With my arm still splayed out in a T-pose, I become starkly aware that I have to be careful in how I present myself from this point.
People watching me now assume that this is some type of training or meditation. Well humorous to me it might be best if I play it off, but only if there’s actual benefits to this.
Using my scan, I’m able to see that there are some benefits, but only if they practice certain aspects of this. The stillness and holding of the breath are one of the major ones. Luckily for me, being able to hold your breath for 3 hours or more isn’t that crazy in a cultivation world. Especially for those who have done body cultivation to the extent that I ‘have’.
With this plan in mind, I orient my face towards the two young men in front of me and give them a quick spiel of the benefits of the pose that I have. All while not lowering my arms or opening my eyes. They seem more fearful and respectful, since they now know I could hear them.
To put them at ease, I give them permission to share this with others, but that won’t always be the case. I do also note that they can’t expect wolves to submit to them, as that is a personal quirk of mine.
With this, they run off towards the camp to share the news. The cultivator that was watching continues to focus in on me, obviously wondering what I will do now.
Well, I obviously can't tame these wolves in front of me.
If they see that the wolves just came into contact with me and then eventually gain intelligence and cultivation, without giving them anything, that would be super suspicious.
As long as I have a good chance that I’m being watched, I’ll need to hold off on things like that.
The wolves still submitted to me though, so I should probably do something for them.
I look around for the leader of this pack, and as I find them, I can see the slightest bit of intelligence in them. Nothing even close to the spiders’ level, but it's likely they would be able to understand instructions.
I speak clearly and with motions, to tell this wolf to let their pack wait here for a moment. It takes a bit of work, but it seems to understand.
I run over to the fort I made for the weakened people, quickly put the people that are already there at ease and take a portion of the meat I have there back over to the wolves.
Showing they understood me, they're still sitting there. They seem to be a little anxious. When I come back with the meat, they seem excited.
Before I give any to them, I get the leaders' attention. I point to the place that the injured people were, making sure they understand that I'm talking about anyone who's injured. I shake my head and indicate they shouldn't attack them.
The leader seemed completely understanding of what I was saying earlier, but now they're playing dumb. Like a cute dog, they're tilting their head in confusion.
Obviously, I can't have that.
I heave a great sigh and walk over to the dirt area of the path. On my left shoulder are the mounds of meat, which their eyes follow closely. On my right, I have an open hand.
Heading over to the nearest small-medium sized tree, I clench my open hand into a fist, before slamming it into the wood, using my scan to make the optimal hit for my goals.
Like the previous time, the wood partially explodes, though, this time away from me. The top portion of the tree shoots out and launches deep into the dirt like a stake.
I take a glance back at the wolves; they are extremely fearful. The leader got the message and is showing signs of submission.
The cultivator that was watching is still observing, but what I’ve done is still within the range of ability I’ve already shown.
However, I forgot about my durability.
Dang, they’ll likely see that I’m even more durable than most, even with the level of ‘body cultivation’ I’m at.
Since I’ve made my message clear, I tossed the meat to them.
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They don’t move.
I motion towards the leader that they can eat, and then they dive into it.
I brought more than enough food for them to last for quite a while. Specifically, until everyone from this round of the test is done.
From this point, I shouldn’t have any more issues with them. Just before I go, I show to the leader to have his pack attack any other animals that try to prey on the people on the path. It looks like they already do so, so this shouldn’t be too big of a change from their normal habits.
I spend the rest of the time collecting the rest of the people and bringing them to the Fort.
I can’t help but think to myself how much time being in the soul space technically took for me. While it was ultimately a boon, because of all I was able to learn from my scan, now I don’t have as much time to create the alchemical ingredients. The amount that I can make will be much less than I thought. I begin the trek back to my actual team's Fort and where the hero team is holding off any potential thieves.
What I actually come back to is a small pile of unconscious men, slightly webbed, in front of the gate of the Fort. It looks like they’ve been beaten up as well.
Sitting near the fire is a giant stone vat set up, reminding me of a witch’s cauldron. It’s exactly what I needed to start my work.
