Predestined Friends (Worm/CYOA/Xianxia)

[RahXephon]

Predestined Friends
1.1​

---

"Fuck, I'm in Worm, am I?" Jun said as the crowd of mortal around him whimpered in paralysed terror. Not that he felt likewise considering he spent the night going to sleep planning to play Stellaris the next day only to find out he ended up in a fictional world for absolutely no reason at all.

"ROB, I only picked the Worst Day Ever flaw twice. Couldn't you drop me some place else than a Slaughterhouse Nine party?"

Jun really felt like he was suffering from injustice. This brother hadn't even picked the Rough Start flaws in that Worm CYOA he had painstakingly built up. It took forever to get all his sums equalling zero, but his power build couldn't do without at least two second triggers so he had no choice to get Worst Day Ever to get the necessary points. If he knew he'd actually get dropped into Earth Bet he would have filled out version one instead of version five.

He just couldn't resist the massive amount of points Humble Beginnings gave. It's just a day as a powerless civilian, what could go wrong?

"Hatchet Face, could you bring me another one please?"

"No, no, I don't want to die!! Why me!"

Instead, Jun had to sit tight in a hot, stinking toy store in the middle of Bumfuck along with a smattering of other residents of this tiny town. As if inspired by the old Twister game, Bonesaw took a random guy and stitched as many arms as possible on his body. As for the source of those arms? Well they all pretty much bled out after screaming themselves hoarse.

Despite knowing he faced fictional characters, despite knowing he had picked a couple of perks that should help him through this horror, he still felt fear. How could he not be when faced with human monsters with a kill count that boggled the mind?

CHOP! CHOP!

There goes another one. A quarter of an hour passed by before the Siberian fetched another victim.

"Get me another one."

Jun felt an impossibly strong grip on his shoulder.

"Ah fuck." He said nervously as others looked at me with a mix of sympathy and joy. "It's my turn isn't it."

Hatchet Face's meaty arms practically dragged Jun over to Bonesaw and her squirming abomination. His feet dragged slowly across the urine and blood-spilled floor, sometimes bumping into a couple of his lifeless predecessors.

A couple of spider bots stood ready with a few screwdrivers and other random tools in their claws as Jun's back slammed against the messy table. The big power nullifier himself skillfully sharpened his butcher's knife like a demented Gordon Ramsay for the impending chops.

"Oh heavens no." Jun cried as he saw Hatchet Face put down his honing rod and draw back his chopper. "Can you please spare a brother? I haven't even entered the story for a day. What kind of pathetic CYOA is this when I'm gonna die in the first chapter?"

[Destination]

[Agreement]

[Trajectory]

[Agreement]

For some strange reason, neither villains reacted to the impromptu trigger event that happened right next to them. Hatchet Face rolled his eyes as he saw his next victim convulsing; he'd seen plenty of people do much worse when they were about to meet his chopper.

The noise did arouse Bonesaw's attention, and she turned her gaze from her macabre work of art to take a peek. "STOP!"

The hatchet hung in the air, just a breath's span away from Jun's shaking shoulder. As Jun recovered from what couldn't have been anything other than his trigger event, he faintly felt the urge to hug the ugly man. He had powers now! The heavens do have eyes!

"Hatchet Face, why did you bring me the Asian? You know I don't like the mix races when I'm working on my masterpiece."

Thank heavens for racism!

The blood-soaked butcher merely shrugged an apology before grabbing Jun and throwing him back to the huddle of victims. The pain and groans pulled him back to Earth. Even if he had powers now, it meant nothing against the nullifying powers of Hatchet Face.

The others in the room glared resentfully at Jun, probably dying with envy they weren't black or something. Pretty soon things turned gloomy again as an hour passed by with Bonesaw's experimental subject gaining at least twelve additional arms. Everyone already turned numb from his incessant screams.

Jun on the other hand could only sit in the corner. Trigger events were never pretty and while his got muted by Hatchet Face's presence, he still couldn't ignore the changes happening in his body, especially his head and neck. The inside of his throat itched horribly, as if Taylor stuffed an entire ant's nest through his mouth.

'Goddammit! In any other situation this brother only needs to open his mouth to make a getaway, but somehow I got bunched with pretty much the only people on this planet who can make masters and strangers cry in despair.'



His head felt like someone pumped in too much air inside. An incessant amount of pressure had built up inside his head and he felt as if he had no valve to relieve his pain. He badly wanted to open his mouth and work his powers.

Between Bonesaw's insane implants and Hatchet Face's aura that nips any power manipulation in the bud, Jun could only twiddle his thumbs and wait until the big fat power nullifier moved elsewhere.

The situation turned worse before that happened.

"All done!" Bonesaw chirped as she finished the final stitches to her latest meat monstrosity. Then, before Jun's confused eyes, a pair of spiderbots passed a sturdy, metal suitcase over to the Tinker. She opened it gingerly, revealing the shapes of three half-glowing vial along with a pile of neatly printed documents.

'Is that a fucking Cauldron vial? Where the hell did she get it!?'

The tilted omega symbol declared the ominous origins of the suitcase even as others just thought it the little girl concocted the poison with her own means.

Bonesaw didn't even hesitate as she picked up a random vial and popped it open. She didn't mess with it, luckily. Instead she forced her half-dead multi-limbed victim to chug its contents.

"Ah ah ah, don't spill any of it! Good boys should drink their milk."

The man convulsed like a man struck by lightning not long after Bonesaw forced the dodgy solution to settle inside his stomach. Jun couldn't imagine how gutsy Bonesaw must have been to feed a Cauldron vial to her own victim, who she had just tortured both mentally and physically not long ago.

The man screams warbled into a lower pitch as he grew in size. His hair fell off, only for a couple of horns to burst from his bloodied scalp. His skin tone turned from a healthy tan into a vibrant lavender purple colour. Strangest of all was that most of his arms melted into his body, fading away to provide more mass for his transformation, only leaving him with two extra pairs of arms that were still stuck onto his shoulder blades. Still, the size and placements of the remaining arms were uneven.

"Wonderful!" Bonesaw cheered as she happily witnessed the transformation. "So the passengers are capable of healing to this extent."

The transformation slowed down but still trickled on for a minute, making minute adjustments to the poor man's form. The poor man continuously tried to struggle out of his bonds even as pain wracked his wretched body. He suddenly convulsed a second time and his skin tone deepened while his extra pair of arms reshaped themselves into a more symmetric arrangement.

'Is that a second trigger?' Jun thought as both Bonesaw and Hatchet Face were still enthralled by the process.

While the other prisoners all gawked at the transformation, the spikes of pain that bombarded Jun's head pulled back his attention. 'Wait a minute. They aren't paying attention to me right now. This is my chance!'

"What are you waiting for guys? RUN!" Jun yelled as he jumped to his feet, picked up a chair and smashed a nearby window to pieces.

While plenty of men and women were staring numbly at the sudden escape, at least half of them still cherished enough of their lives to quickly follow suit.

"Hey! Get back here! I'm not done with you all!"

A small crowd of clattering ensued as hordes of spiderbots eagerly crawled in pursuit. The slowest escapees already fell when they were hit by the darts the spiderbots shot out from one of their legs.

Frankly speaking, no one could realistically escape. The spiderbots all moved faster than anyone thought they were capable of. The biotinker must have witnessed plenty of escapes after all, and made adequate preparation. Even if they could escape the spiderbots, the chances of bumping into the rest of the Nine was high.

Not that Jun thought his pathetic flight could ever work in the first place. He only needed to get some distance. Looking back, he spotted Hatchet Face's bulk spring forth from the front of the store and chase after the escapees with fury and bloodshed on his mind.

'Perfect!'

Strangely, Jun smiled when Hatchet Face chased after him. He desperately weaved through the town's main street and found some alleys to dive into. He just needed to go a little further and,

Power!

Pure unadulterated power flowed through his body. This mysterious energy granted parahumans the capability to break the shackles of their mortal limitations. Though the spiderbots were only seconds away, Jun instantly activated an aspect of his new powers.

