“Many thanks for your treatment, Senior Sister. I will not forget the kindness you have shown me.” Zeng Fei bowed in his bed.

This made Dai Xinyue chuckle. “No need - this is my job. If you wish to show gratitude towards someone, do it towards Sun Ru; she was the one who brought you here.”

This name didn’t bring up much in Zeng Fei’s mind; besides her appearance, all the original had known about Sun Ru were a few rumours.

“Yes, of course - I’ll be sure to personally thank her.” Zeng Fei cleared his throat. “And do you happen to know anything about Dong Fu?”

Dai Xinyue gave a wide yawn and stretched her arms out. “Yes, Junior Sister Sun informed the Elders about what had happened. After a prompt investigation, they concluded Dong Fu was at fault.”

Dai Xinyue’s expression turned thoughtful. “Truth be told, I’ve treated Junior Brother Dong and the people he’s fought many times in the past, so I did feel it was out of character for him to target someone far weaker than himself and in such a tyrannical manner too. I can only imagine there must have been a deep grievance between you two to have caused this.”

‘Nope, but there is now’, Zeng Fei held himself back from saying.

“The Elders must have thought likewise, for they have punished him with a month of forced seclusion, which—

“—isn’t a punishment,” Zeng Fei finished off for her.

Although he hadn’t expected much from the Elders, it still stung to hear how blatantly they showed their favour towards Dong Fu, and no doubt because he was far more promising in their eyes than Zeng Fei, a weakling with pitiable growth and no backers.

Dai Xinyue gave a sympathetic look. “Right. Given the timing, it’s effectively a reward by forcing him to focus on his training during the month leading up to the Outer Sect Tournament. But on the plus side, at least you won’t have to worry about getting targeted again over the next month, and perhaps longer if he moves up to the Inner Sect. Though should he fail to…”

She left the sentence unfinished, to which Zeng Fei gave a small nod to show that he understood.

“So if I were in your situation, I would seek to preemptively mend matters with Junior Brother Dong; although that may sound daunting, I have found him to be a more thoughtful and reasonable person than his appearance would suggest. Of course, if you’re unwilling to take that step, I recommend you think up ways of making yourself small and unnoticeable should he return next month.”

“Many thanks, Senior Sister,” Zeng Fei relayed in a sincere tone, bowing once more. “I’m touched by your concern, and will take your advice to heart,”

Something must have told her that he had no intention of even remotely considering her suggestions, however.

Sighing loudly, she made for the door. “Well, it’s all up to you. Ultimately, we must make our own decisions in life; I just hope you won’t come to regret yours, Junior Brother Zeng.”

Zeng Fei did not respond, waiting until she was gone to allow his lips to curve into a wry smile.

He wasn’t scared of Dong Fu failing in the Outer Sect Tournament and sticking around in the Outer Sect for longer; he was scared of Dong Fu succeeding there and scuttling off to the Inner Sect. Such an outcome would massively delay his revenge given the minimal interaction between the Inner and Outer Sect Disciples.

While Zeng Fei could rely on luck to hope that Dong Fu wouldn’t ascend, it would be better for him to enter the tournament himself: that way, either Dong Fu would be knocked out by someone else, or enjoy successive victories and run into Zeng Fei.

Granted, this did mean Zeng Fei would also have to power himself up from the lowest layer of Qi Refining to the highest layer in a single month, which was nothing short of fantastical, but then again so was accomplishing 30% of the first layer in two hours!

Going at the ungodly cultivation speed he’d discovered yesterday, he believed he could achieve the impossible.

Or at least this is how Zeng Fei felt for several beats until he happened to scan his body - to confirm that it really was healed up as Senior Sister Dai had said - and in the process discovered something not quite right: his cultivation was 10% of the way through the first layer, not 30%.

He’d lost two-thirds of his gains overnight…

Although many elements of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art had previously confounded Zeng Fei, this was the first time he felt so baffled that his brain simply short-circuited and blanked out.

When finally he brought himself back together, still reeling from the shock, he directed his divine sense around his body in search of answers, though finding none.

