It was fully sunrise by the time Yu stepped into the room set aside for her on her master’s island. Leaving Zihao had taken longer than either intended, but being it was their final time with each other, probably forever, Yu had trouble letting go of him as they said their goodbyes.
Even thinking about it made her eyes water. However, she knew and accepted that it was over now. Well, her mind did at least.
Squeezing her fists so tight the joints creaked, Yu exhaled a big breath of air, letting go of her pain. To distract herself, she looked around the dull gray space lent to her by her master, recognizing it would be the last time she would see it for years. Unlike with Zihao, she was not the least bit upset by that fact. Getting the hells away from her master was one of the parts of this whole journey she was most looking forward to.
Yu walked the rest of the way to his tearoom, which is where they always met for their lessons and other discussions.
“You’re late,” he said grouchily to her from his seat at the low table.
Yu shrugged. What was he going to do to her a day before they left? Plus, she knew he did not really care. Things like time held a different meaning for him.
She sat without comment, awaiting whatever it was that caused them to need yet another meeting prior to their departure.
“I am tempted to not give this to you now,” he said in his usual condescending tone. “But I suppose it does not matter at this point.”
He held out his hand and a jade tablet like those used throughout the sect appeared on it. Yu knew what to do and tapped it, sending in a trickle of Qi. She was surprised by the silver God Sign appearing in front of her.
Mission Name: Spirit of the Spirit Realm
Mission Difficulty: High
Mission Type: Bounty
Duration: Unlimited
Repeatable: No
Reward: Right to challenge for the Inner Sect, 0 - 100,000+ points (see below)
Description:
You are about to enter a spirit realm that, with its condition and limitations, could have been created solely for your benefit. Do not waste this opportunity like you do so many that I provide.
Before returning to the sect, you are expected to accomplish the following:
1. Reach the Consolidation Stage.
2. Create your personal spatial pocket.
3. Kill ten cultivators that entered with you. (This will count for the ten bounty missions required to advance sect level. It does not matter which empire, clan, or sect they are from. Each will grant you 10,000 points. You may exceed that number and receive equal compensation, but ten is the minimum required.)
Optional Objective: Return with grade 4 beast cores of sufficient value to purchase your first grade 4 skill. Reward will be authorization to purchase two grade 4 skills per year without prior permission. You are still responsible for the cost, however.
Yu sat back slowly, looking from the Sign to her master, who stared unblinkingly back at her.
He’s been preparing this for a long time. Probably since I agreed to go into the spirit realm. The bastard knew what he was doing. Preventing me from taking bounty missions wasn’t to protect me – or at least that wasn’t the only reason. It was to stop me from picking only missions where I wouldn’t have to kill.
He gave her a self-satisfied smile.
Yu exhaled, tapping her badge to accept the mission and nodding to him. “I understand, master. And thank you for the optional mission.”
Grade 4 and higher skills could not be purchased the way grade 3 and below could. They were too rare and expensive to create. So one needed to requisition them in advance as well as provide beast cores equivalent to the skill grade in addition to getting permission from inner or core elders who would go to their vice leader or the sect master.
“I see that you do understand. It was inevitable, you know. Killing again.”
“I know,” she said resignedly.
And she did. Yu knew she would have to kill again, which she had been able to avoid for almost three years. Even after everything she had done to her opponents to stop them from going after her and her people, she had never killed, save for that time in the forest and the deranged alchemist, Xing.
The latter she had no compunctions about and had lost no sleep over. But the first time…
The pain and guilt had been so bad. In fact, even years later, she still thought about it occasionally, and it still made her stomach clench. She had been afraid of feeling it again, or making it worse.
Logically, Yu knew it had been necessary – she had been defending herself. She also knew she would kill again, especially in the spirit realm. But she’d been delaying. Hiding from that fact.
Yet, she accepted it was time to stop hiding. She had to tell herself the same thing she had when she changed her attitude in the area. Cultivation was the life she chose, and she either had to accept it… or fail everyone, including herself.
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That knowledge didn’t make it easy, though.
“Good,” her master said. “Now, I have not asked in many months. So, before we leave, show me your God Sign.”
As she had done countless times before, Yu pressed her will against the world and called, “Sign.”
Name: Yu, Clan: Fenghuang, Clan Rank: Young Mistress
Potential Indicators:
Body Type: Gold (high), Qi Purity: Pure (near-perfect), Meridian Type: Purple (heavenly)
Sect: Black Dragon Sect
Sect Points: 1,229 (+4.5%), Disciple Level: Outer Sect Disciple, Disciple Rank: 7
Age: 18
Meridians: 99/156
Cultivation Level: Stage: Meridian Forming
Martial Forms: Adept: 2, Initiate: 3
Weapon Capabilities: Expert: 2, Adept: 2, Initiate: 4, Novice: 7
Qi Skills:
Aura: Grade 1: 14, Grade 2: 19, Grade 3: 2
Mana: Grade 1: 18, Grade 2: 21, Grade 3: 2
Ether: Grade 1: 5, Grade 2: 3, Grade {7}: 4, Grade {unknown}: 1
He scanned it up and down. “Hmmm. Coming along. I see you decided to burn through most of your contribution points in advance of the spirit realm.”
