Expect Sekirei no.108 levels of bullpoopy.
Broken Adventure
- Thread starter theaceoffire
- Start date
- Crossover
- Status
- Location
- Alabama
I'd imagine it more becoming an ever more trippy prism. and prism would suit his powers quite well taking power reflecting,refracting or refining and changing it into all different kinds.
then again maybe not it has eyes now and if it did become prism shaped, the Illuminati jokes would never stop.
also if this character is just a broken off part of his soul I don't quite think that his martial spirit is controlled by squishy, and it may be something completely new so depending on how or if the martial spirit ends up in the fish bowl there might be a new friend for squishy.
another odd thought if adam got to the point his soul resists the void I wonder how that translates to defending against soul attacks. queue the super assassin with one super strong technique that hurts souls getting absolutely bodied by adam's soul defense.
Jonn Wolfe
(Verified Sarcastic) (Not a Wolf)
- Location
- Beyond Sanity Since 1971
You know... somehow I don't think this is going to go at all like Original Adam initially planned. This Adam is going to be much more than just a split as he gets more and more powerful. I think I'm going to call him Junior from now on.
Congratulations Adam, You're a Dad!
Congratulations Adam, You're a Dad!
Narwhal: Did you just make me a mother without asking?
Dragon: Well, it has to be better than a nine month parasite.
Twilight: I'm not sure how to feel about all this.
Luna: ADAM IS BEST BUCK! *preens*
Quixotic_being
Fulfilling every contract to the letter
"...Was that it? I thought you were gonna help me train my resistance to spiritual attacks?"
'...I quit, I can't kill him! I've been trying for days and he hasn't even figured out I've been trying! I'm never gonna be able to do anything to this monster!'
"Yeah and sorry, your gonna need a more skilled instructor then me."
"Hope the next is better then. The last managed a whole month before throwing in the towel."
'What?!'
I suddenly want Sister Tianshi to travel with him to a few settings.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Plants Versus Zombies, and Mortal Engines. Maybe a setting that's a blend of the three. I could see Adam leaving her to play in a forest while he runs off to look at that interesting patchwork the locals call a city. She ends up having to fend off a zombie invasion among other things.
Sister Tianshi's reactions may get more interesting to Adam's voice as they both gain vastly more binding energy. I could see her literally meaning that he is her god/master and any stray comment of his might have effects on/near her.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Plants Versus Zombies, and Mortal Engines. Maybe a setting that's a blend of the three. I could see Adam leaving her to play in a forest while he runs off to look at that interesting patchwork the locals call a city. She ends up having to fend off a zombie invasion among other things.
Sister Tianshi's reactions may get more interesting to Adam's voice as they both gain vastly more binding energy. I could see her literally meaning that he is her god/master and any stray comment of his might have effects on/near her.
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
- Location
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
This raised a question, if energies in the sky are cleaner than at sea level what would the energies from deep down like say an oceanic trench feel like?
A while ago I mentioned that the human body is supposed to have 3 dantians (qi sea). Here's wikipedia LINK. One is located in the head somewhere behind the 3rd eye/light chakra, one is located near the heart somewhere in the neighborhood of the love chakra and the last one is somewhere just above the genitals at the base of which is located the water chakra.
As a side note these places/organs were considered important in western philosophy as well. The head/brain being the Seat of Reason, the heart the Seat of Emotion and the genitalia thev Seat of Passion. Also speaking of western philosophy are the 4 humors (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood) going to be of any significance going forward?
Speaking of drawing qi from the earth, look who just discovered senjutsu
and remember... CHAKRAS! CHAKRAS! EVERYBODY LOVES CHAKRAS!
I mean guru Pathik isn't wrong every body does love its chakras.
- Location
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
that's what you took from that?
- Location
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
Ya don't need to I already explained the basics. If ya need any more detail there's the wiki link
- Location
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
3rd dantian 2nd chakra
*opens "spoiler" and sees hands... eyes follow diagram until waist ... blinks* "Yeah... that's what I thought was pointing at me... Damnit poster..."
I.E. Shock value means that detail stands out more than most of the rest. So yes; that's what many "took" from that.
- Location
- Australia
You know, the comment about missing meridians that prevent people from cultivating as well as Adam's speculation about moving / creating meridians?
If he proceeds with a technique to turn zero talent people into cultivators, that shockwave would dwarf just about everything.
The pyramidal economic structure of a xianxia is ingrained into the setting's assumptions. Being able to essentially upgrade people's cultivation talent would literally change how the whole society would work.
If he proceeds with a technique to turn zero talent people into cultivators, that shockwave would dwarf just about everything.
The pyramidal economic structure of a xianxia is ingrained into the setting's assumptions. Being able to essentially upgrade people's cultivation talent would literally change how the whole society would work.
- Location
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
If he can grant cultivation to everyone the revelation is going to go off about as well as the bastard love child of Tsar Bomba and the flood basalt eruption that caused the Great Dying (95% of all life on earth went bye bye in that extinction event).
The everyone has a spirit which is at some fundamental level connected to their conceptual selves sounds more like daemons from Golden Compass
- Location
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
I was actually thinking Nioh
Arc 2: Tianshi's First Order, a Shopping Trip, and the Garden!
- Location
- Here
Adam tried not to grumble as he searched for better clothing options.
Because complaining could leave him nude if he wasn't careful.
Why. WHY had he worn his favorite outfit when breaking through to Third Order?
It was the closest thing to a basic 'shirt and pants' combo he had found so far, the official uniform was more robe-like and everything else was all strange feeling.
No industrialization meant no zippers, and elastic was mostly used for elite noble stuff, expensive and strange looking... So most outfits used buttons or tiny cloth strips for tying together sections of the various outfits.
Which would be fine, but everything Adam could find had odd sleeves, or lace, or those bizarre ruffles. Was this a fashion thing? He was terrible at fashion.
Eventually he gave up and wore the annoying official uniform. It fit well enough, and most importantly it was resistant to high heat... so if he coughed or something it should survive the experience. Hopefully.
With a sigh, Adam sat back on his (Now clean) meditation formation and got back to work.
Filling his three spiritual networks (one still open) was easy enough after a few hours of cultivation. Refilling the far larger meditation formation took the rest of the night.
