Chapter 162 - 8-11

Chapter 8: Bad Memories

The hysterical exclamation that there was a monster on the loose would perhaps have suggested that Elder Flower and Jin would immediately run out to hunt said monster.

However, the statement was not actually that informative and inner disciple Ting was too scared to truly give them more information than that.

It was here that Jin got to see another side of his mentor. Elder Flower sat down the female disciple on one of the elaborate wooden chairs in the so-called landing room of the watchtower and quickly brewed her a cup of hot tea with ingredients and utensils from her pouch. She'd made three teas, in fact, one of them which Jin was sipping right now.

It reminded him slightly of Oolong, but he wasn't really an expert despite his now very much asian looks so he could only guess and hum in enjoyment as he drank. He wasn't too afraid to enjoy it, unlike Ting. The reason he wasn't afraid was because he was being accompanied by an Elder of his sect. And not a scholarly one either. What could really happen to him under Flower's supervision? Ting eventually also came to the same realisation, drinking her tea, and letting go of the fear she'd exhibited earlier.

It was thus five minutes after arriving and almost getting stabbed by the disciple in charge of the outpost, that they were not hunting any elusive monster, but just now starting to listen to the story of what had actually happened.

The room they were in was very different from the ones that Jin had gotten used to since his insertion. It was oddly non-oriental, composed mostly of large stone bricks. It looked more like something out of mediaeval Europe. A castle tower so to say. This made listening to Ting's story a slightly odd experience, because he felt for some reason that he was back home as a tourist in some Italian village. However, the contents of what was being described were very much not congruent with that illusion.

"It happened three days ago," Ting started nervously with shaky hands which had already spilt some tea on her beige sleeves. "With no warning at all, one of the farmhands who was out late never came back. People weren't overly worried at first as he was known to partake in drink. However, when he didn't appear for his work the next morning I helped organise a search party. We found him in a field not far from where the farm's cows had grazed yesterday with a square indent on his forehead. His skull was crushed inwardly." She trailed off with a faraway look in her eyes.

Elder Flower remained patient and sat elegantly on her chair. One hand was on the sword at her side and the other was holding her brown ceramic teapot. She didn't look like she was in a hurry, which was probably the correct decision to make in terms of outward appearance and energy projection. The more nervous she was, the more nervous Ting would get and the more slowly the story would come out.

"It looked like he'd been killed by someone pressing an iron cube into his skull until he died. There was no indication of who or what could have done it. He wasn't an overly popular man, so while this was certainly concerning, we didn't think too much about it. It just happens, sometimes," she said. When she saw Elder Flower raising an eyebrow she quickly corrected herself. "Naturally I looked around and I sent a report to the sect. The first bird should be arriving any second now. However, I wasn't able to find anything during my own investigation. It was simply as if something had fallen from the sky, knocked the man on the head and killed him for no reason. I told the villagers that help would be arriving within the week and that they should simply continue work as always, but to be a bit more careful."

Jin wondered if the girl served as some sort of feudal lord of the village. What exactly was her political position? She was the one who scouted the danger and advised the villagers and how to behave. Was there no mayor involved? No official from the empire? What role exactly did sects have in the administration of hamlets such as these? He continued listening, not posing any of his questions, knowing that it was not the time.

"Work resumed as normal and I went into my rooms during the day to work on my scenario. A wyvern," she said excitedly before a pallor was cast over her face again. "Everyone went to sleep, as did I. The next morning when we woke up there was an entire field of cows who had died a similar death, along with the family of those who had owned the herd. 40 or so bovines, and a family of seven. Grandparents, parents and children."

"Did they have the same square imprint on their foreheads or were they killed differently?" Jin piped up. Inner disciple Ting looked at him as if she was noticing him for the first time, with wide confused eyes. However, when she saw his robes were of the same design as hers she simply nodded.

"Brother, it was the same wound, just on the different sides of the head, not only from the front. The sides, the back, from above. It looked as if the people had tried to escape. They were scattered all over the house."

Jin hummed thoughtfully while Elder Flower retained a strictly remote facade. She turned towards him at the sound he made and questioned him. "Do you have an idea?"

"Well, the story is not over. There's still one more day left after all," Jin said. "But, if we can see the people had the chance to run away, then that can mean one of two things. Either the entity that committed the murders was not powerful enough to do so before their targets noticed or were able to react to their approach. Or, they like to play with their food. I would personally prefer the first option to be true. Someone, or something, that's only powerful enough to kill civilians one at a time cannot be more powerful than an inner disciple," he concluded.

"That's not necessarily true," Elder Flower rebuked. "There are several beasts which have special powers that are much more dangerous than the simple threat of their physicality."

Jin nodded in referral. Flower was much more likely to be right than him and he hasn't been planning on saying anything anyway. The hum had simply escaped him.

Flower turned back to the girl and bid her to continue.

Ting seemed to hesitate for a second. "I looked around again, but there was nothing I could do. I could only send for help. There's no one within a running distance that I could summon."

Jin wondered why cultivators didn't have some sort of immediate transmittance slip. They had spells and artefacts after all. Maybe a village like this simply wasn't important enough to bother with?

"Anyway," Ting started with a nervous shake of her head. "I couldn't do anything other than tell the people to stay inside and wait for help while I retreated into the tower and tried to, well, be on guard," she said with a blush. "This morning," she continued with a sigh, "we found more than just one family dead. It seemed like someone had snuck into one house after the other and killed the residents. The neighbours told me that they heard some screams, but that they were too afraid to leave the house and come get me."

"How many households?" Elder Flower asked.

Ting almost seemed like she didn't want to say, before she eventually sighed and opened her mouth again. "19 households. 200 people."

Jin released an unbidden gasp. "Fuck," he muttered.

"All the same wound again, I still have no idea what could have caused it," Ting said.

To Jin, the situation started to sound like the beginning of a murder mystery novel. Just without any of the anxiety since Elder Flower would protect him from harm, hopefully. He turned towards the older woman and tried to discern from her blank gaze what she was thinking.

No information was to be read from it. However, that didn't matter as the Elder opened her mouth and spoke. "We are on a time-sensitive mission, so we will be leaving tomorrow morning," she started.

The blood in Jin's veins froze, and he wondered if they would be leaving these people here to their presumed fate of death. Inner disciple Ting similarly didn't look like she was doing too well with the implication. Whatever colour had returned to her face during their little chat and tea party, promptly left.

"We can't just leave all these people to die," Jin complained, forgetting himself. Some of his sense of justice from his last life resurfacing at an inopportune occasion.

Elder Flower promptly turned to glare at him, which shut him up. He remembered that he wasn't a citizen of a democratic nation anymore. Now he was just a disciple at the mercy of his masters. Human rights? What are those? It was jarring and he gritted his teeth.

The memories of his body's previous owner had resurfaced.

In cultivation land, life was cheap. Mortals were seen as a disposable resource because they bred incredibly quickly. A second of a cultivator's time was worth more than a mortal's entire life. After all, what was a blip of 60 years in comparison to potential infinity?

Jin lowered his head. "I apologise for speaking out of turn," he said concisely.

"What would you do? Inner disciple Jin, if it was up to you?" Elder Flower asked in a deadpan voice. "The diplomatic mission we are on is much more important than the lives of thousands of mortals. After all, it is these small details that in the end determine the value and survival of our sect."

Jin frowned and thought of an answer. Obviously, he couldn't take everything back, or else he'd just seem disingenuous. "I would try to resolve the situation in the time we have, and leave tomorrow morning regardless of outcome," he eventually replied.

Elder Flower pursed her lips, before eventually nodding.

"And more specifically? How would you resolve the situation?"

Jin went through several areas of knowledge in his head before answering. "I would analyse the scene of the murders to try to discover any clues that might have been left there. I would do my best to identify the creature responsible for the deaths. I would also question the villagers, perhaps they have some information that makes sense when placed together. Then, hopefully, I would be able to hunt the monster down."

"An incredibly foolish plan," Elder Flower critiqued, causing Jin to bow his head in frustration.

What exactly did she want him to say?

"It seems like you're approaching this very calmly, which is good. But, you're not taking advantage of all of your resources," she hinted.

Jin thought the words over, before realising with a sigh that this was a reminder of who exactly was wearing the pants in this relationship. It wasn't even that metaphorical, considering that Elder Flower actually was wearing pants.

