No one wanted to get on a core elder’s bad side, especially not someone like Elder Yu. The Thunder Eagle sect was righteous. Collecting tribute helped keep the sect strong. The weak mortals mined and paid spirit stones to the sect for protection. This was something similar. Poor foolish dog that Atom Newman was, Guo Hao wanted to do right, and if that meant putting an upstart in his place, so be it.
The smile on the man’s face, with teeth grown back from the earlier beating, drew a shiver down his spine. Healing from crippling injuries like that was a sign of the untalented. Only an outer court greybeard would choose regeneration, growth, and endurance as his fragments to create spirit art like Dragon’s Body. It was the technique of a clueless fool falling into sinkholes through life.
“You didn’t learn your lesson last time. Maybe we were too generous leaving you alive.”
“Oh, I learned my lesson. I won’t take your beatings anymore.”
“The lesson was to stay away from Lui Fang for your health.” A hand from his close friend and fellow clan member, Guo Fu, stopped his tongue. He had strayed too close to an actual warning. “What are you doing here? It isn’t the New Moon.”
“I wanted to see my woman. It doesn’t matter what day it is.”
The fool, the complete and utter fool. His friends laughed. Everyone had seen how sweet Lui Fang was around Elder Yu. No one would speak of it, and the sect would lose another good man. Lovesick fool that he was, Atom Newman knew his stuff and had helped his cousin Guo Zimo with a truly extravagant cultivation realm.
No elders would stick their neck out for Atom; his face was wrong. The beard was too curly, and the white hair growing in every direction was a disgrace. Atom looked more like a beggar than a cultivator. Still, what kind of senior would he be if he let someone walk into a trap? Beatings didn’t work. He went as far as to cripple Atom, but the boy recovered.
That smile, the pure bliss radiating off of it. Guo Hao would kill Atom before the man could discover the truth.
…
I started against 12 cultivators who looked to be in their teens, wearing inner and core disciple robes. Small feathers were braided in their long black hair with the golden color of thunder rocs. Lighting chi buzzed in the air as they prepared to fight.
Battle wasn’t my strong suit. I was far better at taking a beating than dishing it out. As a poor, illiterate issekai protag, I had nothing, not even the language of the land, when I arrived. What little I learned of cultivation was taught through whippings and hard labor. To survive with no natural resources, the first fragment I sought was regeneration. As it turns out, that was a bad call and my only natural choice. Since then, my luck with cultivation has continued to get worse.
Guo Hao raised his palm, and I felt a force grip my body. A peak lift fragment of the air element took hold of me. My feet were already off the ground, and I was stuck without flight capabilities. Like a fly in amber, I was forced to wait for them to approach.
Why did the young master look at me with pity in his eyes? Lightning lit my nerves as the full spirit art Thunder Raptor Requiem blasted me with core rank chi. All I could do was fuel my spirit art, a passive thing built only to help me survive. I screamed, and the tears flowing down my cheeks evaporated under the heat of my charring skin.
The lightning cut off before a powerful blow hit my cultivation center in my stomach. I felt it shatter. The crystalline structure of my peak foundation exploded into a billion shards and melted into gaseous chi. This was the second time I felt the destruction, and it was far less careful. I still had my fragments and spirit art. Chi rushed in from my soul, fueling my recovery.
“I can feel the chi you can draw; it's more the mine. You could have been a real talent if you had a backer. Do you pine after Lui Fang because you think you’ll be rewarded? I don’t have to ask. I already know you don’t seek a reward. You are a fool who loves the moon's light on a lake’s reflection. The moon is too far away, Atom Newman. You can’t reach it and hold it in your hand. You will never reach the core, much less the severing realm.”
Blood poured out of my mouth when I tried to breathe. A rib punctured one of my lungs, and Vital Dragon pulled it out and back into place. So long as it had chi to burn my spirit, art would do its best to keep my body going.
I had only two abilities, but I hoped beyond hope for my third one. My soul was showing signs of growing even stronger. If I gained an ability like repulsion, I could break a lock. Then, only 3 more, and I could reach the core realm. Or if the Lui clan gets back on their feet, one of their elders could help me. Maybe there was knowledge that could see me break the bottleneck.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Yes, it was selfish and stupid, but I wanted to be less embarrassed. Was dreaming of such a pitiful, reachable dream a bad thing? Like many others, should I throw away all human decency and try for the immortal realm?
“I won’t ever stop,” I said.
“You should forget about her and focus on yourself. Maybe she will come to you if you become powerful. Men shouldn’t be the ones chasing women. Then again, you aren’t much to look at.”
Laughter filled my ears as blood dripped from the corners of my mouth.
My cultivation quickly returned to the foundation realm. Soon, I would be back to normal, like this fight hadn’t happened. I was like a cockroach with extreme regeneration, and like a bug, I could be stomped easily.
Guo Hao stared down at the blood staining his robe and punched my chest. My heart exploded, and his fist exited my back.
“I trust this is the last time we will meet like this.” Guo Hao said.
Two of his goons grabbed my shoulders and threw me into a ditch. I felt the slick gore that acted as a lubricant as my body slid down the corpse trench.
