“Supreme Commander! You have an unexpected visitor!” Jinhai was in the middle of preparing the events for the Grand Tournament.
“Which elder is coming to scheme and try to use me as a part of their annoying plan to rise through the ranks?” He sighed.
“None. It is a disciple sir!”
“A disciple? Wanting to meet with me? Heh!” Jinhai laughed at the thought of it. “Which brave disciple is it?”
“I believe its best if they introduced themselves.” He opened the door to reveal the sect’s Little Monster waiting outside his office with a slice of cake in her hand and a beast at the 9th stage of the Qi Consolidation stage on her shoulder.
Jinhai was actually more than surprised by the appearance of this visitor. It wasn’t until earlier this morning that his men told him that she’s been spotted again. He believed that she somehow lost her life because it's been several weeks since anyone saw her. Perhaps she was biding her time for this meeting or in closed door cultivation somewhere. But Jinhai had a hard time believing that she was wracked with nervousness at the thought of meeting him. Unless she wanted to make them think she was a spy.
Strangely enough, he couldn’t see neither of their souls either. This increased his suspicions and curiosity even further. He knew that the girl had little knowledge or information on souls as why would she? She was only a Qi Gather... A 9th stage Qi Consolidator!? When did she climb up to that rank!? Even the greatest of talents would require a minimum of 5-7 months to reach the level she has from the 9th stage of the Qi Gathering realm.
A smile almost threatened to spill from his face. ‘This god damn freak... Why couldn’t you just prove that you’re not a spy already! Do you know how many resources we could use to propel you into even higher heights!? You have the potential to be the sect’s greatest disciple!’ Jinhai had to calm himself down. He realized that it was the bird interfering with him in seeing their souls.
Of course, the girl couldn’t just be a monster on her own. She had to include her pet as well. Spirit Beasts aren’t supposed to be aware of souls until the late realms. The control or power this little owl had for just a 2nd realm spirit beast over souls was superior to some elders! Now, he had no choice in the matter he was delaying for so long. Jinhai had to confirm whether or not Jing was loyal to the sect or kill her now. She was simply too talented. Wait, no. Talented wasn’t enough to describe whatever she was. It was complete absurdity in the form of a little girl.
“Supreme Commander.” Her voice showed no fear or nervousness. Completely calm and polite.
“What can I do for you, Jing?” Jinhai asked.
“I’ve come with a gift and a request.” She smiled as she walked forward.
The aroma of that cake was making it hard for him to focus but despite his cultivation rank, he still couldn’t see exactly why that was. His aide hasn’t even noticed that he was drooling at the sight of the thing. How disgraceful... With a subtly manipulation of his qi, he knocked some sense into him by smacking him across the face with his energy. But back to the cake, no matter how much he used his qi to inspect it, he found nothing about it particularly dangerous. If this was a type of poison, then it would be the type that would easily entrap anyone with a nose or talent in qi sensing.
“A request?” Jinhai laughed. “And what sort of offer do you believe that a Qi Consolidator is able to give me to consider seriously?” He asked with a brief flare of killing intent and qi pressure.
“Take a few bites of this. I believe it will be much more effective in persuading you than anything I could possibly say.” She gave a harmless smile and bowed while holding the plate towards him.
The thought of someone at her stage being a spy and attempting to poison someone as powerful as him did run across his mind. But once he thought about it again, she’d have to be the most insane little girl in the world if that was what she was really planning. He could crush her in less than a second despite all her great talent. Plus, with his bloodline, flushing out all impurities within his body was as easy as snapping his finger. Any poison she could craft would be useless against him.
So, he took a bite and then another and then another before he realized, all the cake was gone.
An incredibly powerful burst of qi exploded from the Supreme Commander. His qi spread throughout the entire Golden Serpent Sect everyone could feel it brush against them. Jinhai’s mind had trouble believing what just happened to him. He focused his eyes directly on the Little Monster’s and her’s focused back on him. All the objects in his office were blasted away to the wall. The Little Monster and her owl still had the same calm look on their faces as they were blown to the wall too along with his aide. He had just broken through into the next stage...
