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After Lingfeng and myself reached the Mayor’s Office, and respectively, the jail cell of the Blood Cultist, we asked to be left alone with the man once again.
He was currently unconscious, but that did not bother me for what I wanted to test. I went into Qi-Vision mode, and I immediately noticed that even though his physical left arm and leg were both missing, as they have been ripped off by the Ancient Evil, his meridian pathways for those limbs were still present, hanging out of the body like some sort-of ghost appendages.
I always did wonder how the meridians actually associated themselves with the body, since dissecting a person and looking for the meridians yielded no results, but they were still obviously THERE somehow. It's like they were located in another layer of reality that was superimposed over our three-dimensional universe, but not totally separated from it.
Maybe they were simply in the Fourth Dimension? I was never a person that subscribed to the line of thought that was the current "mainstream" in the Physics schools of Earth, which considered Time as the fourth dimension. Instead, I believed that there were more than just the three “geometrical” dimensions that the classic x-y-z that we are used to, with the “w” dimension/direction in which you could move an object being the fourth one.
The main reason which led me to believe that stuff was simply being tossed in the Fourth Dimension came from the Qi vision itself. Whenever I opened my “mind's eye” to gaze at the Qi, I was always able to see THROUGH objects, instead of the Qi becoming simply blocked by the line of sight, as it would have been the case for a simple three-dimensional eye.
Our human eyes are indeed three-dimensional objects, but they can only perceive a flat bi-dimensional image of the environment, a “jpeg screenshot” of the world that is left upon the retina when light falls upon it. The sensation of “depth” that us humans feel is simply the difference between the left-eye jpeg and the right-eye jpeg, which both see a slightly different image, causing the brain to extract certain “depth” information out of the difference. But even though we can perceive depth, the combined “photomerge” jpeg outcome is still a bi-dimensional FLAT image in the end.
A real Four-Dimensional eye on the other hand would be able to see objects in “true” three dimensions, which would include seeing the insides of any objects, which was exactly what was happening during Qi-vision.
If my my Fourth Dimension theory was right, then all of the other strange occurrences we had encountered so far could have easily been explained, like for example what was happening to all of the items once they were getting “stored” inside of a spatial ring, as the Mother System would simply yank an object outside of the current Three-Dimensional “layer” and move it into the fourth, making it look like the item had just disappeared from the world, when it had simply been moved in another “direction” that we couldn't perceive instead.
It could also explain how those Cultists that we had fought back at the Blue Mountain of Books Sect had been able to expand their own size without defying the law of conservation of mass, as the expanded body would have simply just been just another cross-section of their real 4D body which had simply been moved in the 4D space to present a thicker “projection” of oneself in our 3D reality layer.
To make you understand, whenever a 3D object would encounter a bi-dimensional plane, a 2D “cutout” or cross-section of the whole 3D object would be the only thing that the hypothetical inhabitants of that 2D plane would be able to see. Expanding on that by adding another geometrical dimension, the visible cross-section of a 4D object when observed by the inhabitants of a 3D “plane of existence” would also be a 3D object, yet it would be only a “slice” of the “real” 4D object.
It would also explain how creatures like Dragons or Spirit Beasts were able to shapeshift from their animalistic appearances and gain a humanoid body, as the “humanoid” appearance would simply be just another cross-section of the creature's true 4D-body that was being presented to the 3D world, instead of their animalistic one.
The implications of everything being 4D was a can of worms that I really did not want to open at this moment though, so I refocused my attention on the problem that I had come here for.
Attempting to force any kind of Qi upon the unconscious Cultist ended up in failure, because his natural “spirit membrane” was active all over his body, shielding the “internals” from my direct interference including his dantians, even if I intended the poking and prodding to be a positive one, like giving him White-Qi.
I had to find a way to bypass that “living membrane”, but my branch-tentacles were currently too weak to pierce through, no matter how hard I tried, as they simply bounced off. I had to get myself some more “specialised” branch-tentacles for such an “operation”, so I left Lingfeng with the prisoner and went to see Yi Gore, as he was quite a brilliant Engineer when it came to tools and prosthetics. I found him at the Temple courtyard shooting red Demons while atop of his donkey with some sort of a sling-like attachment that had been extended from his mech-arm, and laughing his midget ass off.
