Celes Falon de Lin grinned happily.
She has returned to the mass grave that the former was dumped into. Ilegally. It brought back disdainful memories of her struggles The humiliation of the former should also be still in there and that was how things should be. With such a thought, Celes sat nearby the edge of the hole with a new plan in mind.
After several months of practice, Celes just came to notice that her Devour was not just greedy but also, rather picky. It filtered out the black miasma of malevolent spirits where the condensed Qi have originated from, before consuming it. Such Devour was a cheat to enable Celes to easily skip through the eight levels of Qi Collection. Once it filtered and consumed the Qi, such pure Qi would land into Celes' spiritual ocean that branches into her spiritual veins allowing fresher Qi to circulate and nourish her dantian core and meridians. It was like breathing oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide out. This way, Celes' recovery was slow but more than a hundred percent guaranteed.
With this process, something possible might happen. This Devour basically just have the same aim as Purification. It was not for World Peace or the reign of happiness for the people of course, the user herself cannot even be considered a decent citizen. But that was the plan: purify graves while consuming the filtered, condensed Qi. It was killing two birds with one stone.
The mass grave oozed with tempting spiritual force that could lure many into its soul depreciating trap. With an inexperienced cultivator, it was just a pot of gold. Luckily, Celes Fallon de Lin did not fit the category to further shame the transmigrator. It was just the fact that her recovery rate was too normal and not as fast as she wanted. Her patience was wearing thin and the girl was more than ready to welcome the trap with open arms. At the cost of a 'little' moment of confusion, Celes could venture further into the outskirts and explore this Unforgiven Forest or even outside. The demonic miasma was that rewarding for one's hardwork.
Thankfully, Celes' reality was rather pitiful. The mortality rate of a frail patient is next to a six-feet deep hole after all. With one foot in the grave, a rare population of educated and civilized brain cells prevented her to dive back in.
'I can't believe that I am this weak at the moment. This Devour alone eats into my sanity and power to satisfy its hunger for Qi. This grave Qi needs cooking. Ah, life!'
Celes hesitated to consume her meal because such carelessness would go against her top priority - trying not to get corrupted by these demonic miasma for her own sake.
Regardless, she sat cross-legged on the ground. The royal blue robe elegantly hides her legs that from afar, Celes looked like a blue flower offered to the grave. Her wheat-coloured skin however was turning paler at every second passing while being near the grave once again. It was such a wonder that upon waking up months earlier, these type of feeling and weakening sensation did not hinder Celes into a vegetable. Probably, grandmother's protection? Definitely.
Celes needed to quicken her pace. This was not the only pit. If one died trying here just by seating nearby, how much more if bigger graves or at least three pits close to each other needed purifying? Her resolve has now been forged.
A flick of the thin, light wheat-coloured wrist opened her storage and allowed the owner to pull out her mystical couldron. To purify and absorb at this Qi Collection stage, a highly tempered body could only increase endurance and shield it. The Devour itself cannot contain all the thick, black miasma. Worse, Celes would die. So with the help of her couldron, it would help Celes avoid any direct contact with the miasma. It was the protective gear perfectly made to bridge and purify a condensed Qi.
To make it work, Celes would squeeze out a bit of her own internal Qi to release spiritual force and attract the malevolent spirits owning the Qi. But the pill maker will start refining pills and protect herself with Devour as well as redirect the alluring condensed Qi to the couldron. With these, pills can be cooked and Qi was cleaned.
The plan was perfect.
Or so she thought. Alluring, plump reddish pink lips had lost its colour in no less than a minute. Her heart hammered strongly against her chest and pounded in her ears. Celes wished it was just like the sexy nights with her previous boyfriends or the nerve-racking anxiety near that adorable man from the recent life. But this was just the sound of fire alarms ringing to stop going further into the plan. Celes has to find a way to filter the miasma or at least purify it with more safety.
Celes shut her eyes close and rummaged through her four lifetimes worth of knowledge.
'Find a medium.' A medium can serve as a filter but such objects were rare as they may be spiritual objects or divine items! Plus the couldron was already present. So, what else?
