บท 386: Cultivator's Guide to Waste Renewal (Beware of Chicken AU Timeline) by Yama951
Adding science to cultivation is rarely done it should be explored more 🫠
Words: 110k+
Link: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/cultivators-guide-to-waste-renewal-beware-of-chicken-au-timeline.1158835/
(In one path, Rou Jin fled to the weakest province of the Crimson Phoenix Empire.
In this path, Rou Jin fled to the farthest Qi Waste by the Crimson Phoenix Empire.
The Heavens is silent, and its Laws are vast yet permissive.
The Way taken shall bring upon a new age.
Where mortals ascend to the heavens by following the Heavenly Laws.)
Chapter 1 - Upon Barren Soil, Plant the Seed of Hope
You know, when I decided to just run into the farthest Qi Waste to get away from all of the cultivator nonsense, I should have taken that as a sign that I was being overly paranoid. But I did it and damn was the ever present feeling of being sucked dry of Qi by the world felt like hell, so a little better than the regular nine to five retail job I did in my past life.
Jokes aside, I was mentally blaming past me and my stubbornness for my situation. They weren't kidding when they called it a Waste. No plants, and with the general soul sucking vibe, it looked drier and deader than the Atacama Desert, or maybe Death Valley.
I honestly could have died had it weren't for the luck of finding a lake. Water's still water, even empty of metaphysical Qi, and with that and my surprisingly still Qi filled body, I started farming.
As a joke, I started saluting the sun before my morning exercises, letting myself drink up the sunlight like a plant, that and a shout or two given how uncanny the place is without the sound of animal life, not even an insect.
The real surprising bit was that the seeds and hardy root vegetables I selected and brought with me, even some of the Lowly Spiritual Herbs, survived being brought to this place and even began to grow.
In hindsight, it should have been a sign that my daily 'saluting the sun' turned out to be some secret or lost cultivator art or something, given the stories of cultivators living out of nothing but a single dew drop of a mountain and the energies of the universe.
Other than that, the farm slowly took shape. The potatoes, always the hardiest of veg, was sprouting and growing. Tried to sprinkle a bit of Qi into the ground, careful not to let the Qi void go all 'vampire sucking a bag of juice dry' on me. The Lowly Spiritual Herbs would help give flavor to the resulting pile of potato based dishes I'll be eating in the near future.
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They died, or at least they were sure they died, leaving nothing but the ever present hunger and thirst that couldn't be satisfied no matter how many they grabbed and sucked dry. Reason and etiquette be damned, the pit of hunger and thirst removed any sense of restraint. Yet the others pulled their dragon veins away from them, leaving them trapped with the gnawing emptiness.
They lost track of time. Only bouts of awareness arrived when some Qi entered their territory and, like a starved predator, they leapt at it, to feast and drink in a vain attempt to be filled. Then they would return to that ever gnawing pit of emptiness until the next sliver of Qi entered.
Until one sliver entered and they couldn't drink it. Like a thirsty man trying to reached for a pool of water only for the waters to receded away, or a hungry man grabbing for food only for it to be an illusion of light, the one sliver of Qi couldn't be touched, couldn't be sucked dry. Worst yet, this strange quality seemed to have spread to most of the stuff it had with it.
And so, they tried another method.
In its sleep, the morsel of Qi took the form of a man cracked in half and it was a dream that made them pause.
They became lost in the memories of a world that live without Qi.
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You know, in hindsight, it's funny how little cultivators know about how the sun is the source of almost all the energy needed for life. The tiny remainder being the planet's core fueling plate tectonics, volcanoes, and undersea thermal vents. But still, energy is still energy, and the sun shines down in the Qi Wastes as much as every other province in the empire.
Heh, Qi=mc^2... might actually be the case in this world. No idea how to test it though, unless my daily sun salute has made the sun like me and bestow me power beyond my knowing. Really, for all I know there really might have been an actual sun god and Huyi killed off their brothers. The moon could have a lonely goddess and decided to become a pop idol to pass the time.
Okay, I think the sheer social isolation in this place is getting to me but it's not like I'll head out of my little slice of heaven. I think I got a coconut tree growing, of all things I found in that lake.
Maybe I could go out to the next province over for supplies? Then again, I look like a younger version of Gramps given how scuffy I look now. I doubt people would buy stuff from a hobo and I'm not sure what I would give in return.
One interesting thing that happened, other than the tree sapling growing in the middle of the Qi Waste, are the odd crystals forming with the potatoes. I get the feeling that it too is soaking up the sun's energy and light.
No idea why I get that though, maybe it's some cultivator's intuition thing.
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The Dream of the Qi Dead World was like a balm to them.
Yes, the hunger and the thirst gnawed in them still. Yes, they know it was memories or an illusion.
Yet it was such a captivating dream that the hunger and thirst could fade away into the background, allowing them to immerse themselves into the strange reality before them.
This world without any Qi still has life, and it spoke of other worlds around its sun and the natives' ideas to live in those dead and desolated worlds. They would have scoffed at the notion had they were still a proper Land Spirit, to rue the ire of the Heavens by ways of mortal artifice. Yet they succeeded. In fact, they beyond succeeded.
