Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

[fictionfan]

Abel's personal tricked out bike part 1
It is all very well to make a bicycle for mass production. Especially hopefully for mortal use. However, I am going to Yuan and for that I want a bike of my own. Not just a prototype or a model that I have carefully made as economical as possible. I want a bike that will act as a super mount on my adventures.

First of all I want all terrain. The most likely thing to get in the way of that is tires not being able to handle the stresses. So I look up spirit beast bestiaries to find what I am looking for. A volcano spawn toad. Famous for being able to eat anything from lava to obsidian shards. I want those guts for my tires. I eagerly look through the construction board. Really! That's more than Manuel's lecture cost. That much for a qi condenser level spirit beast part. Come on.

Well nothing for it time for a hunting trip. People have been saying I should be getting more experience with field work anyway.
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My palms are sweaty and it's not just from the heat of the nearby volcano. I steady my breathing and sight down the barrel of my hand cannon. Although with the modifications I have done to it for this trip it is more of a sniper cannon set on a tripod.

The volcano spawn toad is in sight right in my cross hairs. I have been watching it from a distance for about a week now, carefully learning it's habits. It's a nasty beast. It's lava hot tongue can hit targets 50 meters away. It can jump 100 meters in a single bound and a single touch of it's massive rocky body is death to anything in my realm. I have seen it bring down 20 foot long salamanders with no trouble at all even when they are in groups.

It has just finished eating a bunch of obsidian which means it will be sluggish for a while. Perfect time to strike. I will shoot it and then when it comes after me with one of it's gigantic leaps I will catch it in mid air with my prepared heat sink array and gravitation well to slows it down even further as that happens I will gain distance and hit it with another cannon shot from my second prepared vantage spot. The gravitation array will cause it to land in the pit trap filled with qi drained iron spikes hopefully using it's own size against it.

I pat my heat fleeing wing talisman that I have prepared in case things go wrong then hold my breath and fire.

The shot goes right through one of the toad's eyes and out the back of it's head. Brain splattering over the ground. The gigantic toad falls over more blood oozing from the enormous head wound. I blink. Is it faking somehow? I hadn't gotten the impression of it being smart enough for that. I reload and give the toad a second shoot. Another hole. No other reaction.

I think I might have over prepared and wasted a bunch of time and money. I am going to have to see if I can recover anything from my unactivated arrays. Harvesting the Toad well fighting off scavengers might be the toughest part of this whole adventure.
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The volcano spawn toad part sold well, but most importantly my bike now has basically unpuncturable tires. I can ride my bicycle over lava, broken glass or even cultivators hitting the tires with swords and no damage. I have added a neat little surface tension array allowing my tires to grip all those environments and more besides. Sand, snow or even water my bike can ride the surface of all of them without sinking.

I might only be second heavenstage, but with the blood of bronze I can push my bike up sustained 40 degree inclines which is more than most desert sand dunes. It's all worth it to come down the other side. I bike home. Sure it took more than a week, but it was cheaper than getting a ride on a two heading eagle formation and it was a lot of fun. It's not often that I spend the time just enjoying being a superhuman cultivator.
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Didn't plan to do parts at first I wanted to go over all the cool features of Abel's bike all at once, but this seemed like a great stopping point.
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[fictionfan]

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The art of living sand chapter 1: Controlling sand
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The art of living sand chapter 3 :Sand body
By Placus Cassius Firminus

The sand body level of the art of living sand is not for anyone below the level of foundation or preferably core. The obvious reason for this is that if you turn your physical brain into sand without being able to think and reason without the need of a physical brain then this technique is nothing more than an elaborate method of suicide. If you are still dependent your your physical brain then please read no further in case it causes you to get dangerous and very stupid ideas. I would really hate for someone that bought this essay to kill themselves with it from sheer idiocy.

The first step of the body of sand technique is turning your body into sand. This can be done a number of different ways with their own upsides and downsides. The safest (comparably chance of death still certain if your mind is dependent on your brain) and most sure way is to embalm yourself in desert marrow elixir (recipe costs 20 Cp). As your body slowly turns to sand, take control of each part with the blood sand technique that you learned in chapter one. The real advantage of this method despite its slowness and expense is that you don't have to embalm your entire body all at once. You can test your technique with as much of your body as you are willing to risk.

Another way to turn your body to sand is to simply drink desert marrow elixir (recipe costs 20 Cp) this will turn you into sand rapidly fast enough to even be viable in the middle of combat. Of course this is all or nothing. You might be better off convincing your opponent to drink it. Desert marrow elixir after if made for the purpose of mastering this art does not contain the ill intent of a poison.

A less expensive way to transform yourself into sand is to simply lay your body out in the sun until you become one with the desert.

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If you found this article helpful we recommend.

The art of living sand chapter 4 : Meat body turning back from sand body. 1000 CP

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I found myself compelled to write this. Most purely for the sake of the punchline, but also at the same time to take an idea far too seriously.

