Accidental Cultivator
Chapter 9
Cultivator trouble
Ling Mai squeaked and attempted to jump away from the woman cultivator but was stopped by a steely hand grasping her shoulder.
“Hand it over!” she demanded whilst scowling at Ling Mai.
Ling Mai trembled in fear. “This is your ring? I found it in a fish I caught.” Luckily she could tell the truth. This scary woman could possibly tell if she was lying. She took the ring off her thumb. She had wrapped flat wire, which she had gotten from Hungry, around it in a spiral to make it fit. It was more convenient to wear it on her thumb so she didn’t have to take it out of her clothes every time she used it. Ling Mai had been keeping most of her possessions at Grandma Tang’s house. Only the pork, gold nuggets and a few other items such as her new robes, were distributed between the two rings.
She meekly asked, “May I please take out my clothes and other personal items?”
Seemingly mollified to an extent, the woman nodded. Ling Mai quickly retrieved her items. They made a highly variegated pile on the floor. The woman eyed the items, including the gold nuggets and looked at Ling Mai with her lips pressed firmly together. “That is my sword,” she said, pointing at the sword at Ling Mai’s waist.
“My apologies, I was hoping the sword would scare off potential robbers,” she whispered. “I don't actually know how to use it. I have only been cultivating for about three days. I also don’t have a teacher,” she explained whilst taking the sword out of its sheath. She waved it back and forwards experimentally. She realised she had not drawn a sword before. It was surprisingly difficult to do smoothly.
The woman looked dumbfounded.“What? And you survived Jai’s attack?”
“I had been meaning to form a wind energy core, so I used his attack energy to form a new core,” Ling Mai explained. She started relaxing a little. The scary woman now seemed more interested in how she had defended herself then feeling angry.
The woman stared at Ling Mai for a long moment. “A prodigy,” she whispered. “And Jai tried to kill her, the fool! How did you absorb all his attack energy?” she asked. Wonderment was written all over her face.
“I had multiple wind energy vortexes ready to funnel energy into a new wind core. It was simple.”
“Simple, she says…”
Seeking to change the subject from her unusual abilities, she further explained, “I forged myself a new sword but the blacksmith hasn’t fitted it with a hilt as we have been busy. Could I borrow your sword until later this afternoon? If you let me know where you are staying, I’ll drop it off to you?”
“You can forge swords?” the woman asked incredulously, waving her hands at Ling Mai as though she could gather her up.
“Yes,” she said uncertainly as she was puzzled by the woman’s reaction. “I needed a sword now that I am a cultivator, and I didn't have a decent sword of a suitable size.”
“When did you start learning forging? You must have been very young. Is your father a blacksmith, and what level of sword did you forge? My sword, that you have is only a practice sword that I used when I was your age.”
Ling Mai bit her lip and hesitated. She didn't want to reveal all her secrets. The looked at the woman who now seemed calm, if a little nonplussed and even nice. She then decided to answer fully, “I started learning forging yesterday. I have always been fascinated by how things are made and how things function. I was fortunate as Blacksmith Moe Lao was showing his apprentice how to forge a knife when we arrived. I watched him and saw how what he did affected the structure of the knife. I compared the structure and materials used in the knife to the materials in the swords in your ring and managed to work out how they differed. I asked Hungry, sorry that is the blacksmith’s nickname, if I could forge a sword. He kindly allowed me to as I showed him what a new type of forge could do. Hungry said it was a Legendary-level sword. He seemed impressed?”
“A Legendary-level sword…” The woman stood deep in thought for a minute. “You can keep my practice sword. It will be good for you to learn sword-craft. A Legendary Sword is not suitable as a practice sword.”
“Thank you.” Ling Mai bowed in thanks. “Do you know and would you tell me where I can get sword lessons? I don’t know of any cultivators or sects nearby. I don’t want to ask the Mayor as he is probably a busy man.”
Turning to look downstairs, she yelled, “Elder Xing!”
“Yes, Lady Meng.” The elder quickly came up the stairs.
Pointing at King Mai she commanded, “Teach her the sword.”
Glancing at Ling Mai he then responded, “As you command, but what about taking the young lord back to the capital?”
“That can wait. She needs to be able to defend herself before we leave this town for the Gathering.”
