I sat on a terrace in the apartment Elder Xu Xiaoli had let me barrow while she made arrangements for my force chamber. At least she was nice enough to give me a temporary place to stay as a guest of the Imperial Sect while I recovered from my treatment.
My arm had deflated, but my body was still incredibly sore, but far better than it had been before. The skin was a little bit loose where the wound had been but not flappy. My body felt soft, especially my arm. It was like a limp noodle. But that was far better than leaky sausage.
I carefully sipped my tea that I had prepared myself. Normally I wouldn’t have done something like that, but there was nothing much to do at the moment. Elder Xu Xiaoli had taken care of all my financial issues in one move. That was the power an elder of the Imperial Sect. Once they made a decision, there was little anyone could do to resist.
It didn’t even matter that I had promised to give the remainder of my business over to the sect once I hit the fourth stage and left. I had owned my shares, and the Cloudy Moon Sect was weak. There was no objection they could hope to put up. If they were smart, they would manage to hold onto their share by providing protection for the caravans and operational management.
It wouldn’t be easy. When Elder Xu Xiaoli had arranged for me to stay in this apartment, she explained the Han family was making moves to try and pressure the Cloudy Moon Sect. That was their problem, and I hadn’t asked the elder for help. I could tell she wanted me to ask so she could squeeze me out of the promised rewards, but I wasn’t an idiot to try and renegotiate when I was in a position of weakness.
The sect should be called the Shark Sect and the city, Shark Tank, with how ruthless everyone was. But that was way of cultivation, trampling over others. I let out a soft sigh and sipped more of my tea. At least having a place to rest and recover was considered part of the healing bill. I could have afforded a place, but I also suspected they didn’t want to risk my life by having me stay somewhere else for a short period of time.
While it was unlikely Aoyin would make a move, it was still possible. If I died before the Imperial Sect completed their end, they would look bad. I had no idea why they were so set on keeping up appearances, but it was probably something one of their Immortals insisted on. While I was jaded to their true nature, it came down to management.
I had a lot of time to think about why they didn’t just crush me in secret and take everything. People would know, and it would leak out. There were clear lines on what was allowed and what wasn’t. If Elder Xu Xiaoli broke the rules they had, then others would do the same, and the lower ranked sects would rebel, creating chaos.
The Imperial Sect wanted chaos, but manageable chaos. That was why the Cloudy Moon Sect would recover in time. The demonic sects were just the hidden arms of the high-ranking sects to keep their own hands clean and people in line. I had realized this before, but I didn’t realize how much of a grip the Immortals had over everything.
They just needed to lay out the law for the top-level cultivators, and it would trickle down. Sure, an individual or two might go off the rails, but that would be corrected. It wasn’t just the economy and technology that was held in an iron grip, but the culture and mindset as well.
I still hadn’t worked out the reason behind all of this. I suspected there was a larger reason, involving the Firmament, and the forces outside the continent, but that was just the most likely explanation I had come up with. I had wanted to pay an information broker a rank 6 spirit stone for information on the Firmament. But it was a restricted topic.
Looking at Jiang Fengge’s journal, hadn’t been very enlightening. He had spent most of his time in a city working for one of the gangs that controlled an area. He managed to do well enough to help him advance and then leave. Most of his book had been about the fights, and his thoughts on them. There was no name listed for the city, no clear explanations on why the fights were happening.
The information brokers I had gone to warned me away. The Firmament was a restricted topic, which meant they were not allowed to inquire at all about it. The requirement to even pay for the information was being a cultivator past the first bottleneck. Anyone below that stage of cultivation was refused without exception.
While it was tempting to try to look for a black market information broker, the risk of the Imperial Sect getting upset, and kicking me out for breaking the law was too much for me to take that kind of risk. Once I hit the fourth stage, I would be in a huge amount of danger. That was the minimum I had picked up on. The fact information was restricted to stronger cultivators was a sign, that whatever the Firmament was, was not to be taken lightly.
I sipped my tea. I had no idea what blend it was. But it was warm, and I had a great view of a modern city without the pollution. Now that was a question, were spirit stones ecologically friendly since they came from beasts? It was a renewable resource, even if the source was sapient creatures. Definitely green but filled with suffering and death.
The really scary thing was, that with the cheap cost of labor and building materials, it was hard to say how long ago this city was built. Even now I could see mortals sweeping the street below me. That was what felt off about this place compared to an Earth city. The cars and pollution were one thing, but there was a lack of people moving about. Sure, there were cultivators and mortals moving about on their business and transporting supplies. But it just didn’t feel the same despite the modern aesthetic.
