My egg was translucent the whole time…neat. Being in the sky seems like a problem though. Shit.

Aden’s egg plummets to the earth with him inside. A vast forest grows into view, and a wide lake spans below. Rude tree, prying more than it let on. I guess I’m fine? Looks like a safe landing. Although my stats read low, that obviously isn't right. Health and mana are percentages now…and they won't show total…My attributes seem really good. I might be able to drain life to heal myself if my racials aren’t enough.

Sure is a long fall…are those lights over there a city? Is this good or bad? Am I a crashing ufo to them? Nah, this is a cultivation world…I am a potentially valuable treasure…shit. No bogeys in sight, yet.

That is one big snake! Eel? Serpent, right. Already circling, not only can it see me this far off, but it thinks it can catch me. Buddy, I'm starting to see plasma building up and my egg is hardly wearing down, no fucking way.

It sure is big. Oh serpent of the lake, please give me a cool sword. Wait, no, there won't be loot drops. Oh serpent of the lake, please taste good…he do be looking kinda big though…looks like it’s made of white pearl. Cool.

Aden, eyeing his meal with anticipation. The serpent, eyeing the growing egg with mindless hunger. The 2 reach nearer and nearer to their desires. The serpent springs up from the water, jaws wide, catching the egg perfectly. Aden continues his journey through the foolish serpent, his momentum forcing the oversized snake back down into the lake with a sudden jerk.

…

Down in the depths, at the bottom of the lake, a tune can be heard.

~just keep diiiigging, just keep diiiigging- oh! I'm- “guagahgghagahhag” too much water! Hold, lungs, HOLD! That was no way to wash down my food! Just keep swimming!

Back up on the now still and serene lake surface. The glistening morning sun bounces off the crystalline water. The song of birds and Aden choking up lakewater to breath air for the first time in his body can be heard from the shoreline.

Should have expected that, my bad. Good meat though, lean, fishy, bit of a nutty aftertaste.

Aden stands, stretching and looking around.

Salty lake. Not a soul in sight aside from the birds. No one to chase me yet. Neat, four wings to accompany my four arms. Handstand! Wingstand? Wingstand! Wingwalking. I can just plank as if I'm laying in water and “walk” around like this. Oooo, pretty scales. Couldn't really see them before. They look like scales with a feathered etching submerged just below the skin. I would pay top dollar for a seat made of this.

Ah, right, I should be going now.

Time to bust a move. New to his strength, Aden stomps hard, kicking up rocks, and rockets forward into the treeline, smashing right through a dead tree. Aden dusts himself off and gets back to it. Nobody saw that.

Let's see these other attributes while I'm bailing…tough hide...venomous…flexible…acidic saliva…not only is there a lot of junk, but I can’t sort the list…why are some of these also question marks? Abiotic Hybridization? Hollow bones and dense bones, am I fine then? Dematerializing Digestion…slime? Construct…but I'm also listed as undead, and for some reason undead is contributing enough to make it onto primary attributes while construct is not, oh and here is plant which also didn’t make it…Blessing of the World Tree? “Words spoken are imbued with their intent.” I will forgive you for snooping around my mind just this once.

Subdermal Scales…no shit…Transmutable Body, “Your body can be altered within means to a degree”...and no details on the full scope of this, great system. Soul-Fused Dantian, well alright then, that sounds risky to use. Sealed Dantian, but It feels like everything is flowing just fine. Must be an issue with phylactery. Thermal vision…I guess I didn’t notice what with the myriad of colors I have never seen and lights everywhere. Photosynthetic, I can see that. Magnetoreception…phoenix bird brain? Is that what this feeling is? Spirit sight, that might explain some of these lights. Mystic Beasts and Divine Beast, really hitting home the idea I would be hunted on sight. Ooo, got Demon in here too. Shapechanger, and its says “ycoaun cpaonl ryemsohrapphei nytofuarm ibloidayr bteoings of similar”. Aaaaah, yes, gibberish.

I’m not parsing through all of these trash and generic attributes to figure things out with this broken system. Well, I can still learn something…Another time then.

Man am I fast! It's like sticking my head out the window. Closing his eyes to enjoy the breeze, aden manages to glide around every tree. As the sun begins to reach its peak, a pond comes into view.