Now? He had to fill the massive emptiness that was his Shard internal reserves.
It honestly may take weeks if he wanted to cultivate towards Forth Order as well. For now he wanted to at least get it 10% restored, so he would have the same energy levels available as he did before reaching this stage of advancement... maybe the improved 'Growth' effects could handle it from there.
Right, the three Shard modes ('Research', 'Growth', and 'Purification') did NOT count as Martial Spirit innate skills. They were just general effects caused by his Shard, and as such the improvement of his Martial Spirit had effects on those modes as well.
When not actively cultivating, a lesser version of 'Purification' automatically worked on Adam's blood and lungs. The Blue energy flames he breathed were formed from the breakdown of other types of heaven and earth energy that he randomly breathed in... theoretically the fumes, smog, flames and liquid fire were all helpful for other cultivators.
It seemed gross though, so Adam wasn't going to tell anyone. No, you can't collect my flame spit. Sickos.
'Research' passively augmented his brain, though at a slower and weaker rate than activating his Shard directly... and 'Growth' was internally directed, duplicating energies stored within Adam's Shard by grinding away weaker heaven and earth spiritual energies in a similar way that 'Purification' did.
At this point he was pretty sure that both 'Purification' and 'Growth' were somehow interacting with each other... that the odd bits that were cleansed via 'Purification' were then passed to 'Growth' to work with in his Shard. It was a bit tricky to tell though.
With a slight grumble, Adam buckled down and began cultivating more energy to fill up his Shard with what he could. Not having two processed and growing energy swirls really slowed this whole process down. At least the massive increase in Domain size allowed far more energy to be captured and processed.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sister Tianshi grinned at Sister Quan. "Do you think I can talk to Master now!?"
The woman seemed... unsure. "Maybe... if you truly don't share that strange energy type connection. Can you show me the new flame on your Martial Spirit?"
With a nod, Tianshi focused, holding up her hand... and her Betel Nut didn't appear.
With a slight sting, a black root surfaced from her hand. The thin vine glowed with Green energy flames.
They both stared at the thing.
Tianshi coughed. "Right, my Martial Spirit sort of planted itself in my heart and grew vines in my everything. This still counts, right?"
If anything, Sister Quan seemed MORE conflicted. "I... I don't know? Martial Spirits shouldn't evolve like this until you reach Forth Order I think, but then again you still HAVE your Betel Nut right? In your heart?"
Sister Tianshi was distracted, like most seven year olds would be. "Huh, what does this do?"
A bright BLUE root surfaced from her hand next to the black one. The bright Blue energy fires glowed. "Oh. That takes about the same amount of energy as my Green flames. What about this?"
Sister Quan was too late, but she tried. "STOP EXPERIMENTING! I need Department Lead Jin to make sure you're medically stable!"
Little Tianshi blinked, missing the yell, as a transparent root surfaced next to the two others. The Binding energy flame was invisible to everyone else except her, the black network filling her eyes letting her bask in the strange glow. "Huh. Making a Binding energy flame takes double the energy as my Emerald one. Guess that makes sense, normally half of that mix is some other power type."
She felt a gentle smack on the head as Quan glared. "Stop. Doing. Stuff."
Flinching slightly, Tianshi sighed. "Sorry Elder Sister Quan, I was just so curious and... and." She blinked, her hand half way through her hair. "Why can my spiritual Martial Spirit touch my physical hair?"
The roots continued poking her head unconcerned as Sister Quan groaned in frustration.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Third Elder Cho just... put the reports down.
And sighed.
At least all the tests done WITHOUT Adam or his strange disciple were going fine. No strange changes, no jumps in cultivation base, all expected estimates and theoretical improvement rates matched the data models. A few children were starting to have hair color changes, but that was expected in the jade slip notes.
Her hand gestured and her service staff offered a green drink. It was a favorite, fruity but with a hint of spiritual energy.
Of course, when one LOOKED at the boy or his young protege, then things went off course. In fact 'There were unexpected events' was damn close to his guard's catch phrase at this stage.
Surviving death, activating his Martial Spirit, repairing his body and generating a dozen unheard of methods and techniques along the way. Reaching Third Order in less than a year while cultivating... and setting up a method for others to do the same. Not to mention a thousand smaller, impossible things as well.
A snap of her fingers had the green drink replaced with an orange one, the raw energy within forcing it to bubble slightly. This one stung to drink, but the aftertaste was warm and settling. It had a constant burn, and normally she only enjoyed these on colder days.
And that little girl. Near trash level Martial Spirit, shared the ultra-rare connection of power with her future Master, and somehow mutated her OWN Martial Spirit into some sort of half spiritual half physical construct. No doubt those strange, observable black roots that now saturated her system would also infiltrate her cultivation routes in the future. Only little Adam would know if this was a boon or a crippling unfixable issue.
With defeat, she snapped again. This drink was blood red, hurt to even be near, and would consume the glass if she waited to long to finish it... But at this point she needed something this strong. Anyone below Third Order Xiantian Warrior would die pretty quickly if they could endure the suffering long enough to drink it. Elder Cho always felt that it tasted a bit like watermelon. But on fire.
Her painful drinking break was interrupted by a group trying to enter the office. HER office. AGAIN. She finished the most recent sip with a settled sigh. "If the people entering are MORE DAMN GUARDS for my protected Sect member, I will literally begin to cut off body parts. If your supporting Elders object, they are next."
She glared at the paused door. "The child has Ninety-Nine Guards. Number one hundred gets castrated."
...The door closed.
Good.
Back to the drink.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked as he exited his room. "Are. There. More. Of. You?" Ooh, only a bit of blue fog! Not bad.
The dozens of guards shook their head. The one closest, a woman in tight heavy armor plating, made some hand signals.
He blinked. "Huh." Didn't know that 'Research' had translated the silent sign language at some point. Possibly while he was under that Enlightenment trance.
A few hand gestures of his own and they exchanged a bit of information.
These ninety-nine guards were mostly here for political reasons, but Third Elder Cho had managed to stop the flood. Otherwise there would have been more.
Adam hummed, blue smog floating away. "Will. Be. Following?"
A LOT of nods.
He shrugged. "Fine."