So he then sent his divine sense into the dantian itself, towards where his cultivation base was pooled.

This attempt looked just as futile until he chanced upon an ephemeral tendril leading away from the cultivation pool; it almost looked like a hose someone had snuck in to drain his watering hole…

As to who that rapscallion might be, Zeng Fei had a bad feeling about it when he noticed the tendril led into his domain.

Entering, he was greeted by the sight of snowfall as far as the eye could see (which, admittedly, was not very far in the small domain).

There was a sense of power in the scene that made him question whether this was ordinary snow, becoming more convinced that it wasn’t when he observed how the snow on the ice sheet was thinnest at the edges of the domain and thickest… by a certain penguin.

In fact, if you paid particularly close attention, you could see that the snow on the ground itself was moving, converging on the miscreant as though getting carried by invisible ants, and that the snow immediately beneath the scoundrel was disappearing into his body as though being siphoned in.

Wallace and Gromit had been right all along: penguins everywhere were fowl little deviants who’d trick you without a moment’s hesitation for their gain!

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing in here?”

Startled out of his meditation, Pingu looked about and waved cheerily on seeing Zeng Fei. “Sqwuak!”

At any other time, this sweet Club-Penguin-esque gesture would have endeared Zeng Fei; in the current context, however, it looked more like a taunt. It was as if he’d just caught the thief who’d embezzled his money red-handed, only to discover they were totally chipper and glib about the whole thing.

Zeng Fei refused to fall for the ‘It’s just a big misunderstanding’ trope, and he pointed an accusatory finger. “You cheeky little shit! How dare you?”

Pingu glanced over his shoulder to see if Zeng Fei was addressing someone behind him but saw no one there. Puzzled, he turned back around and pointed a flipper at himself. “Meep?”

“Who the fuck else could I possibly mean when you’re the only one here! What the hell are you doing with my cultivation base?”

“Hmm.” Pingu scratched his head and gave a shrug. “Sqwuak, sqwuak, sqwuak.”

“You saw snow falling, and so decided to do the ‘thing’? Wow, what an amazing explanation - that makes perfect sense now! Thanks a million!”

Pingu acknowledged him with a click of the tongue. “Mrrp.”

“I’m welcome?!”

Pingu nodded. “Chrrp.”

Anymore, and Zeng Fei feared he’d get a stroke; he had to turn to the skies and take deep breaths to calm himself down.

Of course, what he would have loved to do more than anything else right now was march over and give the uncooperative penguin an arse-whooping, but besides the fact that he suspected he’d be the one getting his arse handed to him in such a scenario, the truth was that he was too loving and gentle a master to dish out physical discipline, even though his mutinous minion had most definitely earned it.

So he had to settle for cursing the little bugger instead (naturally, grumbled outside of Pingu’s earshot, not because Zeng Fei was intimidated but because he, as a mature adult, refused to teach such filthy words to a little kid).

Since answers about the missing cultivation weren’t forthcoming from the culprit himself (who’d decided to flop around in the snow while waiting around, calling on his master to come join him), Zeng Fei opened up Pingu’s status to see if there were any clues there.

Pingu

Race: Emperor Penguin

Cultivation: First Layer Qi Refining (67%)

Demon Cores: Green-horned Python (Third Layer Qi Refining)

Strength: 10

Agility: 6

Constitution: 8

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 2

Perception: 7

Martial Techniques: Serpentine Slap (Mortal) - Level 3

He opened up Pingu’s cultivation tab, then felt like a massive idiot for even bothering to question the penguin instead of coming here immediately.

True Cultivation: First Layer Qi Refining (17% progress)

Artificially Gained Cultivation: First Layer Qi Refining (50% progress) from Green-horned Python

Total Cultivation: First Layer Qi Refining (67% progress)

Of the 20% cultivation Zeng Fei had lost overnight, the majority of it seemed to have ended up in Pingu’s cultivation. As for the missing 3%, it could well be that the embezzling process wasn’t perfectly efficient, with the lost amount equalling the transfer fee.

