For the next week I worked on my second identity as a minor supervillain. Alfred made me a trench coat with the symbol of the Soul Blade sect on the back, a sword going thought the wisp of a soul, and I replaced my Jade mask with a black one. I stopped a few crimes every night as the Jade Dragon, wearing the jade mask and my fancy robes with a jade Chinese dragon on the back. While the dragons from my home realm were closer to the western dragons, or maybe wyverns, this fit the local culture better. We would stage a battle between Soul Blade and the Jade Dragon at some point in the future, having one of the Justice League members wear one of my costumes, thus separating the two identities and allowing me to operate as either of them without being recognized as the other. Bruce wanted Martian Manhunter to take the role of Soul Blade for the presentation, as he could also use telekinesis and fly, faking the sword chi with a relic I had made, but he was currently escorting a group of ambassadors from earth to his homeworld and wouldn’t be back for two weeks. I had sensed a bit of Chi within him, and his mental discipline was impressive, so he should be able to use a properly designed relic with a bit of training.

Every day I spent several hours in the bat cave trying to create Sword Chi and control it to cut more and more difficult objects, and at greater distances. During this time I had to rely on my natural regeneration of chi to refill my reserves, as I had no time for proper cultivation. Still, this was the best I could do under the circumstances. If I were to break my cultivation and restart the gathering phase by gathering sword chi, even though my body was primed for cultivation up to the foundation level, it would take me months to reach that point.

Friday night, as I gathered metal chi to form another Sword chi blade, and cut another wooden pole Damian came up to me. “You can cut wood from several meters away? Interesting. Can you teach me?”

“Not until you reach the Gathering phase. And even then, I am unsure if you are responsible enough to wield Sword chi.”

“Sword chi?” he asked, and I nodded and explained.

“The different types of chi all conform to a concept. The stronger the concept, the more pure the chi. And if it has no concept, then it is called neutral chi. Chi of the five elements occurs in nature, as any chi that passes through that material will take on part of its concept. Through meditation one can refine the concept into a purer form, creating a purer elemental chi, and then store that purer chi within themselves. Sword Chi is chi which embodies the concept of Severance. It can cause anything to be separated from anything else, and the purer the concept the stronger the material which can be severed. While I have no doubt that you have a great understanding of that concept, and would excel at the use of sword chi, such a concept is dangerous to cultivate into ones own body. Earth has a saying. When all you have is a hammer, all problems look like nails. Until you learn to see problems as something other than nails, I can’t risk handing you a hammer, lest you hammer the wrong thing.”

“Then you won’t teach me to cultivate?” He looked upset. Hearing my explanation, Tim had walked up as well. Despite how the boys acted like they disliked each other, they always spent time together. That seemed like good evidence that they were brothers to me.

“I will, I just won’t teach you to cultivate Sword Chi. Of my four disciples, only Bruce and Alfred have the wisdom to use it properly. I will instead give the two of you a choice. Neutral chi is fast to cultivate, but aside from chi blasts and physical enhancement it is slower to use, as one must imbue a concept onto any chi that they seek to use. Elemental chi is slower to cultivate, but, as the chi is already a relatively pure form of the element, it is much easier and faster to use in magic. Once the two of you reach Gathering I will teach you to cultivate either Elemental or Neutral chi, whichever you choose. And tomorrow I am going to get something that will aid you in your cultivation.”

“What kind of thing?” asked Tim. “A relic? Some sort of secret technique?”

“You’ll see.” I said, then turned around. “Now, shouldn’t you two be training?” They didn’t do any cultivation training that night, as they hated the side effects, but they did practice their martial arts, and that was good enough.

The next day I practiced my Sword Chi until lunch, got a shower, then put on my super villain outfit and went to the warehouse. Some of the men there were asleep, but they woke up when I knocked on the door. I was let inside and their boss came to greet me. “I was expecting you tonight.” he said.

“Do I need to operate on your schedule?” I asked, giving him a disapproving look.

“Of course not, they just harvested some last night and it isn’t ready yet. This stuff grows and dries quickly, but it still takes a whole day to dry.”

I nodded. “In that case, just give me what you’ve got.” I was lead to a back room where bundles of grass were stacked on the shelves.

“This is all that we got so far, boss. One hundred and seven. There was some issue with drying the first batch, and about half of it rotted, but next time we’ll have over two hundred.”

I gave him a disapproving look, then nodded. “I gave Mr. Clayton permission to buy from you as well. I don’t mind if he pays for the extra, but I want at least a hundred per week.” The man nodded, and I counted out five thousand four hundred dollars, fifty each for the grass and an extra fifty just to keep them happy. Bruce had given me ten thousand so that I would have money if I needed it for this role, so I had enough. As he counted the money to verify that I had paid them correctly, I went around and pulled all of the grass into my spacial ring. I was using the ring of a Black Serpent cultist the Justice League had captured when in this persona, and had emptied everything but a sword from it. This sword was purchased off of the internet, not one that was designed for flight, but I had flown on one enough that I could manage at low speeds up to one hundred kilometers per hour.