Now, off to see his fainting Disciple! SOMETHING Interesting must have happened.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam looked through the door.
Healer Jin and Sister Quan were trying to argue SOMETHING with his disciple.
Who was covered in thin black tentacles. Covered in green fire.
The energy being generated felt... lively? Maybe some variation of Nature.
Seeing a seven year old covered in flaming tentacles was a tad unusual though.
Adam coughed. "Hello?"
Oh good, his follower only flinched! As long as she didn't drop into a coma with every word he could work with this.
Might be best to stay calm though, no clue how she would react if he yelled or whatever. "Everything. Alright?"
Judging from the glares, no. Things were not alright.
His Disciple shuffled her feet. "Remember how the 'Gentle Rebirth Body Cultivation Technique' was supposed to safely fail to work when it needed another energy source? My Martial Spirit did something to keep it going instead."
A few quick explanations (rants) later from the two medical professionals, and Adam was pressing his right hand against little Tianshi's forehead.
Her Martial Spirit was previously unable to correctly interact with her, as expected. But when she had reached a high percentage of conversion, the hunger experienced DIDN'T cause the girl to lose focus and stop the process as expected.
Instead, it had awoken something in her Burning Black Betel Nut, the seed germinating and using the girl's cultivation potential and body as a rich planting bed. At this point her Martial Spirit was in a strange symbiotic relationship with his Disciple, unable to be summoned forth as it was partially physical, mostly conceptual.
Those strange black roots were not just feeding sources for the Betel Nut in her Heart, but a support network for both her body and spirit.
Some quick exploration... yes, the first three meridian routes described by the 'Houtian Realm First Order Essential Cultivation Method' were present, black roots following the future placement of her spiritual network.
Hmm. "Please. Practice. This." He handed over a finalized copy of the green jade slip containing 'Houtian Realm First Order Essential Cultivation Method'.
She blinked. "Uh." A blush. "I still can't read yet."
...Right, she was seven. "Sister. Quan. Please?"
The woman huffed. "Only if you confirm she is healthy FIRST. I have never HEARD of a Martial Spirit forming inside a Cultivator physically."
Adam chuckled. "Think. It. Is. Beneficial." He gestured. "Symbiotic. Relationship."
With an unconvinced glare... she sighed. "Very well. Come here, Sister Tianshi. I'll walk you through Adam's Essential Cultivation Method, it is easy enough to learn how to practice."
Adam nodded and walked over to Healer Jin. "I. Reached. Third. Order."
The grandfather like man nodded with a soft smile. "We heard! Congratulations are certainly in order."
He watched the woman teaching the girl how to absorb natural energy from the heavens. "I. Wish. To. Revisit. Knowledge. Repository."
Seeing the confusion, Adam continued. "To. Design. Fourth. Order. Essential. Method."
Well, THAT got some attention. Were these Sect Researchers always in the room? How were they harder to notice than those guards!?
Whatever. Adam had contribution points and he wanted to go spend some.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The Sect Store was both awesome and worthless.
Maybe Adam's attitude was a bit down because of the ninety-nine followers being 'subtle' and 'unnoticeable' as Adam moved around. At least Sister Quan didn't seem to notice them, so they were doing something right... Well, whatever.
Most of the stuff in the store was beyond worthless to Adam. He didn't need medical assistance improving his cultivation, these resources were mostly different spiritual energy type containers of varying quality. If other people could just rip out and store Spiritual Energy like Adam could, they would also find 80% or more of the products on sale to be worthless and lower quality.
That said, one of the more useful items was not only expensive but fairly rare: A Spiritual Stone. They varied by quality, but were natural occurring resources where stones were saturated by heavy flows of energy over long periods of time, conceptually modifying the rocky material into harder stuff that could save up that same power for Cultivators to use in formation arrays and while cultivating.
To Adam's eyes, it was different. Not quite Dust Crystals by any means, there were strange patterns and swirls of spiritual energy carved into the rock by the vast forces and pressures the material was exposed to underground. With approval from a higher up, the Sect Store actually revealed more powerful Spirit Stones to Adam for review, even if his low status in the Sect would normally require a lengthy proving period of loyalty first.
The more established this stone swirl was, the more powerful the energy. And the reason these stones vanished after use was how the power was released. When outside spiritual energy was applied to the stone, the edges would destabilize and release a portion of power by grinding away a section of spiral pattern.
Could he make these?
Maybe. Not at his current cultivation level though. Not without waiting hundreds of years while focusing his entire efforts and concentration on a small rock.
Lots of neat seeds though, which were far cheaper than the resulting plants and herbs because most cultivators didn't have the patience or ability to actually grow them. Some spiritual tree clippings were also available...
Well. He had to wait to get approval to access the second floor of the Sect Repository Pagoda anyway (BOO! DATA MUST BE FREED!)... and he hadn't had a chance to visit the Orphanage's protected garden either...
It should be fun!
Adam smiled as he began buying many various plants and handing them off to his massive goon squad of guards. Might as well make them carry this stuff and be useful.
Now, what memories did he have of Sect growing knowledge? Obviously 'Research' hadn't been focused on perfecting that data mess previously, so it would take a while to translate the goop of fancy gobbledygook into something usable. Like many careers, this branch of study had a whole lot of raw memorization due to how many plants were out there and how important their various handling methods were.
He hummed, ignored the blue smoke wafting away, and continued buying random things. Oh, a basic storage ring? Far smaller than the ones probably available on higher floors, and it cost a TON of points... why not. Things like this was probably why no one had pockets in their clothing. It was a few square feet of space (Cube) that... well, no idea how it worked really. Ooh, auto-resize for the user!? Why don't they put THAT on clothing?
He ignored the complaining eyes of his guards and continued to pass more purchase to their arms rather than stuff his new ring with random crap like that.
Maybe he could even buy some land to grow a bit of something for himself. A place to relax, if nothing else... yeah, that would be useful.
With a mental nod, he ensured 'Research' would cross reference the growing needs of the many plants with what Formation information and advancements he had gathered so far. If he was going to plant things, might as well add in some conceptual work to make the plants protect themselves and encourage growth, purification, blah blah blah. A bit of green life would also help his little Disciple in the future, based on what he could feel from her Martial Spirit.
