“Junior apprentice-sister, would you like to trade your Spirit Well Pill with me? I swear that it will be a fair trade.”

“Junior apprentice-sister, I know a few cultivation methods that aren’t taught by the sect...”

“Junior apprentice-sister…”

“Junior apprentice-sister...”

They all swarm me with questions, I can’t even process them all. The only thing I know is that I can refuse them, but they will surely challenge me to a duel or spar if I refuse. The rules state that I’m not allowed to refuse a match if I haven’t had a duel that day. So even if I refuse them now, someone will challenge me to a match. What do I do…?

“Enough, all of you!” A familiar voice commands.

!!

Is… Is that…

“If you want her pill, you’ll have to go through me first.”

“...”

The crowd goes quiet. They seem to want to talk back, but they’re too afraid. One bold disciple walks up and talks back.

“Junior apprentice-brother Ardven, we are still your senior apprentice-brother and sisters, you need to show respect!”

“Respect?” Ardven snorts. “What have you done to earn my respect? Have a weaker cultivation than me? Bully a junior apprentice-sister to get a mere Spirit Well Pill? If you think such actions would earn anyone’s respect, it seems that your head is a bit loose. Shall I fix that for you?”

“B-But what if junior apprentice-sister Rucia wants to pass off the pill to one of us?!”

“Ha! The sun will rise from the west before that happens!”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Tears well up in my eyes. Ardven, you shouldn’t be doing this. There’s no need to put yourself out there like that. Even you wouldn’t be able to handle all of the Inner Sect. If they want my pill, I’ll gladly give it to them, just stop doing this. Please, before you get hurt. Ardven puts on a smug smile, then grabs my hand. What-?!

“Then, we shall take our leave.”

Ardven leaves with me, pill and all. I want to say thank you, but I can’t even open my mouth. I can only meekly follow behind him. I only separated from him when we reached his house. From then on, it was a blur. I only remember saying yes and no; I wasn’t really paying that much attention. Maybe it was due to stress, or maybe I was exhausted, but I fell asleep, somehow.

{Ardven’s PoV…} - System

Rucia must’ve been frightened quite a bit, she hardly even paid attention to me. Of course, it might’ve been my fault as well, seeing as how I wasn’t exactly comforting when I fought Hayden. Yeah, if it’s my friend, they might be freaked out by my change in demeanor; especially if it’s Rucia, she’s pure and innocent enough to be afraid. Well, I hope that can be smoothed over and she won’t fear me anymore.

Of course, there is also the possibility of her liking me and she got caught off guard by my performance. Well, that is only a conjecture, I doubt that’s the reality. I would like it if she did have feelings for me, but I don’t think I’d be able to return them well. In all my life, the one question I’ve wanted answered was “what is love?”

Baby don’t hurt me.

*Ahem* Back to the present. I grab a blanket from the closet and throw it over Rucia. Beyond Mortal is an amazing realm for normal mortals, but it’s not often realized that cultivators at that stage still can catch colds, feel cold and hot. It’s only once you reach Vanquishing Tribulations – Oh shit… I forgot about my life treasure.

Right, once you overcome a tribulation, you need to form a life treasure before you can face the next one. It’s a real oversight on my part, as the best time to form your life treasure is right after you complete your tribulation. Argh…! I’m such a forgetful idiot, goddammit! Waiting doesn’t affect the life treasure you create too much, but it makes the true treasure you create after the nine tribulations weaker. Fuck… And here I wanted to make a badass true treasure, but I forget to form my life treasure…

Actually… If I make my nine life treasures parts of the true treasure I intend to create, then it shouldn’t matter when exactly I form life treasures. I immediately sit in the lotus position and draw upon my qi. Inside my qi is a significant amount of heavenly energy. Heavenly energy is a variant of qi which is most useful for creating things. Legend has it that the first thing to exist was heavenly energy, which gave birth to time, space, life, and everything in between. Just from that, you can tell heavenly energy is pretty important. Since these tribulations come from whatever mind overlord that controls the multiverses, it can easily do whatever it wants with heavenly energy.

I grab hold of the heavenly energy and begin to manipulate. I’m making it into a bowstring. If you are an idiot, that means that my true treasure shall be a bow. I’m not really sure exactly what the hell a normal bowstring is supposed to be like, so I just trust the mind overlord to understand my intentions and help me out here. But even if he doesn’t help me out, I have the system. This’ll take a while. If I can’t finish by the time Rucia is gone, then I’ll just end mid-sentence -

{The next day, third person PoV…} - System

Rucia left for her abode, passing the training grounds along the way. She didn’t want to go by, but she had no choice, unless she wanted to go all the way around the sect and take much longer. She just hoped that she wouldn’t be noticed by her fellow disciples. However, a few other disciples noticed her and ran up to her. Her face went pale, and she backed up. In harmony, the disciples all, at the same time…

Bowed at the waist and shouted, “Greetings, senior apprentice-sister Rucia!”

“Huh?” Rucia was dumbfounded.

Ardven’s influence is quite great, is it not?