 

[fictionfan]

Abel Angelus​

Abel's personal tricked out bike part 2
So many ideas for my bike just were not practical. I had thoughts about adjusting my surface tension array to work on air to basically allow me to fly, but my CalCs quickly disabused me of the idea. The qi cost would be insane. If I was willing to spend that much qi to fly, why even bother putting the array on a bicycle anyway?

Why indeed. I haven't even considered trying to make an airplane because one of the few things I can remember about them besides wing design and how propellers work is that designs for making an airplane were actually made decades before they actually were feasible because there didn't exist a powerful enough lightweight engine for it. And I have great doubts that I can make such an engine. At least not without using qi and if I am using qi that would be quite a bit of work to make yet another method of qi powered flight.

Leaving flight off the table for now. It is possible that I could add some wings to the bicycle, but carrying them around all the time would be a pain. If I ever try to make a plane it is going to be a dedicated project not a mishmash with my bike design.

So is there a way I can make my bike more resistant to fall damage? Not flying, but falling with style. My wheels can definitely handle terminal velocity. If I also got supper shock absorbers. Does flubber exist in this world?

The answer proved unexpectedly easy. Slimes are one of the most common and weakest spirit beasts there are. Even mortals can beat them if they go in prepared. And their bodies made such a perfect shock absorber that cultivators in the habit of flying that still have to worry about gravity often put some of their gel into the soles of their shoes. In other words, how to deal with falling damage is something of a solved problem for anyone that cares to be prepared and I can now join their ranks.

Actually that might make it seem a bit too easy. Most groups don't have a contribution board to easily look things up. They have to search through libraries of dusty books and scrolls. Also the contribution board makes ordering items far easier. I think in another clan if I wanted to buy a foreign good, even a relatively inexpensive one like this, trying to find one would be a whole mini adventure assuming that I even knew what to look for.

Being used to having the internet from back before I found the contribution board a little clunky with long wait times, but compared to other sects every Golden Devils has unlimited knowledge at the tips of our fingers.

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[fictionfan]

Abel Angelus​

Heaven blood curse array.
"Fan Yan, do you think that the chicken scratch you made matches the symbol I gave you to copy? I tell you it does not." I throw his to the second exact pay at him, maybe a bit harder than necessary. "You're fired, leave and don't come back." A caterpillar jumps off his shoulder and onto my hand. I look over at the other 20 mortals that have stopped carving arrays into the walls of Thousand Song City to look. "You do realize that when the Blood path comes you, your families and your neighbors are all going to be depending on these arrays? Yes! Well act like it! Every miscarved symbol means the final array will be that much weaker! Working slowly is fine. I am paying you by the hour and I can hire more workers if needed. Working sloppy is NOT." I look around at the still staring workers ``Well what are you waiting for? I am paying by the hour. Working slowly and carefully doesn't mean you should stop and do nothing!". They get back to work. The mortals are much more cooperative in Golden Devil lands. None of this constant skittish jumpiness. It really gets on my nerves.

All of the workers I hired are craving tiny Heaven Blood curse arrays. Making many smaller overlapping arrays is much less susceptible to disruption or battle damage then making a single large array. It is still usually impractical because it takes an order of magnitude more time for the same effect. However, my calculation caterpillars share my understanding of arrays and can add their own understanding to an array as it is craved. All they lack is hands to carve with which is where hiring mortals come in.

The Heaven Blood curse array really only could have been invented by a demonic clan with some very self-sacrificial members. It is an array that deliberately draws down heaven's hatred of the blood path. If I drew it personally I am quite sure I would be hit with a tribulation or something. Yet at the same time it can only be drawn by someone with an understanding of what it means to be hated by the heavens which means that normally everyone that can draw it is punished for drawing it. Fortunately the heavens don't notice mortals which means I am able to do quite a nice cheat right now. I still never would have drawn in golden devil territory, but I figure that heaven's wrath being drawn somewhere far away from our lands is all to the good.

Any cultivator on the blood path that so much as looks at these walls will start becoming ill with the effect increasing the closer they get. I expect that when the walls are completely done they will start giving off static like many cultivators pressing against the limits of their realm do. But there shouldn't be a problem unless the walls happen to develop into a genius loci which is very unlucky besides the war with Noble Devil alliance should be long over by then so not my problem. If the city actually holds out long enough for that to be a problem I will be amazed and delighted.

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At this point I sort of wonder if pings are actually needed for threadmarks.

 

[fictionfan]

Abel Angelus
Zeno Angelus​

Abel Zeno talk and fight
The preparation for both brothers didn't end with the talk, they of course realized that the coming years will bring them many unexpected dangers and sought to prepare for them as best they can.

"So which mission are you going on? I kind of have to follow my legion for the array master one."Abel asks, well twirling a brush.