They knew of things that even the greatest of cultivators knew little of. The beginning of their world, the way it will end, the way their sun shall perish, the way their universe shall perish, the vast lengths of time that even those empty pits of Qi Waste they called black holes would eventually evaporate into nothing. It was comforting, in a way. Even the gnawing emptiness shall fade in time.
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Rou Jin sensed them first, in my dreams.
The vaguely defined girl(?) that looked like they came from the Ring just finding themselves captivated with the memory of my hometown around them right when they were going to strike doing the whole horror movie trope of moving on all fours on their back and their head just snapped and twist around to face us before the chase.
I ended up wishing to be home and my hometown appeared around us and she stopped in her tracks.
"Whatever you did, keep doing it." Rou Jin advised and, taking a page from Sherazade, I followed up in my dreams.
Over time, we slowly made them see reason, or at least they tolerate us due to the desire to keep watching stuff from my world.
I had to pull out all the stops. Movies, tv shows, some cartoons and anime, even stories I read and imagined up as movies in the dream.
Ironically, it was the science stuff that pulled their interest the most.
Somehow turned wikiwalking into some dream defense thing by putting them through memories of museums, science videos, and Wikipedia articles over time.
Something about astrophysics, of all things, made them stop wanting to eat us.
And they too started doing the whole sun salute after that.
I even decided to bring them to a fast food joint and just, let them eat a smorgasboard of processed fast food and soft drinks.
Their proportions was like an anime character turned to life, in the most horrific way possible. Big eyes, tiny mouth, bone thin body with a massive belly. They struggled to eat and drink the food before them because of that.
"A hungry ghost..." Rou Jin quietly muttered.
I pitied them to be honest. But, they were getting better with each passing dream.
The dead lifeless eyes slowly gained more light in them. Their body regained fat and muscle.
After a few months of dreams, they started to talk back. Their voice was still raspy, like they hadn't have drunk water for days, but it was better than the dry wheezing they made in the first day.
"T-thank... you..." they said. Their voice still hard to tell if they're male or female.
"It's nothing. So, do you remember who you are?"
"I... am... was... land..."
"A Land Spirit?" Rou Jin asked with a tone of horror, to which the spirit nodded.
"Do you remember your name?" I asked, wondering what happened that would turn a land spirit like this. Unfortunately they just shook their head.
"Hunger... hard... think..."
"I see. Well, maybe a new name for a new leash on life?"
They blinked and smiled, looking more cuter than horrific given their real life anime proportions, and nodded.
"No... idea... what..."
"Don't worry, we could give you a nickname until you decide what you want your name to be."
"It's going to be that Sa Da Kou girl from that movie thing isn't it." Rou Jin groaned out.
"Hey, it's not my fault that they kept reminding me of the Ring and it popped up in the dream because of that."
"Sa Da Kou... Little Vast Gate..." the spirit said as they seemed to struggle recalling what the words meant. They then nodded in agreement. "Sa Da Kou... is good..." they said as they smiled, straining themselves to widen it. It was rather cute, if a little sad. But they're healing and that's all that mattered.
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Honestly lost track of time. Was it a year already? Two years? Three?
The coconut tree's growing well and I decided to sort of use, sort of plant, the crystals around the place. The fact that they glowed like the sun at night made them like little solar lights in a way.
The real surprise was the fact that grass was slowly growing around the lake some time ago. Now the lake is surrounded in green, an oasis in the wasteland.
I got so used to living out here that I kept forgetting that this was a Qi Waste. I wonder if the reason why it's called a Qi Waste was due to some cultivator decided to just suck up the province dry of Qi and it killed everything in it, like an idiot musclehead going for the instant gains and screwing themselves over in the long run.
If that really was what happened here, then I hope that cultivator got a bad indigestion for a couple of centuries.
I turned to face the dawn and shouted at the top of my lungs. A breeze passed by as if the world shouted at the sun with me.
I then started my morning stretching before another day of farm work begun.
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Shen Yu looked at the Qi Waste before him. A vast wasteland that continually sucked in Qi that even the mortals and nature itself took their distance from its borders.
Rage and grief filled him when the news of his beloved grandson not only was greatly harmed by his former sworn brother's lineage but the evidence that he fled into a Qi Waste, never to return.
He held back wiping out the Cloudly Sword Sect for that massive insult, if only to use them to fuel his treks into all of the Qi Wastes of the empire to find his grandson's body for a proper burial.
Yet something was strange in the air of this Qi Waste.
It was still a hungry void, yes, but there's a sense of both energy in the air like the sun and a strange sense of antipathy, as if a predator, instead of wishing to devour a prey, seek to push away all prey from its territory.
It was a strange omen. A Qi void that needs to devour, yet feasts not on the Qi of the world, in fact seems to push away said Qi, and seems to want to devour the Qi of the sun itself.
A worrying sign indeed.
What manner of demonic array or formation would turn a Qi Waste into something that would try to devour the Heavens itself?
Shen Yu turned back, as much as he grieves for his late grandson, this potentially demonic development must reach the Emperor and any learned cultivators on the matter of the Qi Wastes.
He could only hope that this development and his grandson fleeing into a Qi Waste had nothing in common.
Decided to make a separate thread for the 'Qi Waste Jin' idea. It'll take a bit to get the written chapters posted but yeah.
