Chapter One: The First Contract
Jing Guanyu
5 years later
*Twang Swoosh TING*
I pant heavily as I draw my training bow once more. As I am drawing my bow, an arrow made of weak energy from the ambient qi is created. Releasing the string without hesitation, the arrow leaps away from the bow and straight into the centre of the target. Repeating the process an uncountable number of times, I fire arrows at the training targets for the archery training part of the training halls array. The array creates spheres around the size of my two fists that are blue with a red sphere around a quarter the size of the blue sphere in the middle. The array then sends these targets whizzing around me in all directions except below me, because that’s the floor. As time passes, the blue spheres start to vary in size and speed; the red spheres always being exactly a quarter the size of the outer sphere of blue. When my arrows strike a sphere, both the arrow and the sphere disappear with a *ting*.
Every single one of my arrows hits the red center sphere of each target I shoot at. Although I am not hitting every target, I still have to hit a certain amount of targets every minute for the array to continue. This value also increases by a percentage of the previous amount required every minute. After almost an hour, I miss the center sphere by a few mils and hit the blue outer sphere. The array instantly powers down, having been set to do that the moment I didn’t hit the required amount of targets in a minute or didn’t hit the red sphere of a target. Regulating my breathing in a practiced fashion, I check over the arrays and give the bow some after-use maintenance. I always do this after my sword training and bow training sessions, it keeps my practice gear in top condition and gives me something to do for 5 minutes while I cool down slightly before my stretches. While doing maintenance on my practice bow, I reminisce about the past five years.
It has been five years since my parents first started accepting missions again, and since then they are barely here for a week every season. I think they have only stayed at the residence for more than 2 days around 5 to 10 times over the past five years. However, since that day, I haven’t let anything or lack of something get to me. I still train with such an intense schedule that even the guards in our residence flinch when they walk past the training hall. Despite training so intensely for 5 years, I haven’t neglected my Divine Cultivation in the slightest. I train and cultivate with a fiery determination that hasn’t gotten any weaker since the day it was ignited. If anything, the fire of determination has gotten hotter due to my lack of progress in the path of Divine Cultivation and the slowing down of progress in my physical training.
Despite the lack of progress, I still remain calm, the self-confidence gained from discovering what I am going to work towards helping me in this regard. The longer it takes me to breakthrough to the first realm of Divine Cultivation, the better my first spirit contract will be. The stronger my first spirit contract is, the stronger all the rest of my contracts are probably going to be. I have told myself these facts countless times whenever I feel even the slightest twinge of impatience or irritation. Besides, I know that another reason it is taking so long is that I have absolutely no support of pills or concoctions that can help strengthen the soul or my sensory abilities. The development of my soul is completely due to my own hard work and effort. Although my soul isn’t as strong or as sensitive as other people my age due to the lack of supportive medicines; my soul’s foundation is as solid as possible. After all, even the best alchemists and heavenly materials still have impurities; and when it comes to the soul, even the slightest impurity will noticeably affect you in the long-term.
While lost in thought, I unconsciously go through my entire routine of stretches for after training and have sat down in a meditation position. Slowly, I start to actively control my breathing, slowing it down; starting to breathe in the nose, waiting a few seconds before breathing out the mouth in a steady pattern. Although this is unnecessary to do when attempting to sense the spirit contract’s power around you, it is a habit and also brings my mind an improved clarity. As I meditate, I begin to search the surrounding area with my soul in the method described to me by my parents. Eventually, after an hour, I start to think of the Dao of Chaos. Although neither my parents or I were certain of my first spirit contract being a Dao of Chaos related spirit, there was no downside to learning the methods since they work on just about every Dao, just not as effective. Chaos is a mixture of everything, so of course, it would be better to use it than just blindly feeling around for the spiritual power of my first spirit contract.
After thinking of this, I started to get lost in the comprehension of the Dao of Chaos. Although it was a slow and arduous process, the Dao of Chaos was one of the 7 Primordial Dao’s and as such, it was worth it to try to comprehend even if I end up with no chaos attributed spirits. Without realizing it, I lost track of time while ruminating, hours have passed by in a flash.