The spiderbots seemingly turned drunk as they lost all sense of direction. Even those who desperately wanted to escape were merely running around in circles or bumping into walls. This represented the frightening power of Terra Incognita. Anyone within a kilometre of the area suddenly became lost, losing their sense of direction and orientation. It provided an excellent means of escape that worked quite well in the streets. Jun let out a sigh in relief as even non-human beings like the spiderbots were affected.

Naturally Hatchet Face continued to lumber over towards him without any sign of being affected. Jun screamed even as other aspects of his powers invigorated his mind and body. The aches in his head and neck subsided, allowing his expanded mind to take note of his environment and rapidly form an escape plan.

If he had still been an average mortal in Earth Nothing Special, then he might have thought to run to the roof and huddle uselessly behind an air-conditioning unit. But this time he had entered the world of superheroes and supervillains, so he possessed more than handful of parlour tricks.

For not only did he gain a valuable skill like strategy, he also gained the power of Perfect Mind. His thoughts flowed smoother, and he perceived and processed his surroundings with much more clarity. With his new mental gifts Jun only needed a few seconds to form a plan.

He entered the backdoor of a restaurant that had already suffered a massacre from one of the other S9's. From the amount of body parts lying around that looked chewed up, it must have been the Siberian who took a snack here. The only thing that mattered for now was that the restaurant had a second floor.

Entering the kitchen, he threw down pots and carts and anything else in his way in order to slow down his pursuer. Hatchet Face's cleaver already smashed apart the door as the mass murderer kept thundering after Jun with single-minded focus.

Jun found the stairs to the second floor and scrambled upwards without regard for anything else. However, just as he finally cut Hatchet Face's line of sight, he stilled the sound of his steps, slowing down and trying to run without making too much noise and vibration. He looked around, orienting himself before picking a particular door, one that led to the living room of the restaurant owners.

Even as the butcher reached the second floor and grunted in frustration for having lost sight of his target, Jun quietly crept over to the balcony that faced the main street. Fiddling with the lock, he opened it carefully before closing it after he successfully sneaked outside. Then, without hesitation, he took a running jump, soaring in the air for a second before landing in a roll onto the roof of a bus stop a length ahead.

'Haha, this brother is an assassin now. Fuck templars!'

If Jun still lived in his old boring Earth, he'd never make such a reckless fall, let alone take two steps down the stairs at a time. Fortunately, Earth Bet is the planet of powers and bullshit, and he had been fortunate enough to include parkour in his list of skills. With skill that looked totally out of place, the skinny nerd jumped down the streets and ran away from Hatchet Face's rampage in the restaurant.

Then Jun did something stupid. He turned around and ran back in the direction of the toy store. He ignored the spiderbots and people running around like headless chickens and just entered to see Bonesaw command her remaining spiders to hold the thrashing six-armed Cauldron cape in place.

The girl looked gobsmacked. Jun didn't give her any time to consider the situation and exercised the other aspects of his powers. "I think you've had your fun. Little girls shouldn't be playing all day. Why don't you go to Jack Slash and keep him company."

"Go to Jack Slash and keep him company."

"Go to Jack Slash and keep him company."

"Go to Jack Slash and keep him company."

If it was anyone else, the recipient of those words should have obeyed without question. Bonesaw on the other hand struggled between running along to Jack and trying to order her spiderbots to skewer him alive. Jun guessed that she had tried to switch to her backup consciousness, only for her to fall in the spell of Jun's repetitive chant again. It might be different if Jun tried to add other commands, but by repeating the same thing he could ensure that Bonesaw never had the chance to activate any other of her bullshit contingencies.

Jun had manifested the power of Lawgiver, with a little Bluff mixed in to stir the pot. Lawgiver gave Jun the power to make anyone obey a short statement if it didn't lead to their death. Bluff allowed him to spin a longer line of bullshit that couldn't be refuted immediately. The two powers alone may feel underwhelming in the crapsack world of Worm, but the combination between the two of them allowed Jun to fool even Bonesaw for a few seconds.

With the S-class cape preoccupied but leaning towards abandoning her work, Jun ignored her twitching form and pushed away the bots holding down the newly minted Case 53.

'Though is it proper to call him a Case 53 when he hasn't been tortured and mind wiped by Cauldron?'

"Brother, I can't hold her for long. Let's go!" Jun yelled as he pulled the confused purple giant to his feet. The disfigured man still possessed the mass of all the arms he used to have, so Jun's unenhanced frame almost collapsed when the Case 53 rested his weight against him. Still, the urgent situation and the despair he suffered beforehand motivated the monstrous cape, allowing him to find a clumsy balance and stand on his feet.

Guided by Jun's comforting grip, the Case 53 followed him out of the store. Naturally, Jun didn't forget to swipe the nearby suitcase and take it with him. No sense letting the Slaughterhouse Nine waste these precious powers.

They exited the store, and under the cover of Jun's Terra Incognita, they shrugged off all the skittering spiderbots with ease. As they exited the commercial streets and ran alongside some cosy houses, one of them burst into pieces, revealing a massive mountain of meat storming over.

"Where do you think you're going!?"

Crawler's immense bulk caused miniature earthquakes with each step. Resembling a joyous gorilla, the giant changer rumbled over towards the fleeing pair like a massive monster truck. Jun and the Case 53 desperately tried to dodge to the side, only for one of Crawler's arms to slam towards them both.

"Shit!" Jun cursed as he held out the Cauldron briefcase in front and channel the last of his powers into the object.

The force blew the Case 53 to the side while Jun fell straight backwards, skidding across someone's front lawn before crashing against a mail box.

Despite Crawler's immense strength, the briefcase remained perfectly intact and pristine. At the last moment, Jun activated Quality Assurance on the entire case. Jun's last power allowed him to safeguard the case and even use it as a shield. Much like the Siberian's Striker effect, any object he held became unbreakable and indestructible.

Yet no amount of tricks trumped pure power like a furious Crawler approaching his fallen form. His body still dealt with the repercussions of the large amount of force impacting upon his body. The damage to his body meant he could hardly pick himself up from the ground, let alone continue fleeing.

"Well, it looks like you ain't so tough now that you're up against the big boys. I heard you made little Bonesaw upset. She's still trying to recover from the bullshit you pulled." The man-monster said as he slowly moved closer, acid leaking and sizzling from his giant mouth. "Do your worst. Or else."

The utter hopelessness of the situation crushed Jun's aspirations of escape. Who knew how many masters have tried to mess with Crawler's mind? All of them were dead or gone, while this big guy still stood stronger than ever. As droplets of acid started to land on his shoes, Jun went over the edge.

[Destination]

[Agreement]

#$#%#%$@#

The dance of space snakes twirled across Jun's sight for the second time, this time hitting his psyche twice as strong. Even Crawler had been affected, falling to the side for just a few seconds.

Ah, the ever elusive second trigger. How fortunate it came at this time! While the natives of Earth Bet needed to go through literal torture to trigger again, a drop-in like Jun only needed to bump his head and the CYOA god delivered. If he remembered correctly, his Perfect Mind and Bluff powers benefited from his second trigger.

"Big brother, why are you wasting time on ants like us? Nothing we can do will make you grow stronger. Instead of playing around with weaklings like us or uselessly throwing yourself against the Siberian, why not tackle the big boss instead?"

While Crawler stared at Jun like he was dead meat, the villain hadn't taken action immediately. Feeling like he was on the right track, Jun continued to wrack his mind and mumble a bunch of bullshit and metaknowledge together.

"Ever wonder why Jack Slash was able to stay alive for twenty years while chumps like King or Winter all got offed in the end? No matter how you look at it, a weak power like projecting sharp edges won't let anyone survive as an S-class threat for twenty straight years. He's obviously holding back his real powers."

"Huh, why didn't I think of that?" Crawler scratched his head with his tentacles. "Well, I guessed some of it, but he looks so weak."

"You should know better than anyone else that appearances are deceiving. Why not confirm it right now? Don't listen to what he says. Just give him a whack and force out his true strength. Oh, and just pretend we don't exist."

Amazingly enough, Crawler didn't put up a fight. He just straight up roared and lumbered in a different direction. It actually worked!

