantly summoning one of the many servants swarming around the hall.


    "Yes, young miss?" A teenage girl in simple, gray clothes appeared as if she grew directly out of the ground, only to bow deeply to Le before rising up and looking directly into Le''s face.


    "I need you to guide those two to my private cultivation garden," she announced, "The second¡­ No, the third level should be good enough."


    "Yes, young miss," the servant-girl bowed with her entire upper body only to then turn towards me and ire before bowing again. "If you would be so kind as to follow me¡­"


    I looked over at Le''s face again, only to see her wave me away with a slight, lenient smile.


    "I still remember how I felt when I first came to this ce, so stop minding us and just go and have fun, sweetie," she spoke, happily encouraging us only to then turn right back to her own circle, making it quite a lot easier for us to step away than it would be if she kept looking at us.


    "Do you really want to cultivate?" ire asked as we followed after the serving girl. She made sure to stick close to my arm, close enough to ensure our conversation would remain as private as it could be with so many people around.


    "Is it wrong?" I raised my eyebrow, not expecting ire to have anyints about it.


    ''For someone so much deeper into cultivation than I am, shouldn''t she be all the more excited about it?''


    "No, it''s not wrong or anything, just¡­" ire hesitated for a second while looking away, only to gather her wits and turn her eyes back to my face. "I wouldn''t want you to do things just because you think it would make me happy," she stated, only for her courage to dry out as she, once again, averted her eyes.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "Fear not," I couldn''t help but smile. "Because while we are indeed off to cultivate, that''s not the full picture," I stated, only to stop for a moment, all for the sake of leaning over her ear and even going as far as to use both of my hands to create a small tunnel between my mouth and her ear, keeping my words from escaping to the outside.


    "What I n to do is redo our entire cultivation from scratch!"

 Chapter 235 Leilas Garden

    Following after the servant girl turned out to be the easiest part out of my entire stay on this side of the border between the two different worlds. All I and ire had to do was just... follow after the teenage girl, holding ourselves back from taking this opportunity to converse.


    Even though it was a servant that ire''s mother called... How were we to know whether or not she wasn''t actually serving someone else, tasked with the job of keeping an eye on everything Le did?


    And so, while it might be slightly discourteous, we followed after the girl in silence, quickly leaving the venue where the feast was now quickly transforming into yet another phase of the one thing that both worlds had inmon - drunken fests.


    First, we had to bear with ourcking etiquette during the official phase. Then, things rxed a little as the feast started in its practical sense. By the time we''d left, the whole thing was turning into a simple party with high-ranking members of the n, and, judging by how everything went, it wouldn''t be too long before bringing more booze would be the main topic of conversation all over that ce.


    In other words, the time at which we left was pretty much thest call for us, unless we wanted tobine the difficulty of operating at the highest level of local etiquette with the difficulty pretty much everyone knew about - of dealing with drunken idiots.


    Thankfully, the trip to Le''s garden was quite amusing, as it brought us on a scenic tour over the n''s estate. Yet, it wasn''t until we finally reached the end of the innermost core of the whole area when the true meaning of that ''garden'' name finally revealed itself to us.


    "Oh damn..." I uttered a small, awed moan as I stared at the building that, back in the modern world, would likely be hailed as the magical flying gardens of an ancient queen or something.


    It was a strange, five-story-high building, with what looked like fully open roofs for the garden at the very highest floor. Yet, even though it was already one of the biggest buildings in the entire estate that I''d spotted... I could only appreciate its grandeur down from the street level.


    As for why?


    It was quite simple.


    Every inch of the building was covered in all sorts of vines, bushes, and flowers, making it seem more like an artistically farmed earthwork or a simple, flowered hill.


    ''I guess that exins how I''d missed it back when we were in the sky-carriage,'' I thought, only to then grit my teeth in frustration as the servant girl quickly led us away from the building''s front and towards its actual entrance.


    "That''s as far as I''m allowed to go," this young girl announced as she turned on her heel to face us, only to then bow down with her entire upper body. "As thedy Le allowed you to visit up to the third level of her garden, you are free to explore the first three floors."


    The girl bowed down again as soon as she finished her exnation, quickly turning to leave.


    "Wait, if you are not going there with us to guide us... How isdy Le to know we won''t intrude on the higher levels?" I asked before I could bite down on my tongue.


    Yet, rather than flying into rage,ughing my words off, or doing anything I could predict or expect... The girl simply turned around, bowed down again, and then just... smiled.


    "It is not my ce to say it, butdy Le''s invitation was as much of a challenge as it was an actual invitation," she stated, a small smirk appearing on her lips. "If you so desire, you are free to try to get higher than what she allowed. Just know that you yourself will be responsible for the consequences of such stupidity."


    The girl didn''t bow for the fourth time, opting to just turn around and leave, all the while silently chuckling under her nose.


    "I''m sorry," as soon as the servant girl left, I turned my face over to ire, fully aware of the ironic expression she had on her face as she looked back at me.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "What are you sorry for," rxing her face, ire shook her head. "It''s a good thing this didn''t lead to greater trouble and we did learn something new," she stated while spreading her arms open and then shaking them a little.