Ooh, more plants!
He ignored the quiet groans of his guards as he bought more and more stuff. How fun!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
He leaned around the corner. "He's buying more stuff."
The sales assistant pouted. "I can't believe my shift ended RIGHT AS HE WALKED IN! The Burning Sage himself, spending points like they were worthless! Sister Zho's commission is going to be insane!"
Brother Chen hummed. "Oh... did he just buy a Sect Storage Ring?"
Her mouth dropped. "That... doesn't that cost 3,000,000 points?"
He shook his head. "That is the full model, with the ability to keep materials within preserved. Easily 13,000,000 contribution points."
The assistant frowned... and nodded. "We are making her buy drinks tonight. I know I've been forced to pay up on a big payday."
Brother Chen snorted. "We should be making her buy a bar or two, the boy is wandering over to the rare vegetation area. If he was allowed to the second purchasing floor, Sister Zho might have been able to retire at this rate."
Both fell quiet as the blue haired Sage casually picked up a dozen plants worth more than a year's paycheck without a pause, passing them to strange ghost-like guards that would vanish somewhere for some reason.
At least this was entertaining.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sister Tianshi tried to focus on the instructions provided by Sister Quan (Again) as she reinforced the method she was supposed to follow (again) to reach First Order Warrior level and establish a solid cultivation base (AGAIN). Again.
But... it seemed simple enough. Sure she couldn't read that jade slip herself yet, and that may cause problems eventually... but after seeing the images from the cultivation slip directly she realized that the needed paths were already outlined.
By her roots.
With an nod, she refocused. "Yes Sister, I will be careful."
Sister Quan looked at her... and sighed. "You zoned me out while I was talking, didn't you?"
CRAP! "Uh... No?"
Department Lead Jin chuckled, the nice old man patting her shoulder. "Let the girl try first before starting your explanation again. The other children had no issues, I'm sure little Tianshi will do just fine."
The older woman bit her lip... then pulled the child into a tight hug. "You be careful, Adam and I would feel terrible if anything goes wrong." She paused. "Well, I would feel terrible and Adam would probably ignore the problems and fix you by accident, but you know what I mean."
The girl gave a weak smile, warmth thick in her chest... and settled into a meditative form, sitting on the floor and focusing.
Her hungry cells had feasted for days up till now, her body nearly tripling in weight as the massive amount of material reinforced her bones, bulked up her muscles, and added structure to her organs. The 'Gentle Rebirth Body Cultivation Technique' WAS a body cultivation method after all, if would be STRANGE if she hadn't been enhanced far more than any normal seven year old.
Her Martial Spirit Pulsed... and bright Emerald Green energy began to flow along a circular path.
As her body tried to pull the energy off path, to be absorbed into her body and improve her abilities even further... the black roots on that same meridian route tugged the Green energy back on path.
Before she could blink a whole cycle was completed... then another, and another!
A green crystal like surface coated one of her many, many black roots. With those strange structures already established within her body, there was no stretching or straining, no pain or difficulties. Her cultivation route was already established, it just needed her Green energy to create the 'riverbed' that Adam had talked about... it almost fell into place automatically!
Before Tianshi could react, the Green energy compressed into thick Battle Qi mist and SMASHED into her black root filled meridian route, the stable and now established spiritual network path eager to accept both the freshly created Qi and the still flowing Green energy her Martial Spirit generated!
Her heart sped up as the excitement made her want to dance! Every cycle came more and more easy, even as she felt a different type of emptiness begin to ever so slowly fill up... she was a First Order Warrior now, and her energy was already trying to fill her meridian route with the needed energy to progress more!
A sharp CRACK made her look internally, seeing her Betel Nut... every so slightly open. As if to one day sprout... and the Green energy produced doubled!
Her limbs wanted to punch something.
She wanted to jump!
Sister Tianshi wanted to feel the sun! Activity! To feel Life!
A slight shift suddenly made the thick, stinky material coating her body crack slightly.
...Sister Tianshi wanted a bath.
Sister Quan and Healer Jin were both cheering. "Congratulations!" and "Well Done!", as if she wasn't a smelly dirty little person right now.
...Sister Tianshi wanted a hole to hide in.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked.
Uh. "Garden. Is. Huge."
Sister Quan paused in fussing over a very embarrassed little Tianshi, who was not sure how to handle so much positive reinforcement. Apparently, while she still needed to save up Battle Qi to reach each new Order of advancement, cultivation advancement itself was no problem. There was no reason for confusion or mistakes, because her Martial Spirit Routes were even now exploring all the various paths her meridian routes may follow and were slowly consolidating into the correct ones.
Not by choice or whatever, but by the nature of how spiritual networks develop naturally. The cultivation routes were the most efficient and easy method for spiritual energy to flow in a way, so eventually roots would follow similar paths. Probably.
It all matched up to what Adam's 'Research' suggested, anyway. She couldn't skip ahead or try and build the various cultivation tubes out of order or whatever, but there would be no pain and no 'carving new paths' for HIS disciple. Her Betel Nut roots did that all at once, as far as he could tell.
How this would affect her Martial Spirit evolution stages? Or the innate skill unlocked at Forth Order? No clue, but apparently the Third Elder was very interested in knowing.
At some point Adam wanted to meet the woman, busy as she clearly was.
Right now though, all he could think about was... how large things were in this Realm.
This 'garden' was more like a massive plantation. In every direction there were strange formations, crop rows, trees planted in odd places, and so forth. The massive protective walls they had just passed through to reach this place just... went off into the distance, both directions.
Thin, near invisible cords were in a grid far up in the air, 'invisible' Orphanage Guards making their way on patrols. Security formations at the gate had been so thick it had an actual TASTE when walking through them... and the energy being absorbed and released inside this paradise was heart pounding.
Healer Jin was resting, leaning on a strange cane Adam hadn't seen before. Was it covered in oil?
The man spoke up. "We support the Orphanage for obvious reasons of course, but also to ensure the medical plants best suited for our needs get priority handling and planting each year. Obviously, with a Sect as large as ours, we need quite a bit of space for things to properly grow."
Disciple Tianshi had escaped the fussing of Sister Quan at some point and was now hiding behind Adam, causing the older woman to pout.
