Broken Adventure
- Thread starter theaceoffire
- Start date
- Crossover
- Status
My friend if you're talking about "incestuous relationships", it's Alabama not Kansas. No offense to people living there, just saying.
- Location
- United States
Can't really say it is one state. If there is a backcountry town there is incest. America has a lot of backcountry.
Arc 2: Potential Disciple!
- Location
- Here
Adam idly flipped the most recently completed 'Gentle Rebirth Body Cultivation Technique' (Version 1.0122, Official Release! Woo!) jade slip in his right hand as he relaxed in his chair.
He was feeling fairly vindicated at the moment, really.
As expected, the grade of Martial Spirit didn't affect the process much. Not according to 'Research' anyway, the sample size was too small without superpowers to cheat out eventual answers.
Since Simmy was likely behind guiding his future Disciple towards Adam's neck of the woods, that left nine remaining positions for initial testing. Harsh limits. So rather than fixate on grabbing the highest Grade talents to increase success chance or the lowest to prove the prestige, Adam aimed for three animal, three plant (Or plant like), and three... other... Martial Spirits. More rare, he had ended up with a boy who's spirit was a club, another with a dagger Martial Spirit, and a girl with what seemed to be an ice cloud.
In total, Adam ended up with three boys and six girls, leaving out young Tianshi. Mostly chosen because he knew the girls were less likely to find good careers in this sexist Realm otherwise, at least according to his memories: His mom had been talented after all, and still ended up begging for help.
Pushing back the spike of anger, he replaced the 'Gentle Rebirth' jade on the desk and then began to fiddle more with his slightly worn white jade slip of personal notes and ideas.
Right, unexpected differences. The boy and two girls with beast or animal Martial Spirits found it easier to convert their normal cells into Cultivation Cells, much more simplistic than expected. It also took less energy to increase the cell reproduction rate without creating personal risk. However, they needed more energy density than projected in their cultivation circles and it needed to be resupplied more often as well.
The three girls with plant like Martial Spirits (One girl had a mushroom, but it acted similar to the flower and the tree-sprout) found it harder to convert their body into Cultivation Cells. Took twice as long. On the other hand, gathering energy and controlling it was vastly easier for this group, and it helped balance things out. Maybe because of how Plants normally work with Sunlight energy? Nature DID cultivate in this Realm, after all.
The last two boys and girl fell fairly close to the expected progression rates. So theoretically weapon users, random object Spirits, and pure elemental users should also follow this pattern in the future. Even so, Adam made sure to note the issues within the technique itself so future followers would be aware of potential issues related to it.
Adam glanced at his produced pipes, the newest ones made of some sort of Spirit Beast bone and FILLED with various formations. And one on the surface made of gibberish to mess with people.
Those devices... had turned out annoying.
The initial design? Way too optimistic. Not the energy restricting circle pattern that he got from the Sect Repository Pagoda, which he HAD asked about. That one worked like a charm!
Side note, that pattern was widely shared because it only blocked ambient energy movement... any structured attack could smash through, and people could walk right out of the circle with ease. You needed all the other, HIDDEN and RESTRICTED formations and physical barriers to make the thing useful as a prison, which is why that particular pattern was shared so easily by the Sect.
Anyway, back to his design flaws.
Take the simpler 'Pump Pipe': A tube with one directional energy formations at both ends, that is able to attract energy when provided Battle Qi, thus sucking all power from one end to the other.
Simple, easy to calculate, and... wrong.
Because even when made from Spirit Beast Bones, at the end of the day... spiritual energy doesn't care about pipe walls. It would swirl towards the patterns, pass into the pipe, exit the pipe walls, and loop around to do it again. Pointless. Frustrating!
The eventual, successful pipe required a custom repeated formation string Adam created, spiraling within the pipe walls to make it ACT like a pipe to non-physical things. So. Annoying.
On the plus side, Healer Jin had been super helpful! It was while covering his issues and problems with the man and listening to the following conversation that he had a big breakthrough with his 'Filter Pipe' idea!
See, there was no existing or easily developed method to detect the types or number of spiritual energy strands within a streaming flow, or at least not one that he had found on the first floor of the Sect Repository Pagoda or that Healer Jin had ever experienced... but the grandfather-like man DID know a basic formation that could detect the ABSENCE of spiritual energy flow!
It was used as part of a redundant security formation, to detect when someone was attempting to block all outgoing signals and energies when trying to break in. It was perfect!
Because with his first prototypes, Adam found that the previous 'Filter Pipe' took in a mess (And spewed it everywhere, but the spiral 'Please act like a pipe to energy' formation works now) and split the most abundant energy detected down one of two exits, the other getting the remaining gunk. As expected.
No way of knowing which was which either, not unless a Cultivator tested the results and verified it was only a single energy type. As designed.
And uh... that was where Adam fell into an issue.
Apparently, most Cultivators COULDN'T detect all the types of energy they collected. Not unless the difference was so huge that the scenario may as well be slapping them in the face. The concept of being so blind alone confused Adam until Sister Quan explained more about what a somewhat normal person could detect when working with heaven and earth spiritual energies.
Summary: Not. Much.
Not until way higher cultivation levels did their spiritual sense get that sensitive. Even then, the Cultivation Techniques used could have a heavy impact on the sensing abilities of the Cultivator in question.
Anyway, THIS was why the conversation with Healer Jin became so important: A formation to detect nothing!
Step one, a Filter Pipe. But instead of pumping the outputs to two circles... he had each outgoing pipe connect to their own, NEW Filter Pipes!
This gave two pairs of outputs instead of the original double result.
One pair would both output SOMETHING, while the 'Pure' output would have one with the good stuff and the other without something to produce.
Bam! Slap on an illusion formation and whichever result DIDN'T have the good stuff would glow red!
Then you could let the junk escape back into the air, return it to the original mess circle and filter other energy types out, or whatever.
