Broken Adventure
- Thread starter theaceoffire
- Start date
- Crossover
- Status
- Location
- That place where I live?
I don't understand what that has to do with anything at all relevant to this thread
Vhalidictes
(Verified Demon)
- Location
- Las Vegas
Isn't that Little Tianshi?
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
That would be a bit awkward since they just went out on what looks like a date.
(They went to a festival,
One thing that I've been waiting for since he got it, is for Adam to use his Biological powers to design creatures(like plants and bacteria that eat pollution) that are basically super powered in their designs and uses, but still fit into the natural order. A lot of his focus has been technological in the story, followed by his more magical powers, despite both having biological applications and uses.
The largest use beyond his own body so far in the story is in the current realm, with his various cultivation techniques and the Bickens. But he could go full on creating spree and make dozens of Very useful organisms, which don't even have to be biologically based! The Baku Rangers are spirits that he made mostly by accident. If he was trying, he could probably make a plant that absorbs both literal and conceptual Pollution, purifying an area as they pollenate or something.
There are of course, various hazards to messing with organisms in a cultivation realm, with his previous ridiculous caution with plants having been recently adressed, why not add in some Qi filled environments for a couple heavily modified creatures to see what happens?
Edit: Forgot to mention his healing stations and various enhancements back in Worm, both those were made, and then left so people weren't overwhelmed. We were So, So close to super alchemy, which I always love, even if the system basically does the same damn thing. I need some super potions lol.
This may or may not come from my love of real life biology and creatures, and the fact that I love all the possibilities he's discovering
The largest use beyond his own body so far in the story is in the current realm, with his various cultivation techniques and the Bickens. But he could go full on creating spree and make dozens of Very useful organisms, which don't even have to be biologically based! The Baku Rangers are spirits that he made mostly by accident. If he was trying, he could probably make a plant that absorbs both literal and conceptual Pollution, purifying an area as they pollenate or something.
There are of course, various hazards to messing with organisms in a cultivation realm, with his previous ridiculous caution with plants having been recently adressed, why not add in some Qi filled environments for a couple heavily modified creatures to see what happens?
Edit: Forgot to mention his healing stations and various enhancements back in Worm, both those were made, and then left so people weren't overwhelmed. We were So, So close to super alchemy, which I always love, even if the system basically does the same damn thing. I need some super potions lol.
This may or may not come from my love of real life biology and creatures, and the fact that I love all the possibilities he's discovering
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Had a thought randomly. Adam loves to connect his powers and cover his bases with redundancies, to make sure that he doesn't haven't a Fatal Flaw that will cause him to collapse, and this has been done Very well.
Part of the reason why we've seen so little biological work outside his own body might be morally based. He could be afraid of walking the 'slippery slope' of biological experimentation and study, especially with how thorough and varied his methods are. Once he actually deliberately Creates or even designs life, that's taking a lot of power into his own hands. A situation which has lead to a God Complex many times in the multiverse, and the potential results of such a thing.
Examples include: God Emperor of Man making Space Marines and Primarchs, Guardians in DC making the Manhunters, Star Wars with the Force Bio-metal Plague(not actual name) and the Artifact that makes Space Ghouls(also not actual name), Fallout and Super Mutants, Orks in 40k, Bizarro in DC, Doomsday of DC, The Lizard from Marvel, shit Mutants in Marvel where created by either Celestials or another -insert cosmic entity-, etc
All are cases where someone wanted to tinker with life, and various factors turned it into a horror upon the world.
So there is a real chance things go south if he doesn't go full paranoid when handling them. But with all the changes he's bringing as he travels, and the knowledge he gains, he has to put it to some use beyond just his body, as someone else is eventually going to do that. If he runs into the Zerg or Tyrannids, he'll still have other immense abilities to counteract them, but having actual working biological knowledge will make it so much easier.
Plus, I think Adam's ladies, friends, and even employees need to force him to realize what a support base he has. He has so many people to help and watch over him, to prevent things from going wrong and to talk with him, that he hasn't really used. Hell, even his own soul has something he can talk to and understand. I might be missing something, but I don't believe Adam has discussed the BURDEN of his powers, only what he can do and why he does things, often very briefly. Power is great, but when you're not completely stupid evil and can function in a society, it places a burden that has broken the Strongest entities people could find in the multiverse. He needs to have a deep talk about this, as his need to constantly do something may actually be his unconscious method of Avoiding this problem, and trying to essentially bury it under his 'work'.
This man can build a successful multi-dimensional empire with HALF of the ability he has. Dude needs to spend quality time with loved ones to break down, vent, and healthily handle his problems before coming back stronger than ever. The trick will be getting him to realize and agree to this, as his reality disconnect, while funny, is probably a sign of this problem and isolating himself.
That's enough from me, I already blab too much at once, appreciate you guys reading what I say and not telling me to dial it back.
Until the next word vomit!
Part of the reason why we've seen so little biological work outside his own body might be morally based. He could be afraid of walking the 'slippery slope' of biological experimentation and study, especially with how thorough and varied his methods are. Once he actually deliberately Creates or even designs life, that's taking a lot of power into his own hands. A situation which has lead to a God Complex many times in the multiverse, and the potential results of such a thing.
Examples include: God Emperor of Man making Space Marines and Primarchs, Guardians in DC making the Manhunters, Star Wars with the Force Bio-metal Plague(not actual name) and the Artifact that makes Space Ghouls(also not actual name), Fallout and Super Mutants, Orks in 40k, Bizarro in DC, Doomsday of DC, The Lizard from Marvel, shit Mutants in Marvel where created by either Celestials or another -insert cosmic entity-, etc
All are cases where someone wanted to tinker with life, and various factors turned it into a horror upon the world.
So there is a real chance things go south if he doesn't go full paranoid when handling them. But with all the changes he's bringing as he travels, and the knowledge he gains, he has to put it to some use beyond just his body, as someone else is eventually going to do that. If he runs into the Zerg or Tyrannids, he'll still have other immense abilities to counteract them, but having actual working biological knowledge will make it so much easier.
Plus, I think Adam's ladies, friends, and even employees need to force him to realize what a support base he has. He has so many people to help and watch over him, to prevent things from going wrong and to talk with him, that he hasn't really used. Hell, even his own soul has something he can talk to and understand. I might be missing something, but I don't believe Adam has discussed the BURDEN of his powers, only what he can do and why he does things, often very briefly. Power is great, but when you're not completely stupid evil and can function in a society, it places a burden that has broken the Strongest entities people could find in the multiverse. He needs to have a deep talk about this, as his need to constantly do something may actually be his unconscious method of Avoiding this problem, and trying to essentially bury it under his 'work'.
This man can build a successful multi-dimensional empire with HALF of the ability he has. Dude needs to spend quality time with loved ones to break down, vent, and healthily handle his problems before coming back stronger than ever. The trick will be getting him to realize and agree to this, as his reality disconnect, while funny, is probably a sign of this problem and isolating himself.
That's enough from me, I already blab too much at once, appreciate you guys reading what I say and not telling me to dial it back.
Until the next word vomit!
Arc 2: Unseen Pressure, Returning to Sect.
- Location
- Here
The trip back to the Burning Sword Sect clarified something important to Adam.
He had been too obvious. Too unusual.
Something was reacting to his existence, even if it had taken almost a whole year for whatever it was to notice. Or maybe... maybe it was attracted by his most recent actions.
The most obvious example of evidence?
This. Crazy. Shit.
Even before leaving the mountain city, he had been getting something similar to 'quests'. Find my pet, help a lost child find their sibling, help poor family find rumored treasure in a hidden valley, said valley was full of some sort of lightning spirits, kill the local monster pack, etc etc.
And yes, at first he was fine just accepting them all and spending his free time doing experiments and improving the tattoo network.
There was time to waste anyway, since the Guards and Sister Quan were bartering for new plants for the Caverns, since animal testing was put on hold for several reasons. Why not help out a few people?
But the more Adam did directly, the worse things got.
It took Rockette to notice the pattern, but if he accepted a trial or filled a request, two or three more would show up in an hour or less. Unusual problems would show up, strange people caught, unknown schemes exposed...