Hmm. "Could. I. Get. Area. To. Grow?"
The Healer nodded. "It won't be near the entrance, but we have numerous plots of land for Medical students and future Gardeners to learn how to maintain spiritual crops without wasting effort and resources when they inevitably make mistakes. If a Medical or Gardener fails enough attempts, their allocated plot becomes available for someone else... I think it is this way."
Adam followed with caution, making sure not to touch any of the glowing formations they passed. Sister Quan pointed. "These are the short term cultivation sections, each year the oldest row gets harvest and the next one is planted."
He waved to the left. "Parsnips?"
She grinned. "Normal food of course is grown outside the walls, those will reach 10th year quality grade before they get collected. Deeper in the garden are the areas that get harvested every decade, every century, and so forth. More security there of course."
Healer Jin hummed. "My personal garden is much smaller of course, but thanks to my ancestors hard work is still becoming more valuable by the day. And rumors imply that the Patriarch himself has access to a Sect Leader only area with herbs over 10,000 years old!"
Sister Quan shrugged. "Those are dangerous to work with anyway, they can begin to transform into creature-like forms and escape. I've even heard some heaven quality pills were once found that had aged for SO LONG they could transform into tiny people and talk. Stuff like that is far too dangerous for our orphanage to handle, obviously."
Huh. So if Adam wasn't careful, his relaxation garden might wander off. Or try to eat him.
Thank goodness he was warned, his experiments had a history of getting out of hand as it was without random trees running away. Better be careful 'enhancing' the various herbs too, even if he found a way to improve them a lot Adam didn't want to watch a field of screaming onions being harvested or something.
The environment so far was pretty normal, at least compared to a few more distant land plots. A few had strange formations (Thanks 'Research' for storing this memory for later review) that changed the light levels, modified the humidity, or even attracted certain categories of energy... at a terribly slow rate.
Eventually though, Adam realized that after four hours of walking... they were no where CLOSE to leaving the 'low quality' herb area.
Damn this place was big. The distant wall wasn't even visible... and that darker area may just be different plants, not the actual edge of the planting zones.
...Bet he could do something neat with such a large space.
With a grin, 'Research' began carefully adding observational data as the group passed these oh so interesting (and maybe restricted information) formations.
Since he hadn't been able to visit the Repository, this would have to do.
Because complaining could leave him nude if he wasn't careful.
Why. WHY had he worn his favorite outfit when breaking through to Third Order?
It was the closest thing to a basic 'shirt and pants' combo he had found so far, the official uniform was more robe-like and everything else was all strange feeling.
No industrialization meant no zippers, and elastic was mostly used for elite noble stuff, expensive and strange looking... So most outfits used buttons or tiny cloth strips for tying together sections of the various outfits.
Which would be fine, but everything Adam could find had odd sleeves, or lace, or those bizarre ruffles. Was this a fashion thing? He was terrible at fashion.
Eventually he gave up and wore the annoying official uniform. It fit well enough, and most importantly it was resistant to high heat... so if he coughed or something it should survive the experience. Hopefully.
With a sigh, Adam sat back on his (Now clean) meditation formation and got back to work.
Filling his three spiritual networks (one still open) was easy enough after a few hours of cultivation. Refilling the far larger meditation formation took the rest of the night.
Now? He had to fill the massive emptiness that was his Shard internal reserves.
It honestly may take weeks if he wanted to cultivate towards Forth Order as well. For now he wanted to at least get it 10% restored, so he would have the same energy levels available as he did before reaching this stage of advancement... maybe the improved 'Growth' effects could handle it from there.
Right, the three Shard modes ('Research', 'Growth', and 'Purification') did NOT count as Martial Spirit innate skills. They were just general effects caused by his Shard, and as such the improvement of his Martial Spirit had effects on those modes as well.
When not actively cultivating, a lesser version of 'Purification' automatically worked on Adam's blood and lungs. The Blue energy flames he breathed were formed from the breakdown of other types of heaven and earth energy that he randomly breathed in... theoretically the fumes, smog, flames and liquid fire were all helpful for other cultivators.
It seemed gross though, so Adam wasn't going to tell anyone. No, you can't collect my flame spit. Sickos.
'Research' passively augmented his brain, though at a slower and weaker rate than activating his Shard directly... and 'Growth' was internally directed, duplicating energies stored within Adam's Shard by grinding away weaker heaven and earth spiritual energies in a similar way that 'Purification' did.
At this point he was pretty sure that both 'Purification' and 'Growth' were somehow interacting with each other... that the odd bits that were cleansed via 'Purification' were then passed to 'Growth' to work with in his Shard. It was a bit tricky to tell though.
With a slight grumble, Adam buckled down and began cultivating more energy to fill up his Shard with what he could. Not having two processed and growing energy swirls really slowed this whole process down. At least the massive increase in Domain size allowed far more energy to be captured and processed.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sister Tianshi grinned at Sister Quan. "Do you think I can talk to Master now!?"
The woman seemed... unsure. "Maybe... if you truly don't share that strange energy type connection. Can you show me the new flame on your Martial Spirit?"
With a nod, Tianshi focused, holding up her hand... and her Betel Nut didn't appear.
With a slight sting, a black root surfaced from her hand. The thin vine glowed with Green energy flames.
They both stared at the thing.
Tianshi coughed. "Right, my Martial Spirit sort of planted itself in my heart and grew vines in my everything. This still counts, right?"
If anything, Sister Quan seemed MORE conflicted. "I... I don't know? Martial Spirits shouldn't evolve like this until you reach Forth Order I think, but then again you still HAVE your Betel Nut right? In your heart?"
Sister Tianshi was distracted, like most seven year olds would be. "Huh, what does this do?"
A bright BLUE root surfaced from her hand next to the black one. The bright Blue energy fires glowed. "Oh. That takes about the same amount of energy as my Green flames. What about this?"
Sister Quan was too late, but she tried. "STOP EXPERIMENTING! I need Department Lead Jin to make sure you're medically stable!"
Little Tianshi blinked, missing the yell, as a transparent root surfaced next to the two others. The Binding energy flame was invisible to everyone else except her, the black network filling her eyes letting her bask in the strange glow. "Huh. Making a Binding energy flame takes double the energy as my Emerald one. Guess that makes sense, normally half of that mix is some other power type."