He looked down at her from around her Sign. “I assume it was on inferior grade three skills?” Yu nodded, but waited for the lecture on wastefulness. “Wise decision. I’m impressed.” Yu blinked in surprise at the compliment. “And then you wasted what was left on whatever other nonsense you’ve been pining over.”
Aaaand there it is.
Yu had managed to find four affordable skills that didn’t require compression. Sure, they were among the weakest of the grade 3, but they were still substantially better than grade 2 – primarily because each of the skills require at least eighty-five meridians. She had purchased one Fire and Lightning of each Aura and Mana. In her mind, they deserved to be more in between grade 2 and grade 3; like very advanced grade 2 skills that just required a lot of power.
“You are showing four of the five Spatial skills available to you, save the one you will use for the first time in the realm itself to create your pocket. Good. But you have failed to find a way to access that enchanting skill. Disappointing, but so is most of your progress in enchanting. Your attributes?”
Honestly, she was disappointed too, but she was certainly not going to give him the satisfaction of agreeing to his face. Instead, she followed his instructions.
“Sign. Attributes.”
Body: 288, Mind: 112, Spirit: 10,653,350
She chuckled to herself at those numbers while turning it to also to face her master. There was a reason cultivators stopped showing their attributes in their full God Sign. And listing all their skills too. Her Spirit attribute had pretty much lost any meaning and she was approaching ninety Qi skills now.
In regards to the former, Yu’s Qi pool was so large she had not run out in months, unless she was training her skills for an entire day non-stop, or against multiple opponents repeatedly. Grade 2 skills just did not use a lot. On the other hand, it was mostly her stamina that ran out before her Qi, a very common occurrence she’d been told. The body could only be improved so much. There were physical limits, Qi saturation or not.
That was the reason old and strong cultivators tended to use powerful skills at each other immediately. That, or they basically just flung power at each other until one messed up at countering or eventually ran out of Qi.
At least that was true in a one-on-one fight. It became less clear-cut the more cultivators one faced.
Yu had learned that stamina and body quality tended to be more and more important the more lopsided the numbers were when she sparred alone with her faction members three, four, or even more at a time. In other words, her high gold body allowed her to outlast her opponents at both a physical and Qi level. Most of the time at least – she didn’t have unlimited stamina.
Still, she did feel proud about her attributes overall. Her body was, at eighteen summers, easily as strong and sturdy as that old fool elder from home, Mafan – and he had been close to one hundred and fifty.
Grandma Huan had really done well by her. Not that Yu appreciated it at the time.
“Don’t feel so smug about yourself,” her master said, interrupting what Yu had to admit was prideful self-reflection. “While your body is superior to most if not all of your competition in the spirit realm, it will not be by as much as you think. Remember, many will have copper or silver bodies, and all will be older than you. And yes, you have an adequate Qi pool for your age and cultivation stage, but a number of your fellow youth in there will have as much or more Qi initially and will be ready to compress it immediately upon entry, while you will still have fifty medians to cleanse. That’s a year you’ll need to survive without compressed Qi.”
Yu knew well what trials awaited her. But she and her master had devised a plan, and with the additional input from Ran and Zihao, she felt pretty good about it. Not that she wasn’t nervous, she was. She just felt as prepared as she possible could.
Contrary to what she knew most will believe, Yu would not be going alone – and that did not include Ran or Li, or anyone else in her faction or sect. Much of her competition would either not know or not prepare for her bond, who she hoped would advance shortly after she did. It wasn’t that Bai was being kept hidden or anything. It was just that most people did not consider a young bond important enough. They were only grade 2 at a maximum after all.
Bai was different from what cultivators thought, though. He was ether-bound and had been feeding on some of the purest Qi available since the day he was born. He was smarter, stronger, and more capable than any other bond in her beast training class. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that he could not use Qi externally, he would have been moved out of the beginner class months ago. Well, that and his attitude.
Yu was curious how many others would be bringing bonds with them when they entered the spirit realm. Demonic Beasts advanced differently to grade 3 than humans did the equivalent stage. According to her beast training instructor, beasts were required to survive a tribulation to break through and gain the ability to use Qi externally. In fact, Yu had learned that beasts were forced to experience a heavenly tribulation for each major grade advancement.
It has something to do with their beast cores being the source of their own Qi and them needing outside assistance to compress or advance in whatever way they did. There was quite a bit of study on the topic, but Yu was too busy with own growth to really dig into it.
“Well? Do you feel ready for what is to come?” he asked impatiently.
“I’m as prepared as I feel I can be, master. But I have a question.”
“I doubt you are, but we will see. What is your question?”
“Between the tournament and the spirit realm, I have time for more meridian cleansings before going in. Since we’re stepping everywhere I don’t have to worry about dealing with travel, but should I expect to cleanse them there at the tournament hall? And if so, do they have a room set up or something?”
“Contrary to your apparent belief, everything is not about you,” he scoffed. “You are not the only one in that situation and of course they have planned for it and will provide the logistics.”
Yu rolled her eyes. She didn’t mean it like that. “Never mind, I guess I’ll find out. So are we done? Can I go?”
“Yes. I will summon you tomorrow when the sun first hits the horizon. From there we will leave for the capital. You are to carry your fully packed backpack in your ring and wear sect robes, which you should bring extras of as none will be provided. Now, take this evening to make your final goodbyes.”