Chapter 14: Training
"I would love to learn about the sect. I know next to nothing about it, after all," I said.
"Great! We'll show you around," Kai said enthusiastically. "It's been forever since we got a new fellow disciple under Master Mei."
"And I've never had a junior disciple under the master," Nea said. "So that'll be nice."
"Walk with us," Orden said.
I followed them.
"Master told us a little about you – that you broke through into the Awakening Stage during the recruitment test," Orden said. "Also that you almost turned her down. Something about your friend and an ally?"
"Yes. My best friend, Seran, is now the direct disciple of one of the Inner Elders who was present. And one of the Klesta Clan heirs is my sworn ally, so she's an auxiliary disciple of another. What is an auxiliary disciple, anyway?"
"Essentially, they work as servants for an Elder in exchange for receiving resources from them and occasionally being taught by them," Nea said. "They don't have any of the prestige or protection normally provided by being a direct disciple, nor do they receive nearly as much attention, and they have to do a lot more work, but it's still a better position than an ordinary disciple… at least in most cases."
"I see."
"Glad that worked out for you," Kai said. "It would have been a real shame if you hadn't become Master's disciple. Though I do want to warn you – Master Mei believes that hard work should be rewarded, and she doesn't believe in just handing out resources for nothing."
"Good," I said, earning some raised eyebrows. "It's my True Way, my Path. The Path of the Noble. Or the Path of the Heroic, depending on how you want to word it. Do good, fight evil, work hard, build a home as a place of both growth and respite. To put it simply."
"Interesting. I'd say you chose the right sect, then," Orden said approvingly.
"Well, we did travel about two weeks to get here, jogging most of the way. This sect met the criteria I was looking for in a sect."
"You mentioned you grew up in a town? What's your background?" Nea asked curiously.
"I was a shopkeeper's son, and my best friend was a farmer's daughter. I had a fortuitous event that led to me finding resources and Methods for cultivation when I was much younger. Not much else to tell: I cultivated in secret until I was too strong to effectively hide it, then told my parents and hers and got permission to teach her what I knew. Her folks made me promise to never abandon her as a condition of teaching."
"Never abandon her, eh?" Kai said. "So is she your lover?"
"No. She's my best friend. Though her parents definitely thought we'd eventually get married, and had since we were little. Still, I intend to honor that promise. No matter how high I climb, I will never abandon Seran."
"Good. Always keep your promises," Orden said. "As you get older, you'll come to find that keeping yourself to an honorable code will help keep you grounded. Far too many cultivators lose themselves in their pursuit of power, even if they start out with good intentions. I've seen it happen to plenty of people, even in our sect."
"I understand."
Over the course of the day, they showed me all the important parts of the Core and Inner Sect and told me more about the structure. Master Mei, the Sect Leader, was at the head of the sect, but she wasn't the most advanced: we had a "Sect Ancestor" who was in the stage above Crystal Core, but even Orden didn't know how old or powerful he really was, just that he had founded the sect two and a half thousand years ago. Orden also refused to tell me the name of the stage, insisting that it was better to focus on my own growth than dream about the loftier stages.
There were six Core Elders, all of whom were in the Crystal Core Stage. Besides the Elders, Master Mei, and Orden, there were only eleven other Crystal Core cultivators in the sect. There were considerably more Inner Palace cultivators: the current count, including the eighteen Inner Elders, was three hundred and eighty. Orden didn't know the exact number of Foundation Building cultivators, but he knew that it was over three and a half thousand, including the fifty-four Outer Elders. The rest of the two hundred thousand were Awakening or lower, with the majority being Body Tempering or lower.
"Most cultivators never get past Awakening. In fact, most cultivators never get to Awakening," he said. "And outside of competent sects like ours, the proportion of cultivators to reach Awakening, and the proportion of Awakening cultivators to get past it, is even lower."
"What determines whether someone is in the Outer, Inner, or Core Sect?" I asked.
"Talent, achievements, and cultivation stage. The vast majority of those who are Body Tempering or lower, and a little over half those in the Awakening Stage, are in the Outer Sect, which contains roughly ninety percent of the sect's population. The Inner Sect mostly contains those in the Awakening Stage, but also a little over half of those in Foundation Building. The Inner Sect is about nine percent of the sect's population. The Core Sect contains the rest of the Foundation Building members and all of the Inner Palace and Crystal Core members. It's about one percent of the population of the sect. There are exceptions, mostly those who have been taken as direct disciples of Elders: people like you and your friend, who are lower in cultivation but are higher up in the sect due to your talent."
The sect was largely organized the way I expected based on the xianxia stories I'd read in my past life. Besides the various administrative halls and stuff like that, there were also organizations within the sect devoted to various pursuits: alchemy, forging, artifact refining, talisman making, spirit plant gardening, everything to do with spirit beasts (fighting them, processing them, even taming them), spirit meal cooking (cooking magic meals with spirit beast meat and spirit plants), combat training, music, clothing crafting, and even mining (since the sect owned a mine with spirit stones, spiritual jade, and other spirit metals). Each of those organizations was further divided into the Outer, Inner, and Core divisions… though not all of them had Core divisions.
I learned that Outer and Inner disciples were expected to do tasks and missions in order to earn "contribution points" which they could then spend on resources, but that Core disciples pretty much only did missions and earned resources (or spirit stones) directly, skipping contribution points entirely. Additionally, all disciples were allotted a stipend of spirit stones per month, and direct disciples got additional resources from their masters on top of that. Outer disciples got ten low-grade spirit stones per month; Inner disciples got a hundred; and Core disciples got one mid-grade stone. I'd receive my stone at the beginning of next month, though I didn't really need it given how many I had stowed in my realm.
The sect also had a library, which could be accessed through entrances located in all three parts of the sect. Each physical building's doorway led to the same space, which was actually located in a separate realm, much like my personal realm, except that it was fully physical. Most disciples needed to pay contribution points to access it, but Core disciples could access most of it for free, and direct disciples of the Sect Leader could access all but the top floor – which was forbidden to all but Master Mei and the Ancestor – freely. We briefly visited, and while the first floor had books and scrolls, the rest of it was all in jade slips. They even had jade consoles that you could connect your mind to in order to search the entire list of everything on each floor. It was remarkably like using a search engine on a computer.
The sect didn't have nearly as many rules as I expected, and they were all pretty common-sense, at least to me. They basically boiled down to "be a good person and don't be a bad person, be honorable and honor the sect, and follow the commands of the Elders and those in administrative positions." There were some rules for formalizing duels and things like that as well, but that was to be expected.
At the end of the day, we returned to our dwellings. Tomorrow, I was told, I would receive instruction from Master Mei. So tonight, I decided to fight some more spirit beasts.