Sitting proudly next to it is the hero group. To my guess, they set this up so I could just get back to work as soon as I got here. Not only that, but their group seems to have gone out and collected a large number of the ingredients I needed to start the concoction. Of course, they left the other two to defend the fort, while one of them went out.
This is actually going to save me a large amount of time, since I won’t have to collect all the ingredients and materials for the processing area, build it, and then put it together in an organized way, which could take more than several hours or so. And it is already deep into the night, with everything being pitch dark.
Funnily enough, making the concoction doesn’t take that long. I was more worried on about the collection and getting things prepared so it would work correctly.
Because of their work, this has removed most of the downside from my spending time in the soul space.
“You guys… you’re the best. Really. Thank you.”
At my telepathic words and happy smile at them, they beam like a laser pointer in my eyes. I can’t look straight at them, it’s so blinding.
After coming from that mess of torture and demonic cultivator stuff, this is just like a balm to my soul. Literally.
As a beginning reward, I go up to each of them and give them enthusiastic head pats.
For Dana, this involves giving a big hug and then head squishes. It was sort of like massaging dough, honestly. When I first started, she was a little firmer, but by the end, was like silly putty. The soft moans, intakes of breath, and cries of happiness were a lot of fun to hear. And also felt much too like a sexy phone line call.
I spent a little too much time on Dana.
Knowing that I now have to spend the same time on each of them, I decided it was worth it. They saved me more than enough time to spend it on them.
And even if they didn’t, they deserve it for all they do.
Ru Ning loves belly scritches. He automatically rolled onto his back and requested it. A man who knows what he wants.
I’ll admit, hearing a manly telepathic voice crying out in pleasure, saying “yes, Yes, YES”, was not what I imagined this would be like.
He did a lot of work, though, and unlike Dana, there didn’t seem to be any weird tension there. He just really likes belly scritches.
Finally, Tai Ying got a full body brushing. Her soft hairs on her leg are pretty dangerous, but I took the time to pet and brush her all over her body. As a giant spider, I was really unsure of how to make her happy, but this seemed like the best way.
The coos and happy sounds from her had none of the tension from Dana. Just simple delighted sounds.
At the end of it all, they seemed highly pleased.
Even the rest of my group that came with us seemed to want to pet them after seeing their responses.
This is all that I’ll do for them for now, but I’ll make sure to give them some gifts once we’re in a better position to do so.
However, it’s time to get to work, so I can hurry up this mountain.
With this in mind, I pull something out of my bag that had a suspicion I might need.
It’s the hole-ridden pot I bought from the market. It’s able to increase the level of any alchemy products that made with it. While this doesn’t mean that it would go up a rarity or tier level, it means that it would be a better version than the average.
This is helpful in my current situation, because it means I can get more out of this for fewer materials.
Placing the pot in the center of the larger cauldron, I began putting in ingredient after ingredient into the pot and mashing it up. While the normal recipe that the cultivators likely expected any applicants to use is part of this, there’s a huge number of other ingredients that need to be used to increase the efficacy for this many people.
Most interesting interactions are with the plants that have Qi and naturally create high heat from it (when prepared in a certain way).
This is the reason that I’m not needing a fire for this concoction. As I mash up ingredients, I can see part of it bubbles, then let off steam. To counter this, I put in large amounts of water which fill in the pot and then the surrounding cauldron. As the temperature stabilizes into a high heat, I mix the ingredients in different ways to reach these concoctions end state.
What this ends up looking like is a deep purple color in the pot area, and then the surrounding cauldron is a light purple hue.
What I’ll draw from is that center purple area. Because of the special properties of this, anything outside of the pot will actually be drawn up into it. It reminds me sort of like a magnetic force, defying gravity as it heads towards the center.
The whole time I’ve been doing this, the cultivator from before has been watching me. Judging by my actions.
If my identity hasn’t been revealed yet, I’d be surprised.
I’ve committed to this, though, and this will only reap benefits. But only if I do this right.