After enough curses and about half an hour had passed, the man who I had enlightened, came to his senses.
I saw his body steer, unlike before where he just ebbed with the horse beside our carriage.
The fact is, though, in my mind that horse was the MVP here. It had not strayed away from the carriage and even when we parsed a few curves it diligently stayed by our side.
Either way, seeing my new teacher or instructor or some other pronoun, come to himself I stuck my head out the window and looked at him closer.
I saw no exterior changes to him from the insight I brought to him, so all that happened was inside him.
Lacking the Divine Sense of Cultivators, I could not probe him without touch.
While a cultivator's sense is just Qi laden with Will, there is still a difference in how it behaves compared to Life Essence laden with Will.
My current theory is that the Qi in the atmosphere acts like a super conducted for their Divine Sense, while mine behaves as if going through normal material. At one point I even tried it and found that the greater the distance from my body, the greater the loss of sensitivity as if the Qi is interfering, although Auril is a different story.
As I observed Gao Junjie, he in turn gazed back at me. A few moments passed before he nodded. " I must thank you, miss, for sharing knowledge with me and broadening the horizon on the Dao. "
" It's fine. " I replied. " There is one thing that you will have to answer me, though. " When he agreed I laid out my question. " Previously when I mentioned a few things to the old man here, I could understand it somewhat. Knowledge about Souls and Consciousness is esoteric in nature, after all, but your situation does not follow that nature. Tell me, why did my words trigger such a reaction from you. Considering your cultivation, you should be above such basic knowledge, so why? "
As we gazed at each other, he only raised his left eyebrow. Probably to indicate that he understood my query and considered an appropriate answer. " Miss, previously as you had explained your previous life, I had been listening in on your conversation with Elder He. With you saying that your knowledge is basic, I need to know how basic, exactly? "
Since he is questioning it like that I can guess where this is going. " It depends on the nation and their system of learning but when I say basic, I mean basic. Every child is taught that. Just like building a house, Mass is considered one brick that lays the foundation for other more important stuff. Back to you now. Even if the knowledge is rarer here, it still should not have triggered you as it did. Am I missing something? "
" You are right, while rare, every clan that has roots of the Earth variety has knowledge about Mass. " Replied Gao Junjie. " That is not the point. The point is the perspective and the simple example that you used was what made the magic happen. Usually, those that have reached the height at which they needed enlightenment to progress further, have one thing in common. All of them have differing insights into the Dao. Those that try to write it down, often find themselves lacking the words to describe the insights into the Dao that they had achieved. Instead what they do is describe the insight itself and not the knowledge it tried to convey. Most of the time it turns into obscure stuff that is hard to understand at best, and more often impossible. A clan's history is often examined by the length it has existed and how those of the clan had condensed the wisdom of their predecessor into Mantras or other types of manuals that are understood by the descendants. "
" And the clans safeguard those manuals like a dragon hoards its treasures. " Yea, basic human greed in effect. It is nothing unusual to see it happen.
" A Dragon hoarding its treasures? " Butted into our conversation, the old man. "It is my first time hearing such an expression. "
Shrugging at him I faced away from him and back at Gao Junjie. " I understand. From now on I will be more careful in expressing myself with such knowledge. So are we going back on track with my explanation of my Ability? "
Seeing their attention back in the proper place I began. All this time I had not retracted my phantom as I didn't want to trigger something from Gao, and it stayed above the carriage all this time, invisible. " Since I can't say much, without triggering stuff, I will just say this. The aspect I chose to replicate is found at the peak of the Dao of Mass, the Singularity or Black Hole as it is most commonly called. If I had the power to make one of those, I could have flattened half the empire in seconds, but I do not have that power. All I did was use it as an example of how my Intent would shape the Ability and its function. In this case, how it draws Qi from the air and into the Flame in the center. Another thing I added was to separate it into multiple functions. Observe. "
I said to them as the core in the phantom started spinning, then the inner layers sped up one by one with long enough intervals for them to notice the change until the maximum output had been achieved. There it stayed for a bit and powered down again.
" Before you ask. No, I did not use it at the maximum output and there is a simple reason for that. " I stated before speaking about the reason. " Right now, my phantom has no offensive strength at all. "
" None? " Both of them asked. Shaking my head I explained. " There are three ways to categorize an ability. Offensive, Defensive, and Support. " Hearing it that way they agreed to the categories. " What form the Ability takes and its functions depend on the intent upon its creation and mine is support. It's upon it that I will build the other two. "
With a nod, Gao Junjie gave me his approval. " Miss is right in thinking of making the foundation first and then building upon it. Does your Ability have any strength currently? " He asked, probably remembering the comically ineffective way it introduced itself.