This made me think about how I was brought here to cultivation land. There clearly were other people before me based on the games and how this place was designed. While there was a chance of convergent design schema, I had a hard time buying that. There were just too many similarities to Earth that were present. The similar games I had found in a store when I was young was the biggest confirmation in my mind and everything after that was further reinforcement.
I poured myself some more tea and enjoyed the breeze. I would be stuck in a small room for a long time after this. A very long time. I wanted to enjoy my freedom while I could. There was nothing more I could do except cultivate. All my other options had been closed off one by one. Now only cultivation and then traveling to the Firmament remained.
Mount Vortex and the Wandering Immortal Gongong had also been on the forbidden list. At least I had managed to get directions to where the mountain was located. At the very tip of the continent. A huge area of wilderness and then the mountain. I was told the height was so immense, I would not miss it. I had seen some crazy terrain on the continent, but I was quite curious about how tall a mountain could be.
I had also taken the time to restock on ammo for my gun. After spending 7 rank 6 spirit stone, I purchased 5 rank 6 bullets and another 5 rank 5 bullets. That would leave me with 13 rank 6 spirit stones. Enough for charging the gun and making further purchases. Everything else was my savings and startup capital.
Before I left, I would have to purchase a lot of supplies and possibly another spatial ring. Also, a high-quality traveling robe that offered protection would be nice. While my sect martial robe and cloak weren’t poor quality, they weren’t amazing either. But looking too good and well off might attract the wrong attention. Better to have it, then run out of clothes in the wilderness.
As for my weapons, I was happy with my sword and gun. There was no need to upgrade them further. The one question that remained, was after reaching the fourth rank, should I return to the sect first and learn techniques? It was a tough question I had been going back and forth on. The Sect was more to the South and made a sort of triangle with Imperial City and Mount Vortex.
That would be a lot of travel time, but techniques were useful. But I had no doubt the moment I left the demonic cultivators would get word. I should make it look like I am headed back to the sect and tell people that, while in reality, turn North after leaving Imperial City.
I sipped my tea and smiled. It was much easier to think through things while in a relaxed state. I had been rushing from one disaster to another for so long, I hadn’t had time to destress. The long carriage ride to Imperial City did not count. That was an exercise in mental fortitude to resist all the pain. I shuddered slightly as my arm twinged a bit. There were aches across my body, but thankfully it wasn’t serious anymore.
Elder Healer Song did incredibly good work. I had to give the ancient woman a lot of credit and she had been incredibly friendly. Probably the friendliest cultivator I had ever met so far. If that was her sales tactic it wasn’t a bad one. Her treatment was insanely expensive, I had no doubt, but she was willing to help me beyond that.
There was a light chime at the door. I set my tea cup down and went to the front door and opened it up. “Package for Yuan Zhou,” the mortal said.
“Yes, that is me,” I replied. I smiled as I took the package.
“Have a nice day.”
“You as well,” I replied as the delivery person left and I closed the door. No signature required, but I wasn’t about to start speculating on their delivery service. It was a wooden box with a small note on the top.
Hope this helps you on your journey.
After that there was the symbol of the Imperial Sect. I carefully undid the metal clasp and opened up the wood box. Inside the box were three books. Each one of them was about the higher levels of cultivation on a different path. I went back to the table on the terrace and set the wood box with the books next to my tea set.
I carefully pulled out the first book, Soul Cultivation, Fifth Through Eighth Stage. I honestly couldn’t believe that Elder Healer Song would have given me such information. I flipped open the book and began skimming through it.
The book was only forty pages long and it was a summary. The usefulness wasn’t that great, but it was helpful in understanding the higher stages of cultivation. The other two books were the same for Body and Mind cultivation.
After reading them, I could see why she didn’t think I would be able to go forward. If I made it to the eighth stage, the final step into immortality would be incredibly easy. But the hardest part was that I had no idea what my cultivation would look like once I tried to get past the first bottleneck. That was the real issue.
Even if I got the optimal number of drops. There was still an incredible amount of risk and unknowns crossing into the fifth stage. I would be in the Nascent Stage. Normally it would be called Nascent Soul, Mind, or Body, but I was walking all three. Now I understood why no one wanted to talk with me about the later stages in the past.
None of them had any idea. It was a complete unknown. Each Nascent Path was different. But from the broad strokes of reading the stage was about stabilizing one’s cultivation after breaking through the first bottleneck. After that was about attuning to energy in different ways, and then merging with the concept or the Dao at the very end.
