Chapter 35 The Sect Janitor Enters: Part Three
The more that the sect janitor couldn't act, the more anxious he felt, to the point that he thought he might actually end up developing a heart demon thinking about Tang Ze's heart demon!
Who knew when that heart demon might erupt? Who knows how powerful it would be if it were to take physical form?
Yet, again, the sect janitor had no direct method to use against the heart demon.
A lack of information was what really hamstrung the sect janitor in his efforts though. How was he going to figure out what was going on with Tang Ze? It was doubtful that he would tell the sect janitor if he simply walked up to him and asked - that might even end up causing him more pain and triggering the heart demon to action.
His information-gathering network had failed him in digging up anything useful regarding Tang Ze.
Unless...
A flash of inspiration came to him.
One day, Zhang Long was sitting in a courtyard, while the sect janitor thought it was a good time to start tidying up the benches.
"Ah, I'll get up," Zhang Long said, noticing the sect janitor. He was a person who knew of the sect janitor's strength, and did not want to get in his way, not knowing that there was no actual cleaning going on, and that it was to speak to him that the sect janitor had even bothered to come there.
"Ah, no, relax," the sect janitor said. As it was, he had a high evaluation of Zhang Long from all that he had seen of him - and knowing that Zhang Long was Tang Ze's squad leader, it gave him a new possible route of inquiry. It wasn't just the sect janitor who thought highly of Zhang Long though - nearly everyone had a good opinion of him. Much like Guo Jia had been, he was also thought of as one of this division's rising stars. Even the sect janitor was a bit surprised to notice that Zhang Long's cultivation had risen by a minor realm since the last time he had seen him - not knowing of Zhang Long's breakthrough.
The sect janitor began dusting off the statues next. "You know - when you start dusting things off, people often wonder- where does the dust go? After all, dust off the statues, and it goes onto the plants, or the floor, no? But don't dust them off, and it will start building up in some places." He went to a corner which was usually neglected due to how hard it was to reach. "And grime accumulates in these corners the longer you leave it."
The sect janitor had been saying these words with a deeper intention behind them, but it seemed that they were lost on Zhang Long.
Ah well, he had somewhat expected this.
"What had gotten Junior Brother's mood so low today?" the sect janitor then asked, choosing a more direct route. He couldn't with a complete stranger, but Zhang Long was at least somewhat aware of him and his status. Also, it looked like Zhang Long's worries were rather superficial, unlike whatever it was that plagued Tang Ze's mind - as such, it would be much easier for Zhang Long to say what was on his mind.
"Ah, it's nothing," Zhang Long said dismissively.
This was the most common comment that the sect janitor heard when asking people what was bothering them, so he had naturally developed his own ways to counteract such things.
"Even if it is small, going to sleep with a mosquito in your room will keep you awake at night, won't it?" the sect janitor asked.
"Right well..." Zhang Long said, wringing his hands somewhat. It looked like there was something on his mind he wanted to unload, but he wasn't sure how to express. "I'm a bit concerned about one of my squad members."
The sect janitor guessed that most likely, Zhang Long was talking about Tang Ze.
After all, with the size of his heart demon, it was only to be expected that other people could tell that there was something going wrong with him as well.
They may not have been able to see the heart demon like the sect janitor could, but they could 'see' the inner turmoil within the heart of that person.
No matter how much someone tried to hide it, their inner problems would manifest themselves in either their expressions or actions. With a heart demon of that size, it was no surprise that the feelings that had caused it to develop could not be hidden.
Still, some people were just too good at hiding their worries. His friend from so long ago who had succumbed to his heart demon's attack always had one of the brightest smiles on his face whenever the sect janitor had seen him - who could've thought that he was battling with such demons inside of himself?
As it was said - the brightest smiles often hid the darkest of shadows. One could not just judge people from how they appeared - he had learned that in his decades of helping others battle their heart demons.
"So, what could be bothering this person?" the sect janitor asked.
He wanted to know the name of this person so he could be sure, but realized that he couldn't ask for such a thing directly. Instead, he directed his line of questioning elsewhere.
"It has to do with our newest member," Zhang Long said. "His name is Tang Ze." The sect janitor smiled internally, so it looked like Zhang Long had offered this information openly. Good! There was no need to beat around the bush for the same.