I interrupted his evil cackle as he put a rock right through the eye of a Hellbound, and also got some of the other Guardsmen to take a break. Only about 5-6 people were really needed to be active at the same time to keep the Dungeon overflow at bay, so we split our current forces into four “shifts” that would take turns throughout the day, with 6 hours of combat-duty and 18 hours of rest on the other side, so that nobody would get “burned out”. The nearby homes of the Monks and the decorated Temple itself could be both used as makeshift rest-areas, since the only place where the Monsters were coming from was the staircase of the Old Monastery, which led to the catacombs below.
I was rather surprised that they had not done this before, since it was the most basic form of defense against the demons that spawned from below that I could think of, but the then Guardsmen explained to me that it hadn’t been that simple at first, since the first batch of invaders, the Blood Cultists, had been a lot more powerful than the “trash mobs” that were currently coming from below.
The Cultists had all been decently-high level Cultivators and Magic Users in one form or another, which was something that the village Guardsmen would have not been able to handle. I mean, the Cultist group had been strong enough to clear the location of the former Dungeon that Lingfeng had mentioned as being somewhere in the nearby hills with lvl 35+ Bosses at the end, and then steal the Dungeon Core from there. They had also subdued the magisterial guards which had been defending the visiting Magistrate, so they had obviously been no weaklings. Of course, against the attacks that they had received from an Ancient Evil their levels hadn’t meant shit, but it would have been a different story if they had fought against the village Guardsmen instead, as the Cultists would have probably won.
Fortunately, all of the Cultists, minus the jailed one, were presumably dead, so that only left the Dungeon-Overflow for us to deal with.
After finishing the shift arrangements, I took Yi Gore and Carmine back to the Smithy building, to design some plans for my “branch-tentacle-of-piercing” that I needed for dealing with the spirit-shields of any living creatures. Qi-strings could be woven in all sorts of shapes before being inserted into the permeable membrane of a branch-tentacle, but the more complex “shapes” needed to be designed beforehand. It was like creating a scaffolding for the way the end-product needed to look like, so it wasn’t as simple as before. Yi Gore kept trying to multitool every design, but Carmine kept butting heads with him, saying that sometimes simple was the best, and that there was no need to overcomplicate things.
In the end, since it was my own branch-tentacles that were getting modified here, I went with a middle-path approach, which seemed to satisfy both. Any tools that could be double or triple-purposed I would construct that way, but besides that I would keep everything to a minimalistic design. I went with a corkscrew design for a piercing implement, since I did not need to STAB my target, but rather I needed to pry it open slowly. The next implement was similar to a knife’s blade, except that on one side it was sharp while on the other it was jagged like a wood-saw plus the blade-tip was hooked like a can-opener, to allow for grabbing Qi-threads with it. Another tool I shaped like a hammer-pick with a pointy end at one side and a flat blunt surface at the other, as I would probably need to do some smashing to get through a living spirit-shield. To accompany the hammer, I also created a chisel-like tool that could double as a flat-head screwdriver. The more difficult builds had been the shears and the pliers though, as I had been forced to create something that looked almost like a crab’s claw nail-remover when it came to the pliers, and it hadn’t been a very satisfactory outcome. Sure, it could do its basic job of grasping, but there was not enough power behind the jaw-clamp for anything forceful, as the thing was missing the leverage that a real pair of pliers could manifest.
So for the shears, I did something decently stupid instead. I plopped a hole through two of my branch-tentacles, so I could use the hole in the middle as a pivoting point for the “blades” of the shears.
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The way I had managed that had been rather surprising, as I had found a new way to mess with the spirit-tentacles while experimenting. It seems that certain “magic” items could indeed interfere with my ghostly appendages, unlike “normal” items. Carmine had been the one to propose that idea, as she had picked one of the more “glowy” blades from the pile of items that she had created overnight. It was a simple dagger as well, but it was a Rare “Sanctified” item, with 3 properties on it. The real gimmick of the thing though, was its ability to interfere with spiritual entities, as the blade could cut through incorporeal things like ghosts or wraiths just like it could cut through real bodies, so it was an awesome weapon. Going into Qi-vision revealed to me the item had a spirit-structure of its own, an overlay upon the metal that was similar to the meridians of a living creature, albeit showing as a simplified runic-circuit form, so that explained where the interference was coming from.
