Just before daybreak, Tyler woke up from his seemingly short, dreamless night.
Maintaining his morning routine for over a decade, even after appearing in this place 10,000 years later, Tyler decided to go for a run.
The moment he stepped outside in his running gear, he spotted Bob, working away on a formation at the center of the residence, right before the large locust tree and right in the middle of all four homes.
Nodding at the man, he wordlessly climbed down the cliff and made his way down to the beach on the outskirts of Sword King Mountain. His morning run today would be to the sound of calming waves.
He had always been bothered by the absence of physical exercise amongst others on the mountain and this morning was no exception.
Except for a few mortals going about their chores of either carrying goods to their shops, fishing or toiling away cutting down trees, he saw no one above the 5th level up and about at this hour.
As he was running along the water he noticed a couple doing their best to gather water into large barrels that were hoisted up on a hand-drawn cart which reminded him of the task he had seen yesterday.
Level 5 - Proceed to the beaches surrounding Sword King Mountain and collect 1,000,000 liters of water from the nearby lake.
Rewards 5 Copper Coins.
Without hesitation, Tyler entered the water, swam tens of meters in, and began using his divine sense to explore his surroundings a bit further than his 50 meters range.
The water contained Qi, obviously, and the further down he went the more life he detected. Fish, crustaceans, coral, algae and many other things he couldn’t name.
When he was about 30 meters from the shore, he even picked up on a fish the size of a child heading his way in a straight line.
Unsure of its intentions or if the fish was dangerous in any way as he could feel the fish had the same Qi concentration as a level 12 or 13 cultivator, Tyler focused and deployed an extremely tame version of his newly invented Ten Direction Sword.
The fish, having instincts honed through numerous survival situations in its life, retreated immediately when it felt the incoming attack. As if it had never been there, the sword slowly dissipated into the waters, trace-less.
Turning his attention back to the waters of Serenity Lake, Tyler made an educated guess that with his inner world being completely filled with mostly regular old water, it would probably be fine if he swapped it out for some of this Qi-rich water.
Besides the small amounts that he had refined through his acupoints, he figured that swapping those two types of water could act as if he had filled his meridians to their limits. All he’d have to do after that is to strike all of his acupoints and he’d firmly be in the Qi Transformation stage. At least, that's what he thought considering all of his refined Qi was floating at the edge of his inner world's island.
So, with that in mind, he started to suck up water into his inner world using the now extremely familiar link to it. He quickly realized an issue however as only a few liters per seconds were transferred in and at this rate it would take a few days just to gather the required amount for the quest, to say nothing of swapping all of his inner world's water.
Contemplating the situation, Tyler decided to employ a different approach after confirming once more through his divine sense that no one was close enough to be affected by his antics. There were fishermen and mortals hanging around these parts after all and to be safe, he swam a dozen meters further.
As Tyler recited the chants of his Qi Gathering method and seamlessly integrated the movements of the technique, the previously calm waters around him began to respond to his actions. They started to ripple and flow in harmony with the precise movements he executed, as if the very elements of the world were dancing to his rhythm.
Sensing the Qi within the water surrounding him move with the rhythmic motions of his cultivation method, he gradually pushed his divine sense around himself as the waters were getting more and more turbulent.
5 meters, every single droplet of water in a sphere danced in harmony with him.
15 meters, he could feel the lingering effects of his actions affect the Qi slightly.
22 meters, everything felt business as usual, as if he wasn’t even around.
Tyler, extended his senses to a radius of 20 meters around him. As he did so, he could discern the subtlest of effects – a faint tug on the surrounding Qi, as if the energy in the environment was responding to his presence and becoming attuned to his will.
Having his divine sense reined in like this, everything appeared clearer than usual. It was as if he was one with the water itself, the change in temperatures caused by his movements, the Qi flowing in and around his body both from within and out.
Tyler focused intently on this 20 meter radius of water, making sure that he didn’t miss a single bit of it, that every single part of it was within his grasp.
A few minutes went by like this as Tyler appeared to be dancing, the waters joining him with a slight current being formed from his movements when suddenly, he pulled on that link between his inner world and the real world.
*Wooomf*
As if god had deleted a chunk of the lake from existence, the entire half-sphere of water that was within Tyler’s divine sense vanished.
*Swoosh*
*Splash*
Tyler fell directly into the void left by his previous action, he experienced a moment of uncertainty, but to his relief, the water levels equalized, allowing him to return to the surface and swim back to the shore.
With the successful demonstration of his technique, Tyler couldn't help but wonder about the potential benefits of the increased Qi density in his inner world's water. However, he decided to postpone further examination until he reached the shore to meditate on the issue.
Meanwhile, a dozen meters away, the mortal couple that Tyler had seen earlier was diligently collecting water from the shore, using weight reduction formations to fill their containers more efficiently.