She felt a gentle smack on the head as Quan glared. "Stop. Doing. Stuff."
Flinching slightly, Tianshi sighed. "Sorry Elder Sister Quan, I was just so curious and... and." She blinked, her hand half way through her hair. "Why can my spiritual Martial Spirit touch my physical hair?"
The roots continued poking her head unconcerned as Sister Quan groaned in frustration.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Third Elder Cho just... put the reports down.
And sighed.
At least all the tests done WITHOUT Adam or his strange disciple were going fine. No strange changes, no jumps in cultivation base, all expected estimates and theoretical improvement rates matched the data models. A few children were starting to have hair color changes, but that was expected in the jade slip notes.
Her hand gestured and her service staff offered a green drink. It was a favorite, fruity but with a hint of spiritual energy.
Of course, when one LOOKED at the boy or his young protege, then things went off course. In fact 'There were unexpected events' was damn close to his guard's catch phrase at this stage.
Surviving death, activating his Martial Spirit, repairing his body and generating a dozen unheard of methods and techniques along the way. Reaching Third Order in less than a year while cultivating... and setting up a method for others to do the same. Not to mention a thousand smaller, impossible things as well.
A snap of her fingers had the green drink replaced with an orange one, the raw energy within forcing it to bubble slightly. This one stung to drink, but the aftertaste was warm and settling. It had a constant burn, and normally she only enjoyed these on colder days.
And that little girl. Near trash level Martial Spirit, shared the ultra-rare connection of power with her future Master, and somehow mutated her OWN Martial Spirit into some sort of half spiritual half physical construct. No doubt those strange, observable black roots that now saturated her system would also infiltrate her cultivation routes in the future. Only little Adam would know if this was a boon or a crippling unfixable issue.
With defeat, she snapped again. This drink was blood red, hurt to even be near, and would consume the glass if she waited to long to finish it... But at this point she needed something this strong. Anyone below Third Order Xiantian Warrior would die pretty quickly if they could endure the suffering long enough to drink it. Elder Cho always felt that it tasted a bit like watermelon. But on fire.
Her painful drinking break was interrupted by a group trying to enter the office. HER office. AGAIN. She finished the most recent sip with a settled sigh. "If the people entering are MORE DAMN GUARDS for my protected Sect member, I will literally begin to cut off body parts. If your supporting Elders object, they are next."
She glared at the paused door. "The child has Ninety-Nine Guards. Number one hundred gets castrated."
...The door closed.
Good.
Back to the drink.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked as he exited his room. "Are. There. More. Of. You?" Ooh, only a bit of blue fog! Not bad.
The dozens of guards shook their head. The one closest, a woman in tight heavy armor plating, made some hand signals.
He blinked. "Huh." Didn't know that 'Research' had translated the silent sign language at some point. Possibly while he was under that Enlightenment trance.
A few hand gestures of his own and they exchanged a bit of information.
These ninety-nine guards were mostly here for political reasons, but Third Elder Cho had managed to stop the flood. Otherwise there would have been more.
Adam hummed, blue smog floating away. "Will. Be. Following?"
A LOT of nods.
He shrugged. "Fine."
Now, off to see his fainting Disciple! SOMETHING Interesting must have happened.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam looked through the door.
Healer Jin and Sister Quan were trying to argue SOMETHING with his disciple.
Who was covered in thin black tentacles. Covered in green fire.
The energy being generated felt... lively? Maybe some variation of Nature.
Seeing a seven year old covered in flaming tentacles was a tad unusual though.
Adam coughed. "Hello?"
Oh good, his follower only flinched! As long as she didn't drop into a coma with every word he could work with this.
Might be best to stay calm though, no clue how she would react if he yelled or whatever. "Everything. Alright?"
Judging from the glares, no. Things were not alright.
His Disciple shuffled her feet. "Remember how the 'Gentle Rebirth Body Cultivation Technique' was supposed to safely fail to work when it needed another energy source? My Martial Spirit did something to keep it going instead."
A few quick explanations (rants) later from the two medical professionals, and Adam was pressing his right hand against little Tianshi's forehead.
Her Martial Spirit was previously unable to correctly interact with her, as expected. But when she had reached a high percentage of conversion, the hunger experienced DIDN'T cause the girl to lose focus and stop the process as expected.
Instead, it had awoken something in her Burning Black Betel Nut, the seed germinating and using the girl's cultivation potential and body as a rich planting bed. At this point her Martial Spirit was in a strange symbiotic relationship with his Disciple, unable to be summoned forth as it was partially physical, mostly conceptual.
Those strange black roots were not just feeding sources for the Betel Nut in her Heart, but a support network for both her body and spirit.
Some quick exploration... yes, the first three meridian routes described by the 'Houtian Realm First Order Essential Cultivation Method' were present, black roots following the future placement of her spiritual network.
Hmm. "Please. Practice. This." He handed over a finalized copy of the green jade slip containing 'Houtian Realm First Order Essential Cultivation Method'.
She blinked. "Uh." A blush. "I still can't read yet."
...Right, she was seven. "Sister. Quan. Please?"
The woman huffed. "Only if you confirm she is healthy FIRST. I have never HEARD of a Martial Spirit forming inside a Cultivator physically."
Adam chuckled. "Think. It. Is. Beneficial." He gestured. "Symbiotic. Relationship."
With an unconvinced glare... she sighed. "Very well. Come here, Sister Tianshi. I'll walk you through Adam's Essential Cultivation Method, it is easy enough to learn how to practice."
Adam nodded and walked over to Healer Jin. "I. Reached. Third. Order."
The grandfather like man nodded with a soft smile. "We heard! Congratulations are certainly in order."
He watched the woman teaching the girl how to absorb natural energy from the heavens. "I. Wish. To. Revisit. Knowledge. Repository."
Seeing the confusion, Adam continued. "To. Design. Fourth. Order. Essential. Method."
Well, THAT got some attention. Were these Sect Researchers always in the room? How were they harder to notice than those guards!?
Whatever. Adam had contribution points and he wanted to go spend some.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The Sect Store was both awesome and worthless.
