Broken Adventure
- Thread starter theaceoffire
- Start date
- Crossover
- Status
I'm pretty sure i've read that story on FF.net (Blindness, Harry Potter story yes?) yeah stuff like that is really annoying as hell.
There's no struggle or any effort in overcoming it... just 'bam' now all my problems are solved/life goes on as normal.
My own take on Blindness.... he is physically blind. The Harry in that one sees energy/magic and cannot see physical objects nearly as well. Thing is, he has some trade offs. He can see deep into magic and do things that we take for granted... but he cannot read in the traditional manners and ha problems sensing things with low magic.
Also, for Adams cultivation method... Harmonic Shard Growth Purification Method if he wants to be a mixture of Chunni and inside joke?
Also, for Adams cultivation method... Harmonic Shard Growth Purification Method if he wants to be a mixture of Chunni and inside joke?
[Greater Evolution, New Mind Foundation]
This is what it should be named. He can claim that the reason he grows so strong is because in that when he was at near death he grasped the concept of [GROWTH] and with all his will 'grew' his body back to health.
This is what it should be named. He can claim that the reason he grows so strong is because in that when he was at near death he grasped the concept of [GROWTH] and with all his will 'grew' his body back to health.
- Location
- USA
What story is this? Can i have the link please?
Jonn Wolfe
(Verified Sarcastic) (Not a Wolf)
- Location
- Beyond Sanity Since 1971
My vote is to honour the people who initially raised him.
玻璃粗鲁的手势
Bōlí cūlǔ de shǒushì
-or -
The Glass Rude Gesture
- Location
- Here
It is fairly long and fun to read, but other stories cover blindness better.
Link: Blindness Chapter 1: Colors, a harry potter fanfic | FanFiction
Before I read today's 2 chapters (and I must say I'm quite happy at the double post), I mist ask why the 1st chapter has a yellow outline around it 🤔
Also does Wuxia permit resurrection. Because Adam must take his mother back to Earth Bet
Also does Wuxia permit resurrection. Because Adam must take his mother back to Earth Bet
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- Location
- Being carried off by a crow
With the whole piece of glass for a martial spirit thing and the fire theme... I could swear there was a UBW aria that had something about a heart of glass can't remember which one that was though (might just be an alternate translation?), that would be a fun reference to toss into the cultivation technique name
RageMage
Sir "Shitshow in the making"
- Location
- Vienna
So you mean Unlimeted Shard Works.
You know what that has a ring to it. I LIKE IT!
The literal English translation of Archer's UBW aria according to the wiki
My body is made out of swords.
My blood is of iron and my heart of glass.
I have overcome countless battlefields.
Not even once retreating,
Not even once being understood.
He was always alone, intoxicated with victory in a hill of swords.
Thus, his life has no meaning.
That body was certainly made out of swords
Norr
Misophist
- Location
- Any chair
That... That is so hilariously bad. I can understand why people use more loose (and poetic) translations if the literal ones read like that in english.
As an aside, a glass shard/heart makes me think of the songs "Nuclear" by Mike Oldfield, though I'm not sure how well it fits the character.
As an aside, a glass shard/heart makes me think of the songs "Nuclear" by Mike Oldfield, though I'm not sure how well it fits the character.
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- Location
- Here
It is because someone clicked the 'gift' button, making it a guilded post. Style can't be changed either... And no, I never saw it before either.
- Location
- USA
I have seen it here and there. Its kinda rare.
Quixotic_being
Fulfilling every contract to the letter
I find this both in character and hilarious, him doing this will probably be better later on, so people learn he can be incredibly petty and as subtle as a brick.
Great. Now I can't get him 'pulling a Gilgamesh' out of my head. Sword spam for the win I guess?
Actually, its more him pulling an Archer/EYIMA. He would actually be making the swords/weapons, instead of just having them laying around in a random vault after someone else makes them for him.
Arc 2: First Order Warrior.
- Location
- Here
Adam blinked at the most recent results of 'Research' reviewing the test data... and the information from his memories and the notes. And the experimental data, and his healing attempts.
Huh.
In retrospect, it should have been obvious that the number of missing meridian nodes was too high. If his body had been THAT damaged, then most of the left side of his body would be dead flesh.
Turns out, most bodies were not really symmetrical. Bones could be different shapes, skins had freckles or whatever, and of course some organs were not placed in some mythical perfect pattern inside the body. And like his organic body, his spiritual pathways had grown organically through his life. New meridian nodes had spawned over time based on energy use, his muscle development, organ operations, and so forth.
Thus Adam's assumption that his right and left half should have an identical number of meridians was... flawed.
On the positive side, NOW both halves WERE symmetrical. Except for his left hand, of course.
No idea how that would effect his cultivation progress.
Pausing 'Growth' again and giving the energy swirl a pass through 'Purification' just in case, Adam enabled 'Research'. The Shard faded into a metallic hue as his Unnamed Cultivation Technique attempted to sync up the seven strands on their individual routes.
And synchronization was important. He managed to complete a cycle through his left arm a few hours ago, but the nearly collected Battle Qi leaked into the rest of his system and was completely absorbed... the seven routes NEEDED to be completed in ONE cycle or the resulting energy couldn't stabilized.
If even one power wisp was even slightly too fast or slow at the end of the pattern, that attempt was worthless. Well... not exactly worthless, the collected and refined energy would be sucked up by his body and used to repair and cleanse his system. But as far as reaching the first Order of Houtian Realm? Yeah, no.
Thankfully, Adam was running 'Research' with every attempt. The adjustments, alternate routes, and modifications suggested had drastically reduced the difficulty of his attempts with every cycle.
Which is why he felt hopeful now. Compared to his initial routine, this most recent technique was child's play. Barely any timing was required until the very end, and most of the remaining squirrelly bits were due to the weakness of his system. Thus they would improve his success chances with each attempt as his system became more robust and flexible.
