Somewhere underground, in a secret facility under a shell corporation's name. Carol Summers walked into a room with thick and heavy metal walls, with metal chains and cuffs connected to the walls and ceiling. Her underlings were already in the room guarding 4 heavily injured members of the motorcycle gang that tried and failed to stop them while they returned from their earlier meeting.
"Excuse me for the… lack of accommodation. You guys caught me at a bad time." Carol Summers sat down by a chair laid by two men in suits behind her: "And I am terribly sorry for your friends and gang buddies. But rest assured the tomatoes in the next season will be quite tasty."
The four motorcycle gang members raised their heads and looked at Carol Summers, but no one said anything.
"So, here's the deal. Any of you talk, you won't die a painful death, and you might even get a safe and secure position in my group. Sound good?" Carol Summers said while toying with the spindle-shaped pendants on her necklace and not even looking at any of the four men chained to the wall: "I am quite generous, to those who would like to help me."
"We… we don't know anything… the guy paid cash and always wears a cloak - we can't even see his face most of the time." one of the motorcycle gang members said in a weak voice: "Please… the only one that deals with the guys was Chapman, and your people already killed him."
"Clever, for you. But that won't work for me." Carol Summers shook her head and took a look at the other four motorcycle gang members: "My offer will stand for the next 30 seconds. I have a business meeting in about 12 minutes and you guys have already wasted enough of my time. "
"We don't know anything! Please! " another motorcycle gang member pleaded: "Please! Please..."
"Ah, so you'd rather be 6 feet under than working for me? " Caroline Summers looked at all of them and chuckled: "I can't help but take it as a personal insult."
"Please let them go… I'll tell you everything I know." one of the gang members finally said.
"Aren't you the honorable one. " Carol Summers stood up, with a small piece of crystal in her right head: "But no, 30 seconds had passed, and your intention to lie was quite obvious."
The crystal shone a blue silver light, and the four men chained to the walls started violently shaking, choking and retching. In only a few seconds, some kind of silver smoke seeped from their mouths, eyes, nostrils and ears and was immediately absorbed by the crystal.
When the flow of the smoke broke, all four men chained stopped moving, the flesh on their bodies shrunk, their hair started falling off, their dried up eyes and tongues dropped out of their heads and their skin was covered with dark marks and dark veins.
Carol Summers closed her eyes and laid her left hand on the crystal for a short while, then turned to her underlings with a blue silver shine in her eyes: "Call Ms. Corin. I have some business to discuss with her."
"Understood." one man behind her nodded and left the room.
"Clean these up. Bring them to the doctor." Carol Summers handed the crystal to a woman in suit, who placed the crystal in a briefcase, and walked out of the room: "Let's go, we're gonna be late."
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In the diner of Xianshi Inn, Caroline and Jason were sitting at a table, rubbing their temples and drinking tea and wine at the same time trying to relieve them of their throbbing headache.
"Oh… God… I can't handle the truth." Jason whined.
"Yeah… Boss, why the knowledge dump all of a sudden?" Caroline discarded some more tissue she wiped blood from her nose with.
"Don't worry. It's actually good for you." Jianmen came out of the kitchen with a big bowl of soup and two small bowls: "Just not too much at a time. Just like everything good in life, moderation is pretty important. And the reason I chose to tell you now, is because only after a certain point can a cultivator learn about The Will. For most cultivators it is when they're past the second layer to start with going for the third, and for you it's the 99th day, because of the gifts."
"I still gotta ask… if the gift of the… The Will is that much of a trouble and additional tribulations will happen to us. Why do you think we should slow our progress of cultivation?"
"It's not slowing." Jianmen said as he filled the two bowls in front of his two students with soup: "It's more like… like hardening and firming your base of knowledge and power, so when you finally progress to higher layers, you won't have any latent and hidden issues with your Xuanli, your Dao, and your very essence. Just like the process of taking good care of your body and doing regular exercise before you partake in some heavy activities - you need to be fully prepared before advancing forward.
"And the additional tribulations, risky and dangerous as they may be, are also opportunities for those who are ready. So keep a steady pace of progress and don't rush yourselves. Even the sharpest sword can be broken at its weak spots from improper forging."
"God..." Caroline scratched her head in frustration: "What have we signed up for, Boss? Why is this happening?"
Jianmen sighed and sat down in front of his students: "I don't know. This may be a surprise to you, but I don't have the answer to this either. I have some understanding of The Will, but that was back in my last world. I have yet to gain a good understanding of this one. All I know is, that your world is slowly changing, and not necessarily for the better."
"But you'll guide us?" Caroline looked at Jianmen in the eyes and asked.
"I will, until such days come that there's nothing I can teach you." Jianmen smiled: "Now, take a breather here. When you're ready, come to the garden."
"Yeah I'm good now." Jason finished his tea, wine and soup and stood up: "Caroline, you?"
"I'm good as well. Let's go Boss. What are you showing us?"
"Here." Jianmen handed two small golden metal balls to Caroline and Jason: "Infuse it with a tiny bit of your Xuanli and keep it there."
When three of them walked into the garden, Jianmen led his two students to stand in front of the newly reclaimed land, where the rose they took from the set of the movie Haunting Crescent was planted. Right now, the rose was just emitting flickering light just like it did before.
"Now, tell me what you feel about the metal balls I just gave you." Jianmen turned around and asked.
"Feels like it's changing our Xuanli?" Caroline raised her golden metal ball to her eye level and observed it in detail: "It's turning it into liquid?"
"Exactly. Now remember this kind of metal and how it feels." Jianmen raised his right hand and showed that he also had a very tiny golden metal nugget: "This is called 'Metal ' a special kind of alloy, not that uncommon and not super useful in the civilian world. It has limited usage for people with superpowers and practitioners of magic, sorcery or similar power systems. And what I am going to show you, is this: when it encounters Xuanli, it will melt into it and form a kind of nutritious liquid that is suitable for consumption for almost all kinds of spirit companions and familiars. Here, try to control the liquid and drop it on this rose."
Caroline was the first to try, as she knelt down and lightly squeezed on his golden metal ball, and a small drop of translucent orange and red liquid fell from the metal ball and landed on the rose bud.
The drop of liquid was absorbed by the rose, and the lights inside of it seemed to have grown a little bit brighter.