His support people still couldn't detect what TYPE of filtered energy they had gathered, but at least it was known to be a single type. The Research Division people were even now still playing with the various prototype pipes and formations Adam had shared, seeing if the system could be improved further.
He glanced at his personal paperwork. And his new financial reports.
Yeah, at this time contribution points were not an issue.
Over forty modified and designed formation donations to the Sect, his being granted credit on seven different prototype versions of 'Houtian Realm First Order Essential Cultivation Method' and three stable versions of 'Gentle Rebirth Body Cultivation Technique', his submitted custom commentary on the differences and changes between them... Being the source author was still classified to outsiders, but he got paid the same amount either way.
Honestly, Adam was shocked that the Elders had approved all the subsidies and continuous royalties he had qualified for. And startled that they were actually willing to follow through with their debts, even after seeing the bill!
Yeah, Sect currency wouldn't be an issue. Not that he was going on a spending spree yet, any new data from the Pagoda would be useful later... it was simply far less relevant and interesting than the experimental stuff being done right now.
His Pulse Cultivation progress had already reached 9% towards Third Order, which was pretty darn quick considering how little time he had for cultivation recently. To be honest, he was cheating a bit: A cultivation circle was being stuffed with Blue and Binding energy when he was too busy to cultivate, 'Growth' helping the energy density grow over time.
Acted a bit like a personal holy land when he had time to actual work on his spiritual network.
Might want to mention that to others, now that he thought about it. Using a Pump Pipe, a Sect follower could empty a circle, then slowly fill it over time with their own personal Battle Qi. Create an environment of purified energy for breakthroughs or whatever, far more dense than could be stored in their own body.
...Hmm. Might also cause an explosion, if too much energy was stuffed into a circle. Especially without Adam around to notice the issue, since everyone else seems blind to energy in general. Maybe best to hold off on that.
Adam added the new thoughts to his white note jade and focused on old man Jin walking over.
The Department Lead leaned on his cane, his face frowning. "There may be a problem. Your 'potential student' isn't following the advancement rates of the other subjects. It may have been only a couple of days, but her progress is almost nonexistent."
Adam sighed but nodded.
To be fair, he expected this.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Another frustrating hour, but Tianshi was grinning. She had made progress!
It was hard, stressful, and the air felt so... so dry. But compared to cultivating OUTSIDE her circle (curiosity and fear of being potentially sabotaged prompted the attempt) this was a bazillion times faster!
Outside the circle, it was as if existence ignored her. Only fragments of spiritual energy, if any, came her way.
But here? She could feel whole strands of power, and manipulate an entire wisp in only an hour or so!
And according to Brother Adam, in only two more days she would be able to be a real, genuine Cultivator!
Absently she wiped more sweat from her brow, her weary body too hyped to relax. Who needed sleep!? Not with progress to be had!
She almost missed the door opening, as two people entered. A calm Brother Adam and... a concerned Sister Quan?
A spike of worry hit her gut. With a smile, she bowed. "Greetings Brother Adam, Sister Quan! I have managed to gather an entire eight wisps of energy today!"
It... well, it was only seven. But she was about to finish her eighth so... that counted, right! And it only made sense this would be so tricky compared to the much easier 'Gentle Rebirth Body Cultivation Technique', as this 'Houtian Realm First Order Essential Cultivation Method' had to rely on her Martial Spirit directly. It still took a bit of additional concentration to ensure the weak blue flame glowing on her Burning Betel Nut Martial Spirit stayed stable.
Brother Adams smile lifted her spirits... but Sister Quan's wince dropped them through the floor. "Sister Quan?"
Before the woman could talk, Adam pulled out another of those odd jade slips, passing it to the Sister to read. "Right. Ahem... 'Sister Tianshi, I have predicted that you would struggle following the standard cultivation method I provided to you and the others, correct?'"
She felt her breath catch. "ah..." No, calm. "No, I may have had... a few problems getting started... but today, I feel I can easily reach a dozen wisps of power!" Just... just stay up later, do a few more attempts, skip one night of sleep...
Sister Quan looked miserable. "That... that's great. But if things were going as designed, you would be working with strands of energy at this point... hundreds, possibly."
...What?
Her despair was derailed by Adam clapping her shoulder, with a smile.
It didn't look like disappointment. Of seeing a failure.
Right, this man was a genius!
He had been worse than her, a cripple with almost incurable wounds! And he made all these amazing abilities while high on drugs and near death, fixing all his problems without any trouble! He had a solution! He had to! He... He had to.
With desperation she watched him casually pass the jade slip back to Sister Quan... whose expression blanked back to something odd. "Adam says your progress, or lack there of, was expected." She turned towards Adam. "Why did you choose her if you knew she was going to have so much trouble?"
Noticing his dry look... she chuckled, embarrassed, and returned the slip so the boy could actually ANSWER her question.
Tianshi hung on every movement. This... there had to be a reason.
Quan accepted the updated slip and sent her Qi inside. "Oh." She blinked... and looked astounded. "Adam says that he believes you have the same odd energy affinity that HE had. Which is why he wanted you to become his student in the first place."
She blinked. His what?
Sister Quan also caught up with her words. "POTENTIAL STUDENT! I mean, I didn't say anything!" She glared at the little girl. "You heard nothing. I didn't spill anything and this never happened."
A heat burned in her chest even as tears tried to fall.
Hope.
How long had it been since true hope had supported her? Even after being selected for this rare chance, she had secretly worried about not measuring up, about falling behind... and reality had seemed determined to enforce the worst case scenario.
The older woman accepted an updated jade slip from Adam, her face blushing red from her blunder. "I suppose that makes sense." She walked over and gave Tianshi a half hug. "Right, so like Adam wrote earlier, he expected you to have cultivation issues because you need access to a very powerful and pure energy that doesn't naturally occur here at the Sect. So that is why you are not being included with the other children when it comes to the various tests and documentation we've been doing."
