Chapter 165
Worst Birthday Gift Part 3
Clap, clap, clap.
For the second time a condescending warrior came striding forward, clapping at what we, and by that I mean me, myself, had accomplished.
“I must commend you on your efforts to this point. To think that I would find both a father and daughter duo who were skilled with Qi was something I thought I would never see in my lifetime.”
Bleh!
I nearly vomit, and my hands go up to my mouth to catch any possible projectile vomit from him saying I was Jhonny’s child. With that, the Qi master with overflowing power pauses and stares. I use this moment to begin my counterattack, verbally of course.
“Sorry, sorry, I vomited a in my mouth, it’s just a little bit though. Don’t worry, you can proceed. I believe you were on pompous line number three, likely something about how you are a master awaiting a worthy challenge and go.” I reply, pointing towards Jackie Khan, the one and only Qi master in the world who had standards that were too high for anyone to be taught by him.
Just looking at him, it doesn’t take much to realize that he is immensely powerful. As he walks forward the Qi in his body has a direct reaction to the world around him. Each step he takes produces a huge burst of electrical discharge that sparks and crackles.
It is clear from just looking at him that his power is both overwhelming in terms of size and capacity. Mentally I understand this as a test by the system. This is a sign that the system can and will start throwing in more Qi masters as time goes on.
Normally, this would be a problem, but it was clear from just looking at the “master” before me, that the system had no clue what it was doing when it came to creating this master.
First of all, the “master”, this Jackie Khan, had a similar Qi core set up to my own. That’s right, golden Qi that filled the primary core, and Spirit Qi that filled an attached secondary Core. That was the first mistake, especially as they introduced this new Qi Master as an already played and killed character. Meaning this body was a ghost, making the layout of his primary and auxiliary cores backwards. As a spirit he needed to start with Spirit Qi, and then have the golden Qi of his core as the auxiliary core. That was the first mistake.
The second mistake was the fact that despite having the cores reversed, the system in its infinite wisdom decided to make it so this person was clearly a Tier V cultivator. Or what the system thought a Tier V cultivator would look like. Basically, again they took my current layout, then provided four times as much power to the cores wielded by this undead ghost master and let him lose on the world.
Maybe this was done for ratings, and the system or those in charge of content had no clue what they were doing but were told to create the impossible and did it the best they could. Still, this was ridiculous.
Crackle, pop.
The Master strode forward releasing more bursts of electricity with each stride. Again, this likely makes for great cinematography, but that is the sign of a master whose core is about to burst violently trying to relieve some of the pressure of the condensed energy focused within the ghost body.
“I must say, for someone of your stature, you have a rather large mouth.” The Master replied arrogantly, taking two more strides forward until we are a dozen paces away from each other.
“And I must say, for someone who is about to explode from all the energy that is being stored within you, you are rather calm.” I reply trying to give the man a warning.
“So you have seen that I have achieved new feats of power, through my own death, that I was never able to achieve during life?” The Master says, holding out his hands and letting sparks of Qi generated electricity spark out.
“I can see that even after dying the first time, you have not learned how to survive.” I respond.
Confusion.
At that, he legitimately looks confused. This is good, the longer he stares and looks ridiculous, the more time his volatile energy surges about throughout his body and attempts to rip him apart like a tempest.
The best analogy I can give is right now, imagine his cores being two magnets of the same polarity that are being forced to stay as close together as possible. They are of course resisting that forced closeness and when the polarities switch just enough, they will fly off and separate themselves from their current locations. When that happens, he will be lucky if they just separate. If one manages to flip around a cause a sudden attraction, after being forced away, that jolt from their joining will be devastating.
“How so?” He asks and seems to genuinely pause at the moment.
Seeing the confusion in his face, I decided to share my observations.
“Right now, you can no doubt feel the powers within your body fighting against the strain you are facing currently. By continuing to cultivate in this way, you are all but asking your body to destroy itself.” I respond.
Sneer.
Hearing my words the master gives a cold sneer to his face as if he smelled something particularly rank.
“You, a mere novice, dare to lecture me on how to cultivate?” The Master states coldly.
“As a living person no, but as an undead, I am certain you are doing it wrong, or at least backwards.” I reply.
“Your insolence has gone too far. I had at first wanted to show you the true power of a martial genius, and eventually take you on as my apprentice from your father, but now I will put you in your place. Prepare yourself.”
Dramatic Pause.
There was a long pause and it was clear that I needed to make my reply before this master could feel comfortable with moving forward. Likely something to do with a chivalrous code of ethics, not wanting to give a cheap shot to a younger and weaker opponent.
Then the system told me of its intentions for this pause.
Epic Martial Quest Activated: Master of Qi: You randomly found the former martial Qi Master of BiPrism, and are being challenged to a sparring match. Prepare yourself to see who is the best Martial Master. Conditions: either knockout or cause Jackie Khan to quit the match. Rewards: Experience, Improved Qi Core, Bloodline evolution perks, skills, variable.