The man thanked me for my business, and I left, being sure to cut down a few alleys and going through the sewers a few times to lose any tails I might have picked up. Once I had made my way to the Asian district of Gotham I changed into civilian clothing and disappeared into the crowd. There was a traditional Chinese medicine shop here where I could buy most of the things I needed for my alchemy, so seven hundred dollars later I left the shop with the supplies I needed. The ingredients weren’t the best, probably because the person who produced them only had a rudimentary knowledge of chi at best, but they would suffice for low grade pills.

After cutting down an alley and storing the supplies I changed into my hero outfit, hopped on my sword and flew away. Hopefully the people below would see me patrolling and feel safer. I planted bugs on several of the triads’ bases in the area for Bruce, just in case, and flew back to the nicer part of town where I switched back into my civilian clothes and took the subway to the stop nearest the manor.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I got home around four PM and took my supplies to the basement. While you could put one storage ring inside another, the storage area didn’t stack, so the contents of the inner ring would fill the outer ring. So, in order to avoid that, my Black Serpent ring was in my pocket.

After setting up my equipment I got to work grinding the grass and other ingredients, mixing them in the right proportions and at the right times, then performing the purification step several times to remove all of the impurities which would weaken the resulting pill and the toxins, which would be immediately purged from the body upon absorption.

Around eight O’clock, as Nightwing walked in, I was bottling up the first batch. I still had one hundred and six batches to go, but the traditional medicine merchant only had enough of one ingredient for nine batches, and had to order more from his vendor.

“Hey Chang.” he said, walking up as I used chopsticks to move the last pill from the drying tray to the glass bottle. “Have you seen Bruce?”

“Hello, Dick.” I said. We’d met a few times and he didn’t seem to mind me using his first name. “I believe he’s out following up on a lead. Something about a ‘canary’ that will sing for coin.”

“Probably meeting an informant to verify that none of the gangs are planning anything big in the near future. So, what’s with the lab equipment?”

“Alchemy,” I said, tossing him the bottle. “Each of those pills should help purge toxins from the body. I’m not sure how well they will work, as I’m not used to the materials from your realm but I did get seven from that batch, so I can begin testing them. If you want them, though, feel free to take that bottle. Just make sure you are sitting on the toilet before taking one, and only eat simple foods afterwords. If you have too many of the lowest toxins in your body they will all go to your digestive track and, well, Tim and Damien don’t like cultivating because of what happens. You will end up stronger from it, though.”

“Thanks.” He said, putting the bottle away. “Might come by and join your training some time. The boys told me of your powers, and it might be good to learn some tricks.” I nodded and followed him up stairs.

Alfred didn’t know when Bruce would return either, but when Dick gave him some sort of paper card about the size of a standard talisman, he promised that ‘they’ would be there.

“You can come too, if you want. I’m sure Cori would love to meet you.”

“What kind of function is it, and who is Cori?”

“Oh, Cori’s my wife. I’m inviting you to the baby shower.”

“You publicly celebrate the first bathing of your newborn child? What purpose does it serve? Does the removal of natal fluids serve some ritual purpose on this world?” What an unusual custom.

“No, nothing like that. Actually, the baby won’t be born for another month. I think it’s called that because you ‘shower’ the baby with gifts, though usually that means giving the parents things the baby may need or like. Cori’s been getting into Earth customs recently, so she wanted to have a baby shower. On Tamaran they would normally throw a feast to celebrate a person’s birth, so we’ll also have a barbecue afterwords, so no need to eat first. We’ve rented a meta-friendly venue, and the owner’s a meta, so you can even use your powers there if you want. Just don’t damage anything or we’ll have to pay for it.”

I nodded. “In that case, I’ll attempt to be there.”

Nightwing nodded, said goodbye, and went back to the cave where he hopped on his motorcycle and drove away.

I made a second batch of pills, these turning out slightly better quality, and placed the seven of them in a bottle. As it was now after ten, I put back on my super hero outfit and flew off to go on patrol for a few hours. Two muggings, a rape, and a shoplifting prevented later, I returned home around one AM, calling it an early night. Alchemy took a lot of concentration and I was already mentally exhausted.

The next morning at breakfast I informed the boys that they should only eat a light breakfast, as I had finished the thing that will help them cultivate faster. I still didn’t tell them what it was, but instead spent the rest of the morning in the kitchen preparing special food. Around eleven they both came into the kitchen asking about lunch and I informed them that, now that their stomachs were empty again, I was ready to give them the what I had prepared.