She blinked. "What? They were going through that?"
Adam nodded, and tried to grab the jade slip... but Sister Quan held it up high. "Uh uh. You could have told me this stuff before I walked into this room and looked like a moron. Promise me to explain the situation in FULL before I continue."
With a pout, he nodded and accepted the slip... then passed it back.
It was really amazing to Tianshi that such little time was needed to put so much information on those things.
...It was also amusing watching Sister Quan's expressions change so rapidly.
She watched her older friend turn to Adam in shock. "What do you MEAN you can control all spiritual energy!?"
What?
Adam shrugged. So... it must be true.
Huh.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Elder Cho was rubbing her forehead in exasperation... and a potential headache. "And... no one had bothered to ask him directly?"
While Cho herself had advanced at a young enough age to even now look like a woman in the prime of youth, poor Department Leader Jin still wore the age of his life like a proud badge. According to him, while possible to modify his form to appear younger, he had earned those wrinkles.
And the bastard looked pretty amused. "Indeed. Everyone involved just assumed he had the ability to suppress Cultivators within a specific area. Which... to be fair, is technically true."
She glared at the jerk. "Repressing energy in a battle is different from ABSOLUTE CONTROL OF SPIRITUAL ENERGY. How the HELL is that related to glass anyway!?"
He grinned. "No one asked what his Martial Spirit was either. Not even his old villagers, according to Assistant Quan."
Elder Cho felt her eyebrow twitch. "...and I assume then, it isn't a glass shard?"
"Nope."
The eye twitch got wilder. "Just...go ahead and tell me."
Department Lead Healer Jin chuckled. "Chongsheng Adam's Martial Spirit is an energy Crystal. Spiritual Energy given solid form."
She glared at nothing. "And until we stuffed the brat full of medication and spiritual energy while being in our Sect with its improved spiritual energy concentrations, he had nothing to jump start his Spirit. And the army of morons didn't feel he was worth wasting time on, or that his Spirit was worth investigating."
Healer Jin chuckled. "Basically, yes."
Her eyes glowed slightly. "And he found a girl who may SHARE the same odd energies that HE requires? Out of the hundreds of thousands of Initiates we get per year?"
He nodded. "Some people are bound by fate. Even a few days earlier or later and he would have missed her completely."
She snorted. "Not on my watch, I've experience not underestimating those with variant Martial Spirits. She wouldn't have been abandoned." She glared. "Ensure that she gets our full support, I haven't gotten this far risking a bet on the boy to let some other Elder swoop in and steal away his possible successor."
Elder Cho waved the man off to work as she turned back to the full pile of various techniques and documents that were NOT released to the other Elders.
Reading them with fascination, she couldn't help but murmur. "I still can't believe how amazing young Adam is. The various donations to the Sect have already gained him a lot of political power, whether he knows it or not... but these..."
She lifted another green jade slip. An entire library worth of detection methods, identification tricks, energy matrices... this one jade slip alone, while the contents were nearly impossible to be put into action by others, exposed so much about how spiritual energy worked, how the body of a Cultivator adapted to changes of the spirit, just... so many gold nuggets of treasure scattered over the massive floor of knowledge, as if worth nothing.
Simply spending time around Adam had helped several Elders and those people who could be trusted to gain various enlightenment moments and advances, to the point where she was very cautious to release ANYTHING he provided without her people carefully examining it first! It was bad enough he had possibly increased the recruitment volume for the entire Sect by accident, but that could be glossed over and hidden.
If other Sects saw him for his true worth, there would be war. And the war would be WORTH it.
Even now, people were secretly calling him the 'Burning Sage'. His glowing blue wounds, strange hair, and odd mannerisms only encouraged it, really...
She made another note to increase the amount of personal funds she was allocating to the boy's budget. These recent slips were, again, a bit too dangerous to submit to the Sect officially without going through the Patriarch himself, and (thankfully) the man himself found the entire situation fairly humorous.
Dozens of high level Xiantian and even Saint Cultivators begging to idly talk to a single, Second Order Houtian warrior... it was odd.
She glanced at the green slip SHE had requested be made, after seeing how much easier it was to comprehend the documents produced by the boy. It was supposed to be a basic combat manual for new initiates, as seven year olds would not necessarily know how to punch or kick safely.
Apparently, according to Healer Jin, Adam had felt a deep appreciation for Elder Cho's support...
So that one green jade slip was thereafter STUFFED full of documentation.
A full retelling of the standard fighting style provided by the Sect... torn apart, analyzed, and examined. It separated what she had always considered a fairly well made document into categories: Unarmed Style, Single Sword Style, Multiple Sword Style, Improvised Style.
Obviously as the Burning Sword Sect, the martial arts were focused on blade work, how to survive until you could get your blade BACK, and keeping your options open so your free hand or whatever could launch various fire based attacks. Anything not blade related was restructured into the new 'Improvisation Style' catch all... and it was pretty pathetic compared to the others. Expected really.
But after tearing apart her childhood memories, he then rebuilt it from scratch.
Footwork martial arts were described, more than one. Some better when unarmed, some that stabilized a person holding a single blade, another for those who felt two or more blades were the answer (Some Martial Spirits grew additional limbs for the user during Soul transformation).
Fighting Stances that were both better defined and even modified from Sect standards were provided, again focusing on what one had available as a weapon. Training routines were designed, that would create (over time) a set of reflexes to allow Cultivators to react without thought in dangerous situations, potentially saving lives!
What martial arts Elder Cho could remember that were not directly related to her own fighting style didn't go this far. They allowed the Martial Spirit to fill in holes in their forms, to compensate for a lifetime of cultivation rather than years of body training and physical exertion... but if her Sect members trained with these methods, then they could focus more on Battle Skills and techniques during a fight, their instincts protecting them from more simple attacks!