Sitting cross-legged in bed, his right arm relaxed in his lap cradling the stump of his left forearm, Adam focused his breathing and pulsed his Shard.
Binding energy fused with refined Flame energy, draining into the Shard and splitting into seven equal strands of power. Slightly wild power.
This new method reduced Adam's control of the process, allowing red heat to glow through his skin as the strands burned pathways along their individual paths.
Yes painful, but more importantly it was fast. Hopefully fast enough to complete an entire cycle before any strand was fully absorbed into his system.
His eyes closed, Adam listened to the sizzling of the black impurities coating his skin. His body had thin red lights traveling in strange patterns, black ooze forced from his system as the lights traveled through his limbs and explored his insides.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Xiao Quan blinked, having just opened the boy's room to check if he was awake yet. Her excitement at him being allowed to join the Sect had her coming around earlier than the usual time.
Quietly, she closed the door again.
She had seen and experienced enough cultivation over her life to know when someone was approaching a breakthrough, although her OWN progress wasn't as impressive as causing a light show like that.
She would come back at the breakfast scheduled cleaning time and talk about things then.
Quietly she flipped the cards on the door to mark it as 'Occupied, do not disturb'. A bit of privacy wouldn't hurt anything.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam absently felt gore expelled from his left eye socket, the head meridian route having finally finished the rebuilding process.
And it felt icky. Eww.
But his mind was thankfully devoted to his cultivation process. Sacrificing control for greater speed had made a vast improvement! His very first attempt nearly succeeded when one of the strands almost overloaded his lungs and he had to slow down a bit. Didn't explode though! It only took a few more tests with 'Research' and he was confidant and ready for more attempts.
In an odd way, it felt a bit like a heartbeat. Each pulse of power would flow through his limbs, into his heart, through his skull and mind, and then get wrapped together in his chest. And as he made more and more progress, his cultivation route began... syncing up. Stabilizing.
A tune. Or a strange rhythm. Pulse, and reach, pulse, and pull, pulse, and swirl, pulse, repeat.
As the beating synchronized, he could feel something... stabilizing.
P_ulse. Pu_lse. Pul_se. Puls_e. Pulse_. Pulse.
PULSE.
With a thrum of sympathetic vibrations, all seven strands... connected. As one, they moved outward, dragging pure energy like a child behind it. As one they returned, absorbing decay and impurities and filth. As one, they forced the mess out of his system, his torso becoming a solid cyclone of new energy being brought in through his Shard... which began to glisten.
With fascination, Adam watched his power strands... continue their cycle. Without direction. Without instruction. Like a river, there was now an established path for it to flow in, and one didn't have to use paddles or sticks to force the river to flow downhill. It wasn't automatically cultivating for Adam or anything, but THIS was how the internal Battle Qi could stably be stored within the Cultivator.
His Shard, floating in his body and floating outside at the same time, was the source of energy. It absorbed the required heavenly spiritual energy, sorted it, filtered it, paired it and prepared it for consumption. The Shard flooded his meridian route with new wisps and strands of power, which were then sucked up by the tide of his existing Battle Qi. Followed the flow, followed the rhythm.
And at the end of the path, the corrupted and decayed fragments were dragged by his energy strands returned to his Shard, which released some of this vile energy back into the world to be cleansed by nature. His Battle Qi, freed from its duty, then followed the river again... pulling the new energy along for the journey.
Adam's eyes flared open, his right eye stunned and his left eye glowing slightly with Flame energy.
He had become an initial First Order Warrior of the Houtian Realm.
With a growing smile, he directed his Shard to float before his eyes. Now that he had actually established a rudimentary cultivation base (No matter how pathetic and small), the changes were very visible.
His 'glass shard', so illusive and ghostly, now had a more solid feel. The edges were sharper, it had grown slightly in size, and if one watched carefully one could see swirls of energy spinning within the crystal depths.
Activating his unnamed customized Cultivation Technique again, Adam watched as his Shard glowed...
And the world was ordered.
Before his advancement, which was far smoother and issue free than his memories had suggested it would be, he had felt the energies of the world fall under his Shard's sway. As if they were listening for guidance. Now however? If the spiritual energy had any form of self will before, now it was utterly subservient to the commands his Martial Spirit directed.
Focusing on his body, Adam watched as his Shard ripped heavenly bonded powers apart and demanded the freed Binding energy from the external swirls of trash power under his control. Even the Flame energy became more pure, as his Shard directly connected and combined the most pure samples of Flame energy together after ripping the other sticky energies off and hurled them out of the way.
After the Flame and Binding energy joined, it was slammed into his Battle Qi reserves, flowing with his cultivation technique at high speeds as the 'River' of his power swelled ever so slightly from the new additions. His personal energy would then cajole, convince, corrupt, and bully the new spiritual energy being introduced to his system, reducing how long it took to absorb new energy and also imprinting his spiritual signature onto it, encouraging even faster integration into his existing Qi.
These constant cycles run while cultivating would utterly crush this new energy into more Qi, slightly filling his spiritual 'rivers' and improving the process. These rivers of spiritual power were creating a self-supporting, self-reinforcing network within his body. It strengthened his pathways, kept weak meridian routes open, forced near-blocked paths to allow movement, and basically was forming a foundation for all future cultivation routes to grow and form off of... the Pulse of energy flowing through those river paths gave a feeling of stability now.
Again, his body was handling all of these energies confusingly well. The stories of bad reactions, torn or painful changes in body... everything was a smooth progress, if one ignored the slight fire damage of his flesh. Then again, who else would regrow damaged organs and weak spiritual paths instead of working around the discovered issues? Maybe it was to be expected that Adam had few if any complications as he attempted to consume more spiritual energy.
It felt amazing, by the way.
Each cycle of power was now able to partially remove impurities by passing through his internal Shard representation directly, drastically reducing the black ooze being produced. The cleansing process felt invigorating and satisfying, like reaching an itch that you couldn't quite find before and giving it a good old scratch. Even though portions of the energy being cycled was still absorbed by his flesh, the created Battle Qi would 'overflow' his cultivation route, sink into his muscles and so forth and get absorbed like expected, improving his body... then mostly return to his system, the found impurities and damage dragged out of his flesh in the process.
