Chapter 18 Immortal Trades
Khyree, who was mostly satisfied with the deal he had just struck with the master alchemist, reentered the chamber and headed over to the firepit to assist. He was still a bit leery about getting too close to the roaring fire, but he was hoping that his presence might take some of the pressure off of his cousin, who really looked like he was struggling to continue.
“Now all you need to do is raise your hands like you see us doing, grab your Ka and channel it in as strong of a stream as you can and feed it into the flames,” instructed Master Muzna once Khyree got into position.
Khyree, following the instructions reached deep down into the center of his being and felt for the strands of darkness ka he had been cultivating. He found the tunnel that connected his physical body with the Ether. Khyree could almost see the Ka that was coming to him through the tunnel. Upon entering his body the Ka was dispersed all through his body. There were hundreds of thin ephemeral strands that were free floating throughout his entire body.
He used his will to wrangle as much of the energy together as he could, before he began to pull it up out of his being and send it out into the roaring fire. Once the energy made contact with the flames, Khyree felt as if a connection had been made between him and the fire.
He could feel it as the fire began to pull the Ka from him directly without his assistance. It was almost as if the flames had taken on a life of its own. Life that demanded the food or in this case the fuel that it needed in order to survive. The flames greedily pulled Ka from all three of the Immortals in order to drive its evolution. Khyree could see the gathered essence in the heart of the flame become thicker and thicker from one moment to the next. Blessedly he noted that the building energy had stabilized now that it had enough fuel to work with.
“This is it. We’re nearly there. We are so close,” exclaimed Master Muzna. The alchemist was able to see the liquid concoction within the cauldron beginning to congeal into a solid form, it was growing thicker by the second. “Just a little more.”
Khyree watched as the fire continued to grow hotter. The whiteness of the flame slowly graduated from the lighter shades of blue to the darker hues. With each change of hue, the temperature of the fire jumped by several hundred degrees. Khyree found himself drenched in sweat that quickly evaporated in the intensity of the heat, leaving him covered in a type of sticky film.
Moments later there was a loud popping sound as the fluid in the cauldron finally completely solidified. Immediately, the master alchemist pumped a fist into the air in celebration. “I’ve done it. I’ve finally managed to concoct a meridian cleansing pill on this tier.” It was almost a full minute before Master Muzna remembered the apprentices. “You two can stop channeling now.”
Daquan and Khyree both stopped channeling at the same time. As soon as Daquan stopped channeling his ka, he felt a wave of exhaustion sweep over him. Completely drained of energy, he passed out in a slump on the floor. Khyree felt the drain as well, but fortunately the artifact he wore kept him with enough essence to maintain consciousness even if only just barely. Though Khyree did find his knees to be a bit on the shaky side.
Without the flow of personal essence fueling the fire, the flames slowly lost its intensity, and the temperature in the chamber dropped back down to normal levels. Khyree spied the concentrated essence being released back into the environment. Strangely enough he felt as if there were now more strands of Ka within his body than there were before he joined in on the experiment.
“Oh you notice that did you? What an interesting young neophyte. Most would not have picked up on that so soon,” Muzna said as he walked a short distance away, the newly concocted pill in one of his hands. He continued to turn the pill about in his hands as he examined it for any flaws in color, texture or quality. He knew formulating such a pill on a lower tier would produce something of less than optimal quality, but he was fairly content with the results.
“Why does it feel like I have more Ka now in my system than I had before?” murmured Khyree in a sort of amazement. Khyree quickly activated his system and glanced over at his stats.
Name: Khyree Mourntree
Age: 20
Race: Human???
Sex: Male
Weight: 79kg
Height: 182cm
Health: 100/100
Health Regeneration Rate: 1.785/hr
Immunities: None
Physical Defense: Base 3.7 kilogram force / Enhanced NA
Energy Defense: Base NA / Enhanced NA
Physical Offence: Base 3.7 kilogram force / Enhanced NA
Energy Offence: Base NA / Enhanced NA
Ka Levels: 4012.00118811881
Ka Accumulation Rate: .0795/hr
Immortal Rank: Stage 1, rank 2.
Skills: NA
Abilities: Nine Breaths Cultivation Technique (efficiency 100%) Turn on/off, Detect Essence Turn on/off.
Ambient Essence Levels: 7,000,000,000,000
Equipment: Ancient Ring Artifact (Desert Rose Ring)
Sure enough, Khyree saw that not only did he have more Ka in his body, but because of the amount of Ka he had some other minor changes had taken place as well. Though it was by no means a great leap, his offence, defence and regen rate had increased. For Khyree, he knew that this was simply more proof that as he continued down the Path of Immortality his gains would continue to shape him and allow him to grow.
“Ah see this is something you battle crazed morons would have learned had any of you bothered to spend any time outside of ceaselessly fighting and scavenging for resources. Alchemy is one of the Immortal Trades for a reason. Not because of the elixirs and pills the art produces that can mend wounds, cure diseases, unblock passages, and clear channels among many other things.