Break time already? I don’t feel tired at all. Guess I’ll see what's prowling around here. Aden pushes his wings while grappling up a tree, finding a thick branch with a view of the pond. No wildlife, just small birds keeping their distance. I don’t think I have the time to wait and see what stops by, the distance might be nothing to the locals. I’ll drink while I can and leave.

Approaching the pond, Aden notices that there is no light reflecting off the water and a chilliness in the air. Dark blue lights nearing pitch black flow out freely, circle around, and return to the water.

“Well, it’s not death energy. Seems close, but not quite. Feels opposed to fire too. I wonder what happens if I drink it.” Leaning down to cup some water, Aden is interrupted by the voice of a young woman.

“You would die. This pond is property of the Black Spirit Cult. Stay your hand, demon!”

I really need to get used to this sensory clusterfuck. Turning to speak, Aden's eyes meet with those of the stranger. “Sorry, not from around here, don’t have a map or anything. You got one I can look at? Also, you might be part right, but the way you said demon felt very insulting and rude.” Young, haughty, resting bitch face, already pointing her sword at me. The clothes aren’t rags, but they aren’t pristine either. Must be a mid-tier suck up in her group. My playful attitude might tick this brat off.

“Do not think your trickery can fool me, thief! You will find naught but your end here!”

“Are you challenging my martial arts!?” Her posture micro-corrections are slow and her grip is loose. Ah, loose arms, some sort of free flow style. Still slow though. “I can take you with both, I mean all hands tied behind my back, challenge accepted!”

“You dare mock me, demon?! I will have your head!” With half a step and a short thrust forward, dark blue light surges from around her and congeals forth onto the blade in the shape of a twisting serpent, reaching toward him much like the white serpent did.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“I see your blue snake, and I raise you-” Aden sucks in a shallow breath, and spits. A thin stream of liquid-like shadowy fire juts forth to match the snake, exploding back towards the girl on impact. Looks like getting close to the same energy density results in similar strength, although mine had less overall, it was more concentrated and volatile.

Attempting to catch Aden by surprise, the child pushes through the obscuring cloud covered in dirt. Aden kicks a pebble off the ground into her sword hand and dashes forward with a kick off the ground. Distracted with the pain in her hand and the stumbling effort to catch her sword, aden arrives lying on the ground in front of her, one foot planted down, and the other up. Twisting to the side, he splits his legs, kicking both off the ground and into her jaw, sending her flying with a gasp.

She fell for the newbkiller. Classic. Ya get hit like this, you clearly don’t have the skill to be out challenging strangers. I wonder what the rest of this cult is like? Maybe a group fight could give me a good stretch. Geez, she’s still awake, barely, but she’s coming around!

As Aden approaches, the foolish woman attempts to grab something from her leg. “Nope!” Aden exclaimed, kicking a knife from her hand. “Accept defeat, you lost pathetically,” spoke Aden as he lifted her by the leg. “Do you give up yet”?

“Never! Unhand me demon!”

“Again with the demon. Is existing all it takes to-”

Pulling yet another blade from her other leg, she whips her arm around, Lets see what she can even do, catching him in the shin. Burying into the outer skin, thick burbling black blood and scorching toxic gas burst onto the blade, corroding it. Aden’s eyes go wide and he kicks the long dagger into a nearby tree, lighting it on fire wherever the corrosion spreads.

“Well don’t look at me! I didn’t know that would happen either!”

“Demon, Demon!” She began to cry in fear over and over.

“SILENCE! Crying will do nothing for you but annoy me, the one you fear. Do you want me to kill you?”

“No! Plea-”

“Then don’t worry! Have I really tried to hurt you so far? You look fine to me, what do you think?”

“I..Yes, I am fine. It is as you say.”

“Good. So if I let you down, you won’t attack me again?”

“No, demon”

“I am not a demon”

“Yes, you are not a demon”

This bitch…she's just agreeing with everything I say! She must have been coddled her whole life to be this dumb!

Aden, staring at her through squinted eyes. “I am going to put you down, but just so you know, I know that you are merely agreeing with everything I say out of fear instead of actually listening to me.”

“Unhand my disciple, foul creature!” From the sky an old man with long gray hair in white pearlescent robes strikes towards the ground between Aden and the disciple with sword in hand.