"This amazing one's charm is so magnificent, even the Slaughterhouse Nine can't help but be moved!" Jun patted himself on the back before retrieving the suitcase and running over to his partner in escape.

"Hey brother, pick yourself up. I manage to divert the Crawler for a while, but there's no telling when the rest of the Nine fuckers will find us. Now I don't want to rush you and all, but it's kind of urgent that we zip away. Do you have any powers that could help get us out of the S9's reach? Like fly or something?"

The six-armed man painfully sighed as he tried to squeeze some words out of his bruised chest. "There's an itch in the back of my mind. I think.. I can move somewhere else. Another place, lots of places. It's… endless. Too much choice, I can't distinguish any of them. I.. it's beautiful.. but too much. Are they.. other Earths?"

"That's a relief." Jun smiled as he encouraged his fellow escapee. "Just pick a random empty Earth and get us out of here. Anywhere is better than Earth Bet for the moment."

It took a couple of seconds before a strange purplish smoke engulfed the both of them. Jun made sure to keep holding onto the Case 53 all the while, not wanting to be left behind in this crappy town.

Jun felt the transition as they ended up in a dense forest. The temperature, humidity and even the position of the sun had all abruptly changed. He finally let down his guard a little, at least certain the Slaughterhouse Nine couldn't reach across universes.

The shift likely took out a lot of his friend. The Case 53 bent over and kept clutching his head in pain. A trail of blood leaked from his nose, indicating the severity of his suffering. Though the ability to move to an alternate Earth represented an amazing superpower, it evidently took a lot out of the man. Nothing came for free, after all.

The edges of Jun's mouth curled upwards at the sight. How could he be so shameless to derive pleasure from his comrade's suffering?

'Heh, just as I thought. This brother put a lot of work filling in the CYOA. Too bad the Planewalk power is so goddamn expensive. Since I can't do it myself, then I'll just design a lackey to chauffeur me around.'

The Case 53 didn't know it, but he had already been caught in Jun's scheming web. Jun truly felt no remorse in piling up all of his bad luck to his future minion. While Jun only had to suffer from Worst Day Ever, the other man had to deal with Worst Day Ever, Case 53, Numbed Emotions and Psychic Nosebleed.

His despicable smile widened as he turned around and took a peek at the contents of the suitcase he stole. His fingers traced the two remaining vials left in place. The labels marked them as Jormungandr and Phoenix.

'While I don't need these two vials, some things are too precious to steal. It's better if I can trade these customized powers for the things I need to not only make myself stronger, but bring some chaos in the stilted swamp that's Earth Bet.'

His own personal take on taking on the golden guy differed a lot from others. Sure, he could take the path that many CYOA and overpowered Taylors had taken by going the powerstealing or powercopying route. Yet even with Abbadon's shards, neither of them really extended their vision to solutions beyond MOAR powers.

In Jun's opinion, to beat Scion cleanly, you not only needed to think outside the box, you had to jump outside as well. He planned to take the tools he had personally designed and use them to make Earth Bet strong enough so that it could beat Scion in a straight fight.

Also, he wanted to have some fun. He had a good reason to fill in his CYOA as a villain instead of a hero.

Jun coughed a little before reciting, "A stone thrown into a murky lake. The universe opens its parched mouth. The Heavens and Earth engulfs the tyrants. The sword of civilization crumbles, who will wield the sharpest blade? Darkness arrives from every direction, and only the Dao can withstand the tide."

Okay, that sounded bad and overly pretentious. But Jun never claimed he possessed any talent for poetry. All the good Xianxia novels seemed to include bits of poetry, so he had to try to stay faithful to the genre.

 

[RahXephon]

Predestined Friends
1.2​

---

Jun had borrowed his friend's lighter in order to start a small fire going. The sun in this empty alternate Earth had already passed the horizon. Frankly, Jun badly needed a shower and a bed, but his only ticket out of here still suffered from a double dose of post-traumatic stress syndrome.

The stars flickered silently down the desolate impromptu campsite. The Case 53 kept hugging himself, occasionally conjuring up purple smoke that turned his body transparent. Despite the danger of being left behind, Jun felt no worry. Rob personally bestowed the Case 53 to him as his loyal follower.

Instead, he stretched his newly grown intellect by reading through the documents that came with the Cauldron case. Most of its contents dealt with dry, legal shit, with only a smattering of technical terms that screamed 'we're smarter than you so just shut up and drink the vial'. He paid some attention to detail there, trying to confirm if Cauldron's descriptions matched with what Jun had designed.

It seemed that Cauldron had heavily underestimated the Planewalker vial, calling it Casper instead. The other descriptions are surprisingly accurate.

After he finished going over the papers, Jun raised his voice. "Are you ready to talk now?"

The six-armed man grunted as he stared soullessly into the fire.

Well, he received a response at least.

"Let's start with something easy. You can call me Jun. What's your name?"

The man paused a bit, as if considering the name still belonged to him. "Logan McMaster. Born and bred in…"

He couldn't finish those words. The entire town must have been razed to the ground by now, another mass grave in a long line of atrocities stretching back twenty years.

"I ran the gun store. Nothing special. I took it over from my dad. Never fired a shot except in the range or when I hunted since all the fancy supervillains skipped a tiny town like ours. Even as capes flew around and make a mess in the big cities, I always thought I had nothing to fear as long as I had my trusty AR-15 by my side."

Logan let out a sardonic laugh. "You know what happened? My bullets bounced uselessly against the Siberian's freaky body. She didn't even deign to glance at my weapon."

"Capes." Jun sighed along with Logan. "You think they're just clowns when you watch them on TV. But when you finally face one in person, you realize it's not all fun and games, and that people die more often than you think."

"It's so unfair." Logan cried a little as he held all six palms of his hands in front of his face. "These heroes and villains, they're like gods. They have so much power and all they do is fight each other or take it out on the little guy. Why did they drag me into their world like this? Why do I look like this? I can't go home now, nobody will recognize me. Everyone will be scared."

Jun seriously wanted to smack Logan's face. Brother, so what if you looked like a huge, six-armed demon? You've got one of the greatest, most overpowered superpowers in the entire CYOA! And he even got a free Second Trigger as a bonus! He could hardly think of something more stronger, and it even came with a guaranteed get-out-of-jail-free card from Scion's impending rampage.

'Well, the One-Punch Man is probably more ridiculous. A serious punch might even knock out that golden dick.'

Also, he doubted ROB stayed put him if he skipped Earth Bet behind without resolving the inevitable doom.

He coughed a little in order to get himself back on track. "I don't think there will be any survivors back in that town. The heroes never showed up. Friend, I'm sorry to say this but we're the only survivors. We don't have anything left back there to return. If you want my opinion, we should make a clean break of our old lives and embrace our new powers."

"That's easy for you to say." Logan uttered numbly. "You seem in good shape. You can go back to your home, your job, your family. All I have left is these arms."

Jun shook his head. "I don't mean to belittle your condition. Just listen to me first. I don't really have anything back home as well. I just drifted from place to place, with no job or friends to spend the day. I was kind of a bum."

An extra-dimensional bum now, to be more precise, but Jun kept that little detail deep in his heart.

"What I wanted to say is I'm more than willing to shed the shackles of my old life and accompany you while you deal with your condition. We are predestined friends. We've suffered from the same S9 attack after all, so I like to think we're fated to be together. Besides, I've got powers out of that ordeal as well, though in a different way. I won't be a burden to you, and neither will you hold me back from what I've seen so far of your powers."

Another grunt. "What use is it for me to travel to a different Earth? The only thing I can do is run away from my home."

Jun really wanted to give that pathetic face another smack. "I don't think that's the only thing you should do. This.. so-called planewalking power is full of potential. Just think about it. If Earth Bet is such a useless place that it can't deal with S-class threats like the Slaughterhouse Nine, we only need to travel to a universe with even better weapons and powers. By borrowing the strength of what makes those worlds strong, we can return to Earth Bet and get our revenge on the Slaughterhouse Nine and all of the fellows who enable them or keep them free."

Logan's head jerked upwards, unaware he had taken the bait. "What do you mean? There's actually people who condone what they're doing?"