Yet, if he assigned a guard to do one of the tasks?
Nothing.
The issue would be handled in less than ten minutes, they would get paid or thanked, and that would be it.
Everyone happy, no fluffy attack bats, no cultivator trying to scare local children to increase his sales of portable lamps, nothing! And even if the same guard did a dozen 'missions', THEY didn't get a dozen more requests like he was suffering under!
By the time the team was leaving the mountain, Adam was sending the five off duty guards on a dozen missions an hour, their work earning all kinds of strange payments and rewards... and NOTHING was going wrong.
As long as he stayed out of it.
Little Tianshi found it hilarious. She was watching via Rockette as the guards were being sent to shady alleys, rare forest groves, haunted caves, treasured valleys, mythical locations with mysterious clues... and then? Nothing. Nothing happened.
Then Adam would say to himself 'I must have been imagining things!', decide to help someone comb their horse, and it would explode into cheese or something. Evil cheese.
So yeah, Adam was hiding inside Rockette for the next... who knew how long, by popular demand. At least Rockette was having fun in the flaming wagon while the lead guard drove homewards.
Oh, he still got stuff done and was trying some new formation work... but if he left Rockette for a moment, even to just walk a bit or share a meal? Some odd plant would attack, or a creature would try to poop on everyone, he would fall into a hidden pit of slimes, or something.
As for WHY things had started getting so bad? Well, he had a theory.
Adam sighed in his Cultivation Cave within Rockette, the tattoo design editors put aside as he once again felt within the foam between the unseen.
These space and time pockets, these empty bubbles of foam... well, he had a theory focused on this.
All this time, when he had been zooming inwards? Viewing the boundaries closer and closer until he found pockets that were of a useful size to his work? He had sort of ignored some basic considerations in that process.
For example, it wasn't like the foam bubbles stopped existing in smaller forms at the level he was working with.
Even now, the smallest pockets had boundaries of their own with more foam. It was trivial to find ever smaller and smaller bubbles, useless to his needs yet existing, forever and ever.
So... what about the other direction?
His theory, one that he dared not test for fear of drawing even more dangerous attention, was that those largest bubbles were but foam on even larger and larger pockets.
And that if one kept zooming out, eventually, one would see these infinite layers of foam as what they were: A boundary.
Separation, between what is and what isn't.
Inside and outside.
Or, as he secretly pondered? The boundary on the outside of a living cell.
Cultivators could ascend after all, and eventually develop an inner space or Realm. There were stories of some places where whole civilizations were transmigrated into a powerful people's soul, becoming sources of worship and power in return for protection or more.
Of worlds within grains of sand, universes in a drop of dew.
If there was some entity that was so unimaginably large that the barriers between proteins contained infinite recursive space and time pockets in the foam... it would explain what was going on now.
Because Adam had been poking it.
And initially, he had poked it on a MUCH higher level than his own. Far, far beyond the pockets that cultivators searched for and used in this Plane.
So, this wave of... narrative issues? This field of 'USE ME' that Adam was being targeted by?
It felt like an automatic immune response. Or, of some unconscious layer of reality higher up that was trying to focus downwards on him.
If he gave in and personally got involved in everything, it would either kill him (unlikely), or force him to advance his cultivation enough to ascend a few dimensions. A sort of unwritten balancing force on this Realm, that kept powerful people from acting as tyrants and gods on lower levels.
Which was a bit freaky.
SO, Adam was staying inside, letting whatever the hell was trying to make him a main character wander away (Hopefully), and giving time for whatever he had accidentally poked to lose interest or misplace the targeting information.
The Foam was infinite, after all... if he stayed under the radar, he could hide forever.
He didn't let this situation stop him from playing with the tattoos and local Foam however.
Sticking to the stuff roughly at his level of size (Up to maybe a galaxy or whatever) would probably not draw further attention... those pockets got accessed, modified, and destroyed all the time under his senses. It was how some minor worlds and such 'treasures' connected to this Plane, how secret cultivation Realms could sometime appear once in a century or so.
And seriously, those first space pockets he 'touched'? Huge. Beyond large.
Shifting his body and letting spiritual energy soak his bones (Because why not at this point), Adam sighed and focused on cultivation. Thankfully, the next steps were easy enough... from Seventh Order up to Tenth Order it was all about increasing the internal Battle Qi density inside his spiritual network, every increase preparation for transforming his gas like inner energy into liquid form.
The liquid Qi used far less per technique but released way more energy in the process, it was a major road block for cultivators and made it easy to outlast and overpower cultivators at lower levels. Right now Adam was deliberately slowing the whole process down, forcing his internal energies to continue to enhance his system and meridian routes instead of pushing onto the next steps.
Because if he advanced too far, too fast, under THIS kind of unseen observation?
He... he might have to leave.
The man in a crystal cave slumped slightly.
Wandering around, looking for treasure, finding adventure? That was cool.
But being FORCED into events, no matter how well intentioned? It can all go south quick.
There were movies, books, comics, plays... thousands of them, where the hero got NO pause. No break. No real 'Happy Ever After' until all the stories stopped.
Save the kingdom? Aliens attack. Defeat the villain? Their son comes back for revenge.
Save royalty? Your princess is in another castle.
Seriously, there were whole categories of stories where bad things never. stop. happening.
He thought back to past fiction he had read (Or did he? Might be another implanted memory.) where the main character got sick. And betrayed. And attacked. And lost people. And failed to save the day. Same girl the whole time too, and she was insulted by everyone on top of it!
Hell, Inuyasha himself was a lesser version of this trope. Boy was a moron through lack of education and guidance, mean through betrayal and schemes, and the series used him as the but of jokes to 'lighten things up', even though he had nearly no parenting and was being assaulted most of his life. Maybe.
He found his memories on that world were a bit fuzzy... then again, he had been sleeping most of that visit.
Thankfully, this reality wasn't a focused grim dark nightmare like others. Lots of good people died, but it was more a power fantasy... in general, things would go alright. Bad things would become benefits, kidnapped lovers would either be saved in time or be taken to some rare encounter and find a famous teacher or immense treasure.
Well, if you were the main character. Rules were a bit more unforgiving for background people, and there were suggestions of some truly evil shit if you looked carefully at some of the off comments the hero ignores.
That said? How could he learn anything if he was hounded by missions? If every meal was interrupted by quest hooks and urgent needs? Forget having time to examine stuff, or do research out there.
Worse, what if these 'last minute save' situations he kept bumping into were being retroactively CAUSED by this... whatever it was?
Because statistically, at least one of these quests that Adam handed off should have ALSO found something unusual or astounding. Not just the ones that HE picked personally.
Even when he selected a task while hidden inside his Martial Spirit, unusual results would happen once he attempted to follow through outside...
And he couldn't just hide here forever, because he DID have a mission.
Conceptual cultivation was going to be the foundational base of his new System.
Adam glanced at his notes, stored in his personal Tattoo mark. The ones that wouldn't be shared with the Sects, built on his private Rockette network that would hook in secretly in the background to all the other marks.
His plan felt solid, as far as he could tell. Concepts were not quite part of the Soul, or genetics, or even space and time. Some could exist before they were discovered, or last after all those that crafted it passed away... it was a stabilized and secure building base far more suited for the System.
Because if he did this right, then Adam wouldn't be required for ensuring future success! If his people got sent through time or reality, if he lost them somehow... they wouldn't lose the support he was building.
Even if cloned. Even if reincarnated. Even if sent to an afterlife where Adam couldn't follow.
Most importantly, if parts of the System were incompatible with local reality? The Concepts behind it would adapt as much as possible to use local alternatives. After all, you might not be able to make a sandwich out of rock or lasers... but you can make the CONCEPT of a sandwich out of anything!
It was like art, in a way. Tell the universe, 'This is what I need', and let reality explain to the System how it can be done.
He moved more test data around as 'Research' chewed away. The illusionary holograms, projected into his mind via Rockette's Tattoo modules, showed dozens of transparent windows displaying code, representation of elements, energies, modules, floating keyboard and mentally controlled mouse available if he didn't want to just mentally control it all directly.