As the 'river' of power flowed through his meridian routes, the Pulse of his method grew more stable. A heartbeat of progression.
...Meh, he was terrible at names anyway. Might as well call it the 'Pulse Cultivation Technique' and be done with it.
Easy to remember, and if he was ever forced to write it down he wouldn't have to be embarrassed when writing down something long and silly like the 'Heavenly Energy Devoured And Distributed Through Seven Sacred Strands Of Advancement'... or whatever. Or should he call it 'Heartbeat Technique?'
Crud. No, best stay with his first instinct, otherwise he would second guess himself and keep changing it forever.
Adam grinned as he saw a new layer of crystal, ever so thin, glowing as it covered his Shard's surface. Red Flame energy was slowly being introduced to his system as a whole, the stabilized Cultivating Technique creating a more powerful and yet more gentle method of introducing the fires to his flesh. A distribution method needing almost none of the painful concentration and hard work he had suffered under so far.
His smile froze though.
Because the red flames were turning orange.
...Yellow.
Green?
Adam's focus blanked as he watched the flames being incorporated into his body concentrate, increase in temperature... and hit a glowing, bright, FAMILIAR shade of blue. As the change completed, the amount of Flame energy being used by his body dropped through the floor, as the power being sucked into the Shard was now being refined and compressed until it reached the same high temperature and bright blue color as his Martial Spirit's fire.
He held up his right arm, watching bright blue flames pulsing as they followed his Pulse Cultivation Technique.
...Shit.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
A quick check... good, he was up and no longer cultivating. "Good Morning!"
Xiao Quan carefully opened the door, her hands a bit full. "I have ALL KINDS of interesting and good news for you today, young man!"
Moving the pile of stuff to the side, she began his cleansing process. Much less filth today... Oh! "You made a breakthrough! Congratulations!"
She couldn't stop her smile if she wanted to, this was just perfect! She had suspected he had been trying to achieve this for weeks now. It made the self-healing situation more understandable at least. "You have SUCH good timing with this!" Better get back to work though. Cleaning time!
As the muck was removed she continued covering the main points. "First of all, your ability to recover with your personal cultivation method has impressed several people higher in the ranks. Asked a few people, and we managed to get you an invitation to join the 'Burning Sword' Sect. Now that you have reached First Order Warrior Stage, we can even have you apply as an Outer Disciple rather than Outer Assistant... it means more cultivation resources and less responsibility in general, at least until you become strong enough to handle more tasks."
She carefully cleaned his face... and blinked. "Is... is your left eye glowing blue?"
A nod.
She cautiously touched the area. "...Is that fire?"
Another nod.
Quan frowned, and ran a few tests. Now that the boy had a cultivation base, however odd it felt to her sensing techniques, she could safely do a few basic examinations. "It doesn't seem to be damaging your body, but if you feel any pain you let me know, alright?" She tilted his head slightly... and saw the liquid blue flames turn to follow her. "Can... can you see through it?"
Nod.
She blinked. "Huh. Well, my instructions won't change, you let me know IMMEDIATELY if you feel any discomfort from that area." She released his head and continued her cleaning process. "Had a friend whose feet glowed red when attacking and refused to get help because he thought they looked cool. We saved him from permanent nerve damage... but really, some cultivators truly HATE asking for help. Poor guy had apparently skipped part of his personal cultivation technique steps out of laziness, fixing the issue took him over two decades."
Cleaning his arms, Quan hummed. "Right, so there is a bit of an issue because you need to sign the contract and I am not sure how easy that will be for you." She glanced at his hands... hopefully he was right handed. "But you should know that joining up is a GREAT idea! Unlike many Sects, ours insists on everyone starting as an Outer Disciple, no matter how wealthy, talented, or well connected. It reduces infighting and bullying, and increases empathy and understanding since everyone has a common experience in the past. Plus, no conflict from some people getting 'special treatment' or whatever."
She grinned as she cleaned her rag. "In MY opinion, it makes your background less important. I came from the orphanage, and in some sects that can really be a negative on your future standing. Here, there are even tasks to earn merit points by helping out those lower on the social ladder than yourself. There are even repeatable jobs like 'mentoring' or training people for various jobs. It lets me support my friends and the orphanage without losing too many resources or time needed for cultivation, since the earned points help balance out any costs."
Her face lost focus. "Maybe you could donate some notes about what you felt and did during recovery? There is a policy in place where advancements like that will earn you a subsidy from the Sect, a monthly bonus depending on how useful the information turns out to be. Some of the guys in our Research division make so many advancements they could retire and cultivate forever without fear of poverty. Or at least they brag enough about the issue."
She didn't glance at his damaged leg. "Of course, the Orphanage also handles some cultivation resource harvesting tasks with their herb garden, it could easily earn a stable income for you until some muscles are built up. I know some people, they would love the help." Might cost a favor or two. Maybe he could learn some of the less main stream jobs? Like pill refinement or treasure preparation. Maybe formation work, though you had to have certain levels of talent to get far in that field. Most ingredients no matter how rare didn't require a lot of movement to handle their pre-processing before use... Yes, best to suggest an Alchemy career.
Seeing the boy's hand gestures, she blinked. "Huh? Oh, something to write with?"
A nod.
She nodded as well. "No problem, let me swap out this impurity bucket and I'll be right back." She moved the paperwork to the side table. "It may take me a half hour or so, but I will be right back!"
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Hmm.
Adam felt his Shard inside switch to 'Purification', a soft white glow showing over his heart. No idea why his Martial Spirit was hanging out there... some sort of conceptual thing? Anyway, his natural spiritual rhythm was passing his Battle Qi through the Shard, his energy slowly being refined to better reflect Adams power nature. Theoretically.