Maybe Adam's attitude was a bit down because of the ninety-nine followers being 'subtle' and 'unnoticeable' as Adam moved around. At least Sister Quan didn't seem to notice them, so they were doing something right... Well, whatever.
Most of the stuff in the store was beyond worthless to Adam. He didn't need medical assistance improving his cultivation, these resources were mostly different spiritual energy type containers of varying quality. If other people could just rip out and store Spiritual Energy like Adam could, they would also find 80% or more of the products on sale to be worthless and lower quality.
That said, one of the more useful items was not only expensive but fairly rare: A Spiritual Stone. They varied by quality, but were natural occurring resources where stones were saturated by heavy flows of energy over long periods of time, conceptually modifying the rocky material into harder stuff that could save up that same power for Cultivators to use in formation arrays and while cultivating.
To Adam's eyes, it was different. Not quite Dust Crystals by any means, there were strange patterns and swirls of spiritual energy carved into the rock by the vast forces and pressures the material was exposed to underground. With approval from a higher up, the Sect Store actually revealed more powerful Spirit Stones to Adam for review, even if his low status in the Sect would normally require a lengthy proving period of loyalty first.
The more established this stone swirl was, the more powerful the energy. And the reason these stones vanished after use was how the power was released. When outside spiritual energy was applied to the stone, the edges would destabilize and release a portion of power by grinding away a section of spiral pattern.
Could he make these?
Maybe. Not at his current cultivation level though. Not without waiting hundreds of years while focusing his entire efforts and concentration on a small rock.
Lots of neat seeds though, which were far cheaper than the resulting plants and herbs because most cultivators didn't have the patience or ability to actually grow them. Some spiritual tree clippings were also available...
Well. He had to wait to get approval to access the second floor of the Sect Repository Pagoda anyway (BOO! DATA MUST BE FREED!)... and he hadn't had a chance to visit the Orphanage's protected garden either...
It should be fun!
Adam smiled as he began buying many various plants and handing them off to his massive goon squad of guards. Might as well make them carry this stuff and be useful.
Now, what memories did he have of Sect growing knowledge? Obviously 'Research' hadn't been focused on perfecting that data mess previously, so it would take a while to translate the goop of fancy gobbledygook into something usable. Like many careers, this branch of study had a whole lot of raw memorization due to how many plants were out there and how important their various handling methods were.
He hummed, ignored the blue smoke wafting away, and continued buying random things. Oh, a basic storage ring? Far smaller than the ones probably available on higher floors, and it cost a TON of points... why not. Things like this was probably why no one had pockets in their clothing. It was a few square feet of space (Cube) that... well, no idea how it worked really. Ooh, auto-resize for the user!? Why don't they put THAT on clothing?
He ignored the complaining eyes of his guards and continued to pass more purchase to their arms rather than stuff his new ring with random crap like that.
Maybe he could even buy some land to grow a bit of something for himself. A place to relax, if nothing else... yeah, that would be useful.
With a mental nod, he ensured 'Research' would cross reference the growing needs of the many plants with what Formation information and advancements he had gathered so far. If he was going to plant things, might as well add in some conceptual work to make the plants protect themselves and encourage growth, purification, blah blah blah. A bit of green life would also help his little Disciple in the future, based on what he could feel from her Martial Spirit.
Ooh, more plants!
He ignored the quiet groans of his guards as he bought more and more stuff. How fun!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
He leaned around the corner. "He's buying more stuff."
The sales assistant pouted. "I can't believe my shift ended RIGHT AS HE WALKED IN! The Burning Sage himself, spending points like they were worthless! Sister Zho's commission is going to be insane!"
Brother Chen hummed. "Oh... did he just buy a Sect Storage Ring?"
Her mouth dropped. "That... doesn't that cost 3,000,000 points?"
He shook his head. "That is the full model, with the ability to keep materials within preserved. Easily 13,000,000 contribution points."
The assistant frowned... and nodded. "We are making her buy drinks tonight. I know I've been forced to pay up on a big payday."
Brother Chen snorted. "We should be making her buy a bar or two, the boy is wandering over to the rare vegetation area. If he was allowed to the second purchasing floor, Sister Zho might have been able to retire at this rate."
Both fell quiet as the blue haired Sage casually picked up a dozen plants worth more than a year's paycheck without a pause, passing them to strange ghost-like guards that would vanish somewhere for some reason.
At least this was entertaining.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sister Tianshi tried to focus on the instructions provided by Sister Quan (Again) as she reinforced the method she was supposed to follow (again) to reach First Order Warrior level and establish a solid cultivation base (AGAIN). Again.
But... it seemed simple enough. Sure she couldn't read that jade slip herself yet, and that may cause problems eventually... but after seeing the images from the cultivation slip directly she realized that the needed paths were already outlined.
By her roots.
With an nod, she refocused. "Yes Sister, I will be careful."
Sister Quan looked at her... and sighed. "You zoned me out while I was talking, didn't you?"
CRAP! "Uh... No?"
Department Lead Jin chuckled, the nice old man patting her shoulder. "Let the girl try first before starting your explanation again. The other children had no issues, I'm sure little Tianshi will do just fine."
The older woman bit her lip... then pulled the child into a tight hug. "You be careful, Adam and I would feel terrible if anything goes wrong." She paused. "Well, I would feel terrible and Adam would probably ignore the problems and fix you by accident, but you know what I mean."
The girl gave a weak smile, warmth thick in her chest... and settled into a meditative form, sitting on the floor and focusing.
Her hungry cells had feasted for days up till now, her body nearly tripling in weight as the massive amount of material reinforced her bones, bulked up her muscles, and added structure to her organs. The 'Gentle Rebirth Body Cultivation Technique' WAS a body cultivation method after all, if would be STRANGE if she hadn't been enhanced far more than any normal seven year old.
Her Martial Spirit Pulsed... and bright Emerald Green energy began to flow along a circular path.
As her body tried to pull the energy off path, to be absorbed into her body and improve her abilities even further... the black roots on that same meridian route tugged the Green energy back on path.
Before she could blink a whole cycle was completed... then another, and another!
A green crystal like surface coated one of her many, many black roots. With those strange structures already established within her body, there was no stretching or straining, no pain or difficulties. Her cultivation route was already established, it just needed her Green energy to create the 'riverbed' that Adam had talked about... it almost fell into place automatically!