This wouldn't be quick. According to 'Research', the bare framework would take decades to finish at the most optimistic rates... but he had the time to work on this. Lifespan would not be an issue.
If.
If he could keep working here.
Yet should Adam be unable to get reality to stop trying to squish him or use him as a tool...
He may have to leave this Realm early. Before death. Before even really getting started.
It was against ALL his plans! His ideas, his goals! The frustration was making his body burn as he focused on his notes.
So. Options. What could he do?
First, he was letting the guards and Sister Quan carry Rockette home. It would take weeks without him using his massive cheaty speed tricks to make progress, but that was fine. But hopefully time, space, and avoiding the local pocket would let this... whatever it was pass along and leave him alone.
Which... unfortunately, was probably unlikely. If this was some sort of response from higher levels of foam, then traveling anywhere in this infinite Plane would be a miniscule change.
And even if it worked? That might take decades. Or longer. Depends on what was behind this.
So no. He would try anyway, but this was the least likely workaround.
Second consideration, a local reincarnation. A brainless clone or someone who was near death and willing to make a deal. He would have Rockette enter their body after their Martial Spirit passes on as well, then use his techniques to get that body back into shape.
Painful, time consuming, he would have to rebuild his cultivation from scratch (Annoying!), and it would cause issues with ethics and the Sect. But possible. Maybe. If being reborn this way didn't just end up feeling the same to higher levels once his body was remodeled to match his Soul and Martial Spirit.
On the other hand, that option might expose him entirely to this unseen scrutiny, without the protection of a Soul and body connection.
So... no, not likely.
The third and final option? The Abyss. A dangerous Transfer.
He would have FAR less control than a usual jump, almost no protection like normal, as his power from Squishy was mostly spent GETTING here. Not to mention that 'Transfer' wasn't intentionally included with his Soul Shard, so it may act... VERY quirky.
And to get away without unseen followers, he may have to have Rockette send a fragment in his place, leaving him living here for the rest of his life as planned while the new fragment attempted to draw away the focus of reality.
Yet honestly, that option was the one he felt most comfortable with.
It would have consequences, as expected.
According to Research, local Adam would lose the ability to advance his cultivation further.
His 'potential' and 'future' would move on to the next Realm, obviously. It would have to if he wanted to be convincing to any voyeurs.
His local shard abilities, 'Growth', 'Purification', and 'Research' would significantly lower in power, as their main cores left with his future self... And they might need to be modified in the new Realm just to remain stable after being damaged. Which would suck.
But he would then be able to live here, with his Disciple and his Sect. He would still have Rockette, he would still have the Crystal Caverns, absolute energy control, his abilities in general. Power? His Martial Spirit generated it. Age? Optional. Death?
VERY unlikely.
And at the end of it all, when everyone began to die and pass away... he would come home. To his other family, to be rejoined with the Adam far way and likely having gifted the guy a MASSIVE headache from experiencing a lifetime of memories.
...Adam paused. Huh.
Actually, if he did choose to travel again to escape this situation... it was likely that his future selves would do something similar. It could be dozens, or thousands... millions of lifetimes, all being sent home to reincorporate as one.
...Meh, sucks to be him. THIS Adam was going to be king of the Sect, with a lifetime of conceptual investigation and experiments! Surrounded by friends, researchers, and his awesome tattoo network!
In fact, screw it! When he became a Saint, he would send the shard off anyway. Any stronger than that and his body might get forced to head off to some other planet or plane that could handle that level of power.
Or he would start attracting attention that would put his loved ones in danger, or call some powerful calamity down on the Sect. Better to hack himself rather than risk that issue.
Although it was a bit odd to consider how out of touch he was compared to the locals.
Really, how many people would willingly cripple their path to godhood or higher to spend more time with weaker loved ones? Can't be that many, and it strongly goes against the Cultivator culture in general. 'I shall fight against the Heavens! Oh wait, nah I be good.' Heh.
Then again, most people couldn't make their loved ones younger, supply infinite food, water, and cultivation resources, and make powerful foes pop by forcing too much energy into their spiritual network. So he might be a special situation. Meh.
Now to try and make something similar to the internet using pocket dimensions, ink, and a custom formation programming language. Good times!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sister Quan sighed as the massive gates of the Burning Sword Sect slowly came into view. "Finally."
The five guards nodded, while Rockette was in Sister Quan's lap being hugged. Everyone else was in the Caverns.
The journey had turned... odd. Ever since the ritual on Mount Kirin went strange, more and more things just started getting in the group's way. Brother Adam had a theory that the world was hunting him, the rest of the group strongly believed that it was due to the rumors being spread about the boy by the merchant caravan they had just finished traveling with.
Because stories of a powerful boy, with unlimited strange items and food? Yeah, that stands out.
Either way, the trip back had been full of tiny, mostly boring adventures... As long as Brother Adam stayed out of it.
None of that mattered now, though. "We need to report to Elder Cho first."
The guards nodded again and they moved onward.
After checking into the mission hall and doing a bit more paperwork than expected... the group ended up in a fairly nice office, looking at the young appearing but world weary Elder as she looked over piles of reports.
Elder Cho tapped the table as she read the papers.
...Several times.
Leaning back in her chair, she looked at the tiny blue floating rock girl on the table.
Rockette was happily picking up a report, carrying it to other piles, and placing them randomly. "Ding!"
Not that the little one knew what the piles meant. She could read, it was just more fun to make a mess.
Elder Cho sighed. "Lock down the room."
Invisible people left, the empty room was more empty, and numerous barriers locked things down. Hard.
Sister Quan held back a gulp. "Elder?"
The woman sighed. "I need everyone but Brother Chongsheng to vacate these... 'Crystal Caverns' within young Rockette."
The tiny rock held up both arms floating in circles. "Ding!"
The older woman gave a small smile. "Brother Adam then." She sighed. "This will need to be escalated far, so everyone else besides the little one and Brother Adam will have to wait here. I will have supplies delivered." She glanced at the lead guard. "You know the procedure?"
The armored woman gave a sharp nod. "Yes Elder!"
Elder Cho stood with a sigh. "Well, best get this over with."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The Patriarch of the Burning Sword Sect was... a little confused. "And he is... inside the tiny elemental?"
Elder Cho nodded, little Rockette's tiny arms playing with her hair. "This is his Martial Spirit. Formerly the spirit crystal Shard I mentioned."
He held back a frown, trying to feel the situation out with his spiritual senses.
...Considering that Brother Adam's ability was absolute energy control, it wasn't so surprising that he was unable to feel anything.
Annoying, but not surprising.
He stepped closer. There were members of the sect taller than him, if few, but towering over the tiny child like rock being made him feel oversized. He bowed anyway. "Greetings, Rockette of Brother Chongsheng."
She waved.
He glanced at the Elder. "And she will handle transportation?"
The woman nodded. "After debriefing the entire group, I was given documentation of a full tour and detailed responses to my questioning. I can verify the location is safe to any ally of Brother Adam, that the destination is secure from intrusion or assault, and that the various members of his team have temporarily vacated the area."
...Huh. "Temporarily?"
She nodded. "The entire group of guards have begun transferring to become permanent members of his security detail. Having seen the resources and secure nature of the facilities, I admit that I would be tempted to migrate as well. At the very least, I fully support allowing Brother Adam to make significant changes in the Sect if he can duplicate some of the advancements he has managed there."
Considering the resources spent to lock down his meditation chamber for a second time, it BETTER live up to the reports. If he hadn't gone through a dozen protocols to verify Elder Cho's mental status and identity, he would have assumed this to be yet another assassination attempt.
A glance at the provided ring though... The benefits, theoretical or otherwise, were just too high. Sects had died for less potential gain, and even if the idea of allowing himself to be under the control of another and transported away from this secured facility bothered him... well, cultivators had to have willpower to become as strong as himself.
A nod. "Then please send us both."
...It was hard to remain stoic when crystal teeth began to rise from the ground beneath him, but it was mentioned in the reports.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked.
Elder Cho and some tall old guy (Probably the Patriarch) had just shown up in the Caverns. Observation floor, it felt like. Ah, he had the ring... yeah, that was the Patriarch.