Zeno puts a finger on his lips, thinking for a moment. "Normally I would have done another mission involving the Jingshen. The trials have shown me that I need experience leading troops, though. That's not even mentioning Alexandria. Despite just having had kids she fully intends to follow the legates call to the great plains again. I don't know what exactly she hopes to chase there, but I sure don't want to be away again when it happens. Thankfully mother is there to catch us in this case and care for the children." Zeno rubs the back of his head. Gesturing Abel to head inside the training room.

"Well I guess we will both be in the same general area even if we won't have shared responsibility. I expect that I am going to be spending all my time at the walls putting in more arrays." Abel leans back against a wall, an idea coming to him. "Or supervising a bunch of mortals putting in arrays under mine and Cals directions" Abel holds up one of Cals's bodies. The Calculation Caterpillar is blue with green spots. It is the size of a normal caterpillar. Abel always makes sure to carry at least one member of the hivemind with him. It's nice to always do all Math instantly.


Zeno nods in understanding. "That thing is truly a boon to your ability in fortificating any wall. Have you managed to weaponize it directly or use it to defend yourself in some way?" His head inclined, waiting for Abel to enter.

"Besides the fact that they allow me to keep myself well stocked with arrays? Not really, but in general most fights come down to preparation. I can do more of it then most people. Abel holds up what looks like a deck of cards. Flipping them from hand to hand and shuffling them.

Zeno takes Abel by the neck of his robe, shucking him finally into the training room. His brother lying ungainly on the new marble floor in short order. "It's good that you will now get the perfect opportunity to prepare for the unexpected! The enemies in the great plains certainly won't give us any chance for that to happen." Appendix appears hovering above Zeno, a grin on its face.

"Until yield or thrown out the area?" While Abel talks Zeno takes a moment to stretch properly.

"Until you are fully exhausted of course. You are still in a heavenstage where simple exhaustion in a spar makes a considerable change in your combat performance." Zenos takes a combat stance without a saber, the transformed foot of Appendix in hand.

"Ah snap!" Abel punctuates the statement by snapping his fighters activating the array cards he slipped into Zenos pocket's well Zeno was manhandling him. The Right pocket bursts into fire. The left electricity (only earthly and qi power unfortunately). The breast pocket explodes and forces Zeno backwards out the circle. His form shimmering.

A grin remains upon Zeno, prismatic light envelopes the room and Zeno is nowhere in Abels sight moments thereafter. Appendix on the other hand shoots like an arrow right at Abel, harrying the young crafter. While the young array apprentice dodges, weaves and parries with his shots back with his hand cannon where possible, the arrow circles and scratches him. A roiling mass of thunder advances towards Abel forcing him into the air. Zeno right behind him.

Abel fires at Zeno using the reaction force to push him into a wall that he uses as a springboard. Jumping from wall to wall firing at Zeno each time with a volley of grapeshot. With every shoot Abel becomes that much lighter from not being loaded down with so much ammo.

The first few shots are simply avoided through dancing out of the way, while the ones nearer to Zeno get parried by an attentive Appendix with cries of "Hyaah" and "Now this!". The projectiles hitting Zenos shadow get portalled to Abel, forcing the younger one to stop his barrage and move.

Abel drops the canon and draws his sword. Not his preferred method of fighting, but he can only carry so much ammo even with Cinder being able to replace the need to carry gunpowder except as treats. Abel goes into a fighting stance as if about to attack, smoke suddenly rolls from cards Abel placed on the walls filling the room. Abel turns and runs his steps making no sound.

Zenos grin widens from, stretching from ear to ear, before slackening as his eyes glow green. His divination is obvious for all to see and Appendix points Zeno where divination does not reach. Smoke envelops the room. A figure with green glowing eyes advances follows Abel slowly, punching a flat palm towards him to test his defenses.

Abel stabs his sword at the palm. Who knows it might work! The young one's hope dies a swift death with a simple hand rotation by his senior, allowing him into his guard. Zenos loose stance allowing Abel to try once more. "Come on, you can do better!"

"You know the real advantage of a sword? Being big, sharp and shiny?" Abel asks, sweat dripping from his brow.

"Good for stabbing?" Zeno guesses, unsure where the tired sounding Abel might take this. His eyes glow, stopping.

"No, big, sharp and shiny is it's most useful function." Abel activates the circle that Cal had been slowly drawing this whole time. He might not have been entirely truthful about Cal not being able to help in combat. The friction under Zeno's feet completely disappears.

As Zeno slides his lower body splays wide, while his hands clutch his heart. "Oh no! You have laid me prone. Whatever will I do, oh great Immortal!" the grin on Zenos face, inviting Abel to participate in the charade.

"Mwahahaha! You have fallen into my trap and are now helpless before me!" The smoke still in the room gives a nice backdrop to Abel's evil laugh. The walls are pitted with holes from his earlier cannon fire.

Abel Yawns. "And if you are lying down. I think I will take a nap as well." Abel falls to the ground fast asleep from powering all those arrays.

His brother's power nap quickly elicits raucous laughter. The demolished room made the sound echo.