Seeing this was my chance to pause and fully grasp the quest’s potential before me. Basically, if I didn’t win here, then any shot of my awakening a Mythic bloodline might be stopped or the effects of said evolution might be greatly reduced. As such I needed to win this, not just make Jacki Khan quit, but to get him to be utterly defeated. At least, that was the option that viewers and ratings would most likely request, which is just what I decided to give them.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Realizing I needed to make this good, I pulled off my hood, revealing my face.
“A child?” He spat out.
What? He already said I was the daughter, now he is surprised that I am a child? What is up with this guy. Unless he finds my age to be far younger than even, he thought.
Shaking off his response, I continue with my line.
“To show you that I too take this battle seriously, I will begin with my third eye already opened.” I state, then do just as I said, opening my vertical third eye up, eliciting a gasp from the Master. Clearly, he was not prepared for such an event.
Then after a second the Master controlled himself, letting his violent energies slowly stabilize, as he turned from me to Jhonny.
“Do not worry, I merely mean to teach your daughter a lesson. I will not kill her.”
“My daughter?” Jhonny asked, then realized as he spoke, “wait does he mean you?”
Jhonny asked, but it was already too late to ask any more questions as the Qi Master was already moving.
Thunderclap.
Lightning crackled as he moved. With each burst of speed, his body pulled first from his primary core of energy, pulling forth golden Qi that ripped apart the muscles of his undead body. Then as a secondary effect he pulled forth twice as much Spiritual Qi that was then used to heal the damage he just created and then to encapsulate and forcefully eject the remaining golden Qi from his body.
I noticed this, as I stared on.
He was fast, too fast for me to counter. Just like Mallory when she gets going.
With the Master I realized the true difference in how far apart my Mental Attributes were in comparison to my Physical Attributes. For I could see, track, and even predict the movement, path, and directions taken by this master.
Unfortunately, my body was unable to move fast enough to move out of the way, or to even counter the blows. Instead, it was all I could do to put up my arms in a defensive block.
BOOM!
A lightning imbued Qi infused fist struck me and hurled me away.
Crash.
My body collided with the wall of a nearby spirit replica building. As I impacted, I created the horizontal impact crater that one would expect from the Matrix, or from a violent cartoon.
Slide.
No sooner had my backwards momentum stopped, then I felt my body collapsing to the ground.
Still, this attacker was relentless. Fortunately, he assumed that because my face was pointing a different direction that I couldn’t see his approach. While having my third eye opened did limit the range of my vision, I didn’t need my Angel’s Sight to see this guy. His fierce aura all but screamed his location, attack vector, and movement.
This was why I think it took him by surprise when he was less than three paces away when I turned and unleashed my attack.
WOOSH!
I struck out with my golden Qi infused palm. The force of my blow sending a wave of highly charged air to shoot out and through my attacker.
A wave of wind caught the man, blowing back his beard and long flowing hair, rippled his fighting robe, but my tiny arms ended up landing just an inch away from his torso.
His speed and reaction time was too fast, there was no way I could strike him. Not with his speed, which was why he just looked down at me and my outstretched arm. An arm that still felt the burn from his earlier strike as even now I could feel my Regeneration working overtime to try to fix the internal damage caused by his strike.
“Hahaha, you will have to try harder then that, bleh…” he began to gloat, but was soon cut off as the full effect of my actual attack hit him.
Golden Disruptive Palm Burst.
Yes, I intentionally didn’t want to strike at him. Instead, I sent a pulse of Qi infused energy into and through my attacker. The intent was to shatter the already volatile and poorly constructed golden Qi core that resided within the Martial Master.
As he paused, his hands instinctively clutched at his stomach, right at his now shattered primary core. Right where I had aimed with my strike.
“What have you…” He began, but then his words were cut off.
“What have I done?” I ask, using the brief moment to cast a quick Healing spell on myself, before turning to face the Master who was now desperately clutching at his chest and body, trying to use his hands to keep his poisonous golden Qi from running loose within his body. Well the golden Qi itself is not poisonous in small doses, but given its abundance in his body, and the fact that golden Qi is for the living, his body and conditioning clearly aren’t enough to stave off the intense pain he is now suffering from. Then continuing my statement, I answer his unspoken question, “not enough, not yet at least.”
Then with that, I charge up my other hand, pulling forth the silver Spirit Qi from my auxiliary core and using my other hand I deliver a second jab.
Whoosh!
This strike too is strong enough to produce a violent burst of wind. I stop less than an inch away from his arms that are desperately cradling his stomach.
BLEH!
More Qi infused blood comes spraying forth from the cultivator’s mouth, as I just shattered his second core. Then after a second I get a notification from the system.
Silver Disruptive Palm Burst.
This second blow is too much for his mind and body to take, as a second and much greater surge of power courses through the Master’s body, as he collapses into an unconscious heap on the ground.
“Did you kill him?” Jhonny asked, rushing over.
“What, no, he was already dead.” I respond, somewhat indignant at the thought of killing someone, even if they did start the fight.
With that, I begin to work.