Decided to do the 'Jin decides to yolo it and hides in a Qi Waste instead of the Azure Hills' idea. Basically, Jin's Earth soul half made him more immune to the Qi void and that instinctively resulted in said Earth soul gaining more influence to protect himself from said Qi void. The Land Spirit, I took inspiration from the idea of a Hungry Ghost but applying it to a genius loci/tutelary spirit.
Chapter 2 - Change Is in the Air
The Qi Waste acted as a border between the Empire and a tributary state to the Empire, the Black Turtle Republic. While the Black Turtle Republic have a number of followers of the Path of Shennong due to a deep cultural veneration of the earth, only one imperial province have a follower of the Path of Shennong.
Normally, the relative peacefulness of the area, the vast distance from the imperial heartlands, and the loyalty and support of the Black Turtle Republic meant the Empire's influence remained relatively low.
But that was when the Qi Waste remained an empty and barren thing, a place of sorrow among the peoples of the republic who worshiped the Three Sisters, the three Land Spirits of their land who saw the Qi Waste as the remains of a long perished sibling before the Mist Wall fell in those ancient of days.
Now, it seems to give off solar Qi, as if the void within was devouring the essence of the sun for years, enough for even the lowest of cultivators to sense the energy filling the air within. Missives from the Emperor to the Black Turtle Republic and nearby imperial provinces, calling for an expedition into the Qi Waste due to possible demonic influence causing the change, filled the leaders of the republic with worry.
The clan mothers went to those with strong bonds with the Three Sisters for guidance. This revealed that the Three Sisters also felt the change of Qi and are too worried for what it meant.
This resulted in the current plan. Two cultivators following the Path of Shennong, one from the imperial province and one from the Black Turtle Republic, shall commune together at the edge of the Qi Waste and try to contact the spirit within.
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Ji Kong Sa Se, the closest thing the Empire could pronounce her name, is an old medicine woman who accepted the request by the spirit of the Red Wood Forest for the task ahead. Despite the dangers, she have lived a long life growing medicinal herbs and if her demise help in understanding what is happening in the Qi Waste for the coming expedition led by the legendary Shen Yu, then it would have been worth it.
She met her imperial counterpart on the barely used coastal road between the Empire and the republic, an old farmer with the scent of kelp from the nearby Green Kelp Sea clinging to him, and exchanged pleasantries before heading to the Qi Waste south. Both felt the Land Spirits being close by, while the land where the coastal road exist was part of the Green Kelp Sea, the barren wasteland south of it was nothing but the void.
The feeling of Qi filled the air, that of the sun, as they stood close to the border.
The two then sat down and meditated, guiding the dragon veins into forming a connection with the Qi Waste.
The moment it connected, they were pulled into the Qi Waste, not physically but in their minds and souls.
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Sa Da Kou learned from the dream and learned deep.
They looked up at the dream's sky where the devouring void was slowly but surely being encased in a sphere of metal. Gradual control was being returned to them as they learn and enjoy the knowledge and memories of the other place.
The world, existence itself, was nothing more than fields of possibility. The emptiness was simply a void within and without, one that they could slowly but surely calm down and even harness. Great voids devour and evaporate through Ha Qing radiation and through a metal Peng Rou sphere the energy of Ha Qing could be extracted out of the devouring void.
Sa Da Kou smiled as they felt joy, a freeing joy at the idea of a way to finally eliminate the aggravating hunger within them. And, if enemies and demons try to devour them once more, they could simply turn the Peng Rou into a bomb as a last act of spite. They wish for all the Qi to feast upon? Let them have it.
They raised their hand at the sun and tried to grab it. The image of solar satellites made of Qi crystals feeding on the sun's light and heat, beaming the energy back to them tingled their still stark white skin.
"Cultivators are truly foolish..." they muttered to themselves as they danced around.
Then they felt it, a connection and they push back.
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Old Hei wondered if the demons opened up a portal to the underworld as they saw the Land Spirit of the Qi Waste.
They looked like a dead person. Skin as pale as the Sea of Snow, hair as dark as a starless and moonless night, wearing strange clothes that seemed to be some long forgotten burial robes. It was black in color through drapped in a strange white long coat with oddly placed buttons and pockets sewed onto it. It was the eyes that terrify him. Black with the unblinking stare of a dead person yet within lies the hunger of the void.
It was impossible to tell if they were male or female by their form alone.
"And who might you be?" they said in an equally ambiguous voice.
Old Hei could feel the shock of his bonded spirit, the spirit of the Frozen Bogs Province. If they were a cultivator, they might had a moment of Qi deviation.
"Who are you?" they asked them.
"I am Sa Da Kou." Little Vast Gate. Old Hei gulped at the implication. A gate to what? Likely the void, or the underworld in his guessing.
"What do you remember?" the spirit of the Red Wood Forest asked.
"I don't remember anything... Except this." Sa Da Kou said as they waved their hand around in a spin. The world around them shifted into a strange place.
Roads of black, towering buildings, metal things with people in them, loud noises and people speaking in a strange tongue.
The four of them, two spirits and two mortals, looked around them in shock.
"The Memories of a Qi Dead World..." Sa Da Kou explained. "A dream that saved me... A dream I will turn real... We are all foolish... This dream has knowledge we didn't realize exist... We are all so short sighted..." they then danced around as unearthly music played around them. "Why feed on the Qi of this world when the sun grants its energy upon us all?"
