Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Two sides of a different coin
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It was a warm summer day in the city of Wu, one of the more important trade cities in the region. Housing approximately 200,000 people, it served as a home for many wealthy merchants who profited richly from the intersecting rivers that met at the city gates.
However, no matter how powerful a merchant, they were still mere ants at the feet of a cultivator. That was why, whereas a decade ago the city's administration had been equally influenced by the merchant clans of Yung and Bao, now there were only the Bao left. The Yung family had run afoul of a core formation stage cultivator to whom they had sold false goods under the presumption that they were just a beggar who had lucked into some sort of treasure.
The cultivator had not been happy with the slight to his face and had exterminated the main branch of the family thus greatly reducing their influence. The only member of the family left was a young boy by the name of Xiao, who the cultivator recognized as having a modicum of talent in cultivation, already being able to perceive qi at the young age of six. Unwilling to kill someone who might potentially one day become an equal rather than remain an ant, he let the boy live. However, a boy of six could not lead a trade empire.
After that massacre misfortune seemed to continue following the Yung family, what remained of them at least. A great many businesses failed, trade deals went askew, shipments went lost, and warehouses burned.
Everyone of any standing in the city knew that this was likely the Baos using the opportunity to kick an enemy while they were down, consolidating their power and influence. The Yungs found themselves hopelessly suppressed, forced even to engage their prodigious son, their last bargaining chip, with the daughter of the Bao family.
It is always the bigger shark who swallows the smaller in the womb, so the plan was that the boy would marry into the Bao family. The Bao family would then swallow the rest of the assets of the Yung family, and then the boy would be sent off to cultivate after conceiving an heir and become a protector of the Baos by association once he entered the world of immortals.
However, who could have foreseen that the Yung holdings would continue to deteriorate even after the Baos stopped suppressing them, leading to the extinction of the entire trade union? The Yung family members scattered in all directions of the winds, leaving young Xiao behind in the care of the Baos. He was taken care of and praised because he still represented something of value, namely a potential future cultivator tied to the family.
Alas when another cultivator passed by in search of disciples for her sect and more closely analysed the boy's talent, fate took a turn for the worse once again.
A young woman from the Sect of the Illustrious Blaze Fire Reaching the Thousand Heavens of Akash had taken a drop of Xiao's blood and had determined that his bodily constitution was composed of two elements that existed in an unfortunate juxtaposition.
Generally, when a cultivator began their path of immortality, their element alignment determined which method they would use. Those who were predisposed to water would learn something like the Eternal Sea Suppression method, while those with a predisposition to yin, like the little-known Illusion Room Sect, would use their increased mental capacities to cast illusion spells and create artefacts.
It was always better to have one talent so that cultivation would not be muddled, as, when breaking into the foundation establishment stage, one would have to balance all of one's predispositions to begin perfecting one's body for the eventual core formation. While those with two predispositions might still find themselves fortuitous enough to become foundation establishment cultivators, those with three or more were generally discarded as useless.
While Xiao having two predispositions might have in other circumstances led him to become an external member of a sect, it was the arrangement of these two talents which was problematic.
The elements which could be taken by one's heavenly root were divided into two groupings. The five-element grouping of water, fire, earth, metal and wood, and the second was the obscure dualism of yin and yang. Those whose heavenly root was a mixture of elements from the two groups were doomed to failure before they had even walked the path and Xiao was one of those people possessing the talent for wood and yin. These two elements were seen as particularly incompatible by anyone who understood the basics of internal alchemy. Wood, like metal and earth, might have worked with a yang predisposition, whereas yin mixed well with water and fire.
That was why on this warm summer day, a scene occurred in the city of Wu, which finalised once and for all the demise of the Yung family.
A bundle of blue robes was thrown out of a tall and imposing gate painted in gold and red, which served as the main entrance into the compound of the Bao family.
As the robe rolled to a stop on the dirty floor of the street, it was revealed that what had been thrown out was actually a person. A young man with a defiant expression rappled himself up to all fours so he could glare at the large heavyset warrior in leather armour who had just committed the deed of throwing him out to the street.