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"And Abel didn't even think to turn off the array before going to sleep! I had to wait for him to wake up! Truly helpless!"

Gasps and sounds of "no way" or "Really? Cool!" can be heard over the family table. All four of which are entranced by the story told, despite the little variance in tone. His gesticulations make more than up for it.

"It's not like I could really do anything to Zeno at that point. Any force I tried to apply would have just helped him get out." Abel explains between mouthfuls of mashed earth apples. "Only thing I could do was nothing."

A small voice to Abels right asks. "Uhm, Big bro Abel. What is "force"? Is it like the sun lotion the smith uses?" her dainty finger raised to her lips. Maria besides her helping one twin brother with his salad.

"Force times velocity equals momentum." Abel repeats the old equation "So force would be anything that would have pushed Zeno in any direction which anything I might do to affect him in that position would be sure to do."

Her eyes widened. "Woah, so cool!. Can I learn it like now?" Zeno stops her before she can gain momentum herself. "You can after you eat your greens." A pout follows promptly.

"But they are disgusting!" She says while her three brothers beside her munch happily on various fruits and vegetables. New plates being handed out in short order.

Maria whispers beside. "If you do that I will help you become as good as Abel." After the little one confirms the good news with her mother, she shovels the salad like it's a contest. Another brother on the table raises a hand to ask a question, which Maria takes care of, allowing the adults to talk.

The matriarch, normally just enjoying the moment, asks her most troublesome sons. "And what harebrained schemes have you two thought of this time? The grin on her face, making her stern face look silly. The candlelight framing her face just right at the head of the table.

"I figured out what the errors with my qi gathering arrays in the Qigui secret realm were and fixed them." Abel pets the tiny Cal on his shoulder. "We went over it very carefully. I am so certain that it will work now that I have put down a huge amount of contribution points onto a bet on me leaving the Yuan Clan Man-As-World Mountain Array at least 8th heavenstage. The bookie required me to do all sorts of tests to prove that I am in fact still only 2nd, but I got really nice a hundred to one odds. Do any of you want to cash in as well?

Iulia promptly answers. "Do I want to cash in? Of course, but you hear me son. Survival is more improtant than some dumb points. Got it?" her gaze piercing across the table corner.

Marias eyes searching for something on the roof, makes her all the more obvious. After a nudge by Zeno she elaborates. "I-I may have bet somewhere else."

"What, that he gets another artifact?" Zeno asks beside her in between bites. His raised hand confirmed his stake in Abels bet.

While biting her lower lip she confesses. "Well, that too. I actually put my main bet down on Abel finding a friend." while the children slurped and munched happily, the adults were perplexed.

She elaborates. "Well, Abel, you..sorta just wander between assignments and rarely talk to people about personal stuff, but sieges tend to put groups together, so I thought it fit, kinda."

"I find it odd that anyone would accept a bet that subjective. The difference between a friend and an acquaintance isn't that big and I get along well with the builder brotherhood." As usual Abel skillfully focuses on pedantry and avoids the implied message.

Iulia cuts in, while poking her lettuce. "The Grand Elder still has a bet running about his friendship with the elder of diplomacy and that man is an antisocial hermit in all but name. You'll be fine, just join some tavern tours once or twice and It will sort itself out."

Letting that topic peter out, Zeno continues. "Interestingly enough Abel's Legion will head to the Song empire once more with ours. That will occupy quite some time, of course. Not seeing the children growing up properly is a damn shame, but what can you do. Duty calls." His shrug and frown underlining his mood.

"And the Yuan secret realm, as you know. That will be interesting and the reason why our sparring room looks that way, ehh. Sorry about that by the way. Heh." Zenos right hand behind his head, giving away how sorry he truly is. Iulia was not amused, though accepted the cost with only a sigh.

"Wasn't my idea. Sort of hard to use a cannon without trashing the room and Zeno dragged me into that" Abel nods to himself "If Zeno had just not dodged, the room would be fine."

Without heat he answers."Dodged? I distinctly remember you going on and on at length about how your canon stuff works and specifically how much it can hurt even a great realm above. You truly can't believe I would just stand there and take it?!" His right eyebrow arches, while he points at Abel with a fork. Alexandria gently reminds him that this is not the time, their hands intertwining. The tension in Zeno vanished just as suddenly. His posture became more relaxed.

"It isn't as if the training room walls are that hard to fix. It's just the brick. We didn't harm the concrete underlay."

Zeno and Alexandria snort. Their children looked shocked at them. His better half elaborates with her teaching voice. "Marble is commonly sold in the Organ meat desert out of various mines spotted in many places across the desert. The uses of which are many, but most often are found to be exported for the special tunist halls, found across the territory of the Mountain bell sect." Zeno explains their topic to the little ones in the meantime.

"Well then it has no place being used in the wall of the training room, use something cheaper!" Abel actually felt a bit offended at the waste.