The formerly red energy (White/near translucent Binding energy plus bright red Flame power) was now fading into a bright blue. Streaks of color flowed through his meridian nodes as the energies slowly shifted. Hopefully that wouldn't become an issue. PLEASE don't let this become an issue. Adam just wanted to be able to walk and clean himself at this point, he wasn't asking for much.
Ignoring his internal situation, he checked the effects of his Martial Spirit on his environment.
As an initial First Order Warrior, Adam could now release his Battle Qi externally and control it to some extent. Supposedly.
Instead, within three or so feet of his body, ALL energy was directable. As if he was cultivating with his Shard.
Releasing some of his red/orange/yellow/green/blue streaked power, Adam felt the difference between HIS energy and the worlds power.
Unlike the unaligned, untouched power... His Battle Qi was able to pause. Shift. Retreat inside his body and return to the field. Not able to solidify or even turn into a liquid, it was still far easier to work with than the surrounding heavenly spiritual energy. If it attempted to leave his three foot radius cylinder domain, his power would stop paying attention to his commands... but it wouldn't dissipate into random energy like all the other spiritual energies under his direction did.
And if it was moving slow enough, Adam could push his domain forward and recapture it.
So... neat. It would be interesting to see how this would develop in the future.
Adam was also more than a little curious what would happen when he eventually hit Fourth Order Stage. As that was after the first bottleneck in cultivation, the process of overcoming the setback and the massive energy needed to reach that Stage at all would cause the Martial Spirit to evolve. The Cultivator would even gain an innate ability or talent from his or her spirit at that stage. Some people could teleport, or instantly recover energy during battle, or breath fire, or combine with their Martial Spirit and become a type of hybrid monster... all kinds of stuff.
He glanced inwardly at his Shard. Not sure what a crystal would evolve into... could be interesting.
As it was, he would be stuck at First Order for a while. His body was still being refined and enhanced, but if his spiritual paths were riverbanks for his power to flow through... well, his 'river' was more a 'trickle' at the moment.
Didn't help that a good portion of the cultivated energy kept being absorbed by his body to repair and enhance it. He wasn't going to complain too much about the situation, but if all this raw and pure power was being shoved into a more NORMAL cultivator, they would be rocketing up the power charts by now. Probably scare people too, no doubt.
Meh, it would probably work out. And who knew, maybe Adam was doing something wrong and getting more cultivation notes could show him how to fix it?
With some eager intentions Adam carefully began reviewing the legal documents left by Miss Assistant, his right hand showing each side of the documents to be memorized before making a secondary stack on his bed covers.
It was... well. Dull.
Legalese, if not as complex as what he saw in other Realms. A review, a run through 'Research', and it boiled down to a basic set of tenets.
Follow Sect Rules. If you don't, you can appeal or argue your case.
Attempt to be 'Righteous and Honorable' in actions outside the Sect. Probably because if you try anything INSIDE the Sect, you would get caught.
In general, don't be a douche.
The uh. The contract said that in a more polite a socially acceptable way... But 'Research' got the idea across.
And the main point, there was a minimum amount of time or number of achievements to be made in the Sect before being allowed to leave or change organizations. Because joining up, taking all their resources, and leaving... well, goes back to the 'Don`t be a douche' rule.
All in all, surprisingly reasonable. The rules didn't look that onerous either, though that may differ once Adam got to see how things were implemented in the real world rather than the theoretical one described in the documents.
His attention was pulled back as Miss Assistant bustled back into the room, a black square and some chalk in hand. Very useful!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam grinned as he continued to use his now even MORE powerful Martial Spirit to rip spiritual energy apart and gather that delicious, delicious Binding energy for 'Growth' to work with. Hitting First Order Warrior had granted his Martial Spirit and cultivation speed a significant boost, and it clearly showed.
Also: Miss Assistant was apparently called 'Quan Xiao', although this Realm gave the family name first and your personal name second... so she introduced herself as 'Xiao Quan' and immediately permitted him to call her Quan.
Her happiness at his ability to write legible text with ease was almost over the top, and Adam honestly felt refreshed having the capability to 'talk' with someone else. It made filling out the paperwork (There was more than expected, that initial contract Adam was provided was basically a summary) much easier.
Side note, his name was now officially Chongsheng Adam, which was ALMOST but NOT QUITE Chinese for 'Adam Reborn' locally. If this Realm did a one to one thing with the language he had in his head, his last name should be 'Chóngshēng'... but those accented characters didn't exist here.
Neither did a normal alphabet, to be honest. The text was a series of complicated squiggles, no sharp edges... not sure why. And the meaning of those curves was HEAVILY modified based on the surrounding text, the previous letters, the topic under discussion...
Needless to say, it was clear why even Cultivation Techniques provided by a Master required careful study and meditation. And this odd language complexity and density was NEEDED, because a simple technique 'written down' could be interpreted a dozen different ways... and NEEDED to be processed like that for you to properly understand and recreate the technique. Otherwise the most complicated abilities would never have enough paper to document them.
Those damn children books looked like swirly squiggles, dozens of lines per paragraph and so small it almost looked like a single line in a technical repair manual.
Didn't matter. Point is, Adam Chongsheng was officially a member of the Burning Sword Sect, was technically applying for residence at the Outer Sect's Orphanage, and potentially hired as a low level trash collector... at least until his medical review gave his body a better passing grade. A safe job, almost always available without competition, and easy to quit when he got better with no large responsibilities.
His meridians were basically beyond healed at this point... but not his body.
Forget his left hand, his left LEG was a damn issue. Combined with his weakened muscles and low endurance, Adam nearly fell over when he reached for his Soul cane... and remembered that his rod weapon was back with his full body.
He had a nice looking crutch for now, provided by Miss Quan, along with more documents and stuff to work with.
The scars were not an issue, especially now that he could see with both eyes (ignoring how freaky his left one looked right now), no... the second big problem was his throat.