I was lucky enough to face the spider last again. I didn't die of injuries this time, but rather the poison, which killed me while I was healing with Phoenix Restoration.
-x-
"Good morning, Master," I greeted Master Mei with a bow when she strolled into my house while I was eating breakfast.
"Good morning, Disciple. Come with me."
I followed her out into my courtyard, where she had us sit down on the grass facing each other.
"You have just stepped into the Awakening Stage. What questions do you have?" she said abruptly.
"How do I advance through the stage? And how do I enhance the mind? That's something that happens during this stage, right?"
"It is. The answer to both is deceptively simple: deepen your understanding of your Path, your True Way. This must be done through a combination of meditation and action. Tell me, Alzeic, what is your Path?"
"The Path of the Noble. Or, using different wording, the Path of the Heroic." I explained what I understood of my Path, then told her about "hearing" something about my path when I was about to fight the eagle.
"You've had your first Deepening, I see. Good. To advance to the peak of Awakening requires ten Deepenings. They are… miniature epiphanies, I suppose is the simplest way to put it. Moments of understanding. Sometimes you can acquire them through meditation, but often you must acquire them through following what you already know of your Path.
"Now, as to your other question. Enhancing the mind is done through meditation. Meditation, and opening your mind to the world. There are Methods, but it's largely a personal journey rather than something you can do by rote. It's better to find it on your own than to pick a Method from the library."
"Understood."
"What weapons do you use?"
"Sword, spear, and fist. I know some basics, as well as several techniques of each. I can list them for you?"
"Do so."
"The unarmed martial art I practice is called the Lunar Phoenix Unarmed Art, and I know three techniques associated with it: Moon Ash Strike, Lunar Mirage Steps, and Phoenix Restoration. The spear art I practice is called the Stellar Rain Spear Art, and I know three techniques for it as well: Staccato Star Strike, Shimmering Veil, and Starlight Spear. The sword art I practice is called the Harmonic Eclipse Sword Art, and I also know three techniques for it: Eclipse Parry, Severing Slash, and Shadowlight Sword. I also know three spirit art techniques: Restraint Under Heaven, Mist of Obfuscation, and Divine Wrath Bolt."
"That's quite a lot for one so young. What is your mastery progress?"
"On everything but Phoenix Restoration, Expert."
"So you'll need to be injured a lot to practice it."
"…Yes."
"I will set you up to spar with Foundation Building Core Disciples, with instructions for them to make sure they injure you, starting with relatively minor injuries and working their way up to more severe ones as your mastery improves."
I swallowed. She was right; that was the most efficient way. But it was still unpleasant.
She stood and gestured for me to do the same.
"Now, try your best to kill me, using all of your arts and techniques. I want to see them."
"Yes, Master."
What followed would have been humiliating if it wasn't inevitable: she negated all my attacks without even moving. I hit her, but it just… didn't do anything. Only once I'd demonstrated everything did she signal for me to stop.
"Continue to work on your combat abilities. Do you know a qi recovery technique?"
"I do. It currently takes me about three and a half hours to fully recover my qi with it, though I haven't increased my max qi since the potential max increased after my… Deepening."
"Then I want you to spend the rest of the day alternating between practicing your techniques and recovering your qi, as well as increasing your maximum. In fact, I expect you to spend all the time (other than sleep and meals) doing that for the rest of the month, except when people drop by to spar with you and you spend time using Phoenix Restoration afterward. Your basic meals at the dining hall will be free until further notice, but of course you'll only need one meal per day. As you increase in cultivation, you need less food and water. You know this, yes?"
"I do. I'll get right to work."
She nodded and left.
I practiced techniques until I ran out of qi, then recovered all my qi. By that point, it was almost eleven o'clock, so I closed my eyes and entered my realm. There, I used my gathering array and refined qi, adding about a tenth of what it would take to reach my new potential maximum before stopping and checking the obelisk.
SIDE ONE
Visits: 1979
Deaths: 288
Kills: Rank One x150, Rank Two x150, Rank Three x150, Rank Four x150
Rank Five x10
Visit Cooldown: 12 hours
Kill Rewards: Unclaimed
=Rank Five Griffon=
Beast Core x2, Hide x2, Wings x4, Talon Sets x4, Meat (70lbs)
=Rank Five Water Drake=
Beast Core x2, Hide x2, Fangs x4, Claw Sets x8, Meat (90lbs)
=Rank Five Ogre=
Beast Core x2, Heart x2
=Rank Five Burrow Worm=
Beast Core x2, Teeth x8
=Rank Five Assassin Spider=
Beast Core x2, Sickle x4, Venom Vial x2
=Bonus (10 Rank Five Kills)=
Lunar Phoenix Unarmed Arts (Intermediate Forms)
Well, that was interesting. Instead of a new technique, I got more advanced forms. I'd almost forgotten that my original reward was "basic forms." That lit a fire under me to kill more spirit beasts so I could acquire the intermediate forms for my spear and sword arts. But I needed to get back to practice, and if I went hunting then I'd need to recover my qi again. I decided to increase my max qi every day visit and go hunting every night visit. I could put off mining for now.
When I returned to the waking world, I added in practice of my new forms in addition to practicing my techniques. Late in the afternoon, after I'd used up all my qi and recovered it again, I headed to the Core Sect's dining hall.
There weren't that many people there. It also wasn't very big. In my previous life, I'd gone to a college with about twice as many students as the Core Sect had disciples, and it had two dining halls. This dining hall was even smaller than those. It made sense considering the lesser need for food, but people also came to the dining hall for spirit meals, so I had thought it would be a bit bigger. Spirit meals, after all, had magical effects – many times, the effects of pills could be replicated, albeit to a lesser degree (though they didn't need to worry about pill toxicity, so that was a plus to counter that minus). Even if a cultivator no longer needed to eat much of anything, they still might want to eat spirit meals on a regular basis.
"What can I serve you today?" the disciple working the counter, a young woman (well, young-looking, anyway) with bright blue hair and similarly colored eyes, asked me with a smile.
"Just a basic meal."
Her eyes flicked to the star on my sash.
"Oh, you're the new direct disciple of the Sect Leader! Your basic meals are free. One moment."
She waved her hand, and a tray with a one-person-portion veritable feast appeared. "Basic meal," in this case, apparently just meant "not spirit meal." It appeared to be well chosen to provide all the necessary nutrients, but it looked tasty, too. I took it and went to a table. I was about halfway finished when someone approached.
"Junior," the glowing-brown-haired man said. "You're Alzeic, right?"
"I am, Senior. And who might you be?"
"Call me Senior Terren. The Sect Leader told me to beat you up. Gently."
"Ah, so you're the one who's supposed to injure me in a spar."