"That's not my exact meaning." Jun said carefully as he thought of how to phrase his next words with a smattering of his Bluff power. Not enough for it to get noticed by anyone paying attention. "Do you know what's in this briefcase? There's two vials just like the one that turned you into a purple freak along with papers describing them in clinical detail along with a lot of legal disclaimers."

"Consider for a moment what that means. There's an organisation, quite a professional one I think, that sells actual powers in a bottle. And not just any random powers. They narrowed down the effects to a precise enough range that they can predict if a vial will result in a Brute or Changer. Still, the documents are also careful to note that any occurrences of stress and instability when ingesting the vial will result in elevated risks of physical mutation."

The campsite fell silent for a couple of breaths. "They knew. Those makers of those vials knew."

"You've probably heard about all those deformed capes waking up in dark alleys with a symbol tattooed on their bodies. The same symbol that's on these documents over here. You're probably the latest 'failure' in a long line of defective products in their eyes."

Three of Logan's arms punched the soil with a soft thump. "Those bastards. Why don't they sell these powers to the army? Let the good guys gain powers instead of having them fall into the hands of the Nine."

This time Jun couldn't help but release a laugh. "You might not have noticed, but my trigger event made me pretty smart. Enough to analyse the clues and paint a gruesome picture. From my analysis, this 'Cauldron' seems to be a corporation driven by profit instead of altruism. There's a couple of comments here how they are able to narrow the range of powers for a hefty fee, for example. Cheapskates who can't afford anything have to pay back favours or settle with a vial that even Cauldron doesn't really know what powers it provides."

To hear that his maltreatment might have been the result of cold corporate calculation angered Logan even beyond his numbed emotions. Jun secretly smiled at his future minion's frustration. He decided to add some fuel to the flame.

"Let's see what Cauldron has to say about Casper. Hmm, blended with this and that. Provides 40% chance of phase shifting. Intangibility in other words. Looks like you got that power and more, considering you can phase right out of Earth Bet and into this virgin world. Hm, it also says here that there's a chance this shifting power can go inwards and form a pocket dimension."

The Case 53 picked up a fallen branch, which suddenly disappeared from his grasp. "So that's what it is. I kept thinking there's a cube of air floating besides me. I can feel it.. see it holding the branch I had just grasped."

"The document mentioned something else. One of the 'ingredients' of your vial is a source that is highly likely to provide Master powers."

"It's my eyes. They keep itching a bit when I turn to you. I keep having the suspicion that something bad will happen to you if I meet your eyes. It will make you my man, if you know what I mean."

"Ah. Good thing you haven't lifted up your head yet." Jun said with evident worry, though he already knew about the Suzerain power. From the moment he escaped, he always made certain he always faced a different direction.

"Let me tell you something about myself. Besides being more persuasive, making people lost, and making me smarter, my powers also came with a small Master component. I can speak out a short law that other people have to obey. Nothing too serious, I can't just tell other people to die. It's just simple commands like don't cross red lights, never sleep without eating a banana, or don't ever Master me."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one."

Fortunately, Logan was too engrossed with his depression to notice Jun quietly sneaking in that law. Sure, Jun had some excuses ready if Logan discovered something fishy. He just wanted to skip the dance and just take control of the conversation to railroad his minion into following his planned adventures.

"You know, if you think about it, you'd make the perfect thief. You can turn into a ghost, bypassing any walls and obstacles in your way. You don't even need to bring a bag, since you can stuff anything you touch in your personal pocket dimension. If you somehow get hunted down by the entire world, you can just leave that universe and jump over an entirely different one and do the whole thing over again. It's such a perfect combination of powers that lends itself to heists."

Jun turned around to make sure Logan couldn't see his despicable smile. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that God gave made you the best thief in the world."

Unfortunately, Logan didn't see the silver lining. "What's the use of money and gold? Will it turn my skin back to white? Will it make me get rid of these heavy arms? I don't see the point in stealing riches. I can't get back my old friends. There's nothing my powers can do but run when I'm faced with monsters like Nilborg and the Nine."

"That's where you're wrong, my brother. Doesn't your power give you access to an infinite amount of alternate Earths? I bet that only a tiny fraction of them are carbon copies of Earth Aleph. The rest must be virgin territories where humans never rose up or worlds where monkeys or lizards have become the dominant race. Just try to reach past those mundane Earths. Try and see if you can find anything special, a world where people have superpowers not unlike our own Earth Bet."

Logan bent down his head as he dealt with the disorienting vision of swiping through countless Earths. "It's difficult. I can hardly get a glimpse at Earths that are unusual like that. They flip by so fast, and they're also more distant than the Earths that are closer by. It's like someone pouring a bucket of sand over my head. I need to pick out a few black grains out of the yellow sand. It's almost impossible to pinpoint. It's much easier to get back to our own home world."

That lifted one worry off Jun's chest. He patted Logan's back. "You'll get the hang of it soon enough. You just need practice. What I wanted to tell you is that you have an incredible gift, and that you can use them to find solutions to your own problem. You just need to reach beyond the mundane and try to reach extraordinary worlds, ones that are so advanced in power or technology that they will allow you to reshape your body in any way you wish. It might be impossible in Earth Bet, but I believe that there's at least one alternate Earth in the boundless multiverse that can provide a solution."

Those words sparked up a tiny light of hope in Logan's eyes, but it quickly died down. "I.. you may have a point. But there's too many worlds, each of them overlapping so closely it's too hard to distinguish."

"Don't worry about it. We have all the time in the world. You just got your powers so I'm guessing you'll become more proficient at using it in the future."

It took a while longer to prod Logan into pulling them back into a civilized Earth. Logan seemed to take another punch in his mind when he summoned his powers, but the lack of food and toilet paper in the forest really started to get at us. We weren't beasts after all. After the recent ordeal, we both needed a nice bed.

Logan eventually delivered one good piece of news. He had enough control over his phase shifting power to determine a rough destination where they landed. It saved time and effort when they ended up in a mid-sized city instead of in the middle of nowhere.

While Jun could easily fast talk a random guy into giving up his wallet and car, he still needed to be careful keeping Logan unusual appearance out of sight in this cape-less Earth. He spent half an hour driving to the outskirts of the city and settled with a cheap motel.

"Finally. Some food, water and a bed. Home sweet home." Jun sighed as Logan pretty much bulldozed his way into the bathroom.

The night passed quietly as the both of them wound down their nerves.

Jun started his preparations the next day. He first passed the Cauldron suitcase to his partner. "Please keep this safe. I'm going out to get some supplies for our upcoming trip. How much stuff can you fit in your pocket dimension?"

"About as much as the bathroom, but I can't stack things on top of each other."

"Ah, that's enough for me to get an idea on what to buy."

After visiting the lobby to make sure the cleaners skipped their room, Jun took his stolen car and went on a shopping spree. He first visited the outdoors store and bought a bunch of coats, backpacks, shoes and other essentials. Naturally he charged everything on yesterday's poor sap's credit card.

Next he visited the local supermarket to get a bunch of cans and other dried goods. Naturally Jun added a butt-load of water, soda and alcohol to shop bursting shopping cart. Stuffing his goods in his increasingly overcrowded car, he then visited another market and bought much of the same.

Jun had an awkward moment the time he reached the checkout counter, though.

"Sir, there's a problem with your card. It seems to be.."

"Why are you still holding me up?" Jun immediately interjected, already pulling out his Jedi mind trick. "I already paid for the goods, don't you remember? Let me go."

"Oh, sorry sir, my mistake. Have a nice day."

The goods almost filled the car to the brim but Jun had one more destination before he returned to the motel. He drove all the way to a gun store and entered it nonchalantly.

"Hi, I'm ready to pick up my order."

"Ah, I'm sorry sir, but I don't recognize you. Did you come to the right store?"

With Jun's powerful Bluff, the shop attendants and even the customers danced in the palm of his hands. He merely pointed at a couple of random weapons ranging from handguns to shotguns and asked the shop to pack them up and add a couple of boxes of ammunition. Naturally he convinced the crowd he already paid for the purchase.