They couldn't help but watch Tyler in awe. The man, John, muttered to himself, "It must be nice to accomplish such a task with so little effort."
Tyler, being already used to having his divine sense fully deployed to his comfortable limit of 50 meters, obviously heard the comment and walked over.
"Oh, Hi! I hope I didn't fuck things up for you guys and yeah, it is nice. I vividly remember what it's like to carry Jerrycans of water across large camps and I don’t miss it." Tyler responded somewhat nostalgically.
Surprised by the cultivator's straightforwardness, the mortal introduced himself as John Fisher and his wife, Esme who remained silent as she continued to gather water.
Curious, John asked why Tyler bothered to engage in conversation with a mortal, as most cultivators typically ignored them.
"I wonder about that too," Tyler remarked. "Not the me interacting with you part, but the why other cultivators disregard mortals altogether. You would think most cultivators would be interested in staying connected with the very thing they are actively seeking to leave behind. Here, need a hand?" Tyler offered, grabbing one of the empty buckets and gesturing towards the water.
Surprised once more, John readily agreed. What astonished him even more was that Tyler wasn't simply using some sort of magic to aid them but was doing the exact same labor as them.
The couple watched in awe as the man, who had just gathered tons of water in a matter of minutes and caused waves to ripple all the way to the shore, calmly filled his bucket in a conventional manner.
There were no special techniques, cultivation methods or intricate devices involved—just pure and simple manual labor. Something no cultivator ever bothered to do as far as they knew. Much less doing so for free in order to help out strangers.
Just like that, an hour passed as John, Esme and Tyler conversed casually while gathering water.
At some point, another young outer sect disciple descended from the mountain and glanced at Tyler and the couple, who were casually conversing. To him, they were simply mortals engaging in trivial discussions and he paid them no heed.
The young disciple retrieved two large reservoirs covered in formations from his storage bag and began laboriously manipulating the Qi inside his body in order to transfer water from the lake into the buckets.
As normally, unless one used specialized containers, the water couldn't be stored in a storage space like Tyler had done.
"See that young man over there?" John exclaimed with frustration. "We could be discussing the mysteries of the universe, but because he must view us as insignificant mortals, he ignores us as if we were worthless ants. He doesn't care about anything we're doing and simply carries on.”
His wife Esme chipped in, “While you went out further in to gather water, causing close to no disturbance to us, he doesn’t care to look at the consequences. The shoreline is soon to be too dangerous for us now. Look,” She pointed forward towards the waters.
Out of the previously calm waters, a few crustaceans crawled up from the lake’s waters and ventured on shore, agitated by the constant movement of Qi coming from the cultivator’s actions.
Tyler could tell that the couple were at most level 3 and that the crab-like creatures were at least level 4, causing them both to shrink away in fear of being heavily injured.
John echoed his wife’s thoughts, “Those Crabblers are too strong for us, we won't be able to gather enough water for the kids today unless we make the journey to another beach on the other side of the village and hope it’s not being disturbed either." they both sighed.
Realizing the difficulty the couple was in, Tyler shifted his gaze towards the cultivator and a frown formed on his face.
Awareness of his previous actions and their potential consequences began to weigh heavily on Tyler's mind as John and Esme made him acutely aware of the challenges they were likely to face if things continued as they were.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
This cultivator simply did not care. He was taking water directly from the shore, causing a massive disturbance in the delicate balance of Qi in the water near the shores. Thus attracting some opportunistic predators that came looking for the source of that disturbance.
These animals were quite smart though as they could instinctively feel that attacking that cultivator would be asking for death, so they simply prowled around to pounce on other opportunistic beasts weaker than themselves, like Esme and John.
Tyler realized that these mortal individuals wouldn't stand a chance against the monstrous creatures that resembled oversized crabs with toad-like skin. These creatures were roughly the size of golden retrievers and presented a significant threat.
Frustrated by the situation, Tyler decided to take action. "Here," Tyler pointed at the couple’s barrel, which was about halfway full after an hour, and water gushed forth from his finger, filling all of the couple’s container.
Then, unleashing a few Ten Direction Swords, he killed the three Crabblers instantly.
"At least this way, you won't have to waste time trekking around the mountain." Said Tyler.
The couple, shocked by this display, immediately bowed their heads in gratitude. "Thank you!”
"It's no big deal. Just a couple of minutes of my time. Wait here for a bit, I'm going to have a word with our friend over there then I can help you carry this back home." Tyler said.
With determination, Tyler turned around and walked directly toward the cultivator, who was still manipulating the water to flow into his specially constructed buckets.
Tyler, sensing that the couple were waiting for him, nodded to himself as he went up to the level 7 cultivator of the outer sect.
"Hey, man, could you do this about 20 or 30 meters offshore? You're causing problems for all the mortals who come here for water, ruining their entire day," Tyler addressed the cultivator.