"Of course. I apologise. The smartest course of action would naturally be to ask my knowledgeable and skilled Elder for help resolving this issue."

Elder Flower nodded, finally seeming somewhat satisfied. Perhaps there was a glimmer of pride at having successfully imparted a lesson in her eyes? Jin couldn't really tell.

Jin meanwhile realised that no matter how much he was now used to this magical world, he still sometimes forgot the very big personal difference in power that could exist between people here. Back on earth, no matter how powerful a man was, he was still a man. Here, that wasn't necessarily the case.

He looked up to see Ting giving him a very scared look. Jin understood why, considering that what he had just done could have gotten him killed if it had been any other Elder.

Thankfully Flower was more rational than her contemporaries and had seemingly let it slide.

Jin himself wouldn't have committed the error, had the amount of deaths that had occurred not shocked him. He'd never been so personally involved in a tragedy such as this, and to hear that he was now in a village where 200 people and more had been murdered. It just made him lose his rationality for a bit.

"Regardless, just because I said that we have to leave tomorrow does not mean that I cannot resolve the issue today," Elder Flower said as she stood up, patted herself down unnecessarily and bid for the two inner disciples to follow. They strolled down the tower like obedient ducklings, Jin getting only glimpses of the different rooms as they quickly traversed the spiral staircase all the way to the ground floor.

They burst through the front door of the tower and exited onto a small grassy hill to the west side of the village which they quickly left behind as they entered the village proper. It seemingly wasn't very difficult to find a house in which one of the massacres had found place, as Ting dully pointed at the first house on the left when Flower threw her a questioning look.

Jin meanwhile, was looking around and noting that the village looked oddly normal considering the tragedy that had occurred within it. It was quiet, but nothing seemed destroyed, and no blood was spilt on the muddy streets themselves. The only movement came from the eyes looking at the trio fearfully through cracks in the window shutters and doors.

"This is the house in which a family was killed?" Elder Flower confirmed with her hand on the door handle, looking at Ting, who was standing behind her nervously fidgeting with the hem of her robes.

The inner disciple nodded, causing the Elder to open the door.

Jin promptly looked away from the scene that revealed itself in front of him, rather focusing on the cute vegetable patch in front of the house. Were those cabbages? They looked very orange, but the shape was about right.

"Come in Jin." He heard Flower order from the inside and he reluctantly entered the ramshackle wooden house with the sloping thatched roof. There were oddly shaped wooden talismans covering it.

He sighed and refocused his gaze as he entered. He couldn't look away anymore.

The horror started in the corridor and simply got worse from then onwards. A dead woman was lying on the floor, a hand extended towards the door as if trying to escape. She was about 50, or so, from what he could see from her face, cast in an eternal grimace of horror as it was. She was dressed in a rough linen combination of shirt and trousers with some bandages to serve as shoes. There was a square indent on the side of her head, but the skin wasn't too torn and her body didn't look like she'd received any other injuries.

The first door to the right led to a rustic kitchen which had a small group of dead children. They were all lying in different positions on the floor with dead bloodshot eyes pointing lifelessly at the ceiling.

"I told the villagers to leave the bodies as they were for the investigation," Ting said from behind Jin and Elder Flower, the latter of which was squatting down and examining one of the bodies. A little girl with long brown hair. The square indent was stamped directly onto her forehead, crushing it inwards.

"Good job. It might seem disrespectful, but it would be even more disrespectful if we were unable to find the culprit due to sentimental reasons such as burials," Elder Flower answered cooly. A white light suddenly lit up her right hand as she ran it over the body of the girl.

"This is indeed the only injury," she muttered in a low voice. "Interesting. I can conclude quite clearly from this that this was not done by a monster."

Jin's thoughts immediately went to the dark realisation that it had been done by a human. "Well, whoever did it is a monster," he moralised.

Elder Flower had a much more meaningful contribution to add. "Whoever did it, used a quarterstaff. Infused with qi, hardened to ridiculous proportions. It's the only thing that could make such a perfect square in someone's head."

She stood up.

Something clicked in Jin's mind. They were going towards the Mad Monks Sect. Back in the mission centre, he'd seen that one of their escaped disciples turned bandit was loose in this general area.

He was just about to say what he'd figured out when the Elder held up a hand to shush him. The other slender hand went to the seemingly infinitely big pouch at Flower's waist and pulled out a little packet of paper, which she opened to reveal a luxurious amount of what seemed to be ruby dust. It glistened in the afternoon sun which pierced its rays straight through the semi-open window. The luxury contrasted the general shabbiness and the horrible mess of the scene. Elder Flower dipped a pale finger into the mixture and gently let a bit of the dust fall on the dead body of the little girl.

Jin observed this and sighed as he realised that he was completely useless and that hadn't needed to say anything right from the start. It was very clear that Elder Flower was doing much better than he would have in this situation. He wouldn't have even figured out that the wound had been caused by a quarterstaff. Here he was just a spectator, and he had been foolish to think that he would have been anything else from the get-go. Perhaps it was his previously American sensibilities that had made him not understand this reality earlier. He was unused to being a side character in his own life.

He clenched his fist and hoped that the murderer had not seen their flying sword land in the village. This would have likely caused them to flee immediately, which might prevent Elder Flower from bringing them to justice.

He didn't doubt for a second that she would, either. After all, she had essentially done exactly what he had suggested. She'd questioned one of the people who had been here for the attacks, inner disciple Ting. She'd analysed the crime scene, identified the murder weapon, and from the penetrating gaze she was now casting at one of the corners of the house towards what Jin knew to be a rather dense-looking bamboo forest, she had figured out where the perpetrator was hiding. He didn't know how exactly the ruby powder had helped her figure that out, but he wasn't going to complain.

"She's hiding out in the bamboo forest to the east of the village," Elder Flower said. "Alone, quarterstaff, ripped robes, talking to herself. Didn't see our approach. Let's put an end to this."

"Who is she?" Inner disciple Ting asked, unable to hold back her curiosity.

"An outer disciple from the Mad Monks Sect," the Elder said. Ting hissed, but Elder Flower continued. "Her cultivation obviously diverged dangerously. She's probably insane. Knowing what I do about our allies, she likely wasn't able to handle the mental strain of the cultivation but somehow escaped the measures they have in place to deal with such failed products. She likely doesn't know more than how to strengthen the weapon and how to use it. Some stealth? Perhaps, but it's not particularly hard to sneak up on mortals," Elder Flower rattled off.

Jin breathed a sigh of relief. Would it really be this easy? Elder Flower would find the perpetrator and finish them in whichever manner she saw fit. All in time for dinner and rest before they set off again tomorrow.

This was the difference in power between a mortal and a cultivator. It was like comparing an ant to a human.

When Elder Flower turned around and exited the kitchen, Ting and Jin followed along wordlessly. They exited the house, trying to forget the horrors that they had seen. Ting continued a process of repression that she'd probably already started much earlier, while Jin wrangled with the new visual stimuli and nightmare fuel that he'd received. He'd thought that perhaps as a disciple of a sect focused on craftsmanship, he could continue the tradition of his previous life to not be confronted with an overly large amount of dead bodies. He saw now that he had been incredibly naive. It seemed that while his body's previous owner had left him memories, he had not left behind true understanding.

Elder Flower pulled out her sword and threw it on the ground once they exited the house. Just like earlier, it grew to several times its size and floated about a foot above ground. She gave the disciples a glance over her shoulder and hopped on. The meaning was clear. Jin got on the sword. Ting hesitated.

"Come along," Elder Flower ordered. "I won't force you to fight."

Ting nodded and hopped onto the sword.

They flew off and landed in front of a bamboo forest less than a minute later. The trees were several times higher than them and cast an otherworldly shadow across the leaf-covered ground. The Elder's sword minimised again and she stepped forward before glancing at Jin "You take front and fight the mad-woman. It's about time you gained some real experience."

Jin mechanically turned his head to meet his teacher's cool gaze.

"Huh?"

Chapter 9: Crater-Face

There had been a lot of crazy things happening in Jin's life ever since he'd been shoved into this new body in this new land. However, if he had thought that trying to pass the exam to become an inner disciple had been nerve-wracking, then he obviously hadn't truly considered what being taught by Elder Flower would entail.

If anyone had told him back on earth that he would be forced to fight an insane magical bandit by a teacher of his, he would have told that person that they read too many of those weird Chinese web novels.