Turns out he wasn't just having issues because of scar tissue... the surgery to repair his spine enough to keep him alive required removing most of his damaged vocal cords. Even then, the surgery had been risky and the actual success was considered to be a near-miracle.
So uh. No talking for now.
Adam sighed and focused back on cultivation, his Shard swirling a dozen whirlpools of energy in the air.
'Growth' was devouring the random trash energies, his Martial Spirit forcing the filtering process to work at maximum speed. His 'external reserves' of gathered Flame and Binding energy was nearly large enough for a good, mindless healing session. At this point, even with the resulting smell it sounded relaxing.
Because at some point he would have to incinerate his leg and throat, once he had access to a room with some level of privacy. And that would require testing, some painful failures, and developing some sort of non-spiritual flesh-only burning/regrowth technique. His 'Meridian Rebirth' technique was great, but it only healed his body as a side note... not good enough.
With a glance at the closed door, Adam sighed. Probably better to get some Sect techniques first, see if he can improve his attempts before going straight to flesh mutilation. Miss Quan hadn't appreciated the previous attempts, no matter how successful they had been.
Meh, he wasn't in a hurry at the moment. No reason to suffer needlessly if he could potentially find a new way to progress in a day or so.
Huh.
In retrospect, it should have been obvious that the number of missing meridian nodes was too high. If his body had been THAT damaged, then most of the left side of his body would be dead flesh.
Turns out, most bodies were not really symmetrical. Bones could be different shapes, skins had freckles or whatever, and of course some organs were not placed in some mythical perfect pattern inside the body. And like his organic body, his spiritual pathways had grown organically through his life. New meridian nodes had spawned over time based on energy use, his muscle development, organ operations, and so forth.
Thus Adam's assumption that his right and left half should have an identical number of meridians was... flawed.
On the positive side, NOW both halves WERE symmetrical. Except for his left hand, of course.
No idea how that would effect his cultivation progress.
Pausing 'Growth' again and giving the energy swirl a pass through 'Purification' just in case, Adam enabled 'Research'. The Shard faded into a metallic hue as his Unnamed Cultivation Technique attempted to sync up the seven strands on their individual routes.
And synchronization was important. He managed to complete a cycle through his left arm a few hours ago, but the nearly collected Battle Qi leaked into the rest of his system and was completely absorbed... the seven routes NEEDED to be completed in ONE cycle or the resulting energy couldn't stabilized.
If even one power wisp was even slightly too fast or slow at the end of the pattern, that attempt was worthless. Well... not exactly worthless, the collected and refined energy would be sucked up by his body and used to repair and cleanse his system. But as far as reaching the first Order of Houtian Realm? Yeah, no.
Thankfully, Adam was running 'Research' with every attempt. The adjustments, alternate routes, and modifications suggested had drastically reduced the difficulty of his attempts with every cycle.
Which is why he felt hopeful now. Compared to his initial routine, this most recent technique was child's play. Barely any timing was required until the very end, and most of the remaining squirrelly bits were due to the weakness of his system. Thus they would improve his success chances with each attempt as his system became more robust and flexible.
Sitting cross-legged in bed, his right arm relaxed in his lap cradling the stump of his left forearm, Adam focused his breathing and pulsed his Shard.
Binding energy fused with refined Flame energy, draining into the Shard and splitting into seven equal strands of power. Slightly wild power.
This new method reduced Adam's control of the process, allowing red heat to glow through his skin as the strands burned pathways along their individual paths.
Yes painful, but more importantly it was fast. Hopefully fast enough to complete an entire cycle before any strand was fully absorbed into his system.
His eyes closed, Adam listened to the sizzling of the black impurities coating his skin. His body had thin red lights traveling in strange patterns, black ooze forced from his system as the lights traveled through his limbs and explored his insides.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Xiao Quan blinked, having just opened the boy's room to check if he was awake yet. Her excitement at him being allowed to join the Sect had her coming around earlier than the usual time.
Quietly, she closed the door again.
She had seen and experienced enough cultivation over her life to know when someone was approaching a breakthrough, although her OWN progress wasn't as impressive as causing a light show like that.
She would come back at the breakfast scheduled cleaning time and talk about things then.
Quietly she flipped the cards on the door to mark it as 'Occupied, do not disturb'. A bit of privacy wouldn't hurt anything.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam absently felt gore expelled from his left eye socket, the head meridian route having finally finished the rebuilding process.
And it felt icky. Eww.
But his mind was thankfully devoted to his cultivation process. Sacrificing control for greater speed had made a vast improvement! His very first attempt nearly succeeded when one of the strands almost overloaded his lungs and he had to slow down a bit. Didn't explode though! It only took a few more tests with 'Research' and he was confidant and ready for more attempts.
In an odd way, it felt a bit like a heartbeat. Each pulse of power would flow through his limbs, into his heart, through his skull and mind, and then get wrapped together in his chest. And as he made more and more progress, his cultivation route began... syncing up. Stabilizing.
A tune. Or a strange rhythm. Pulse, and reach, pulse, and pull, pulse, and swirl, pulse, repeat.
As the beating synchronized, he could feel something... stabilizing.
P_ulse. Pu_lse. Pul_se. Puls_e. Pulse_. Pulse.
PULSE.
With a thrum of sympathetic vibrations, all seven strands... connected. As one, they moved outward, dragging pure energy like a child behind it. As one they returned, absorbing decay and impurities and filth. As one, they forced the mess out of his system, his torso becoming a solid cyclone of new energy being brought in through his Shard... which began to glisten.
With fascination, Adam watched his power strands... continue their cycle. Without direction. Without instruction. Like a river, there was now an established path for it to flow in, and one didn't have to use paddles or sticks to force the river to flow downhill. It wasn't automatically cultivating for Adam or anything, but THIS was how the internal Battle Qi could stably be stored within the Cultivator.
