The completely empty storehouse caused a mixture of contradictory feelings that were turning into a weird cocktail. Slowly boiling like awfully smelling brew made by an old witch, it was rising with bubbles only for the latter to burst with another emotion, calming down the process for a short amount of time until everything repeated again. Rob felt anger, resentment, sadness, and multiple other emotions all together, while he was looking around.
The scattered caches, broken boxes, and a few fallen racks showed the haste in which Xu Wong was taking everything, making it look like a real robbery as if the thief had no time to spend until the owner came. There was not a hint of carefulness in this action as his apprentice never bothered to put them back, simply tearing apart the locks or chests just to get his hands to the content. As a result - too many wooden planks were lying everywhere, turning the place into some kind of dump. Moreover, there were quite plenty forgotten items, dropped onto the ground only to be disregarded as not worth wasting time to pick up. Considering that Robert on the way here went past the garden with alchemy plants that experienced the same treatment, he wasn’t exactly happy to see such a sight.
Rob was robbed…
The only positive side he could see was that those items would be finally put to use. With the absence of access to Qi, all of them were destined to stay in the storehouse forever, covered with dust. So, Robert never viewed those artifacts as something valuable. Moreover, even the plants that were plunged out by Xu Wong were meant for alchemy pills and had no place in Rob’s plan to increase qi density in the pocket dimension. In the end, he was going to do the same thing, reaping and replacing them with more useful greenery.
Together these two facts created a situation where the loss wasn’t a real loss at all. He would have been glad to help his apprentice, especially when it was about giving out unneeded things. Taking into account that Rob wasted a lot of time on Xu Wong’s education before this event, he was sure he could spare much more than was taken. The problem was with the way it happened.
I don’t like it… He didn’t ask – he just took it as if it belonged to him by default. I really don’t like it… and it hurts?
Sighing, Rob closed his eyes for a moment, cutting off the whole world from his senses. His mind immediately brought the memories, of when he was teaching Xu Wong. Wandering across them, Robert wondered if he was correct to focus only on the cultivation. Treating the twenty-year-old man as a teenager was already hard, but it seemed he did a poor job as a master. Robert had enough life experience to share, surviving through different ordeals. He wasn’t sure that any cultivator, even with a longer life, had gone through something similar to him. Therefore, Rob had enough material and, more importantly, examples of things to avoid for Xu Wong to study. However, he never bothered to do it, keeping his past to himself. Perhaps, his apprentice still thought that he was just a puppet, made in an already dead sect.
Was it a mistake? Maybe… Can I change anything? I fear not. So, as always, just live with the consequences, Rob. Moreover, Xu Wong isn’t a kid anymore, and his actions have to be treated accordingly. If he has grown up, then just accept it.
When Robert opened his eyes, they were calm as ever… if it could be noticed in his grayish pupils that had the same color as his skin. Once again looking around at the mess that his former apprentice left behind. Gauging the volume of work, Rob lightly smiled before proceeding with tidying the storehouse. While disintegrating the wooden planks with a touch, and returning undamaged boxes to the racks, he finally managed to throw away all his worries. The simple work always helped him to clear his mind, making everything easy and straightforward.
Life is going on…
And it did, slowly turning days into months and probably even years. He once again lost track of time, not bothering to count the days that went similarly. Robert could say that a lot had happened during this time, but it wasn’t completely true. In fact, quite the opposite. However, it was still fruitful time-spending, both literally and figuratively. It could be seen just by walking around, showing how dramatic changes the sect had undergone.
The previously bare mountain sect had turned into a real forest settlement, hiding most of the buildings behind the leaves and plants. Walking around, Robert had to rely on his memory to find the way among this overwhelming greenery, failing to see through the thick botany around. The latter wasn’t that identical, despite the single purpose of its existence. Colorful as if in an attempt to copy the rainbow, it had a mixture of everything in it, creating a mesmerizing scene. Only a lack of a full spectrum of forest sounds slightly worsened the picture as there were still no animals, and only multiple types of insects found their shelter inside the dense thicket.