Most intriguing however, was the inclusion of formation work into the footwork, the body stances, and the exercise routines. Simplified, custom formation patterns were explained in easy to understand terms, where the odd patterns made while walking or fighting would cause actual effects! For example, one version would cause opponents to be distracted or lose track of their attacker, another would build 'momentum' so the Cultivator could sacrifice a dozen 'attacks' and produce one massive spike of damage...
There was even one move that sacrificed all chances to attack or retreat to bind an opponent of stronger cultivation to a specific location for a period of time. It could be enhanced by more participants... a dozen or so high leveled Houtian warriors could operate this formation together to capture (or at least delay) a Xiantian Warrior for some time, which could drastically change a major battle alone!
Elder Cho had seen effects like this before. Some Battle Skills or innate abilities from Martial Spirits let one walk on clouds or fade into shadows, teleport, and so such. She had just never heard of someone achieving such a feat using basic formation patterns... did ALL such abilities work like this!? How would one even know?
And Adam had passed it over with a smile and no concern. Using only information freely available on the FIRST FLOOR of their OWN Sect Repository Pagoda! While he never came out and stated anything, she firmly believed the Patriarch considered the boy a high priority Sect Treasure at this point. And he would be correct to do so!
Financially, she may never be able to pay back the boy for the advancements he was bringing to her Sect, her family.
Politically though, she would be his rock in troubled times.
Another glance at the metaphorical mountain of treasure so innocently laying on her desk...
It was the least she could do.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Brother Hou couldn't hold back any longer. "WHY WON'T YOU LET ME THROUGH!?"
The twelve guards outside the cultivation cave stayed silent.
Though one or two were gesturing towards his most ingenious trap to date.
He blinked. "What, this?"
Hou waved a hand roughly towards the Cane of Wisdom.
And quickly swore, putting his hand out. These flames were a major hindrance.
A few warriors nodded.
Brother Hou puffed out his chest. "Well, it may look a bit odd, but... can you keep a secret?"
...The silence meant yes, right?
He nodded. "Right, I had to add the extra five canes for structural integrity, but the slippers down there have real rabbit skin. No grandpa could resist that, they are too fluffy! Also, note the artificially aged paint on the... well, not there, you can see a bit around the fire. Near the bottom of the... yeah. It is reminiscent of an old house right? Worn?"
Brother Hou carefully pointed towards one of the safer edges. "The prunes may have boiled a bit, but that just means it has that old dude smell, you know? Not sure where the candies went. I think they melted. Right, and I added a hoop! I figure the canes could act like a stick, so the memories of playing hoop-stick should bring back some nostalgia. That was a thing, right?"
More silence.
He grumbled. "Look, it was hard enough building this thing and getting it here while it was on fire. I am THIS CLOSE to finishing my task, can't you give me a break?"
One of the guards spoke up. "Why didn't you build it first, bring it, THEN set it on fire?"
The guy winced as the other silent Warriors glared at him. Not sure why.
Brother Hou blinked. "Oh." Looking at the raging inferno... yeah. "That would have saved me a lot of time."
With a sigh, the largest person (A woman? Hard to tell under all that armor) leaned closer. "Look, why are you trying to burn up this cave?"
He spewed confidence like a god. "I am going to uncover a fourteen year old secret grandpa and his dastardly plans to seduce an angel by being grievously harmed and catching himself on fire!"
Again, silence.
...Right, quiet meant 'Yes' or general agreement or understanding. That was established at some point earlier. Probably.
He winced as the Cane of Wisdom collapsed, portions compromised and becoming ash. "Ah... on second thought, I... may have to modify the design first." Suddenly a thought made him brighten right up! "THIS time I can build it BEFORE catching it on fire!"
The leader glared at the embarrassed guard near the back. "This is why we don't talk on duty, Shu. I blame this on you."
Shu's neighbor smacked the back of his armored head. It didn't hurt, but it was the thought that counts.
He was feeling fairly vindicated at the moment, really.
As expected, the grade of Martial Spirit didn't affect the process much. Not according to 'Research' anyway, the sample size was too small without superpowers to cheat out eventual answers.
Since Simmy was likely behind guiding his future Disciple towards Adam's neck of the woods, that left nine remaining positions for initial testing. Harsh limits. So rather than fixate on grabbing the highest Grade talents to increase success chance or the lowest to prove the prestige, Adam aimed for three animal, three plant (Or plant like), and three... other... Martial Spirits. More rare, he had ended up with a boy who's spirit was a club, another with a dagger Martial Spirit, and a girl with what seemed to be an ice cloud.
In total, Adam ended up with three boys and six girls, leaving out young Tianshi. Mostly chosen because he knew the girls were less likely to find good careers in this sexist Realm otherwise, at least according to his memories: His mom had been talented after all, and still ended up begging for help.
Pushing back the spike of anger, he replaced the 'Gentle Rebirth' jade on the desk and then began to fiddle more with his slightly worn white jade slip of personal notes and ideas.
Right, unexpected differences. The boy and two girls with beast or animal Martial Spirits found it easier to convert their normal cells into Cultivation Cells, much more simplistic than expected. It also took less energy to increase the cell reproduction rate without creating personal risk. However, they needed more energy density than projected in their cultivation circles and it needed to be resupplied more often as well.
The three girls with plant like Martial Spirits (One girl had a mushroom, but it acted similar to the flower and the tree-sprout) found it harder to convert their body into Cultivation Cells. Took twice as long. On the other hand, gathering energy and controlling it was vastly easier for this group, and it helped balance things out. Maybe because of how Plants normally work with Sunlight energy? Nature DID cultivate in this Realm, after all.
The last two boys and girl fell fairly close to the expected progression rates. So theoretically weapon users, random object Spirits, and pure elemental users should also follow this pattern in the future. Even so, Adam made sure to note the issues within the technique itself so future followers would be aware of potential issues related to it.