"You're awfully accepting of that," he said in amusement.
"Well, it is the only way to train my self-healing technique. I'm not looking forward to it, but I've experienced worse." Like being torn apart in my spiritual realm.
"And better to have the technique trained than not, right?"
"Right."
"When you finish eating, come see me outside. We'll go spar at your place."
"Will do."
The spar – if you could call it that – ended up being a bit of a wakeup call for me. He told me he would restrict himself to power equivalent to a Rank Six spirit beast, and he still ended up wiping the floor with me. His element of choice was wood, and his weapon of choice was a bladed whip that he controlled with qi, making it act like a living thing. Between the whip and the branchlike roots that shot out of the ground, he had what he needed to turn me into a bruised and bloody mess. I'd need to buy self-repairing clothes, or I'd quickly run out, since his attacks were strong enough to cut through even the special materials that my current ones were made of.
It did make for excellent healing practice afterward, which was the point, so I supposed it wasn't all bad.
After I was healed, I washed up and meditated for a while before going to bed. During the visit, I wasn't able to kill everything because I got attacked by an assassin spider early on. Obviously, I died again.
-x-
I made it through the end of the month – twelve more days – following the same pattern. I didn't always have the same sparring partner – I faced a total of five people – but the general shape of the day was exactly the same. I got up to forty-six Rank Five kills in my realm, earning the "intermediate forms" for both spear and sword arts, which I started practicing as soon as I learned them.
Master Mei visited me again on the first of the new month.
"Here is your monthly stipend," she said, tossing me a mid-grade spirit stone. "Now, how are things progressing?"
"Very well, Master. At least, I think so. Each day is painful, but full of progress. Though… all my clothes are in tatters at this point. Where do I go to buy self-repairing clothes? Do they sell them at the Clothing Crafters Hall?"
"They do. They also sell clothes that function as armor. You should check out what is available today, now that you have your stipend."
"I will."
"Now, do you have any questions for me?"
"I have hunted spirit beasts in the past, and occasionally, I've encountered spirit beasts that I can't sense. Is there some way to upgrade my qi sense to pick up on creatures and people that use stealth techniques?"
"There is. It is an advanced technique, however, and it cannot be used passively until you reach Expert level with it. Do you wish to attempt to learn it?"
"I do."
"Then I will bring it to you this evening. I will also place a job in the Inner Job Hall for someone practicing stealth techniques to train with you."
"Thank you, Master."
"Now, take today to get new clothes and visit your friend – and your ally, if she is available."
"Yes, Master!"
After she left, I headed down to the Inner Sect. She had told me the names of the Inner Elders who had taken Seran and Alaena as disciples, so I simply had to ask around to find out where they were. It didn't take me terribly long to locate Elder Neon Hair's place, and from there Seran's. Seran was in the middle of sparring with another disciple when I arrived.
When the bout ended, she finally noticed me. Her face lit up.
"Alzeic!"
"Hey, Seran. It's been a while."
"I'm glad you're here! I was beginning to wonder if you forgot about me." She grinned.
"Of course not. My master just had me on a fairly intensive training regimen. I would never forget about you. So! How have the last couple weeks been for you?"
"I've been training a lot and learning a lot, but I still haven't reached Awakening yet. Master Shiina says that I should try a bunch of different activities to see if that helps."
I nodded. "I agree. But first… let's go see how Alaena's doing and then go shopping for better clothes. Inner Disciples are allowed into the Core Sect area if they're accompanied by a Core Disciple, so we can shop for the good stuff."
Seran looked to her sparring partner, who nodded.
"All right!" Seran held out her fist for a fist bump. I obliged with a smile. "Let's go!"
We headed out to Elder Shiny Black Hair's place, where we found Alaena sweeping her master's courtyard. She smiled when she saw us.
"I am well. I haven't trained much, but Master Sidian has taught me a few techniques to practice when I'm not working," she told us when we asked how she was. "I've also been doing some jobs for contribution points."
"Would you like to come clothes shopping with us?" Seran asked.
She shook her head. "I'm fine. Being an auxiliary disciple to an Elder means that I'm not being bullied, and I'm safe from my older siblings for now. Just check up on me every so often, and I'll consider your duty fulfilled."
"If you say so," I said. "But don't hesitate to reach out if you need something, or even if you just want someone to talk to or hang out with."
"Understood."
After chatting for a little longer, Seran and I left and went to the Core Sect area, heading straight for the Core Sect division of the Clothing Crafters Hall.
Chapter 15: Clothing
We didn't stay at the Core Sect Clothing Crafters Hall for long, because it became quickly apparent that the stuff there was very high-end. Instead, we went back to the Inner Sect and to the Clothing Crafters Hall that was there. Here, we could find a huge assortment of clothes in different styles, made of magical materials and imbued with various enchantments. Rather than being a single shop, though, everything was either sold by individual crafters or used the administration of the Hall as an intermediary to sell. Thus, it took a while to find anything specific.
Very little fit, had good enchantments, and looked good to us. Eventually, we came across a little stall that didn't have any clothing for sale, just a sign that said "commissions." A woman in the Foundation Building Stage sat behind the table looking disheartened. She looked fairly young, appearing to be around twenty years old, with bubblegum pink hair tied into a side braid and bright violet eyes.
"Are you alright?" Seran asked, approaching.
"I'm… fine," the woman sighed despondently. "Nobody wants to commission anything."
"Is there… a reason for that?" I asked.
"You should stay away from her," the man at the next stall told us. "She's on Senior Delin's strike list."
"Should that… mean something to me?" I said, raising an eyebrow.
"Are you two new disciples?"
"Yeah."
"I figured as much. Senior Delin is an influential member of the Clothing Crafters Hall. You get on his bad side, and you'll find that you have a hard time getting – or selling – clothing. Do business with those on his strike list, and you end up on his bad side."
"What did she do to get on his strike list?"
"Contradicted him in front of an Elder he was talking to. Embarrassed him."
"Well, was she right?"
"Does it matter?"
"I suppose not." I turned back to the woman. "So, are you any good at making clothes?"
She gave me a look. "Of course I am. Don't be insulting."
"Then you could make self-cleaning, self-repairing clothes that have good defense, right?"
"Of course. I'd need the materials, but yeah, that's no problem. If you don't have the materials, it increases the price since I have to buy them."
"Then… we'd both like clothing like that."
"The defensive power of clothing is usually measured by what rank of spirit beast it can stand up to and what elements it's strong against. What's your preference?"
I thought about it. "Rank Seven, strong against fire, wind, and metal."
"Rank Seven, huh? Do you have the materials?"
"Nope."
"Then it'll be expensive. But… I see you're a direct disciple of… wait, a gold star? You're a direct disciple of the Sect Leader? Well, I guess I won't question if you can afford it!"