I bet it even smells good… Unfortunately, I can’t sense anything…
Slowly strolling along the stone road toward the mountain peak, Rob was sincerely enjoying the view during his routine check-up. The sword-shaped purple leaves, two-color berries, and bluish bark of the tall trees – there were many tiny details to show the oddness of the forest, making it like directly from an alien world. Even the previous botany was less otherworldly than after Rob’s work to increase the density of qi in the air. The captivating sight was just a byproduct, but it made him even happier, granting something pleasant to see. Especially knowing the fact that he was the one who made it happen.
Starting with the empty alchemical garden, Robert experimented with a combination of plants. Using his personal experience of complex cultivation techniques, he decided to focus on a group of plants instead of choosing one for his goal. In that way, he managed to raise the effectiveness to a huge extent. Roughly dividing everything according to the purpose, he almost created a self-sustaining system. Some plants increased the quality of the soil. Others were turning the qi into the water, passively watering the area around. The third were symbiotes, accelerating the growth of the plants by sucking more nutrients from them. One type of mushroom was best for spreading itself into its surroundings, and with the addition of another parasitic flower, it also brought the botany from the area around together with itself. Predatory variants were fighting against harmful insects. There were more plants like these, each with its way to improve the overall effectiveness of the system, so the Qi-trees would show the best result.
Rob struggled the most with setting everything in the right proportions, but in the end, with no need for rest, it was just a matter of time. Moreover, in this high-quality environment with stable temperature, absence of clouds, and dense qi around, Robert didn’t need to solve many troubles he would face otherwise in the outer world. Having remnants of knowledge as an aftereffect of using serums and access to the library with lots of useful information, Rob's success was basically guaranteed. The only pleasant surprise was to see how beautiful those qi-increasing systems were.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Reaching the main square, which was the only place that had a noticeable empty space, Robert walked past the modified map. His eyes caught a barely visible mark, once again reminding him about his apprentice and their meeting. He didn’t know exactly why, but he decided against fixing this scratch, leaving it as a memory. Perhaps it was nostalgia speaking inside him, Rob wasn’t sure. Slightly upping the edges of his lips, Rob turned his head and continued his way.
Passing the Pavillion of Techniques, he stopped for a moment, thinking about something. However, by this point, there was nothing left to study inside. Even his time spent in maintaining the sect took a huge cut. He had read about it, but only now Robert could confirm the effect of dense qi. Basically, it was the same as creating an artifact. The forger used his energy to imbue the item, making it stronger, while adding other properties through engraving tiny formations on its surface. In the sect’s case, the atmosphere here was so thick that Qi passively was imbuing every single object inside, increasing its toughness over time. It led to the situation where everything, be it a fence or water bucket, simply stopped wearing down, turning into odd variants of timeless artifacts. In its turn, Rob lost another thing to do.
The end point of his stroll was the highest spot of the peak. Looking from above at the tiny world that was covered with a multicolor botany blanket, his thoughts were drifting like non-existent clouds. The long stay inside this realm made his past as distant as a horizon. Rob’s emotions toned down severalfold. He still could feel how his inner battle maniac was present deep inside of him, but now the feelings weren’t so overwhelming and uncontrollable. The painful memories of losses also faded, turning into just mere facts in his biography, not causing any regrets or sadness. Rob accepted all the events that had happened to him, and he found peace with them.
Moreover, I found a home…
This tiny world with no one inside indeed became it – the place, where he felt comfortable as never before. The orphanage, the bunker, and other places of living – nothing came close to this feeling of harmony. This idea went even further as the previously dead sect that now was turned into a colorful paradise felt like a metaphorical state of Rob’s mind. By cleaning it from multiple corpses, repairing everything inside, rebuilding and covering it with greenery, Robert felt as if he was working not on the sect territory, but on himself, slowly fixing all his issues that accumulated over time.
I feel calm… even happy… But I don’t think it will last long. Nothing is endless. There is nothing left to do here… I can enjoy this frozen moment for some time, but I think in the end I will step through the arc. It’s just inevitable.
