Little Spring eyed me suspiciously. ”By helping, will we be put in danger?”

Oh shit. I had promised that I’d stop getting us into unnecessary trouble.

”Hey! I’ve been extra careful these past few months. I’ve even taken care of my health and eaten everything you told me to.”

He sighed. ”So that’s a yes?”

“I’ve saved many healing pills. Some cultivation pills — actually, we sold most of those. But I created tasty and nutritious Grain Liberation Dan! And! And! I even progressed in making all the general antidotes I know... including some for more specialized poisons.”

He crossed his arms in front of his chest and raised a brow.

I grimaced, why was this kid so sharp at only eight?

”Okay. Yes. There will be danger, but I will do everything in my power to make sure it doesn’t affect us.”

“What do you have in mind?”

I sat down at the table in the main courtyard, loosely crossed my legs, and stared out at the quaint garden... Well, it used to be more quaint but I had moved some of the boulders and benches. Also, a few of the droopy-looking plants... So they didn’t interfere with my formations.

They were awkwardly piled in a messy corner of the courtyard judging me for my poor aesthetics. Whatever.

Little Spring sat down across from me. By now, this kid had already stopped judging me. Probably. Or at least he’d given up hope that my aesthetics could improve.

“I know the poison the Sect Leader is inflicted with. And I know the specialized plants they’ll need to create the antidote.”

I pulled out the updated map I had purchased a few weeks back in preparation for our ongoing journey. A clump of sketched pines had the characters for Three Kings Verdant Mystical Forest scrawled above it.

“This forest right here has the perfect environment for all three of the needed ingredients to grow. And it has dangerous enough plant life and spiritual beasts that low-level plant strippers would avoid it.

“I’m likely not the only sect member to realize this, so if we go to Three Kings Sanctuary.” I gestured to the little cluster of painted buildings next to the gate representing the forest’s entrance. “Then we’re likely to run into some sect members. If we help them with their task to collect the spiritual plants, then they’ll owe us. We can hitch a ride with them back to the sect. And we can use their favor to get us a meeting with the Sect Leader so we don’t have to wait for the official entrance test.”

See how amazing I was?! With this plan, we’d be able to take care of two things! Getting into the sect and saving someone. And likely more than just one person.

“Are you sure we need to help them?”

And he didn’t realize...

“The thing is, at our current cultivation levels, the sect won’t accept us without a backdoor of some kind. And absolutely no one there would create one for strangers like us.

“If we don’t do something special, then we’d need to tell some random sect member about our master. But the chances that they’d believe us and get us in front of someone who could actually recognize our skills...”

“I understand that we’d need to do this to enter the sect but when I see how well we’ve been living here...” He bit his lip. “Why can’t we just stay? Why do we even need to join?”

The kid stared at me with big adorable eyes.

I sighed and briefly patted his head. Doing so was a bit awkward, as I had to lean over the table (which dug into my side) but I managed.

After plopping back down into my seat, I tilted back so it balanced on two legs. I considered how to answer his question.

I could just put my foot down, but Little Spring was a good kid. We’d been living what must have seemed like a charmed life to him here. And I was disrupting our peace once again for something that might look unnecessary.

At the very least, this kid deserved some explanation.

I placed all four legs on the floor. “There are a few good reasons. One is that the sect is our home. At least I hope it will be.” This time around as well. “Another is that we need protection.”

“Right now, we’re small Qi Condensation Cultivators. I’ve been noticed by others due to my awesomeness. And while most of that notice is good, there will eventually be people who want to kill us, just for being outstanding.”

Like Violet Pill Fairy, who had let us get away with the top prize. There had yet to be any retaliation from her. At least, none that I knew about.

“Danger lurks everywhere. And while the sect isn’t completely safe, it is more so than anywhere else in the cultivation world.”

Or, more accurately, anywhere else in this stupid harem Xianxia that was filled with evil pumpkin-headed shits.

There was also Little Spring’s past to consider. Some kind of powerful entity had chased after him. I didn’t know if it was an immortal or a massive faction of some kind — but whatever it was — it had orphaned him. If it discovered his existence, I was positive it would come after him again.

Frankly, the reason why — in Bloodsword’s past life — the dick for brains reached adulthood at all was because merely being a disciple of the sect protected his ass.

When Little Spring reached sixteen, I’d explain his actual situation. But right now the kid needed a mostly happy childhood. The best one I, as his martial sister, could provide.