Obviously, the situation was completely ridiculous, and the only kind of tutor that would actually send out their pupil like this would be found in a story, not in real life.

Nevertheless, despite all his doubts about the rationality and the likeliness of this occurring. Here he was. standing in front of a large bamboo forest with shaking knees and holding his newly received jian in front of him.

He looked back over his shoulder, at Flower. She was looking at him with a cool gaze. Ting, slightly behind her, looked incredibly glad to not be in his place.

Jin took a step forward into the forest, glanced back again and saw that his two followers had also taken one step forward, Ting taking extra care to fall behind the Elder.

He took a step back, and Elder Flower raised an eyebrow, also taking a step back.

She said that she would interfere in the battle if his life was in any danger, but she hadn't said anything about his limbs. Also how fast could she really move if a staff was already on a trajectory that was set to crush his skull? That didn't sound like a pleasant death. Mostly because he would be dead. Dying sucked, or so he'd heard. He didn't have any memories of how he'd gotten here in the first place. Maybe it had been by dying. That didn't mean he wanted to do it again!

Jin sighed and took a few deep breaths with his eyes closed.

Maybe his behaviour was ridiculous? A lot of people, even back on Earth, had gone into battle with less of a safety net than he had. They'd been fighting for money, like the French, or for honour, like the English, in either case, they'd been fighting for something they didn't have.

Maybe Jin was scared because his battle was useless. It was a bit difficult to bring up the motivation to risk one's life because someone else wanted him to.

Teaching moment? Wasn't this basically the purpose of Illusion Rooms? Wasn't sending him out like this denigrating the status of the sect product.

This could only be referred to as bad marketing and brand destruction, no? Truly, Elder Flower was likely the nightmare of any marketing department. once you got past her amazing looks.

"Okay, Jin," the young man muttered to himself. "You can do this, you can do this. I believe in you. Mama didn't raise no quitter." He started advancing again, sword pointing lightly at the front as he used his left hand to push away the bamboo twigs and leaves that were getting in his face.

Occasionally Elder Flower corrected his trajectory with her words, but stayed unerringly several feet behind him. However, with each step, he cared less and less. He was quite frankly fucked with no way out. What exactly would Elder Flower do to him if he ran away? Possibly execute him and call him a coward. Possibly ruin his reputation back at the sect. There wasn't really any chance of dying with her here right? That was the belief that he decided on for himself that day.

The shadow of the bamboo forest hung ominously over Jin's head, making the atmosphere even more depressing than it needed to be. Even if his emotional state had become better during the last few minutes, his anxiety levels have been rising. After all, after he decided that he was going to fight, he just wanted to fight. He didn't want to nervously look through the entire forest for his foe and get potentially ambushed.

His eyes suddenly alighted as they made out a clearing waiting in front of him. Another nervous shudder ran from his body before he steeled himself.

He could see through the dense foliage, a bit of brown sitting on a large rock. Doubtlessly his enemy. Should he ask her to surrender first, he wondered as he approached? Wasn't that what everyone always did in shows? They offered their opponents the chance to get on their knees and receive a painless death?

It never seemed to work. But maybe he should do as locals do in this case?

"Idiot, duck," a voice suddenly said from behind him after Jin had almost entered the clearing.

It was Elder Flower's voice, so despite not knowing what that was all about, he threw himself to the ground.

Just in time for a square piece of wood to come shooting out of the clearing through several bamboos which broke with deafening cracks, before shooting for where his head would have been. Then, what must have been the quarterstaff was retracted. It disappeared as quickly as it had come.

Jin stumbled to his feet into the clearing to face his foe.

She was a slip of a girl that would never have seemed to be too threatening. However the staff that she held nimbly in her arms along with her ripped brown robe, unwashed and scuffed black hair going to her chin and dead eyes make him want to be anywhere but here.

"Any chance you would surrender to the authorities? Surely there's a rehabilitation process that could help integrate you back into normative society. Despite popular belief, corporal punishment doesn't scare off any other potential perpetrators," Jin said hopefully.

An awkward moment descended on the clearing and he thought he heard the sound of a palm meeting a face from behind him.

The girl, for all her supposed madness, managed to give him a queer look before her eyes reverted to those of the seasoned psychopath. Dead like a dead fish with the only emotion inside them a murderous madness.

"Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool," Jin mumbled, as he raised his sword. His knees were shaking like leaves in a fart storm, which actually helped him fall to the ground again to dodge another extension of the quarterstaff. It was all happening a bit too fast, really. His opponent took 1/10th of a second to adjust the staff so the end was pointed at him, and in the next 1/10th of a second, the thing already filled his entire vision from its incredibly quick extension.

It seemed like she really liked aiming for his head, which made the job a little bit easier. But he shouldn't attempt to find a pattern in someone else's madness. It could just be a fake out after all. That was the thought with which Jin found himself stumbling to his feet again.

Nervousness left his body like an expired aubergine. Quickly and violently.

After all, nervousness and fear were only strategies of the organism to prevent its host from going into potentially dangerous situations. Once that dangerous situation had already been entered, with no possibility of escape, it left.

Only completely maladjusted people still felt nervous while in the middle of combat. This was the time for focus. So, when Jin stumbled to his feet, jian raised in a defensive posture, he was essentially a different person than the one who had fallen down a second ago.

The girl wearing ripped brown robes seems to realise this as she intensified the tempo of her attacks.

The staff shot forwards, retracted, shot forwards, retracted.

Jin ducked, weaved, jumped, batted away with his sword, dodged.

It was an incredibly fast-paced battle that mortals back on earth probably couldn't have even kept up with. Unless, of course, they were trained soldiers or fighters or something.

At this range, despite how it seemed like, it was actually Jin who had the advantage.

Because his mental properties were very developed, he found himself perfectly able to predict the trajectory of the staff, whenever it was aimed in his direction.

This allowed him to start dodging before the attack was even initiated.

And while all he had to do was dodge, the girl had to have been spending at least some amount of qi to expand and contract the staff like that. Unless of course, it was an artefact, but if that had been the case her bounty would have definitely been set to a higher amount.

Thus they entered a stalemate, one to Jin's advantage

The girl seemed to realise this and paused in her attacks as if to consider. There was a slight sheen of sweat covering her face, and Jin similarly was starting to feel the physical exertion of the fight getting to him. It had only been ongoing for a minute or so, but the intensity of a life-or-death battle seemed to trump any other sport he had ever participated in.

Perhaps if he'd been more used to fighting in general, he would have used that short moment when his opponent deliberated to press forward and take the momentum for himself. However he wasn't, thus when the staff extended the next time, he simply dodged again. He wasn't thinking too much about the fact that the girl seemed intent on repeating patterns, until a length of bamboo that the extension of the staff had broken when he'd dodged it, fell unerringly on the top of his head from behind. This distracted him just long enough for the girl to jump forward and swing her staff at him from a close position for once. Jin barely managed to raise his sword, vertically, putting his elbow at the flat of the blade to block the impact.

The staff struck on the bone sword and his entire body quivered with exertion as he was unceremoniously pushed back and onto his ass.

From there the girl pointed her staff at him and extended it again. Jin had to do a very inelegant backwards roll with his butt in the air to avoid the attack. From there he jumped to his feet and had to block another extension, which threw him even further back.

Their positions now reversed, Jin found that the girl was actually closer to Elder Flower than himself. However, if there was any hope of a switch of opponents occurring, it was dashed as the girl herself dashed at him again. It seemed like she wanted to kill him first before finding new victims. For whatever reason.

It was in close quarters that Jin was made painfully aware of the gap in ability. The girl was just better than him. When she swung her staff and changed its direction in midair, he could only awkwardly deflect the blow enough to receive a glancing hit, rather than a direct one.

Bruises started to accumulate on his body like flies on shit and as several attempts to gain distance failed miserably, he realised that he simply wasn't good enough to win this fight from a purely technical perspective. It also seemed to him that he was starting to flag earlier than the girl, who was sweating but still going strong.

It was here that a lesson from his last life came in handy. Elder Flower had said she would save him if he was ever in actual danger, but he still didn't want to get beaten to a bloody pulp before the actual decapitation strike came. If an amateur wanted to win a battle against a technically superior opponent, the amateur had to create chaos. Every master feared a real noob, because they could not for the life of them predict what the idiot would do next. In other words. Jin was going to do something stupid.