"And what's going on with him?"
"Well, he's stuck at the Zeroth Realm of cultivation," Zhang Long said. "And it's been a while, but he hasn't even been able to move up to the initial minor realm of Qi Condensation yet - and there's not much I can do to help him. He can't take pills because he hasn't cleared his meridians yet, and there's really not much else any of us can do to help him."
The sect janitor had noticed that he couldn't feel any Qi around Tang Ze - but he hadn't thought that was the reason. He instead thought it might've been some kind of technique. "If that is the case, how did he join our sect in the first place?" They would usually not take people who were not at least in the second initial realm of Qi Condensation unless their parents were also members.
So he couldn't understand why they would make an Initiate of someone who had not even taken the first steps when it came to cultivating and was also an outsider.
Zhang Long then described Tang Ze's strengthening method to the sect janitor.
"Tang Ze might be strong," Zhang Long continued, "but, he still seems weighed down by the fact that he can't even start cultivating like a normal person properly."
The sect janitor chuckled. "Have you ever heard the story of Lady Ling Shui, Zhang Long?"
Zhang Long frowned. The name was somewhat familiar - though given how long the Raswatian's Empire history went, and how big it was - there were so many names and people to learn about that it was hard for someone his age to cram them all inside of his head. "Did... she defeat a large army at one point?"
The sect janitor nodded. "But that's not what she was most famous for. You see, she was the daughter of a very influential cultivator, though she displayed very little talent for the same. After spending nearly twenty years trying to teach her, her family had basically given up on ever trying to get her to advance as a cultivator and eventually resigned her off as someone to be married off for political gain. However, she had a peculiar fondness for painting. That was part of why she couldn't truly advance in her cultivation. She would spend hours practicing brush strokes instead of cultivating, and she continued to do so even after her family had nearly given up on her."
"One day, while she was finishing one of her paintings, she was struck with profound insight into the mechanisms of the world through her art, and in a single leap, jumped from the Qi Condensation realm to the Nascent Soul realm," the sect janitor continued. "Her paintings were how she grew closer to the Dao, and after she achieved that level of enlightenment, she once defeated an army by painting a landscape into which the enemy soldiers were led into - before then wiping them out by erasing them with a few strokes of her brush. That was a special technique she had developed entirely from her understanding of painting, something that no one else since has been able to replicate."
"Ah, yes, I remember that last part now," Zhang Long said, having heard that story. "So, you're trying to say that you think that Tang Ze might also have that kind of talent?"
"Such things are rare, occurring maybe once every thousand years or so - but remember, everyone is different. Not even twins are the same when it comes to comprehending the Dao, and so, while most people cultivate in the same way, some cultivate entirely differently. Who knows - perhaps Tang Ze is one of those people and this work he does in making costumes is just his expression of his understanding," the sect janitor said.
"So you think he might actually be building up to something like a breakthrough?" Zhang Long asked.
"Who knows? He might end up working for ten or twenty years, and then suddenly leap to the Golden Core realm in a single step," the sect janitor said. Such cases, again, were extraordinarily rare - but there were such people who had immense talent and genius in things like artwork and poetry, and would one day suddenly make huge leaps in their cultivation.
Zhang Long's face fell a bit though. "Ten or twenty years... that's such a long time."
"If one wants to cultivate, one has to be willing to wait for so long," the sect janitor said. "And in cultivation terms, ten or twenty terms is not long at all." Cultivators could be stuck at a minor realm for centuries when it came to the higher major realms. He himself had been at the fourth minor realm of Golden Core for a good three decades now.
"Right," Zhang Long said, cheering up slightly.
However, the sect janitor did not feel like his work was done yet.
This could at most, only partially explain what was going on with Tang Ze. He could understand how such a problem might trouble a young man, but it couldn't possibly be the root cause of such a powerful and vicious heart demon. It looked like it might even rival the heart demon that had consumed one of his friends so many years ago!
Likely, there was a deeper problem afoot. One that Zhang Long had not realized as of yet.
Given the lack of information that the sect janitor could find on Tang Ze, he had a good hunch it involved them somehow. But, he had no real way of getting to the bottom of things.