“And the last reason why we need to go to the sect, is that they’ll be able to give us better opportunities for advancement than any other place. Especially since we’re currently considered loose or rogue cultivators. Loose cultivators have no protection or anyone advocating for them. It is a very difficult path. I refuse to do that to us.”

Little Spring stared into my eyes for a long time before he nodded. “Okay. Let’s go then.”

While grinning, I raised my hand for a classic high-five, something I kinda missed from my original world and thought kids liked to do.

After rolling his eyes, Little Spring completed the high-five. Just like I taught him.

I jumped to my feet. We had a lot to do today to prepare to leave this place tomorrow. And it wasn’t just things like packing and putting the yard back in place either.

“Alright! Let’s cultivate the next layer!”

***

It started as a whim. Like, oh, hey, we are basically cultivating the same technique only reversed, so why don’t we sit back to back and see if that improves our cultivation somehow?

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I mean, the worst thing that could happen was looking dumb, right? Frankly, I had long since given up on being beautiful one hundred percent of the time. If something could improve my cultivation without touching my moral bottom line, I’d do it. Even if it looked dumb. Like sitting back to back.

After trying it, as if the damn author of the original story was laughing at me, it fucking worked.

With the same amount of spirit stones it would take just me to increase by half a layer, we were not only able to cultivate much faster (my technique already being insanely quick) but it improved both of our levels by a full layer! A. Full. Fucking. Layer.

When I learned this, it did not make me happy. It felt like the damn original author had his grubby little words in my body’s makeup. But I needed to increase my realm quickly and cheaply. Or die. So why the fuck not?

There shouldn’t be any weird side effects later... probably. Fuck it. I’d figure it out when the time came.

So, I once again turned to the spirit gathering formation I’d already set up. This one was a more advanced version with proper flags and everything. It required me to dump the exact amount of spirit stones in the precise location and sit with my junior martial brother. Then we cultivated.

Breathing in the good, cycling it, and breathing out the bad. Taking in the energy of the heavens and the earth, and gathering it bit by bit to form another layer of Qi Fractals.

As I pieced together the very last strands of this layer, my mind, soul, and body stabilized and synchronized... a little. It was enough.

Maybe it was just that I’d finally reached this point but this finished final layer appeared absolutely gorgeous. It glittered in my dantian like a cut diamond of not dying.

These twelve layers were also important for another reason. They would be my very solid base. The cornerstone to my Unlimited path. And with just a little bit of effort and time (and a lot of money), I had finished them!

Little Spring also completed his 8th Layer. Which was fine. But I wasn’t going to die anymore. Which was better!

I kinda felt like I needed to repeat the fact that I wasn’t dying anymore.

Of course, since we were cultivating in the house instead of the spring water our bodies had become covered with the impurities that we’d expended. I mean, there wasn't much, but it was enough to make me feel gross.

With a wave of my hand, while forming the proper seal, I cast my new favorite technique. The grossness and dirt left my body. It also left the area around me spotlessly clean. This included the kid.

Feeling better, I stood and stretched.

Little Spring eyed me as if I’d done something weird again. “Fairy Lin... Is your overuse of that technique the reason you're so bad at cleaning?”

I narrowed my eyes. Was this brat actually getting cheeky with me?

“I believe it’s time for you to practice the sword. If you aren’t able to create a blade of Sword Qi by the end of the day then you should prepare to suffer.”

His eyes widened and he started to run away.

I yelled, “If you don’t seek death—“

“—You won’t die!” He cut me off before I could finish then turned a corner.

I grinned. This kid. I’d never actually punished his ass but for some reason, he was terrified of whatever I’d come up with.

Actually, I had a purpose for sending him to train before we left. He needed it to consolidate his base and get used to his body’s increase in realm. While Dantian cultivators like us weren’t body cultivators, cultivating still strengthened and changed the body. If we ran into trouble on the road, he’d need to be used to his new realm so he could protect himself.

I, on the other hand, had different things I needed to prepare before we left tomorrow.

With a plop, I returned to sitting in the lotus position.

There was always a chance that we’d run into a random Nascent Soul who could discover my secret. If that person was a dickhead with no morals then they’d turn me into a nutritious snack. And, for obvious reasons, that was the last thing I wanted. So, I had to hide my soul’s appearance from curious eyes.

What was fun about Xianxia settings was that there was no one set way to do a thing. This setting, in particular, was a bit odd. It was as if the original dumbass author grabbed all the things he found cool and just shoved them together haphazardly. And amazingly, it somehow fucking worked (and it probably shouldn’t). Take for instance just a few of the weird-ass paths to reach ascension.

