Chapter 7

  Yin found his cultivation room, it was uncomfortably bright, hot and hard to move around in. Absolutely perfect in other words, just not a great place to hang out in when he wanted to relax.

  He slowly made his way up to the center of the room, where all the vital energies were most condensed. He made a mental note to get the schematics for the scripts they used to gather the stuff, it would surely come in helpful to him in the future.

  He sat down in the center of the room and meditated, clearing thoughts from his mind. He needed clarity and absolute focus, tuning one of his soul cores wasn’t going to be easy. He’d have to carefully balance the ratios as he stuffed foreign energy in and..

  Could he cheat?

  Yin cycled pure madra out of one core, let it go a revolution around his body and then changed its path to take it into his other core. It crammed in uncomfortably, straining the already full core. Yin desperately began to make the madra swirl and grind against the limits of his soul, and over some mildly uncomfortable minutes he forcefully grew one core.

  Yin laughed and got up, he had treasures that could refill his reserves faster and help him grow at the same time. He’d be able to advance the core he’d leave pure exponentially until he ran out of resources, then he could attune the other one and cultivate it the ‘normal’ way.

  Though in Cradle the normal cultivator didn’t have access to a top of the line cultivation room personalized to their path.

  He got back to his room and picked out the sacred fruit from its containment box. Sitting on his bed in a relaxed position he took a bite of the soft and terribly sour fruit. He remembered the mushrooms he’d eaten so long ago. They had been easy.

  The flesh of the fruit hit his stomach and sent freezing lines of lightning through him. He twitched and thrashed hard enough that he fell off the bed, desperately cycling to incorporate the single bite he’d taken.

  It felt almost endless, the energy glommed onto his channels, flesh and soul cores as he alternated between them to stuff it all in. An eternity and no time at all later it was finally done, his soul strained to the limits and fit to burst with madra. Yin looked at the fruit that was visibly leaking vital energy from the bite, and put it back into its box. He could tell it was only slowing down the degrading treasure.

  ‘’Well, shit.’’ He said, cursing his own hubris. Secretary floated up and turned itself into a copy of the note he’d gotten alongside the box. ‘This treasure is more suited to LowGolds, please keep that in mind before you eat it.' Signed by Margo.

  ‘’Alright! Okaaaayy!’’ Yin jumped up and sat back on the bed with the box in his lap, ready to eat more of it. ‘’Too late to regret how dumb I am, let's go!’’

  Yin pulled more and more madra from his smaller core and forced it into the larger one. The unpleasant strain worsened until it became pain, but he kept going regardless. When his smaller core was empty, he took the next bite of the fruit.

  It was an infinite number of times more unpleasant the second time. His channels begged him to relax but Yin kept going, madra flowed into and out of his cores constantly.

  Time passed, the fruit gradually disappeared and Yin’s soul advanced. The larger core hit a limit, and with a mighty push it broke past it, swelling into the jade realm. It was such an incredible relief that Yin started crying and laughing. Secretary joyfully shifted shapes in the air around him.

  He fell asleep on the floor for the first time in many months. Enjoying the feeling of having advanced.

  —

  After a long shower on the hottest setting Yin felt ready again, even though he’d wasted two days recovering. Zeurel and Cherie had visited to give him a round of apparently much needed soul healing. The little blue spirit an amazing blessing for idiots who overdid it so thoroughly.

  Yin accepted their reprimands without complaint, all too pleased that he’d halfway skipped through the iron stage. He could technically call himself jade now.

  ‘’That’s a terrible expression.’’

  Yin turned in the leaf he was lounging on to see Duong of all people. He’d come to visit on his own. ‘’Hey man!’’

  ‘’Okay, seriously, that smirk is horrifying.’’ Duong looked mildly disgusted, as usual honestly, at Yin’s pleased expression.

  ‘’I cheated my way into jade.’’ Yin gloated and sank just a bit deeper into the plant.

  Duong’s face relaxed for an instant, and then hardened back into the usual half glare. ‘’I see.. How?’’

  ‘’Used a treasure meant for golds and siphoned one core into the other.’’

  ‘’Ah.. Sounds like a shit idea.’’

  ‘’It was.’’

  ‘’Wow, that’s.. that is so dumb.’’

  Yin snickered like a child hearing the word ‘poop’.

  They sat in companionable silence for a while. At least Yin enjoyed the company, it was tough to tell what Duong was thinking at any given moment.

  ‘’Do you think I could split my soul as I am now?’’ He asked, wringing his hands together.

  Yin looked at his soul and saw it deep in the jade realm, probably more than halfway to gold. ‘’It’s probably going to be way tougher than it would have been at, y’know, foundation or copper.’’

  ‘’Yeah, I figured that.’’ Duong sighed and finally relaxed a little, leaning against a root that had risen up behind him into a backrest. ‘’But I want to do it. I’ve figured out what I want. A second path, metal, venom and water.’’

  Yin pushed himself up and gave his.. Maybe friend was a strong word for them but he’d go for it. He gave his friend a baffled look. ‘’The Path of..?’’