"Normally I would agree with you, but the training room my idiot dragged you two was intended for beginners to learn or in the rare case we entertain guests, for light spars, not the intense fight you two had." Alexandria waves over at Iulia who takes over.

"We simply didn't have the time to build a good sparring room after you and Goergy were born. It was just one event after another, but with so many new members to our house we need to expand the manor anyway. Feel free to chip into the plans, they lie in my workroom, Abel'er." Her proud smile beamed across the room.
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Collab with Juugo. @Alectai, @TehChron, @Humbaba, @ReaderOfFate, @Kaboomatic

 

[fictionfan]

Abel Angelus​

Preparation for going to the secret realm to try again.
I wasn't joking when I said that I am confident that I will reach at least 8th heavenstage in the Man-As-World Mountain Array. If anything I am low balling it. With any luck at all I should reach 9th heaven stage and beyond. I consider what that actually means. The original reason I started going into secret realms was because I was terrified of soul attacks and wanted to reach the 12th heavenstage to help defend myself against them. With time though my fear has abated.

Also with time I have been able to learn basic soul defenses. It might have taken me longer than a 12th heavenstage would have done it, but I managed in the end. I even made a few arrays to help supplement my defenses. I keep meaning to tattoo them onto the back of my neck, but everytime I start preparing to do it I seem to come up with an improvement or refinement to them. I am sure I will reach a final model eventually.

The main point is that if I am only interested in qualia forge defense then I don't need 12th heavenstage. I certainly don't need it enough to at least triple how long I stay in the qi condensation stage. I have other options. Also when I am using my qi gathering arrays in the secret realm I am going to be gathering far more qi then I can possibly use or cultivate. At least more than I can in the qi condensation realm. If I break through to formation I should be able to make full use of all the qi I can gather. It does seem like a shame to miss the opportunity.

I have actually been doing stretching exercises on my Dantian. To prepare for intaking so much qi all at once. Most people talk about their Dantian being in their navel below the belly button, but I have always found the center of my qi system to be at the top of my spine. Cal has been really useful from practicing stretching it. I mostly do it by straining myself with ever more complex mental math. At this point I am good enough at it that I can write and read in a number based cipher as fast as I could read normally before I started cultivating. Really at this point math when I am not deliberately trying to push my limits comes as instinctively and intuitively as walking, eating or breathing. Calculation cultivation, as I am calling it, has benefits. Even if it is just as painful if mentally instead of physically. I am keeping it up to help expand my Dantian even though I have long stopped finding practical uses for the evermore exotic math.

Of course breakthroughs are dangerous, but in this case I am going to have enormous amounts of qi to work with. Meaning that I should be able to power a very interesting array for absorbing all the tribulation lightning into 64 qi cards. Our clan's tribution lightening has more killing intent than is normally the case which means that the killing intent is not bound to the vital force. My array will quickly merge-sort the 64 qi cards (before the lightning burns them to ash) discharging all the ones with the most vital force to me first which should allow me to better handle the killing intent.

Also I can make it so that every bolt hits a different part of my body. Don't know if that actually helps, but it might make the difference between burnt in one place rather than just well done all over.

Of course I would also be advised to take advantage of the fact that the Man-As-World Mountain Array is in the mountains. Mountain tops are widely considered to be the best place to do a tribulation. I hope that I don't have to play games of king of the hill with other people that also want to do their tribulation there. I doubt that anyone else without my Math advantages can duplicate my qi gathering arrays as I found to my cost in the last secret realm, but there must be all sorts of ideas that people come up with to use extra qi to help them through their tribulations. I wonder if I will be seeing lightning striking every mountain top?
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I think that it is very fitting that this Omake brings me up to 40K total words allowing for an instant breakthrough to formation. @Alectai, @TehChron, @Humbaba, @ReaderOfFate, @Kaboomatic

 

[fictionfan]

Abel Angelus​

Jingshen Diplomacy in the Man-As-World Mountain Array
Deng Jingshen was having a good day so far. He had successfully hunted two valuable spirit beasts and now he had found a great mountaintop to do his breakthrough. He had collected many tribulation treasures for a bargain price because they required a higher ambient qi level than was normally affordable. Getting a spot in the Man-As-World Mountain Array had been expensive, but taking all the costs as a set they had been a great deal.

Deng looked around himself using his 'eye of the eagle' before starting his tribulation. It wouldn't do to be attacked midway though. Wait there on the next mountain over there was a Golden Devil! He wasn't even trying to hide his metal hair gleamed in the starlight; he had built a tower of all things on top of his mountain. The sheer arrogance.

Well now such arrogance was about to be punished. Deng looked forward to going through the loot later. Anyone so gandy as to build a tower in the middle of a secret realm was bound to have treasure worth having and if it was worth having then Deng Jingshen should have it.