Ling Mai was very excited! She forgot her previous fear and timidity, and asked, “Do you also know anyone who could teach me pill making? I want to make pills for all our town’s potential cultivators. Li Na here can sense energy from my mana stones.”
Lady Meng was mostly over her astonishment at Ling Mai’s continuous miraculous revelations, and so she replied, “Elder Xing is also a pill grandmaster. His swordsmanship is almost as good as mine.” Lady Meng thought for a moment. “I will also teach you the sword and the spear. Having two teachers will give you more insight into finding your own path of the sword.”
Ling Mai was besides herself in excitement. “Could I also examine everyone else’s sword skills? I like analysing as many different kinds of things as I can when learning something new. Even poor swordsmen can help us with learning what not to do.” She glanced at Lord Jai.
Noticing her glance, Lady Meng frowned and said, “Yes, my brother’s sword skills are sorely lacking considering how much effort others have spent trying to teach him. He will learn beside you. The basic sword moves should always be practised.”
Lord Jai glared up from downstairs at Ling Mai. If looks could kill…
Ling Mai hesitated to give the ring to Lady Meng. She had removed the trap on the ring and had installed her variable lightning defence. “I hope you won’t mind, but I removed the ring’s trap, and replaced it with my own defence design.”
Lady Meng looked at her with disbelief, “Really? Let me see,” she said. She reached out and took the ring from Ling Mai. First, she removed the wire and then examined the ring. “You were precise with the rune removal. How did you know which one to remove?”
“I worked it out. They are pretty simple once you understand them.”
“A grandmaster of runes made this ring. They are not simple. Who taught you runes?”
“Ah, I did?” Seeing the doubtful look on her face, Ling Mai explained, “I simply inserted energy into the different rune sections to see what they did. I isolated the output energy to other runes so as not to trigger anything. Some runes had only certain connections, so I isolated the energy source from them and looked at their structure. I injected minute amounts of energy to see how it was modified and modulated. In that way, I was able to deduce most of their functions. With others, I was able to start ‘reading’ their functions once I started understanding the code. They are pretty basic and two-dimensional. My energy crystals are three-dimensional and so are vastly superior.”
Elder Xing interjected, “She is pretty amazing. I would love to have her join my sect but she is distrustful of sects. Please don’t let Lord Jai disillusion her about cultivators.”
Lady Meng nodded, turned and spoke to Ling Mai, “You would have to travel to the capital or a very large sect to meet a rune grandmaster.”
“That is a shame as I would like to speak with a rune grandmaster and pick their brains about the storage ring’s miniature realm, plus their creation and maintenance. I want to know how to create them and why sub-realms can’t contain living things and does time momentarily start again inside whenever you start accessing a storage ring?”
Lady Meng turned to Elder Xing, “Do you know?”
“I have a very very basic understanding. It is not enough knowledge for me to warrant mentioning anything.”
“Lord Jai’s things melted or burned as soon as he placed my light energy crystal that he stole from me, into his storage ring.”
Lady Meng burst into laughter, “Oh my, she gasped, “No wonder he is furious with you. He loves his fancy clothes. He would prefer to lose his sword.”
“That isn’t true!” Yelled Lord Jai from downstairs.
“Is his nickname, Fancy-pants or is it Gilded-rooster?” Asked Ling Mai innocently.
“You!” Screeched Lord Jai as he stormed up the stairs.
“Stop!” His sister quietly said, bringing him to a sudden stop from the steel in the tone of her voice. “You brought this on yourself. You would have killed her if she hadn’t defended herself. I would not be surprised if she has deadly techniques she could have used, but instead, she let you make a fool of yourself. Do you value your life more than your clothes?”
“But she destroyed my artwork.” Seeing the look of disgust on his sister’s face, he continued, “And all my jade slips!”
Lady Meng winced and turned to Ling Mai and enquired, “You tried to destroy all his belongings?”
“I wasn't upset about him stealing my light crystal as I can easily make more. With regards to trying to destroy his things, I have no interest in seeking revenge for, to me, a worthless crystal. Besides, I didn’t even know if it would explode. I just felt it was most likely. I now think the sudden exposure to the sub-realm created an instantaneous release of the stored energy. It was lucky his ring storage size is a lot bigger than yours else everything would have disintegrated.”
Suddenly turning back to her brother Lady Meng shouted at him, “You stole grandfather’s storage ring?”