"And the demons? What is your stance on them?" Old Hei managed to ask.
Sa Da Kou turned to look at him. Their eyes shifted from the utter darkness into an explosion of color. Red on the edges to blue within.
"Anathema." they growled in subdued anger. "Demons killed me... turned me into a mindless void... until my savior and chosen came and gave me this dream... gave me hope beyond this pit of nihilistic despair..." they then waved their hand at the sky.
The spirit of the Red Wood Forest choked at the sight.
Upon a blue sky was a solar eclipse, even though the sun remained some distance away. A black circle with blood red on its edges and a ring of blood red around its center. Yet a part of it is being surrounded by grey.
What that grey was, he does not know.
"Great devouring voids also die." they told them like it was secret wisdom. "It will take many, many eras... beyond the lifespan of stars and worlds... But they too will slowly die... Evaporate away into nothing... Releasing energy in the process..." they then grinned widely, showing sharp teeth like fangs ready to pounch. "If the demons come back to devour me... Let them come... Let them feed on the energy they want... The sun is freely giving... And they shall burn within..." they then giggled, laughing like an angry spirit.
"Chosen?" the spirit of the Frozen Bogs Province asked in horror. "You... you follow the Path of Shennong?"
"Can't be... your path... it's highly deviated..." the spirit of the Red Wood Forest muttered out.
Sa Da Kou simply giggled.
"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy... A thoughful prince from this world once said... It is dead... Yet it still lives... I am dead... Yet I still live..." they then giggled. "I shall harness my hunger into more productive methods." then tilted their head. "I feast on the sun... yet don't you know that nearly all of the sun's energy is simply released into the cosmic darkness? All that energy... wasted away... like stars in the night sky... they too are other suns with other worlds around them..." they then looked up and with a wave turned day into a moonless night. "I wonder... which star... which world... hosted the demons... Surely their sun also waste away nearly all of their light and heat..." they then licked their lips and fangs before they face the spirits and their bonded ones. "Tell those who commanded you to come here this... I seek not to devour the world nor rule over it... leave me and my chosen be... Or you shall face my wrath... They who strive upon the Path of Yanluo."
Sa Da Kou stood tall as strange lights shined upon them by the piece of the underworld around them. Their body seemingly stretched beyond the shape of a young child, taller and thinner than any adult.
Then the all devouring void appeared behind them, warping the space around them in the process.
"I will show them a devouring void so strong that not even light could escape it..." they whispered softly, as if their voice was being sucked into the void behind them.
"Now. Begone!"
The four was then pushed away with the light of the sun.
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Both cultivators were pushed back as the Qi Waste suddenly shot out light itself that seemed to have turned solid and struck them both. Not enough to kill nor wound them but more like a punch or a kick in the belly.
"Yanluo... the Path of Yanluo... the King of the Underworld..." Old Hei muttered out in terror as he struggled to breath properly.
"Yet they clearly despise the demons that killed them." Ji Kong Sa Se said as she tried to make sense of it all, before stopping to find a wall of sunlight on the border to the Qi Waste before them that slowly faded away. "I do not know the significance of what happened, nor the truths from the underworld they bestowed upon us, but it appears that their intentions are honest."
"Yet their path is a highly deviated form of the Path of Shennong." Old Hei pointed out. "That means there's a cultivator within, giving their Qi into the land."
"And somehow convinced the land to devour the Qi of the sun." a pause as the thought echoed in Ji Kong Sa Se's mind. "Is it possible that the Path of Yanluo is the way to heal the Qi Wastes? The lands devoured by the demons?"
"I do not know and it might be better to give such knowledge to those who know better. We should set up shrines to placate the ghost of the land at the very least. They may claim to have control over the void but we can never be so sure."
The old medicine woman acknowledge the wisdom in such action.
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In a few years, the old coastal road connecting the Crimson Pheonix Empire to the Black Turtle Republic became famous for its stretch of protective gates and barrier ropes by the side of the Qi Waste known as the Youming Road, the Serene Darkness Road, named such lest the spirits be insulted and angered by any other name. Both ends of the road became sites of worship and pilgrimage for both the Ghost Festival as well as praying towards ones ancestors and placating the spirits of the dead, especially the mysterious city of Youdu which rumors said to be hidden in the Qi Waste by the shores of a lake. The howling noises that seem to reverbriate from the Qi Waste only made the call for prayers even more needed and going through the Youming Road even faster.
The need for an expedition into the Qi Waste only grew more urgent.
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While I was busy expanding the coconut orchard, I felt Sa Da Kou was happy, singing to themselves one of the songs I taught them. Ended up singing along with them and it sort of ended up becoming a bit of a kareoke situation in a way. Thank goodness for a cultivator's enhanced and improved lung capacity.
Sa Da Kou even tried to pull stuff out of the dream and into reality. Not enough Qi or concentration to summon fast food but they did manage to make some seeds appear. Not sure what they are but hopefully it'll be good.
At the very least, they already got fireflies appearing and spiderlilies growing, giving some more color and life around the lake.
I'm definitely looking more and more like gramps in the whole hobo look. Attempts at shaving only gave me a kooky looking beard on me but I got used to it.
It's not like I'll be getting visitors anyway.