…
Down the mountain, I slowly stood up among the pit of decomposing corpses. Mad, hungry ghosts rose from the pit with empty black eyes and long dark hair. Their pale bodies dragged chi of both life and death fragments into themselves. An average man would be terrified. My heart regrew halfway down the mountain and beat. The tattoo on my chest had reformed entirely, and my soul pushed against the confines of its cage.
This place seemed ripe with food for the soul. I turned my attention to a massive, hungry ghost emaciated from decades of wondering about the corpse pit. Ribs stretched out from its chest transformed from mere imitations of bone to barbed mandibles. Its chest was a slit with a long black tongue covered in yellow eyes peeking out.
I sucked in a breath, gagged from the smell, and gripped my chest. My seals were failing, and my soul grew stronger here far faster than I thought possible. I struggled to keep my soul shaped like a human body. It was a struggle to hold so much power together.
A clawed hand smashed into my side. I looked down to see a monster made of bones with bright yellow eyes charging me. Blood leaked from my chest, wound cold in the hot, muggy corpse-filled pit. I took up the Eagle Stalking stance. The monster struck, and I dodged, taking note of its attack style. Lift would have been the fragment, but it was built to be paired with this fighting style.
I watched my attacker slash with its claws and charge before stumbling. That was my chance. I charged the skeleton and kicked with all my might.
Pain exploded as my foot hit a hard bone. In my head, I pictured the skeleton shattering. Instead, I launched it deeper into the corpse pit, where bodies awoke and grabbed at the body.
The corpse pit of Honored Mountain was the final stop of all unfortunate Dao Seedlings. Talents flowed down the shoot in great numbers, ending up here to collect misery, hatred, and negative energy. Out in the distance, I thought I saw some alchemists from Smog Mountain collecting fungi. Some of the rarest ingredients could only grow here where the resentment was the strongest.
I climbed over a few fresh bodies and looked down at my ruined robes. Wearing my business robes to meet Lui Fang made sense. They were the nicest robes I owned, and they were destroyed. If I skipped a few meals, I could get them repaired.
With that, my stomach gurgled. My stomach continued to have some mass I couldn’t eliminate despite skipping meals. I hadn’t eaten all day, and despite the corpses around me, I was starving. I shivered as soul pains wrecked my body again. This place was great for soul strengthening.
I didn’t call what I was doing to my soul cultivation or leveling. My actions were highly artificial. Having positive results at all was a miracle. I tapped my tattoo and saw an interface appear. The purple haze of the miasma from the deathly chi helped hide my actions.
There were no breaks or signs of wear on my containment formation. No, if anything, my soul wasn’t touching any of the lines. Having the cage helped me get a feel for my soul shape, and I naturally kept it from touching the cage itself. My soul was still growing, but the cage had no damage. So what was happening?
I focused on the last few times I felt this reaction. The first was when I started feeding my soul, the second was when I placed the cage, and my soul touched its edges, and the last was when I grew stronger. Not the constant increase that naturally came with my filter but a jump that always came with a new ability. The first was attraction, and the second was an inner space. I couldn’t wait to see the next one.
It could be something like repulsion; I could use it to fly. Breaking two back-to-back bottlenecks might be enough for Elder Yu to take more interest in me. I knew he was Liu Fang’s master, but he always seemed happy to answer my questions and help me.
Life was looking up.
…
The spirit stones weren’t there. Lui Fang felt her heart skip a beat. Had she done something wrong? No, this had to be a test of her commitment. The message was clear: Elder Yu controlled the flow of wealth, and any hesitation would end in her family’s ruin.
She turned her attention to a knock at her door. On the other side was Atom Newman, the outer sect disciple that she knew loved her.
Desperation had taught her that she was willing to do things she couldn’t imagine before. Atom could live up to 250 years and find a way past his bottleneck in that time. He had brought great wealth to the sect if he had known the right elders.
Of course, she didn’t broach the topic even if he could become another source of revenue. It wouldn’t matter when she reached the Nascent Soul realm and surpassed her peers. Atom would become the pill she used to survive the heavenly tribulation of the 8th lock.
He smiled and presented her with a bouquet of spider lilies from the corpse pit by their smell. Atom was dressed in patchy robes that were to be expected of an outer sect disciple. His beard had horrible gray streaks running through it and some white on his mustache. Facial hair was a sign of being talentless. To proudly shoot it off, as well as his aging body, disgusted her.
Atom was also the kind of man who would give her the shoes off his feet if asked. When she was 11, he made her a hidden realm to nurture her fragments. It was that relationship that made her choose him. That connection and an accidental meeting had worked perfectly to acquire him as a sacrifice. All left was time to gather the ingredients for crafting the pill.
She sat on her bed and smiled politely, slipping on a bubblier personality. Rarely did she talk about anything real with him. All he needed was what she presented.
“Is your clan recovering? Do they need more stones? I can get pitch in more.”
All he had done was offer his support but nothing more.
She smiled. “You’ve done enough already. I’m certain my father will be pleased.”
“Enough to offer you.” Atom dared to say.
She covered her face with a fan so he couldn’t see her sneer. All of this was to avoid being given to an old man who was rich but facing a bottleneck. They were the ones with heirs on their minds.
“Of course, once my clan is back on its feet, it will remember the ones who helped it the most. My father will offer him my hand.” Atom smiled even as she mentally replaced his visage with the young form of Elder Yu. “I can’t wait, can you?” Lui Fang said.