'Pentagrams.' She felt uneasy. This somehow sounded easy as seals were her forte in the third life of living as a baby sitter to Merlin's apprentice. But that required a hefty amount of Qi that can freely circulate throughout the body to the exterior surroundings.
'Conquer the corruption.' Celes grimaced. At her current state, it was a no-brainer to know that Celes will face an inevitable doom. 'Ambitious. Too ambitious.' This was a direct attack that should have lowered chances after failing the bridging. 'Will it be? Hmm?'
All those three options Celes Fallon de Lin came up with were however possible with various rates of successes and different positive results. The lady could not help but feel her shoulders tremble and a guffaw escaped her lips. All of these were so challenging that the flicker of hope remaining in her had started to dim down. It made her mad.
If an onlooker was to pass by and see her, it was just a happy dark-skinned foreigner girl who had been thrown away here. If one could make up conclusions, she could be an unacknowledged child of an official with a slave from the strange western lands across the seas. With her voice reverberating throughout the forest, the thick fog felt helpless and the beasts groaned from the disturbance. One such intellectual beast had passed by and seen the crazy girl. Demonic, green eyes with black scleras glowed vibrantly in contrast to its surrounding while hiding its body. It snorted in embarrassment on her behalf but then sighed as if to realize her situation and ending up with the same thought. For a bit, the beast thought, maybe it would be nice to observe the newcomer. The beast had retreated into the fog and had disappeared as if it had never been there.
At Celes' current level of cultivation, she was unable to sense creatures higher than lower ranked spiritual beasts despite owning a body of a high-ranked Martial Honour. Therefore, she had continued to think without much awareness. To use a medium would make her lose one of her remaining items. But at the brighter side, Celes could come out unscathed and simply be able to absorb all the condensed Qi.
Pentagrams have the same results as a medium in addition to advancing her ability to temporarily match three levels above her current rank. However, the mortality rate was gravely miserable once she depleted her spiritual energy that would dry up and eternally destroy her dantian core, crippling her and Celes may as well be good as dead in this forest.
Lastly, to conquer was a suicide mission so she dismissed it immediately. She knew it would give her the most benefits but to become a risk taker while not even a real cultivator? It was not ideal especially that she was under no 'very' desperate circumstances.
"It is better to sacrifice a heavenly object than an opportunity," she quoted.
With a flick of her wrist, Celes had a paper seal on her hand. She smiled bitterly at the sight of such memorable object. It came from her third life, something that belonged to the apprentice she used to babysit.
"Celes, this is for you! Happy Birthday!" She could clearly hear his sweet, boyish voice, still the same and never changing. Her eyes stung as if threatening to produce tears as she could barely remember his face. Just his warm voice.
"What's this?"
He giggled. "My first, legit seal. Master said that this is the most important talisman any wizard can make because it is the time when my future power is at its actual peak and the strongest I'll be in."
She remembered herself choking in disbelief after hearing his explanation. The child was stupid! She badly wanted to slap him back to reality and out from dreamland! "Nah, ain't taking that!"
"What! But this is the strongest seal in the land in this current era! Did you forget that I'm--"
She cut him off with just a flick of her fingers to his forehead. "Silly, that is a protection seal to help you from any evil! You may as well stick that into your soul. I believe you need that the most!"
"Fine," he reluctantly agreed but did not give either. He pulled out another one. "This one is my best talisman from Master's book. It is to help exorcise evil and purify you if you ever become possessed. You can only use it thrice."
She remembered some warmth brushing past her cold, cruel heart. That was the softer, flattered heart beat, if Celes counted, after more than half of a millennia of loathing and revenge! She could imagine his eyes glimming as she saw his wide smile. "Okay, thank you."
"Happy birthday! Today you are 763 years old!" Celes choked. She was an immortal back then. The life she shared with him were the best years of her third life.
Yet all of a sudden, she growled under her breath and slapped her cheeks. It was strong enough to force her out of her nostalgia. Thankfully.
"Okay, I can do this," she said. Celes was not one to obediently succumb to her emotions.
A white paper written with a few, vague symbols was slipped between her right hand's middle and index finger. She brought it close to her face at a distance that almost touched her lips before she whispered an enchantment to the seal.