"How much?"
"Depends on the style and the amount of material thus needed."
"Upper bound then, for what I specified."
"Two mid-grade stones each."
I took out four mid-grade stones from my ring and placed them on her table. "Let's talk styles."
"You don't want to do that," the neighboring cultivator warned again.
"I do, actually."
The heroic path: the noble one deals with others fairly and forthrightly, regardless of status.
"I very much do," I reiterated. "I will not be cowed by the will of others."
"You'll regret that."
"I don't think I will."
For the next half-hour, Seran and I discussed what we wanted our outfits to be like and got measured by the crafter, who introduced herself as Arche. She promised us she would have both outfits ready for us in a week. We left, agreeing to return in a week for the outfits.
Seran and I wandered around, mostly just chatting as we roamed. I took her back to her place early in the afternoon, then returned to the Core Sect, ate a meal, and went back home to continue practicing. In the evening, Master Mei returned with a jade slip containing the Stealth-Piercing Perception technique.
With my second Deepening, my potential max qi increased by the same amount as last time, and so I started once again refining qi to reach that maximum, which took me ten days. At a week, Seran and I picked up our outfits – a quick in-and-out to avoid running into trouble. A couple days after I finished maxing my qi, I hit eighty Rank Five kills in the realm. My newest kill reward was the next level of crafting, "Creation Arts (Intermediate)."
As time went on, my qi recovery speed shortened, and by that point it was about three hours despite my increased amount of qi. I also noticed that when I reached a Deepening, my physical abilities improved in addition to my potential max qi. Playing hide-and-seek/tag with people working on their stealth was gradually improving my new perception technique, too.
A few days after getting the kill reward, I finally reached Expert level with Phoenix Restoration, and Master told my sparring partners to stop being so gentle so I could get more experience with more severe wounds. This lengthened my recovery time significantly, since more serious wounds were harder to fix (especially since I wasn't using any kind of pills to help), but since I could use Phoenix Recovery while in my spiritual realm, I was generally able to fix myself within twenty-four hours of receiving the injuries. This meant I was only sparring every other day and wasn't doing any hunting on those days, but I was practicing my other stuff on the days I wasn't sparring.
And so things continued. About two months later, not only did I have my perception technique up to Expert as well, but my qi recovery technique had me recovering everything in only an hour and a half (and held steady at that speed). I also finally reached 150 Rank Five kills, earning my next reward. It was something called a "qi strengthening technique," which allowed me to temporarily enhance my physical power by expending qi.
At this point, it was the height of summer, and while I had spent some time with Seran now and again, and even checked in with Alaena, I was starting to grow a bit bored of the monotony. I wanted to do more than practice the same things over and over. Or rather, I wanted more variety in the things I was repeatedly doing. So I went to Master Mei and requested to change from alternating days to every three days, with the third day being spent on working in the spirit herb gardens. She was surprised, but agreed.
The heroic path: the noble one is diligent and meticulous.
I gained a new Deepening for my efforts, and life went on. Sometimes I worked in the Core garden, and sometimes I worked in the Inner garden. When I worked in the Inner garden, I worked together with Seran, who seemed to really enjoy the farming-adjacent job. I started mining again, since I figured I was probably still too weak to hunt Rank Six spirit beasts (four visits out of every six). The weeks flew by, and soon enough autumn had arrived.
I hadn't been spending many spirit stones, mostly because I didn't need to, but I decided that it was probably about time for me to buy spirit plants to transplant into my realm's garden for future use – since I knew enough to know how to handle them now, and I could age them into truly potent versions quite easily just by letting them sit after planting them. I decided I wanted plants that could be used for making various types of healing and recovery pills as well as the plants needed for creating an assortment of other pills, including Foundation Breakthrough Pills – pills that aided in breaking through from the peak of Awakening to Foundation Building.
The cost for the ingredients for Awakening-and-below-level pills (because what was the point in making Body-Tempering-and-below-level pills, like those I'd found on the other cultivators, at this point?) wasn't too bad. Part of it was the herb cost not rising above thirty low-grade spirit stones per ingredient, and part of it was that seeds were way cheaper (about 10% cost) than ready-to-use herbs and flowers. Which was understandable, since it took time – in some cases years – for the plants to reach the point where they were ready to be used. I ended up buying seeds only; while I didn't have the space to plant them all immediately, I bought four hundred seeds for every type of garden-plant I needed and five seeds for every type of orchard-plant I needed. It ended up costing me a total of sixteen mid-grade spirit stones. This turned some heads, but nobody challenged me on why I had so many mid-grade spirit stones.
The Foundation Breakthrough ingredients, on the other hand, were extremely expensive. Even buying seeds, I was looking at ten ingredients (instead of five), each seed cost between five hundred low-grade and ten mid-grade spirit stones (since some of the ingredients were supposed to be used in seed form and were pretty rare). Altogether, a full set of seeds was twenty mid-grade spirit stones. This was, quite frankly, insanely expensive; even after all my years of mining, once I'd bought the other seeds, I only had 232 mid-grade spirit stones left. Fortunately, unlike many of the other spirit plants I'd bought for other pills, all of these were renewable if I had a plant and harvested very carefully, though unlike my other renewable plants (the trees and shrubs based on normal plants), they wouldn't replenish every single day, since some of them had a replenishment cycle of decades. So I bought myself three full sets of seeds, dropping sixty mid-grade spirit stones on it.
After I planted them, my obelisk updated that side.
SIDE TWO
Spirit Garden 1: Body Tempering Pill Ingredients (1000y)
Spirit Garden 2: Azure Skygrass, Golden Binding Grass, Amethyst Chrysanthemum (1000y)
Foundation Breakthrough Pill Ingredients
Spirit Garden 3: Pill Ingredients: General Healing, General Antidote, Blood Replenishing,
Qi Replenishing, Bone-Mending, Sensory Boost, Clear Mind, Stamina Recovery,
Strength Boost, Fire Resistance
Spirit Orchard: Body Tempering Ingredients (1000y),
Foundation Breakthrough Pill Ingredients,
Other Pill Ingredients
Spirit Pool: Cleansing Water
Spirit Pool Inhabitants: None
Advancement Tree: Young Tree
I also got a fourth Deepening.
The heroic path: the noble one plans and prepares for the future.
This updated a different side of the obelisk.