They all had the same start and end point. There might even be some hidden meaning to that. But from what I could tell, the various paths would compliment each other at the end. Soul to create pillars to link with the Astral Plane. Body to strengthen one’s physicality from the immense burden placed upon it. And Mind to harmonize with the concepts.
Each path had shortcomings in the other two areas it didn’t cover which made it difficult to reach immortality. My guess was that special items were needed or that a specific concept was chosen to make up for the weaknesses in what path was chosen.
That was why picking three paths at the same time was considered so powerful, if one could make it to the end. I was front loading all the difficulty. That had been told to me, and that was the hope, but it was good to finally understand why a triple path cultivation was considered amazing and incredibly overpowered.
This didn’t mean the later stages would be easier, but the real hurdle was the first bottleneck. In addition to the immense energy requirements, there were issues with how my cultivation would be shaped afterwards, and the various paths would interact with each other. My cultivation was so immense, even the people who had tried different paths togeather weren’t a good benchmark.
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So many items and resources had been put into me, and my cultivation was so immense, that there was no guide anymore. “Oh, how clever,” I muttered out loud. Elder Healer Song was indeed as devious as one would imagine. She had no doubt in her mind, that no one would be able to help me or give advice and was setting herself up to be the go-to person I would reach out to.
It wasn’t a bad choice, but it just showed how far thinking she was. The cost of these general guides was nothing compared to what I would have to pay out if I had to go to her for advice. She could afford to give a thousand books like these away and it would just be a fraction of a fraction of the cost I would have to pay for help. Even if a hundred bets failed, she just had to catch one fish on her hook and she would be immensely rewarded.
I smiled at her strategy. I had worked it out before, but the more I thought about it, the more impressive it was. The fact that everyone else was so cutthroat while she appeared nice and kind, should have been a major warning to her true nature. I could go in circles all day, but at the end of the day, she would still be my first choice for help. Just because she was thinking to squeeze me dry, didn’t mean her solutions weren’t helpful.
Just the repair work on my arm, cost 10 rank 6 spirit stones. That is the kind of cost that would financially pressure a mid-ranking sect. Even elder cultivators would have to pause at that kind of expense and take note.
In addition all of this was putting the cart before the horse, or the future problems, when I had to figure out how to get 610,000 drops in the fourth stage. Increasing my breakthrough chances after that was something I would have to look into.
I put away the books and the tea, and then headed out. I made my way to one of the information brokers.
“Ah, how can I help you today, Yuan Zhou,” the broker said with a smile as I entered his office. He had a grin, since he knew I was loaded. While I might have thought this information brokers were scammers, they had very unionized existence in Imperial City, despite not being part of the Imperial Sect. The prices were standardized as well as restricted information. While I could search for one outside of that, it was highly illegal and risky. I had already decided not to go down that route.
“I am looking for information on things to increase or help during the first breakthrough that aren’t increased drops in one’s core,” I said. The information broker leaned back and stroked his beard.
“That isn’t a normal question. People are asking how to get more drops and that is the regular way to increase one’s chances. This would require some research. Are you looking for a basic investigation or an exhaustive investigation? The first is a rank 3 spirit stone, the other one a rank 4 spirit stone.”
“The exhaustive one,” I replied and pulled out the spirit stone and set it on the table. He picked it up and put it away. “Alright, I will put togeather something for you, will take three days. Is there anything else?”
“No,” I replied and got up and left. I had no idea how they got their information, but my guess was they acted as a middleman to members of the Imperial Sect. They would pay a rank 3 spirit stone for research from a couple of people. Get five or so reports, put it all togeather, and keep the other half of the payment.
While I would have liked being able to put up requests myself, I had no doubt it required a license or a fee of some kind which would make the entire process a massive headache. I had no doubt that was the reason why information brokers existed. And they could just copy the report I got and reuse it in the future. Even if it was old, cultivation land didn’t change that much.
After three days, I returned to the information broker, and he had three sheets for me. He handed them over. “There are only three things listed,” I said.
“There isn’t much. The vast majority of first bottleneck resources are about increasing the number of drops one has. Very rarely do people worry about anything else in regards to their cultivation. Also, such treasures don’t grow on trees. Well, the Nascent Berry grows on a bush, but you get my meaning.”
“I also don’t see prices listed,” I replied.
“These items, they aren’t public items. I did some digging, but they are considered rank 8 treasures,” the information broker said.
“Wait, why? That seems excessive,” I replied.