With my third eye still open, I realize that I need to operate immediately. The first thing I need to do is to remove the pressure of the volatile energies that are now running rampant and unopposed within the master’s body.
Realizing this, I decided to begin by first removing all of the poisonous Golden Qi from the victim. Normally, I would use a scalpel, but I don’t think I have time for all of that. Instead, I focus Qi into my two fingers and then quickly jab them right at the center of the Master’s stomach, right where his original primary golden core used to reside.
Squirt.
The fingers make an odd sucking sound and sensation as they enter, but I can’t focus on that. Instead, I begin cultivating the Golden Qi from his body and pulling it directly through my fingers, through the meridians in my hand and straight to my golden core.
Unfortunately, the Master has a lot of Qi, as in he has too much. More than he, or the world clearly knew what to do with. As such, I have to keep pulling it in, crushing my core tighter and tighter, while forcing the core and energy to further compress in on itself. I even get to the point where I have to cycle the tightly condensed Qi throughout my body, before making a majority of it crash tightly into my core.
Crack.
Of course, this just causes my old Tier II core to crack from the strain, causing me to have to focus through creating the next stage of my core, while still trying to account for the insane degree of energy that remained from the Master’s original Tier V core, before I shattered it.
Gurgle.
My stomach rumbles from the forceful creation of my denser core, and my tighter form of condensed Qi.
By the time my own core begins to stabilize, that is when the fallen Master begins to awaken.
“What, what are you!” He begins and is about to sit up, fortunately Jhonny is there to help hold him down, while I continue to focus on pulling out enough of the poisonous Qi from his system.
“Lay down,” I hiss through clenched teeth as this entire thing is getting to be very taxing on me. I can already feel mana infused sweat forming on my forehead as I focus on cleaning up enough of this to make it so the man will no longer be poisoned by the violent levels of energy being channeled throughout his blood and meridians.
Finally, I get to the point where I have a solid shape and size for my core. The new core is clearly twice the size of my last one. I am not certain if this is good or bad, but that is the smallest I can make that core, and even with this core being double the size I think I managed to get a tighter stage of Qi Compression within my body. Despite all of this, I still have my Qi meridians filled with violent streams of this volatile energy.
Taking a moment, I realize that my thoughts have gotten me new skills.
New Skill Golden Disruptive Palm Burst has reached level 1. Golden Disruptive Palm Burst is a Strength X3, Dexterity X2, Perception X2, and Willpower X3 based skill.
New Skill Silver Disruptive Palm Burst has reached level 1. Silver Disruptive Palm Burst is a Strength X2, Dexterity X3, Perception X2, and Willpower X3 based skill.
New Skill Blackhole Qi Condensing has reached level 1. Blackhole Qi Condensing is a Strength X2, Dexterity X1, Stamina X3, Perception X2, Intelligence X2, and Willpower X3 based skill.
The first two were skills directly linked to the two new Qi powers I created during the battle. While the third one was a skill that I think was a long time coming, but honestly I can’t complain about its bonuses.
Phew.
I let out a long sigh of relief, having seen the system message that lets me know a few things. I use this moment to remove my two fingers from the Master’s stomach, then quickly heal the wound with Spirit Magic. Then I realized a few things.
First, I realized that I was clearly out of combat as I wouldn’t get skill notifications unless everything was at a pause. Second, I realized this also meant that the patient would live, well un-life live, you, you know what I mean.
Realizing the worst part was over, it was now up for me to use this martial expert ghost as a guinea pig to see if I can teach him how to form a new Spirit Qi core as his primary core. This is important, as his creation of a Spirit Qi core for his foundation, will be important to pass over to Knight Captain Glavis De’Arcaneri, and Lieutenant Foliv De’Travin, both of whom I have been tasked with teaching how to create Qi cores.
“Now, that we have removed the poisonous mortal Qi from your system, it is time to focus on condensing your remaining spirit Qi and creating a primary core used to collect and maintain this type of Qi first and foremost.”
“How, you shattered my core?” The Master asked, a note of incredulity to his voice.
“Simple, just use a Coreless Qi Cultivation method.” I reply.
“What that is impossible.” The Martial Master began.
At that, I just turn my attention to Jhonny who still has his hands on the shoulders of the former Martial Master, and begin speaking to him.
“You see this is why I tell you all to focus on the basics, like Coreless Qi Cultivation,” I state, using this as a teachable moment. “Otherwise, you end up like this, with too much energy for your body to handle, with no way to save yourself.”
With that Jhonny not really knowing what to do just nodded his head a few times, before answering a noncommittal “yes.”
Seeing the somewhat noncommittal answer, I press.
“It is that whole give a man a fire and he is warm for a night, whereas if you set him on fire, he is warm for the rest of his life.” I state.
“Uh, doesn’t that quote normally involve a fish?” Jhonny asked.
“Normally it does, but this is a bit more dramatic and hopefully able to share the moral being taught to not only the person being spoken to, but to everyone else who may be listening.”
With that, the tension that had been settling over the area abruptly stopped, at which time I decided to be serious and actually try to teach an old Master new tricks.
“Now, to begin you need to…”