Yung coughed loudly into his hand, bringing back everyone’s attention from the little girl’s story, and Ziyou Maque, who had a strange look on his face, wheezed back a laugh.
“Even mortals can get dao insights. But they won’t know it since they can’t access their sea of consciousness. Walk fifty li a day? Good chance you’ll get better at walking. Where to step, how to stride, and when to drink water. This is the same for any and all tasks.
“Of course, the being's intelligence and talent also play a large role. A brute who punches stuff every day will have greater success comprehending the dao insights behind his brutality than trying to, say, understand the dao insights of alchemy.”
“My papa likes punching people, and he’s the bestest alchemist working for Uncle Maque.” Another little girl said with pride.
The Free sparrow gang leader burst into laughter, “That he certainly is. That he damn well is! But why do you think he’s different from a mortal brute?”
“He’s a stage 10 Blood refining brute? What’s brute mean?” She asked.
“He has qi and can cultivate!” The first snot-nosed brat raised his hands confidently.
“Is that what brute means?”
“No, dummy. I replied to the question.”
“You’re the dummy. Your whole family are dummies! Dummy dummy dummy—”
"All right, that's enough." Ziyou Maque pulled apart the two grappling kids and sat them at opposite ends of the crowd. "Your Big Brother Yung doesn't have all day."
“It’s fine,” Yung said. “To get back on topic. Snot-nose is right—”
“Hey!”
“Cultivators,” Yung talked over the furious boy’s protests, “have True qi. They have an awakened spirit root and can see what insights they have. Mortals can’t.” Yung took a deep breath, taking note of the time. He’d need to visit the Dim gold citadel after this, “One of the main differences between a cultivator and a mortal is that, with True qi meditation, a cultivator can actively choose which dao principles to explore, to gain comprehension in specific, relevant dao insights.”
Ziyou Maque cracked his fingers. He brought out an empty scroll and a quill before quickly jotting something down.
Yung continued his explanation, “Doing this ‘colours’ the soul in a specific way. Like putting in seasoning. Adding salt to a stew is easy, but taking it away is hard. And if you add sugar after that, it might ruin the flavour. If you gain dao insights into the earth cracking fist, it might become impossible to gain Insights into, for example, the Lunar fury sword of the Malignant moon sword sect.”
“Awwww! That means I can’t learn all martial arts?”
“Choose wisely.” Yung mimicked the little girl’s impression from before, raising another round of giggles.
“This becomes more important when you create dao aspect shards, simply known as dao shards. It’s when you use meditation and True qi to bring the dao insights from the soul boundary inside your sea of consciousness as a tangible ‘intent.’ This completely changes your soul, and it becomes nigh impossible to ever gain dao insights into vastly different dao principles. To create a dao shard, is to choose to commit to a path. Once you start cooking stew with your fish, it’s not as easy to take the mushy fish out and try to grill it over an open flame.”
“I dun wanna!” The snot-nosed brat said, “I am gonna master every martial art and become the strongest!”
“You are going to have to, if you want to reach the Imperfect Heaven 2nd realm. Having a dao shard is the first condition to the foundation or meridian building realms.”
“Bummer.” Wow, he gave up on that dream pretty fast. How flexible.
Ziyou Maque had finished his scribbling. He showed the scroll to others, “This’s what my first dao shard looks like. It’s actually the dao shard of the earth cracking fist.”
The murky orb the gang leader had drawn looked like children’s scribbles, but the squiggles upon them were easy to see. Yung matched it with the life-like illustrations he had seen in scrolls. Dao shards were mysterious objects, pulsing with energy and shrouded in a thick, grey fog inside the sea of consciousness. The intricate runes on its surface usually appeared alive to the cultivator’s senses, twisting and turning like a web of spiritual power.
And according to the masters, they were always an enigma even at the Unfolding Heaven realms, and once formed, they were a force to be reckoned with, impossible to elude or evade.
The squiggles? Precisely the unified dao insights given an intent, a direction to prosper to become a full-fledged dao aspect once the time was ripe.
As a jade carver, a proto-formation master of sorts, Yung had read in the past that runes, arrays, and formations were actually the external approximations of natural dao insights.
“With a dao shard, I can use the earth cracking fist with a fraction of the Origin qi I’d have needed to brute force a boulder to crack, and the effects’ll be much stronger. This also means that while I can’t explore dao principles related to pure fire or pure poison easily, I can have a better time practising martial arts or cultivation techniques with related laws. The water shattering fist’ll be hard. The mountain lord’s lance will be easier. The earth cracking assault might be the easiest. It’s why I’ve gone through the trouble of gathering all the earth and force law related martial arts I could find. So ye brats better be grateful!”