Despite knowing that everything he did had been recorded by the security cameras, Jun didn't give a fuck. This Earth had no experience of capes.

Jun didn't allow his success to get to his head, though. Even without his Perfect Mind he knew that all his thinking and talking superpowers meant jack shit when faced with an angry Scion. He needed to keep a level head and leverage his powers to gain greater strength. Wealth, status and fame were nothing but external strengths. The only thing people cared about in the upcoming apocalypse was who had the biggest fist.

As Jun finally drove his overcrowded car back to the motel, he momentarily considered deciding what kind of alternate universe he wanted to visit. If he guessed the implications of the Planewalk power correctly, Logan possessed the capability to enter any mundane alternate world as well as any other world he could visualize. It sounded vague, but left some room for exploitation.

For example, if Logan had seen any of the Star Trek movies or TV series, Jun could ask him to planewalk to any Star Trek universe. Then again the timelines might not match and the best they could hope for is to land in the middle of the Eugenic Wars that preceded the formation of Starfleet.

The same problem applied to a handful of other overpowered franchises like Warhammer 40,000 and Star Wars, taking place in the far future or distant past (according to the lore). Fucking around with time just gave Jun a headache even with his enhanced mind. He had too little information to go on right now. Not that he intended to waste time considering how to exploit those franchises anyway.

Who was he kidding, anyway? He already had his list of destinations lined up! He had a different purpose in mind when he planned to enhance his mind and improve his bullshitting skills. He had no intention of playing the superhero genre straight. Instead, he desired to crash the party (and derail canon) by introducing out-of-context factors like many crossovers had done before.

He already had a good source in mind.

Jun readily admitted he had an obsession with Chinese wuxia/xianxia/xuanhuan/whatever novels. Naturally, Jun skipped the low-hanging fruit of low fantasy wuxia and set his sights on the more high fantasy xianxia. He wanted to become a cultivator! Tales of pursuing immortality, cracking planets with bare fists and creating a world of life with a single thrust of a spear charmed his thoughts ever since he first realized he ended up in his own CYOA.

Not only did he plan to learn cultivation. He also wanted to empower Earth Bet with the things he brought back, even up to transforming the entire planet if needed to accommodate foreign elements that cultivation required.

This ambitious plan required a lot of resources. Jun figured that the most essential resources were firmly in the hands of those who could potentially squash Scion like a bug. If he dared to show off his shard-given powers like Bluff or Lawgiver to those god-like old farts, he'd be captured in no time. To take their goodies without dying a horrible death required a subtler approach.

"Well, we need to start small and work up our way up the hierarchy."

Still, Earth Bet still went on without him. He couldn't take too much time learning cultivation step by step. The usual stages where characters in xianxia novels grew strong enough to break space or fracture an entire continent took at least tens or hundreds or years even if they were god-given peerless talents with access to cheat-like items.

Someone from Earth Bet like Jun who grew up in a spiritual wasteland would definitely have talent comparable to trash. If he took the conventional road to power, then he might have to cultivate bitterly for millions or billions of years in order to gain enough power to do something that can actually give Scion a second glance.

Talent. Resources. Heart. Destiny. Those were the essential ingredients for someone to be able to become an immortal. Jun could do nothing about talent and destiny, but if he focused his sights on certain heavenly treasures, he might be able to overcome the limitation of his trash constitution. The heavens always leaves a way.

Jun finally reached the parking lot of the motel. He parked the care somewhere more remote, then retrieved a listless looking Logan and pushed him to absorb all the stuff he acquired into his pocket dimension. As it turned out, he brought way too much crap, so Jun had to leave some cans of food behind. Oh well, at least they had their dinner covered.

The pair felt a lot more comfortable now that they enjoyed a good meal and changed their clothes. They only had a bit of trouble fitting an XXL-sized shirt on Logan. Jun carefully cut some holes at the back to allow all of his pairs of arms to stretch.

"Alright, lets take a rest today. Go watch some TV or something. Tomorrow we'll get to work."

The day came and went, and Jun rose up early next morning. "I've had enough of this Earth. It's time to get off our asses and try and change our world."

Though emotions and memories still plagued Logan's mind, he had regained enough sense to ready his power. 'Now I know how Lung feels when he looks at Oni Lee. Hmm, this looks like a good time to pretend to be profound.'

"A pair of brothers born from bloodshed. Crimson hands meet as predestined friends. Tear the vault of heaven and let foreign flowers bloom. Spring shall make way for a summer of war."

Having a loyal helper too preoccupied with his own angst helped out a lot. It took quite a bit of effort for Jun to keep his smile gentle and understanding.

"Okay, we've had our showers and packed up all our stuff in your pocket dimension. I'm more than ready to go on an adventure. Now lets sit next to each other and close your eyes. I want you to cycle your Planewalking power."

Jun got ready to do his work in guiding Logan to a suitable alternate universe. His voice warmed up as his Bluff power got to work. Truthfully, he had no idea if this could work, but he'd give a try anyway.

"Don't look at the amount of worlds in your sight. There's an infinite amount of alternate universes but most of them don't have what we want. Instead, try to narrow your sights on more distant worlds where the planets look much different than a regular ball of rock. They might be larger, surrounded by impossibly large suns and moons, and covered with a thick layer of energy."

"Imagine endless forests ruled by beasts the size of mountains. Imagine city-sized palaces floating in the clouds, guarded by immortal soldiers and other mighty beings. Visualize impossibly large mountain ranges and oceans hiding sleeping gods. Try and grasp a civilization that has a history going back billions, possibly trillions of years."

The purple smoke that leaked out of Logan's form increased in volume. The density of the mysterious substance drenched the room in darkness.

"Imagine a world of countless mortals, ruled over grand empires possessing enough wealth to drown a city. Now, imagine that these empires are ruled by more powerful human beings. Some of them are flying through the sky atop a flying sword. Others are hunting gigantic beasts that could ordinary pat a city to mush with their strength. Still more are secluded in hidden immortal caves, meditating for thousands or even millions of years at a time in their efforts to reach immortality."

"Those with real power are those who transcended their mortal limitations. Imagine body cultivators who have gone through pain and torture in order to forge their bodies into god-killing machines. Imagine essence cultivators who study the mysteries of nature and the grand Daos, able to command the forces of nature and able to turn the inside of their bodies into independent worlds. Imagine more elusive cultivators who have studied the abstruse mysteries of the soul. Their very gaze can read people's memories or wipe out their minds entirely."

Logan groaned a bit as the smoke churned in some kind of reaction. "It's hard but.. it's possible. I can see them, glimpses of these kinds of impossible things. They look.. Asian, but not anything I can recognize."

"You're looking in the right direction brother!" Jun said excitedly. It turned out this crapshoot actually resulted in what he wanted! "What you're trying to grasp are universes with the presence of cultivators or immortals. They are mighty beings that have grown step-by-step into ruling words, galaxies or even entire universes. Some of them are endowed by nature or formidable ancestors, while others started out as ordinary mortals not much better than us and have bitterly cultivated for many eons until they have reached the realm of gods."

"There are many universes like that.. they stand much further apart than the other universes. If I get close.. I feel as if I'm being warned off. Many of them are shielded somehow, some don't even let me take a look. I.. I'd definitely die if I try to enter."

"Just ignore those universes. They must be guarded by formidable gods or natural laws. Try and take a closer look at the more open universes, ones that aren't ruled by a single group of transcendents."

"Imagine heavenly courts ruled by fairy-like women and graceful men. Imagine hellish dimensions where six-armed demons are common sights. Imagine epoch-ending wars between different factions and endless rivalries within each organisation. These worlds revolve around personal power, where the law of the jungle prevails. Countless mortals desire to ascend to the heavens, but only those chosen by powerful sects have a chance to learn the ways of the cultivator."

"I can see endless slaughter." Logan muttered abhorrently, visibly sickening at the sights. "An evil man sacrificing a city of billions to fuel his half-devil body. Rich youngsters callously commanding their personal forces to wipe out a rival's family down to their newborn children. Ancient friends who have stayed together for millions of years betraying each other over an extraordinary flower found in a ruin that survived the death of an older universe."