' Goodness, that was embarrassing. To think that it couldn't even move the man even a bit. It couldn't even be counted as a slap, more like a mosquito bite. '
" Yes. " I had no choice but to swallow my sigh at the event in question. " Sort of. Abilities are made of Intent, stamped upon Reality, and anchored to the individual in some way. Usually, it's done on the body itself so that it can be passed down, but it's also possible to anchor it to one's Will. There is not much difference between these two methods but if anchored upon one's Will, the ability gains a lot more flexibility. When you look upon my phantom and see the shape of a man, it's easy to see my intent and how it should function. "
Looking Gao Junjie in the eyes, and not saying further I indicated for him to figure it out. Although it didn't take long, not at all. Probably used to making the connections like these.
" If it depends on the Intent and is shaped in the form of a body, does this mean it's tied to your physical condition in some way? " He asked, I nodded and then shook my head.
" Yes, it is connected to my physical condition and no, there is no physical condition between them. " I replied. " It's tied to how my Will and Intent perceive my body and all its actions. "
" I see, without any offensive strength, in its base state it reflects the condition of your body. "
" Yes, unconsciously my Intent is shaped, especially since currently I do not possess the experience to do any better with it. " I added. " Changing the size of the phantom's hand will only increase the size of the attack and not the strength behind it. Hence the earlier embarrassment. " But as an afterthought, I added one more thing. " In my defense though, you Cultivators have the strongest bodies of all Powers and if my guess is correct those that took part in the play are probably Cultivators with physical arts, which only makes it look even more embarrassing. "
Ignoring the light snicker that came from the old man I went on. " That will be all, for now. In the future, I plan to further improve my Ability. As to how? It will depend on the circumstances I find myself in and the knowledge I acquire. "
" With that laid out, tell me Gao Junjie. Does that satisfy you? " Laid in with that question was my firm voice that I would not be saying anything more, at least for now.
" It does miss. Now I don't have to worry about planning around your Ability. Any kind of training and method will reflect the Ability and not the other way around. " No emotion showed on his face as he said that but maybe a slight relief in his eyes that was expertly hidden, or maybe that was his unconscious sense of relief at not having to exert himself in the future.
Who knows?
I looked away from Gao and back to the old man and healer, who still hasn't given me an answer. " Old man, now we can devote our time to you. How is it? Have you come to a decision? Let me remind you, I will acquire the knowledge you possess in the future, in some way. What I can not say is how I will acquire it, though. "
" Sigh, I will do it. But I have one condition. " Oh, nodding for him to go on. " After I have taught you what I know, I want you to share your realizations regarding the roots with me. "
" That… will not be a problem to me. But this only implies the roots and not the Mantras I will create from it? " I agreed on a condition.
He didn't agree immediately but did send me a question. " How about the healing Mantras? "
" Fine, I will freely discuss healing Mantras with you, but do not expect anything of that kind any time soon. "
" That will be fine. "
" Good, there is no better time to start, than this boring journey. "
" Very well, let's start with the general classification and their... "
With one ear I listened to him, with absent intent had that information stored, and with the other, I listened to the sounds of the carriage and the horses that pulled it.
Somewhere inside, I made a silent vow to fucking improve their carriages even if it's the last thing I would do in this world. If I had to use one of them to travel long distances all the time, I would have rather walked. Of course, I could and probably would learn to ride horses, but I wonder?
" And with such… " Interrupting the old man's midspeech. " Say, old man, there is one thing bothering me. I was the first person you ever met that had no roots, right? "
" Before I met you, that was indeed the case. "
" Does that apply to animals? This is a cultivation World so it makes sense that animals can cultivate too. Do they have roots? " I ask.
" That is an interesting topic. " He said. " Animals do not have roots, as animals do not cultivate at all but I can understand where your thoughts are going. They can not cultivate but they can awaken and become Beasts. "
" Beasts? " I ask with curiosity.
" Yes, nobody knows the conditions upon which they awaken but when they do they gain intelligence. After attaining intelligence they begin their first transformation into Beasts. " Stated the old man.
" During the first transformation, they rapidly increase in size and gain strength comparable with a Foundation cultivator. After the first transformation is done they begin to condense what we call a Beast Core. " He explained to me. " Once they attain it, the second transformation begins. In that stage, they are comparable to a Core Creation cultivator and during that stage, their intelligence receives a boost and it could be compared to a human depending on the species. If they are able to achieve the third transformation and create a Beast Soul, then their intelligence is equal to humans. " As an afterthought, he added another thing. " Remember this, I said they are comparable in strength to cultivators, I never said they are equal as all Beasts will almost always be stronger in the same stage. The only difference being their first transformation is both Qi gathering and foundation establishment in one. "
" So one day I could be playing with a house cat, and in theory, it could awaken just like that? " I said doubtfully.