"For life's sins cannot be atoned by spouting sorry, reunite! For. . . his love is greater than the oceans, form. Because he only has his eyes on me, flutter. A healthy soul wraps around the black, dim one. Ignite."
Celes' face turned beet red. She had almost forgotten the reason that this seal was chucked away into the dusty corners of her storage. The boy has fooled the witch into thinking that it was from a book but she later found out through Merlin that the sly apprentice made two seals during his peak.
Fortunately, the words could not be heard by any ear as such enchantment was a ritual to make an agreement with one's own physical counterpart and the soul. It was for safe keeping. To secure the temporary contract, Celes repeated the enchantment until a flicker of hope sparked at the darkest corner of her mind.
That instant, a heart shaped light fell onto Celes but rather than blind her, it became like a protective cage that put her in the center.
Yet that was only the first step into the lengthy process.
Long, womanly hands surrounded by a dark spiritual aura extended towards the grave to lure the condensed Qi from the open pit and gather it around her cauldron to refine a Qi Gathering pill. Celes could also feel the excitement of the Devour as it ran out from her body to form a mouth with jagged, sharp teeth while facing the grave.
Celes was almost ready. Her herbs were then brought out. She waved a palm over them to sterilize the ingredients with a bit of Qi.
She grinned. 'I'm ready.'
The pill refining of the mystical couldron demanded clean, good quality ingredients but that was only just a requirement to allow her to make a recipe. To activate the cauldron, a good Qi control was needed to avoid explosions. And much to Celes' annoyance towards her previous self, that self was rather picky and unreasonable that the couldron totally reflected its previous master. Since it belonged to her by soul contract with the couldron' s phoenix and dragons, it needed her blood to replenish their thirst. She sighed. 'At least they achieve better than regular pills,' she tried to convince herself. 'And it's only once a year.'
Refining a simple, beginner's recipe of the third tier was lengthy and arduous for those with weaker constitution such as the current Celes. Sweat matted her hair and trickled down the side of Celes' face like tears for her hardwork.
As she refined, her hands lost there heat after bridging so much Qi towards the hungry cooking pot. But she gnashed her teeth together and believed that all these should be worth it. It would always be hard in the beginning anyways as this applied to almost everything and everyone.
Refining with dangerous powers made Celes feel ice cold water soaking her wet while enduring the bone-breaking force from an abundant waterfall! She shuddered. If it was not for the tempered body and a transmigrated soul, her body would have been long mutilated from the malevolent spirits fighting against the exorcism. Her meridians and dantian were currently still useless with her current health.
Time passed but the green eyes that followed her movements in silence remained in its perfect place. It could only admire Celes from that distance without disturbing her.
Meanwhile. . .
Celes finally felt the flow of poor internal Qi from her body stop from leaving her anymore. Instead, a brisk blow of some refined, pure Qi wrapped around her like a warm hug as a gift from the Devour. A smile pulled her lips up. "Done."
The cauldron contained five Level 3 yellow Spirit Gathering pills and two level 2 Orange Spirit gathering pills when she lifted the lid off. If it had been a normal couldron, it would be two level 1 red pills and lots of broken, white, almost translucent colorless pills or black, burnt, brittle pills. Fortunately, Celes did not have so much misfortune at that moment.
And if she could remember, the ranking goes according to the rainbow colors - ROYGBIV. A small giggle had erupted from her mouth after such a small realization. Perhaps being alone for a long period of time makes a person light hearted to comfort themselves. Even the smallest positive thought could make one happy.
"With these, completing the Qi Gathering stage should be a piece of cake," she said. Celes popped one Orange pill into her mouth and sat up to meditate. It was always good to start out small.
Slowly, she felt a sizable amount of thick miasma gather around. But instead of a comforting warmth, screams and cries of the dead whispered in her ears. It was no longer just violent sensations of struggling spirits. But that was just a small amount of evil miasma mixed with Qi! She shuddered but did not lose her focus nevertheless. In response, the Devour had been once again activated and was used to silence the voices that managed to survive the purification.
'This weak cultivation, hurry up and grow stronger!"