Lord Jai cringed and hastily replied, “He wasn’t using it. I just borrowed it for this trip to the gathering. Who knows how long we will be here. I needed the extra space.”
Lady Meng looked furious, and shouted at him, “Get out! Go to the Merchants Inn and get a room there. I’ll talk with you later. If you didn't have so many fancy clothes you would not need the extra space!”
“Yes, Sister.” He bowed his head and turned to go.
Lady Meng stamped her foot, which almost made the floor collapse. She held out her hand and demanded, “Where do you think you are going?”
Lord Jai turned with a meek look on his face and guiltily took the storage ring off his finger and placed it in his sister’s hand. He then fled quickly down the stairs.
Lady Meng sighed in exasperation. She turned and gave Ling Mai a look, “Brothers...” she mumbled quietly.
Deciding she should ignore the sibling byplay, and she was intrigued by some of the subjects previously mentioned, Ling Mai asked, “What is this, ‘Gathering’, you have mentioned?”
Lady Meng momently hesitated, and then explained, “Every 360 years there is a gathering of other worlds. We don't know who arranges the opening of the nexus. It is speculated that an Immortal of overwhelming strength has a history with our world and possibly with this area. The nexus is in the mountains nearby. Being able to trade items, materials and knowledge with the beings from other worlds is invaluable.” Seeing the look of interest on Ling Mai’s face, she continued, “Furthermore, lucky opportunities fall at the feet of promising young cultivators. If they can take advantage of this, it is up to their strength, intelligence and talent. There are strange and dangerous beasts, beings and energies. Many people lose their lives but people still take the risk due to the possible incredible rewards.”
“It sounds very interesting.” Seeing Lady Meng frown, Ling Mai quickly continued, “I won't go to the gathering as I'm not strong enough yet.”
Lady Meng looked reassured and muttered, “And my brother thinks he is strong enough to attend…”
“I need to return to the blacksmith’s to create more devices to sell and pick up my sword.”
“I want to see this Legendary-level sword. Please bring it to our inn when you come for sword training.” Lady Meng was very polite now she knew how extraordinary Lung Mai was despite her young age. “What time can I expect you?”
“I'll have to check with several people but I expect I can be there mid-morning. Is that time okay?”
“Yes. I will visit the blacksmith’s to get my spear checked, though I expect he won't be able to fix it.”
“Oh. Did the dark energy cultivator damage it?”
Lady Meng frowned. “How did you know it was him?”
“He seemed to have disappeared at the same time you arrived. Isn't your spear Legendary-level?”
“Yes, but he had a Legendary-level shield and together with his dark energy he has corrupted the structure of my spear and injured me.”
“Maybe I can form a core-vortex from the dark energy and fix your spear at the same time?” said Ling Mai eagerly. “Can I examine your spear?”
At first Lady Meng looked doubtful, and then sighed and retrieved the spear. “I won't meet any grandmaster-level blacksmiths in this remote area and I don't have time to waste returning to the capital. You may as well have a look. Don't do anything that will damage it further, and what do you mean you maybe can form a dark energy core? Dark energy is dangerous!”
Taking the spear, Ling Mai closely examined it. Dark energy permeated throughout the metal tip and the shaft. Looking up at Lady Meng, she used her energy sense to scan her energies. Nine very powerful wind, fire and lightning energy cores were immediately apparent. There were three of each type. They formed a balanced three-dimensional structure in her dantian.
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Taking note of their arrangement and how they interacted, for future analysis, Ling Mai continued to examine Lady Meng. Dark energy flowed around her dantian, infecting any energy moving in or out of her dantian. “It looks simple to resolve. I'll repair the spear first then heal you.” Lady Meng mumbled something about ‘how can she heal me’ and ‘babes playing with fire’, and then nodded reluctantly.
Turning back to the spear, Ling Mai started drawing the dark energy out and used it to form a vortex. Starting a second vortex, she started the purification and compression of the dark energy. She quickly drained all the dark energy from the spear. Checking the structure of the metal tip and wooden shaft, she added by way of specific metal and wood energy, the exact materials needed to make their structure homogenous for each area. Fortunately, the dark energy had not done much damage.
Ling Mai then formed a third small dark-energy vortex which she swallowed. She was not worried about it affecting her as she had complete control of her vortexes. Keeping the external vortexes active, she then drew the dark energy from Lady Meng. Lady Meng jerked in surprise and started to speak but stopped when she realised what Ling Mai was doing.