“I’m gonna master every earth cracking martial art and become the strongest earth cracking master ever!” The snot-nosed brat exclaimed, modifying his goal on the go.
How flexible!
***
Yung went to Youjin Liu next
“Does this mean you are interested in at last learning the Youjin clan’s heredity techniques?”
“Uh-huh, I just want to know what shapes—”
“We must give you the Youjin name at once, and from there….”
It took a while to convince the overenthusiastic patriarch that Yung had, in fact, not come to his proper senses, whatever that meant.
Yung also visited the libraries and gathered every depiction of dao shards he could find.
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“This isn’t it.” He ruffled his hair, talking to Silky.
Most dao shards had a simple shape—Squiggly runes inside an opaque orb covered in grey fog that sometimes glowed, kind of like Su Nanya’s missing foxball.
Yung opened the foxfire creek heart sutra. It detailed what one needed to do to advance to the stigmata building realm from the faith refining realm and, finally, the creed formation realm.
“Form dao shards. String them together… and merge them? What’s that look like?”
Another orb, or a core. A condensed one, which the cultivator had to “embody” into either their soul, body, or belief to reach the Unfolding Heaven major realm.
Again! Whatever that even means.
Yung entered his sea of consciousness and looked up at the vast array of stars, creating a near-infinite constellation. It was a fractal, with runes within runes within runes.
Not a dao shard.
“Then what is it?” Yung wondered if he had wasted the last days trying to figure out what his cheat power even did.
He wasn’t sure if his abilities, such as link sight and Empathic reading, and even this giant fractal constellation in his sea of consciousness came from Silky or Moira.
“Kii~Kuu.”
“You had a smaller fractal?” He concentrated on the rolling foxmoth, “So the Empathic and celestial links are new, but the null threads were always there?”
“Kii.” The critter nodded, swimming in the True qi pool.
“So after the event of my transmigration, or maybe due to it, your smaller fractal constellation exploded to this size.”
Yung shook his head, dropping the matter.
I am important people! I transmigrated, so what if Youjin Chao got a golden halo? I got a golden fractal constellation and, more importantly, a golden thigh to hug!
Yung had wasted enough time and didn’t have a new skill or proficiency to show for it. He decided to delve deeper into the fractal constellation later.
For now, he had a weapon to choose.
***
“Is Master Yung certain?” The auction house elder asked. He was an old man in the foundation building realm. And according to gossip, he was a distinguished businessman too, and was currently dressed in exquisite Youjin robes that spoke of his status and experience. Despite his age, with deep wrinkles lining his face, he had a warm and approachable demeanour, with a friendly smile and a firm handshake with his steady, ring-adorned hands. His eyes twinkled with intelligence and shrewdness, and his hair, though grey, was neatly groomed, giving him a professional appearance.
He was also one of the elders who didn’t hesitate to give Yung a drawing of his dao shards.
"I can't use it," Yung tried to lift the common class Unfolding Heaven 1st grade sword artefact. It was heavier than an elephant. "Like, at all!"
“Kii~”
“Yeah, this Malignant moon sword replica,” Yung grunted, letting the sword drop with a thud, “is useless to me.”
It worked on either Spirit qi or Origin qi, not Heart qi. Stupid non-inclusive sects pandering only to the majority! Why even give this to me in the first place?
“Sell it!” He said with gritted teeth. “It’s not a mystical artefact. It can’t run on my lower-quality qi either, even if I had Spirit qi.”
“This one fears that the Malignant moon sword sect might take offence.” The elder said.
“That sounds like a them problem,” Yung said. But he couldn’t ignore the real threat of violence. “Ugh, OK. What do you suggest?”
“Well,” The elder stroked his silky beard, “how about a trade?”
“I’m listening.”
“Our Dim gold auction house might be able to, shall we say, reach out to the Zheng clan and see if they have any suitable items that Master Yung could use.”
“They do seem adept at Heart qi.” Yung nodded.
“The house keeps this artefact—”
“Wait,” Yung raised his hand, “You aren’t trying to fleece me, right? I’ve asked the fox yao for this sword’s true value. It would cost about four steelcast spirit stones.”
That’s forty-thousand lesser spirit stones. Yung needed to be specific here, “Though miss Yafeng said that at a premium, half a silvercast spirit stone suits the price better, at fifty thousand lesser spirit stones.”
“Why, certainly it does!” The elder said, “And the house will trade with Master Yung at a premium. We only ask that we trade the Zheng clan using house assets, not this sword. We will reimburse Master Yung with whatever Heart qi artefacts we can gather, including the right price in spirit stones.”