“The Dao of Chaos is a Primordial Dao that has no opposite. Due to its nature, it encompasses a little bit of every other Dao in existence, even its other fellow Primordial Dao. This makes it both extremely versatile and very unpredictable by nature.” As I was meditating on the Dao of Chaos, I suddenly came to an enlightenment. “If the Dao of Chaos is, by nature, chaotic and unpredictable, then why am I using a technique to search for it. Techniques are methodical, the exact opposite of the Dao of Chaos.”
At this instant, everything fits into place in my mind. Abandoning the method that I have been using while attempting to sense the first spirit realm’s power, I spread my sense with no purpose. The moment I do this, I sense it. I sense the chaotic power of the first spirit contract around me. Reaching out, I try to grasp it with all my power. When I did, I grasped it. The power of my first spirit contract. At the same time, I feel a suddenly influx of all the surrounding and incomparably pure power of my spirit contract rush into my body, disappearing seemingly into the void. As the power disappears into the void, I feel a sudden rush of clarity. I feel like I can sense every crack in the floor below me in an area 20 metres around me in every direction. My soul realm has awoken and with it, I am now a Divine Cultivator.
* * * * * * *
Yai Zia
I am at home, relaxing and eating dinner with my family, when the imprint I put on one of my soul avatars goes off. It means that the boy who I am a potential contract for is going to sense my contract power around him within a couple dozen minutes, giving me just enough time to prepare. “Heh, so the boy has finally sensed me. Took him long enough. Then again, he is in a pretty bad position. Even a heaven sent genius of the Primal Dao Realm would take 15 years or so to sense my spirit power in the same situation, so I suppose it is understandable.” Letting my wife and son know of what’s happened, I walk through my mansion into my cultivation room. As I walk into the room, a powerful set of arrays activate. In the room, there is a pile of various heavenly materials lying in a heap on the floor. Cracking my knuckles, I use my spirit power to lift up the ingredients. Using my power to refine each of them individually, the process takes a few days. Finally done, I fuse the ingredients into a pure spirit body using my spirit power. Smiling to myself, I wave my hand and a portal to a weird space appears in front of the spirit body. After the spirit body walks through the portal, I walk out of the cultivation room, the set of arrays deactivating when they detect me leaving.
Although I spent almost a week in the cultivation room, one of the arrays in the room speeds up time by just under 1,500x. This meant that to the outside world, I have only spent approximately 7 minutes in the cultivation chamber, despite being in the room for 7 days if the time is judged by my bone age. Walking back to my family at the table, I continue the conversation I was having previously with my family as if nothing happened. The method I used to create the spirit body I sent to the boy’s location to enter his now opened soul realm was one officially created by the ruler of the Dao Origin-Realm. It is like a powerless version of my that will only be detectable by the one I make the contract with unless it chooses to show itself.
When we get assigned Divine Cultivators to form a contract with, we are usually required to assist them with knowledge as much as possible. A way this can be interpreted is in giving them all your insights into the Dao as most of those lower level weaklings that call themselves Dao-spawn do. I, however, contrary to the popular opinion of guiding the contracted; believe that in terms of the Dao, the cultivator should be given free rein, only helping them gain opportunities to comprehend the Law or Dao I specialize in. To do this, I need to observe the future contract’s life and discover his personality to figure out how best to help them walk the furthest along with their chosen path. This method of teaching requires a large amount of time and effort put in by the “spirit” being contracted, but this method usually either produces a powerhouse of some sort or the cultivator lacks the ability to seize the opportunities that the teacher can give them.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Well. With that, my part is done. My spirit body will only give him the opportunities to learn, if he takes those opportunities or not is up to him. Now that I think about it, the other 6 all teach the same way as me…. Could it be planned by the one in charge of organizing that boy’s spirit contracts? Well… whatever. What happens will happen.” With that thought, I completely forget about my “contract”, leaving it to my spirit body as I drink some wine and bond with my family.