I originally imagined Sa Da Kou looking like Hell Girl in a lab coat but is slowly starting to look like Sparkle or Hu Tao or a combo of the two, also in a lab coat, in my head now. For a moment, Sa Da Kou's irises turned into the Ring Nebula when angered.
Chapter 3 - The Sons of the Renewed Soil
You know, when Sadako said they wanted a kid, I didn't know what to feel. Shocked, surprised, both?
I know they're the land spirit so their current appearance isn't really what they looked like. The fact they could make their spirit form take on horrific twists and turns is proof of that. The times they thought it would be fun to just stretch their spirit neck around to mess with me would be too many to count.
But they're also technically a kid of sorts. They definitely don't have much awareness of long term consequences. Which might have been the reason why they went to ask me first for, I don't know, permission? A head's up? Guidance?
There's a difference between creating plants and small animals with the Qi they're gathering and a person. Even skipping childhood and just creating an adult doesn't really mean they're mentally and emotionally mature.
We ended up having a film viewing or two in the dream world, Jurassic Park and Frankenstein.
It sort of convinced them, though they still think they could make it work. They did point out that I was going rather stir crazy in my lonesome. I think it's been a year or two since I moved in? At least terraforming the lakeside helped me set some measure of time.
The seeds grew into tomatoes, legumes like soybeans, peanuts and lupins, and some herbs like mint and lemon balm and flowers like dandelions, though I think some of the flowers are hemlock and aconite. If memory serves, that's wolfsbane, well, if I hear news of werewolves nearby that might be useful.
I also noticed some earthworms in the soil now, which was a good sign. The plants would get their own plots while the flowers would join the spider lilies in spreading out into the area, turning the barren wasteland into a vast grassland overtime. The soybeans and other legumes would be useful in getting some much needed nitrogen fixation for the plants. Qi nonsense or not, it doesn't feel right just leaving the plants powered by the solar Qi crystals.
It did make me wonder if I should ask Sadako for lemons. They were testing on how much heat they should be absorbing without causing too much of a mess with the local climate. The lake got spots of ice on them during their experiments and the ice cold water was refreshing.
At least I convinced them to be a parent to the kids they seem adamant to want.
Thank you Victor Frankenstien for being such a deadbeat college dropout narcissist for a dad, I guess.
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In one moment, I was a vague impression in a dream, ever shifting and forgettable. A wisp of something that was barely real.
The next, I was given a solid form and a real shape, though the part of the ever shifting and forgettable form still flowed within me.
I looked at my hands, a thing I instinctively knew about, and noticed how smooth they were with unnatural whiteness.
'Plastic.' my mind supplied as images of those that shared my true form appeared in my mind.
"You went with a mannequin?" the man before me, my honored father, asked the one who created me, my honored mother-father, a spirit who shined like the sun but dressed like one who tore themselves free from the grave.
"I did my research…" my honored mother-father explained. "While I need to figure out how my power works… I need some way to fight back against the demons hiding in the world… So… I used the ideas from your old world and went with the simplest of forms... The particular biopolymer I went with meant they could shapeshift into any humanoid form they want while also devouring demonic Qi and their fleshy creations... Said plastic could be used to sabotage demonic influence as well."
"Biopolymer? I'm pretty sure I'm not that smart in chemistry."
"Fine… I cheated with the Qi to fill in the blanks…"
"I'm not sure about the wisdom of introducing plastic into the world though. It's a mess in my old world."
"Of course… one of their abilities is absorbing said plastics and converting it into their flesh or less dangerous forms… Useful when dealing with non-biodegradable trash later on…"
While I shared my honored mother-father's excitement with my creation and my purpose, my honored father looked troubled.
I bowed before him as a proper filial child should.
"Is something the matter, honored father?" I spoke for the first time, my voice masculine yet neutral and generic just as it should be.
"Is this something you want to do? Fighting demons, being some… plastic shapeshifter? You may look like a puppet but you're your own person, your own individual, so you should have a choice in what you want to do, in what you want to be. The world beyond is a dangerous place after all."
My honored father's voice showed how much care and worry they have for me. But I also saw the sights in the dream, the memories of the world beyond this oasis.
"The world is sick and dying. Each era is lesser than the previous one. The demons are killing it with a thousand cuts for a thousand years without allowing the world to heal. These are the facts as shown by the memories from you." I explained as concisely as I could. "Righteous sects of ancient heroes degrade into pettiness and corruption despite attempts at stopping it. In reinforcing tradition, it only became hollow rituals for the maintenance of face and prestige. Yet they continue to hold onto the past by a combination of those long lived enough for their minds and hearts to calcify and resist change and improvement, and by those who blindly follow the works and words of their elders without grasping the meaning within, without putting their works and words through the test of rigor. Just as one should not expect an ancestral sword left to rust to be as strong as the day it was forged, one should not expect a bronze sword to triumph over a sword made of steel."
My honored father blinked in surprise at my words. Perhaps I was too verbose in my explanation.
"Not sure if that's an inbuilt xianxia thing or if you're just a philosopher at heart." my honored father then tilted his head to my honored mother-father. "Or if the Frankenstein film influenced you." he teased.
"Either way… the experiment was a success!" I felt great honor to hear the success of my birth.
"Sadako, remember what we agreed on."
My honored mother-father nodded in agreement.