" A mystery indeed. Many have tried to understand the process but as far as I know, nobody has succeeded in it. Currently, the only solution thought of is that the Qi they ingest through the food they eat and the environment they live in awakens them at some point. " Shaking my head at the mystery that happens, I added one more thing to my bucket list of things to do once I had the opportunity.
' Still, that leaves me with one more question before I would state my main reason for asking. '
" Once they become beasts, does their offspring belong to the Beast category? Or do they start from the beginning? "
" Once a Beast, always a Beast. There is no going back. " He said. " During their first transformation, their bodies change in many ways and that change is reflected upon their offspring and they become a new species if the change is greater. Otherwise, we just add their characteristics to their original species when naming them. "
" So there should be a lot of Beasts out in the wild? " I ask.
" There are but not as many as you imagine. The Azure Wind Empire is quite far from their territories and even if the occasional animal does awaken, they usually follow their instincts and leave for grounds with greater concentrations of Qi. " Replied the healer.
" Oh, if that is the case, let me guess this part. " Knowing what I was about to say, I had no choice but to smile. " The other empires around this one are older and stronger because their territory sits on grounds with greater scale of Qi concentration and the reason the Azure Wind Empire still stands is that they don't want to bother with the territory? "
" More or less. The cost of conquering these lands brings far too little gain if they try to seize them. It's easier to trade as our Empire is not so weak that they can conquer it easily. It has been tried before and there are still disputes going on. " Answered the old man.
" Understood, here is the main reason as to why I am interested. Let's say I go out into the wilds and find a Beast, somehow, is it possible to tame them? "
Now he took his time to answer. He stroked his new black beard before saying anything. " Is this just a curiosity or are you thinking of trying it? "
" Depends on the chance of success. So is there a chance or is it impossible for some reason? " I reply and ask in return.
" You should know that in theory, it's possible. The higher the stage of Power you are the greater the chance, as first you would have to subjugate the Beast in question. Then you would need a way to bind the Beast to you in some way, preferably. You don't want the Beast to attack you or those you care about, after all. Aside from that, there are Mantras that were created with that in mind. " He explained. " Problem is that those Mantras are of the Mind and those are very rare, and if one does cultivate it, they are usually weaker in battle. Of course, it's possible to use a two-core Mantra for that, but those are even rarer. So take your pick, if that is your desire. "
" I see, Hmm, guess that leaves me with only one viable method, the Power of Friendship. " I started with a smile.
" Friend? Ship? " Losing himself for a second, he replied. " Friendly behavior between individuals on the same ship? I must say the way you combine some of the wording is quite interesting. They provide a lot of context about your previous life. Yes, friendship is one way I guess, but I still do not understand how friendship can be a Power? "
" Haha, don't worry about it. It's a joke, sort of. " I stated. " Back there, there is a saying that the Power of Love and the Power of Friendship, are the strongest Powers in existence. They make for great storytelling but are especially rare in real life. "
" Ah, I think I understand what you are describing. " Nodding to him I tell him to continue his lesson.
' Subjugating an animal shouldn't be hard in the future, for me at least. The question is do I want to do it that way? Or should I try to awaken them? Hmm. '
***
The healer's lesson provided a nice distraction from the slow journey.
With 3 more days of journey passing by, we were reaching our destination and I could already see it in the distance.
It was the size of a small town or larger village, at least compared to those back on Earth, and it was situated on a plain that was actually a valley between two mountains.
It was on the 4th day of the journey that the mountains started to appear really close instead of far away and the great thing about them was the appearance they had.
In many paintings, whether digital or analog, misty mountains were depicted in every cultivation story. They just had that look that fascinated people and brought forth the imagination of the viewer.
As we passed some of them, the overgrown vegetation alongside the misty look and their upright appearance fascinated me quite a bit.
In my previous life, I climbed a few mountains, when I was younger along with a few friends. But those were relatively small in both width and height.
None of them had given me a sight such as these.
On some of them, I even saw water plunging down and becoming mist. Very beautiful.
The Mercenary Institution, which currently was more sect if not in name, retained that classic Asian style to itself. It had many large buildings with classic spiky green roof tiles and lots and lots of space between buildings. The roads were paved with stone to make them look even more elegant.
It was quite beautiful and it was there that I would spend the next 5 years. It was similar to a boarding school, to be honest, but as I had never been in one, these emotions were a first for me.
As we approached the gateway and the guards, I saw the writing on top of the entrance.
Speech and writing were two separate things when my current language was taken into account. Previously I could rely on remnants of speech in the brain alongside muscle memory in the tongue and throat but visual cues had to be relearned from the beginning.
Too much of it was lost in me incarnating.