“You are looking to break through from the fourth to the fifth rank. Making such a difficult process easier, requires resources that would be useful on the path to immortality. That is why they aren’t sold publicly. If you want I can inquire, but just the inquiries won’t be cheap.” That was because old people with vast resources stockpiled up would have to asked if they had one of these items. Just asking required a payment.
I couldn’t wait until I was powerful, then everyone had to pay me for my help or just to talk to me. It was honestly aggravating sometimes, how expensive everything was and the hoops I had to go through to just get some basic questions asked. But I could also see how it would stop riff raff from bother senior cultivators.
“No. That is fine. Nascent Berry is extinct or in a private garden.” I muttered the last bit. I wasn’t about to visit a beast garden again. Once was enough. A second time was just asking for trouble.
“Again, this isn’t something people normally ask for. The other two items are a Stabilizer Ring and Powdered Fairy Dust,” the broker said, and I flipped to those two pages looking them over. The Stabilizer Ring wasn’t what I was looking for. That was for people who had too powerful a core, but not enough motes to stabilize the rest of their body. It wouldn’t be useful.
The Powered Fairy Dust was interesting. “Fairies, a type of beast?” I asked.
“Actually no. Just an incredibly rare creature that has a different path of cultivation. The last sighting of them was during the second age over 200,000 years ago. But it were a well-known resource. It is highly possible some elder cultivator has some of it tucked away somewhere.”
“All useless,” I said, and the information broker shrugged.
“I can say it was an exhaustive search of publicly available information. That doesn’t mean you can request something specifically from an alchemist, but the price won’t be cheap. It will be on the level of the other items or even more expensive,” he explained and I nodded at this while still frowning. I had been hoping for a list, not three useless items.
The Nascent Berry sounded like the best option, or the only option really. “Nascent Berries aren’t grown?”
“It is rank 8 plant. The time and care for it to come to maturity is immense. The best option would be searching the wilderness or something, but as for growing them, the cost is too prohibitive.” That was true, just frustrating. Why couldn’t it be a rank 5 plant or something cheap. A lot of the stuff I wanted was way over my level of cultivation. It made me feel like there was a massive price discrepancy somewhere.
I should be using rank 4 and 5 treasures, not rank 8. But it was the rarity and the use that contributed, not just what stage it was useful at, but that did play a factor. If it was rank 8, it was implied that people could make it that far using such an item, or it would help them reach there. That was why items were priced the way they were. While I knew this, it was still frustrating to be met by extreme costs in every direction.
“Thank you,” I said and got up.
“Not a problem, come back any time.” I wasn’t planning to anytime soon since I didn’t have any more questions that needed to be answered. I then paused and considered something I hadn’t asked. “Something else?” the information broker asked me.
“Yes, do you trade information, if I have information about a demonic sect and one of their bases. Actual information, not speculation.” There was a long pause as the broker considered my question. One of the things I had learned about these people were that they were incredibly meticulous. Each word said was measured with care.
“That would be worthwhile information. I will need some details to assess the information,” he said. I sat back down.
“I know the location of a base of demonic cultivators, from the Demonic Blood Sect. A large base with three entrances, and general formations that guard it and send up an alert when entered. I can give you the location, the probable locations of one entrance, confirming the other two on a map. The place has several elders guarding it, but has a large treasure the demonic cultivators are using to cultivate,” I said.
“You haven’t told the Imperial Sect?” the broker asked.
“They know I encountered a demonic sect, but they weren’t interested in the information,” I replied. The Imperial Sect’s ambivalence was my gain.
“And they can’t just move the base?” the broker asked.
“There is a large cultivation treasure inside the base, which cannot be moved. It is heavily guarded, several cultivators above the fifth rank, but no one in the eighth rank when I was there,” I said. The broker leaned back and folded their hands in front of them. I could tell they were thinking about the value of the information and who they could sell it to.
“Very well, I can offer you a rank 6 spirit stone for the information,” he said. He would have to resell the information and it would take time. In addition, whomever purchased it would have to launch an attack. It wasn’t something that provided an immediate benefit.
“Twenty rank 5 spirit stones,” I countered. That was worth about one and two thirds of a rank 6 spirit stone. It was a decent price increase, but not overly large.
“I can accept that.” He then pulled out several sheets of paper. “I am guessing you don’t have any of this written down?”
“No,” I replied and quickly began writing down everything I could about the base I had snuck into. I even took the time to write down my speculations on the material that made up the base, the roots, the blood pool, the size of the base, the locations of the entrances, and the formations that made up the protections on the base. Making it clear that ambushing someone as they went in was the safest option so the active defenses weren’t turned on, but how there didn’t appear to be anyone permanently on guard duty.