Smiling sadly, Robert started his unhurried walk toward the Ascension Tower. His focus was turned inward, examining the dramatic change he went through after deciding to decentralize his reactor core. Currently, the complex system inside could compete with a scheme of all electronics inside the spaceship combined and later put on a single sheet of paper. Even now, after months of getting to this point, it was mind-blowing for Rob to think that he managed to create something so intricate.
He had a few hundred tiny spheres that were constantly pumping mana into his system. Each of them had its own set of filters to convert everything into a more appropriate type of spirit energy that was further spread through the net of meridians to cover every single part of his steel body. Obviously, each of them was tens of times less productive than the original central core. Moreover, they weren’t covered with a force shield, relying solely on Rob’s precise control. However, together not only did they create more energy, but they also took away his weak spot forever. Considering that passive Qi imbuing was influencing every inanimate object, his steel body got another boost in toughness, but Robert didn’t know to what extent, as there was no opportunity to test it. Not that he wanted to do it, treating this improvement more like an interesting but hard task to keep himself busy.
The other change was in the creation of a specific formation inside his skull. As Rob’s consciousness wasn’t located in the brain, and frankly speaking, he neither had nor did he need this valuable for any human organ, he used the available space to put a tiny formation there. Using the last pieces of obsidian steel, Robert created a set of eyes, coloring pupils, irises, and even sclera into pitch-black. The only other things that had the same color on his grayish body were the nails on his hands, nothing else. This time he didn’t try to cover his groin area with a codpiece, using a robe instead. His large frame barely could wear one, but fashion was the last thing to bother him about on the uninhabited floating rock.
Nothing to improve… Perhaps in time, I can accumulate more qi inside the body, but that’s basically it. Even the soul pressure barely feels now.
Getting inside the Ascension Tower, Rob slowly walked toward the standing arc. The heaviness of the air itself was already trying to crush him, dropping a new imaginary concrete plate onto him with each step. However, in comparison with the first time he was met this trial, Robert felt nothing apart from a hint of discomfort as if something was constantly trying to prick him from all sides. Undergoing hours of this type of tempering, while being nurtured by his self-converted spirit energy, his soul made a huge jump in strength.
That’s why, standing just a step from the arc, Rob could examine the cultivator’s device in detail. In fact, he did it long ago, memorizing all the runes and symbols carefully engraved on its surface. It wasn’t his goal, but at some point, the pressure became too weak, making the process quite boring. Without struggling against the invisible but mighty force, this training session consisted of just sitting in front of the stone structure. It was the moment when he regretted beating the puppets as even a light spar would be more interesting than sitting in the same place for hours without doing anything. Perhaps proper cultivators were occupied during this process, but Rob wasn’t the one, thus his fight turned into a battle against his patience. Still, the pressure was improving him, so he bore it, using those symbols as a thing to do.
Hehe, it’s funny how enduring now is just a fight against boredom, and not pain, fear, or a life-threatening situation… But I don’t have more goals to do. Maybe my leave will come much earlier than I thought…
Sighing, Robert spent several hours sitting without a single motion, turning into a real statue as if trying to match his appearance with the content. His mind was fully absorbed in rechecking the set energy system inside his body. Reevaluating each element multiple times, he was constantly adjusting the structures in an attempt to perfect them. There was barely any effect from these actions after many repeats, but he had nothing to do, so even a tiny increase in effectiveness was worth an effort. Especially, considering the fact that Robert couldn’t stay in the tower forever. Unsurprisingly, to cause this pressure, the ancient structure was using energy and had to recharge its formation after just around three hours of working, basically turning it off for the rest of the day.
I guess it’s not how this place is meant to be used. Whatever. Let’s get out and start another walk around. Maybe this time I may find something to fix… Also, there might be a free spot on the far east side of the sect that isn’t covered by plants, no matter how I try. I wonder what the reason is…
However, the moment he left the Ascension Tower, Robert was met with a shocking sight, leading to a loud but involuntarily question.
“Who the fuck are you?!”