    "Yeah," I rolled my eyes, fully aware of what ire was trying to do right now. "And the rumors of our... no, rumors of my greed will spread all throughout the n before we even get to leave this garden."


    For a second, ire stopped and looked at my face, only to then roll her eyes, smirk, and move on towards the garden''s doors. "It''s not like you would care about something like that, would you?" she asked, turning around right as she opened the doors while gracing me with a lovely smile.


    Seeing this, I had no other choice but to just sigh out and shake my head in slight disbelief.


    "I guess you are right," I admitted, nodding my head as I picked up the pace and stepped inside. Then, as I stepped ahead of ire for a second, I turned around to give her the brightest smile I was capable of. "I wouldn''t care what those smucks think or talk about me in the slightest. Dear, I know they are your nsmen and all, but..."


    I hesitated for a moment, only for ire to jump up to my shoulder, wrap her hands around my hand, and then drag me ahead while chuckling.


    "Tim, you know I don''t care about any of them but my mom," she stated through her wide grin, only to then tighten her hold over my arm. "I can''t promise I will stay silent if they dare to insult you in my presence, though!"


    As it turned out, the topic I deemed exceedingly dangerous and likely to turn into a drama bomb... ire diffused with just a few words of hers and a small amount of physical closeness. And with that said, by the time I''d managed to even realize we were just running around through the gardens, we''d already arrived at what looked like a staircase to the second level of the massive building.


    "Should we go up?" ire asked, leaning forward to then twist her head as she looked up to my face.


    "Just one moment, if you could," I asked, only to close my eyes and take a deep breath as I immersed myself first into my own cultivation, only to then spread my awareness outside, to the greater world around.


    ''Woah...'' I nearly stumbled on my feet, despite standing still, when I came to face the illogical, unnatural flow of spiritual energy within the garden.


    Contrary to its wild curves, twitches, and deformations, each strand of Qi in this garden appeared to be straightened into a thin line, flowing in uniform formation throughout the entire ce.


    It was the most organized Qi I''ve ever seen, even if it wasn''t the one most organized I''ve evere in contact with. That honor belonged to the Qi spread by the golden sphere from all the way back during my factory episode, a being that was now confined deep in the underground of Chihiro''s mansion.


    "It''s amazing..." I''ve muttered as I looked around, only to be faced with more and more proof of just how insanely profound this seemingly simple garden was.


    "It really is..." most likely noticing my state of mind, ire followed my example and immersed herself in her own inner world, only to end up seeing pretty much the same thing that I did. "But if this ce is already like that..." she then added, turning my thoughts to the obvious development that awaited us on the higher floor.


    "Shall we...?" I asked, both tempted for us to hurry up the stairs while also trying to resist the desire of just staying at the bottom floor to see just what kind of an effect this kind of a neatly organized Qi would have on our cultivation.


    "Well, mom did advise us to go as far as the third floor, so..."


    Through the spiritual link connecting us, I could tell that right now, ire felt pretty much exactly the same as I did. Maybe it was the influence of this orderly Qi in this ce, but this sharing of our consciousness...


    In here, it felt much more powerful and precise than usual.


    "Yeah," eager to find out what awaited up the stairs, I nodded my head before grasping ire''s hand and taking the first step up. "Let''s do it."


    It was such a simple task, to just climb the stairs. Yet, as soon as my other leg left the floor of the garden''s ground level... something changed.


    From the space where the spiritual energy was more orderly, more concentrated, more... more of itself than anywhere else I''d seen before, we suddenly found ourselves in a spiritual desert, with not a single iota of mana in the air to support our climbing efforts.


    By the time we reached the halfway point up, we were both already panting for air, strangely struggling to do something as simple as climbing a single flight of stairs.


    ''Is this some sort of a test?'' I thought, gritting my teeth as the exhaustion already started to get to my mind, slowing my thoughts down and filling my soul with an intense desire to just... give up and go back down.


    "It might be," ire muttered in response, somehow figuring out...


    ''Wait, our link...'' I suddenly froze in ce as I realized one thing that made absolutely no sense.


    In here, with close to no spiritual energy in the air at all...


    How could our link grow even stronger than it was back on the ground floor? How could ire precisely answer a question I''d merely formed in my mind?


    Stunned by those questions, I unknowingly took a step... only to then realize we''d finally climbed all the way up to the garden''s second floor. A ce so hard to reach, I''d already expected it to be overflowing with rich and perfectly organized and packaged energy ready for us to absorb...


    Only to then realize that my expectations of this ce were pretty much subverted.


    Because in here, while the pressure of the staircase has now lifted...


    The second level of Le''s garden waspletely devoid of any spiritual energy at all, even the trace amounts of it I always assumed to be present absolutely everywhere.


    "What is this ce..." I''ve muttered, looking around the vast, green bushes of the second level of the garden.


    "I don''t know," ire replied, as startled and puzzled as me, "but I think..." she hesitated for a reason, only to then pull on my hand and turn me around, all so she could look me directly in the face.


    "I don''t think mom would tell us toe here without a proper reason!"


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