But because like all of the other Immortal Trades, simply by training and growing more proficient in one of the Trades, one’s cultivation will experience an accelerated and continued growth outside of just mindlessly cultivating. Just look at your cultivation, I can see it in the essence that flows around you. In the time you’ve just spent helping me to concoct one pill, you have experienced weeks of growth to your cultivation. Now tell me, isn't that better than just sitting around endlessly meditating?” Master Muzna replied absently.
Even as Khyree moved over to check on the status of his cousin, his mind was exploding with the possibilities. One of the things that he had always detested about being an Immortal was the boring and time consuming process of cultivating. He remembered how back in Idlewild his cousin had spent roughly eighty percent of his time cultivating, sometimes for days and weeks at a time. In fact, it was one of the things that had turned Khyree off to the idea of ever becoming an Immortal.
Not that cultivating would ever be a normal thing for him anyway, because of his unique condition. Thanks to his ring, essence was always being channeled into his being. But if what the old man was saying about practicing a trade was true, then cultivating would become a much more pleasant experience than he had even dared to imagine. Between his ring and practicing a Trade, his cultivation could grow by leaps and bounds.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Khyree found himself hesitating on the thought just a bit though. For it all sounded just a little too good to be true. He had to know more. “Master Muzna, is this kind of growth fairly typical across all of the trades, and if it is then why wouldn’t every Immortal take up a Trade then?”
“Yes, my new apprentice. Well at least for the most part. Though there are some other factors to be considered depending on what resources are being used at the time, the relative density of essence at the location, and the ka requirements of course. Another thing of note, is that the rate of growth will of course slow down at the higher Immortal stages. Take for instance this pill you and your friend just helped me to create. This is a meridian cleansing pill. It is good for helping Immortals in the meridian stage to clear blockages and experience huge leaps in their cultivation.
The problem with this pill is that it is a tier four pill. Something that normally is impossible to concoct on a tier this low. But because of the adjustments I made to the formula, the resources I used, and the amount of ka we poured into it, I was able to concoct it here on the second tier. The sheer amount of essence needed to complete this pill on this tier was enough for both you and your friend to experience massive cultivation gains. The same could not be said for myself. As you might imagine the amount of essence one needs to progress increases exponentially the higher one ascends in stages. Now on the fourth tier concocting a pill like this is child’s play for a master alchemist.
As for why most Immortals do not practice the Immortal Trades, well that is a bit complicated as well. The fact of the matter is that a fairly significant amount of Immortals do actually practice the Trades, at least in other Sects and in different places. You probably don’t know this as you are obviously so new to all of this, but there are entire Sects actually devoted to one or more of the Immortal Trades. Unfortunately for both you and I, we both belong to a very combat oriented Sect.
The Hidden Valley Shadow Sect used to be the premier combat Sect for this region for many years in fact, though much has changed in recent times,” the master alchemist said with a strange tone that seemed oddly reminiscent to Khyree. “The point being that in belonging to a combat Sect, the focus is on mastering techniques more suited for combat. The Immortal Trades if any that are practiced in such a Sect, would only be encouraged and then available if it had direct combat applications. ”
Khyree remembered having similar thoughts before, he was glad to know that his guesses checked out when it came to ascending in regards to essence requirements. He supposed what the old man said in regards to Trades made sense when viewed from such a perspective, though it seemed like a great loss of an opportunity in his mind. His doubt somewhat assuaged he turned his mind back to his cousin. “What about Daquan here, is he going to be alright?”
“Yes, your fellow neophyte will be just fine. He simply overdrew on his etheric channel. Indeed he will be even better once he regains consciousness. For you see overdrawing is the how of why practicing an Immortal Trade can help ones cultivation. By forcing the channel to open wider to increase more ka production allows for a greater exchange rate. Though you also did the same, your gain will not be as great as his. At any rate, now that my experiment has been successfully concluded you may collect your friend and leave for now. I have my own cultivation needs to attend to,” Master Muzna said.
The master alchemist snapped his finger, and all of a sudden Khyree felt an invisible force snatch him and Daquan up off the floor and deposited them outside of the chamber and closed the doors behind them.
After thoroughly checking his cousin over to make sure he was fine, he waited with him outside of the Alchemy building until he regained consciousness. Sure enough, after Daquan woke up all he could do was talk about his cultivation growth and the need to consolidate his gains. Once he got the directions to Daquan’s Immortal mansion, Khyree separated from him and made his way back to his own mansion.
Upon returning home, Khyree discarded his outer robe and after grabbing his copy of the Sect manual, he decided that it was time for him to start getting serious about his cultivation. But first things first he had to learn more about the Sect. He decided to look more into the Immortal Trades.
“Ok so according to the manual there are a total of five Trades for Immortals, though only two are actively practiced within the Hidden Valley Shadow Sect. Blacksmithing and Alchemy. Blacksmithing is the most popular of the two simply because of the weapons they produce for the Sect. Alchemy, though just as important, is the lesser of the two due to its stringent requirements for advancement.