It took a second to finish his current notes, close the module windows, and head up there. "Elder Cho! Lovely to have you visit."
The woman had a wry smile. "Brother Adam, I would like to introduce you to our Patriarch... who has come to discuss your new advances."
The man himself reached down and had a surprisingly warm smile. "Young Chongsheng, I can not stress how much paperwork you've managed to accumulate for my people these last few months."
Ah. Oops? "Sorry?"
He chuckled. "No no no, don't waste time with that. I've always had a personal belief that the strain of cultivation only allows the eccentric to advance... no average or normal person can defy the heavens after all!" His gaze was wandering. "Such spiritual energy here... It is astounding, reports or no!"
Meh, he hasn't seen the cultivation caves yet. "So... I guess we should start with a tour? And please, call me Brother Adam."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The tour took a while.
The Soil grid? Mild interest.
The (still being grown) ore veins? Well, it looked like mostly empty caves, so... move on.
The farms? The man was fascinated, and the tour was put on hold as he and Elder Cho debated about how much if any of the plants Adam was willing to share should actually be transplanted for the Sect to grow externally.
It heavily depended on what was going to be used for trade, as those items had to be shown to exist somewhere or people would get suspicious. Maybe even let a few plants get stolen so others with Adam's abilities could waste time duplicating his work over a few generations.
The Four Eye Flame Bulls and their baby Bickens? Oh yeah, the Sect leader was beyond willing to invest in the herd. Adam was pretty much assured a massive land donation for pasture modification just from this one advancement alone!
Infinite source of Spirit Energy?
Infinite amounts of Soul Water?
The Yin Yang Cycle Pond?
...Uh. Yeah, Adam was getting a bit concerned about how quiet the Patriarch was becoming.
The man turned. "You can't share this. Any of this. Young Cho was correct to tell you and your guards to keep this secret... even rumors of the situation would place targets on our people."
Adam sighed. "Too much of a good thing?"
A nod.
The boy frowned. "Fine. Still, we can ensure the Sect can benefit from this. The Tattoo network has some optional modules I've been working on... ones that can capture Spirit Energy, filter it into units, use one type of unit to convert into one more useful to the cultivator, and so forth. We can use that as a cover, creating an energy market for our Sect members to sell spiritual energy to each other... and I can secretly build up unique unit reserves for the Sect's treasury."
The Patriarch frowned. "How much power can you spare without damaging your cultivation? I won't sacrifice your future to gain short term profit."
Elder Cho snorted. "The boy probably won't even notice the difference. He practically spouts raw power by accident. More importantly, can we use that option to cleanse the energies around the sect? Have our people capture the low level energies around and then release the purified and consolidated energies afterwards?"
Adam thought... then nodded. "I had to make an export method so we could sell energy units outside the Sect anyway. Came up with a modified crystal pattern. We will lose some energy converting power into a custom spirit stone design I came up with, but once it stabilizes you can use it for all sorts of stuff. Sister Quan suggested using it for pill creation or equipment forging."
The man hummed. "May I see a sample?"
Both adults stood there staring as Adam held up a perfectly round stone glowing green, the size of a grape.
Elder Cho accepted the rock, her hand barely shaking at all. "This... this is far more pure than any spirit stone I've seen before. And what is this energy type?"
Adam started showing more and more glowing rocks. "That one was what I consider to be 'Nature energy', or more accurately, 'Garden energy' collected from my Soil Grid farms. Actual 'Nature Energy' isn't that green, because it includes energies from the environment and the animals in the area."
The Patriarch accepted a few other stones, his spiritual senses examining them. "...Trying to price these is going to be a nightmare. How many types are you producing?"
He shrugged. "Out of all the spiritual energy I produce, half I keep for personal use and the other half is converted into these things. Every time I find an energy type I don't recognise, I purify enough to create a useful sample for me to build up for future needs and add it to the list of production."
Adam waved, a wall of rocks floating behind him shifting in pattern and color. "There are thousands of stone types so far, and tens of thousands that are currently delayed while trace elements are being built up until I can get enough to work with reliably."
Adam waived the hand upward. "My Domain is still collecting heaven and earth energies from the sky, and I get all kinds of odd energy traces from up there. Many types aren't even stable enough for me to identify. Yet."
He continued walking, ignoring the other two as they continued to examine the glowing objects. "I'll be honest though, I think it will be much safer and more profitable for the Sect to sell stuff like the new Storage Rings. They cost WAY less to make after all the research I had to do getting this Tattoo network setup."
Seriously, Adam had done SO MUCH WORK getting this Tattoo mess sorted.
Designing techniques to safely make formation development tools, instructing the formation tools to correctly set up the needed space pockets, crafting the new Formation Scripting Language and the associated 'Compiler/Deployment' formation pattern to affect the outside world correctly...
After all THAT trouble, crafting a basic Storage Ring from near worthless materials was a snap.
Hell, if you had a working Tattoo node available and a few development modules installed, you could easily mass produce things of far better quality than currently treasured by the Sect. It would crater the market... well, at least it would outside the Sect.
They would have the superior Tattoo storage modules after all, why bother with easily stolen rings?
That didn't even count the stranger stuff he made while experimenting, like the rings that sorted materials rather than storing them or the ones that filtered energies and what not. And he hadn't touched time pockets yet... especially not now when something beyond local reality was puting narrative pressure on the whole area.
Adam hummed. "That said, I'm afraid the Tattoos I've already designed might not work correctly on the more advanced cultivators." He glanced at the Patriarch. "At higher levels, the body becomes more and more conceptual and energy based. Tattoos or formations of any kind would warp or be modified too easily, and I doubt anyone THAT powerful would accept a pattern being applied to their Soul or equivalent. They would only be able to safely use customized rings like the one I passed to Elder Cho."
The Patriarch hummed, looking at his ring. "Considering that many fights can destroy high level cultivator's bodies in the process, it would be unlikely that the regrown parts would still possess the needed markings. It is why normal skin art never really became popular with cultivation experts... too easily lost compared to an object or two that can be easily hidden away or replaced."
Adam grimaced. "Yeah, I've lost a lot of skin and muscles in past fights... If Rockette didn't possess direct access to MY marking, I would have real difficulties testing stuff as it is. My Cultivation Cells can be forced to stay in the right shape... but they tend to shift a bit when I train to become more effective and enhanced."
Not to mention his internal fears that cultivation breakthroughs would force him to replace his own Tattoo access node each and every time. For one person? Easy! For ALL high level cultivators? Never ending, boring, unappreciated busy work. He could charge for the maintenance work maybe... but he didn't really need more wealth. To him, his time was more valuable.
At least he could design methods or supply tools to easily repair, duplicate, or replace 'Tattoo Rings' easily enough. The less work for Adam, the better!
Eventually the tour ended in the eating area of the Caverns, Adam sharing some of the more delicious cultivation dishes that Sister Quan and the guards had developed as they began talking brass tacks, as it where. The fine details.
...Sadly, as time passed, Adam found himself stuck with more and more negotiations than expected.
His original goal of 'Dump it all on upper management' was turning into more a 'Construct a framework for Management to work with'... and it was looking like it would take forever. Even with a lack of desire for profit (And the paperwork that goes with it), it barely made a dent in the talking involved with the complexity of these life changing suggestions.
After SEVERAL painful, slow hours... they had to take a break so Elder Cho could release his friends from protective custody and everyone (Besides Adam, thankfully) could go through the security protocols that were involved with temporarily kidnapping the leader of a Sect to do secret negotiations.
...The same negotiations that Elder Cho estimated would take literal weeks. Maybe months.
And that was the ultra fast, expedited method!
Damn it. Both these old people should go away and let him science up some time pockets!
He had been too obvious. Too unusual.
Something was reacting to his existence, even if it had taken almost a whole year for whatever it was to notice. Or maybe... maybe it was attracted by his most recent actions.
The most obvious example of evidence?
This. Crazy. Shit.
Even before leaving the mountain city, he had been getting something similar to 'quests'. Find my pet, help a lost child find their sibling, help poor family find rumored treasure in a hidden valley, said valley was full of some sort of lightning spirits, kill the local monster pack, etc etc.