A young female voice spoke up from next to the warrior. It belonged to an enchanting beautiful girl clad in a dress of red, the traditional colour of the Bao family. Her voice would have been a pleasant sound had it not been so dripping with disgust. "To think that in addition to losing all of your wealth, you also wasted our time with your delusions of ever becoming a cultivator," the girl said hotly with her nose in the air. Her black hair, tied into buns, jumped up and down as she shook from anger.
The girl's face flushed red to match her outfit, as if outraged that someone dared to not be utterly aware of all their invisible spiritual qualities. A hand went to a ring on her finger which she took off and carelessly threw at the young man's feet. It fell to the floor and got covered in dust immediately, rolling to a stop in front of the young man.
"I can't believe I wasted years being betrothed to a waste like you," the young woman said with a scowl before reeling her head back and spitting with pinpoint precision at the ring.
She turned to the hulking warrior by her side. "If he's ever seen in the city again, kill him. There won't be anyone who will complain," she said coldly, huffed and stormed off back into the compound.
The hulking warrior threw a glance at the young man, and then shrugged at him as if saying, 'What can you do?' He then stepped back, put his hands on the ornate gates and swung them shut.
The young man, whose name was Xiao Yung, shakily picked up the ring, and wiped the spit off with his robes, knowing that he would need it.
"This cursed Bao family," he muttered to himself. "Do you think I do not know that it was you who eradicated the business of the branch family left behind after the massacre? Now that even the path of cultivation might be closed to me, do you not think that the cornered dog bites the hardest? What else do I have to live for other than revenge?"
With the diagnosis of his heavenly roots, no matter how little he understood them, he knew that most sects would not accept him as a disciple barring him from whatever personal power he could have attained with that method.
There was no point in staying in Wu considering that he was now essentially banished with the Bao family holding a death grip on the city's economy.
What the Bao family didn't know however is that he had flagged the cultivator that had delivered that fateful diagnosis this morning before she'd left. He'd asked her if there was no other way for him to ascend to the path of a cultivator. Were all paths truly barred to him?
The beautiful red-haired woman had seemed to consider for a second, looking resplendent and dignified in her golden robes. He could not fault her for simply telling the truth but only cursed the ears into which it had been whispered.
'There is one sect in the vicinity which I know does not care as much about the talent of their disciples, but rather their willpower. The Mad Monks cultivate a method which requires inner peace, furthermore, they are a martial sect focusing on the use of a weapon rather than on spells, which suits your chaotic disposition more. Other than that I'm afraid you are beyond help,' she had told him before walking off at a speed that he could not follow even if he ran as hard as he could.
He had kept that information close to his heart, knowing that his days with the Bao family were limited and that if they thought he could recover from their banishment they would kill him on their spot rather than just threaten to do so if he did not leave.
He picked himself up, knowing the general direction of the mountain on which the Mad Monks had built their temples and began his journey with nothing but the clothes on his back and a spit-covered engagement ring he would have to sell off for the gold it was made out of.
"I vow revenge on the name Bao and on you evil cultivator who killed my family," Xiao said to himself as he left the city gates behind him. "One day I will give you not what you want, but what you deserve for your evil deeds," he said coldly as people avoided walking too close to him due to his dirty appearance and dark countenance.
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As Xiao began his journey to the mountains, leaving the debris of his past life behind him, Jin wished that he wasn't currently present in these very mountains.
He was crying tears of blood at his absolutely disgusting schedule. Brutal martial arts training in the mornings, the rest of the day filled with lonesome cultivation and redesigning the horror scenario to the specifications of Elder Flower.
Worker's rights? What were those? He hadn't spoken to another person since his talk with Elder Flower and his nights were fitful and full of nightmares.
He noticed as time progressed that while his body was becoming a better conduit for qi due to his cultivation, the rings under his eyes grew deeper and deeper until they formed into fully designed Gucci bags.
The circumstances were special. He was visiting another sect and didn't necessarily have the right to go beyond his abode and the place where he was supposed to meet inner disciple Shen for training. Elder Flower was mostly gone, and the one time that she had shown up recently she'd simply given him more work.
Looking at it from any sane perspective, what he was experiencing was an extremely perfidious torture consisting of physical pain, sleep deprivation, social circle destruction, and leisure time evaporation.