Adam glanced at his produced pipes, the newest ones made of some sort of Spirit Beast bone and FILLED with various formations. And one on the surface made of gibberish to mess with people.
Those devices... had turned out annoying.
The initial design? Way too optimistic. Not the energy restricting circle pattern that he got from the Sect Repository Pagoda, which he HAD asked about. That one worked like a charm!
Side note, that pattern was widely shared because it only blocked ambient energy movement... any structured attack could smash through, and people could walk right out of the circle with ease. You needed all the other, HIDDEN and RESTRICTED formations and physical barriers to make the thing useful as a prison, which is why that particular pattern was shared so easily by the Sect.
Anyway, back to his design flaws.
Take the simpler 'Pump Pipe': A tube with one directional energy formations at both ends, that is able to attract energy when provided Battle Qi, thus sucking all power from one end to the other.
Simple, easy to calculate, and... wrong.
Because even when made from Spirit Beast Bones, at the end of the day... spiritual energy doesn't care about pipe walls. It would swirl towards the patterns, pass into the pipe, exit the pipe walls, and loop around to do it again. Pointless. Frustrating!
The eventual, successful pipe required a custom repeated formation string Adam created, spiraling within the pipe walls to make it ACT like a pipe to non-physical things. So. Annoying.
On the plus side, Healer Jin had been super helpful! It was while covering his issues and problems with the man and listening to the following conversation that he had a big breakthrough with his 'Filter Pipe' idea!
See, there was no existing or easily developed method to detect the types or number of spiritual energy strands within a streaming flow, or at least not one that he had found on the first floor of the Sect Repository Pagoda or that Healer Jin had ever experienced... but the grandfather-like man DID know a basic formation that could detect the ABSENCE of spiritual energy flow!
It was used as part of a redundant security formation, to detect when someone was attempting to block all outgoing signals and energies when trying to break in. It was perfect!
Because with his first prototypes, Adam found that the previous 'Filter Pipe' took in a mess (And spewed it everywhere, but the spiral 'Please act like a pipe to energy' formation works now) and split the most abundant energy detected down one of two exits, the other getting the remaining gunk. As expected.
No way of knowing which was which either, not unless a Cultivator tested the results and verified it was only a single energy type. As designed.
And uh... that was where Adam fell into an issue.
Apparently, most Cultivators COULDN'T detect all the types of energy they collected. Not unless the difference was so huge that the scenario may as well be slapping them in the face. The concept of being so blind alone confused Adam until Sister Quan explained more about what a somewhat normal person could detect when working with heaven and earth spiritual energies.
Summary: Not. Much.
Not until way higher cultivation levels did their spiritual sense get that sensitive. Even then, the Cultivation Techniques used could have a heavy impact on the sensing abilities of the Cultivator in question.
Anyway, THIS was why the conversation with Healer Jin became so important: A formation to detect nothing!
Step one, a Filter Pipe. But instead of pumping the outputs to two circles... he had each outgoing pipe connect to their own, NEW Filter Pipes!
This gave two pairs of outputs instead of the original double result.
One pair would both output SOMETHING, while the 'Pure' output would have one with the good stuff and the other without something to produce.
Bam! Slap on an illusion formation and whichever result DIDN'T have the good stuff would glow red!
Then you could let the junk escape back into the air, return it to the original mess circle and filter other energy types out, or whatever.
His support people still couldn't detect what TYPE of filtered energy they had gathered, but at least it was known to be a single type. The Research Division people were even now still playing with the various prototype pipes and formations Adam had shared, seeing if the system could be improved further.
He glanced at his personal paperwork. And his new financial reports.
Yeah, at this time contribution points were not an issue.
Over forty modified and designed formation donations to the Sect, his being granted credit on seven different prototype versions of 'Houtian Realm First Order Essential Cultivation Method' and three stable versions of 'Gentle Rebirth Body Cultivation Technique', his submitted custom commentary on the differences and changes between them... Being the source author was still classified to outsiders, but he got paid the same amount either way.
Honestly, Adam was shocked that the Elders had approved all the subsidies and continuous royalties he had qualified for. And startled that they were actually willing to follow through with their debts, even after seeing the bill!
Yeah, Sect currency wouldn't be an issue. Not that he was going on a spending spree yet, any new data from the Pagoda would be useful later... it was simply far less relevant and interesting than the experimental stuff being done right now.
His Pulse Cultivation progress had already reached 9% towards Third Order, which was pretty darn quick considering how little time he had for cultivation recently. To be honest, he was cheating a bit: A cultivation circle was being stuffed with Blue and Binding energy when he was too busy to cultivate, 'Growth' helping the energy density grow over time.
Acted a bit like a personal holy land when he had time to actual work on his spiritual network.
Might want to mention that to others, now that he thought about it. Using a Pump Pipe, a Sect follower could empty a circle, then slowly fill it over time with their own personal Battle Qi. Create an environment of purified energy for breakthroughs or whatever, far more dense than could be stored in their own body.
...Hmm. Might also cause an explosion, if too much energy was stuffed into a circle. Especially without Adam around to notice the issue, since everyone else seems blind to energy in general. Maybe best to hold off on that.
Adam added the new thoughts to his white note jade and focused on old man Jin walking over.
The Department Lead leaned on his cane, his face frowning. "There may be a problem. Your 'potential student' isn't following the advancement rates of the other subjects. It may have been only a couple of days, but her progress is almost nonexistent."
Adam sighed but nodded.
To be fair, he expected this.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Another frustrating hour, but Tianshi was grinning. She had made progress!
It was hard, stressful, and the air felt so... so dry. But compared to cultivating OUTSIDE her circle (curiosity and fear of being potentially sabotaged prompted the attempt) this was a bazillion times faster!
Outside the circle, it was as if existence ignored her. Only fragments of spiritual energy, if any, came her way.
But here? She could feel whole strands of power, and manipulate an entire wisp in only an hour or so!