The next time that the staff came at him from his side, Jin, rather than dodging or parrying, stepped into the blow. The closer one was to the arms holding the staff, the weaker the strike.

The hardwood hitting the left side of his torso still probably ruptured an organ or two, but it finally got him into a position where he could do something. He swung his sword with his right hand at the girl's neck causing her to dodge to the left. Right into Jin's raised left hand which grabbed her by the hair. He then dropped his sword, grabbed again with his right hand and brought her head down to his raised knee for a very satisfying smash. And then he did it again, and again, and again. It was after the fourth time, when he felt a very satisfying crunch signalling a broken nose or a tooth, that the girl managed to swing her staff in a manner that allowed her to extend the tip straight into his ribs which threw him off her in a rather violent fashion. He spun in the air several times and landed on his back with a sharp pain in his side.

He got incapacitated from the sheer shock of his flying, which was thankfully reciprocated by the girl stumbling around confusedly with her staff held loosely at her side. One dainty hand was gripping her bleeding face.

She removed the hand to glare at him and to enter a fighting position again and Jin almost lost his breakfast, lunch and dinner. She didn't really have a face anymore, all she had was a caved-in ruin from which one eye was glaring at him hatefully, while the other swam down the side of her face to gather on the floor in a disgusting puddle of gooey liquid and blood.

Had he done that? Jin wondered.

He'd never hurt anyone before.

Had it always been so easy?

The girl raised her staff, and Jin was able to read from the trajectory that it would crush his face in return for what he'd done to hers. He also knew at the same time that he couldn't dodge. Stabbing pain in his chest distracted his biology too much to escape in time. That was why he was grateful that a white line traced through the girl's neck from behind.

A disfigured head flew into the air with a spray of blood and landed on the floor with a thump.

Jin sagged in on himself, and let his head rest on the leafy ground as Elder Flower walked past the still-standing corpse of his opponent. It was as she arrived at his side and kneeled down to inspect his condition, that the body finally collapsed in on itself like a puppet with its strings cut and fell first to its knees, then on the ground.

The fall revealed a green looking Ting, looking at Jin and Flower from behind the corpse. She did not approach.

"I think she broke a rib and it's poking my lungs," Jin said with a pained voice while the Elder ran a glowing white hand over his body.

The woman simply nodded in agreement.

"Seems like it," she said in a nonchalant voice as she looked down at him with a blank gaze.

"You," Jin coughed," happen to have any lung and rib repair potions in that pouch of yours?"

Elder Flower raised an eyebrow. "It's an expensive concoction. You could just walk it off."

Jin grimaced at her shit sense of humour. At least, he hoped it was a shit sense of humour. "If I walk up to the Mad Monks tomorrow looking like a corpse, they're going to think our sect isn't prosperous enough to take care of its disciples," he argued.

A grin hushed over the Elder's face, and a small vial was raised to Jin's trembling lips.

When had they gotten covered in blood?

He drank what was given to him. It tasted very fresh, like a bushel of mint. Maybe with a bit of ginger.

"You did well," Elder Flower said gently from his side. Or maybe she didn't. Maybe, with how much he was losing it, it could have just been a dream version of her that said that

"Most of our members aren't suited for combat at all. So I'm glad to see that the sect has gained another protector."

Jin's last thought before he passed out went as follows. 'Bitch. What about me? Who's going to protect my ass?'

Then everything went black.

-/-

Jin awoke while it was still dark out sometime later in the day. Or perhaps it was already the early morning of the following day. His eyes fluttered open and for a few seconds, all he saw was darkness. Then a small green light burst into existence in the air above him.

He turned his head and was surprised to see that it was inner disciple Ting who was sitting at his bedside. She looked calm, and reserved, but also glad to see him awake.

He looked around and determined from the look of the walls that they were back in the tower. The outpost. Stone, stone. One chair, currently occupied. A bed of straw under his back. A nightstand. A glass of water. He raised an arm to get at it, and was surprised that he could do so. His other arm went to travel up his body, which seemed to be naked.

Jin blushed, as his hand went to explore the left side of his torso, where he'd gotten his rib cracked in the fight. The injury was gone. He breathed in deeply, and breathed out. No pain. Insane.

"What happened?" he asked very nonspecifically.

Thankfully Ting was smart enough to know what he meant. She sighed, brushed aside a strand of hair from her face and met his eyes. "After Elder Flower decapitated the divergent and gave you that healing potion, you passed out. I took you back to the tower and took care of you for a while. Then I went to the village to tell them that the threat had been resolved. After I came back the Elder told me to stay at your bedside for when you woke up. She said she needed to rest. It's not easy flying those swords around."

"I see, that's why we stopped here."

Ting shook her head. "Not really, from how I understand it. I think the point of leaving one day before your appointment is to prevent any amount of trouble delaying you. It would be disrespectful if you came late after all. It's better to do half a trip one day and the other half trip the other day. Also, the Mad Monks Sect is covered by a powerful array. You should try to arrive at the hour you're supposed to. They might suspect that someone else is knocking on their door if you don't."

Jin sighed. "I understand, there's still a lot of things I don't know," he said with a sigh.

"You were only recently promoted, right?" Ting asked.

Jin nodded. "A few weeks ago."

"Well, if they're already making you fight someone in real life, they must see potential in you," Ting said, perhaps a bit bitterly.

"What do you mean?" Jin asked, slightly confused. "Is this normal?"

"Define normal. The thing about illusion Rooms is that the creator can only ever put in stuff that they themselves have experienced. How is someone who has never fought a life-or-death battle supposed to inject that feeling of danger into their illusion? They obviously can't, all their deaths have been simulated up until that point. The fear isn't there. It is this urgency, this knowledge of how war looks like, that one needs as an inner disciple to elevate one's illusions. If you can only get the technical details right, and nothing else, you weren't made for the job."

Jin turned his gaze away from the small woman and looked back at the ceiling. More stone.

Of course, Elder Flower had described his fight as a learning experience, but it was only now that he fully understood what that actually meant. Sure he'd fought to the death numerous times in the illusion Rooms in the library. But, he'd never actually been afraid for his life.

Even right now, he knew that the Elder would save him if he'd made a mistake in the fight. Still, the danger had been elevated. Illusion Room cultivators created illusions. But, how can one create an illusion of something that one hasn't experienced?

If you wanted to accurately confer to someone else the feeling of being burned alive, that meant that one had to experience being burned alive. If one wanted to confer the experience of a life or death battle, that meant one needed to know how one actually looked like or felt like.

Perhaps the way of the illusion Room cultivator was indeed more difficult than he'd imagined. After all, he'd thought that becoming a craftsman would ease him into a sedentary lifestyle. Little work and many pleasures. He now understood however that the product they created necessitated for them to suffer as well.

Less than the suffering of a warrior sect, for sure. They had to fight regularly, but still. Being an illusion Room cultivator apparently meant that he would have to experience a variety of sufferings to be able to create the perfect product.

"Also," Ting started. "The borders are always stirring. Demonic cultivators always abound. Nobody is safe. Not really."

Jin sighed. "Thank you for taking care of me. May our sufferings be many, and our lessons bountiful."

Ting showed a smirk at his weird phrase. How old was she? He wondered.

Probably old enough to be his grandma twice over. She was cute though.

"May you survive everything life throws at you and come out on the other end stronger than before," she said, nodded at him, and left.

"Get some sleep. You'll need it," she said over her shoulder, before opening the wooden door and leaving him to a fitful sleep.

Caved in faces and headless bodies haunted him that night.

Chapter 10: Go to Hell

It was on the next day that Jin and Elder Flower were once again standing on the flying sword as it thrust its way through the heavens unerringly in the direction of the Mad Monks Sect.

There were dark bags under the disciple's eyes. The dead face of yesterday's enemy had not let him sleep. His body was in perfect condition once again, but his mind was full of doubts.

He knew now some of the cruelty of this world but had undoubtedly just scratched the surface.

Elder Flower was, of course, unaffected.

When they'd left in the morning, Ting had pressed his shoulder reassuringly.

For all intents and purposes, the village had returned to normal, minus a few families that no one seemed to care about too much.

It was like the fight yesterday had never happened and the murder spree had never occurred. A few mortals had died, and a divergent had been killed as practice for a disciple of a lawful sect.

Nothing of value had been lost.