SIDE FOUR
Cultivation Stage: Awakening (Mid)
Qi Center: Ignited, 9 Celestial Harmony Roots, 93% Maximized
Meridians: Open (Tier 1)
Body: 100% Tempered (Worldly)
Mind: Open Gate, 40% Understanding, 0% Enhanced (Fundamental)
Progress Rewards: 8-Element Qi Refining Method,
Spirit Mine (Grade 3),
Solar Dragon Meridian Opening Method,
8-Element Body Tempering Method,
Spirit Garden & Orchard Activation & Enhancement (2)
Bed Upgrade (Grade 2)
Paradox of Unity and Division Mental Enhancement Method
I now had a Mental Enhancement Cultivation Method. This meant I wouldn't need to figure out one on my own, nor would I have to resort to using the library to find one. Everything my realm had provided for me so far had been perfectly suited for me, and I expected this would be no different.
Practicing the new cultivation Method was… really, really weird. It was, quite literally, impossible to describe. An attempt to do so would render me babbling about existence and nothingness being sides of a mobius strip, the entire world being subsumed into my mind, and my self being ripped into multiple pieces and spread around me – the last two in reverse order, except when not. I felt like my mind was torn apart and mashed into a pulp, stretched and compressed at the same time, and all sorts of other nonsensical things. As one might expect with such a bizarre meditative cultivation method, I didn't manage to engage in it properly right away. Except for the day that I was getting beat up – on that day I was spending my realm visits healing – I spent all my time in the realm attempting to engage in the strange cultivation, and even then, it wasn't until winter was half over that I managed to get in the groove.
During all that time, I ceased working at the gardens and instead spent my time on that third day doing various other things, like leisure activities (including reading books), hanging out with Seran, or studying artifact refining and forging (which cost me some low-grade spirit stones, but not that much in the grand scheme of things).
I spent no less time cultivating once I mastered the cultivation Method, and the winter rolled on and became spring. By the time my seventeenth birthday had arrived, I had reached Mastery with Phoenix Restoration and Master Mei finally agreed to stop making "me getting beat up" spars a part of my training regimen. My obelisk display had changed again, stating that my Mind was 42% Enhanced. I certainly felt that my mind was clearer and I was more mentally capable. I could also split my mind into two partitions to do things like use two spirit techniques at the same time.
I took my birthday off to plan out how I was going to continue. At this point, all my spirit plants were 1000-year, so it was for the best to start making pills. Other than Foundation Breakthrough Pills; instead, I'd begin harvesting ingredients and build a stockpile. I also intended to start hunting spirit beasts again, since I guessed that I was probably strong enough now to face Rank Six spirit beasts without it being a big issue.
Without having an entire day devoted to being injured and healing, I switched up my waking world schedule: two days for sparring and training all my techniques followed by one day for all the other stuff I'd been doing on the third day. Every day I would spend the daytime realm visit cultivating; the nighttime visits would be reserved for pill-making followed by hunting.
Once I had everything planned out, I went down to see Seran.
-x-
"Seran? She's not here," one of Elder Shiina's other direct disciples told me when I showed up. "She's… busy."
"Busy?"
"Yes. Busy."
I frowned. "Busy doing what?"
"Things," he said evasively.
"Where is she?"
"Somewhere else."
"Tell me!" I said angrily.
"Look, pipsqueak, you're not going to get to see her, so why don't you just scurry on back home?"
"Seran is my friend, today is my birthday, and your refusal to tell me where Seran is is making me concerned for her wellbeing. Where is she? I demand that you tell me!"
"You're only in Awakening, and I'm in Foundation Building. If you try to fight me, it won't end well for you. You should leave while I'm still being nice."
I summoned my sword. "I challenge you to a bet duel. If I win, you'll tell me where Seran is. If I lose, I'll give you a mid-grade spirit stone."
He smiled wickedly. "That sounds like a good deal to me." He summoned a sword of his own. Unlike mine, it wasn't made of spirit steel but rather some sky blue metal. "I accept."
We clashed. From the beginning, went all in on qi reinforcement and qi strengthening, hoping to bridge some of the gap between us. Unfortunately, it became immediately clear that even with that, he hardly needed to put any effort into matching me. I threw everything I had at him and he countered it with ease. He even seemed to be enjoying it. Even when I started using spirit techniques, he simply broke free of restraints and deflected the elemental bolt with his sword.
Then he counterattacked – not with his sword, but with his fist. His punch landed on my chest and sent me flying away, my ribs snapping. I landed in a heap.
"So, you owe me a mid-grade spirit stone," he said, walking over. I dropped one out of my ring, and he bent over and picked it up. "You're such a fool, making a bet like that. Now you're out a mid-grade spirit stone and still don't know where your friend is."
I closed my eyes. Dammit. I really underestimated the difference between us. I might be able to take on a Late Awakening cultivator, but Foundation Building is a step to far… plus, he might be Mid Foundation Building. Fuck… it really hurts. Time for Phoenix Restoration. I'll accelerate my healing by using the realm.
-x-
I opened my eyes to find Seran looking down at me.
"Oh, you're alive," she said.
"Ha, ha. Did your senior disciple tell you he broke several of my ribs?"
"Yes. He told me everything. You're okay now?"
"Yeah. I used Phoenix Restoration in the realm. Where were you?"
"Just visiting the Mission Hall, since Master Shiina told me it was time that I started taking missions that would take me outside the sect. I was looking for a good one. I can't believe – well, I can, but I'm still upset at him – that he messed with you like that."
"He's a jerk."
"Yes, he is."
I sat up and then rose to my feet. "Well, we're both here now. Wanna hang out?"
"Sorry. I know it's your birthday, but I'm preparing to leave, so…"
"Shame. Maybe I'll visit Alaena and see how she's doing. It's been almost a year since we joined the sect, after all."
"Yeah. We haven't spent much time with her, have we?"
"I haven't really spent much time making friends at all," I admitted. "I mean, I had my sparring partners and people I was learning forging and artifact refining from, but nobody that I was actually friends with – beside you, of course."
"Same. I think even Master Shiina is getting annoyed that I'm still in Body Tempering, too." She frowned. "I… feel like I'm not good enough, sometimes."
"Well, you'll be doing missions, so that should help."
"Yeah. See you later, Alzeic."
"See you later, Seran."
I headed over to see Alaena next, but she wasn't where I was expecting her to be; she was apparently off doing other things. Se instead, I headed over to the Clothing Crafters Hall, intent on finding Arche to commission new clothes, since I'd grown in the months since I'd gotten my current clothing. She wasn't there either, so I asked around and found out that she hadn't been to the Hall in several months. It took a few hundred low-grade spirit stones to grease some palms, but I eventually got directions to the neighborhood that she lived in. It still took me a few hours to find her home.
The dwelling was much more modest than mine, even just looking from the outside, but it was still decent enough: a small house with a small yard. I sensed her inside, so I knocked on the door. A few seconds later, she opened it.
"Eh? Wait, I recognize you. I made clothes for you a while back. What are you doing here?"
"Well, I'm still growing, so the clothes are starting to get a little small. I'm here to commission a larger-sized copy."