And according to Brother Adam, in only two more days she would be able to be a real, genuine Cultivator!
Absently she wiped more sweat from her brow, her weary body too hyped to relax. Who needed sleep!? Not with progress to be had!
She almost missed the door opening, as two people entered. A calm Brother Adam and... a concerned Sister Quan?
A spike of worry hit her gut. With a smile, she bowed. "Greetings Brother Adam, Sister Quan! I have managed to gather an entire eight wisps of energy today!"
It... well, it was only seven. But she was about to finish her eighth so... that counted, right! And it only made sense this would be so tricky compared to the much easier 'Gentle Rebirth Body Cultivation Technique', as this 'Houtian Realm First Order Essential Cultivation Method' had to rely on her Martial Spirit directly. It still took a bit of additional concentration to ensure the weak blue flame glowing on her Burning Betel Nut Martial Spirit stayed stable.
Brother Adams smile lifted her spirits... but Sister Quan's wince dropped them through the floor. "Sister Quan?"
Before the woman could talk, Adam pulled out another of those odd jade slips, passing it to the Sister to read. "Right. Ahem... 'Sister Tianshi, I have predicted that you would struggle following the standard cultivation method I provided to you and the others, correct?'"
She felt her breath catch. "ah..." No, calm. "No, I may have had... a few problems getting started... but today, I feel I can easily reach a dozen wisps of power!" Just... just stay up later, do a few more attempts, skip one night of sleep...
Sister Quan looked miserable. "That... that's great. But if things were going as designed, you would be working with strands of energy at this point... hundreds, possibly."
...What?
Her despair was derailed by Adam clapping her shoulder, with a smile.
It didn't look like disappointment. Of seeing a failure.
Right, this man was a genius!
He had been worse than her, a cripple with almost incurable wounds! And he made all these amazing abilities while high on drugs and near death, fixing all his problems without any trouble! He had a solution! He had to! He... He had to.
With desperation she watched him casually pass the jade slip back to Sister Quan... whose expression blanked back to something odd. "Adam says your progress, or lack there of, was expected." She turned towards Adam. "Why did you choose her if you knew she was going to have so much trouble?"
Noticing his dry look... she chuckled, embarrassed, and returned the slip so the boy could actually ANSWER her question.
Tianshi hung on every movement. This... there had to be a reason.
Quan accepted the updated slip and sent her Qi inside. "Oh." She blinked... and looked astounded. "Adam says that he believes you have the same odd energy affinity that HE had. Which is why he wanted you to become his student in the first place."
She blinked. His what?
Sister Quan also caught up with her words. "POTENTIAL STUDENT! I mean, I didn't say anything!" She glared at the little girl. "You heard nothing. I didn't spill anything and this never happened."
A heat burned in her chest even as tears tried to fall.
Hope.
How long had it been since true hope had supported her? Even after being selected for this rare chance, she had secretly worried about not measuring up, about falling behind... and reality had seemed determined to enforce the worst case scenario.
The older woman accepted an updated jade slip from Adam, her face blushing red from her blunder. "I suppose that makes sense." She walked over and gave Tianshi a half hug. "Right, so like Adam wrote earlier, he expected you to have cultivation issues because you need access to a very powerful and pure energy that doesn't naturally occur here at the Sect. So that is why you are not being included with the other children when it comes to the various tests and documentation we've been doing."
She blinked. "What? They were going through that?"
Adam nodded, and tried to grab the jade slip... but Sister Quan held it up high. "Uh uh. You could have told me this stuff before I walked into this room and looked like a moron. Promise me to explain the situation in FULL before I continue."
With a pout, he nodded and accepted the slip... then passed it back.
It was really amazing to Tianshi that such little time was needed to put so much information on those things.
...It was also amusing watching Sister Quan's expressions change so rapidly.
She watched her older friend turn to Adam in shock. "What do you MEAN you can control all spiritual energy!?"
What?
Adam shrugged. So... it must be true.
Huh.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Elder Cho was rubbing her forehead in exasperation... and a potential headache. "And... no one had bothered to ask him directly?"
While Cho herself had advanced at a young enough age to even now look like a woman in the prime of youth, poor Department Leader Jin still wore the age of his life like a proud badge. According to him, while possible to modify his form to appear younger, he had earned those wrinkles.
And the bastard looked pretty amused. "Indeed. Everyone involved just assumed he had the ability to suppress Cultivators within a specific area. Which... to be fair, is technically true."
She glared at the jerk. "Repressing energy in a battle is different from ABSOLUTE CONTROL OF SPIRITUAL ENERGY. How the HELL is that related to glass anyway!?"
He grinned. "No one asked what his Martial Spirit was either. Not even his old villagers, according to Assistant Quan."
Elder Cho felt her eyebrow twitch. "...and I assume then, it isn't a glass shard?"
"Nope."
The eye twitch got wilder. "Just...go ahead and tell me."
Department Lead Healer Jin chuckled. "Chongsheng Adam's Martial Spirit is an energy Crystal. Spiritual Energy given solid form."
She glared at nothing. "And until we stuffed the brat full of medication and spiritual energy while being in our Sect with its improved spiritual energy concentrations, he had nothing to jump start his Spirit. And the army of morons didn't feel he was worth wasting time on, or that his Spirit was worth investigating."
Healer Jin chuckled. "Basically, yes."
Her eyes glowed slightly. "And he found a girl who may SHARE the same odd energies that HE requires? Out of the hundreds of thousands of Initiates we get per year?"
He nodded. "Some people are bound by fate. Even a few days earlier or later and he would have missed her completely."
She snorted. "Not on my watch, I've experience not underestimating those with variant Martial Spirits. She wouldn't have been abandoned." She glared. "Ensure that she gets our full support, I haven't gotten this far risking a bet on the boy to let some other Elder swoop in and steal away his possible successor."