* * * * * * *
Jing Guanyu
“Urghhh…. What happened?” I moan as I start to regain consciousness. Or as my soul does, my physical body still in a meditation position in the training hall of my parents’ residence. Opening my eyes, or whatever my soul uses to see, I look around me. The place is complete chaos. Dozens of different environments all packed together like a jigsaw puzzle. I am on the top of a mountain in a burning, yet freezing cold swamp with thunderstorms roaring above me. Around 5 metres in front of me, there is a man standing there. Dressed in a simple, but entrancing silver robe, the man has a solid muscular build and looks to be around 6 foot 3 inches tall. Noticing I am awake, the man turns around.
“Gasp!” I let out a breath of air in shock. The man has a face that is constantly changing. From extremely handsome and masculine faces all the way to wart infested faces of ugly women. “Yep, obviously my contract has some aspect of the Dao of Chaos within him. However, what could the other Dao or Law be with it?” I think to myself after a few seconds. The spirit just stands there, a calm smile on his face, watching my expression change and my body unconsciously flinch as his face changes rapidly. Still smiling, the man speaks for the first time. “Well, although your reactions are less…. exaggerated and far more humorous to observe, I guess I should set my appearance to that of its actual one?” I start nodding my head as fast as I can. This makes him laugh and his face slowly starts changing into that of a handsome, if normal looking man. His physical body height and build don’t change however.
“Thank you,” I say simply. After a few seconds of silence, the man speaks again. “So… Ahhh… I guess I am your first spirit contract. I will admit, this is actually the first contract I have been in so… uhh…… please be gentle, young lord.” “What the actual fuck is up with this guy! He keeps changing personality and its damn annoying. Were there just 3 different personalities in 2 sentences?” My thoughts run rampant in my head as the man’s face seems to fall slightly. “Sorry, I will revert my personality back to its original one. Just had trouble adjusting in time, you did breakthrough quite suddenly,” the man said with a slightly apologetic tone in his voice. My jaw drops so much I think it hits the floor. “You can read my mind?!” I ask, slightly incredulous. At my question, the man smiles and says “Of course I can. Although I have no actual power, this being a spirit body, I still have my comprehension of the Dao. Even if the Dao of Chaos is unsuited to things like reading minds, or souls in this case, the Dao of Chaos is all about having everything just mashed together. So that means the Dao of Souls will be mixed in. There is a limit to this, however. If you were to reach around the 3rd realm in Divine Cultivation, then I wouldn’t be able to do this.”
“Ohhh ok. That explains it.” I reply. After a few seconds silence I open my mouth to speak, but the spirit beats me to it. “Now I know what you are going to ask. No, I will not directly teach you my Dao. Unlike most spirits, I tend to prefer the style of teaching that focuses on teaching my students to self-develop and comprehend their own path. I will help you with anything I can, however, I will NEVER give you anything directly. If you need to do something that doesn’t directly require me to do anything for you, that is fine. You can visit my zone within your soul realm whenever you like to comprehend what you can. You may be confused and not know what I mean now, but you will see later.” I thought as I nodded in reply. After nodding, a seemingly awkward silence is present between us. After almost a minute has passed, I cough a few times to get the spirits attention. When he looks at me, I take a breath and ask him what I have wanted to know the whole time.
“So…. What is the Dao or the Law you were born with? Am I really the first contract you have ever had? What will you help me with if you will not directly transfer your Dao? How does the contract system really work, because it seems that you are more than just a spirit?” When the spirit hears the multitude of extremely important questions, he chuckles lightly as he answers. “I was wondering when you would ask that hahaha. Well, I am innately born from the Dao of Chaos. As for my race…. I am of the race known as a Chaos-spawn and my name is Yai Zia. More specifically, I am a Dao-spawn born of my parents who were both also innately born with the Dao of Chaos. A Dao-spawn that is born of a high-grade Dao is called the name of the Dao it is innately born with, then the word spawn follows after. So I am a Chaos-spawn. As for experience, you are truly the first one I have taught. That is for a few reasons which I cannot explain, it will be detrimental to your growth. Helping you will be both more direct and also very indirect to your growth depending on your outlook on it. I cannot answer how the contract system works, but suffice to say, I am more than a mere spirit.”