Jin closed his eyes and let the slight amount of wind that got in through the barrier protecting them from falling off, caress his face.

Elder Flower didn't seem intent on speaking, and neither was he on prompting a conversation. His view of his mentor had undergone rapid development in the last 24 hours. He spent the rest of the trip in silence, immersed in his own thoughts and feelings.

He was slowly starting to come to terms with what had happened the day before. It was as if he was traversing distance at the same time as his mind traversed trauma. It had all been quite cosmically meaningless, despite the appalling emotional subjectivity of the matter.

Elder Flower suddenly spoke.

It had been several hours since they'd set off, so Jin had been expecting her words for a while now.

"We're almost there, get yourself together," she ordered.

With those words, the flying sword pointed its tip downwards, and they left the beautiful blue sky behind to descend underneath the rainy grey clouds that were gracing cultivation land on that day.

The heavens weep, does anyone listen? Jin thought philosophically.

They emerged from the clouds like a silver bolt of lightning, and Jin was once again able to enjoy the bird's view of Imperial geography.

There were a few villages scattered about, but they blitzed by too fast for him to make out any details. The rest of the countryside was made up of forests, plains, rivers and mountains.

After a few more minutes, they started slowing down, allowing him to enjoy the view of their destination for longer than just the one second that he otherwise would have gotten.

It was a mountain just like theirs. From underneath the clouds they were only able to see the bottom half of it. But already that was covered up with little traditional wooden huts which turned into more classy Buddhist temples of the Japanese variety as one's eyes travelled upwards.

There seems to be some sort of commotion at the bottom of the sect where one set of stairs from stone led to what must have been the outer ring of the Mad Monks Sect.

There were people there, dozens if not hundreds of them. They weren't doing anything in particular, just hiding from the rain under different trees, cooking what food they had over fire pits and conversing with each other. Probably about the bad weather. Their chatter reached them even in the sky.

Jin was confused because they didn't look like merchants. There weren't any wagons with them. Neither were they cultivators, for which they were dressed too shabbily. There also wasn't a single building in sight, which indicated that this wasn't a permanent village. It didn't look nomadic either, since everyone was dressed too differently to be part of the same tribe.

"What's happening down there?" Jin asked curiously. The first words that he'd voluntarily spoken since the beginning of the trip this morning.

"People waiting for the disciple selection process." Elder Flower said.

Jin nodded in realisation. He'd been discovered by a wandering cultivator affiliated with the sect in his home village and had simply been drafted. That had been that. He never had to go through any sort of exam, nor had he met the man who had brought him to the sect since.

It had been a very random occurrence, and if he were any more self-centred he would have thought that it was fated.

"Nothing to concern ourselves with then," Jin said with a shrug and looked away, returning his gaze to the fast approaching five-floor temple that they seemed to be aiming for. There was a large strip of stone emerging from its first floor which jotted out of the building by several hundreds of feet. It looked to be a landing platform, and there was already a small delegation of undistinguishable orange shapes waiting for them there.

Instead of completing landing manoeuvres, Elder Flower stopped in front of the mountain, and simply waited there.

A few seconds later, what had previously been a translucent, or invisible film became visible as a hole emerged within it. Its edges glittered a pale blue. It looked like paper having a hole burned into it. Just that, after they flew in, the hole closed itself behind them and they slowly and non-threateningly descended towards the landing platform, where Elder Flower and Jin hopped off the sword.

Flower sheathed her weapon and transportation method back where it belonged, onto her belt and the two parties started walking towards each other on the long stone walkway.

The three individuals that the Mad Monks Sect had put forward were all dressed in burnt orange robes and had staves in their hands. The weapons evoked bad memories in Jin, but the tranquil-looking faces and the bald heads make him feel strangely at home.

He'd never been to Japan, or any other Buddhist countries, but seeing something so similar still made him feel strangely at ease.

"Greetings Elder Flower. We welcome you to our sect," The first person in the little greeting committee said. A man of indistinguishable age, with a glittering bald head which would probably have reflected the sun had it been out, and a somewhat muscular appearance. Covered as he was in its entirety by the garb of his organisation, it was hard to tell.

The man bowed his head slightly, as did the people standing behind him. One similarly bald woman and one very old-looking man with a wispy beard going all the way to his waistline.

Elder Flower returned to greeting, and bowed a bit lower, while Jin tried to make his forehead touch the floor behind her. "Greetings Elder Kwang. I'm glad to be welcomed in your beautiful sect once again," Elder Flower said.

This confirmed to Jin that Elder Flower was a common liaison between at least this martial sect. Perhaps they could respect a warrior more, or she had more diplomatic talent than Jin had assumed. Actually, thinking about it, the only other Elder he'd met that would be suited for the role was Elder Qin. But he had the very important role of instructing the outer disciples and likely couldn't travel so freely. Elder Flower had at least been the kindest Elder that he had ever met. Sure, he hasn't met many but it still counted right?

"I would like to greet our guests properly with some tea," Elder Kwang said, seemingly satisfied with the ceremony of greetings being exchanged. "We can discuss your stay while sitting down comfortably, rather than standing around in this frigid wind and rain."

It was still raining on them, but as a cultivator, Jin had learned to blend out these things. His body was too strong to go down to a common cold anyway, so the rain was just a discomfort which was impolite to not be able to ignore. It was one of the few pieces of culture that Jin had managed to understand since his abrupt entrance into this world. Showing an inability to handle basic discomforts such as rain, and hunger was a quick way to get oneself branded as weak of will.

"I agree, a cup of tea would be nice," Elder Flower said and the five people started walking towards the temple to which the landing platform was attached, with its red arching roofs, and its seamless brown wooden construction.

Throughout the entirety of their interaction, only two of the five had actually spoken and it seemed like it would stay that way, as the older man, or at least the older-looking man, and the woman of the Mad Monks Sect remained completely silent. Jin walked all the way to the back and was able to just relax his face a bit from the placid mask that he had put on earlier.

Their walk was sedentary, and slow. Considering how fast cultivators could truly be once they chose to kick their feet, it was odd that they liked to do things as slowly as possible sometimes.

They entered the temple through the front door, and Elder Kwang led them to a room where five cushions were placed around a low wooden table with five cups of steaming tea already waiting for them there. There would be no ceremony, apparently.

The five of them sat down. Jin made sure to sit down slightly behind and to the right of Elder Flower so that he would be on her left from the view of the monks, who were sitting opposite them. This was the lowest station that one could take upon themselves in a seating arrangement, so it was his duty to take it.

On the side of the monks, Elder Kwang said in the middle in the front, the older man sat slightly behind him on the right and the woman sat even further back on the left. These were differences of a few inches, but they determined and communicated a strict hierarchy.

Without talking, the cultivators first enjoyed the tea for a few minutes, or hours. It was hard to keep track of the time with these people. It was good tea at least and it seemed to stay perpetually at the perfect temperature no matter how long they sipped at it.

Eventually, Elder Kwang spoke. "You know Elder Zhao of course," he said to Flower, pointing with his chin in a small gesture at the old man. "He is responsible for the care of our outer disciples. To my left is core disciple Fangqia, she is researching a new spell. Upon completion, she will attain the rank of Elder."

"Junior greets senior," core disciple Fangqia said, bowing her head slightly.

Flower nodded at the introductions and flickered her eyes to her right, where Jin was seated. "This is inner disciple Jin, he is a talented new acquisition of the sect and has developed the gift that I am bringing to thank you for your hospitality." A hand went to her pouch, and she pulled out the illusion Room that he'd given to her for safekeeping. It was easier for her to carry it around with her dimensional pocket, then for him with his perfectly normal pockets.

Elder Kwang tilted his head sideways, as the square artefact hummed with low amounts of qi and lit up in purple and blue.

"Many thanks," he said as the illusion Room slid, without anyone touching it, across the table to land at the man's hands where he curiously grasped it, before putting it back down.

It was now Elder Zhao who looked at the Room in curiosity and spoke for the first time. "May I?" he asked. "I assume this is meant more for our outer disciples. If I understand the restrictions of Illusion Room creation correctly, then they are mostly conceived for those of either the same level of cultivation or lower."

"Elder Zhao remembers perfectly," Flower complimented. "That is indeed the case."

The Elder nodded. He stroked his beard once with his left hand and touched the illusion Room with his right pointer finger, and his gaze went blank.