His Shard, floating in his body and floating outside at the same time, was the source of energy. It absorbed the required heavenly spiritual energy, sorted it, filtered it, paired it and prepared it for consumption. The Shard flooded his meridian route with new wisps and strands of power, which were then sucked up by the tide of his existing Battle Qi. Followed the flow, followed the rhythm.
And at the end of the path, the corrupted and decayed fragments were dragged by his energy strands returned to his Shard, which released some of this vile energy back into the world to be cleansed by nature. His Battle Qi, freed from its duty, then followed the river again... pulling the new energy along for the journey.
Adam's eyes flared open, his right eye stunned and his left eye glowing slightly with Flame energy.
He had become an initial First Order Warrior of the Houtian Realm.
With a growing smile, he directed his Shard to float before his eyes. Now that he had actually established a rudimentary cultivation base (No matter how pathetic and small), the changes were very visible.
His 'glass shard', so illusive and ghostly, now had a more solid feel. The edges were sharper, it had grown slightly in size, and if one watched carefully one could see swirls of energy spinning within the crystal depths.
Activating his unnamed customized Cultivation Technique again, Adam watched as his Shard glowed...
And the world was ordered.
Before his advancement, which was far smoother and issue free than his memories had suggested it would be, he had felt the energies of the world fall under his Shard's sway. As if they were listening for guidance. Now however? If the spiritual energy had any form of self will before, now it was utterly subservient to the commands his Martial Spirit directed.
Focusing on his body, Adam watched as his Shard ripped heavenly bonded powers apart and demanded the freed Binding energy from the external swirls of trash power under his control. Even the Flame energy became more pure, as his Shard directly connected and combined the most pure samples of Flame energy together after ripping the other sticky energies off and hurled them out of the way.
After the Flame and Binding energy joined, it was slammed into his Battle Qi reserves, flowing with his cultivation technique at high speeds as the 'River' of his power swelled ever so slightly from the new additions. His personal energy would then cajole, convince, corrupt, and bully the new spiritual energy being introduced to his system, reducing how long it took to absorb new energy and also imprinting his spiritual signature onto it, encouraging even faster integration into his existing Qi.
These constant cycles run while cultivating would utterly crush this new energy into more Qi, slightly filling his spiritual 'rivers' and improving the process. These rivers of spiritual power were creating a self-supporting, self-reinforcing network within his body. It strengthened his pathways, kept weak meridian routes open, forced near-blocked paths to allow movement, and basically was forming a foundation for all future cultivation routes to grow and form off of... the Pulse of energy flowing through those river paths gave a feeling of stability now.
Again, his body was handling all of these energies confusingly well. The stories of bad reactions, torn or painful changes in body... everything was a smooth progress, if one ignored the slight fire damage of his flesh. Then again, who else would regrow damaged organs and weak spiritual paths instead of working around the discovered issues? Maybe it was to be expected that Adam had few if any complications as he attempted to consume more spiritual energy.
It felt amazing, by the way.
Each cycle of power was now able to partially remove impurities by passing through his internal Shard representation directly, drastically reducing the black ooze being produced. The cleansing process felt invigorating and satisfying, like reaching an itch that you couldn't quite find before and giving it a good old scratch. Even though portions of the energy being cycled was still absorbed by his flesh, the created Battle Qi would 'overflow' his cultivation route, sink into his muscles and so forth and get absorbed like expected, improving his body... then mostly return to his system, the found impurities and damage dragged out of his flesh in the process.
As the 'river' of power flowed through his meridian routes, the Pulse of his method grew more stable. A heartbeat of progression.
...Meh, he was terrible at names anyway. Might as well call it the 'Pulse Cultivation Technique' and be done with it.
Easy to remember, and if he was ever forced to write it down he wouldn't have to be embarrassed when writing down something long and silly like the 'Heavenly Energy Devoured And Distributed Through Seven Sacred Strands Of Advancement'... or whatever. Or should he call it 'Heartbeat Technique?'
Crud. No, best stay with his first instinct, otherwise he would second guess himself and keep changing it forever.
Adam grinned as he saw a new layer of crystal, ever so thin, glowing as it covered his Shard's surface. Red Flame energy was slowly being introduced to his system as a whole, the stabilized Cultivating Technique creating a more powerful and yet more gentle method of introducing the fires to his flesh. A distribution method needing almost none of the painful concentration and hard work he had suffered under so far.
His smile froze though.
Because the red flames were turning orange.
...Yellow.
Green?
Adam's focus blanked as he watched the flames being incorporated into his body concentrate, increase in temperature... and hit a glowing, bright, FAMILIAR shade of blue. As the change completed, the amount of Flame energy being used by his body dropped through the floor, as the power being sucked into the Shard was now being refined and compressed until it reached the same high temperature and bright blue color as his Martial Spirit's fire.
He held up his right arm, watching bright blue flames pulsing as they followed his Pulse Cultivation Technique.
...Shit.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
A quick check... good, he was up and no longer cultivating. "Good Morning!"
Xiao Quan carefully opened the door, her hands a bit full. "I have ALL KINDS of interesting and good news for you today, young man!"
Moving the pile of stuff to the side, she began his cleansing process. Much less filth today... Oh! "You made a breakthrough! Congratulations!"
She couldn't stop her smile if she wanted to, this was just perfect! She had suspected he had been trying to achieve this for weeks now. It made the self-healing situation more understandable at least. "You have SUCH good timing with this!" Better get back to work though. Cleaning time!
As the muck was removed she continued covering the main points. "First of all, your ability to recover with your personal cultivation method has impressed several people higher in the ranks. Asked a few people, and we managed to get you an invitation to join the 'Burning Sword' Sect. Now that you have reached First Order Warrior Stage, we can even have you apply as an Outer Disciple rather than Outer Assistant... it means more cultivation resources and less responsibility in general, at least until you become strong enough to handle more tasks."
She carefully cleaned his face... and blinked. "Is... is your left eye glowing blue?"
A nod.
She cautiously touched the area. "...Is that fire?"
Another nod.