"I know these universes can be cruel, but don't get caught up in the bloodshed. Look at the possibilities instead of the drawbacks. Resources are limited, and only the strongest or luckiest get the chance to escape their mortal bindings. The greater the struggle, the more valuable the treasures."

"Try and narrow your focus on one such world in one such universe. It doesn't have to be too fancy or fantastical. It might just be the lowest tier world in that particular universe. Pick a world with normal conditions where mortals can live with ease. Don't look at massive worlds with gravity ten thousand times of Earth or something like that. We'll just die instantly if we go there."

It took at least a half an hour for Logan to get a hold of a random cultivator universe and pick a suitable planet out of billions of choices. Jun hoped that his friend could look for worlds faster next time when he became more accustomed to such an action.

"I've got it. The world is still a bit large, but I feel its conditions are not too different from Earth's."

"Good." Jun nodded, already tasting success. "Let's find a place to land. Don't look at the majestic capital cities or heavily guarded sect grounds. Instead, imagine a simple town or small city lying in the outskirts of a small empire. They might be ruled by a couple of family clans whose ancestors are strong enough to guard the region but pose no threat to the real power base of the world. Try and find a settlement where its not unusual to see a few travellers passing by, people who are on their way from one big city to another."

"It's getting almost impossible to hold my focus. The amount of fine-grained attention I need to maintain is straining my senses."

"Don't worry about it. Just try to pick a spot outside a random town you feel good about. We'll play it by ear once we arrive."

The world shifted, then everything went dark.

 

[RahXephon]

Predestined Friends
1.3​

---

Jun sighed as he looked at Logan's defenceless body. The transition sucked almost all of the energies right out of him, leaving him unconscious and vulnerable to whatever dangers lurked in the woods. They landed too close to the city walls as well. He could already hear the thumps of footsteps as travellers along with their carts and pack beasts passed through the city gates.

Looking at their rough spun clothes that fit right in a Chinese historical drama, he already knew his first steps were the hardest. The language the locals spoke vaguely resembled Chinese, but drifted too far from each other. The difference between the local language and Chinese sounded as wide as the gulf between English and German. This meant that Jun couldn't bullshit his way around the locals with his Bluff power.

So with no other choice, Jun first applied his Terra Incognita power to make sure no one bumped into them. Then he sat down and opened a can of coke.

"Ah, nothing like popping into a new world with a cold drink." Jun sighed as he lazily formulated his plans from what little he heard and seen. The most important goals right now were to find a way to enter the city, lay low and learn the local language.

With the combination of Logan and Jun's Master and Stranger powers, they could squeeze bits of information and wealth out of a successive number of locals, hopefully working up the hierarchy until they manage to subvert someone of real authority.

'I wonder if Logan's Suzerain's power will still work against those with higher cultivation. Unlike the people on normal Earths, these old monsters have built up formidable souls or possess defensive items that might ward off a mind attack.'

Jun hadn't told Logan to teleport straight into a high-level celestial court for this reason. A casual slap by these god-like figures might straight up overpower Logan's shard despite its continent-sized power. Still, his ultimate goal remained on trading or stealing from one of the top figures that ruled this universe. Only top-tier entities like them possess the power to transform a mortal into an immortal and bring spiritual life to a barren Earth.

He had a plan for that, however, but that could wait.

"So you're finally awake, huh?" Jun said as Logan groggily picked himself up from the dirt. "We'll need to be careful now. We're in a different world with a different culture. I need you to use your Master power on one of the locals to get us inside the city. We can get settled in and I can learn their language quickly before we do anything else."

With that plan in place, they both moved and sought a spot beside the road. Hiding behind a tree, Jun carefully chose his target. He ignored the trade caravans and those moving in groups. Logan could only master one person at a time, so they needed to pick a lone wolf.

Those that moved alone could broadly be separated into two types. The most prevalent were the confident warrior types. Even from afar they emitted powerful bloodlust. In a world where the law of the jungle reigned, those who travelled alone had the power defend themselves from most common bandits and beast attacks. They seem to be locals who hunted the beasts in the countryside for a living.

The second types consisted of those who dressed more gracefully, and often mounted formidable beast mounts. Even if their cultivation might be on the low side, their extraordinary mounts and pets were certainly formidable enough to keep them safe. Jun suspected that most of these travellers were backed by prominent clans or sects.

These clansmen and sect disciples were too much of a risk to approach despite their superior knowledge and wealth. So Jun carefully let them pass while concentrating on the more mundane warriors. He finally picked one who dressed a little better than most.

The warrior appeared tall and possessed well proportioned muscles. He carried a giant, man-sized sabre on his back while dragging a car-sized tiger carcass with his bare hands.

"Uh, are you sure, boss?" Logan asked, already acknowledging Jun as the leader. "If something goes wrong, he might pull out that giant sabre and hack us to death."

"Don't worry too much, brother. He's likely what passes for a body cultivator in these parts. Those kinds of warriors don't have the talent to cultivate a dao so they haven't paid attention to building up their soul. If something goes wrong, you can just turn intangible and I'll activate my disorientation Stranger power. If anything worse happens, we can just planewalk back to Earth Bet."

They both calmly stepped out of the woods in front of the sabre wielder. Considering their strange modern polyester clothes and Logan's six-armed purple-skinned appearance, they had no problem attracting gazes.

It felt as if a sparked passed between the two. Interestingly enough, the local yielded almost instantly as he dropped the carcass and made that Chinese fist-to-palm greeting while lowering his chin.

"#%*#$@!"

Unfortunately neither party could understand each other's words, but hand gestures were universal enough to get the point across. The man bowed again, picked up the loot and confidently led the way towards the city.

Logan looked a little dubious on how easy his Master powers captured the man's loyalty, but Jun shrugged off his doubts.

"Don't get too cocky. We're in this planet's equivalent of a rural backwater. I'm sure if it won't be easy to Master a real powerhouse."

Coming closer, the city walls loomed over majestically over all the visitors that wanted to enter the city. The walls loomed as tall as a four story building and a lot of flags had been placed at regular intervals. From the various scratches and marks of frequent repairs, this small city must have suffered regular attacks from beast hordes or other threats. Guards garbed in dark and heavy armour maintained a strict patrol atop the wall.

The guards threw a baleful glance at Jun and especially Logan when the group approached the open gates. Fortunately, the guards seemed familiar with the mastered sabre wielder, who pandered for a bit before throwing a couple of pieces of silver. That satisfied the guards enough to allow them to pass, if a bit reluctantly.

The streets of the city buzzed with life, noise and stink. Plenty of droppings from beast mounts littered the sides, and poorly clothed servants seemed to fight an endless battle in sweeping them up in their carts. Shops lined the streets near the gates, mostly selling equipment catered to beast hunters. Guardsmen patrolled lazily through the streets, intimidating everyone except those who rode magnificent beast mounts or resplendent carriages.

The pair from Earth Bet couldn't help but take note of the class difference. As they weaved through the streets and traveller deeper inside, most of the normal and poor inhabitants willingly stepped aside. The sabre wielder took this behaviour in stride, and proudly showed off his carcass when curious children wanted to take a closer look. On the other hand the man quite readily squeezed against the sides when large carriages strode past.

Unfortunately, the locals had difficulty placing Jun and Logan in their mental map of classes. They didn't ride but walked on foot. Their clothes looked fancy but highly unfashionable. They didn't come alone or with a team of guards but instead procured a local as a guide. Logan attracted a noticeable amount of stares, but fortunately people of different races were not too rare in this world. Most non-humans they encountered on the street possessed additional beast parts like horns or tails.

After stopping by a butcher's shop to sell the carcass, the sabre wielder led the two into a less crowded residential area. They finally reached a poorly maintained courtyard. Cracks ran through the walls and the garden featured nothing but a mass of weeds, but the local didn't care and instead invited the two inside a small house.

"Alright, that went better than I thought." Jun said as he sat down on a stool while Logan looked around curiously at the trinkets his mastered minion had collected.

"What's the next step?"

"Right now we'll use our new brother's help to learn the language. It won't take me long with my powers. After that, we'll use his knowledge to master someone higher up in the totem pole and repeat the same procedure. We'll do it again and again until we finally get to the top."