Jin was surprised to see someone not from the sect interact with the Room so easily, but if the Mad Monks were indeed a sect that they had dealings with often, then it made sense for them to be familiar with their product.

Nobody spoke again for the hour or so it took for Elder Zhao to properly inspect the illusion Room from within. Jin assumed that was because it would be impolite to ask him to leave before his gift had been properly inspected, but that his seniors didn't want to speak about certain topics in front of him.

Flower hadn't really communicated to him that his Room would be a gift, but considering the template was already in his mind he doubted that she wouldn't simply give him another Room he could insert it in when they came back to their mountain.

Thankfully Elder Zhao came out of the Room with a tight smile instead of a frown at which point he addressed Jin with a simple nod of approval.

"We graciously accept the gift in the context in which it was given," the man said in a slightly raspy tone of voice. "It gladdens me to see that your disciples are developing properly."

"Thank you for your kind words," Elder Flower replied while Jin bowed his head in thanks behind her.

Elder Kwang spoke up, getting to the point of the meeting. "Perhaps you would like to show inner disciple Jin more of the sect while we discuss?" Elder Zhao?"

The old Elder thoughtfully stroked his beard and shot Jin a penetrating look.

"Actually," he started. "Perhaps it would be better for inner disciple Jin to stay here. He might have something to contribute to the discussion," he said.

Elder Kwang shot his neighbour a sharp look, and even Fangqin's eyes widened at the suggestion.

Jin, for his part, was mostly confused. He couldn't really imagine any sort of scenario in which his opinion would be considered valuable by the people in the room. Although, Elder Zhao seemed to disagree.

"Inner disciple Jin is certainly innovative. He could certainly provide an interesting insight into most matters. And if he is to be wrong, we can simply disregard his opinion without much worry," Elder Flower piped up.

Jin inwardly rolled his eyes at the wording, outwardly, he simply nodded his head. "This inner disciple is flattered by the Elder's words," he said. Leaving out which Elder he actually meant.

Elder Kwang seemed to have gathered his wits about him during the exchange and seemed to hedgingly agree, considering his lack of insistence that Jin be sent away for the sensitive conversation to come.

"I will trust my colleagues' judgement in this case and examine the Illusion Room you have gifted us with great interest later on," the man said thoughtfully. "Now on to other matters, the relevant ones." He paused for a few seconds as if trying to find the right words.

"We are finding ourselves, as a sect, at a precipice. As you know, Elder Flower, our techniques require a great amount of mental fortitude. That is why we are much more ascetic than other sects and why we focus so much of our time on non-cultivation-based meditation. The issue that we are experiencing in recent times is that we are finding it difficult to find outer disciples who have the necessary prerequisites to mentally withstand the harsh requirements," he eventually said.

Elder Flower nodded, as if she understood perfectly, while Jin remained mostly in the dark about what had actually been said. Apparently, the Mad Monks Sect was based on a cultivation method which required a strong mental fortitude? And they hadn't been successful in finding disciples who had that mental fortitude?

"I see," Elder Flower replied. "I understand the need for a fighting method of unleashed emotions to require a calm counterpart in daily life, but I do not think the Illusion Room Sect is qualified to help train people's minds."

Elder Kwang shook his head. "No, there is indeed nothing that you can do to help train the necessary mental fortitude."

"We were recently discussing how we can tackle the problem," Elder Zhao said. "We concluded that there is simply an original element which must be present in a cultivator to properly learn our meditation skills as well as to not be prone to losing one's self. Rather than seeking assistance in the training of mental fortitude, we have considered a variety of ways through which we could better screen the initiates we let become outer disciples. The amount of divergence has been too high because the potential of the initiates has been too low. We need a better way of finding disciples who can contain the beast."

Jin wondered if Elder Flower was going to reveal to them that they had met a disciple unable to contain the beast on the way here. He naturally wasn't going to bring it up, of course.

"I see, that is indeed difficult, as most tests can only show at what rate a potential disciple might gather qi, or how strong your body is. Determining mental fortitude has always been one of the hardest tasks for the examiners," Elder Flower mused. Jin thought on the sidelines that the dilemma was very similar to the athlete selection process in his last world. It was hard to measure intangibles such as mental ability and performance under stress. That was why the NFL apparatus found it much easier to predict the career success of a defensive lineman who relied on their body rather than a quarterback who relied also more on their mind. Flower continued. "We are not immune to it, and it is rather our exam between outer and inner disciple which filters out those who are unsuited for our path," she said. An admittance of weakness should face an admittance of weakness, to retain a common ground. Face saving, essentially.

"In the past, we have relied on common tests by making the initiates climb the thousand steps, or having them meditate for differing amounts of time to test patience," Elder Zhao said. "However, these methods have shown themselves to be fallible, and we have considered if there would be more illusionary possibilities to discovering the mental attributes of our potential disciples."

"The first problem I see," Elder Flower said, "is the fact that we have yet to discover a way through which someone's time in an Illusion Room can be spectated by another. It would be rather difficult to see how the initiate handled their scenario."

"A code perhaps," Jin suddenly piped up. "Upon finishing the scenario they receive a code which they must tell the examiner. Without the code, they cannot pass."

"That's a good point," Elder Flower admitted. "However, what kind of scenario would let potential disciples prove their mental fortitude? Scenarios are made for training already present martial abilities."

It was an interesting question. Unlike the games in his past world, the scenarios of Cultivation Land were much more fixed in their purpose. They were not there for entertainment, but for one specific reason and thus any divergence from this reason was considered to be a breach of the philosophy behind the whole thing.

But if Jin thought about it, wasn't there one specific game genre that was perfectly suited for testing out a disciple's mental fortitude? Especially when one had access to what was essentially perfect 3D technology?

Elder Flower crossed her arms. "The scenario would have to consist of something which would require mental fortitude rather than martial skills. But, most scenarios can be solved more easily with martial skills rather than without. This would skew the results of the test towards those mortals with combat experience."

"This is an issue indeed, someone more suited for combat will find themselves requiring less mental fortitude to pass a test than someone who has never fought. But, while combat skills can be learned, a mental inability to retain a stable mind frame is something that has to be somewhat present from the start." Elder Kwang said. "And this is where our dilemma starts. We can hardly develop a real-life scenario which would be threatening enough to test for mental fortitude, and thus we consider one of our possibilities to be illusions. We simply wanted to consult with an expert to see what would be possible."

Elder Flower turned to Jin. "What do you think? One of your biggest strengths is innovativity."

Jin hummed thoughtfully. It wasn't particularly difficult to come up with a scenario that would test someone's mental fortitude. But explaining it wasn't that easy especially when faced with a bunch of people who outranked him.

"One way that I see with which we could eliminate the advantage that people with martial abilities possess, is simply by removing their ability to fight back against whatever threat we introduce. That way, everyone is equal," he said. "Remove the option to bring a weapon, and remove the option for obstacles to be destroyed by violence."

"And the scenario itself, what would it consist of?" Elder flower asked.

"We all know that mental fortitude can only be measured by coming up against adversity. The best test of mental fortitude would likely be to elicit as many negative emotions as possible and see how the initiates fare. Since most fears are very individual, we need to base the scenario on something universally horrifying, which can be surmounted by the ability to act under pressure. Universal fears such as that of the inhuman, of being chased, of dark places and of horrible consequences for failure. Those who break are weak. Those who do not break are at least strong enough to realise the fact that they are in an illusion and that rationally, they should fear nothing. In essence, I am speaking of a scenario directed solely at making the user go through the worst experience of their life. Nothing more and nothing less. The best test of mental fortitude is to send the subject straight to hell."

Chapter 11: The Road to Hell...

Later in the day, after Jin had finally been kicked out of the meeting he wasn't qualified to attend, he was laying on the futon that he'd been given, in the room that he would inhabit, thinking about the task that he'd been tasked with.

He knew exactly what type of game he needed to make to fulfil the requirements that the sect they were visiting had.

A horror game, a game designed to make people as scared as fucking possible. If you could handle a complete and perfectly immersive illusion of being a horror game protagonist, then you probably had your shit together right?

Well, no, not really, it could also just mean you were mentally deranged.

The idea of using such a process as a selection tool for disciples was perhaps a bit weird to consider from the standpoint of the sensibilities of his life on earth.