He made a mental note to follow Tang Ze closely for now, and hoped that what little he had done right now would at least help Tang Ze somewhat.
Chapter 36 The Komainu: Part One
The squad of four got several missions after they had returned, though these were usually simple tasks.
Tang Ze continued to try to meditate every single day - but it looked like frustratingly, he was still nowhere closer to breaking through to the first minor realm of Qi Condensation. His dantian was still barely developed, forget about the initial priming of his meridians that had to happen after that in order to advance!
Babies would usually remain in this state for several years, and as an outsider to this world, he had not been given that opportunity at birth.
Still, it shouldn't have taken him years to reach that level. There was a difference in a baby and an adult of course - he should naturally be able to reach that point of maturity much faster. Nearly everyone he asked about this told him the same.
However, even as he was told this, he couldn't but help feel that he was getting nowhere. What if this was like learning a new language - and it was much easier to do when you were younger? What if instead of getting to the initial realm faster than a child, he ended up taking longer - and was stuck like this for twenty or thirty years while everyone else moved way ahead of him?
Everyone told him that it wouldn't be like that, and that he was worrying needlessly. But, still seeds of doubt remained in his mind.
After all, he was the first such person they had seen. So how could they be sure about what was going to happen?
Even worse, what if he just couldn't reach that first minor realm at all? He was transported to this world from Earth, which meant that it was likely his body was still the same as that back on Earth. He looked the exact same before he had died, after all.
What if there was some biological difference between him and the humans of this world? What if that meant that he just couldn't cultivate? It had been a miracle that he hadn't fallen prey to some disease in this world that the natives were immune to, all things considered.
These seeds of doubt soon sprouted into a garden of weeds in his mind.
He kept working on the one thing he was somewhat good at which was making costumes - and by now had absorbed enough passive strength from a very strong character he knew, such that his physical abilities were now nearly on par with a Golden Core cultivator, even if he wasn't wearing a costume.
That was just how strong this character was in question - someone who was said to have the strength to break planets with ease, meaning even a fraction of a percent was still a huge boost to his strength. It would take him thirteen hundred years to fully absorb all the power from that character, but even fractions of fractions of a percent were of enormous help to him in the strength department.
If Tang Ru had tried to fight him now, there was no way that he would lose to her! Fighting someone like Elder He Xuan was another story altogether, though.
He also had several costumes made which didn't have very helpful abilities ordinarily, but which he kept in case they might be useful in a certain specific situation.
Unfortunately, he couldn't swap clothes in the middle of a fight - and usually there wouldn't be an opportunity to find a place to change in the middle of one either.
That got him thinking of other abilities that he would like to have. The issue was that they were not the good when it came to just having fractions of them, and so the best results would be if he could advance his cultivation so that he could have some form of resistance against most attacks that didn't involve physical strength.
He also couldn't really think of a costume to counter every single strange technique some Golden Core and nearly all Nascent Soul cultivators had, but by advancing in cultivation, such attacks would be less likely to affect him.
"Ah, looks like our luck has run out a bit," Zhang Long said one day, seeing what their next assignment was.
"Is it a tough one?"
"Not really that tough - but something that's going to be pretty annoying to deal with," Zhang Long said, sighing. "And more sad than even annoying honestly. Oh - but you just joined recently, didn't you Tang Ze? So you wouldn't know about this, but this job is to help take care of the sect's celestial beast for a day."
"Really?" Tang Ze said, a bit excited to see a phoenix in person. He had wanted to do so ever since he had joined.
And it turned out that he would keep wanting to see one even after the task was done, because this was certainly no phoenix.
"Zhang Long?" Tang Ze asked.
"Yes?"
"Why is our celestial beast a giant dog?" Tang Ze asked. It wasn't technically just a giant dog, it was a Komainu, a creature whose statues would usually serve as guardians to either temples or shrines back on Earth, and was actually a hybrid between a lion and a dog rather than just a dog. It was the size of a large truck, and had sharp fangs that protruded from its mouth. It was a living creature and not made of stone like the statues back on Earth - its fur was a striking bright blue color that stood out in the sunlight.
The others could sense a good amount of Qi from it, though Tang Ze couldn't.