Finishing quickly, Ling Mai smiled. “All fixed! Do you have any other dark-energy infected items?”
With incrediblity in her voice, Lady Meng asked, “You have healed me and removed the dark energy from my spear?”
“I also fixed the damage to the spear’s structure caused by the dark energy. Fortunately for you, not much time had passed since the infection.”
Lady Meng’s mouth worked soundlessly for a few seconds. “Are you sure you are only eight years old?”
“Almost nine!” Ling Mai said indignantly.
“Ah, yes. Of course, that explains it,” mumbled Lady Meng.
Handing back the repaired spear, Ling Mai politely asked, “Can you store my items until I see you tomorrow? I'll then have my other storage ring.”
Lady Meng looked at the pile of items with interest. “I can do that when you disable your traps on my ring.”
“Whoopsie!” Ling Mai sheepishly replied. She focused her energy sense and changed the disabling code. She approached Lady Meng and beckoned her to bend down. She then whispered the code in her ear.
Lady Meng stored Ling Mai’s items and then asked, “How come you have another storage ring? They are not cheap or easy to come by.”
“A rude cultivator attacked me here yesterday. I took all his property in punishment.”
Lady Meng looked at Lord Jai who was lurking at the bottom of the stairs and raised her eyebrows at him. He in turn looked embarrassed and a little bit ashamed.
Ling Mai decided that everything was resolved for now, so she bid them farewell, “I'll be off now. See you tomorrow.”
Everyone just stood still and watched her depart. Many thoughts were racing through multiple minds. Emotions were all over the place. Feelings of admiration, astonishment, and newfound respect were foremost in the minds of most of the people present. Hate and resentment filled one mind to overflowing.
As she returned to the blacksmith’s workshop, Ling Mai reviewed her conversation with Lady Meng. The whole situation she found herself in was fraught with danger.
She was a new cultivator with little to no experience. She was improving every day with more cores and invented techniques. This reminded her she still needed to read the next level of the cultivation method from the jade slip. So much to do!
There were increasing numbers of cultivators visiting the town, though maybe she could forge swords and other weapons for them? Or even sell devices suitable for roughing it in the wilderness. That would make her liked.
She also had a dangerous noble who was out for her blood, and who she would be spending time with while she learnt the sword. There was an upside though. She was eager to receive expert tuition from highly skilled seniors. She doubted the majority of disciples enjoyed such attention. The nobles’ guards had looked envious.
She had new forges and devices to make with Hungry, and a trip with Kitty to gather herbs. They were both priorities, the former as she had made multiple commitments, and the latter, both so she could learn from Elder Xing how to make pills and to make pre-cultivation pills for Grandma Tang and Li Na. She could probably also have Elder Xing organise and administer a test for the town’s population for their ability to become cultivators. Having a number of home-grown adult cultivators would boost the town’s security.
There were many more things that clamoured for her attention. Luckily, she could create extra minds! She wondered if she could somehow change energy from one type to another. She needed to be able to do this if she was going to continue to cultivate her new dark energy vortex.
Arriving at Hungry’s workshop, she listened for any sounds of forging. Instead, she heard Hungry’s laughter and protests coming from the new apprentice. Walking in, she saw the apprentice holding a badly forged knife. The apprentice was complaining, “I can't get used to this new forge. It heats metal so quickly.”
Ling Mai interjected, “You need to set the temperature you want and then leave the forge to do the rest. Don't set the temperature to a high level to try to speed up the heating. That won’t work.”
“Little Pixy, you have returned!” cried an excited Hungry. He bounded over to her and grabbed her hand before dragging her over to the shelves full of completed products. Amongst them, she spied a sword in a plain lacquered sheath. The hilt of the sword was a work of art - exquisite workmanship of cord, wood and metal.
“My sword? You completed it,” she said with excitement and deep satisfaction. Picking it up, she drew the sword and stood holding it, admiring how it fit her hand and the balance of the blade. “You have done a superb job. It feels ‘right’. I don't know how to use it yet, but I'm getting lessons tomorrow. Thank you Hungry!” She re-sheathed her new sword and went to store it in her ring but then realised she didn’t have a ring with her. She would have to get her other ring from Grandma Tang’s house. She bowed to Hungry to show her thanks.