And yes, at first he was fine just accepting them all and spending his free time doing experiments and improving the tattoo network.
There was time to waste anyway, since the Guards and Sister Quan were bartering for new plants for the Caverns, since animal testing was put on hold for several reasons. Why not help out a few people?
But the more Adam did directly, the worse things got.
It took Rockette to notice the pattern, but if he accepted a trial or filled a request, two or three more would show up in an hour or less. Unusual problems would show up, strange people caught, unknown schemes exposed...
Yet, if he assigned a guard to do one of the tasks?
Nothing.
The issue would be handled in less than ten minutes, they would get paid or thanked, and that would be it.
Everyone happy, no fluffy attack bats, no cultivator trying to scare local children to increase his sales of portable lamps, nothing! And even if the same guard did a dozen 'missions', THEY didn't get a dozen more requests like he was suffering under!
By the time the team was leaving the mountain, Adam was sending the five off duty guards on a dozen missions an hour, their work earning all kinds of strange payments and rewards... and NOTHING was going wrong.
As long as he stayed out of it.
Little Tianshi found it hilarious. She was watching via Rockette as the guards were being sent to shady alleys, rare forest groves, haunted caves, treasured valleys, mythical locations with mysterious clues... and then? Nothing. Nothing happened.
Then Adam would say to himself 'I must have been imagining things!', decide to help someone comb their horse, and it would explode into cheese or something. Evil cheese.
So yeah, Adam was hiding inside Rockette for the next... who knew how long, by popular demand. At least Rockette was having fun in the flaming wagon while the lead guard drove homewards.
Oh, he still got stuff done and was trying some new formation work... but if he left Rockette for a moment, even to just walk a bit or share a meal? Some odd plant would attack, or a creature would try to poop on everyone, he would fall into a hidden pit of slimes, or something.
As for WHY things had started getting so bad? Well, he had a theory.
Adam sighed in his Cultivation Cave within Rockette, the tattoo design editors put aside as he once again felt within the foam between the unseen.
These space and time pockets, these empty bubbles of foam... well, he had a theory focused on this.
All this time, when he had been zooming inwards? Viewing the boundaries closer and closer until he found pockets that were of a useful size to his work? He had sort of ignored some basic considerations in that process.
For example, it wasn't like the foam bubbles stopped existing in smaller forms at the level he was working with.
Even now, the smallest pockets had boundaries of their own with more foam. It was trivial to find ever smaller and smaller bubbles, useless to his needs yet existing, forever and ever.
So... what about the other direction?
His theory, one that he dared not test for fear of drawing even more dangerous attention, was that those largest bubbles were but foam on even larger and larger pockets.
And that if one kept zooming out, eventually, one would see these infinite layers of foam as what they were: A boundary.
Separation, between what is and what isn't.
Inside and outside.
Or, as he secretly pondered? The boundary on the outside of a living cell.
Cultivators could ascend after all, and eventually develop an inner space or Realm. There were stories of some places where whole civilizations were transmigrated into a powerful people's soul, becoming sources of worship and power in return for protection or more.
Of worlds within grains of sand, universes in a drop of dew.
If there was some entity that was so unimaginably large that the barriers between proteins contained infinite recursive space and time pockets in the foam... it would explain what was going on now.
Because Adam had been poking it.
And initially, he had poked it on a MUCH higher level than his own. Far, far beyond the pockets that cultivators searched for and used in this Plane.
So, this wave of... narrative issues? This field of 'USE ME' that Adam was being targeted by?
It felt like an automatic immune response. Or, of some unconscious layer of reality higher up that was trying to focus downwards on him.
If he gave in and personally got involved in everything, it would either kill him (unlikely), or force him to advance his cultivation enough to ascend a few dimensions. A sort of unwritten balancing force on this Realm, that kept powerful people from acting as tyrants and gods on lower levels.
Which was a bit freaky.
SO, Adam was staying inside, letting whatever the hell was trying to make him a main character wander away (Hopefully), and giving time for whatever he had accidentally poked to lose interest or misplace the targeting information.
The Foam was infinite, after all... if he stayed under the radar, he could hide forever.
He didn't let this situation stop him from playing with the tattoos and local Foam however.
Sticking to the stuff roughly at his level of size (Up to maybe a galaxy or whatever) would probably not draw further attention... those pockets got accessed, modified, and destroyed all the time under his senses. It was how some minor worlds and such 'treasures' connected to this Plane, how secret cultivation Realms could sometime appear once in a century or so.
And seriously, those first space pockets he 'touched'? Huge. Beyond large.
Shifting his body and letting spiritual energy soak his bones (Because why not at this point), Adam sighed and focused on cultivation. Thankfully, the next steps were easy enough... from Seventh Order up to Tenth Order it was all about increasing the internal Battle Qi density inside his spiritual network, every increase preparation for transforming his gas like inner energy into liquid form.
The liquid Qi used far less per technique but released way more energy in the process, it was a major road block for cultivators and made it easy to outlast and overpower cultivators at lower levels. Right now Adam was deliberately slowing the whole process down, forcing his internal energies to continue to enhance his system and meridian routes instead of pushing onto the next steps.
Because if he advanced too far, too fast, under THIS kind of unseen observation?
He... he might have to leave.
The man in a crystal cave slumped slightly.
Wandering around, looking for treasure, finding adventure? That was cool.
But being FORCED into events, no matter how well intentioned? It can all go south quick.
There were movies, books, comics, plays... thousands of them, where the hero got NO pause. No break. No real 'Happy Ever After' until all the stories stopped.
Save the kingdom? Aliens attack. Defeat the villain? Their son comes back for revenge.
Save royalty? Your princess is in another castle.
Seriously, there were whole categories of stories where bad things never. stop. happening.
He thought back to past fiction he had read (Or did he? Might be another implanted memory.) where the main character got sick. And betrayed. And attacked. And lost people. And failed to save the day. Same girl the whole time too, and she was insulted by everyone on top of it!
Hell, Inuyasha himself was a lesser version of this trope. Boy was a moron through lack of education and guidance, mean through betrayal and schemes, and the series used him as the but of jokes to 'lighten things up', even though he had nearly no parenting and was being assaulted most of his life. Maybe.
He found his memories on that world were a bit fuzzy... then again, he had been sleeping most of that visit.
Thankfully, this reality wasn't a focused grim dark nightmare like others. Lots of good people died, but it was more a power fantasy... in general, things would go alright. Bad things would become benefits, kidnapped lovers would either be saved in time or be taken to some rare encounter and find a famous teacher or immense treasure.
Well, if you were the main character. Rules were a bit more unforgiving for background people, and there were suggestions of some truly evil shit if you looked carefully at some of the off comments the hero ignores.
That said? How could he learn anything if he was hounded by missions? If every meal was interrupted by quest hooks and urgent needs? Forget having time to examine stuff, or do research out there.
Worse, what if these 'last minute save' situations he kept bumping into were being retroactively CAUSED by this... whatever it was?
Because statistically, at least one of these quests that Adam handed off should have ALSO found something unusual or astounding. Not just the ones that HE picked personally.
Even when he selected a task while hidden inside his Martial Spirit, unusual results would happen once he attempted to follow through outside...
And he couldn't just hide here forever, because he DID have a mission.
Conceptual cultivation was going to be the foundational base of his new System.
Adam glanced at his notes, stored in his personal Tattoo mark. The ones that wouldn't be shared with the Sects, built on his private Rockette network that would hook in secretly in the background to all the other marks.
His plan felt solid, as far as he could tell. Concepts were not quite part of the Soul, or genetics, or even space and time. Some could exist before they were discovered, or last after all those that crafted it passed away... it was a stabilized and secure building base far more suited for the System.
Because if he did this right, then Adam wouldn't be required for ensuring future success! If his people got sent through time or reality, if he lost them somehow... they wouldn't lose the support he was building.
Even if cloned. Even if reincarnated. Even if sent to an afterlife where Adam couldn't follow.
Most importantly, if parts of the System were incompatible with local reality? The Concepts behind it would adapt as much as possible to use local alternatives. After all, you might not be able to make a sandwich out of rock or lasers... but you can make the CONCEPT of a sandwich out of anything!