"Of course… of course… they shall be raised and taught like all beings should… I already have their education in mind." a pair of glasses appeared on their hand and they wore it before a stack of papers equally appeared on their other hand. "Math, science, language both in this world and the other world, physical education, social sciences, military knowledge, and let's not forget the Four Books, the Five Classics, and the Five Excellences."
My honored father chuckled and shook his head.
"Suddenly felt like I married a Tiger Mom." he then raised a pointer finger at them. "And don't go there, I know that look on your face. Probably ancient Land Spirit or not, I still see you as a kid of sorts."
My honored mother-father snorted in joy before making a sad smile.
"Still… for children to be allowed to be children until the age of eighteen… to live such relatively peaceful lives for a long while… that is a dream we shall strive to reach…"
"In order to find a better path, one must take a path less traveled on. For how can one understand if a path is better or worse if the lay of the land is not understood?" I added in my commentary.
Such was the nature of my birth.
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Manny took on their studies rather well, all things considered. Honestly not sure what sort of cosmic rules Sadako's breaking and honestly hope it doesn't kill them if they angered the Heavens or something. Though, technically speaking, Manny's a spirit of sorts? I know Japan has that object yokai thing and I think spontaneously forming spirits is a thing in xianxia? Honestly hard to tell.
Though it's nice having someone to talk to and helping around the farm. I don't have much clothes with me though and while Manny's form is doll-like, I'm pretty sure Sadako used me as a base for his physique. At the very least, it gave an excuse to make cotton seeds and start planting them. I know Sadako could just use the Qi to make clothes based on the ones from the dream, and they did, but we can't have too many indulgences and abuse their power like some genie with infinite wishes.
Other than his education and helping out on the farm, we also practice and figure out their abilities. The first was shapeshifting, at least partly. Sort of like warm up exercises. First was making their feet have toes, easy enough. Then trying to make their featureless head look human. He needed to blink more and they still practically look monochrome with white hair, silver eyes, and stark white skin, but that's alright with me. It's just us after all and I don't want to come across as wanting to 'fix' him. Though seeing a version of myself in that color scheme was something and the most surprising bit was the sound of my voice. I don't think I heard my voice in this world from an outside perspective before. Sadako said that he perfectly copied my voice so I'll have to trust them on that.
Etiquette was a bit of a surprise that we needed to emphasize given that Manny could devour organic material with their hands, which they stretched around to directly absorb the compost pile. We corrected him, only for him to bow in understanding and just eat it through a mouth on their head they formed for the occasion. I don't think they understand why they need to act like a regular person yet.
Martial arts and cultivation wise, they're going well, I think. Hard to figure out if something's right or wrong given that Manny is basically a plastic mannequin version of that liquid Terminator robot when he really gets into it. Should have known Sadako would have used that for inspiration somewhere.
Likely due to the combination of eating organic matter and cultivation, Manny could shoot out plastic strings out of his fingertips. Not sure if it's nylon, polyester, spandex or some long windedly named xianxia thing but Sadako was interested in the applications. Funny that I had to tell the Land Spirit about the need for harmony with their own environment.
Overall, the past few months were exciting to say the least. I do hope that Manny doesn't feel jealous when Sadako makes their next kids, twins apparently, in the coming months.
I'm no psychologist but it is a worry. Xianxia stories are filled with brothers warring against each other for some inheritance or power up or a slightly better seat in the house. Don't want to tempt fate though.
Then again, we're in the middle of nowhere with nothing much going on beyond homesteading and greening up the place, and their mom is technically a goddess of the land.
Huh, did I stumbled into some mythic xianxia high fantasy thing?
Well, I doubt someone from the Celestial Bureaucracy would pop up to give us a letter of complaint, or divine taxes to fill up, or just Sun Wukong showing up.
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Sa Da Kou grinned. They wore their formal attire, for celebrating the birth of a child should be a momentous occasion even if there's not many to witness it.
Manny and their chosen did their part well. Unlike Manny's birth from clay and the solar Qi crystals, the twins would be born from hardened stone and the solar Qi crystals. Cooked in a kiln and molded into the shape of a pair of eggs, they placed their hands on the stone eggs and let the life within burst forth.
The two stone eggs exploded.
Jin coughed up from the sand and dust but when it cleared, two sons were born. Jin quickly wrapped the two in the cloth blankets they created from the solar Qi they were stockpiling on the surface.
They thank him for the blankets before bowing upon the four cardinal directions then at Manny, Jin and them.
"Thank you for this gift of life, honored mother-father, honored father." the thinner of the two, born with a single blue horn and blue markings on their face and skin, said. Their hair was golden like the sun and their composure was more subdued in comparison to their twin brother who was already laughing and stretching his body.
"Yeah! Thanks ma and pops! Hooo! Man, I feel fired up already!" the stockier of the two, born with a pair of red horns and red markings on their face and skin, exclaimed. Their hair was silvery, almost like the moon.
"Now, now, we have the rest of the day. We need to think of a name for you two though." Jin said.
"I already have their names ready." Sa Da Kou said
"Oh?"
"You picked Manny Quinn's name, so it felt right that it's my turn for the twins." they then pointed at the red twin. "Alexiares." then at the blue twin. "And Anicetus."