After all, if anyone had asked him in his last life what kind of process the Mad Monks Sect would need to pick the mentally stable disciples they needed, he would have told them hire a bunch of psychologists. But obviously, even if psychologists existed here, a martial sect was one of the factions least likely to use them. In a mediaeval society where people were already incredibly emotionally repressed, cultivators went, as always, beyond the norm. They mostly talked about transactions and cultivation and killing demons and heavenly beasts or something, trying to get them to open up about feelings and thus respect the profession of which the goal was to make that happen, was likely more difficult than ascending to immortality.

A horror game was a nice compromise and quite frankly exactly what the people there had wanted to hear. Cultivation was often about surpassing the frailty of one's form and psyche. So even if Jin would admit that there were likely better methods, currently as someone who made Illusion Rooms, and someone of relatively low standing, creating a horror scenario was the best one he had available to him.

It was simply the solution the mad monks would most likely understand

The only question that remained was which horror game he should use as a template for the scenario?

He had been tasked with making the scenario because Elder Flower was more of a consultant than a designer and she trusted his artistic vision somewhat, as odd as that sounded considering she'd only ever played one of his scenarios. Unbeknownst to him, however, ascending into the role of an inner disciple meant that he had become a potentially valuable skilled professional in his field. Sure, he was a little inexperienced but everyone was at the start. The Mad Monk Sect was a relatively small client which didn't merit sending Elder Flower back to get a core disciple or an elder either. A perfect storm.

In terms of how Jin understood it, he was that one intern who had given an idea at a meeting and had thus been tasked with fulfilling the idea. If he succeeded he would jump beyond his current status because the task he had succeeded in was much higher profile than his position, but if he failed he would suffer smaller consequences as no one had really expected him to succeed anyway.

Cultivators counted time differently than mortals, if Jin's approach failed the Mad Monks Sect could simply try something else. Maybe they would start getting stressed once their plans continued failing for a thousand years. They certainly wouldn't give up on everything and lose their minds only because their first had fallen through. Or even their second, or their third, or the fourth.

Perhaps it was even good that it was the mad monks commissioning this, considering all their higher-ranked members were a bit more mentally stable than the average cultivator from what Jin understood.

The meeting had actually been nice considering the strict power dynamics and hierarchy present imbibed into Cultivation Land culture. He even really wanted to do his best, since he'd gotten a good impression of their allies.

The issue was, he noted, as he went through his mental catalogue of horror games. Was that all the horror games that he'd played had been set in modern times. He would have to revise a lot. Remove guns and put in bows, stuff like that. Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Alien: Isolation, took place on either modern or futuristic Earth.

Dragonslayer Ornstein had worked because the Dark Souls setting didn't have anything that people here didn't understand. But he couldn't really input Dark Souls because firstly, Dark Souls would only have someone's perseverance, not really their mental status. Secondly, he had specifically wanted to create a scenario where the user was not tested on their combat potential, because, once again, firstly, this wasn't the point of the test and secondly, his skill at making viable combat characters was not that good yet. This was why he was here, after all, to improve Dragonslayer Ornstein.

In that sense, he would just have to suck it up. He would have to take a horror game with a modern setting and he would have to medievalize it. The opposite of digitization. Putting things back into the Dark Age, so to say.

Ideas swirled in his mind as he got ready for bed, before this he'd just been laying down fully dressed. He took off his robes, washed his face in the provided water bowl and finally laid down once again, this time with the intent of properly falling asleep.

Tomorrow he would get a guided tour of the sect, he needed to stay fresh and make a good impression.

He didn't have to have an answer on how exactly the scenario would look like yet, and wouldn't have it tomorrow either. He didn't even know which exact game he would use as a template. It was good that he had started the thinking process though. He'd always worked well under a certain cycle. He would start thinking about a problem and then sleep.

During sleep his unconscious mind reordered his ideas and when he woke up, it was usually with more clarity that he'd gone to bed with.

At the moment there were just too many horror game titles swirling around in his head. Decisions were hard to make. Should he try to make Silent Hill 2 but as a non-combat-focused game, or should he do something else that had more elements of a modern setting and thus give himself more work. Which would be more difficult?

These were all things that this subconsciousness would likely process throughout the night. Tomorrow he would start working on it again actively. Write down some ideas, talk with some people and perhaps start creating different illusion frames in his mind to check them out, see how they really felt.

But in a way it had really been an exhausting two days. Yesterday he'd been running around in the forest forced to fight for his life against one of the escaped divergent disciples of the very sect he was now sleeping at, and today he had actually ended up involved against his expectations in a very high stakes meeting between very very powerful people.

He was tired

He deserved a good rest.

He closed his eyes and the night took him before he could even notice that he was falling into it.

-/-

The next morning Jin woke up not feeling particularly amazing. He didn't know what sort of dreams he'd had, but he decided upon waking up that whatever they were they had made him extremely nervous and stressed. In fact, he was finding the simple act of waking up and getting out of bed to be more relaxing than the sleep had been.

Quite obviously it had not been a particularly good idea to go to bed with thoughts of different horror games swirling through his mind, especially considering that he had a photographic memory and could remember those in great, great, excruciating detail.

He shook his head like a dog trying to get rid of water clinging to his fur and exited his room by sliding open the door out of rice paper that blocked it off from the corridor.

There was already someone there waiting for him so he didn't have to go through the confusion of finding the dining room. The servant, or disciple, or whatever led him to a large hall in which one of the walls was made out of glass and allowed the habitants to look out at the view offered by being on a mountain.

Jin couldn't help but wonder if the room was repurposed in times of conflict to be the war room out of which the decision-makers could see approaching enemies and plan accordingly.

Elder Flower was already present at a large round table with the same characters from yesterday, minus the female core disciple.

As the three Elders nodded at Jin's approach, the newly promoted disciple bowed deeply before kneeling down on one of the cushions.

After being bid to eat by the monks, he put some porridge into his wooden bowl and accompanied the brown sludge with some fruits and nuts.

It seemed that the monks here followed similar dietary restrictions as the monks Jin had known of in his last life. There was no meat or fish on the table, and the most protein-heavy thing that he saw was tofu and egg.

"This evening you will present to me a clearer idea for the scenario you were describing yesterday," Elder Flower told him from his right as he was almost finished eating. She had clearly already concluded that act a long time ago and was now only sipping tea and looking introspectively into the distance.

Jin nodded in silent acquiescence at her order as his mind started churning.

"One of ours will give you a tour of the outer and middle ring, inner disciple Jin," Elder Zhao piped up. "But you best hurry, the most interesting activities happen in the morning. At noon everyone goes into secluded meditation and the only thing to admire is the tranquillity of nature."

Respecting the Elder's words Jin quickly shoved the rest of the food into his mouth and stood up. If he had been told to jump he would have simply asked how high. This was his current state of mind and actual status

Exiting the dining room Jin was met by what must have been his designated guide.

Clean-shaven and androgynous in all features, presumably at the rank of inner disciple, Shen was an individual of few words. All they had to say to him was to follow, and to observe,

Apparently, all that was truth could be glimpsed directly from the context, and one's own interpretation will always be more truthful than a truth spoken by others. That was the motto of the tour.

Jin was actually grateful for that, after having been inflicted a similar tour back at the Illusion Room Sect upon his promotion by the very talkative Francis. There was just something nice about being led around by someone who didn't try to talk and who simply decided their direction with their sandal-clad feet.

Whoever said that words were silver? Silence was obviously gold.

Taking large strides to keep up with his quick-footed guide, Jin started properly observing the Mad Monks Sect.

The architectural style of the building that he'd first seen retained a sense of continuity through other examples. Most of the buildings were built similarly to those of the Buddhist tradition in East Asia in his previous life. He didn't know that much about it to be honest but he could recognize some of the symbols and some of the colours. To him, it looked more Japanese than Korean but that was the point where he was likely not qualified enough to speak of it anymore.

This brought up the interesting question if perhaps another person from Earth had transmigrated here and had founded this sect. Perhaps a Buddhist monk of some sort. Weren't they always going on about reincarnation?

Or in a more funny thought experiment it had happened the other way around, perhaps a member of the Mad Monks Sect had ascended to immortality and had been transported to Earth where he had founded the Buddhist religion.

There truly was no way to know, he decided with a shake of his head as his guide started descending a long series of stone steps which took them through several wooden temple gates. Shouts full of effort were heard in the distance as Jin got an idea.

There was actually a way to know, perhaps.