"I don't feel comfortable staying here." Logan said, expressing his opinion for the first time. "What I want is to take revenge on the Slaughterhouse Nine. I'm not willing to just run away forever."

"I know, and I'm working on it. I want us to get what we want without exposing ourselves and return back to Earth Bet. It's too dangerous for us foreigners to hang around. We could be snapped up by cultivators more powerful than Scion at any time once they realize we're not from this universe."

Thus began a week of furious learning. While Logan still struggled with basic words and sentences, Jun pretty much became passably fluent in the local language on the fifth day.

The sabre wielder's name was Yang Tie. Naturally in this world the surname came first. As Jun suspected, the man cultivated his body due to insufficient talent and background. Yang Tie seemed to enjoy a lucky break and broke through into a higher stage of his cultivation when his hunting squad had been ambushed by an oversized pack of beasts. He hunted alone ever since, able to make a comfortable middle-class by his own efforts.

Tie had a small amount of savings and helped Jun purchase some local books. It didn't take long for Jun's supernatural intelligence to learn the language much better than Tie ever had. Unfortunately, no shops were able to supply a complete map of the world, let alone one that showed the entire scope of the Nine Suns Empire they were in. Tie only possessed enough knowledge to tell them a bit about the local power structure. A superpower called the Fragrant Valley Sect ruled not only this empire, but the four surrounding ones as well. The hierarchy never changed, but factions of the same tier warred frequently with each other for dominance and resources.

"Looks like the Fragrant Valley Sect will be our next stop." Jun said as he walked casually in the streets. "The only problem is that those high-and-mighty sect disciples won't bother to visit a third-tier city like this one."

Since Yang Tie had long procured them a bunch of clothes, he no longer looked like a foreigner in these lands. Coupled with his fluency of the language and the keen observation of his surroundings, Jun felt like a fish in water.

"Well, if I can't find someone from the Fragrant Valley Sect, I'll just head to the capital and see if there is anyone useful there. But before I leave, lets see if I can find something interesting."

Now that Jun had a better picture of the cultivation systems in this world, he had little to fear from low level cultivators. so long as he kept a low profile.

From what Yang Tie knew so far, the essence cultivation system could be divided in at least five ranks.

Those who possessed innate spirit roots of at least decent quality could use certain cultivation methods to gather the spiritual energies of heaven and earth. Qi Condensation was the start of the cultivator journey, and the vast majority of cultivators were stuck in this stage. The cultivators cycled the gathered energies inside invisible veins called meridians and build up their bodies as a container of spiritual energy.

Once the spiritual energies reached a critical mass, personal enlightenment into an aspect of nature and heaven triggered a transformation of the energies inside a cultivator's body. The next cycle consists of Foundation Building, in which the cultivator stopped passively cycling the spiritual energy but instead used it to transform his meridians and consciousness. The name of the stage reflected the importance of it to even the best talents. The amount of effort and resources invested in this stage greatly affected a cultivator's future journey towards immortality.

Those who built up a firm foundation and gained further enlightenment in an aspect of nature gained a transformation of power. Their spiritual energy collapsed into a miniature core called the dantian. Cultivators likened the Core Formation stage as a seed planting stage, as the vulnerable dantian could grow to become a highly powerful spiritual organ when nurtured properly. It allowed cultivators to fly and affect aspects of nature around them without expending too much energy. Cores differed highly from each individual even if cultivators used the same cultivation method.

Unfortunately, Yang Tie couldn't say too much about the next two stages, and all the books Jun read had declined to say in detail how they worked. Still, just the names gave Jun a good enough picture. The fourth stage was called the Nascent Soul stage. At that point cultivators became regional powerhouses. They gave birth to an evolved soul inside their dantian, which could even detach and fly out of a cultivator's body.

As for the fifth stage which was called the Soul Formation stage, Jun had even less of a picture about it. It likely entailed growing up the baby-like nascent soul into a firmer existence until they reached adulthood.

And after that? The journey to cultivation didn't end there most likely. Yang tie heard stories of ascended cultivators roaming the wider universe above the sky.

What Jun ultimately desired to reach was to steal from or make a trade with one of those legendary celestials.

"Trash should get out of my sight!"

Suddenly, the second story window of a fancy restaurant burst apart as a pair of guards crashed through. They landed upon the ground with painful grunts, their body cultivation just barely adequate enough to avoid breaking their spines.

Jun and the rest of the people in the street looked up, expecting a show. Sure enough, a lone teenager stood valiantly from his seat at a table filled with fragrant dishes. His average-looking clothes contrasted highly with the boy's impenetrable confidence.

A group of youngsters in dark blue clan clothing stood on the opposite side of the table. The lead figure appeared to be a young man who looked taller and more handsome than anyone else present. The prominent jade engraved with the golden character of 'Ji'.

"My friend, don't you think you are a bit excessive?" The Ji clansman said gently as he adopted a mild smile. "I only wanted to celebrate my return to home with my family members. Don't you think I have given you enough face by paying double for your table?"

"That's Ji Cheng, the second young master of the Southwestern Ji Clan!" Someone in the crowd muttered.

An older man said, "He was in the eight stage of Qi Condensation a couple of years ago. I've heard a visiting elder of the Murky River Sect took notice of his talent and invited him to become an outer disciple."

The crowd appeared very impressed with those rumours. The standing of the Murky River Sect towered over all the local factions of the city. Even by entering the sect as a mere outer disciple bestowed immense honour upon the lucky fellow.

The nearest city guard patrols have already reached the site of disturbance, but they kept a noticeable distance as soon as they recognized one of the people in the dispute. They only made sure the wounded guards of the Ji Clan got some medical attention.

The unknown teen spat in disgust. "Hmph, how thick-skinned must you be to claim that you'd compensate me for my table. You did no such thing a before! Forget about paying double, I won't move a foot even if you pay a hundred times!"

"You have some courage." The smile off the Ji Cheng's face dropped off. "I wonder what it is that gives you such a big mouth. If my Ji Clan isn't enough for you to take notice, then what about the Murky River Sect?"

Ji Cheng revealed a wooden tablet hanging on his neck. Despite its plain appearance, the tablet radiated an invisible pressure. The characters for Murky River Sect took up most of the space, but the words 'Inner Sect Disciple' were proudly displayed underneath.

"Heavens! He's entered the inner sect! But.. doesn't the Murky River Sect only accept Foundation Building stage disciples in their inner sect?"

"He must be a carp who has leapt through the dragon's gate!"

"Heavens, don't you mean that he's reach Foundation Building stage? The Ji clan must be showered by the heavens for gaining another pillar."

"When I was his age, I barely reached the third level of Qi Condensation."

An angry expression appeared on the valiant young man's face. "I refuse to bow to the gods, let alone to your sect. The one thing I hate most is rich young masters like you abusing your status. Forget about forcing me from my table. I'll tumble you out of the window as well if you don't get out of my face!"

That riled everybody up. Ji Cheng slowly drew his sword from his scabbard. "Perhaps you will show more appreciation to my sect once I demonstrate my skill. Defend yourself!"

The two instantly clashed against each other, causing a shock wave that pretty much obliterated the entire second floor of the restaurant. The locals seemed to be more than accustomed to sight a sight, as many of them had long distanced themselves from the site.

The two opponents landed upon the roof of a nearby building. No one knew who won the first clash as neither seemed to take any visible damage.

"A mere Qi Condensation ant dares to stand against me!" Ji Cheng yelled, which finally sparked Jun's interest. "You are not qualified to face my best skill. A mere Earth-ranked technique is wasted upon squashing ants."

The teenager stood confident with both palms glowing red. "You draw your blade as soon as a so-called 'ant' bumps into you. Is this the benevolence of the Murky River Sect?"

"You do not have the qualifications to question my conduct. Cut off your right arm and I will let you off."

"Keep dreaming!"

"Then I will do it in your stead!"

The pair clashed again and again, causing a larger ruckus and debris to spread everywhere. Jun hid behind a corner, watching the pair struggle against each other. The Qi Condensation boy put up a good fight against a Foundation Building stage cultivator, and that impressed the crowd.