Hungry looked pleased. His most important customer and the supplier of forges was happy with his workmanship. “Look, we have finished a lot of devices,” he proudly stated.
Examining them with her energy sense, Ling Mai smiled at the number and quality. “They are very good quality. I will fit them with the energy crystals I have made. You have done very well.”
“It wasn't us, it was your magic forge. We just put the metal in and kept working. When we finished one device, the new device’s metal would be ready. So easy!”
“I'm glad you like your new forge. I'll make more so you can simultaneously heat metals to different temperatures. I have some ideas for devices that will need this.”
Hungry looked very interested, as did his young workers. “When will you make these new forges?”
I'll make a few with you before lunch, then eat with Grandma Tang. Hungry looked excited and disappointed at the same time. “A neat feat,” thought Ling Mai. She noticed Hungry had added a scale on the new forge’s controls. She realised they had calibrated it for different temperatures. She thought to herself, “I must incorporate calibrations to all my adjustable devices.”
They started to make more forges. Making the new forges became easier and quicker the more they made. Once the total number of forges reached nine, they stopped. There would now be three forges for each of them to use. If Ling Mai needed to use a forge, she could borrow one as most of the time a blacksmith only needed one forge. She had several new devices she would like to make. They could wait until the existing devices’ demand had been somewhat satisfied.
“I'll be back after lunch to pick up the devices to take to the trading post.”
“See you soon,” said Hungry.
Ling Mai quickly made her way back to Grandma Tang’s house. She thought about how to explain this morning’s happenings. Grandma Tang wasn't going to be pleased that she was now mixed up with cultivators. She was worried about how Grandma Tang would be able to protect herself when she wasn't with her. More and more cultivators were likely to come to their town for supplies and lodgings. She wondered if she could obtain pre-cultivation pills for her friends who showed signs of being able to cultivate. Maybe Lady Meng or Elder Xing had some she could purchase? She decided she must also test Hungry and all her other friends and acquaintances to see if they could cultivate.
She then had a thought. What if she inserted an energy vortex into Grandma Tang? Wouldn't that be faster and easier? Ling Mai became very excited. She started forming, what she thought of as a small seed vortex with associated accumulation, purifying and compression vortexes, so she would be ready to ‘help’ Grandma Tang become an instant cultivator. She was so thrilled with her now being able to help Grandma Tang become a cultivator without pre-cultivator pills that she started rapidly running to Grandma Tang’s house.
Arriving, and without bothering to knock, she pushed open the door and rushed to Grandma Tang’s side. Ignoring that Grandma Tang was cooking, she yelled, “I can make you a cultivator!” She proceeded to inject the energy vortex into the surprised Grandma Tang’s open mouth and guided the vortex into her head.
Grandma Tang’s eyes bulged and she dropped the container of spices into the pot of noodles she was stirring. Eyes watering and nose running, she soundlessly opened and closed her mouth.
“Oops!” thought Ling Mai. “Maybe I should have given her some more warning?”
“Agh! What did you do to me you little monster!”
“It will stop being uncomfortable in a few seconds,” explained a sheepish Ling Mai. “Try feeling the vortex and the connection to the external feeder vortexes.”
Grandma Tang glared at her, and then she sighed and closed her eyes to concentrate on sensing the energy vortexes. After a while, she opened her eyes in wonder. “I can sense and also manipulate the energy! How is this possible?”
Breathing a sigh of relief that it had worked as she had planned, Ling Mai explained how she had discovered this method of cultivating, and how she thought this method was superior to traditional Dantian-based methods.
Grandma Tang looked at her in disbelief. “You invented this crazy experimental cultivation method, and then had the thought, ‘I will make Grandma Tang an instant cultivator!’”
“Yes?”
“You will be the death of me yet!”
“But it worked!”
“Yes, it did… lucky for you else I would have cursed you from my grave. What other mischief have you been up to this morning?” Seeing the guilty look on Ling Mai’s face, she asked, “Well?”
“I may have angered a noble who attacked me and then healed his sister who is a very strong cultivator and also fixed her Legendary-level spear.”
“May have?”