“How soon can you get them?”
“For Heart qi artefacts, our house stores three that gather dust in the warehouse. How about Master Yung takes them today? For the rest. I would promise, before the first phase of the sect recruitment? I would assume that we can trade with the Zheng clan by then too, or we will happily pay the penalty.”
“No penalties. I’d like to trust you on this.”
The elder smiled with an elegant bow, then brought out a blood spirit contract with the Youjin insignia, “Your trust won’t be misplaced, Master Yung.”
***
“How preposterous,” Nanya muttered, opening her eyes. “We have broken through. Our struggles seem so meaningless, if only we were to succumb to the offered pleasure.”
“Congratulations,” Su Yafeng clapped. “At this rate, you’ll be ready to challenge the tribulation again. Does m’lady plan to recover Madam Floofykin’s real core?”
“We find no revelry in doing our servant’s work for them.” Nanya huffed, unclenching her palm, then clenching it again, a look of wonder in her eyes.
"Honestly, m'lady should just succumb to pleasure." Su Yafeng said, pointing at the artefact showing Su Xiya gnawing on a bangle with gusto. With each bite, a bit of Nanya's golden qi would enter it, empowering the effects. "You already enjoy it, so what is left but to admit it?"
“Insolent!”
***
Yung walked out of the auction house’s back door towards their artefact testing yard with a sword, a bangle, and a crossbow.
All three used Heart qi.
The sword was the strongest; a rare class Imperfect Heaven 1st grade artefact. Yung could use it even after he reached the late or peak stages of the faith refining realm.
The other two were in the common class, perfect for the current him.
“I don’t know how to use a crossbow though.” Yung muttered.
The crossbow had an intricate design, with white wood as the base material, and golden alloy for the metal inlays, gleaming with qi-richness. It had a unique shape that seemed to be ornamental in nature, as its reflection shimmered in the light and left an air of opulence in its wake.
And it shot pellets, not bolts, which weren’t included with the purchase.
“Sword it is, then.”
Yung was a jade carver. But he was still a cultivator first. Before regaining his memories, he practised a basic sword art alongside that horrid severed yang nine forms every morning.
“Kiii ki ki~.”
Yung facepalmed at the mere memory. Ugh, dual cultivation… Stop laughing, Silky!
He hoisted the sword. It looked like a Tang Dao. It had a double-edged blade with a single fuller running along its length. It was slightly curved at the tip and was faintly wider at the guard. The guard had a distinctive “S” shape, and the handle had brown leather wrapping on it. The entire sword was made of bronze and had a deep shine that reflected light.
He swooshed it left, then swished it right. He practised the motions of the sword art with ease. The blade was not as heavy as it seemed.
“Whoa!”
When Yung imbued Heart qi, the blade shone with a liquid radiance. It hummed and buzzed like electric arcs. Yung swung again, and by coincidence, it cut straight through an Empathic link connecting him to a nearby auction house guard.
“How useless!” It cost three times the Heart qi it would have if Yung had used his finger.
The sword, when energised with Heart qi, would create a chain-saw-like edge. It looked cool as heck. But it was a qi whore, each use almost devouring Yung’s Heart qi reserves by the tenths. That was to be expected, with it being a rare class artefact.
Yung would have to use it as a normal stab-stick.
“Well, it is sharp.”
“Kii?”
“Yeah, and pointy.”
“Kii~.”
Maybe I can stealth in and backstab?
He would test it out tomorrow during his first real excursion into the forest.
Yung tried to take the bangle from Floofy next.
“Woof!”
“No, bad Floofy. I need to test this.”
“Grr.”
The grey fluff had taken a keen interest in playing bone with it. After some struggle, Yung dislodged it from her mouth, but the bangle now dripped in saliva. It looked unscratched otherwise.
The bangle was a simple metal band made of silver with a swirling pattern etched into it. It had no gems or ornate designs, but it gave off a faint glow. The array on it was subtle, catching the light in a way that showed off the skill of its maker, but not bright enough to catch attention. When infused with Heart qi, this defensive artefact formed a modest protective barrier around the user. It had an effect similar to Silky’s barrier, which had saved Yung from the wretched hornbeasts.
He channelled Heart qi into it. And the opaque barrier appeared, covering his form like a layer of clothes.
“There’s not much else I can do.”
He was satisfied with this the most. The safer he was, the more confident he felt.
“Woof!” Floofy jumped up and snatched the bangle back again, before running off with a whimper.
Yung scratched his head, then ran after the fox. It was only late that night did he get the artefact back, and by that point, it had been chewed until one part was lopsided.
… he still equipped it. Safety first!