“Hmm so the master alchemist was telling the truth when he mentioned the Trade situation in the Sect. Well that’s a pity,” Khyree said out loud. He then went back to his reading.
The rankings for the Trades are: apprentice, journeyman, masters, grandmasters, and exalted. The breadth of knowledge and skill level requirements for each ascending level scale accordingly. Most apprentices typically serve under a master for a minimum of fifty years before graduating to the next rank.
Hmm, now while it doesn’t state that there are any prohibitions against practicing multiple Trades, I imagine it would take at least twice as long to master the intricacies of more than one trade at a time.” Khyree smiled at the thought of the potential gains he would get from mastering multiple Trades. He wondered where he would be able to find masters for the other three Trades.
Khyree knew that his only hope at being able to protect those he considered kin and secure his freedom was that he had to grow stronger. Setting the Sect manual down, he then concentrated on the techniques he had acquired from the Hall of Merits. The three techniques that he had selected were: The Heavenly Dance of Misty Springs, a defensive technique, Immortal Fists of the Gods, an offensive technique, and The Poison Body, a utility technique. It was his hope that with mastering all three of the techniques that he would have a greater amount of flexibility when it came time to fight the other students.
The first technique that he chose to examine was The Poison Body technique. “The Poison Body technique is really quite ruthless. It is a technique by which an Immortal can render his body completely immune to all poisons. Ingested or topically applied. Mastery of the technique comes with the completion of the Immortal Sheath, a special type of pseudo ectoplasmic skin that fully encases the cellular walls and actively feeds on antigenic particles.
In order to fully cultivate this technique an Immortal must actively expose themselves to the one hundred and fifty million chemicals found on the planet, while in a state of actively cultivating. Apparently the exchange of the different energies will mix together and bond with the chemicals to create the Immortal Sheath. That sounds like a lot of chemicals. How am I supposed to get access to all of those different chemicals? For that matter, what are chemicals anyway?” Khyree muttered to himself in consternation.
He liked the idea of being fully immune to all poisons, but he had some serious doubts about his ability to acquire all of the samples needed. Still the reason why he had chosen the Immortal Technique was because of all the possible benefits. “I can not for the life of me imagine that a lot of Immortals have chosen to cultivate this technique, as it would be way too expensive resource wise. But it wouldn’t be a stone level technique if it was completely impossible to master. Well seeing as I have none of the samples currently, I will try the other techniques first, and come back to this one at a later date.”
Khyree then moved on to the next technique, The Heavenly Dance of Misty Springs. The actual technique consisted of mastering a rather complicated set of stances, breathing techniques, and battle harmonics, which were a type of varying auditory frequencies that directly affected water molecules by altering their density levels. “Now that sounds like one amazing defensive technique.
With an amazing technique like this I can use the very water found around me to help me defend against any opponents. If what that temperamental elder had said about most students choosing to focus on offensive techniques at least in the beginning, then having a defensive technique like this could be a real game changer! I have to master this technique,” Khyree said aloud.
Khyree spent the next couple of hours diligently memorizing the set of stances and frequencies that comprised the technique. Once he had them all locked into his head he moved to the cultivation chamber in his mansion, where he knew the flow of essence would be the most dense and proceeded to practice the technique.
The series of movements involved in the dance required him to move in ways that he had never moved before. Each step, each form forced him to utilize all of his flexibility and kinesthetic awareness to flow into a separate space within microseconds of the leaving the one he had inhabited just moments before. Khyree found that trying to emulate the harmonics and perform the steps at the same time initially was much too difficult to achieve.
So he first just concentrated on getting down the forms, and the breathing techniques. With each breath, he took another step, his body sinuously twisted into a different position and posture. Khyree strove to focus on his ka as he moved and breathed into each stance. The more times he completed the repetitive movements the more he began to find his ka moving in his body in strange ways. Almost as if it was forming a pattern that was connected to the movements. Soon he could feel thin wisps of his ka begin to emanate through various parts of his body in a rhythmic manner.
Khyree practiced the technique of the Dance of the Misty Springs non stop for three days, before something finally clicked in his mind. The movements no longer felt stiff and uncomfortable to him. No, instead his body began to slide through the stances with the innate grace of a dancer. His breaths came easier and he felt like his ka was becoming more refined. Uttering the harmonics at the same time no longer felt like a struggle.
Khyree knew from what he had read about the technique that these were all of the signs that he had reached the level of Initial Understanding of the technique. He stopped and just allowed his body to relax from the days of training. A feat he knew that he would not have been capable of before he became an Immortal.
“Finally, I have made some progress with this defensive technique. Even though it is only the first level of comprehension, my battle ability should have increased by several times. I wish that I would have this ability back when I was competing in the Trials in that ancient realm. That would have made that one challenge much easier to complete. Hmm I wonder…” Khyree said in contemplation before disappearing from his cultivation room.