The cultivator turned around, shocked at the audacity of this mortal speaking to him in such a manner.
In front of him stood a tall, shirtless man with a remarkably fit physique, visibly soaked from his own water-gathering attempts.
"How dare a mortal speak to a member of the Sword Sect like this? Do you want to die?" the cultivator threatened.
Observing this cultivator closely, Tyler raised an eyebrow.
If the cultivator had shown some remorse or offered an apology, Tyler's frustration might have subsided. But the cultivator chose to respond with immediate death threats, which crossed the line. It was an excessive reaction, to say the least.
"Death threats, really?" Tyler's tone shifted and his eyes shined with seriousness that didn’t leave any room for debate. He locked eyes with the teenager. "I'd love to see you try."
Somewhat taken aback, the other cultivator found himself uncertain about the situation.
He sensed no Qi fluctuations from the man in front of him, indicating that he was as mortal as one could be, not even noticing his Qi detection technique being deflected. Moreover, it seemed unlikely that a cultivator would bother to gather water with a pair of mortals like he had seen Tyler do.
Satisfied with his quick analysis, the cultivator responded with a snort, directing an attack toward Tyler.
"Bad choice," Tyler remarked, shaking his head.
The cultivator felt satisfied with his attack and the lack of response from Tyler aside from his irrelevant comment.
A smile formed on his face. However, his joy was short-lived as his attack actually landed.
While Tyler could sense some Qi within the cultivator's technique, it was not formidable in any way. He simply stood there as two powerful streams of water crashed into his body.
The force of the water was quite severe as Tyler guessed that any mortal hit by this attack would probably be missing an arm and a leg by now.
However, he wasn’t even bothered as his reforged skin alone was enough to ignore almost any and all attacks from anyone under the Qi Transformation stage.
“So. Now that we’ve established the rules of this little interaction, we’re going to start over.” Said Tyler in a stern tone.
This was a teenager after all and no one was actually hurt from this interaction. Sure, had any mortal spoken up like this they probably would’ve died, but that's another story for another time.
The cultivator was filled with shock and fear.
In his mind, only individuals in the late stages of Qi Transformation possessed the resilience to casually brush off his technique like that. In an attempt to appease Tyler, he swiftly dropped to his knees.
"I apologize, Senior! I had no idea you were such a formidable cultivator!" he pleaded.
"Enough with the bullshit excuses. I don't want apologies for myself. I want you to apologize to John and Esme over there and move approximately 20 meters offshore, so you don't ruin this beachfront for others. If I hadn't intervened, you would have completely ruined their day," Tyler instructed sternly.
"John? Esme? Who..? ..The mortals?" the cultivator asked, clearly perplexed.
"Do I have to repeat myself or...?" Tyler's voice trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished.
"Of course not, Senior!" The cultivator quickly responded, rising to his feet and promptly going over to apologize to the couple for his actions.
This entire interaction left the couple speechless, as they had never experienced anything like it in their entire lives.
A cultivator had stood up for a mortal!
Shortly after, the young cultivator returned and prepared to move into the water, grabbing his containers and producing a small boat from his storage space. However, Tyler halted him.
"What did we learn today?" Tyler asked, his tone firm.
"I... I'm not sure I understand," the cultivator replied, still bewildered.
Letting out a sigh, Tyler responded, "What you should have learned is to treat everyone with respect and consider the consequences of your actions."
Still unsure of what this senior meant, the cultivator simply replied. “Yes, senior. I understand.”
Shaking his head in disappointment, Tyler knew that the young cultivator still did not understand a thing. Deciding not to waste any more energy on him, Tyler left.
He then turned his attention back to John and Esme, expressing his intention to accompany them as he wanted to make sure they got home safely.
Initially, John had refused Tyler's offer, but Tyler insisted.
After putting the corpses of the three Crabblers in his inner world, they began their journey back up the mountain toward a nearby fishing village with a distant view of the port of Edge City.
John was pulling the carriage, while Esme was pushing it.
The young couple had vehemently refused to let him push their cart or take it into his storage space. Tyler didn't think much of it and let them have their way as he walked by the couple, learning about their daily lives.
Upon reaching their home, Tyler quickly noticed that the well was completely dry, and no amount of trips to the lake would suffice to fill it. So, he took matters into his own hands and filled the well without asking.
Having only used a small fraction of the water he had previously gathered, Tyler resolved the couple’s problem effortlessly. In just a single hour, Tyler completely transformed their lives.
No longer would John and Esme struggle to obtain enough water for their family every morning before sunrise. Well at least for a few months. They could now focus on fishing and earning a living once more.
As Tyler prepared to leave, he said his farewell to John as Esme had gone back inside to cook for the kids before they woke up. “If fate wills it, we’ll meet again, John. Say goodbye to your wife for me. Cheers! Oh here, a parting gift.”