  Duong smirked, and if he thought Yin had a bad smile he should see himself in a mirror. ‘’The Path Of Quicksilver.’’ He chuckled, pure evil.

  ‘’I love it!’’ Yin jumped up. ‘’Sit and meditate, I’m gonna go ask if there’s anything that can help the process along.’’ He turned and almost walked right into the human form of Emriss Silentborn. The woman gave Duong a sweet smile. ‘’Oh! Perfect, thanks for coming mo- Emriss.’’

  She patted Yin’s head, but her attention was more on Duong. ‘’Prepare yourself and I shall oversee that you make it through the process.’’ Then she leaned down to Yin and whispered. ‘’Congratulations on advancing.’’

  Yin felt like Secretary had invaded his bones.

  He stayed and coached Duong through the process. The boy's higher level of cultivation made it so Yin could feel the two swirls that he formed in his core. It took two hours, the swirls gaining speed slowly, and then with a mighty, absolutely terrified scream, they split.

  Stability

  Yin felt like he would pass out on his feet as an absolute command was issued. Fundamental law was imposed on reality around them, forcing things to become more rigid. Duong looked like a marble statue, a work of art depicting a man in fear for his life. Then he slumped, gulping down breaths and shedding enough sweat to soak his clothes in only moments.

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

  In his stomach Yin saw his soul, split in two, each half as strong as they had been together, but entirely, absolutely, stable.

  Emriss, still giving off an aura of power beyond Yin’s comprehension, spoke. ‘’Rest and recover your strength child. Your cultivation room will be prepared for when you are ready.’’

  Yin and Duong sat in silence for a while after Emriss simply winked out of existence, probably going back to whatever fourth dimensional scheming monarchs did.

  Yin felt it was time for him to get a move on, so he stood and casually told Duong. ‘’So, just by the by, Zeurel feels like you owe her an apology. Maybe think a bit about that. See ya.’’

  Yin ignored Duongs plea for him to elaborate on that. He was busy! It was time to aspect!

  —

  Cross legged on the floor of his cultivation chamber Yin realized that aspecting was hard. Getting one element was tough enough, two could be considered somewhat hard. Balancing exact ratios of three different energies that had literally no substance to be measured until they hit his soul was borderline impossible.

  He wasn’t sure how many hours it had been at this point, he had already purged his pure iron core into a hodgepodge. Light, fire and force only barely held separate by his pure willpower.

  ‘’2,3 to 1,2 to 1.’’ The mantra was the only thing keeping him sane at this point. He murmured it religiously like a buddhist monk. Secretary bobbed around drawing random scripts with its body, testing things out. It looked like so much fun, Yin wished he could do that instead.

  He almost lost control of his divided madra, if only.. wait.

  ‘’Secretary.’’ Yin said, voice strained and dry. ‘’Did I ever tell you about pie charts?’’

  The spirit turned into the Cradle version of a question mark.

  ‘’It’s a visual representation of how much space different things would take up in a circle. Can you try showing me something like that?’’

  Secretary blurred for a while, eventually turning into a circle with shades of purple representing different values. ‘’Good, perfect! Sorry I’ll give you a big scale later as a reward.’’ The spirit dimmed a bit at being told its gratification would be delayed.

  ‘’So help me out a bit, can you show me a pie chart for my path of Ramiel?’’

  Again Secretary blurred for a while, then resolved into actual colors besides purple. A perfect circle where, white, orange and teal were split into sections.

  Secretary was as good at math as a calculator so Yin didn’t doubt for a second that it was correct. In his soul he slowly filled it to the limit with the three elements, then split them. In his mind's eye he slowly changed the ratios until the energy in his core matched the image Secretary was showing him.

  He waited for many more hours, ever so slightly shifting the energies, putting more in and taking some out. His concentration was reaching its limits, willpower draining in a way he hadn’t experienced before. But it was as close as it was going to get.

  He let it mix, and then turned it into a great swirl in his core. Minutes passed in blinks as Yin was left in a drained daze. Finally it felt stable inside him.

  Drawing a wisp of it out he cycled his new path, and it acted so different from his pure madra that he almost lost track of it. It shot through him, gaining momentum and almost causing a deviation until he wrangled control back. The madra bucked like a wild horse, begging for speed and motion, for now he denied it, forcing it back into his core.

  Trying to stand just caused Yin to fall over in a pile on the floor. Secretary floated over with a new pie chart. Divided in red and blue, the values were ‘want scale’ and ‘like Yin’, currently the ‘want scale’ ratio was dominant.

  Forcing all the aspected madra into his core swirl he switched to pure and cycled it. Exhausted will flexing one last time to compress the energy into a coin like he’d done so many times.

  When it was done it fell out of his limp fingers and clattered on the floor with a sound almost exactly like an actual coin. Before he fell asleep the last thing Yin saw was Secretary enveloping it.

  —

  Elsewhere

  A scalpel cut easily through the blue flesh of the remnant, the still living thing thrashed against its restraints. But the construct around it worked perfectly to contain and interfere before the remnant could use any of its bindings.

  Deliberate cuts let him reach further in, and there it was, a deep blue knot of madra, almost as real as his hand that grasped it.