Alternatively, perhaps the embezzlement wasn’t complete, which would suggest that the snow currently in the domain was the 3% missing from his cultivation base. If so, could he take it back?

Since there wasn’t anything about it on Pingu’s status interface, Zeng Fei had to go the old command-line way and use his thoughts to demand his body to stop liquidating his cultivation base.

A while later, the snowfall halted.

Encouraged by his success, Zeng Fei then ordered his body to reverse the flow to see if he could recover the embezzled funds.

As though lifted by a sudden updraught, the snow on the ground was blown towards the edges of the domain and disappeared soon after; simultaneously, the hose that’d been draining Zeng Fei’s cultivation pool into the domain reversed its flow.

Zeng Fei ignored Pingu’s wailing and pondered what to make of the entire shebang.

From the way his body listened to his commands, clearly he had control over the cultivation base liquidation process, which implied it was part of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art and not a case of Pingu suddenly going rogue on him.

But why would the Emperor have wanted this? Maybe it was for the simplest reason of sharing his cultivation base with his minions and Zeng Fei was overthinking it, but he had an inexplicable feeling that there was more here.

Still, he had no clues as to what that could be, so he decided to flick through Pingu’s other status screens to see if anything else had changed.

Nothing had, but for some reason he was drawn to the demon cores screen, particularly the max capacity row.

Max Capacity: Third Layer Qi Refining

Current Demon Cores:

* Green-horned Python (Third Layer Qi Refining): granting +2 strength, +3 agility, +2 constitution, +2 perception

Normally, when someone increased their cultivation, they would enjoy an increase in their power and qi capacity (which was the maximum amount of spiritual qi they could carry inside their body to use for techniques).

But Pingu had never absorbed spiritual qi.

Whenever he’d used techniques, the funding for it had always come from Zeng Fei’s domain; even when Pingu had used Serpentine Slap against Dong Ju, the requisite qi had been funnelled from Zeng Fei to him through their summon link.

Using the analogy of a PAYG contract, maintaining Pingu’s form in the real world was like having an active call that incurred a small but constant cost, whereas using techniques was like purchasing an eyewateringly expensive add-on that wasn’t included in the contract.

The fact that Pingu needed Zeng Fei’s spiritual qi to fund techniques implied that the penguin was incapable of absorbing qi from the environment by himself.

Which shouldn’t be the case, unless… could it be Pingu’s spiritual roots were attributed to Zeng Fei’s cultivation?

If so, there’d be no point in a qi capacity increases for Pingu whenever he ranked up as he already wasn’t expending any personal qi for techniques (that’s what daddy’s credit card was for). Rather, the only type of capacity increase that would be beneficial was an increase in his capacity to hold demon cores.

Such a conclusion relied on too many assumptions and could easily be wrong, but if it were to be true, its effects would be out of this world.

* An increase in Zeng Fei’s personal cultivation would result in a rise in power and qi capacity.

* In contrast, an increase in Pingu’s cultivation would result in more demon cores, which would mean greater cultivation boosts, greater stat bonuses, and even more techniques unlocked!

Zeng Fei’s eyes increasingly widened as he considered the possibilities; this could well be the Hail Mary he’d been desperately wishing for.

Exhilarated, he was about to run over to Pingu, grab the penguin’s shoulders, and start screaming in joy when suddenly he spotted the penguin was already belly-sliding towards him, only at a speed that indicated a complete lack of intent to safely stop ahead of him.

If anything, the exact opposite: it seemed Pingu saw himself as the heroic bowling ball, the only one who could take down the evil pin that’d stolen snow from the lands and joy from the hearts of the people (namely himself).

Actually, the whole celebrating thing with Pingu could wait, Zeng Fei thought, immediately departing from his domain back to reality.

Without wasting any time, he left the Medicinal Hall and promptly made for the Crooked Mountains.

Within a single month, he had to go from being an unremarkable first layer Qi Refiner to competing with those at the ninth layer, the very peak of the realm!

It was time to grind out some demon cores!