Deng prepared his bow made from great phoenix bone. It would strengthen his already powerful fire element archery arts. Taking aim at the Devil on top of the tower that didn't seem to have even noticed him yet he unlessed his Falling Stars Art. It would strike the fool like the wrath from the heavens above! As his arrow left his bow it ignited into a giant ball of fire so bright that it bleached out the stars in the sky. The Devil turned to look in his direction, but it was too late!

Halfway to his target something impossible happened. The giant ball of fire of his art started dimming and shirking such that by the time it reached the Devil there was nothing left but a wooden arrow shaft with a metal tip. The Devil struck it out of the art with a large metal club.

No, not a club, a tube of some sort. That Devil pointed at him and with a bang a metal ball the size of a head flew out of the tube directly towards Dang. Dang scoffed, no matter what defensive arts the Devil was using he was certainly underestimating Dang if he thought a metal ball would cause him any damage no matter how fast. When it reached him he contemptuously swatted it aside with his iron fist techniq-

There was a blast of heat and light and Dang Jingshen knew no more.
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Good to know that my new explosive shells are working. I wonder why that guy attacked me out of the blue like that? Also good to see that the qi gathering arrays drains the qi out of attacks just as well as everything else. That giant fireball arrow was amazingly powerful for qi condensation. It was bigger than some formation level attacks I have seen. I consider going out and looting the treasures that guy must have had, but it isn't worth leaving my arrays. Whatever he had they will be drained like everything else around here.
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More inspiration. @Alectai, @TehChron, @Humbaba, @ReaderOfFate, @Kaboomatic

 

[fictionfan]

Abel Angelus
Gaius Antonius​

Abel's musing on his Dao With Gaius
Abel had been making a habit of dealing with all bottlenecks before he got to them. He liked his cultivation to be as smooth as possible. With the foundation stage in reach, that meant that Abel would have to do something about deciding his dao. Might as well talk with an expert.

Which is why Abel is paying for the drinks at the Dawn of victory, the most expensive bar in the Dawn fortress area.

"I know what things I stand for and what I consider important even my general modus operandi, but does a dao have to be able to be summed up in one word? About all the daos I have heard of are like that. But all the single words I can think of are either too limiting or too inclusive"

Abel's theory was that a dao seems to be a way of constantly focusing on something to get qi to respond to you. Much like focusing on making a computer for a long time had brought Cal the qi powered calculation machine to Abel.

"Hmm…" Gaius leaned back in his chair, swirling a glass of liquor around idly. "Not always one word; one concept. But if you let it get away from you, you won't be able to hold onto it. It's like moving furniture; even if you're strong enough to carry something, it might be too big to maneuver with."

Abel nods "Yes a Dao too big comes with baggage that can be just as limiting as a Dao being too small. Well I assume or everyone would just follow the dao of everything." If Dao affected the universe then you would want to be selective in your effects. Doing everything might cause things you didn't want or maybe waste energy? Abel had heard that dao effects often don't cost qi, but presumably they have some sort of cost.

"A Dao of Everything?" Gaius chuckled. "Well, I'd sure like to meet a person who managed that. Would be interesting for sure." He took another sip, letting the liquid swirl in his mouth for a moment before swallowing. "In most cases, a Cultivator doesn't seriously develop a Dao until they're already at the border of Foundation Building. They lived their life and eventually reached the Ninth Heavenstage, if they had the aptitude for it. Then, they look back on how they've lived, who they've been. It's a hard thing to do, though not all manage it like that."

Gaius ran his fingers through his hair, pushing a few strands out of his eye. He sighed as he considered how to get his feelings across in words.

Abel recipes "By the time someone gets to 9th heavenstage they are likely to have enough life behind them to reflect on it" Or have a midlife crisis. "Mostly I focus on turning the complex simple by breaking them down into parts and the simple complex by adding a bunch of simple parts together.'' Not being able to talk about the last world was likely going to make this conversation harder, Abel thought. "That seems to work for just about any problem."

"Zeno has a knack for bringing me interesting puzzles." Gaius muttered, turning over his empty glass. "I do have to admit, your mind is unfathomable to me; frightening even. I'm reminded that while they're often used as synonyms, a genius and a prodigy aren't the same thing." Gaius tapped the side of his head. "Intellectually, I mean. Higher cultivation brings higher thinking power, but what's going on in your head isn't just power. There's a terrifying depth to it, for you to imagine so many ideas. That same depth, I presume, is the reason for that extreme bottleneck you are dealing with"

Gaius dripped a few drops of liquor into his finger(wincing at the cost) and drew three lines. The first was about an inch long. "Here's the mental speed of a mortal. It lines up pretty well with… what would you call it, cognitive power? This is how you spent the first fifteen or so years of your life." He drew a second line, an inch and a quarter long. "This is the mental speed of a Second Heavenstage Cultivator. It's barely higher at all. This was you from about twenty to fifty-five." Finally, The Seeker drew a three inch long line. "And here's the mental speed of the Ninth Heavenstage. If you get there is will no doubt add far more complex convolutions of your brain, and the difference is even more staggering. Do you understand?"