“Did you like my gift, Supreme Commander?” She smiled.
“...” Jinhai was truly speechless.
That was the greatest thing he’s ever eaten in all of his centuries of living. His taste buds were still dancing in his mouth even after swallowing the thing piece by piece. Jinhai’s qi was crazily cycling throughout his body along with his mind feeling sharper than ever before. All of his newly concentrated attention was sucked by the monstrous freak in the form of a young girl. As old as he is, he knew that what he just ate was impossible to create. People creating food from spirit beast parts wasn’t anything new. That has been going on even before humans figured out how to cultivate. But this wasn’t that. Not even slightly. The cake he ate did something that only Spirit Pills could do. Spirit Food could not do that, it could only provide superior nutrients to the body and dantian depending on the beast.
“I’ll take your silence as an agreement. What I desire from you is quite simple. As everyone knows, apparently, the Sect Leader has their eyes on me as becoming their disciple or at the very least taking over once they retire. I’m completely fine with either decision. But what I came here to ask is very simple---” He interrupted her before she could continue.
“What else do you have to show me?” He asked as if what she’s given him wasn’t enough. She only smiled at his question. This little monster was smart as well, she knew it just as well as him that she only needed that cake to satisfy him.
“Well, if you hold true to your side and I'm satisfied with it, I am more than willing to share some weapons with the rest of the disciples at a certain cost to improve the sect’s strength as a whole.”
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“Do you mind showing me these weapons?” Jinhai reasonable asked.
“Of course.” Jing dropped three spirit weapons from her storage ring onto his desk.
A jade sword, a rod, and a hoe. The sword was made out of actual jade, a decorative item rather than a weapon. For the thick rod was completely black and seemed to hold no other special qualities. And for the hoe, it looked like a completely normal hoe. He knew that she wouldn’t be joking with him at a time like this after giving him that cake. So, he waited for her to explain.
“I’ll go in order in terms of strength. The sword is made for Outer Court disciples.” She picked up the sword by the blade instead of the handle.
Instead of blood flowing from her tight grip, the only thing that came was mist. This mist that was only slightly smaller than one’s fist slowly grew to the size that it covered Jing’s figure entirely. It forced Jinhai into using more qi than usual but eventually he could see Jing again. If used on someone without any soul cultivation, then it would be impossible to see through that mist using qi alone.
She soon dropped the sword and then picked up the rod.
“This is for Inner Court disciples.” She took out 5 spells.
A fire spell, ice spell, lightning spell, earth spell, and water spell. She placed each one onto the rod and Jinhai’s eyebrow raised at seeing the results. When it burst into fire from the fire spell, the rod absorbed the flames into its body and now held fire qi within. This repeated with the next four spells and by the end of it, the rod now could produce 5 different elemental qi types. Jing pointed the staff into the air and a burst of flames shot out from the tip but the flame qi inside the rod didn’t disappear.
“I believe it would be better to explain the hoe rather than show you. Otherwise, the inside of your office might be ruined even further.” She told him.
“Go ahead.”
“This hoe is for Supreme Court. All it does is promotes the growth of spirit plants and control them.” She knew that was all she needed to say to interest him.
“And how would this be effective as a weapon?”
“How many dangerous Spirit Plants do you think there are in the world, Supreme Commander?”
“I see your point.” He slowly started to smile before bursting out into uncontrollable laughter.
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Jing wondered if she showed too much... Did he lose his mind? Was he going to kill her? Maybe she should’ve sent a water clone in for her. But he would’ve definitely seen right through something like that. She couldn’t underestimate these cultivators at high realms. They had abilities that she had too little information on.
“I accept. What is your request, Jing?”
“I understand that I have some sort of protection from the elders but the same doesn’t hold true for my followers. I’d like it if they could not be targeted by Elders as well.”
“Very well. I’ll relay the order not to touch any of Heaven’s Angels to the elders. It was nice finally meeting you Jing.” He smiled.