She has to keep her eyes on her goals as it cannot be easy to lose her sense of determination. To refine and absorb Qi was time consuming but with the help of her pills, Celes achieved the first degree in less than five minutes then jumped up to third degree after a few more hours and consuming the last level 2 pill allowed her to break through two more levels!
The ever unstable girl let out a loud laugh, disturbingly enough to get roaring and screeching retorts from spirit beasts in the vicinity. She felt fortunate enough once again that those animals looked down on her so much, they would barely want to stain the bottom of their feet for a weakling lower than maggots! Their retorts meant nothing to her nonetheless.
She could almost feel improving amounts of Qi circulating in her veins if she concentrated on detecting it. Let alone her dantian! The Qi was still not enough to replenish her cores but it was enough to generate and use when fighting. At that thought, Celes furrowed her broas. 'Or are my standards too high given that I already felt what being one of the strong was like?' She laughed to herself and continued to meditate.
Minutes, hours and days passed as the forest brightened and darkened multiple times. She felt gradual change in her Qi flow. Even passing beasts who used to ignore her ant-like existence were finally taking notice of her this time.
If the green-eyed beast could tell her, it's as if she can finally enter the field of worthy preys. But provided that she had once been a mighty cultivator, the lady has already put up protective barriers around her with the use of her self-made seals after the wizard apprentice's gift. Every time her barrier was touched, it would appear and make her look like a woman imprisoned in a bubble. When the rays of sun faintly hit it, a multicolored refraction can often be seen on the surface of the barrier attracting curious beasts.
Initially, they thought it could be touched so most of them tried much to their disappointment so they sat down around it and gazed at the colors during daytime and left when the Forest turned dark only to come again at dawn.
When Celes finally opened her eyes one morning, she gasped at the sight of the animals. Her alarms were triggered but just as she moved, the beast's seem to stir in anxiety especially when she came closer to her barrier. Only did she realize that they were looking at her barrier when she popped the bubble. A loud roar and screeching sounds echoed.
Celes had just finally achieved the seventh degree of Qi Collection stage but it felt like she was bursting with energy. It would be in no time that she finally achieves the final level to complete the stage. Qi was practically moving in and around her body. It was steady and had enough to supply every nook and cranny.
Suddenly, she felt her stomach growl in hunger making the lone girl blush in embarrassment as if she had forgotten that she was only in front of clueless spiritual beasts!
'Beasts? Meat. Yummy.' Her mouth drooled.
Yet she halted at a sudden thought. It was to either have a free all-kill to stabilize her foundation at the risk of being heavily injured by higher level spiritual beasts or amuse the beasts to gain their trust?
Dark bushy yet sharp brows knotted as she began to think with prudence. Her storage was empty. Back in her last life, people often had to chose between short-term and long-term benefits. Spiritual beasts were comparable to liable investments but can be called long-term investments. For now, she may lose some Qi for making more bubbles as down payment but the views of the beasts on her may or may not improve. On the other hand, short-term talked about stabilizing her foundation. It was risky as her life may be put on the line yet benefits outweighed the risks.
But as a beginner, she believed that long-term suited her. Celes has concluded. So with her arms outstretched in front of her, the beasts prepare themselves to counter her 'attack' only to be frozen in place with widened, happy eyes. Bubbles slowly formed above her open palms. Initially, they began to float upwards but the woman in the royal blue robes waved her hands up and the bubbles started to float and dance above her. When the wind passed, the bubbles floated around every each one of them.
Celes smiled at her success to grab their attention. Moreover, she did not think that this activity also lead to practicing her Qi control and ability to spread her barrier within the seal. Before, it was only as wide as at least a foot away from her as she stood in the center. That was days ago when she achieved the first degree of Qi gatherer.
The seventh degree of Qi gathering was comparable to a high quality vacuum cleaner towards absorbing Qi. How much more if it was on the eight? She anticipated an overflow.
Celes continued to entertain the beasts. Whenever she felt hungry or drained, her magical food storage was prepared to fill its master's stomach. The beasts have been bringing her left overs and fruits as presents. In exchange, this activity has officially became a part of her daily routines from now onwards.