Elder Cho waved the man off to work as she turned back to the full pile of various techniques and documents that were NOT released to the other Elders.
Reading them with fascination, she couldn't help but murmur. "I still can't believe how amazing young Adam is. The various donations to the Sect have already gained him a lot of political power, whether he knows it or not... but these..."
She lifted another green jade slip. An entire library worth of detection methods, identification tricks, energy matrices... this one jade slip alone, while the contents were nearly impossible to be put into action by others, exposed so much about how spiritual energy worked, how the body of a Cultivator adapted to changes of the spirit, just... so many gold nuggets of treasure scattered over the massive floor of knowledge, as if worth nothing.
Simply spending time around Adam had helped several Elders and those people who could be trusted to gain various enlightenment moments and advances, to the point where she was very cautious to release ANYTHING he provided without her people carefully examining it first! It was bad enough he had possibly increased the recruitment volume for the entire Sect by accident, but that could be glossed over and hidden.
If other Sects saw him for his true worth, there would be war. And the war would be WORTH it.
Even now, people were secretly calling him the 'Burning Sage'. His glowing blue wounds, strange hair, and odd mannerisms only encouraged it, really...
She made another note to increase the amount of personal funds she was allocating to the boy's budget. These recent slips were, again, a bit too dangerous to submit to the Sect officially without going through the Patriarch himself, and (thankfully) the man himself found the entire situation fairly humorous.
Dozens of high level Xiantian and even Saint Cultivators begging to idly talk to a single, Second Order Houtian warrior... it was odd.
She glanced at the green slip SHE had requested be made, after seeing how much easier it was to comprehend the documents produced by the boy. It was supposed to be a basic combat manual for new initiates, as seven year olds would not necessarily know how to punch or kick safely.
Apparently, according to Healer Jin, Adam had felt a deep appreciation for Elder Cho's support...
So that one green jade slip was thereafter STUFFED full of documentation.
A full retelling of the standard fighting style provided by the Sect... torn apart, analyzed, and examined. It separated what she had always considered a fairly well made document into categories: Unarmed Style, Single Sword Style, Multiple Sword Style, Improvised Style.
Obviously as the Burning Sword Sect, the martial arts were focused on blade work, how to survive until you could get your blade BACK, and keeping your options open so your free hand or whatever could launch various fire based attacks. Anything not blade related was restructured into the new 'Improvisation Style' catch all... and it was pretty pathetic compared to the others. Expected really.
But after tearing apart her childhood memories, he then rebuilt it from scratch.
Footwork martial arts were described, more than one. Some better when unarmed, some that stabilized a person holding a single blade, another for those who felt two or more blades were the answer (Some Martial Spirits grew additional limbs for the user during Soul transformation).
Fighting Stances that were both better defined and even modified from Sect standards were provided, again focusing on what one had available as a weapon. Training routines were designed, that would create (over time) a set of reflexes to allow Cultivators to react without thought in dangerous situations, potentially saving lives!
What martial arts Elder Cho could remember that were not directly related to her own fighting style didn't go this far. They allowed the Martial Spirit to fill in holes in their forms, to compensate for a lifetime of cultivation rather than years of body training and physical exertion... but if her Sect members trained with these methods, then they could focus more on Battle Skills and techniques during a fight, their instincts protecting them from more simple attacks!
Most intriguing however, was the inclusion of formation work into the footwork, the body stances, and the exercise routines. Simplified, custom formation patterns were explained in easy to understand terms, where the odd patterns made while walking or fighting would cause actual effects! For example, one version would cause opponents to be distracted or lose track of their attacker, another would build 'momentum' so the Cultivator could sacrifice a dozen 'attacks' and produce one massive spike of damage...
There was even one move that sacrificed all chances to attack or retreat to bind an opponent of stronger cultivation to a specific location for a period of time. It could be enhanced by more participants... a dozen or so high leveled Houtian warriors could operate this formation together to capture (or at least delay) a Xiantian Warrior for some time, which could drastically change a major battle alone!
Elder Cho had seen effects like this before. Some Battle Skills or innate abilities from Martial Spirits let one walk on clouds or fade into shadows, teleport, and so such. She had just never heard of someone achieving such a feat using basic formation patterns... did ALL such abilities work like this!? How would one even know?
And Adam had passed it over with a smile and no concern. Using only information freely available on the FIRST FLOOR of their OWN Sect Repository Pagoda! While he never came out and stated anything, she firmly believed the Patriarch considered the boy a high priority Sect Treasure at this point. And he would be correct to do so!
Financially, she may never be able to pay back the boy for the advancements he was bringing to her Sect, her family.
Politically though, she would be his rock in troubled times.
Another glance at the metaphorical mountain of treasure so innocently laying on her desk...
It was the least she could do.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Brother Hou couldn't hold back any longer. "WHY WON'T YOU LET ME THROUGH!?"
The twelve guards outside the cultivation cave stayed silent.
Though one or two were gesturing towards his most ingenious trap to date.
He blinked. "What, this?"
Hou waved a hand roughly towards the Cane of Wisdom.
And quickly swore, putting his hand out. These flames were a major hindrance.
A few warriors nodded.
Brother Hou puffed out his chest. "Well, it may look a bit odd, but... can you keep a secret?"
...The silence meant yes, right?
He nodded. "Right, I had to add the extra five canes for structural integrity, but the slippers down there have real rabbit skin. No grandpa could resist that, they are too fluffy! Also, note the artificially aged paint on the... well, not there, you can see a bit around the fire. Near the bottom of the... yeah. It is reminiscent of an old house right? Worn?"
Brother Hou carefully pointed towards one of the safer edges. "The prunes may have boiled a bit, but that just means it has that old dude smell, you know? Not sure where the candies went. I think they melted. Right, and I added a hoop! I figure the canes could act like a stick, so the memories of playing hoop-stick should bring back some nostalgia. That was a thing, right?"