Before Tianshi could react, the Green energy compressed into thick Battle Qi mist and SMASHED into her black root filled meridian route, the stable and now established spiritual network path eager to accept both the freshly created Qi and the still flowing Green energy her Martial Spirit generated!
Her heart sped up as the excitement made her want to dance! Every cycle came more and more easy, even as she felt a different type of emptiness begin to ever so slowly fill up... she was a First Order Warrior now, and her energy was already trying to fill her meridian route with the needed energy to progress more!
A sharp CRACK made her look internally, seeing her Betel Nut... every so slightly open. As if to one day sprout... and the Green energy produced doubled!
Her limbs wanted to punch something.
She wanted to jump!
Sister Tianshi wanted to feel the sun! Activity! To feel Life!
A slight shift suddenly made the thick, stinky material coating her body crack slightly.
...Sister Tianshi wanted a bath.
Sister Quan and Healer Jin were both cheering. "Congratulations!" and "Well Done!", as if she wasn't a smelly dirty little person right now.
...Sister Tianshi wanted a hole to hide in.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked.
Uh. "Garden. Is. Huge."
Sister Quan paused in fussing over a very embarrassed little Tianshi, who was not sure how to handle so much positive reinforcement. Apparently, while she still needed to save up Battle Qi to reach each new Order of advancement, cultivation advancement itself was no problem. There was no reason for confusion or mistakes, because her Martial Spirit Routes were even now exploring all the various paths her meridian routes may follow and were slowly consolidating into the correct ones.
Not by choice or whatever, but by the nature of how spiritual networks develop naturally. The cultivation routes were the most efficient and easy method for spiritual energy to flow in a way, so eventually roots would follow similar paths. Probably.
It all matched up to what Adam's 'Research' suggested, anyway. She couldn't skip ahead or try and build the various cultivation tubes out of order or whatever, but there would be no pain and no 'carving new paths' for HIS disciple. Her Betel Nut roots did that all at once, as far as he could tell.
How this would affect her Martial Spirit evolution stages? Or the innate skill unlocked at Forth Order? No clue, but apparently the Third Elder was very interested in knowing.
At some point Adam wanted to meet the woman, busy as she clearly was.
Right now though, all he could think about was... how large things were in this Realm.
This 'garden' was more like a massive plantation. In every direction there were strange formations, crop rows, trees planted in odd places, and so forth. The massive protective walls they had just passed through to reach this place just... went off into the distance, both directions.
Thin, near invisible cords were in a grid far up in the air, 'invisible' Orphanage Guards making their way on patrols. Security formations at the gate had been so thick it had an actual TASTE when walking through them... and the energy being absorbed and released inside this paradise was heart pounding.
Healer Jin was resting, leaning on a strange cane Adam hadn't seen before. Was it covered in oil?
The man spoke up. "We support the Orphanage for obvious reasons of course, but also to ensure the medical plants best suited for our needs get priority handling and planting each year. Obviously, with a Sect as large as ours, we need quite a bit of space for things to properly grow."
Disciple Tianshi had escaped the fussing of Sister Quan at some point and was now hiding behind Adam, causing the older woman to pout.
Hmm. "Could. I. Get. Area. To. Grow?"
The Healer nodded. "It won't be near the entrance, but we have numerous plots of land for Medical students and future Gardeners to learn how to maintain spiritual crops without wasting effort and resources when they inevitably make mistakes. If a Medical or Gardener fails enough attempts, their allocated plot becomes available for someone else... I think it is this way."
Adam followed with caution, making sure not to touch any of the glowing formations they passed. Sister Quan pointed. "These are the short term cultivation sections, each year the oldest row gets harvest and the next one is planted."
He waved to the left. "Parsnips?"
She grinned. "Normal food of course is grown outside the walls, those will reach 10th year quality grade before they get collected. Deeper in the garden are the areas that get harvested every decade, every century, and so forth. More security there of course."
Healer Jin hummed. "My personal garden is much smaller of course, but thanks to my ancestors hard work is still becoming more valuable by the day. And rumors imply that the Patriarch himself has access to a Sect Leader only area with herbs over 10,000 years old!"
Sister Quan shrugged. "Those are dangerous to work with anyway, they can begin to transform into creature-like forms and escape. I've even heard some heaven quality pills were once found that had aged for SO LONG they could transform into tiny people and talk. Stuff like that is far too dangerous for our orphanage to handle, obviously."
Huh. So if Adam wasn't careful, his relaxation garden might wander off. Or try to eat him.
Thank goodness he was warned, his experiments had a history of getting out of hand as it was without random trees running away. Better be careful 'enhancing' the various herbs too, even if he found a way to improve them a lot Adam didn't want to watch a field of screaming onions being harvested or something.
The environment so far was pretty normal, at least compared to a few more distant land plots. A few had strange formations (Thanks 'Research' for storing this memory for later review) that changed the light levels, modified the humidity, or even attracted certain categories of energy... at a terribly slow rate.
Eventually though, Adam realized that after four hours of walking... they were no where CLOSE to leaving the 'low quality' herb area.
Damn this place was big. The distant wall wasn't even visible... and that darker area may just be different plants, not the actual edge of the planting zones.
...Bet he could do something neat with such a large space.
With a grin, 'Research' began carefully adding observational data as the group passed these oh so interesting (and maybe restricted information) formations.
Since he hadn't been able to visit the Repository, this would have to do.
Last edited:
- Location
- Here
...I was tempted to change it to 'Thirteen milliooon' just to mess with you. Thanks though!
- Location
- Scotland
I enjoyed the chapter but a couple of things caught my eye.
This doesn't quite read right to me, I think it should probably be ultra-rare.
Unless the tendrils are metallic this should probably be thin.
Unless the hug involved the application of medications (which in this context is surprisingly plausible) this should be dragged, or possibly drew if they're being gentle about it.
tehcrash
Apprentice Supervillain
- Location
- Seattle-ish
When has any experiment Adam's done turned out poorly? The entire notion is ridiculous.
Hmm. Cutting onions makes cooks cry, so it would be fitting for the onions to cry as well.
- Status