Quan frowned, and ran a few tests. Now that the boy had a cultivation base, however odd it felt to her sensing techniques, she could safely do a few basic examinations. "It doesn't seem to be damaging your body, but if you feel any pain you let me know, alright?" She tilted his head slightly... and saw the liquid blue flames turn to follow her. "Can... can you see through it?"
Nod.
She blinked. "Huh. Well, my instructions won't change, you let me know IMMEDIATELY if you feel any discomfort from that area." She released his head and continued her cleaning process. "Had a friend whose feet glowed red when attacking and refused to get help because he thought they looked cool. We saved him from permanent nerve damage... but really, some cultivators truly HATE asking for help. Poor guy had apparently skipped part of his personal cultivation technique steps out of laziness, fixing the issue took him over two decades."
Cleaning his arms, Quan hummed. "Right, so there is a bit of an issue because you need to sign the contract and I am not sure how easy that will be for you." She glanced at his hands... hopefully he was right handed. "But you should know that joining up is a GREAT idea! Unlike many Sects, ours insists on everyone starting as an Outer Disciple, no matter how wealthy, talented, or well connected. It reduces infighting and bullying, and increases empathy and understanding since everyone has a common experience in the past. Plus, no conflict from some people getting 'special treatment' or whatever."
She grinned as she cleaned her rag. "In MY opinion, it makes your background less important. I came from the orphanage, and in some sects that can really be a negative on your future standing. Here, there are even tasks to earn merit points by helping out those lower on the social ladder than yourself. There are even repeatable jobs like 'mentoring' or training people for various jobs. It lets me support my friends and the orphanage without losing too many resources or time needed for cultivation, since the earned points help balance out any costs."
Her face lost focus. "Maybe you could donate some notes about what you felt and did during recovery? There is a policy in place where advancements like that will earn you a subsidy from the Sect, a monthly bonus depending on how useful the information turns out to be. Some of the guys in our Research division make so many advancements they could retire and cultivate forever without fear of poverty. Or at least they brag enough about the issue."
She didn't glance at his damaged leg. "Of course, the Orphanage also handles some cultivation resource harvesting tasks with their herb garden, it could easily earn a stable income for you until some muscles are built up. I know some people, they would love the help." Might cost a favor or two. Maybe he could learn some of the less main stream jobs? Like pill refinement or treasure preparation. Maybe formation work, though you had to have certain levels of talent to get far in that field. Most ingredients no matter how rare didn't require a lot of movement to handle their pre-processing before use... Yes, best to suggest an Alchemy career.
Seeing the boy's hand gestures, she blinked. "Huh? Oh, something to write with?"
A nod.
She nodded as well. "No problem, let me swap out this impurity bucket and I'll be right back." She moved the paperwork to the side table. "It may take me a half hour or so, but I will be right back!"
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Hmm.
Adam felt his Shard inside switch to 'Purification', a soft white glow showing over his heart. No idea why his Martial Spirit was hanging out there... some sort of conceptual thing? Anyway, his natural spiritual rhythm was passing his Battle Qi through the Shard, his energy slowly being refined to better reflect Adams power nature. Theoretically.
The formerly red energy (White/near translucent Binding energy plus bright red Flame power) was now fading into a bright blue. Streaks of color flowed through his meridian nodes as the energies slowly shifted. Hopefully that wouldn't become an issue. PLEASE don't let this become an issue. Adam just wanted to be able to walk and clean himself at this point, he wasn't asking for much.
Ignoring his internal situation, he checked the effects of his Martial Spirit on his environment.
As an initial First Order Warrior, Adam could now release his Battle Qi externally and control it to some extent. Supposedly.
Instead, within three or so feet of his body, ALL energy was directable. As if he was cultivating with his Shard.
Releasing some of his red/orange/yellow/green/blue streaked power, Adam felt the difference between HIS energy and the worlds power.
Unlike the unaligned, untouched power... His Battle Qi was able to pause. Shift. Retreat inside his body and return to the field. Not able to solidify or even turn into a liquid, it was still far easier to work with than the surrounding heavenly spiritual energy. If it attempted to leave his three foot radius cylinder domain, his power would stop paying attention to his commands... but it wouldn't dissipate into random energy like all the other spiritual energies under his direction did.
And if it was moving slow enough, Adam could push his domain forward and recapture it.
So... neat. It would be interesting to see how this would develop in the future.
Adam was also more than a little curious what would happen when he eventually hit Fourth Order Stage. As that was after the first bottleneck in cultivation, the process of overcoming the setback and the massive energy needed to reach that Stage at all would cause the Martial Spirit to evolve. The Cultivator would even gain an innate ability or talent from his or her spirit at that stage. Some people could teleport, or instantly recover energy during battle, or breath fire, or combine with their Martial Spirit and become a type of hybrid monster... all kinds of stuff.
He glanced inwardly at his Shard. Not sure what a crystal would evolve into... could be interesting.
As it was, he would be stuck at First Order for a while. His body was still being refined and enhanced, but if his spiritual paths were riverbanks for his power to flow through... well, his 'river' was more a 'trickle' at the moment.
Didn't help that a good portion of the cultivated energy kept being absorbed by his body to repair and enhance it. He wasn't going to complain too much about the situation, but if all this raw and pure power was being shoved into a more NORMAL cultivator, they would be rocketing up the power charts by now. Probably scare people too, no doubt.
Meh, it would probably work out. And who knew, maybe Adam was doing something wrong and getting more cultivation notes could show him how to fix it?
With some eager intentions Adam carefully began reviewing the legal documents left by Miss Assistant, his right hand showing each side of the documents to be memorized before making a secondary stack on his bed covers.
It was... well. Dull.
Legalese, if not as complex as what he saw in other Realms. A review, a run through 'Research', and it boiled down to a basic set of tenets.
Follow Sect Rules. If you don't, you can appeal or argue your case.
Attempt to be 'Righteous and Honorable' in actions outside the Sect. Probably because if you try anything INSIDE the Sect, you would get caught.