Ling Mai rushed to explain. Grandma Tang’s eyebrows got a good workout…
“And that is why I wanted you to become an instant cultivator so you can protect yourself.” Finishing her explanation, she looked at the pot of noodles. An overpowering smell of spices came from the pot. “Give me a second. I'll fix this.” Concentrating, she sensed the different energies in the pot. Comparing these energies to what she had sensed previously from Grandma Tang’s delicious noodles, she removed the excess elements in a similar way as she had purified energy in her energy vortexes. After a few seconds, the smell of spices being emitted from the pot reduced to normal. She salivated at the delicious fragrance. “Let's eat!” she cried. She had had a busy morning and so had worked up quite an appetite.
Grandma Tang took over the cooking and after checking the taste, she dished up the meal. Grabbing her bowl of noodles, Ling Mai rushed to the table and started wolfing down her meal. She was now a cultivator and needed energy and nutrients to grow stronger. Even Grandma Tang’s appetite seemed to have improved. Ling Mai smiled happily at seeing her favourite person heartily eating.
After she had finished her lunch and had given a sigh of satisfaction, she thanked Grandma Tang for the delicious meal.
“You should be thanking yourself for skillfully fixing the overspiced meal.”
Ling Mai apologised and then bounded into her room and retrieved her other storage ring. She returned to the main room and explained she needed it as Lady Meng had claimed her ring back. She would shortly return to the blacksmith’s to finish supplying energy crystals to the devices Hungry had forged, but first, she needed to teach Grandma Tang how to defend herself.
Ling Mai said, “Let go to the river. I'll collect some more gold while you practice what I teach you.” After tidying up after lunch, they proceeded to the river.
“Do you want to learn the sword and or spear? I'm sure Lady Meng will allow it. She seems to like me.”
“And so she should. You magically fixed her Legendary spear and cured her dark energy ailment.”
“It was simple. Why would she think it was magical?”
“I would guess that no one else can do what you ‘simply’ did, or at least so quickly and effectively.”
“Really? But it is simple. I will teach you so you can do it too.”
Grandma Tang looked sceptical. “Changing the subject from my little pixie’s ‘simple’ miracles, what are you going to do about Lord Jai?”
“Oh, it is simple,” seeing Grandma Tang’s eyebrows rise, she changed what she was going to say. “I will create three new minds dedicated to watching out for danger from Lord Jai, and also any other danger. They will help take some pressure off my ‘aware of my surroundings’ mind. I'm hoping I can get them to take turns sleeping. I should create them now and try to get one to go to sleep.”
“You think that you can have a mind be awake while you sleep?”
“Yes, it should be simp… easy as they already can sleep while I'm awake.” She thought, “I need some synonyms for ‘simple’: straightforward, uncomplicated, cinch, child’s play… Though maybe not the last one…”
Arriving at the river, Ling Mai scanned the riverbed. Seeing some signs of gold energy upstream of their present location, she led the way to the closest point on the riverbank. Stopping and turning to Grandma Tang, she warned her, “I will guide your energy around your body and show you how to cultivate.”
“Thanks for the warning,” said a slightly doubtful but appreciative Grandma Tang.
Focusing, Ling Mai separated a very small amount of fire energy from Grandma Tang’s vortex and guided it down into her body. Carefully feeling the path of least resistance, she guided the energy around Grandma Tang’s body. It was a similar path to her own cultivation path but quite different as the speed it travelled was much slower. “Maybe it is an age-related effect, a build-up of impurities to be cleared?”
Grandma Tang shuddered, “It feels weird but good. Can I try circulating it myself?”
“Yes, but don’t hurry it. The energy is removing impurities from your body. You have a large amount of impurities as I think they build up over time. That is why you should always pass it through your external vortexes before returning it to your core vortex. Gently guide it but let it take its own path. It will follow the path of least resistance.”
Grandma Tang started cultivating by herself. At first, she concentrated with all her attention, but after a few minutes, she visibly relaxed and continued without any problems.
Ling Mai quietly left her to it and turned her attention to retrieving the gold nuggets from the river. After an hour or so, she returned to Grandma Tang’s side and waited until she was noticed.
Grandma Tang finished her latest circulation of her energy and opened her eyes. “What?” She asked.
“It is time to learn an attack technique, I haven’t developed a fire technique but it can’t be hard. What do you want? Maybe a fire shield and a spear?” She saw Grandma Tang nod so she thought she would make a shield first as she was interested in having one for her own defence.