  The knife came in and severed the spiritual matter that held it in place and as soon as it was free, he placed it on a script covered platform. The remnant carrying the platform clicked with the noise of pebbles clattering down a hill.

  Another cut, another organ found and placed with the other one. He wondered what the binding was, he’d never seen all the techniques the remnant was capable of.

  His floating drudge whistled like a kettle and spun out lines of dream madra. The remnant was starting to destabilize, returning to vital energy. ‘’That’s no good.’’ He said, and got out a much bigger machete made of precious metal, and hacked up its limbs and any workable flesh he could get and stored it.

  He looked at his work, taking a moment to set his tools down and say a short prayer. ‘’Thank you Teacher Marunil. You taught me much.’’ Jakka picked his tools back up and prepared for the next work.

  Designs came to him as he surveyed his material, yes, the striker binding would become a great weapon. Marunil’s remnant had become stronger after his death after all. ‘’Hm, tongs..’’ No tools were placed in his hands.

  The child he’d tasked with carrying his tools lay on the ground, not breathing anymore. Worthless. He pulled his tools from the cold hands and set to work again, to achieve the goal.

  To finally break him out of his cage.

  The roots towering over Jakka’s little kingdom would fall eventually. All he needed was the appropriate weapon.

  A dim halo of white light flickered over his head.

  ///////

  Ten glared through the blood dripping into her eyes at the corrupted beast that she’d been tasked to hunt. Its skin was pale and hairless, its body lengthened grotesquely from what it had once been. Its maw opened again and chaotic madra threatened to boil over and erase Ten from the world.

  She responded with thirty two blades. All slamming into its right cheek and knocking its thick head aside, narrowly saving her from death.

  She flexed her ruler technique Dagger Queendom and the blades all retracted out of the beast's flesh. Ready to fly and gain momentum again for another round of cuts. But the beast twisted and before she could use her enhancement technique its lower body slammed into her.

  She skipped and tumbled through bushes and across dirt, her body only barely holding together. But it wouldn’t last. She was running on empty, not having had time to really refill her reserves in weeks. Stronger than ever, and about to die. Maybe her sins were catching up to her.

  On her feet, body moving by instinct even as her mind barely followed, she forged more daggers with the dregs of madra she still had. They floated on the now abundant ambient blade madra, ready to dance.

  Her vision blurred as the once bear, now more like a giant weasel, bounded her way. Then an odd wind blew.

  Like the shadow cast by a cloud, the ground darkened in a straight line. When it intersected with the dreadbeast the already wounded creature gained dozens more cuts. It didn’t care, still coming for Ten.

  A resounding slam shook Ten and to her eyes it was as if the bear was replaced by a massive bird of prey. Its talons squeezed the bear’s head until it crunched satisfyingly to Ten’s ears.

  ‘’Heyo! Sorry for kill stealing!’’ The bird jovially called over to her. Ten accepted that she had gone insane, a Sacred Beast coming to her aid? Improbable. Impossible even. ‘’Yo, so I didn’t actually come here for the monster, just couldn’t help but notice all the sharp madra here. You a blade artist?’’

  It skipped over closer to Ten, and she tried to ready her forged blades only to notice they had all already dissipated. ‘’At the moment, no.’’ She tried to ‘joke’ as other people often asked her to do, it seemed to have succeeded as the bird warbled a laugh.

  ‘’Perfect! You’re at least lowgold right? I’m in need of a sparring partner! Just recently got into the business of being sharp ya know?’’

  Ten had no idea what it meant by that. ‘’If you will let me rest I will be glad to aid you to the best of my abilities, savior.’’ That was the proper way to speak, at least Ti Li had said so, the stories she read were very educational.

  ‘’Well, well, a human with such good manners this one has never seen.’’ A voice said behind her. She turned to find a man with dark hair and aged features, his clothes dark and ornamented with feathers.

  ‘’Hey gramps, c’mon, you know I used to be a human too.’’ The bird called indignantly.

  Ten tried to bow to the old man, grandfather of the bird and therefore also a bird at the almost mythical Lord stage. She fell flat on her face. ‘’Apologies.. I seem to have lost some blood.’’

  ‘’Aw damn, we better get you taken care of.’’ The bird picked her up on a cushion of dark air, and floated her up onto its back. ‘’No worries, just don’t die on me. Haha! I’m Montai, what’s your name?’’

  ‘’This lowly one is Ten, young master.’’

  ‘’Oh! Young Master! You hear that gramps?! Now I can call myself that too!’’ They took off higher into the sky than Ten had ever dared go on her stolen thousand mile cloud.

  ‘’Young master, this.. uh, Ten has a sister waiting for her in the city called Leyori, if it would not be too much trouble?’’

  The old man joined them up in the air, cloaked in shadow. ‘’Rest human, that is already our destination. Grandson, your speed is lacking.’’ He disappeared in a puff of shadow.

  The bird groaned, the sound resonating in her body, and she could feel it stir it’s madra up. ‘’Impatient geezer.’’ A gale of dark air engulfed them, and Ten lost consciousness as they suddenly accelerated massively.