Chapter 35: Life 58, Age 20, Martial Master 1

After leaving Elder Mu’s office, Deacon Ma guided me out of the buildings and back down the bluff. Once we got back to the cliff face, he took me into the first opening we came to. Like all the others, it was a perfect rectangle, showing it was manmade, but what set this one apart was that around it was a wide, delicate carved border of floral design. A heavy wooden door was set well back in the tunnel. Inside this cave, we found a nice homey area that felt like someone’s personal study. Tatami mats covered the ground and tidy bookshelves lined the walls. There was a small desk against both the left and right walls where two people were working. Light was provided by glowing orbs set on sconces around the room. Deacon Ma approached the old man who was working at the desk on the right. “Old Chen, we have a new in-name disciple. He needs someone to show him around,” said Deacon Ma. “Oh,” said the old man, looking up from his work, “new disciple? Yes, yes. Very well, Jun’er, come here.” The girl working at the other desk stood up and walked over. “Yes, Deacon Chen?” she asked. “Jun’er, this is a new in-name disciple. Show him around and assign him a cave.” “Yes, deacon,” she said before turning to me. “Come with me please.” I followed the girl out of the deacon’s cave and back to the cliff face while the deacons stayed behind. “Hello,” said the girl, “I am Chen YanJun. You can call me Little Jun. That was Deacon Chen. He is in charge of administration for this area. Try not to disturb him.” “Little Jun?” I asked. “Is that appropriate? Shouldn’t I call you senior sister?” “No, I am only a servant disciple,” she said, tugging on her pale robes. “Because we share the same name, Deacon Chen took me in to assist him, but I have no official position. As you are a disciple of the elder, it is proper to call me Little Jun.” “Alright, so, what do I need to know?” She pointed to our right. “First, that direction leads to the deacons’ caves. You should never go down that path without permission. The same applies to the elder’s abode. While you may not face any official punishment for violating this rule, your fellow disciples will not be so kind.” I nodded. I began to get a sense of how this place worked. “Are most of the rules going to be like that?” I asked. “No official punishment, but social conventions are enforced by the other disciples?” “Yes. Cultivators strive to defy the heavens, so of course they would be willing to defy the elders. Instead of rules from above, it is the rivalry between disciples that maintains order.” That seemed impractical. Trusting rivalry between children to maintain order seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. However, the effects of cultivation techniques combined with an invisible guiding hand might make it possible. “Follow me,” said Jun, leading me to the left. This was the same path the deacon and I took earlier. We walked back to the place where paths split apart, some going up and some going down the mountain. “The upper caves are the residences for inner sect disciples. The lower caves are for outer sect disciples. Those in the middle are shared areas. They will be able to handle most of your day-to-day transactions, including pills, techniques, and basic resources.” “Do they use the same contribution points as before?” “No,” she said, “the halls here are run by Elder Mu, not by the sect. They do not operate on a strict point basis, and what you are allocated is determined by the deacons. The more you contribute, the more resources you will be allocated. As an in-name disciple, your base allocation is extremely limited, so you will need to contribute significantly more than a direct disciple would.” “Everything I get will need to be purchased through Elder Mu now?” I asked, somewhat surprised. “System, how much to learn how to control my fire seed?” Your current fire seed is Yellow Rank. Mastery of Yellow Rank fire seeds costs 100,000 credits. I had checked this back when I was secluded in Rudy’s workshop, and even with this journal, the price hadn’t changed. I would not be able to purchase such a skill without the credits from a death as a Martial Grandmaster. “How much to learn what is described in this journal?” The journal describes controlling a Profound-Ranked fire seed. The cost is 5,000,000 credits. “No, just the cost to learn the basics of what is described when applied to a Yellow Rank seed.” The cost is 5,000 credits. That was much better. It was clear I would be missing a lot, but if I had the basics, I could at least begin practicing. Then, I could learn more on my own. Still, the price was too high. Maybe I should have saved more credits earlier, but everything is useful and everything costs money, unfortunately. “Okay, System, what about only the basics for opening my soul to release the fire? I don’t want mastery of the skill, but I need enough expertise that I can successfully release the fire into my body without significant risk of injury.” The cost is 500 credits. Good enough, I decided. I could try to add a few more features, but it was unlikely my remaining credits would be able to make much of a difference. “Purchase it.” Confirmed. Cost 500 credits. 290 credits remaining. The ability I received was as limited as I expected. I would not be able to make any Rank 2 pills for a long time, but at least I had a starting point to work from. I tried my new skill, opening my soul and allowing a small trickle of energy to seep into my body from the seed. It felt strange, like an alien presence had invaded my body and was squirming around my chest cavity. I quickly closed my soul, and the invading energy stopped increasing, but what was already inside me did not dissipate. I began to feel pain. It was similar to what I experienced during my death when I first absorbed the seed, but it was still tolerable at this stage. I was supposed to use the qi in my body to control the spirit fire energy, so that is what I tried to do. I wrapped the foreign energy in my qi and tried to force it to move. When I did so, I faced complications I did not expect. The Cold Mountain Fire was mainly made up of a type of earth energy, but it also had a trace of water energy inside it. My qi was fire qi. When I tried to control the spirit fire’s energy, the water energy in it eroded my control over my fire qi. At the same time, my fire qi fed the earth energy, making it stronger. This was part of the basics of the five-element system. Water extinguishes fire. Fire produces earth. These interactions didn’t just make controlling the energy from the spirit fire more difficult. They made it life-threatening. As my qi fed the earth energy, the pain in my chest steadily increased. In reaction, I quickly pulled all the qi I could away from the area. Somehow, regular alchemists of the sect could control the Cold Mountain Fire, but I didn’t know the details, and at that moment I was in no condition to go ask. I needed to do something quickly to save myself. Controlling the energy through qi didn’t work, but I had another option. I had affinities in both earth and water. They were only low eight-star, but I didn’t need deft manipulation. I just needed to expel the energy. I mentally connected with the energy and pushed. It was not as easy to manipulate as the medicinal energy in herbs, but it still gave way. Slowly, ever so slowly, it emerged from my chest. After it did so, the energy quickly dissipated, vanishing into thin air. It had been using my qi and life energy to sustain itself while inside my body, but that was no longer possible once it was expelled. While this incident had been dangerous, I still had to consider it a success. Now, all I needed was practice.