It was like art, in a way. Tell the universe, 'This is what I need', and let reality explain to the System how it can be done.
He moved more test data around as 'Research' chewed away. The illusionary holograms, projected into his mind via Rockette's Tattoo modules, showed dozens of transparent windows displaying code, representation of elements, energies, modules, floating keyboard and mentally controlled mouse available if he didn't want to just mentally control it all directly.
This wouldn't be quick. According to 'Research', the bare framework would take decades to finish at the most optimistic rates... but he had the time to work on this. Lifespan would not be an issue.
If.
If he could keep working here.
Yet should Adam be unable to get reality to stop trying to squish him or use him as a tool...
He may have to leave this Realm early. Before death. Before even really getting started.
It was against ALL his plans! His ideas, his goals! The frustration was making his body burn as he focused on his notes.
So. Options. What could he do?
First, he was letting the guards and Sister Quan carry Rockette home. It would take weeks without him using his massive cheaty speed tricks to make progress, but that was fine. But hopefully time, space, and avoiding the local pocket would let this... whatever it was pass along and leave him alone.
Which... unfortunately, was probably unlikely. If this was some sort of response from higher levels of foam, then traveling anywhere in this infinite Plane would be a miniscule change.
And even if it worked? That might take decades. Or longer. Depends on what was behind this.
So no. He would try anyway, but this was the least likely workaround.
Second consideration, a local reincarnation. A brainless clone or someone who was near death and willing to make a deal. He would have Rockette enter their body after their Martial Spirit passes on as well, then use his techniques to get that body back into shape.
Painful, time consuming, he would have to rebuild his cultivation from scratch (Annoying!), and it would cause issues with ethics and the Sect. But possible. Maybe. If being reborn this way didn't just end up feeling the same to higher levels once his body was remodeled to match his Soul and Martial Spirit.
On the other hand, that option might expose him entirely to this unseen scrutiny, without the protection of a Soul and body connection.
So... no, not likely.
The third and final option? The Abyss. A dangerous Transfer.
He would have FAR less control than a usual jump, almost no protection like normal, as his power from Squishy was mostly spent GETTING here. Not to mention that 'Transfer' wasn't intentionally included with his Soul Shard, so it may act... VERY quirky.
And to get away without unseen followers, he may have to have Rockette send a fragment in his place, leaving him living here for the rest of his life as planned while the new fragment attempted to draw away the focus of reality.
Yet honestly, that option was the one he felt most comfortable with.
It would have consequences, as expected.
According to Research, local Adam would lose the ability to advance his cultivation further.
His 'potential' and 'future' would move on to the next Realm, obviously. It would have to if he wanted to be convincing to any voyeurs.
His local shard abilities, 'Growth', 'Purification', and 'Research' would significantly lower in power, as their main cores left with his future self... And they might need to be modified in the new Realm just to remain stable after being damaged. Which would suck.
But he would then be able to live here, with his Disciple and his Sect. He would still have Rockette, he would still have the Crystal Caverns, absolute energy control, his abilities in general. Power? His Martial Spirit generated it. Age? Optional. Death?
VERY unlikely.
And at the end of it all, when everyone began to die and pass away... he would come home. To his other family, to be rejoined with the Adam far way and likely having gifted the guy a MASSIVE headache from experiencing a lifetime of memories.
...Adam paused. Huh.
Actually, if he did choose to travel again to escape this situation... it was likely that his future selves would do something similar. It could be dozens, or thousands... millions of lifetimes, all being sent home to reincorporate as one.
...Meh, sucks to be him. THIS Adam was going to be king of the Sect, with a lifetime of conceptual investigation and experiments! Surrounded by friends, researchers, and his awesome tattoo network!
In fact, screw it! When he became a Saint, he would send the shard off anyway. Any stronger than that and his body might get forced to head off to some other planet or plane that could handle that level of power.
Or he would start attracting attention that would put his loved ones in danger, or call some powerful calamity down on the Sect. Better to hack himself rather than risk that issue.
Although it was a bit odd to consider how out of touch he was compared to the locals.
Really, how many people would willingly cripple their path to godhood or higher to spend more time with weaker loved ones? Can't be that many, and it strongly goes against the Cultivator culture in general. 'I shall fight against the Heavens! Oh wait, nah I be good.' Heh.
Then again, most people couldn't make their loved ones younger, supply infinite food, water, and cultivation resources, and make powerful foes pop by forcing too much energy into their spiritual network. So he might be a special situation. Meh.
Now to try and make something similar to the internet using pocket dimensions, ink, and a custom formation programming language. Good times!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sister Quan sighed as the massive gates of the Burning Sword Sect slowly came into view. "Finally."
The five guards nodded, while Rockette was in Sister Quan's lap being hugged. Everyone else was in the Caverns.
The journey had turned... odd. Ever since the ritual on Mount Kirin went strange, more and more things just started getting in the group's way. Brother Adam had a theory that the world was hunting him, the rest of the group strongly believed that it was due to the rumors being spread about the boy by the merchant caravan they had just finished traveling with.
Because stories of a powerful boy, with unlimited strange items and food? Yeah, that stands out.
Either way, the trip back had been full of tiny, mostly boring adventures... As long as Brother Adam stayed out of it.
None of that mattered now, though. "We need to report to Elder Cho first."
The guards nodded again and they moved onward.
After checking into the mission hall and doing a bit more paperwork than expected... the group ended up in a fairly nice office, looking at the young appearing but world weary Elder as she looked over piles of reports.
Elder Cho tapped the table as she read the papers.
...Several times.
Leaning back in her chair, she looked at the tiny blue floating rock girl on the table.
Rockette was happily picking up a report, carrying it to other piles, and placing them randomly. "Ding!"
Not that the little one knew what the piles meant. She could read, it was just more fun to make a mess.
Elder Cho sighed. "Lock down the room."
Invisible people left, the empty room was more empty, and numerous barriers locked things down. Hard.
Sister Quan held back a gulp. "Elder?"
The woman sighed. "I need everyone but Brother Chongsheng to vacate these... 'Crystal Caverns' within young Rockette."
The tiny rock held up both arms floating in circles. "Ding!"
The older woman gave a small smile. "Brother Adam then." She sighed. "This will need to be escalated far, so everyone else besides the little one and Brother Adam will have to wait here. I will have supplies delivered." She glanced at the lead guard. "You know the procedure?"
The armored woman gave a sharp nod. "Yes Elder!"
Elder Cho stood with a sigh. "Well, best get this over with."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The Patriarch of the Burning Sword Sect was... a little confused. "And he is... inside the tiny elemental?"
Elder Cho nodded, little Rockette's tiny arms playing with her hair. "This is his Martial Spirit. Formerly the spirit crystal Shard I mentioned."
He held back a frown, trying to feel the situation out with his spiritual senses.
...Considering that Brother Adam's ability was absolute energy control, it wasn't so surprising that he was unable to feel anything.
Annoying, but not surprising.
He stepped closer. There were members of the sect taller than him, if few, but towering over the tiny child like rock being made him feel oversized. He bowed anyway. "Greetings, Rockette of Brother Chongsheng."
She waved.
He glanced at the Elder. "And she will handle transportation?"
The woman nodded. "After debriefing the entire group, I was given documentation of a full tour and detailed responses to my questioning. I can verify the location is safe to any ally of Brother Adam, that the destination is secure from intrusion or assault, and that the various members of his team have temporarily vacated the area."
...Huh. "Temporarily?"
She nodded. "The entire group of guards have begun transferring to become permanent members of his security detail. Having seen the resources and secure nature of the facilities, I admit that I would be tempted to migrate as well. At the very least, I fully support allowing Brother Adam to make significant changes in the Sect if he can duplicate some of the advancements he has managed there."
Considering the resources spent to lock down his meditation chamber for a second time, it BETTER live up to the reports. If he hadn't gone through a dozen protocols to verify Elder Cho's mental status and identity, he would have assumed this to be yet another assassination attempt.
A glance at the provided ring though... The benefits, theoretical or otherwise, were just too high. Sects had died for less potential gain, and even if the idea of allowing himself to be under the control of another and transported away from this secured facility bothered him... well, cultivators had to have willpower to become as strong as himself.