"Do you happen to know where the architectural style of your sect comes from? I haven't seen buildings like this before?" Jin asked.

Inner disciple Shen nodded seriously at the question and put his hands together in a praying pose as he closed his eyes. He continued walking despite this, apparently knowing the path by heart. "Things emerge as they must always have been to be what they were meant to be, to question the emergence of beauty is to diminish its value." Was the response that Jin got.

The young man from the Illusion Room Sect nodded very slowly and filed that information away for whenever he needed it next.

The energetic shouts were getting closer as he tried to untangle what had been told to him before he decided that he'd essentially been told to stop asking questions.

The reluctance to answer made a certain amount of sense considering that he was just an outsider, but he truly did wonder if he shouldn't know a bit more about the sect that he was being tasked with creating a scenario for.

The shouting got louder and slowly, but surely, as they descended the steps which seemed as endless as Shen's wisdom, they came into view of a humongous stone platform covered entirely by burnt orange dots and shining bald heads.

"The outer ring, they are training harder today in hopes of being accepted for the tournament," inner disciple Shen was kind enough to explain.

"There is no ring that is out and no ring that is in when all exists in a balance preordained by the heavens," Jin answered as he beheld the scene of the outer disciples practising their staff work.

All in perfect synchronicity it was as if he was watching a movie. A dance, or a performance.

"Inner disciple Jin is wise in the ways of the world," the guide said softly. "What is outer, other than something that has to become inner and what is inner than something that has been out in the past. The core of the issue is that if one wishes to ascend further beyond, one is required to have done so in the past already."

Jin nodded wearily as they continued approaching the stone platform. As he got closer he was able to distinguish some of the moves that the outer disciples were learning and distinguish between which ones were following the kata well and which ones were failing to live up to expectations.

They were a ragtag bunch and he imagined that it was after they became inner disciples that the fighting skills and ability became more uniform and fluid.

There was an older woman at the front who was performing the katas and leading the flow of the practice.

He wondered if he was being let here because he too would gain training in the way of the staff. However, just as they got close enough to the tumultuous morning exercise to make out the words that were being shouted by the disciples upon every move, inner disciple Shen struck a rather sudden right to walk through a bamboo forest that had been accompanying them on both sides of the descent.

Not having had particularly good experiences with bamboo forests, Jin hesitated for a second before sighing and following his guide.

It seemed like he would be shown the entirety of the outer ring, not just the place where the combat practice occurred. He wasn't complaining. He was curious in a way, after all, it must have been rather rare to get such access to another sect's inner sanctum. Although the outer ring certainly wasn't an inner sanctum of any sort, which was likely why it was being shown.

It had outer in the name.

They traversed the bamboo forest through an already beaten path hardly large enough to fit two people next to each other. There were many little statues of praying monks and of frolicking animals in the forest and it was actually a bit like walking into a museum.

They emerged on the other side after a dozen minutes or so to behold a small disciple village.

It was very different from the Illusion Room Sect, where the outer disciples were kept apart so they could focus on the projects and the requirements they had to fulfil to get promoted.

Here it seemed like there was more of a culture of togetherness, little huts with straw roofs and vegetable gardens clustered together and groups of perhaps 50, before a longer distance was put until it came to another village. Through all of this, an intentionally shoddily cobblestone path ran like a winding snake.

Jin was surprised that all the disciples that he had seen back there on the platform fit in this row of villages he saw before him, but he imagined that this wasn't everything. It must have been rather unfortunate to be a disciple who lived on the wrong side of the mountain. Didn't that mean they would have to walk the furthest to get the combat practice and back?

Maybe it was a matter of seniority, when one joined one was on the wrong side of the mountain and as other people graduated or dropped out, one got closer and closer.

There was a system, for sure. There just wasn't really a point in asking about it considering inner disciple Shen's preferred way of speaking.

"It's quaint," Jin commented as they moved through the village, "but I imagine it's completely empty because everyone is at morning practice right now."

"The disciples will come back after the practice to meditate and to cultivate in silence," Shen said, for once not putting on airs. "It will not become any more lively if that is what you are asking. Their life and our life is a life of silence and contemplation. Anything else threatens destabilisation and ruin."

Jin was impressed by the amount of sensible words the guide had expressed and was just about to comment on it when he looked over to see that Shen's face was cast in a rigid mask of stone. He looked incredibly concentrated as if he was trying to hold back some sort of emotion.

Jin refrained from opening his mouth and let the inner disciple continue leading him. He didn't know where they were going, but they simply passed the time by strolling along the cobblestone path, past clean little settlements which together built a string of anal beads around the mountain.

The walk must have surely taken them an hour or two and it was only after they reached what must have been the complete other side that they stopped once again. They had left the grass and the trees behind, reaching an area which was more stony than anything else.

Jin wasn't able to determine if it was by design or not. A building emerged and for once it did not at all resemble Buddhist architecture at all. Rather it reminded him of those European castles hewn into the sides of the mountain. Simplistic, blocky and not at all gothic, this fortress built into the side of the mountain which was steeper than he had previously seen, resembled more a defensible structure than a place of prayer.

Had it been ornamented then it would have certainly counted as gothic and merited a few bats flying out of the windows when it came into view. But, as it was, it simply looked like a blank stretch of walls forming and fusing together to create a structure that looked barely semi-inhabitable.

Jin and Shen were looking at the place from a slightly elevated position as the pleasant path through the meadows and the occasional bamboo forest turned into a steep mountain trail which even the bravest goat would have hesitated in trying to conquer.

Shen, however, unlike a goat, had no fear and his sandaled feet carried him onto the trail after a minute or so of contemplatively looking at the grey structure. Jin naturally followed doing his best to not fall and gripping at the jutting rocks and weeds emerging from the walls as he crawled forward.

Shen had been more forthcoming in his last few pieces of dialogue so Jin decided to ask a question. "So where exactly are we going? This place looks very different from the rest of the sect."

Instead of giving a lucid, or weird answer, Shen remained silent and they traversed the rocky outcropping without further words. They occasionally kicked free a pebble which loudly rolled downhill to create the only sound accompanying them.

"Is it the fault of those who failed for their failure or was their failure always meant to be? Do the responsible take care of the forgotten or should all traces of ignorance be erased from human history?" inner disciple Shen decided to say at some point, not turning his head to do so.

Jin remained silent as they continued approaching the fortress, trying to decipher the words. Was he going to be shown the failure of the sect? he wondered. That didn't necessarily sound like something one showed outsiders.

They eventually reached a small stone bridge which connected their path to the entry gate to the fortress. It wasn't barred as one would have expected from the implication.

Another disciple was standing at the entrance looking at them as they approached, crossing the stone bridge which was only as wide as one man, but not making any move to approach or to speak.

Eventually, Shen and Jin, who felt stifled by the atmosphere came to stand in front of the waiting robed monk. They were all so different, but so similar. This one was also bald, but older. Of course in Cultivation Land that didn't really mean anything. A young outer disciple looked older than an old inner disciple due to their different cultivation levels.

"They are rather agitated today, I would not recommend a visit," the man who had waited for them told Shen, ignoring Jin's presence completely.

The Illusion Room cultivator tried to glimpse behind the man but all he saw was a long corridor leading into a courtyard with what appeared to be a small patch of grass and some trees. There were a lot of doors. Locked doors. Doors with bars of iron and magical seals on them.

"I introduce inner disciple Jin from the Illusion Room Sect," Shen said. "He is here to attempt a solution to our disciple selection process. Perhaps he should see what he is fighting against," Shen said bluntly.

The older monk looked Jin up and down critically but didn't respond. He nodded, just as a howl pierced the stifled atmosphere.

Not an animal one but the voice of a human clearly exerting their mental anguish into physical reality with their vocal cords. This was the hoarse voice of someone who had been screaming for too long, for too hard, without any respite.

Jin suddenly realised where he was and with this realisation came another. The scenario he created would be best confined to as little space as possible. He was still at the beginning of his cultivation and didn't have as much memory space available for scenarios. Even if he was designing for mortals this time, and could make everything lower definition, a smaller space would allow him to maximise realism.

Small space and the fact that he was in the cultivation land equivalent of an asylum for the mentally deranged?

There could only be one game for him to use as a template. If his efforts could prevent this from happening in the future he would have to bring out his most horrific memories.

And those most certainly belong to the game…

Outlast