“Likewise, Supreme Commander. I’ll let myself out.” Jing gathered the refined weapons and walked out. She soon teleported into her home, ready to move out and into the Inner Court.
“That was scary...” Li Li spoke through their soul link.
“It was terrifying. How lucky are we that the Supreme Commander is a sensible person? I was expecting him to react the same way that Earthly Immortal did.” Jing had several plans in motion for if things went in a very different direction.
“I never met anyone as strong as him before...” Li Li shared.
“And to think that the Sect Leader is even stronger than him... How exciting of a world this is...” Jing giggled, her inner desires spilling out.
“Hmph. I won’t be weak forever. I’ll be even stronger than him one day.” Li Li wasn’t discouraged by today's experience.
“That’s my son.” Jing rubbed his head as her mission reward came in.
[Mission Completed!]
[You have proven your loyalty to the Golden Serpent Sect! The Supreme Commander no longer thinks of you as a spy!]
[Rewards: SCP-173]
SCP-173’s information flowed into her soul. The pain wasn’t lessened even with Li Li’s strengthening of her soul. Her eyes suddenly opened wide open in shock as the monster appeared behind her. She didn’t even get the chance to prepare herself before everything in the world turned sideways. Jing dropped to the floor from the sudden ambush before hearing her door break down behind her.
Jing quickly reacted and turned around to spot the statue about to make its way out of the sect and into the Immortal Forest. Its body froze and she quickly resnapped her neck back into place and chased after it without blinking a single time. Li Li was having trouble realigning his neck but Jing would have to deal with that in a second. She kept her eyes on the inanimate object without blinking once and stuffed it into her inventory.
“What the hell...? A statue whose only purpose is to crap, bleed, and kill?!” She felt all the pain that came with having her neck snapped, so she was plenty pissed at the thing.
Jing didn’t have the time to turn off her pain receptors because of how fast the damn thing was. It was probably one of the fastest things on the planet. Not even cultivators would be able to save themselves from this thing. Hell, Jing was only alive because of SCP-914! She could've died right there because of the system’s decision to drop that thing right after she got her mission reward! This system was definitely not her best friend and needed to be carefully cautioned against.
“Here you go baby...” Jing fixed Li Li’s sideways head as gently as she could.
“Ow! Ow! Mom, it hurts!” He cried.
“I know sweety... I’ll try and be fast.” Jing gave a sharp snap and he cried even louder.
It pained her heart to cause him so much pain but he didn’t know how to turn his pain receptors on and off. And it would be impossible for her to try and teach him how. She didn’t even understand how she could, she just knew it was possible. He could do the same but he needed to know what pain receptors were. Something that Jing couldn’t show him, he just had to try and figure it out himself.
“What even was that stupid thing?!” Li Li huffed with his feathers ruffled.
He was already upset about being overpowered by the Supreme Commander in soul power. Now he just lost his first fight ever against some stupid thing that isn’t even alive! It wasn’t fair! The dumb rock caught him off guard! He wasn’t ready! How was he supposed to know something would suddenly pop out of the air and attack him in less than a second?!
“A very mean statue.” Jing tried calming him down by massaging his feathers.
“I hate that statue...” He pouted.
“I hate him too.” She continued petting him while holding him in her arms.
Soon, Li Li’s anger was calmed by Jing and he fell asleep in her arms. Jing got to moving out of her home since she was no longer a Qi Gatherer. It was time for her to move in to the Inner Court and start her plans to takeover that court as well. Ying would be following her there. Bing and Lei Zhi wouldn’t be joining them until the Grand Tournament was over. It looks like she would have to cheat a little if she wanted Bing to complete his task for her to get the mission rewards.
[Mission has been changed!]
[Bing is the only one allowed to fight and kill Leng Huan, he still must be gifted an SCP before fighting him, and you are unable to support him with the help of any SCP or resources.]
[Penalty: SCP-914 is unable to be used for 9 months.]
Upon reading this change, Jing erupted in anger. The system was actively trying to screw her over! And after the crap she just dealt with in the form of SCP-173, she wished this stupid thing had a face for her to kick in.