I considered this revenge for the chase I had been put through. I still had to avenge the Cloudy Moon Sect, but this was just one bit of revenge I could leverage. An attack by proxy. While the high ranking sects might use the demonic sects as a deniable attack dogs, the same worked in reverse. There would be no one to bail them out if they were attacked.
This information would no doubt trickle back to the sects near the Blood Forest and they would launch a punitive expedition. The high ranking sect paid out quite a bit for demonic cultivators. A shame, I hadn’t been able to pack up all the corpses myself, but it wasn’t worth the headache for me. For other sects though, it would be easily worth a large investment to show the flag.
By using an information broker in Imperial City, there was no way for the demonic sects would be able to take revenge. The information broker laid out the spirits stones. Before I pocketed them I had one final thing to say.
“I want the information sold, not buried, or sold back to the Demonic Sect under the Blood Forest. I will be publicly releasing this information in a decade,” I said.
“A decade is fine. And it will be passed up the chain. Most likely it will be sold to the sects around the Blood Forest, but I will make a note that the information is only slightly contained. I won’t mention names as per usual, but there will be no expectation that the information will retain its value long term. Nothing less than a decade though.”
“I understand. I don’t want to put you into a spot, but I am quite unhappy with this demonic sect. They deserve to be humbled a bit for their audacity,” I replied while scooping up the spirit stones.
“A pleasure doing business. Come back any time,” the information broker said. I gave them a nod and left. I never got their name, but that was how things worked. While they knew who I was, they wouldn’t spread that information around. If they did, whomever was paying had very deep pockets. And I wouldn’t mind whoever was trying to give me trouble paying a large fee.
Other people would have gone off the rails, thinking about revenge, or launching their own attack. That was idiotic. Revenge, while completely valid, was not something to be rushed into. Not with the amount of strength I was up against. Better to just reveal my enemy’s secrets and let them spread out. If I had given the information away, then the value and authenticity would be questioned.
By selling it, the information broker and his organization would have to resell it to make a profit. I could trust on human greed to see my revenge fulfilled far more easily than if I had run to the nearby sects and told them about the exact same information for free. Even with revenge, working smarter not harder was key.
Once a system was large enough, no matter how chaotic, if it involved people it would eventually be mostly predictable. It was nice to be able to leverage my abilities to strike back against my enemies in a way that wasn’t shooting a gun or violence. Let other people fight. I wanted to trade and make obscene amounts of profit to fuel my journey to immortality.
The vast majority of cultivators had it correct. Fighting was a losing proposition long term. Better to let other people fight on my behalf as proxies against the demonic sect. If I came back with enough wealth, I could hire people to get revenge.
In fact, before I left for the Firmament, I had an amazing idea that would enrage the demonic cultivators, and especially Aoyin. While it was a long shot, never underestimate what someone with experience in the social media age can come up with to troll another person who they disliked. It wasn’t like he could want to kill me more. And chasing me down? That was a laugh the world was a big place.
Once I was done with the third stage of cultivation, everyone from my family would be dead. They would be no more. And that was one thing cultivators did not do, at least high level ones, was wreck mortal cities. Well Aoyin could hire proxies to get revenge, but there was no need to let him know it was me. It would be a long time until I was done cultivating. Memories might not fade completely, but I might not be his first guess.
I would almost feel bad for what I was going to do, but that would indicate that demonic cultivators had anything redeemable about themselves. I didn’t use people as ingredients. Aoyin had a mountain of corpses propping up his cultivation. The demonic cultivators had started this war, and I was going to take the conflict between us in another direction, rather than open fighting.
While I wouldn’t just roll over and die, I was committed to the path of capitalism and not banditry. It was honestly crazy into my sensibilities all the fighting I had been doing. I knew the cultivation world had violence but destroying the sect and chasing after me had put violence into a very clear focus. I had gotten lucky to survive and didn’t want to keep pushing my luck.
Even with the wound I had taken, I had still come out ahead and my cultivation path for the foreseeable future had been cleared. Once I had enough power, I could come back and thank the people who had invested in my future, specifically the Cloudy Moon Sect. My family, I had settled debts there. I had paid out quite a bit on their behalf. I was only in debt to the sect in my mind.
Even with the shares of my business, they had suffered an attack most likely due to me. But it would take a long time. No wonder why it wasn’t wroth having debts to one’s mortal family. While I knew cultivation would take a long time, it was finally settling in how long it would really take.