I fall silent as I digest his words. The spirit, or Dao-spawn I should say, gave me almost five minutes to digest the information he gave me. “Holy shit! I actually got a spirit with the complete Dao of Chaos as my first spirit. Although he is of the Dao of Chaos, a Dao that truly has no strengths or weaknesses, he must have incredible knowledge and skill with his naturally endowed Dao of Chaos.” I think, mostly shocked about the fact that my first contract spirit is of the Dao of Chaos. I mean sure, I expected a spirit of the middle rankings of the Supreme Dao as my first spirit given how long it took me to sense it, I didn’t expect to directly get a complete Primordial Dao as my first spirit. “Which begs the question, what on earth is a Dao-spawn? I always thought the contracts were just spirits of powerful demonic beasts. I guess I am too weak to know yet…. He did say he would be detrimental to my growth if he told me anything more than what he has told me so far.” After a moment’s thought, I open my mouth and politely ask the spirit a few questions.
“Yai Zia, I didn’t know there was a race called Dao-spawn that existed. Why is it that people from even the High Heaven Realm don’t know of your existence?” The spirit looks at me and answers calmly. “Simple, because no cultivator who originated in the High Heaven Realm has even encountered a cultivator who has even heard of my race except for myths. The High Heaven Realm is not as powerful as you think, they are actually only around the middle of the rankings out of all the Realms known currently in terms of talent. As for you, your talent would be ridiculous even in the Dao Origin Realm, the Realm I originate from.” I looked at the spirit, surprised at how bluntly he dismissed the talent of the High Heaven Realm’s cultivators, yet complimented me so highly very casually. “Then, how high ranking are you in comparison to other spirits?” I ask timidly, feeling a bit of apprehension at the seemingly domineering name of his realm of birth. “Compared to the spirits of the High Heaven Realm or my Realm of birth?” the spirit smirks as he replies, his expression showing an unintentional disdain in his voice when mentioning the spirits of the High Heaven Realm. Feeling far more apprehensive than a few seconds ago, I open my mouth.
“Of your Realm of birth, please. If the High Heaven Realm is not even one of the stronger Realms talent-wise, and you are comparing me to those of your realm of birth, then isn’t it pointless to compare you to spirits of the High Heaven Realm?” Yai Zia’s eyes widen slightly before he starts laughing heartily. “Very well then, compared to those races that participate in this contract tradition in my Realm of birth, the Dao Origin-Realm, the Dao-spawn are rank number 1 no matter what kind of Dao-spawn they are. This is in the Dao they specialize in as a whole. Judging particular aspects of a Dao; like the extreme power aspect of the Dao of Yang, then we are only around the 3rd place. So to put it simply, our knowledge of the Dao we are born with has no specialization in that Dao. Speaking honestly, if it wasn’t for the Dao-spawn, there would not be a clear number 1. Sure there are individuals of each race who classify as better teachers, but the ranking is basically just a ranking of the average comprehension of all the individuals in each race. There are also differences in the directions of each races comprehensions. An example would be a Golden Crow. They are primarily focused on the Dao of Yang, but they are more focused on the heat and pure power aspects of yang. Due to this, they also have ridiculously high insight into the Dao of Fire. So if judging generally, a ranking based purely on the comprehension of the Dao of Chaos, the Ai-Hwa race would be tied with the Primordial Qilins if you exclude the Chaos-spawn. Individually, even among the Chaos-spawn, I am certainly the one with the highest comprehension for my age. To sum it up, the rankings are a bad representation of a race’s comprehension of the Dao they are ranked in. It is better to ask a spirit for their general rank among their Realm. In that case, I am undoubtedly number one when focusing purely on the Dao of Chaos on a whole. That is comprehension wise though. As a cultivator, I am a little weaker than most of the old monsters. Congrats kid, you just got one of the strongest chaos attribute experts in the entire Dao Origin Realm as your first contract.”
Silence greeted his declaration of superiority. Realising I was standing rigid in shock, he laughed loudly. Breaking out of my shock, I look at him laughing and acting unlike his apparent strength; And I go into shock again.