Trying to poke and prod at it with my tentacles showed that it could indeed damage them, which was something of an eye opener. It meant that I would have to pay very close attention to my enemies weapon-quality and magic properties from now on, if I wanted to keep my root-tentacles intact.
On the upside though, I now asked Carmine to create a hole-stamping tool for me of a similar Rare-Sanctified quality, which she immediately produced within a few minutes. I then laid one of my ghostly branch-tentacles on the anvil, and violently stamped a hole into the side of the thing using the new tool. It hurt like hell, and I immediately rushed afterwards to “stitch up” the leftover hole with Qi-threads in a similar way to an ear-piercing, to keep it forcibly open, but in the end I had gained two new “shear” blades that could be used around a pivot, literally giving me access to an efficient spiritual-trimming tool. It was about time to do something about my overgrown roots anyway, at least before they started damaging me, and these tools would most certainly help with that.
Still, my main focus was still related to bypassing the life-shield that all creatures manifested, so I went back to the Mayor’s office with my new “tools” in tentacle, to experiment on the Blood Cultist once more.
Lingfeng was still waiting for me there, and was currently having a lore-talk with the Cultist, which had seemed to regain his consciousness while I had been away. I also began to listen to their talk, and was surprised at the contents. Blood-magic was seemingly a vast field, and there were a huge number of things that one could do with it, but it also came at a dire cost. What piqued my interest though had been the talks about Blood-Alchemy that they were currently discussing about, which was apparently a “hidden” tree of the regular old Alchemy which dealt with “Blood Essence” recipes, and was usually a forbidden practice for the obvious reasons and implications.
Upon hearing the contents of the talk, Timmy had also prompted me with the “unlock” option for the Blood-Alchemy “tree”, and had even added to my general “list” of currently-known recipes some of the craftable items that had been described by the Cultist, which were incredibly valuable. Some of the Blood-recipes affected only the “bloodgiver” himself, and some affected everybody, but I was currently interested mostly in the “selfish” aspect, which would have only required my own blood for the mixtures.
The most intriguing recipes the Cultist had spilled out were some that reduced the Pill Poison on any permanent Stat-Increase potions, which would allow the imbiber to gain more Stat points by chugging elixirs before hitting the “not worth the stat-loss” ceiling cap. It was apparently the reason why the Blood Cultists were so much stronger than the rest of the other people, since they had been all “boosted” by a large amount by using Blood-Alchemy potions to compensate for their lack of levels with increased stats.
Another interesting recipe he had described was the Blood-Attuned Healing potion, which had no cooldown, and restored a lot more HP and BI than any regular potion, since it had already been “attuned” to the user’s body because of the donated Blood Essence contained within, causing very little of the medicinal effects to get lost while imbibed.
Our current prisoner had seemingly been the group’s Alchemist, and that’s why he was so knowledgeable in this particular domain, but also lacking in any other aspects, as those other facets of the ritual like the runic magic and formations had been “covered” by other the guys that had died already. I could only grit my teeth in anger at their sheer folly, as a lot of valuable information had died with them and was basically lost forever, info that could have been used to HELP people instead of murdering them, as it was obvious from the descriptions of the Blood-Potions. Again, an obvious case of tool-misuse. Don’t blame the runic circle, blame the idiot scribbling it instead!
Still, I was glad that Lingfeng had gotten the guy talking, as I now had another card in my hands which I would be able to play, and it could even turn out to be a fucking Joker card that could turn the whole game upside-down if those recipes were indeed real. I knew for a fact that NO PILL POISON stat boosters were a real thing, as it was one of the requirements for completing the meta-quest for the Alchemy profession. If I could get my hands on some of those, then they could become the game-breaker that I was looking for, and maybe even allow us to get Fung’s ass onto the Emperor’s throne in the end.
Still, there was another thing required for that, so I cut their discussion off when it had veered away from the Alchemy subject, and I simply told the Cultist what I wanted to do to him, which was to use him as a guinea pig for my whacky theories. He did not seem that surprised, and even seemed cooperative somewhat. “Anything to atone for my sins.” he said remorsefully.
I was again beginning to feel empathy for the guy, until I reminded myself that this dude had killed people in cold blood including children, so I refocused back on my task. I immediately then took out my newly-gained branch-tentacle tools, and went to work on the guy.