She gave a sad smile. "I don't do business at the Hall anymore. It stinks, but I can't do anything about it when Senior Delin is still scaring off any potential clients."
"Well, these have worked just fine for me, so I don't mind only commissioning clothes from you."
"Really? It'll be nice to work on something again." She brightened. "It was Rank Seven, strong against fire, wind, and metal, with self-repair and self-cleaning enchantments, right?"
"That's right."
"Two mid-grade spirit stones."
I handed her three.
"Er… I said two…"
"Yeah, I know. The third is a tip. I feel bad that you've been basically driven out from the Clothing Crafters Hall. You know, if you ever want a place to just hang out, you can come visit my place. Anyone harassing you wouldn't dare follow you there."
"But you're the Sect Leader's direct disciple… I can't enter the Core Sect."
"What if I give you some kind of token that shows you're visiting me? I can make something."
"That should work! Hey, thanks. I never did catch your name before…"
"I'm Alzeic." I held out my hand. "I don't have a lot of friends, mostly just Seran – the girl I was with last time. Want to be friends?"
She grinned. "You're a straightforward kid." She shook my hand. "Sure."
"Kid? How much older than me are you?"
"I'm like four times your age."
My eyes widened. "You're a granny?"
She burst out laughing. "Hah! Cultivators don't age the same way mortals do – physically ormentally. Just because I'm like seventy years old doesn't mean I have the mind of a granny. My mental age isn't too far off from my apparent physical age. I know I look like I'm twenty; mentally, I'm like in my mid-twenties, even though I've been alive nearly three times that long."
"Huh. That's convenient. So if you advance fast enough, you stay young, not just in appearance, but mentally as well."
"That's right. Pretty nice perk of being a cultivator, right?"
"Indeed."
After chatting a bit more, I took out a piece of mid-grade spiritual jade and turned it into a sort of badge with my name and "Sect Leader's Disciple" on one side and "Permit for Arche to visit" on the other. I turned it into an artifact using both my qi and hers so that only she could use it. After giving it to her, I headed back home.
Chapter 16: Grinding Away
I worked hard on training, hunting, and pill-making over the next month and a half. It took slightly less than that long to run through all my non-renewable spirit plants for everything but body tempering pills, since I created fourteen batches (or one of everything plus four of body tempering pills) before refreshing my mind to go hunting. The last few days of that period I did ten batches of body tempering pills each time, finishing out those resources, and then spent the last two times replanting everything.
As for hunting, the five types of spirit beasts were Lightning Elk (size of a Megaloceros), Shadow Fox (size of a wolf, capable of illusions, shadow movement, and conjuring flames), Wolpertinger (normal-sized but capable of mental attacks), Carnivorous Walking Flower (an ambulatory man-sized flower that could use plant-based spirit arts), and Carnivorous Honey Bee (a cat-sized bee with a poisonous stinger that didn't rip out when used). They were about on my level, so it took me about a month to get the first eighty kills. I didn't claim any of my rewards. Instead, I decided to wait until I'd gotten all 150 kills.
Once I was facing doubles, I only hunted two pairs each visit, then retreated. In this way, I kept myself from getting exhausted and dying. Once triples showed up, however, I only took out one trio each time, which allowed me to go all out with my techniques, supercharging them and running myself low on qi. At quadruples, I did the same, killing three by going all out and then fighting the final one to the death without the use of techniques, relying solely on my intermediate-level weapon skills. This brought me to the 150-kill mark by the end of the period.
SIDE ONE
Kills: Rank One x150, Rank Two x150, Rank Three x150, Rank Four x150
Rank Five x150, Rank Six x150
Visit Cooldown: 12 hours
Kill Rewards: Unclaimed
=Rank Six Carnivorous Walking Flower=
Beast Core x26, Petals x130, Vial of Nectar x26
=Rank Six Carnivorous Honey Bee=
Beast Core x27, Stinger x27, Vial of Venom x27, Jar of Honey x27
=Rank Six Lightning Elk=
Beast Core x37, Antlers x74, Meat (1,295lbs)
=Rank Six Wolpertinger=
Beast Core x34, Meat (34lbs)
=Rank Six Shadow Fox=
Beast Core x26, Pelt x26, Fangs x52, Meat (260lbs)
=Bonus (10 Rank Six Kills)=
Lunar Phoenix Arts: Phoenix Dive, Moonlight Steps
=Bonus (20 Rank Six Kills)=
Stellar Spear Arts: Shooting Star, Gravitation Star
=Bonus (40 Rank Six Kills)=
Harmonic Eclipse Arts: Horizon Wave, Sun's Shadow
=Bonus (80 Rank Six Kills)=
Creation Arts Encyclopedia Second Volume
=Bonus (150 Rank Six Kills)=
Beast Forest Upgrade
Pearl of Enlightenment x4
At my will, it no longer displayed the number of visits (over two thousand) and the number of deaths (over three hundred), since I didn't care about those statistics. I wasn't especially concerned about my normal kill rewards, either, since I hadn't really used anything besides Rank One and Two beast cores and Rank Three and below meat. The bonus rewards were what I was truly interested in. I claimed the rewards and examined them.
Each marital art gave me a new attack technique and a new utility technique. Phoenix Dive allowed me to either soar upward or plunge downward, delivering a fiery (and wind-infused) punch. At Mastery, lightning was added. Shooting Star let me lunge a huge distance in the direction I was aiming with my spearpoint leading, enhanced by ice and metal qi. At Mastery, striking a target caused an explosion. Horizon Wave was a horizontal slash that created a massive horizontal crescent of cutting water that shot far forward. At Mastery, a mirror image of that attack, made of sharpened conjured stone, shot backwards behind me.
The utility techniques were good as well. Moonlight Steps was basically an air walk skill that created platforms resembling shimmering moonlight out of qi beneath my feet to allow me to walk, run, jump, and stand in midair. Gravitation Star required me to spin my spear horizontally and pulled creatures within a certain radius toward me and down toward my feet, hopefully knocking them down so I could hit them with a follow-up attack. Sun's Shadow let me cut the very fabric of space itself, causing any qi-based attack that hit the rift I created to vanish. While the other two simply got better and had longer-lasting effects, Sun's Shadow actually let me send the attack back out of the rift toward the person who sent it if I got it to Mastery.
The new volume of Creation Arts Encyclopedia had even more materials and beasts. But the real prize was the 150 kills prize: four more Pearls of Enlightenment. I still hadn't used my second Pearl, so this meant I now had five. I was definitely going to use one on alchemy again; that would make me confident in creating perfect Foundation Breakthrough Pills. As for the rest? I wasn't sure.