The most horrible thing about it was that the memories of this original body's owner were informing him that this was considered a relatively light schedule for a cultivator as well.
The stories spoke of cultivators going into secluded cultivation for centuries on end with only their minds and a cultivation technique to keep them company. Maybe some pills or other items if they were lucky.
"What the actual fuck was wrong with these people?" Jin muttered to himself as he worked restlessly on the Outlast scenario knowing that his torture would find at least some respite as soon as he got done with it.
Was cultivation truly the path to follow or should he maybe just excommunicate himself and live the rest of his life as a peasant until he died of natural causes? It seemed to him that if he did so the amount of free time he would have until his death would actually be superior to the amount of free time he would have for the rest of eternity if he remained a cultivator.
A change of phrasing here in a parchment roll in the library, a small remodelling of the movement structure of the twins, and an update of the graphics of the Walrider to make the effect it had on the world more imposing.
The work was as difficult as it was finite, however his mind was descending more and more into madness with every day.
That was at least until one day he was sitting in his room in a lotus position, focused on his mind as he always was, and paused. He looked at the scenario that he had created in his head. He slowly pored over the data shards that it consisted of. Looked at his own cultivation, double-checking that he had used the maximum amount of space he could impart into any project.
A disbelieving sigh of relief escaped his parched mouth. With the crazy workload, he had forgotten to drink for several days on end now, simply seeking to be done with it as soon as possible. He felt dizzy, but the seconds that he'd saved by refraining from food and water had been worth it if it meant finishing this hell schedule even one minute faster.
He needed to talk to someone, he needed to… His thoughts suddenly trailed off, struck by a bout of dizziness now that they weren't performing the high-speed calculations necessary to create scenarios.
"I'm done!" he shouted. "I'm done!"
That was of course only the case if Elder Flower did not find other small things to correct.
He started crying on the floor, he was perfectly aware that the narration describing his current life was becoming just as disjointed as his psyche had become in the past months.
He babbled to himself for several minutes before he pulled himself together, dragged himself to his feet, and started going towards the sliding door on all fours, barely managing to stand up and open it.
He slowly but surely made his way towards the rooms in which Elder Flower tended to reside, knowing that in all likeliness she wouldn't be there. However, by some stroke of luck, after he traversed the wooden floors, he heard something.
The sound of a female voice coming out of Elder Flower's room. He gently knocked on the doors not forgetting his status even as his mind descended into madness.
The voice stopped, but Jin had been able to make out the last words.
-/-
"Would I rather go to the hot springs, or should I ask to get another massage?" Elder Flower had been wondering aloud in a whimsical voice. However, when she heard the knocking she turned more serious. "Come in!"
Jin entered and looked at the radiant beauty who seemed to be becoming more relaxed with every day that passed. He knows that she trained, or something, but did the difference between their minds at the moment really have to be so different?
"It's done," he said, voice raspy from complete misuse.
Elder Flower nodded thoughtfully and bid him to come over to the table at which she was sitting, peeling an apple with a small string of qi extending from her fore-finger.
"Show me," she demanded and handed him the Room that he had put the last illusion into the last time they spoke. They'd wiped it after she'd seen what needed improvement. Now again he put his finger to it and infused the scenario into it. It flowed like water, the horribleness that he'd created escaping his mind like a bomb going off. The loss of a deprivation is more pleasant than any blessing.
He sighed in relief.
Elder Flower nodded when he was finished, put her palm on the warm metal of the illusion Room and delved right in.
A few minutes passed. Doubtlessly she was simply checking what she had commented on the last time instead of going through the whole thing again.
She came out quickly and gave a slow and approving nod. "Not perfect, but any more tweaking would require more time than it's worth, for mortals it will suffice," she determined.
Jin, in an act of sheer joy, passed out. His head hit the table edge as his body crumbled, the more than half a year of hell giving him a head laceration on the way out.
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AN: Biweekly I descend from the heavens as I am a gracious god.
Currently I am experiencing the manic part of being bipolar. I am sleeping only 4 hours a night and have more energy than ever. It's great. I really hope I can afford a therapist one of these days lmao. Sub to my patreon to read 4 chapters ahead and support my mental health journey, hehe. (I will spend it on alcohol and gambling)
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