Jun knew situations like this looked fishy. The only way a Qi Condensation stage cultivator could have the battle strength of a major realm ahead is if he relied on some external strength, like a Heaven-realm cultivation method or some extraordinary treasure. In other words, he was cheating. Jun's greed surged for a moment before he quickly squashed it down.

'This must be a typical protagonist of a cheap Chinese webnovel. They got lucky and bumped into something special like a ring or an inheritance, allowing them to progress rapidly in strength and upstage virtually anyone at the same cultivation level. This always leads them to picking fights against arrogant young masters who think they should win solely because they have a higher cultivation.'

The reason why Jun stopped any thoughts of stealing the teenager's cheat was because these guys were usually endowed with ridiculous luck. The bad guys who found out about the cheat and tried to steal it always ended up dead.

"Ahhh! My arm! You ripped off my arm!" Ji Cheng screeched. "Guards, kill him! Don't let him escape!"

The unrepentant youth made a getaway while being pursued by a squad of guardsmen. The poor Ji Cheng on the other hand wailed on the ground while clutching his stump. His fellow clansmen desperately tried to attend to his bleeding wound. Jun shook his head at the sight. The martial arts world was filled with crouching tigers and hidden dragons.

"Heroes die a glorious death, the defeated live ignominiously. Cultivation goes against heaven's will. A single tree stands lonely in a meadow of shrubs. The sun shines brightest above the clouds."

"The skies are clear you idiot." A grandpa knocked against Jun as he walked past him. "If you want to talk nonsense, go do it in a teahouse."

Jun shrugged and left the scene. He took a slow walk back to Yang Tie's courtyard.

Yang Tie still patiently taught Logan the local language. Jun liked to have left them with a bit more time, but nothing else about the city attracted his attention anymore. "Logan, it's time to leave for the capital of the Nine Suns Empire. Are you proficient enough in planewalking to transfer us there?"

The six-armed man nodded. "I think so. It's a little easier than crossing planes, so I won't get knocked out again. What do you want to do about Yang Tie?"

"Just leave him here. His usefulness is at an end."

Logan looked reluctant to leave behind his helper. "It's a shame. We took advantage of him by borrowing his mind, money and home. I don't think we should leave without something to thank him for the time he spent with us."

"Can you take a cola out of your pocket dimension?"

"Uh, sure. Pepsi or Coke?"

Jun looked at his partner with a deadpan expression. After a few moments of silence, a brightly coloured can came into existence. Jun held it as if it represented a precious treasure. He appeared to be reluctant as he passed it on to Yang Tie.

"What- What is this?"

"Brother, this is your reward for serving us. This container stores a precious elixir. We've found it while exploring an ancient, deadly ruin from a fallen era. This heavenly concoction is useless to you but it is a priceless aid to any cultivator looking to break through to the next stage. Any cultivator who ingests it will feel as if their consciousness has soared above the sky, enabling them to perceive the Heavenly Daos with greater clarity. It's extremely precious so you should try to sell it at the next auction in order to earn a lot of money."

Yang Tie profusely thanked them as he received the can of soda. Laughing inwardly, Jun then turned to a speechless Logan before gesturing him to another room.
"Giving the man a can of cola is a poor reward."

Jun shook his head. "That's what you think. It's unique in this world, so it should fetch a hefty price if he decides to auction it. Don't worry about it and think about our next destination."

He then retrieved the incomplete map of the Nine Suns Empire and pointed out the location of their current city and the direction of the capital.

"In local terms, the capital is about… five hundred thousand kilometres from our location."

"That's an incredibly huge distance. You can stack a dozen Earths next together in that amount of space. I'm still wondering why the gravity of this planet hasn't crushed us into pancakes."

"Well don't bother cracking your head about it. Sizes and distances in a universe engorged with spiritual energy are determined less by conventional physics and more by the desires of whatever god or celestial is in charge."

It took only a quarter of an hour to reach the capital. Jun found the Planewalking power to be such a cheat.

This time the pair spent less time with the same mastered minions. They first subverted a Foundation Establishment official who worked at an unimportant office for the Nine Suns Empire. With the official's help along with a couple of bribes, they were able to procure a couple of false identities.

Having spent a day in the capital to get a better picture of the situation, they convinced the official to request an audience with an unimportant Core Formation inner disciple of the Fragrant Valley Sect. After suggesting the official to go to sleep, Jun let Logan try to master the inner disciple, which he succeeded with ease.

'Seems like the first three cultivation stages don't offer any substantial defence against Masters.' Jun carefully considered as he commanded the disciple to immediately kill the official who should just be coming off his mastered condition.

Logan protested the action, but Jun insisted upon this course of action. "Don't forget the bigger picture. Our goal is to make Earth Bet stronger. That guy's death will insure no one will come and spoil our plans."

Though Logan visibly looked burdened, Jun had no time to soothe his feelings. He already worked with their new minion in getting a better picture of the power structure of this world.

It turned out that the majestic Fragrant Valley Sect was just a division of the colossal Ancient Tree Palace. The Ancient Tree Palace and the Yin Fire Palace were the two absolute superpowers of the planet, having divvied up massive territories amongst themselves. While the two supersects never fought each other in a full blown war, plenty of their disciples died in numerous skirmishes and competitions in their millions-long history of existence.

The inner disciple knew very little about the Ancient Tree Palace, so Jun quickly exchanged him for an unimportant elder of the Fragrant Valley Sect. Naturally, just because this old man had fallen out of the good graces of the sect didn't mean he lost his prowess. This man lived for thousands of years and held an esteemed Nascent Soul cultivation level.

Jun expected trouble anytime as the Nascent Soul represented an evolution of the consciousness. He told Logan to keep his Planewalking power ready and activate it instantly as soon as he noticed something wrong.

The attempt to master the sect elder succeeded, luckily. Though this time Jun noticed a two-second delay before the elder gave in. This worried him a bit but his expectations were accurate.

"I felt as if my power ran up to a wall. It didn't know what to do for a moment before pushing through with more force." Logan said as he nursed three of his palms against his head.

Naturally, the hapless inner sect disciple who guided them to the elder got offed instantly with a single slap by the older man. This time Jun took the time to dig through the meaty wreckage and retrieved his spatial ring. The ring contained most of the disciple's possessions. If Jun had the ability to use spiritual energy, he could use it to store plenty of things. For now, he put it in his pocket, intending to go back to it once he formally started his cultivation.

The sect elder's held considerable power within the sect. He could freely request resources and had access to many facilities of the sect. His long life of service entitled him to many merits, an internal currency within the sect that could be exchanged for extremely valuable resources. The elder himself saved those merits for rare treasures that increased his chances of breaking through to Soul Formation.

Naturally, when Jun learned of this news, he wasn't polite and shamelessly abused the elder's privileges. He spent a chunk of merits procuring protective talismans for Logan and him, then ordered the elder to spend his remaining merits making a copy of every book he could access in the sect library.

If someone wanted to copy a libary's worth of knowledge, techniques, cultivation methods and more, then they might take forever even with a printing machine. Fortunately, higher level containers of knowledge didn't come in the form of paper books, but rather in small slips of jade that kind of worked like a USB stick that could be accessed with spiritual energy. This considerably sped up the process of copying.

Though others in the Fragrant Valley Sect found the elder's actions strange, he nonetheless managed to complete the task and came back. The scrutiny grew though, and people in the sect started to ask why the elder hung out with two complete strangers who popped out of nowhere.

"I think we're starting to outstay our welcome here Logan. We should leave for the Ancient Tree Palace.."

Logan had an easier time planewalking the group to the vicinity of the Ancient Tree Palace. He had grown more accustomed travelling in this manner.

Entering the Ancient Tree Palace proved highly problematic. The guards even disdained a respected elder of a subsidiary sect. They straight up shooed him to the sides. It turned out that the guards considered places like the Fragrant Valley Sect to be a dumping ground for failed outer sect disciples from the Palace. Even a lowly broom sweeper of the sect enjoyed a higher standing, as they were related to past or current sect members.

"This is going to be a problem." Jun muttered as he stared silently at the gate.