Abel holds up a small caterpillar on one of his fingers. "It isn't hard so long as I break everything down to math. Although when you use math, really small errors can compound themselves. The extra thinking speed should be nice, but mostly it just gives me more time to check my work." Abel waves a hand in a circular motion.

Abel smiles "It might not be as useful for social stuff (although more useful than most people would find comfortable knowing), but it isn't as if higher level cultivators tend to talk faster as a habit. New ideas seem to be the more common limiting factor." Shame this world doesn't have anything like social media. The ability to crowd source a problem is amazing.

"Well, I'm glad you're handling it well." Gaius smiled, then grimaced as he went back to this puzzle. "So if you adjust to the Ninth Heavenstage, then… It's either your relatively unadventurous life, brought on from that bottleneck, or an inability to accept something about yourself, maybe both."

Gaius leaned over the table, looking for a hint in Abel's eyes. "Who are you, Abel Angelus? What truth lies within you? It's not something numbers can quantify, at least not any numbers we know about. What are you doing here?" If Gaius brushed a little too close to the truth with that last statement, he had no idea he had done so.

Abel felt like that was a bit of a challenge "Well if you use enough of them. Complex things are made of loads of simple things added together to make the total greater than the sum of their parts. I guess that is another part of my Dao, a general disdain for mysticism and sacred mysteries, that seems like an excuse people often give because they hate saying I don't know. I am fine with not knowing things. I can find them out later so long as I don't cover my ignorance with a 'stop think'."

"Now that's something I can agree with." Gaius smiled. "Uncovering the truth, I mean. It's an admirable way to live. But the truth you need to find to survive your tribulation isn't something you'll find in nature. You won't find it in a mineral vein underground either. It's not in the sea or the sky or the void, it's only in you." The Seeker fussed with his hair a bit. "There is no difference between… no, you wouldn't like that one. You are already… no, that's too metaphorical."

Gaius quirked his eyebrows upward and poured himself another glass, taking a swig. "You're antithetical to cultivation, you know that? If you won't engage with… what was it you called it, a 'stop think'? If you won't accept limitations on your own thoughts, then it's like climbing a mountain with weights on your limbs." He smirked as something came to him. "Although, if you do that, then once the weights come off you'll be far stronger. If a person like you were to somehow engage with the Dao without giving an inch, and somehow make it all the way to Nascent Soul… well, you'd be the sanest Nascent to ever live. And that's not a small thing."

"I don't have any plans to get to nascent soul. None of my goals actually require it and from what I heard it is miserable. If I was planning on getting to nascent I would put in the extra time to get to the 12th heaven stage."

Gaius let out a bark of laughter. "Fair enough! I forgot myself for a moment!" He lit a cigarette for himself, finally starting to look satisfied. "I think we're closing in on something here. A Dao that defines the life you've lived, a Dao that you could take to Core Formation without falling into 'stop think' and a Dao that's simple enough to center a philosophy around." He held up three fingers. "Those are the conditions. In your heart is a fundamental, personal truth which fulfils all three."

Abel frowns "A dao of truth would follow all the conditions, but doesn't seem to have that many applications" . Back in his last life his name had actually meant truth in another language; it had had profound implications on how he thought in that life as well.

Gaius playfully wagged his finger, dragging on his cigarette. "If all you're thinking is 'what can the Dao do for me?' then you've already lost. But I'm also not so sure it wouldn't be useful. There are many truths out there, ones people don't even consider. You're treasure hunting in Yuan in five years, right? Take a bit more time to think about it."

"Sort of" Actually if things worked out Abel would just find a spot and not move from it the entire time he was there, but treasures seemed likely to come to him. If only to try and stop the dark lord draining the qi from the area.

"Then perhaps you'll find greater conviction there. If you want my advice, meditate on the nature of Truth, and if you find any other concepts that fit your conditions and resonate as well, then think on those too. When your life is in danger, your Dao should be a source of mental strength, renewing your morale and pushing you forward." He looked out the window, thinking back on his many brushes with death, and how they had only firmed his resolve further in the end. "Or perhaps that's too mystical for you, Junior Brother." Gaius teased. "Perhaps morale is a foreign concept to you."

Abel shrugs "It's a real thing with real effects. If I tried to model the world without it my model would be flawed. I just tend to have more important things to think about generally when my life is in danger."

"That's generally how it is, yes." Gaius said. "But… nnn, here's where I'd say 'abandon logic for a moment', but you'd walk out on me if I did, so…" He took another drag as he thought, and thought, and thought. It went on for fifteen whole seconds, Gaius reducing the cigarette to ashes in one pull. With a frustrated sigh, he released a massive cloud of smoke into the air above him. "Damnit, just give it a shot, would ya? Not literally in the middle of something trying to kill you. In the aftermath, think about it. Think about what drives you in your most desperate moments. I think you might be onto something with Truth, and I also think you'll be surprised at what it can do for you, even when it's not engraved on a pillar yet."