Despite the memory adaption of a young brain, despite being able to combine speech and text to a degree, and finally despite being able to accelerate the learning with Life Essence, this fucking language is still a pain in the brain with how complex it is.
' Sigh, why couldn't they stick with a standard set of characters 30 characters or so, instead of thousands of them and their variations? '
I knew what the sign said at the top, as I had seen it before, but it still took a bit for my brain to recognize it.
Heavenly Jade Mercenary Institution, it said. And it was ornamented with gold and jade. To all, it declared to whom this belonged. Aside from that, I saw many things decorated with the color green.
Gao Junie was in front of us and without even stopping us the guards just nodded towards him and let us pass.
We were heading towards the largest building. It was probably an administration center and where my uncle was, probably.
Once in front of it, in seconds I stepped out and glared back at the bastard that brought me so much misery. Almost a week in that thing and my hate for them reached epic proportions. In the middle of the journey, I had even started cursing my new father Yu Liwei for giving me such a terrible thing,
' There is no way a merchant of his stature does not have better stuff somewhere. '
With hate in my eyes, I left it behind and followed Gao Junjie inside.
Rooms passed, and another office appeared. It had the same appearance as Yu Liwei's but the man behind it was different.
With a similar appearance, only older he looked at us. He first looked at Gao Junjie as he was the first to enter, then me as I was behind me, and lastly the old man.
" Junjie, I didn't expect you to come back so soon. Especially with her in tow. " Said my uncle Qiao.
Taking his gaze from me he tried to greet the old man but stopped for a second as if recognition had just come. " Oh, Elder He, congratulations on your stage ascension. I must say that is even more unexpected. "
" Qiao, you're not the only one that was surprised by it. It is nice to see you in good health. " Responded the old man,
" You too, it's easy to notice how good it did for you. Tell me Junjie, what brought you all here? " Asked my uncle.
" After a talk with your brother, we came to an arrangement that Miss Jiao would be sent here for the foreseeable future. " Replied Gao Junjie while pointing at me.
Hearing that he looked at me again. I smiled with a bit of a puppy eye expression. " Hello, uncle. It's been a while. "
With a twitching eyebrow, he replied. " Indeed, that it has been. " Taking his gaze away from me he stared at Junjie. " How much of the foreseeable future are we talking about? "
" Five years at least. Your brother was very determined about that fact. " He replied. " I will be in charge during her stay. As for Elder He, he had decided to follow Miss Jiao to repay a debt and during the journey had taken her as a part student. "
" Debt? What could she… Oh, your ascension was related to her, somehow? " He inquired.
" Yes. just like Gao Junie's in the near future. " Replied the old man and pointed at the man in question, who showed no different emotion on his face. As if it was just a comment on how sunny the sky was.
My uncle and my instructor stared at each other for a second before Gao just nodded. " Fine, you take care of everything regarding my... niece, as for the Elder I will have him stay at my residence. Would you two give me some space so I could talk to my niece for a bit? "
Both men agreed and left the office that was so similar to the other one.
" Uncle. " I say.
" .... Jiao? " Saying my name he stopped for a few moments before going on. " When my brother sent the letter I sensed that he was hurt emotionally but decided to give you a chance. What changed, aside from the hair? "
Considering my words for a second. " I cut my hair and sent it to him as the last remnant of the Jiao that he loved and cared for. Telling him to preserve it somehow so that it would not lose its luster even after eons have passed. After that though, he wanted to treat me as an asset, or chess piece, or something similar. So I stood my ground and decided otherwise. He either tried to treat me as family or I would run away. "
" Run, away? " Surprised at my hard stance, I nodded. " I am still his family by blood, and simply refused to be treated as such. He rejected my proposal, at first. I have memories of a different life, and while it would be difficult, it was still better than being treated as he imagined. Afterward, we had a few " almost " fights as he tried to pressure me otherwise but failed. So we came upon an agreement on our bottom lines and to take it from there. And here is how I ended up. "
With a thoughtful expression, he asked me. " And those lines are? "
" I can keep the name, I get to call him father without any problems and his help if the family ever decides to interfere with my love life. The amount of help in that would be leveraged on how useful I am to the family. " I explained. " Why I was exactly sent here, I have no idea. It could be that he just wanted some distance between us to process his loss, without me reminding him all the time, or there could be something else. "
" I see. " Was all he said before letting me leave the office and wait there for Gao Junjie. It took a bit but he did come and just motioned for me to follow.
Once again outside and once again in the carriage for another short ride, we arrived at another building. It was smaller and looked more like a home residence, to my untrained eye about this style of architecture.
Exiting the carriage Gao Junjie pointed at the house. " This is my residence and it will be here that you will stay for now. With your weak body, it's best, you don't stay with the others. Once you have improved your health we will see. "
' So, this will be my new temporary home. '