Tyler produced the corpse of one of the Crabblers and left it there for the couple and stormed off before John could argue.
For the next few weeks, all John could talk about to his wife and friends was how nice the cultivator he had met had been and how delicious Crabbler meat was.
Still early in the morning, Tyler ran back up to Three Heritage Haven before taking a shower and grabbing breakfast, leaving the rest of the crustaceans with Annie.
After this was done, he headed out once more, this time to collect his reward.
He had, after all, gathered a lot of water and if his math was right, a half sphere with a radius of 20 meters would be plenty of water for the task at hand.
Sadly, Bob was still a couple hours away from finishing the teleportation hub so Tyler walked up to the sect.
After getting to the sect he went straight to the Taskmasters office where the mission boards were located and swiftly found the location of the person who had issued the task.
Teleporting back down to Edge City and walking around for 15 minutes, he found the treasure refining shop in question.
He was then met with an extremely tall and muscular man, almost reminding him of the world famous strong man known as The Mountain. After an exchange of a few pleasantries, Tyler mentioned that he was here to hand in some water.
The man, who had a name seemingly pulled out straight from a fantasy novel’s name generator for giants; Bralok Thunderpeak, used a level detection technique on Tyler, which the latter gently pushed away with his divine sense.
“What does a cultivator of your level even want with a measly 5 Copper Coins bounty? Shouldn’t you be out there gathering Spirit Herbs or something?” asked the giant Bralok.
"Well, I was enjoying a nice bath in the lake, and, well... Here I am. Do you want the water or not?" Tyler replied realizing he almost said that he simply gobbled up the water as an afterthought which would raise questions he didn't really care to answer.
Laughing, the giant responded, "Ah, of course I want it! I need about ten times the bounty I put up to complete the treasure sword I plan to make. This damned mineral runs so hot that it burns off half a million liters of water every time I quench the damn thing!"
Seeing that the giant didn't actually care about his reasons and was just curious, Tyler chuckled at the man’s good-natured laugh and continued, "So, where do you want it?"
"Follow me," the giant said, pointing to the backyard of his small shop where a setup resembling a blacksmithing toolkit could be seen. "How much water did you gather?"
"Oh, uh... I'm not sure. I collected a bunch when I was at the beach. Figured it might be an easy way to make some money," Tyler replied, half lying, half telling the truth.
Looking puzzled because, without containers, it was difficult to estimate, the giant asked, "You don't know the capacity of your water reservoirs?"
Letting out a sigh, Tyler replied, "Alright, where do you want the water? I'm not here to play twenty questions."
Deciding not to press the matter further, the giant pointed to an empty water quencher next to his anvil outside. "It has spatial expansion, so you can transfer all the water from your reservoirs into it. I'll be inside the shop. Let me know when you're done, so I can pay you for what you've provided. Oh your name please so I can mark your name down for the sect’s records."
“Tyler Reed.” he answered. Now left alone, he placed his palms over the container and forcefully manipulated the water to flow out from his inner world. After about 10 to 15 minutes, he was finished.
The container was now full!
Walking back inside, Tyler asked, "Hey, man, your container is full. That good enough?"
The giant's eyes widened, and he spit out the food he was snacking on. "What did you say?!"
"It's full. Do you want more? Is that good?" Tyler repeated.
Incredulous, the giant stepped outside, and to his astonishment, the container was indeed filled to the brim. It contained 10 million liters of water!
"I... I don't need any more water," the giant replied, still in shock.
"Oh. Well, is that worth at least 5 copper coins?" Tyler inquired.
Stunned by the cultivator's ignorance, the giant replied, "This is a 10 million liter container, and you filled it up in less than half an hour."
Feeling somewhat awkward about the situation, Tyler shrugged. "Oh. Well, that should be... 50 copper coins then. Hehehe. Let me know if you need more at any point. I still have plenty where that came from."
In the giant's mind, it was unbelievable. Even a level 18 or 19 cultivator wouldn’t be this fast.
To put things into perspective, even his master would require dozens of people working simultaneously to achieve such speed. There was a reason this task was assigned to mortals aspiring to become cultivators or weak cultivators with no other options—the pay was meager compared to the time it would take but enough to make it worthwhile for slightly stronger than average mortals.
After their brief interaction, the refiner handed over 50 copper coins to Tyler and sent a note to the Sword Sect, which he had Tyler sign to serve as proof of payment.
Outer Sect Taskmasters,
Bralok Thunderpeak, Task#219
Completed.
10 million Liters by Tyler Reed.
Member paid directly at the shop.
In no time, he had gathered 50 copper coins, and he knew he would spend them quickly by generously tipping the various mortals he encountered for their excellent service as he truly had no use for the currency.
Little did he know how much more difficult that task would have been for anyone else and the pain the cultivator he had disciplined at the beach would be in when he came here to hand in his water later in the day.