With Aden caught unready, despite meeting the elderly man's gaze and following the blade with his eyes, he watched as it cut clean through his extended arm. The old man landed hard, pancaking the grass as if a miniature air burst went off for a miniature forest.

As his hellish bloodsap burst forth, Aden let gravity pull him down. Leaning back, he kicked the ground, sending him back, while the elder was distracted by the corrosive spew. Sizzling droplets were expertly intercepted with the shining jian of the clearly experienced master as he kicked the falling arm to the distant side, realizing its danger. The blade steaming and flaking apart on the surface.

“Just when I was about to “unhand” her from when she attacked me, you go and risk killing her by cutting me. First your disciple won’t listen to reason, and then you make snap judgements. Like master, like disciple, huh?” The two stare at each other, Aden’s arm visibly growing back. The elders stern face unshaken, but a sheen of sweat begins to form.

No way I can outrun his speed. I might only come even with him in a melee. I’ll have to beat him with a gimmick, perhaps. I could impale myself on his blade and get my bloodsap all over him. No one expects the immortal kamikaze! Killing him might make things worse though.

“You can keep the arm, there’s more where that came from” - A

“What? Was it something I said?” - A

The elder grabs his disciples head and immediately plasters the both of them head first to the ground in a kowtow position.

“Please forgive us immortal! I had eyes but could not see! My disciple…she is young and inexperienced, she did not know! Please!”

“Then quit groveling” Lucky me! I don’t think he’s actually stupid, there’s probably just no frame of reference to judge me by in this world “I despise begging and pleasantries. My name is Aden. Now speak to me like friendly, normal people and cease the senseless violence.”

This might be my best chance at getting info. My next encounter might not go this well. Although, If they stop believing me to be worthy of reverence like this…well, they are a cult. They should be easier to fool.

“Apologies, great one. I-”

“Pleasantries”

“Yes…I am called Wu Long. This is my disciple, Shao Lin…”

Through his side vision, Wu Long has noticed what became of the missing arm. Although its vibrancy remains as if it was not severed, the surrounding ground had become a shallow puddle of boiling tar.

If I didn't hear his intent, I wouldn’t know that name means “little jade”. Damn chinese. Wait…that tree blessing has been working two-way this entire time? Unreliable descriptions…

“Go on. I said "like friendly, normal people”, so speak freely.” As Wu Long begins once more, Aden walks over to his hand, picking it up to inspect, unaffected by the caustic sap.

Doesn’t tingle at all, in fact, the energy is trying to soak back into me, and the flesh almost has a pull to it…also towards me. Fascinating.”

“Yes…we hail from the Black Spirit Cult. This foolish disciple of mine was to retrieve water from the Small Yin Pond for our younger disciples. May I ask, what trouble has my disciple caused? What repayment shall be owed for these inconveniences?

Aden tilts his head up, opens his jaw abnormally wide, and drops his arm in. Gone. Meal finished.

Hmmm…satisfying. Everything back where it belongs. I hope nothing or no one else can enjoy my taste, I would be hunted for eternity to feed their newfound addiction.

Looking back to the elder. “I am not from this world. Teach me of it. If your people treat me well, I will do the same for them. Maybe I can make something of this little cult of yours.”

“We would be most honored, immortal one”

Is that pleasantries? It's just a descriptor, albeit, I might be hard to kill, but the immortal he is referring to is not that kind. Although I haven’t explored the details of my situation concerning undeath and the phylactery. Construct might make me unaging too. Plants live a long time now that I think about it, and that race was related to yggdrasil. More and more questions piling up.

“Come now, what was it I said about pleasantries? How can you treat me like this if the idea is to be friends?”

“I will endeavor to be most friendly.”

“You really are trying, aren’t you? Stubborn habits? No matter, time will fix that. Shall we head back to your home now? You can tell me about this Little Yin Pond of yours on the way.”

I’ve got this in the bag. Screw dine and dash, I'll make them my little minions if they are decent enough compared to other groups. That way I won’t have to risk my hide traveling.

Wu long stands, dusting himself off with a puff of summoned wind. Shao Lin shakily rises alongside him.

Gesturing away from the pond, towards his cult. “Certainly, by all means. Right this way, Aden.”