A nod. "Then please send us both."
...It was hard to remain stoic when crystal teeth began to rise from the ground beneath him, but it was mentioned in the reports.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked.
Elder Cho and some tall old guy (Probably the Patriarch) had just shown up in the Caverns. Observation floor, it felt like. Ah, he had the ring... yeah, that was the Patriarch.
It took a second to finish his current notes, close the module windows, and head up there. "Elder Cho! Lovely to have you visit."
The woman had a wry smile. "Brother Adam, I would like to introduce you to our Patriarch... who has come to discuss your new advances."
The man himself reached down and had a surprisingly warm smile. "Young Chongsheng, I can not stress how much paperwork you've managed to accumulate for my people these last few months."
Ah. Oops? "Sorry?"
He chuckled. "No no no, don't waste time with that. I've always had a personal belief that the strain of cultivation only allows the eccentric to advance... no average or normal person can defy the heavens after all!" His gaze was wandering. "Such spiritual energy here... It is astounding, reports or no!"
Meh, he hasn't seen the cultivation caves yet. "So... I guess we should start with a tour? And please, call me Brother Adam."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The tour took a while.
The Soil grid? Mild interest.
The (still being grown) ore veins? Well, it looked like mostly empty caves, so... move on.
The farms? The man was fascinated, and the tour was put on hold as he and Elder Cho debated about how much if any of the plants Adam was willing to share should actually be transplanted for the Sect to grow externally.
It heavily depended on what was going to be used for trade, as those items had to be shown to exist somewhere or people would get suspicious. Maybe even let a few plants get stolen so others with Adam's abilities could waste time duplicating his work over a few generations.
The Four Eye Flame Bulls and their baby Bickens? Oh yeah, the Sect leader was beyond willing to invest in the herd. Adam was pretty much assured a massive land donation for pasture modification just from this one advancement alone!
Infinite source of Spirit Energy?
Infinite amounts of Soul Water?
The Yin Yang Cycle Pond?
...Uh. Yeah, Adam was getting a bit concerned about how quiet the Patriarch was becoming.
The man turned. "You can't share this. Any of this. Young Cho was correct to tell you and your guards to keep this secret... even rumors of the situation would place targets on our people."
Adam sighed. "Too much of a good thing?"
A nod.
The boy frowned. "Fine. Still, we can ensure the Sect can benefit from this. The Tattoo network has some optional modules I've been working on... ones that can capture Spirit Energy, filter it into units, use one type of unit to convert into one more useful to the cultivator, and so forth. We can use that as a cover, creating an energy market for our Sect members to sell spiritual energy to each other... and I can secretly build up unique unit reserves for the Sect's treasury."
The Patriarch frowned. "How much power can you spare without damaging your cultivation? I won't sacrifice your future to gain short term profit."
Elder Cho snorted. "The boy probably won't even notice the difference. He practically spouts raw power by accident. More importantly, can we use that option to cleanse the energies around the sect? Have our people capture the low level energies around and then release the purified and consolidated energies afterwards?"
Adam thought... then nodded. "I had to make an export method so we could sell energy units outside the Sect anyway. Came up with a modified crystal pattern. We will lose some energy converting power into a custom spirit stone design I came up with, but once it stabilizes you can use it for all sorts of stuff. Sister Quan suggested using it for pill creation or equipment forging."
The man hummed. "May I see a sample?"
Both adults stood there staring as Adam held up a perfectly round stone glowing green, the size of a grape.
Elder Cho accepted the rock, her hand barely shaking at all. "This... this is far more pure than any spirit stone I've seen before. And what is this energy type?"
Adam started showing more and more glowing rocks. "That one was what I consider to be 'Nature energy', or more accurately, 'Garden energy' collected from my Soil Grid farms. Actual 'Nature Energy' isn't that green, because it includes energies from the environment and the animals in the area."
The Patriarch accepted a few other stones, his spiritual senses examining them. "...Trying to price these is going to be a nightmare. How many types are you producing?"
He shrugged. "Out of all the spiritual energy I produce, half I keep for personal use and the other half is converted into these things. Every time I find an energy type I don't recognise, I purify enough to create a useful sample for me to build up for future needs and add it to the list of production."
Adam waved, a wall of rocks floating behind him shifting in pattern and color. "There are thousands of stone types so far, and tens of thousands that are currently delayed while trace elements are being built up until I can get enough to work with reliably."
Adam waived the hand upward. "My Domain is still collecting heaven and earth energies from the sky, and I get all kinds of odd energy traces from up there. Many types aren't even stable enough for me to identify. Yet."
He continued walking, ignoring the other two as they continued to examine the glowing objects. "I'll be honest though, I think it will be much safer and more profitable for the Sect to sell stuff like the new Storage Rings. They cost WAY less to make after all the research I had to do getting this Tattoo network setup."
Seriously, Adam had done SO MUCH WORK getting this Tattoo mess sorted.
Designing techniques to safely make formation development tools, instructing the formation tools to correctly set up the needed space pockets, crafting the new Formation Scripting Language and the associated 'Compiler/Deployment' formation pattern to affect the outside world correctly...
After all THAT trouble, crafting a basic Storage Ring from near worthless materials was a snap.
Hell, if you had a working Tattoo node available and a few development modules installed, you could easily mass produce things of far better quality than currently treasured by the Sect. It would crater the market... well, at least it would outside the Sect.
They would have the superior Tattoo storage modules after all, why bother with easily stolen rings?
That didn't even count the stranger stuff he made while experimenting, like the rings that sorted materials rather than storing them or the ones that filtered energies and what not. And he hadn't touched time pockets yet... especially not now when something beyond local reality was puting narrative pressure on the whole area.
Adam hummed. "That said, I'm afraid the Tattoos I've already designed might not work correctly on the more advanced cultivators." He glanced at the Patriarch. "At higher levels, the body becomes more and more conceptual and energy based. Tattoos or formations of any kind would warp or be modified too easily, and I doubt anyone THAT powerful would accept a pattern being applied to their Soul or equivalent. They would only be able to safely use customized rings like the one I passed to Elder Cho."
The Patriarch hummed, looking at his ring. "Considering that many fights can destroy high level cultivator's bodies in the process, it would be unlikely that the regrown parts would still possess the needed markings. It is why normal skin art never really became popular with cultivation experts... too easily lost compared to an object or two that can be easily hidden away or replaced."
Adam grimaced. "Yeah, I've lost a lot of skin and muscles in past fights... If Rockette didn't possess direct access to MY marking, I would have real difficulties testing stuff as it is. My Cultivation Cells can be forced to stay in the right shape... but they tend to shift a bit when I train to become more effective and enhanced."
Not to mention his internal fears that cultivation breakthroughs would force him to replace his own Tattoo access node each and every time. For one person? Easy! For ALL high level cultivators? Never ending, boring, unappreciated busy work. He could charge for the maintenance work maybe... but he didn't really need more wealth. To him, his time was more valuable.
At least he could design methods or supply tools to easily repair, duplicate, or replace 'Tattoo Rings' easily enough. The less work for Adam, the better!
Eventually the tour ended in the eating area of the Caverns, Adam sharing some of the more delicious cultivation dishes that Sister Quan and the guards had developed as they began talking brass tacks, as it where. The fine details.
...Sadly, as time passed, Adam found himself stuck with more and more negotiations than expected.
His original goal of 'Dump it all on upper management' was turning into more a 'Construct a framework for Management to work with'... and it was looking like it would take forever. Even with a lack of desire for profit (And the paperwork that goes with it), it barely made a dent in the talking involved with the complexity of these life changing suggestions.
After SEVERAL painful, slow hours... they had to take a break so Elder Cho could release his friends from protective custody and everyone (Besides Adam, thankfully) could go through the security protocols that were involved with temporarily kidnapping the leader of a Sect to do secret negotiations.
...The same negotiations that Elder Cho estimated would take literal weeks. Maybe months.
And that was the ultra fast, expedited method!
Damn it. Both these old people should go away and let him science up some time pockets!