"What else did you expect?" Zhang Long asked.
"I don't know - maybe a phoenix?!" Tang Ze snorted.
"Ha, phoenixes are way too powerful to be made pets of like this," Chen Yu said, as if this should have been obvious.
"So, why are we called the Rising Phoenix Sect again?" Tang Ze asked, feeling that someone had told him this at one point, but he couldn't remember what the answer was.
"The sect's founder was lost in a mountain range for days when he was a young child, and was starving and could not find his way out," Yin Tiang began. "Though, as he lost hope one night, a blazing inferno suddenly shot out of the earth, and he was able to follow its trail to a nearby village. Since then, he revered phoenixes, and hence our name."
Taking care of the celestial beast mainly involved scrubbing it clean - thankfully it was more cooperative than a regular dog in that regard. Feeding it wasn't too hard either, but Tang Ze couldn't tell what the 'sad' part was.
"Ah, there's something wrong with it," Zhang Long said when Tang Ze asked. "A lot of healers came to take a look at it, but they couldn't find anything wrong with him he just... isn't as he should be."
Tang Ze thought he could see a glimmer of sadness in the Komainu's eyes, though that could have very well just been his own sadness being reflected back at him. That was what he had thought initially, but no, for whatever reason, it was no long as active as it had once been.
Taking care of it was not really that hard, Zhang Long was right about that - but there was still something... off about it. It was not behaving like an animal should, and despite the effort of many people including the top veterinarians in the Raswatian Empire, no one could find anything wrong with it.
"Time to take it on a walk then," Yin Tiang said.
It bounded up happily at this, suddenly perking up, and Tang Ze launched forward.
With his new physical prowess, he could easily outstrip the other three. He hadn't actually been meaning too, but when the Komainu came bounding right behind him, tail wagging, he couldn't help trying to go even faster. He was egged on by the Komainu's joyful expression as it panted behind his heals.
This Komainu was said to have the powers almost equivalent to a Golden Core cultivator - though older members of its species could even reach strength that rivaled the initial minor realms of the Eternal Soul realm.
As such, it had no trouble keeping up with Tang Ze. And Tang Ze, for that matter, didn't mind running around at full speed. After all, most of the time, he had to restrain his physical capabilities, didn't he?
But now, out in the open field, he could run and jump as much as he wanted. He could clear most houses back home with a single leap, and could easily outpace a car.
In such a situation, who wouldn't want to go all out once in a while to relieve some stress?
Granted, he wanted to be sure that he wasn't tiring out the Komainu, but that didn't seem to happen.
He leapt over fields, charging towards the sky, and left large clouds of dust wherever he went.
"Hey! Tang Ze, wait up!" Zhang Long called out after him.
"Didn't you remember that we can't keep up with you?" Yin Tiang called out.
"Come back!" Chen Yu shouted out.
However, Tang Ze couldn't hear them anymore, and there was nothing the three of them could do other than watch and hope that Tang Ze didn't drift too far.
Tang Ze, for his part, was having the time of his life!
To finally be able to move unrestrained like this - to feel the wind whipping through his hair as he moved at speeds he couldn't have fathomed before back on Earth, all the while the Komainu kept following him, keeping pace with him, tail wagging frantically a new spark in its eyes.
After about ten minutes like this, Tang Ze took a pause. He had been worried he was tiring it out, but from the glint in its eyes - he got the feeling that it wanted to run around even more!
"You up for more boy?" Tang Ze asked. It let out a noise which he took to mean as 'yes.'
"Then let's run until both of us collapse!"
An hour later, the two of them ended up back where they had started.
Tang Ze had worked up quite a sweat from their excursion, though his smile fell a little as he saw the other members of his squad glaring at him.
However, their expressions changed as they glanced at how the Komainu was doing.
It had a new radiant sheen to its skin and fur, and the Qi around it had bolstered by quite a bit.
Many people had wondered what it was that was 'wrong' with the Komainu, and had been unable to reach an answer regarding the same.
The answer was that there was nothing really 'wrong' with it, so they had been unable to find anything to fix. Because there was nothing physically wrong with it- but sometimes, the answer was much simpler than what people realized. The Komainu required a large amount of exercise to stay fit - else, it wound up feeling like it had excess pent up energy within it. It was like a lot of dog species that needed abundant exercise in that way.