Thinking for a minute, she decided that a multi-pronged and layered defence would be the most effective. An outer sensing layer would feed back information to a reactive layer. This layer would respond accordingly to the type of attack, be it an energy or a physical attack, or even both combined. As this layer was the most complex, it needed a guiding, energy storage and emitting crystal. She needed a way to funnel the sensed energy into the appropriate responding section of the crystal. Her cultivated multi-energy vortex already did this type of sorting, so she duplicated this design then formulated and created some responses. She would further develop these once she had experimented on how effective they were. She didn't want the responses to be deadly to the attacker or bystanders, or destructive to the surroundings.
She created two of these crystals. One for herself and one for Grandma Tang.
Her dark-energy vortex guardian-mind spoke up, “I have learnt how to morph energy types.”
“Wow! That was quick.”
“I had the thought that when we made the cave larger, we combined energy types. This created an unexpected effect. Some energy types are complementary to specific other energy types, whilst being opposite to others, and yet they are neutral to other energy types. Combined, they can have all sorts of effects. The trick is to manage the effects as they merge to influence the desired output energy. Also, too sudden a merge and you can get the disintegration effect we discovered. A slightly slower merge and you get an explosion. Slower yet, and you get morphing but at a cost - extra energy is used up, though some combinations create excess energy. I’m still working on the reasons why this happens but I’m cataloguing what different combinations do. A pattern is starting to appear. I will transfer the details to you.”
“Wonderful! But how does this pertain to teaching Grandma Tang how to defend herself?”
“I thought you should know in case you decided to combine energy types for a shield.”
“What a great idea! I imagine that most attacks are very quick, and so the disintegrating effect should prevail for most combinations. I just need to supply the correct combination of energy types. The explosive effect could also be good but only if making a loud sound is not problematic or if the explosive power would be too high and hurt bystanders. Depending on the type of energy used in the attack, I could use it to create a metal or earth shield by morphing the energy attack. The stronger the attack, the stronger the shield!” Ling Mai was very excited at this thought. She was making quick progress. Unfortunately, this would not work for Grandma Tang as she currently only had fire energy.
“Ah! But if I have multiple types of energy crystals with energy-gathering vortexes, then I can supply the corresponding energy types to morph the energy attacks. Physical attacks can be diverted or resisted by metal and earth energy supplied by these energy crystals!” Feeling very pleased with herself, she proceeded to construct two of these shields. The best aspect was that the shield would be ready to defend at all times and didn’t need a physical base. She would not have to teach Grandma Tang how to create a shield. Even learning an attack technique became largely redundant as long as the attacking cultivator wasn’t too powerful or very skilful at energy manipulation. From what she had seen, only Elder Xing had high levels of energy sensing, but even he would find it hard to disable Grandma Tang’s new shield. Ling Mai would be able to sense an attacker trying to mess with her own shield and so be able to protect her shield.
“Now for fire energy attack techniques, just in case!” She thought. “I need to consider direction, width, height and distance, plus intensity. A full circle attack technique would keep multiple attackers at bay.”
Soon she had a number of attack techniques worked out so she proceeded to teach them to Grandma Tang. Leaving Grandma Tang to practice them in the direction of the river so as to not cause a forest fire, Ling Mai started working on attack techniques for all her energy types. Grandma Tang finished practising before Ling Mai had finished inventing new attack techniques, so she created a mind to continue with the task.
“Let’s head to the blacksmith’s workshop to pick up the devices to take to the trading post,” said Ling Mai.
“I’m feeling tired from all this practising so I will just go back home.”
“I forgot to say that you now have a permanent shield to protect you at all times. It will defend against physical and energy attacks. I thought it best as Lord Jai does not seem rational and may try using you to get back at me.”
“I’ll burn more than his fancy clothes if he tries anything! And does creating all-powerful magical shields just count as another minor miracle for today?”
Thinking for a moment, Ling Mai then replied, “I think it does? It is a rather clever design and I think it will prove to be most effective. We just need to try it out so I can get ideas on how to further improve them.”
Returning to the town’s gate, they then parted ways, Ling Mai headed to the Blacksmith’s. She wanted to test Hungry and his workers to see if they could become cultivators.
Arriving at the Blacksmith's, she walked in and discovered they were all hard at work. The apprentice was attempting the forging of another knife whilst the others were making devices for her. Seeing a large number of finished devices on the shelf, she informed them in a loud voice, “Hi, you have made enough devices for now. Thank you.”