After a bit of test-poking and prodding at his spirit membrane, I finally hammered the drill hard into the surface, piercing through the “outer shell” of the spirit-lifeshield by force, then I began widening the hole to allow more of my branch tentacles to go within the body. The guy said that he had barely felt that, until I touched one of his meridians, which made him jump-up like being electrocuted. Apparently, THOSE acted like the nerves of the “spirit body” instead, so I would need to avoid touching those if I were to ever do this to any other “normal” non-enemy target as well. Stil, the “real” test was the next thing, as I immediately poked his insides while holding in the grasp of my branch-tentacles a bunch of White Qi, and then I propped the White Qi-motes across the spirit barrier which separated the external world from the Cultist’s Crown dantian.
As I saw the white Qi slip inside of the Cultist's dantian, I immediately realised that I was right with my presumption. People could indeed be force-fed White Qi, once their life-barrier had been circumvented.
After I retracted my branch-tentacle tools, the life-shield simply closed-up all by itself, looking like brand-new in only a couple of minutes.
Ok, so that’s one item on “the list” confirmed. Good. Ok, now I needed an unawakened volunteer, preferably an adult one, since I did not feel like experimenting on children, nor were they of any use even if I did manage to do something to them. The best target I could think of was that Monk which wanted to “smash some demon heads” that had shown me around the village yesterday. For some reason, I kept forgetting to ask for his name.
I rushed back up the hill once more to get to the Temple, but fortunately it wasn’t that far, barely a few hundred meters away from the village, and the landscape had been cleared of any apparent dangers. Once I got there, I found my target among the people that were “resting”, as his “shift” to guard the staircase would only come 6 hours later. When I asked him whether he was willing to assist me in my dubious endeavour, he had immediately agreed, as if somehow me being a “fellow Buddhist” and disciple of “Brother Zhang” disallowed me from doing anything wrong.
Somehow, I wished I still had such purity of heart, but I had already been unfortunately “tainted” by the Earth’s media and my shitty introduction to this world, which had caused me to become a rather cynical guy that put the bad ahead of the good in most situations. I also finally asked for his name before it slipped my mind, and he told me that it was Quan Jiao, which made me laugh, since it literally meant “punching and kicking” in one version of the verbal translation.
Taking him into another room, I asked the others to leave us alone, as I proceeded to “operate” on the guy. I took out some “pure” spirit stones, to fuel my experiment with, and then I pierced through his life-barrier in an instant, giving me access to his crown-dantian, inside which I began to “shovel” White-Qi until he began feeling something. Only after the Crown Dantian was ¼ full, did he actually begin to feel anything, and only after I had filled it halfway did he begin to laugh, saying that it tickled.
Ok, so he WAS sensing something after all! That was HUGE! I kept going until his Dantian was full, and I could see that his spirit-roots were visibly beginning to grow, as they kept hungrily absorbing the White-Qi, and becoming more and more “alive” compared to their former withered selves. Quan kept telling me what he felt every step of the way, and at the end, he had been absolutely ecstatic, as he could now feel the rush of Qi that was filling his spirit-root, and even the extra Qi that was now residing in his Crown Dantian, confirming that he had indeed “awakened”, as far as the general standards for such a thing were. Of course, I was probably the only person in the world that was able to do such a thing at this moment, given my “specialised” tools and weird cultivation methods. Also, I don’t think anyone would have ever thought of “cracking the head open and pouring Qi down the hole” as a valid awakening method besides an otherworlder.
With one victory under my belt, I then proceeded to do the same thing to all of the other Monks and Guardsmen, leaving them absolutely stunned and gaping at their newfound powers, as everybody could now “feel the heavens” within themselves. Sure, some had been more difficult than the others to “awaken”, as they had required more Qi before they had felt anything, but none had “failed” to do so as of yet. I knew that I would be laughing my ass-off when I would begin to teach them the “proper” methods for cultivating, as only then would they be able to realise how huge their own potential truly was. Seeing me “awaken” everybody, Lingfeng had simply smiled with a bitter-sweet expression on his face, like almost saying “I knew you could do it”, so I immediately felt the need to have another talk with him about his overconfidence in my abilities as a “Blessed Child” as soon as possible.
Still, one set of Guardsmen and Monks down, an entire village to go! Time to “crack some heads” for the Emperor! I had an entire army of Cultivators to create out of nothing as quickly as possible!