The majority cultivated by taking in the energy of heaven and earth and storing it in their dantian. They slowly built upon this foundation, in a variety of ways, purifying their body to create the perfect vessel to ascend.

A few righteous and insanely talented people could cultivate by practicing the sword. Eventually, this would create sword Qi. By internalizing it in various ways, their body and soul would become one with the immortal concept of the sword (and the main reason why this path required energy blessed epiphanies). At that point, they would ascend naturally, but it was very difficult to get to that point. Those brilliant people who walked this path were terribly strong for their realms.

There was also the Medicinal Qi cultivator. By concocting pills, a strand of medicinal Qi would enter their body. They stored these strands inside their hands as twin cores. Aside from the placement and number of cores, this path was actually pretty close to normal dantian cultivators.

Then there were those crazy people who broke down each cell and bone to repair it with spiritual energy. This, for some fucking reason, continuously strengthened those absolutely insane body cultivators. This path was one of the hardest ones, and very few people in history had reached immortality using it. But it was still possible.

Each Dao was different but had advantages in its own way.

That said, there was no pure soul cultivator. Because the soul was the domain of those in Nascent Soul or higher. All paths, when they reached that level, worked on improving their soul. Yes, even those crazy-ass body cultivators.

A powerful soul was necessary for ascension. Especially, if one accidentally failed but wanted to keep living. Like me.

I shook a fist at Bloodsword for fucking up my plans. For once, Little Spring did not catch me.

So, what happened when a dantian cultivator reached Nascent Soul? They would first analyze their own soul. Then they would use their golden core to birth a copy (well, several copies the higher in small-realm a person reached). This copy meant that if their original soul was about to die, then their duplicate could take over and die for them. And in the worst-case scenario, take over for a dead original soul.

Nascent Soul in this world was like having a second chance at life. Well, as long as they had a copy alive and a new body. But body construction was best started before a person died in the first place.

Ghosty McGhostFace could probably speak of his own horror story, of how he hadn’t had a body prepared, and was then caught by the original owner of Little Spring’s space. At least he could if he wasn’t under a geas.

So, what if one’s soul was larger than their body’s cultivation level? Like myself for instance.

This could be resolved in a variety of ways.

Like using a Nascent Soul Four Arts Cultivator to damage the soul until it had lost some of its cultivation (not recommended).

Having someone at an equal cultivation level to the soul cast a high-level enchantment to hide or suppress the soul (doable if I knew someone at the peak of Immortal Ascension stage that I could trust, which I did not).

And lastly, and the only one I could manage myself, a seal.

I had to seal my soul’s appearance so it looked like the soul of someone near or at Foundation Establishment.

This seal would also limit my divine sense to the top of Golden Core. Not because I wouldn’t be able to use it at higher levels, as the seal would merely disguise the appearance of my soul, but because using that much divine sense would break this weak-ass seal. This would bring unnecessary attention to me. Which I couldn’t afford.

This particular seal required a set of treasures. Fortunately, I’d gone shopping with Little Spring a week ago. His protagonist's luck helped me find a poor merchant who didn’t know what he’d had. The guy still made a ton of spirit stones off me, as I wasn’t completely heartless, but it was still nowhere near what the treasures were worth.

From my ring, I pulled the Midnight Spectre Bone Brush, the precious Divine Pine Wood Ink Stick, a jar of Graveyard Well Water, and a Coldfire Inkstone.

After setting them on the floor in front of me, I grabbed the well water first. I poured a single drop onto the cool black surface of the inkstone. When the black ink stick touched the water and I started grinding it in little circles I might have expected it to appear just as dark as normal ink. It did not. It came out bluish green. And it glowed. Significantly.

I worried for a second that it was radioactive. I mean, it wasn’t, but even if it had been, this had to get done.

And this was how I began the horribly mind-numbing process of slowly grinding up ink. So. Fucking. Mind-numbing!

It took a whole superbly boring hour for me to finish grinding up just some of the ink I’d use for this seal. Even as a cultivator my arms ached a little at the end of it and I had to cycle my cultivation.

When ready, I dipped my brush in the ink then lifted it to a comfortable spot in front of me. At this point, I probably looked as if I were about to write on an imaginary signboard.

The sealing technique came to my mind as I poured spiritual energy into my arm and then my brush.

With a deft stroke, I left a mark in mid-air. Then another. And another. I kept building on each character until I wrote the first line of symbols for my seal. The line wrapped around me in a full glowing circle.

Now I just needed five more lines.

And I had already run out of ink. Fuck! I wanted to cry.