"Alexiares and Anicetus? Now I wonder where you get those names from. Did I come into this world with the entirety of Wikipedia hidden in my head or something?"
Sa Da Kou simply shrugged.
"It's your memories. Maybe you read through it years ago and forgot about it?"
"Eh, that's likely. Doesn't help that I have Rou Jin's memories so it probably got mixed up somewhere as well." Jin then shrugged. "Oh well. First thing's first, a bit of a medical check up so we got everything well. Partly spirit or not, your mom is doing this without much instructions."
"It does pay to be cautious. Our births are unique and unknown illnesses or deviations might come up as time passes due to it." Anicetus added as Jin led the two to the house. Alexiares practically ran ahead to explore the house.
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As part of my training, honored mother-father and honored father tasked me in exploring the Qi Waste for any landmarks or changes.
I was gifted with fine clothes from the other world to wear as I mapped the Qi Waste in fine detail. Honored mother-father, as much as they are the spirit of the land, can't be everywhere nor can they know everything within themselves. As my honored father once said, can a mortal man know the state of one's own internal organs through thought and willpower alone?
Cultivation, of course, acted as a shortcut in such matters but that required time, Qi and training and not everyone is blessed to have all three, and even then, such blessings could be squandered by those who knew not of their true value simply due to having them.
Such is the nature of the Heavenly Laws. All is Permitted. None is Forbidden.
The most bitter truth of all.
It was during my exploration that I stumbled on a strange sight.
The ocean and a road by the coast.
It was, however, beyond the borders of the Qi Waste I called home and so I simply stood there, watching the few caravans and travelers going back and forth on it, observing their features, memorizing them, mentally molding the masks I can wear in my future endeavors.
Curious on where it started and ended, I first followed the road west until I reached an entrance where workers appeared to be building a gate and a shrine near that gate.
I was soon spotted by one of the people and, heeding the advice of my honored father, put on one of my masks. My skin lost its shine and I gained the features of a mortal man, though while I could try to bend the light within to gain some color, I do not wish to be deceptive of my true nature.
I then walked to the border of the Qi Waste and not a step further and bowed before the small crowd of workers.
Let their curiosity mark those willing to take the first step into the unknown.
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Old Hei was always the odd one in the village, Sheng surmised.
He wasn't against him personally. Old Hei grew the kelp the village feeds on in his fish ponds, saving them some of the time and trouble from going deep into the Green Kelp Sea for them.
He does live far from the village docks and does the strangest things at times. But, Sheng surmised, it might be due to both old age and his young sons leaving home years ago. The true unfortunate thing was Young Hei's lack of filial piety ever since he passed the imperial examinations but it might be due to being sent somewhere else in the Empire.
Frozen Bog Province only has its trees, flammable ice, and trade with the nearby Black Turtle Republic going on for it. Even then, it was more profitable to trade by ship in the province's southern capital despite the risk of sea travel than the old coastal road north of the Qi Waste.
Old Hei coming back from his trip claiming the need to build a shrine and to consecrate the old coastal road due to the strange changes in the Qi Waste only spread a sense of panic among the villagers.
To enter the Qi Waste was to invite death. Stories were told of those who entered and were instantly struck with old age and death before their bodies shriveled down to the bones until even the bones turned to dust before they even reached the ground. And that's what happened to mortals.
People in the province were whispering to themselves about an expedition into the Qi Waste by Shen Yu himself. Whatever's happening in the Qi Waste has the Crimson Phoenix Empire worried. And with Old Hei publicly asking him for support in building a gate to the old coastal road and a shrine near said gate, it might threaten the village to become deserted.
Might being the central word. Had he held his tongue in asking why they needed a shrine and to whom, he and his family would have fled with everyone to Frozen Flame Town.
Instead, as the village chief, he had to look over the construction of a gate equal to those marking the entrances of towns in the Empire, painted red with fancier and more expensive dyes to last longer and to withstand the harsh weather and the nearby sea spray. Nearby was the shrine everyone was already praying at even when it was still under construction, trying to appease the hungry spirit within the Qi Waste.
Old Hei was practically leading the prayer, lighting incense sticks before the macabre visage of the awakened Spirit of the Waste. He may not be the official village shaman but Old Hei always had an affinity with the spirits it seemed, for better and for worse.
The visage was of a ghostly woman in some underworld form of a jade beauty he saw paintings of in his youth, as clear as day despite Old Hei's attempt at painting.
Black hair, white skin, black holes for eyes, wearing a black funeral dress while a white pibo wrapped itself around her. It was the image behind the figure that gave the visage an additional foreboding appearance. A black circle, red on its edges, and an equally red ring around the circle's waist, the only sign of color marking what looked like a highly inauspicious solar eclipse.
He heard that demons came from a world under the light of a baleful red star. Then what of a black one? Surely it was a gate to the underworld somewhere within the Qi Waste. It explained everything.
Sa Dakou, it was written on a wooden sign, Little Vast Gate. Old Hei even paid for an extra sign, asking those not to speak the name out loud. Only a fool would dare to speak a spirit's name out loud, and, in Sheng's opinion, having a sign warning people not to say it only dares people to say it out loud even more. Then again, only outsiders would dare, for everyone in the village knew the stories of the Qi Waste.