I tried to use it immediately but discovered that the Pearls couldn't be used while in my realm, so after cultivating, I exited the realm and went over to Nea's house to let her know I'd be in secluded meditation for at least a couple weeks so she could pass the message on to Master Mei. Before actually using the Pearl, however, I spent the rest of the day plus the night visit, plus the next day (and both of its visits), plus three more days (and both visits for those days) cultivating, finally brining my Mind Enhancement percentage to 100%, the limit of what I could currently manage with my Mental Cultivation Method. I didn't know whether it would have any effect on the Pearl or not, but it was worth a try.
-x-
I pushed a golden pearl into my forehead. As before, I had the choice of what I wanted to be "enlightened" about: unarmed combat, spears, swords, forging, alchemy, artifact refining, spirit arts (this was new), or (and this was also new) handling of spirit plants. I picked alchemy. This time, instead of the recipes and techniques from basic and beginner jade slips, it was the recipes and techniques from the journeyman and intermediate jade slips that I got tens of thousands of practice runs on, until I knew I could do it all perfectly every time.
I woke up and checked the timepiece hanging on my wall. It wasn't a clock measuring hours, minutes, and seconds; rather, it measured years, months, and days. A week had passed, so it was no surprise that I was feeling a little peckish. Only a little bit, though, and it was easily ignored. It had been nearly two weeks since I had isolated myself, but I wanted to try another Pearl of Enlightenment.
I pushed another golden pearl into my forehead. This time, alchemy wasn't on my mental list of options. Since my weapons were significantly damaged at this point (despite me having made new ones; my old ones had broken partway through my Rank Six kills), it made sense to prepare for making more advanced weapons out of rarer, more powerful materials, so I chose forging. Much like with alchemy, I got tons of experience making all sorts of weapons and armor with several different kinds of magical metals: spirit iron, azure ore, scarlet ore, and verdant ore (known in worked form as spirit steel, azurine, scarletine, and verdantine).
When I awoke again, ten more days had passed, but more importantly, I had mastered up through intermediate forging, not just through beginner forging. This meant that using a Pearl of Enlightenment was more efficient (in terms of number of pearls used) if I waited until I had acquired more advanced jade slips before using it. If I continued acquiring more and more of them every three sets of spirit beasts in the realm, though, I might not need to conserve them. Still, no point in being wasteful; if nothing else, they were bound to be extremely valuable, so I could sell one if I needed to.
Well, not anytime soon. It was probably best not to sell something like that until I was way stronger. For safety reasons.
I was very hungry and quite thirsty, so I ended my enlightenment session and headed to the dining hall.
"Oh, Alziec! Haven't seen you in a while," the disciple who was taking orders said. "Been busy?"
"I was in seclusion, processing an epiphany. I'm quite hungry; I don't know if a normal meal will cut it today. Recommend me something good for, say, fifty spirit stones."
"Well, if that's your budget, I can get you something really nice. Leave it to me."
I handed over a pouch with fifty low-grade spirit stones and settled in to wait for the kitchen to make me my one-man feast with spirit herbs, spirit vegetables, and spirit beast meat. When it came out, I found it to be the single most satisfying meal I'd had in either life. It was totally worth splurging on.
As I walked back to my place, I considered the future. If I devoted all my time to weapon and technique training, including my time in the realm, I could probably reach Mastery in all my techniques (except for the ones I just learned) in less than half a year from now. Maybe even as little as four months. If I kept to a two-thirds schedule, making every third day a rest day (and spending my visits doing… mining, maybe?) I might get to that point by winter. And of course, when materials were ready, I'd make more pills.
Mining would be interesting, and not take nearly as long, because after I reached 100% Mind Enhancement, the mine upgraded. I didn't get any new materials, but it now had mid-grade stones and mid-grade spiritual jade instead of low-grade stuff.
"Oh! I need to share my jade slips with Seran, too. At least the unarmed and spear ones," I said to myself.
I changed direction, leaving the Core Sect and heading to Seran's place. She was running through the intermediate spear art forms in her courtyard, but she looked… different.
"Hey! You've broken through to Awakening!"
She stopped and turned toward me, grinning. She ran a hand through her metallic tri-toned hair: copper, silver, and gold. Mine was eight-toned, the color of the eight elements; honestly, hers looked cooler.
"Yup! Path of the Guardian Spear. You better watch out, or I'm going to catch up!"
"Hah! You wish! Well… I can give you a handicap: I'm going to put all my effort into mastering my techniques; I'm going to try to reach Mastery in everything by winter. Well, except for the new techniques I came to share."
"Ooh, new techniques!"
"Yup! Are you free to hang out?"
"For today, yeah!"
I grinned.
-x-
I breathed in the cold air. Though it was technically the first day of winter, the sect was already covered in a fine layer of snow. I was quite happy, because I'd succeeded in hitting my goal, and I'd even gotten to Proficient level with all six of the newer techniques as well. What's more, I'd honed my qi sense to the point where I could detect whether someone was early, mid, or late stage within their cultivation stage (though my radius of detection was still just a hundred yards). I had a huge amount of resources, too, because maxing out my mental enhancement had dramatically improved my mining ability: 1169 mid-grade spirit stones, 628 mid-grade spiritual jade, and 951 ingots of spirit steel (because I'd made a better-quality sword and spear to replace the damaged ones).
Seran was still Early Awakening, but she had had two Deepenings, which meant that slowly but surely, she was catching up to me. Now that I didn't really have anything to work on other than the newer techniques, I needed to progress my cultivation by having more Deepenings… and that wasn't going to happen if I just hung around the sect. Alaena and Arche were both doing well, though the former was still at Peak Body Tempering, so I didn't see a need to stick around for their sakes. Therefore, I concluded that it was time for me to start taking missions: specifically, missions that had me leaving the sect.
I stood and walked across the snow to Master Mei's house and knocked on the door.
"Master, it's Alzeic. I am planning to take a mission away from the sect and wanted to seek your guidance on the matter."
I blinked, and she was standing behind me.
"Have you reached your goal of Mastery in all the techniques you arrived at the sect with?" she asked.
I turned around. "I have. As well as the Stealth-Piercing Perception Technique. My mental enhancement has also plateaued. I believe that to further myself, I need to seek out circumstances that will result in Deepenings. Hence, taking missions to leave the sect."
She nodded. "I agree with your assessment. You've been here for more than a year and a half, spending most your time on training your techniques. Other than a few visits to check in and answering your questions near the beginning, I haven't spent much time instructing you. I am pleased with your progress, but you need more practical experience. It so happens that I have a mission for you, so you won't need to head to the Mission Hall."
She handed me a jade slip. "This has the details of your mission. I recommend that you bring someone else with you, such as your friend Seran. If you can convince your other friend, the clothing crafter, it would be good to have a Foundation Building teammate as well. Good luck."