“Remember, boys, that one cannot profit without work. One does not gain power without going through pain.” Damian was about to say something, but I held up a hand. “Yes. In some cases great power may be handed to a person, but until they go through the pain of learning to use that power properly of adjusting to it, they can’t realize it’s true potential.” I pulled out the bottle of pills I made last night. “These seven pills will bond with the toxins in your body and move them into your digestive track or sweat glands, depending on what type they are. Because you are still in the early phase of cleansing, they will make you experience far worse symptoms that you experienced before, but may cut weeks off of your cultivation time. It is up to you if you want to take them or not, but if you want to follow the path of cultivation, this is the fastest way.”

The boys looked at each other and thought about it before stating that they wanted to use the pills.

“Good.” I said, then gave them each a glass and a pill. “Now, find a bathroom and don’t take this until you are already sitting on the toilet unless you want to soil yourself and possibly the entire room you are in. If, at any time, the digestive issues mostly go away and you start to sweat black, grey, or oily substances, then you should take a bath or shower as it works. Otherwise, the toxins it is flushing may make the bathroom to disgusting to enter in the near future.”

They nodded and took their glass and pill to a different bathroom in the manor. Ten or fifteen minutes later, after the boys had suffered the worst digestive issues of their lifetime, most of the suffering went away and the noise died down. It was another thirty minutes before a damp Damian made his way down the stairs, followed three minutes later by a wet Tim. Apparently someone had forgotten to grab a towel first.

They sat down at the table and I handed each of them their meal, a half cup of rice cooked in vegetable broth. “That’s it?” asked Damian. “I’m hungry.” He looked tired, but his sense of entitlement still gave him some energy.

“That’s all that your body will accept right now. I specially prepared that to have less than three percent of the toxins that a meal normally would, but even with so few toxins your body would reject it if you ate much more than that. It is currently hypersensitive to toxins.” I handed them both a pair of chopsticks and Damian looked at me again. “Metal utensils may give you trace amounts of heavy metals in your body, which is a toxin. Wooden utensils are better.” They begrudgingly ate their rice as best they could, not having much experience with the traditional utensil, and then went to their rooms to lie down.

A few hours later I also gave Bruce one, which he took before soaking in the jacuzzi. I then drove him to supper at a five star restaurant, where he had diner scheduled with Talia Al Ghul. I had read her file, as she was Bruce’s lover, Damian’s mother, and a suspect in the missing Cultivator case, not to mention the head of a terrorist organization. I had no idea why Bruce would choose a woman like her, but that wasn’t really my concern. I was supposed to keep him safe and keep the city safe. As long as she behaved herself, I could let her relationship to Bruce be ignored.

I practiced my cultivation as I waited, gathering as much chi as I could and trying to refine it to a higher degree than I had before. All that I could find in this part of the city was metal and a bit of water chi from the rain, but I hadn’t gathered much metal chi recently, so I did my best to refine it to as high a quality as I could. By the time Bruce came outside I had only gathered a few drops of metal Chi and a single drop of water chi, but their quality was twice a high as any I had gathered before, improving my overall pool of Chi.

I pulled up to the red carpet of the restaurant and got out into the rain to open the door for my two passengers. Talia got in first, with Bruce getting in behind her. After closing the door I ran around and got in the driver’s seat. I could have used water chi to not gotten wet, but Bruce told me not to use superhuman powers in public, only martial arts if I had to. After all, we both had secret identities to protect.

“You don’t look like Alfred.” Miss Al Ghul commented after I started the car and turned on the heat.

“No ma’am. Alfred is currently at the manor baby sitting. I’m Bruce’s new body guard, Chang.”

She nodded. “In that case, let’s go say hello.”

I drove them back to the manor and let them out at the front door, then parked the limousine in the garage. By the time I got inside Talia was already talking to her son, who was explaining that he wasn’t sick, he was just suffering the effects of a cleansing pill. When she didn’t seem to understand, he clarified. “Chang is teaching us cultivation, and Cleansing is the first stage.”

A look of understanding came over Miss Al Ghul’s face. “I take it that means that you are the Jade Dragon that has been working with Bruce.” I cupped my hands and bowed in acknowledgment. “I knew he had a new sidekick, so when he also showed up with a new body guard I suspected that was true.”

“Partner. Not a sidekick. Though he is teaching me what I need to know to be a hero on this world.”

She smiled and I gave her a questioning look. “Oh, Dick said the same thing when I referred to him as Bruce’s old sidekick. Very well then, how about ‘assistant’?” I nodded and she smiled. “In that case, can you assist me by going down to the wine cellar and finding us a good bottle?” I didn’t know anything about wine from this world, so Alfred went with me to give me a crash course on wine and how things were arranged down there.

That night I helped Alfred baby sit to keep them from disturbing Bruce and Talia, the boys being content to just play video games instead of have another mock battle. Apparently the pills had taken a lot of energy out of them. Hopefully that meant that as they slept Chi would flood into them to fill that gap.