In general, don't be a douche.
The uh. The contract said that in a more polite a socially acceptable way... But 'Research' got the idea across.
And the main point, there was a minimum amount of time or number of achievements to be made in the Sect before being allowed to leave or change organizations. Because joining up, taking all their resources, and leaving... well, goes back to the 'Don`t be a douche' rule.
All in all, surprisingly reasonable. The rules didn't look that onerous either, though that may differ once Adam got to see how things were implemented in the real world rather than the theoretical one described in the documents.
His attention was pulled back as Miss Assistant bustled back into the room, a black square and some chalk in hand. Very useful!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam grinned as he continued to use his now even MORE powerful Martial Spirit to rip spiritual energy apart and gather that delicious, delicious Binding energy for 'Growth' to work with. Hitting First Order Warrior had granted his Martial Spirit and cultivation speed a significant boost, and it clearly showed.
Also: Miss Assistant was apparently called 'Quan Xiao', although this Realm gave the family name first and your personal name second... so she introduced herself as 'Xiao Quan' and immediately permitted him to call her Quan.
Her happiness at his ability to write legible text with ease was almost over the top, and Adam honestly felt refreshed having the capability to 'talk' with someone else. It made filling out the paperwork (There was more than expected, that initial contract Adam was provided was basically a summary) much easier.
Side note, his name was now officially Chongsheng Adam, which was ALMOST but NOT QUITE Chinese for 'Adam Reborn' locally. If this Realm did a one to one thing with the language he had in his head, his last name should be 'Chóngshēng'... but those accented characters didn't exist here.
Neither did a normal alphabet, to be honest. The text was a series of complicated squiggles, no sharp edges... not sure why. And the meaning of those curves was HEAVILY modified based on the surrounding text, the previous letters, the topic under discussion...
Needless to say, it was clear why even Cultivation Techniques provided by a Master required careful study and meditation. And this odd language complexity and density was NEEDED, because a simple technique 'written down' could be interpreted a dozen different ways... and NEEDED to be processed like that for you to properly understand and recreate the technique. Otherwise the most complicated abilities would never have enough paper to document them.
Those damn children books looked like swirly squiggles, dozens of lines per paragraph and so small it almost looked like a single line in a technical repair manual.
Didn't matter. Point is, Adam Chongsheng was officially a member of the Burning Sword Sect, was technically applying for residence at the Outer Sect's Orphanage, and potentially hired as a low level trash collector... at least until his medical review gave his body a better passing grade. A safe job, almost always available without competition, and easy to quit when he got better with no large responsibilities.
His meridians were basically beyond healed at this point... but not his body.
Forget his left hand, his left LEG was a damn issue. Combined with his weakened muscles and low endurance, Adam nearly fell over when he reached for his Soul cane... and remembered that his rod weapon was back with his full body.
He had a nice looking crutch for now, provided by Miss Quan, along with more documents and stuff to work with.
The scars were not an issue, especially now that he could see with both eyes (ignoring how freaky his left one looked right now), no... the second big problem was his throat.
Turns out he wasn't just having issues because of scar tissue... the surgery to repair his spine enough to keep him alive required removing most of his damaged vocal cords. Even then, the surgery had been risky and the actual success was considered to be a near-miracle.
So uh. No talking for now.
Adam sighed and focused back on cultivation, his Shard swirling a dozen whirlpools of energy in the air.
'Growth' was devouring the random trash energies, his Martial Spirit forcing the filtering process to work at maximum speed. His 'external reserves' of gathered Flame and Binding energy was nearly large enough for a good, mindless healing session. At this point, even with the resulting smell it sounded relaxing.
Because at some point he would have to incinerate his leg and throat, once he had access to a room with some level of privacy. And that would require testing, some painful failures, and developing some sort of non-spiritual flesh-only burning/regrowth technique. His 'Meridian Rebirth' technique was great, but it only healed his body as a side note... not good enough.
With a glance at the closed door, Adam sighed. Probably better to get some Sect techniques first, see if he can improve his attempts before going straight to flesh mutilation. Miss Quan hadn't appreciated the previous attempts, no matter how successful they had been.
Meh, he wasn't in a hurry at the moment. No reason to suffer needlessly if he could potentially find a new way to progress in a day or so.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They
This sect sounds like the nicest one I've ever heard of in any story I've read!
Probably because the author is a nice guy, and unlike the usual writers of these doesn't seem to get a boner only when everyone is a douche (to put it mildly). And a real asshole of an MC seems to generate extra boners in xianxia. Not to mention the general female population consisting of wallflowers and damsels in distress. Sorry, got into a bit of a rant there.
Side note, I do enjoy these "technical" chapters.
- Location
- Israel
Gotta love catching a chapter early!
But we're already seeing the shift from "techno-mumble" into character interactions.
Wait... He's going to be that eyepatch wearing gardener that everyone underestimates and then he goes full Chuuni?! I hope that happens, that would be so hilariously edgy by mistake it's just too good to not use!
Maybe something like "taking care of this tree requires careful energy manipulation blablabla a decade of training *looks at Adam with his eye patch off in the middle of succeeding* holy.."
But we're already seeing the shift from "techno-mumble" into character interactions.
Wait... He's going to be that eyepatch wearing gardener that everyone underestimates and then he goes full Chuuni?! I hope that happens, that would be so hilariously edgy by mistake it's just too good to not use!
Maybe something like "taking care of this tree requires careful energy manipulation blablabla a decade of training *looks at Adam with his eye patch off in the middle of succeeding* holy.."
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
What does that mean for his ORGANS???? Organs are most definitely NOT symmetrical, hell, your Heart is offset a few inches to the left.
It's why it was so expensive to travel to this realm, an honestly nice Sect he could stumble upon in the first chapter.
RageMage
Sir "Shitshow in the making"
- Location
- Vienna
Yeah. I know right. To be true I am waiting for the shoe to drop and something to go horribel wrong.
- Status