Glancing up from his work, Hungry replied with a smile, “We will finish these few items off then go back to our normal forging.”
“Before you do, I want to test to see if you can become cultivators.”
They all looked very interested and so they stopped work and came over to her. She retrieved a mana stone and showed it to them. “Can you see this glow?”
They stared intently at the stone but soon gave up with looks of disapointment. “Never mind, not many people have the ability. I have a few ideas so, in the future, I may be able to work out a way to enable you to have some form of automatic cultivation. They looked very happy with that reassurance. She just hoped they didn't have too high an expectation of her abilities.
As she didn't want to worry Grandma Tang by being out late, she didn't delay in storing everything in her ring and departing. She swiftly made her way to the trading post and dropped the completed devices off. She tested Li Na’s mother but she wasn't able to sense energy. The sun was setting by the time she emerged from the trading post so she immediately rushed home.
“I'm Home!” she cried as she rushed inside. Grandma Tang looked over at her with a smile. Seeing this, Ling Mai asked, “I'm hungry. Has Kitty returned? Can I help with diinner? How are you feeling? Is everything okay with your cultivating?”
Holding up a hand, Grandma Tang asked, “What has made you so excited?”
“I'm just happy that you are now a cultivator. You will be safer now.”
Grandma Tang smiled at her. “Dinner will be served shortly. I have not seen Kitty. And I am feeling good thank you. Cultivation definitely agrees with me. I already feel stronger, and most of my aches and pains have disappeared.”
“Excellent!” Ling Mai bounced off to the bathroom and washed up for dinner.
Dinner was soon dished up and they busied themselves with eating. Both were feeling tired, so they went to bed early. Ling Mai missed having Kitty curled up around her. She had already grown accustomed to having him with her.
Checking that her two of her danger-aware minds were awake, she asked them to wake her in a few minutes. She then created a crystal that would zap her in about ten minutes. She wanted a fail-safe method of testing these sub-minds’ ability to stay awake while she slept.
She suspected that if Lord Jai decided to make a move against her, it would most likely be tonight. She had formulated a few methods to respond to single or multiple people attacking her or Grandma Tang. She then closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Zzzap!
A painful zap on her finger woke her with a start. Shaking her finger, she grumpily thought, “Well that didn't work. Maybe I need to also think of keeping them awake?” She woke up the two minds and tried again.
Ling Mai woke suddenly. This time it wasn't her primative method of awakening herself. “I must work out a better way,” she thought absently.
Her guardian-mind warned her, “We have an intruder. It seems to be Lord Jai. He is by himself. He is approaching our bedroom door.”
Ling Mai silently crept out of bed and readied her planned response. The door handle slowly moved and then the door was opened. Ling Mai was crouched out of sight behind the bed. She sprang up and unleashed her attack. A Heavenly Tribulation Lightning attack zapped the young lord into shocked immobility. His hair stood on end and his eyes were wide open, as was his mouth. The second attack then struck. All the clothes and armour from his waist up abruptly disintegrated.
Unfortunately, Ling Mai had not quite thought things through thoroughly. She had targeted all non-living things above the waist. This resulted in Lord Jai’s hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and the outer layer of skin being disintegrated. He let out a yelp of pain and started dancing around the living room. His robe and armour which had the top part disintegrated, fell to the floor, momentarily hindering his ‘dance’.
Grandma Tang rushed into the main room. She was presented with the sight of a half-naked bald man dancing in pain. To say she was gobsmacked would be an understatement. It didn't help that the young lord was wearing gold-braided underwear.
“What are you doing in my home in the middle of the night?” yelled Grandma Tang. She brandished a large fireball.
“I was wrong!” Dropping to his knees and prostrating himself, he begged, “Please don't hurt me.”
Checking Ling Mai, who had appeared in the doorway, she ordered the young lord to leave.
Ling Mai interrupted, “Wait! Give me your storage ring. I will return it to your sister tomorrow.”
Lord Jai blanched in horror. “You can't send me back to the inn like this!”
“Just watch me,” said Grandma Tang ominously.
Looking between the two females, he saw their resolve. Dropping his head in defeat, he handed over the storage ring and slunk out the door.
“I wonder what his sister will say if she sees him like that?” mused Ling Mai, which served to ease the fierce look on Grandma Tang’s face into a smile.
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