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- Location
- florida
Option 5!! And in the process make its life easier while confusing it by learning all its 'unique' abilities and translating them for others to use!
- Location
- Brazil, Minas gerais
Yeah option 5 probably. And if the reality is aware enough (and have precog) it will try to stop the MC from hurt himself.
so its more a:
Heaven: 'Please I will seal/hold back some of myself stop hurting yourself!
Or something like that. The heaven probably thought that get it favor (and power) was good enough. It was what it did last time they collaborate.
Anyway he still have more options like make it focus in another more pressing problem.
...hell if realms fight they will too focus in their turf war (realm edition).
I mean if realms invasion happen then it not a single happy individual. More of a single whole with lots of bacteria that not always play nice with each other.
What he should do is talk to the elders, to a little child (like any mastermind) and write it down to reason to himself if this is a good idea. Because the MC shenanigans raise if he do things alone^^.
edit: grammar.
so its more a:
Heaven: 'Please I will seal/hold back some of myself stop hurting yourself!
Or something like that. The heaven probably thought that get it favor (and power) was good enough. It was what it did last time they collaborate.
Anyway he still have more options like make it focus in another more pressing problem.
...hell if realms fight they will too focus in their turf war (realm edition).
I mean if realms invasion happen then it not a single happy individual. More of a single whole with lots of bacteria that not always play nice with each other.
What he should do is talk to the elders, to a little child (like any mastermind) and write it down to reason to himself if this is a good idea. Because the MC shenanigans raise if he do things alone^^.
edit: grammar.
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- Location
- Home
Adam got option 5.5 Get Married to the Entity.
- Location
- Canada
Huh I hadn't thought of that. Adam likely did bring new concepts to the world when he reached enlightenment, and with all the interesting things he does it probably is interested in what he would do next.
If you compare Adam to a normal Mc the side quests tend to lead to massive power ups eventually, or making them realize something small that becomes incredibly important later.... the more I think about it the more this makes sense.
After marrying the smurf anything is possible. Heck our adorable daughter shows she can influence things still so it wouldn't be to far fetch to find a way to get him to marry an entire dimension..
Don't know if someone thought of it, but in case of ring destruction have a backup item that just stores the needed information to restore the ring. From what I understand the rings/tattoos are access points, so make a little item to store what's needed and the customer has to take are of it.
In a similar vein, a broken tattoo (burned skin, cultivation shenanigans, death) gets put in sect storage, so IF the person can get back they get they're possessions back. Or if they're dead the closest kin can get personal possessions and maybe part of the cultivation resources.
In a similar vein, a broken tattoo (burned skin, cultivation shenanigans, death) gets put in sect storage, so IF the person can get back they get they're possessions back. Or if they're dead the closest kin can get personal possessions and maybe part of the cultivation resources.
- Location
- Planet Earth
SUPER awesome way to break down all the Wuxia stories, their plots, and the REAL reason behind it all. They were all inside a cultivators body and being forced to act by its immune system.
1st. YAY more chapters finally, and its not dead!
2nd. There is no way adam would trash his cultivation losing the chance to advance, study more so he can research what happens and support others when they reach whatever level. Especially he would not give up the chance to study higher realms.
3rd. MC is giving in to this world/system/ubercultivator super easily. I mean, he is already planning to kill himself or abandon his goals...
4th. Is MC not planning on bringing sister quan and little tianshi back with him to worm/home?
5th. not sure why MC is not just raising his cultivation to the max it can go within this realm. I mean, he has a LOT that can improve before he is forced to the next realm.
6th. looking forward to him releasing his version of the internet to these cultivators, I imagine him making his own youtube, then people posting funny videos like darwin awards for young masters.
7th. If his system sticks with people even through reincarnation, then it would be funny if shortly after its updated release, if people who had the update, then died, suddenly start messaging family and friends. talking about the ridiculousness of the system, adam, and being a baby again.
8th. Hope Adam goes to Harry Potter one of these times. He could add Nymphadora and Fleur to the harem. Maybe (baku-style) eat voldemorts soul peices then rob(copy) several libraries for stuff. Use rituals or something to make himself part veela? a metamorph? have wandless magic? mage sight? all kindsa stuff.
9th. If you are feeling like you are tired writing this wuxia arc, and this talk of MC submitting to the will of the heavens or wanting to run away, is an excuse to try and start a new arc, I'd rather we just jump to the MC's main body instead, heck, he could (the main body) jump to another world while waiting on the cultivator portion of himself. Or send ANOTHER copy of himself off.
1st. YAY more chapters finally, and its not dead!
2nd. There is no way adam would trash his cultivation losing the chance to advance, study more so he can research what happens and support others when they reach whatever level. Especially he would not give up the chance to study higher realms.
3rd. MC is giving in to this world/system/ubercultivator super easily. I mean, he is already planning to kill himself or abandon his goals...
4th. Is MC not planning on bringing sister quan and little tianshi back with him to worm/home?
5th. not sure why MC is not just raising his cultivation to the max it can go within this realm. I mean, he has a LOT that can improve before he is forced to the next realm.
6th. looking forward to him releasing his version of the internet to these cultivators, I imagine him making his own youtube, then people posting funny videos like darwin awards for young masters.
7th. If his system sticks with people even through reincarnation, then it would be funny if shortly after its updated release, if people who had the update, then died, suddenly start messaging family and friends. talking about the ridiculousness of the system, adam, and being a baby again.
8th. Hope Adam goes to Harry Potter one of these times. He could add Nymphadora and Fleur to the harem. Maybe (baku-style) eat voldemorts soul peices then rob(copy) several libraries for stuff. Use rituals or something to make himself part veela? a metamorph? have wandless magic? mage sight? all kindsa stuff.
9th. If you are feeling like you are tired writing this wuxia arc, and this talk of MC submitting to the will of the heavens or wanting to run away, is an excuse to try and start a new arc, I'd rather we just jump to the MC's main body instead, heck, he could (the main body) jump to another world while waiting on the cultivator portion of himself. Or send ANOTHER copy of himself off.
- Location
- Canada
Adam remakes the internet for the second time :I refuse to live in a world where I can't watch adorable cat videos!
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
were
Lock down
transfering
tattoos
- Location
- Here
- Location
- India
Adam you can't escape all the paperwork and responsibilities soo easily
Months of negotiations for you
Ha
Take sister Quan and/or at least Little Tianshi back home with you Adam
When you go back
Not sure about giving up his potential
But it's kind off an Adam thing to do
I do wonder though
If he gives up the power
His loved ones could be potentially threatened by seriously high level cultivators
Or maybe not
Cos at Saint level am expecting him to have enough power to kill anyone
Why send a part of him though
Wouldn't it be better to join the original and split from there?
Months of negotiations for you
Ha
Take sister Quan and/or at least Little Tianshi back home with you Adam
When you go back
Not sure about giving up his potential
But it's kind off an Adam thing to do
I do wonder though
If he gives up the power
His loved ones could be potentially threatened by seriously high level cultivators
Or maybe not
Cos at Saint level am expecting him to have enough power to kill anyone
Why send a part of him though
Wouldn't it be better to join the original and split from there?
Barbaric Bob
The Barbaric One
- Location
- Soon to be plundering a village near you
"it's time to science with time, so it's time for some mad SCIENCE!"
"Rockette! appropriate ambiance, if you would?"
"DING!"
Bill Nye, The Science guy starts blasting in metal
*BOOM*...oops, maybe the concept of Mad Science should not be mixed with the concept of Heavy Metal.
Still, a spacetime explosion is quite the sight. You can see the past present and future all in a single explosion.
and it lasts an instant and stretches out forever all at the same time!
Barbaric Bob
The Barbaric One
- Location
- Soon to be plundering a village near you
Disneyland...
Or since conceptual horrors and higher beings won't be all that scary anymore after this run
Nirn, Sheogorath and Adam would probably get along like a house on fire
the line between brilliance and madness is paper-thin after all
but we won't know until Adam lands wherever it is an Adam is needed
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- Location
- Canada
Honestly I'm kinda hoping for something like nier automata. While he wouldn't learn as much I feel he could use a break to help out some adorable androids
- Status