With that, The Seeker got up and made to leave. "If I help you too much more, then that could be detrimental. Cultivation is a deeply personal journey; when it comes to something as delicate as the Dao, all I can do is nudge you."

Abel bows his head, "thank you. Talking with you has been very helpful. I feel like I should mention that I don't feel that logic and emotions are things that come into conflict. Or at least they shouldn't." That generally was a result of suppressed reasoning.

"I'm relieved to hear it. You're a good guy; I'd hate to see you deny yourself happiness." Gaius turned to give a thumbs up in the doorway. "I believe in you, Junior."

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[fictionfan]

Abel Angelus​

Yuan Fate reaction Part 1

No, not a club, a tube of some sort. That Devil pointed at him and with a bang a metal ball the size of a head flew out of the tube directly towards Dang. Dang scoffed, no matter what defensive arts the Devil was using he was certainly underestimating Dang if he thought a metal ball would cause him any damage no matter how fast. When it reached him he contemptuously swatted it aside with his iron fist techniq-



There was a blast of heat and light and Dang Jingshen knew no more.

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Good to know that my new explosive shells are working. I wonder why that guy attacked me out of the blue like that? Also good to see that the qi gathering arrays drains the qi out of attacks just as well as everything else. That giant fireball arrow was amazingly powerful for qi condensation. It was bigger than some formation level attacks I have seen. I consider going out and looting the treasures that guy must have had, but it isn't worth leaving my arrays. Whatever he had they will be drained like everything else around here.

Click to shrink...

"He killed Dang!" "That bastard!"

I look over at the blasted mountaintop that that guy shot at me from. I guess he was named Dang? There are now three more people on that mountain top shaking their fists at me.

They quickly learn that their qi attacks are no more effective against me surrounded by powerful qi gathering arrays than Dang's were. I am similarly limited in my offensive options against them and they are easily able to shoot my cannon balls out of the air. No chance of catching them with a surprise explosive shell then. Besides I only have one left.

I might have been better off not trying to shoot them at all because it clues them in that qi free projectiles work. Not that their arrows are much more effective; I can easily block and dodge a mundane arrow at this distance. Eventually we both give up shooting ineffective projectiles at each other.

They seem to be focusing on a ritual of some sort. They should know better by now, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I look closer using my spyglass. I recognize some of that. A Heaven Bribing Heathen Smiting Formation that's a Jingshen formation, an expensive one. They must really be angry but still what do they expect to manage with my arrays draining all the qi around this area?

I look over at my mostly completed preparation for calling down heaven's lightning for my tribulation and start doing some quick math. My body is quicker then my brain because by the time I finish my calculations I am already on my bicycle riding right off the cliff at the edge of my mountain. Before I hit the ground 3 li down I hear a deafening

Crack

Along with a light so bright that even looking away with my eye's closed It is still blinding. Then I land on the ground thankful that I had the foresight to splurge on shock absorbers for just this sort of situation. I ride away as fast as my legs and wheels can carry me. Shame about the loss of my preparation. Still even with this set back I am still coming out ahead for this trip.
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The uselessness of Time Travel

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Time Travel: Quick making thousand year exilars
By Athanasios Scafeas updated by Tisamenos

Time manipulation is a field of extremely limited usefulness on any sort of long scale in general. Lifting a pebble in the present is barely any effort at all, but try and lift that same pebble a few seconds in the past and it will take more power then lifting a mountain. It is a bit like the difference between lifting a pebble on the ground and a pebble a mile underground. There are some high level combat techniques that consider this to be a valid tactic, but practically affecting anything more then a few seconds into the past is impossible. Just about anything that you might wish to accomplish by changing the past can be more easily done by changing the present.

There is, however, a way to get around this. What if you changed something in the past that had no effect on anything around it? Taking a loose pebble out of a cave under the ground. That can be done without having to move all the earth above the pebble. The analogy holds for time.

So if you can find a place that you can verify has not affected anything or been affected by anything for a thousand years you can place a exilar into it a thousand years ago and effectively age an elixir a thousand years in an instant. This method is very limited due to how hard it is to find such isolated spots and how hard these spots almost always are to access.

Still I hope that you in the future find this method useful. As soon as I proved my technique I set up ten thousand places where it should be possible to practice it in the future and encouraged others to do the same. You in the future should have a better idea of how well that has worked out then I do. This article was written in year 10 of the reign of Alexio. I am not sure how expensive these spots will be to purchase. They should become more valuable the older they are, but no matter how expensive they are I assure you that they are still easier to access then an air pocket in a thousand year old volcano which I had to use to prove my theory.

-Editors note: This article has updated for easier readability many of the phases and idioms of the original article were archaic and did not make for easy reading -Tisamenos Second Chronicler Year 210 of the reign of Manuel Konstantinos one thousand years after this article's first publication.

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If you found this article helpful we recommend

The thousand year auction

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