More silence.
He grumbled. "Look, it was hard enough building this thing and getting it here while it was on fire. I am THIS CLOSE to finishing my task, can't you give me a break?"
One of the guards spoke up. "Why didn't you build it first, bring it, THEN set it on fire?"
The guy winced as the other silent Warriors glared at him. Not sure why.
Brother Hou blinked. "Oh." Looking at the raging inferno... yeah. "That would have saved me a lot of time."
With a sigh, the largest person (A woman? Hard to tell under all that armor) leaned closer. "Look, why are you trying to burn up this cave?"
He spewed confidence like a god. "I am going to uncover a fourteen year old secret grandpa and his dastardly plans to seduce an angel by being grievously harmed and catching himself on fire!"
Again, silence.
...Right, quiet meant 'Yes' or general agreement or understanding. That was established at some point earlier. Probably.
He winced as the Cane of Wisdom collapsed, portions compromised and becoming ash. "Ah... on second thought, I... may have to modify the design first." Suddenly a thought made him brighten right up! "THIS time I can build it BEFORE catching it on fire!"
The leader glared at the embarrassed guard near the back. "This is why we don't talk on duty, Shu. I blame this on you."
Shu's neighbor smacked the back of his armored head. It didn't hurt, but it was the thought that counts.
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- Location
- Center Of The Universe
Honestly, I gotta say that I love this cultivation arc the most out of all the previous ones. It mixes the hilarious and interesting in a great mix that makes me refresh SV in case you pop an unexpected update. ^^
Click 'Watch Thread' and activate notifications. It will save your poor F5 key.
- Location
- Center Of The Universe
But where's the fun in that? The thrill of the unknown!?
Fun? Yes... but the consequence of abusing your keyboard like that? Me... I'm stuck using Windows 10 Touch Keyboard and typing with mouse.
- Location
- Center Of The Universe
Fun? Yes... but the consequence of abusing your keyboard like that? Me... I'm stuck using Windows 10 Touch Keyboard and typing with mouse.
I think it's time for you to thoroughly abuse that keyboard to have an incentive to get a better one once it starts failing. :3
- Location
- England
You set things on fire. Things catch on fire by themselves, but if you're doing it purposefully then it's 'set'.
Well still waiting for replacement keyboard to be delivered. Five to seven days (too cheap/heavily discounted and no option for express delivery).
- Location
- Kent, WA
So... I wouldn't say Hou's mentally challenged, but he certainly is 'special'!
Fragnostic
Cheshire
- Location
- Neko City
Don't abuse poor keyboard-chan! She served well as long as she could!
Ganbatte, keyboard-chan!
That's cheating, poor keyboard-chan...Well still waiting for replacement keyboard to be delivered. Five to seven days (too cheap/heavily discounted and no option for express delivery).
Within our Sect, burning so bright
No hidden grandpas escape my sight
Let those who'd steal Sister Quan's light
Beware my cane, Hou's Cane of Arthrit...is
I'm loving how, technically, Hou is entirely correct. He is just completely wrong at the same time.
Ah, I like how Elder Cho is reacting to parts of the standard worldview getting upended. And I love how the sect in general is appreciating him and looking at things.
Also, is it entirely wrong of me that I think if she gets annoyed enough with the villagers that she would share the nature of his martial spirit with them, just to watch them have a stroke, heart attack and sheer disbelief brain collapse?
Also, is it entirely wrong of me that I think if she gets annoyed enough with the villagers that she would share the nature of his martial spirit with them, just to watch them have a stroke, heart attack and sheer disbelief brain collapse?
Just to be clear. This is just adam being a troll right? He is still fine with anyone having any of the information he is figuring out, but he just thought it would be funny.
- Location
- Here
A bit, yeah. To be fair, the notes on the surface stuff even EXPLAIN that it is designed to be pretty and maybe sort of explode horrendously if anyone tried to copy and ACTIVATE that particular formation.
And while it won't be in the story, the real reason he added the junk on the outside was that without those marks, they just looked like boring pipes. Adam wanted them to look 'cool.'
Norr
Misophist
- Location
- Any chair
I'm figuring brother Hou will, at some point, completely by accident, make an actual working artifact.
He is after all taking everything he can think of connected to the concept of 'a grandpa' and duct taping it together, in a realm where cultivation of concepts is the path to power.
He is after all taking everything he can think of connected to the concept of 'a grandpa' and duct taping it together, in a realm where cultivation of concepts is the path to power.
To be fair, this is a pretty accurate description of Adam's adventure up until now.
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Is it wrong that I want to see that actually happen? With some of the elders getting together and deciding that they are going to see if some of his... interesting ideas can be pointed at some other directions to see if he would come up with anything interesting/useful?
Hidden One
Not the Boss, possibly a Playa
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
And thusly started Shu's legend! The best latrine cleaner in history!
- Location
- Israel
Oh god, a grandpa detector xD
- Location
- Here
...Shit, that would actually be useful.
Most of the scary and undetectable monsters (AKA, powerful Cultivators) are VERY old.
Detecting hidden people of vast age would catch those too powerful for most of those with spirit sensing...
Sheesh.
KingOfWorlds
Exists.
- Location
- Universe #8758762952950231859269663
I'm wondering if you'll actually incorporate it into the story... just the thought of it makes me giggle.
- Location
- Here
No, not because it isn't possible but because Brother Hou would consider his completed project a failure because Adam's physical age IS 14 at the moment.
Soul too, only his Marital Spirit is from his main body.
So all that work, then using on Adam: "Grandpa not found!? Damn Trash Detector!"
Sigh, I wonder how many amazing things in life were missed because of issues like this.
Soul too, only his Marital Spirit is from his main body.
So all that work, then using on Adam: "Grandpa not found!? Damn Trash Detector!"
Sigh, I wonder how many amazing things in life were missed because of issues like this.
- Status