Overall, the construction was going well, until Sheng heard the gasping from the crowd. A child was pointing at something within the Qi Waste and many eyes turned to find a person approaching them, coming out of the Qi Waste.
Everyone was still at the sight. Sheng was sure some had fainted or soiled themselves as the man became properly visible.
The ghost of a man, for what else could they be, then bowed at a ninety degree angle then stayed in the position for a length of time far too long for mortals to achieve nor cultivators would desire.
Everyone then turned to look at Sheng, for clearly the emissary of the dead wishes to parlay with the living. Had Sheng known this was going to happen, he would have retired and given the position of village chief to his son instead of going with Young Hei to pass the imperial exams.
Sheng walked to face the emissary and mirrored his bow. The Heavens surely smiled upon him as the emissary ended his bow, giving Sheng a close look at the ghost.
He wore a strange black robe and a wide black hat but it was his appearance that caught everyone's eye.
White like chalk, with hair equally white and eyes that seemed to be like a silvery mirror.
"This one greets you." the ghostly man said, voice unnaturally neutral with an accent from some long dead language. "I am Man Niqin. I was tasked by my honored mother-father to explore the length and breadth of the Qi Waste for any signs of change as part of my training. In my travels, I spotted the road by the ocean and went west, from there I arrived here." he then pulled out some paper and a strange ancient stylus with its tip clearly dipped in ink. On the paper was a map in the process of being made by the ghost. "I wish to know the lay of the land so as to report my findings to my honored mother-father. Tell me, good sir, if you please, what is the name of the land before me?"
Sheng could feel his hair turning gray at the terror he was feeling but, while trembling and shaking, he answered the ghostly official's questions as honestly as possible.
Yet the thoughts spun in Sheng's mind.
Was Sa Dakou some ghostly empress scouting the lands around the Qi Waste before launching an invasion from the underworld?
Sheng feared a dozen provinces would fall before the full might of the Empire would halt their advance. But how would one hold back the dead?
It was a foolish action he made but since he would become a future subject of a ghost empress, either living or dead, he asked his own question to the ghostly official before he could leave.
"T-tell me, what does your honored mother-father want with us?"
The ghostly official turned to face him. His eyes seem to hold no sign of emotion yet Sheng could feel the sensation of his very soul being judged.
"Be not afraid. Honored mother-father desires to stay within the Qi Waste and to continue to feed upon the light and heat of the sun, to replenish themselves and heal from that fatal wound before they returned to life by the hand of my honored father. Other than that, they wish to eliminate the demons and their ilk. It was why they created me." the ghostly official then raised their hand as if to chop at Sheng's head only, in Sheng's horror, to melt and merge into a blade of some glistening bone with a sharpened point. "I am tasked to find and eliminate the demons when the time comes. A living poison upon them and their works to the tenth degree." the sharp blade then returned into a hand and the ghostly official bowed once more. "Be at peace. May you live long and prosper." he said before he walked back into the depths of the Qi Waste.
Sheng made sure that when he finally fainted, it was on his back and not forward into the Qi Waste.
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Manny came back early from the scouting thing.
Apparently there's a road some distance north of the lake by the sea and a village on the western end of the road within the Empire. He apparently visited them during a festival? I think he described a festival of sorts. Was it the Ghost Festival? Never mind.
I didn't spot that road on the maps I saw way back though. Maybe it was recently made.
It does put a hamper on the plan to dig an opening for the lake to output its water north though. It might be drinkable now but who knows what might happen the longer the terraforming continues. Honestly, it was a miracle that it was still freshwater for who knows how long given that it only had evaporation for the water to escape and that tends to leave behind briny water instead.
I might need to send a petition to the nearest imperial official for making a river go through their road?
Eh, I'll cross that bridge once we get there.
This started off as wanting to write about Sadako making three kids and it spiraled from there.
Firstborn Manny Quinn, a pun by Jin, but is phonetically translated into 'Man Ni Qin', using the characters for 'deceive, lie; eyes half-closed', 'mud, mire; earth, clay; plaster' and 'industrious, diligent, attentive', as much as I could understand with the character dictionary I'm using for the names. The main inspirations are Slenderman and the Nopperabou with a bit of Twelve from Street Fighter and the Neutrophils from Cells at Work.
Alexiares and Anicetus are the twin sons of Hercules and Hebe. Phonetically translated into 'An Le Xia Re' and 'An Ni Ce Tu'.
'An' being the 'surname' uses the character for 'peaceful, tranquil, quiet' but can also use the character for 'dark; obscure; in secret, covert'.
'Le Xia Re' uses the characters for 'happy, glad; enjoyable; music', 'summer; great, grand, big' and 'hot; heat; fever; restless; zeal' respectively.
'Ni Ce Tu' uses the characters for 'draft; intend, plan, propose', 'measure, estimate, conjecture', and 'diagram; chart, map, picture'
Serendipity struck on the character list given how I was planning on using Arataki Itto and Albedo as the references for the oni twins. Alexiares would be Itto while Anicetus would be Albedo, if he has Takuya's blue horns and markings, though he has one horn rather than two. This makes Alexiares being Ox-Head and Anicetus being Horse-Face in a way.
Appearance of the painting by Old Hei, imagine Chang'e with the full moon behind them, except the hair's down, the dress is black, the scarf thing is white, and instead of the full moon it's a black hole.
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