She vanished, presumably having teleported back inside the house, though I couldn't sense the interior. Shrugging, I left her courtyard and then used the jade slip.
The mission was multifaceted. It was primarily a mission to take out some "demonic cultivators." While I'd encountered the term before in xianxia stories in my past life, and I'd heard it once or twice in this life, I wasn't really sure what it meant in this world. The jade slip explained: demonic cultivators were cultivators whose Methods were evil because they relied on the suffering of others, and their qi was corrupted as a result. The targets this time were "lesser" demonic cultivators who "just" ritually sacrificed people and used their lifeforce as fuel for their cultivation. Apparently, there was a small city that was experiencing a large number of kidnappings, and many of the kidnapped later turned up with signs of having been sacrificed, so demonic cultivators were suspected. A request for help had been sent to the Virtuous Soaring Cloud Sect, which was how the mission had been generated.
The other aspects of the mission were resource gathering and spirit beat hunting. In the same general vicinity as the city (well, relatively speaking considering cultivators' travel speed) there were towns that had been attacked by spirit beasts, and so hunting those spirit beasts was the second part of the mission. Technically, it should have been two different missions, but because the locations were close together – and both requests had come via the city – they were lumped together. The resource gathering was just something added by the Sect Leader, because a bit further away there was a hidden cave where a rare spirit plant grew that could be harvested during the winter once every ten years at most.
Once I'd checked over everything, I went to recruit Seran and Arche. Seran agreed without needing any prompting, but Arche hesitated until she saw the rewards: fifty mid-grade spirit stones to be split three ways. We agreed to meet up the following morning and set out then.
That night's visit to the realm, instead of mining, I headed into the forest, curious to see what the Rank Seven spirit beasts were like. I doubted I'd be able to handle one, but I wanted to know. What I encountered surprised me: an armored roller, like what I'd faced as a Rank One beast, except that it was eight feet tall and its armored hide was made of metal plates. I noticed it from a distance with my qi sense and stealthily approached until I could see it. It spotted me and curled up.
I jumped up into the air and it shot forward, mowing down trees like they were mere weeds. Using Moonlight Steps, I walked through the air, silvery platforms appearing under my feet before vanishing the moment I stepped off of them. The spirit beast slammed into a big tree – one some thirty feet in diameter – and cracked it, coming to a halt. It uncurled.
"Divine Wrath Bolt," I said calmly, supercharging the technique. Unfortunately, I could only supercharge it at five times instead of ten, because its base cost had doubled when I achieved Mastery but the limits of my meridians were still the same. Fortunately, thanks to mental enhancement, I could use up to five techniques simultaneously – or, in this case, in rapid succession (since I still had the limit on my meridians). I didn't actually have enough qi for that, but I did have enough for four, and with a cacophony of light and sound, four massive lightning/fire bolts slammed into the beast. Though the qi expenditure of a five-times Mastery bolt was the same as a ten-times Expert bolt, the power was significantly greater, and to my surprise, this barrage was enough to kill the beast.
I fell from the air and landed on my feet a moment after the attacks concluded. Since it only took an hour and a half to recover all my qi, I climbed a tree to do so rather than calling it quits, settling against the trunk while sitting on a limb. Just in case another spirit beast wandered by in the meantime.
I was ripped out of my meditation before I was finished by the fangs of a giant viper slamming into my torso. However, my clothing was designed to be able to defend against Rank Seven spirit beasts, so the fangs didn't fully penetrate, barely piercing my skin at all. Of course, it had venom, so I had to kill it quickly and use Phoenix Restoration to neutralize the venom.
Using qi strengthening, I grabbed its neck and ripped it off of me – a task I was barely able to perform, even with the increased strength – then threw myself off the tree and ran through the air. It coiled and sprang after me but missed by less than an inch, sailing past and landing on the branches of another tree. I shot five regular Divine Wrath Bolts at it, consuming a quarter of my qi. It somehow managed to dodge three of them, but two struck true, and it fell to the ground. I had my sword in my hand – reinforcing it with qi – a second later, then jumped down and cut through the stunned snake with a 10x Severing Slash. My sword was severely damaged by the attack.
Then I immediately sat down and began healing myself through Phoenix Restoration, because I was already starting to feel effects from the venom, if slight. Once I had neutralized the venom, I meditated to recover qi again, this time reaching full capacity. Off I went, searching for the next spirit beast. I was feeling pretty good about being able to take down creatures that were undoubtedly significantly stronger than me.
The next opponent I discovered was a rhino beetle a good six feet tall (excluding horn). I immediately used Mist of Obfuscation to create a battlefield where I couldn't be sensed by my opponent, then used a 10x-powered Shadowlight Sword to cut off the thing's legs one at a time, eventually causing it to open its wings to attempt to fly, upon which I fired three max-powered Divine Wrath Bolts into the vulnerable spot in quick succession, finishing it off.
And then it was time to recover my spent qi once more. I was feeling rather confident as I began searching for the next spirit beast, right up until the horse-sized wolf tore my throat out before I had time to react.
Right. Spirit beasts could have speed aspect and be faster than others of the same Rank.
-x-
To get out of the mountain range would have taken a while if we traveled on foot, and Arche couldn't carry both of us on her flying sword (flying swords could only be used by Foundation Building and above cultivators), so I bought us a flying boat. Not a flying ship – that would have been crazy expensive – but basically a wooden canoe that a Foundation Building cultivator could fly through the sky. It was sill really expensive; it cost me fifty mid-grade spirit stones. But at least it was affordable for me.
Flying boats were slower than flying swords, but she could still fly it at highway speeds, so it only took a couple hours to get out of the mountains in the direction we were going. After that, we landed and she stored it in her spatial ring so we could jog. Our long-distance, comfortable jogging speed (like we'd done when we went cross-country) was insane at double the speed it was back then, even with us restricted to Seran's speed. Arche said she could easily go ten times that fast without breaking a sweat, which, if my math was right, was about Mach 1.5. Meaning she could probably run at Mach 3 for at least an hour at a time. Which, again: utterly insane.
And she was still in Early Foundation Building (though approaching Mid). How fast could someone in the Inner Palace Stage go? What about the Sect Master, who was in the Late Crystal Core Stage?
Wild.
At any rate, being able to cover terrain at more than a hundred miles per hour meant that once we landed, it only took three hours to reach our initial destination. The "small city" was actually bigger than the one near the town where I grew up – perhaps twice as big. It was still quite small compared to Glorious Star City, though, and I was given to understand that even that city was only considered on the small side of "mid-sized," despite having a population of a about three hundred thousand. A city with less than fifty thousand was, indeed, a "small" city.
We slowed down as we approached the city gates.