This had become an issue in the first place because of two factors.
One, only Qi Refinement stage and below cultivators took care of it. There were not enough Golden Core cultivators in the sect to be free to walk it around, and those would be the only ones who could keep up with its physical abilities.
Two, it had been raised since it was a pup within the sect, as such, it felt it could not run around on its own without having some of the sect members accompany it.
If it had been a wild animal, it would not care for such and run around unburdened and freely on its lonesome when given the chance. However, as a domesticated celestial beast which was still a young child at its age by the standard of its species, it could only feel reassured when there were humans by it.
If it didn't have humans accompanying it, it would start to feel very lonely and unsafe, like a toddler without its parents.
Tang Ze had been the perfect person to take care of both of these problems.
Chapter 37 The Komainu: Part Two
And now, for the first time in many months, the Komainu finally felt like it had gotten some of the exercise it so badly needed.
In excitement, it began to radiate a thick wave of QI around itself.
The Qi it radiated was so thick that even someone like Tang Ze could feel how heavy it was, and instinctually took a step back. He had been told that too much Qi was bad for him...
...and while that was true, that was generally only said when it came to regards of ingesting Qi and the like. Tang Ze had forgotten this, but Qi that was released into the air was generally fine, as it could not be absorbed quickly enough for it to be lethal unless it was in an area that was exceptionally thick.
As a matter of fact, some Qi path cultivators could use an attack called [Qi Cloud] designed to overwhelm their enemy's Qi network and damage it, but this was so difficult to do it was only possible by specialists at the Nascent Soul realm.
For quite a while now, Tang Ze had been trying to break through the Zeroth Realm - to reach the first minor realm of Qi Condensation.
Despite his efforts, and attempts to find a way to make this process somewhat easier, he had failed when it came to both aspects.
It was a simple problem when it came to the amount of Qi required, but like trying to charge your phone with a lightning bolt, it would not work, and would just break your phone.
No matter where Tang Ze or his friends had looked, they had not been able to find a solution to this.
However, the wisdom of celestial beasts worked in strange ways.
Even on Earth, it was said that sometimes animals behaved in ways or comprehended things in a way that humans couldn't. For example, how exactly it was that birds knew which direction to fly in during migration was still hotly debated. And certain animals were said to behave oddly when disaster was about to strike - say, like rats who jumped off a ship that was going to sink on its next voyage, or animals like mice being able to sense an incoming earthquake.
If the Komainu could talk (something it could not do until it matured a bit more), it would not be able to describe what it had done. At least, not in ways that humans could understand.
All it knew was that it wanted to help its new friend - that is to say Tang Ze, out. It understood that something was wrong with him, and moved to fix it.
And as the viscosity of the Qi continued to increase in the air, the Komainu gently rubbed its nose against Tang Ze. The impact would've squashed a mortal, but he handled it with ease. Tang Ze then felt something run from the Komainu's body into his own.
All of a sudden, he felt something change in himself.
It was drastic - like a current had run through every pore of his body!
Not only that, parts of his brain which had been lying dormant till now had suddenly awakened. He was aware of a hundred things he hadn't been able to notice before.
In nearly an instant, his dantian had not only fully developed, but each of his miridians had been primed for cultivation!
"This is..."
"The first minor realm of Qi Condensation!" Zhang Long exclaimed, now being able to feel the Qi emanating from Tang Ze, just like he could with his other friends.
It was not only Tang Ze who benefited from this, however. The leftover Qi in the air was absorbed by the others, moving them each up a minor realm as well.
Chen Yu and Yin Tiang moved to the fifth minor realm of Qi Condensation, while Zhang Long moved to the seventh minor realm of Qi Condensation.
Tang Ze couldn't believe it.
All the time he had spent agonizing over the lack of his ability to progress.
All the time looking up ways that might work - and wondering whether he could cultivate or not in the first place.
All the while feeling like he was inferior to his other sect members - because there was so much that they could do that he could not. He had felt like he was stuck in quicksand and not only could not move forward, but had nothing to cling onto to keep himself from sinking.
And yet, despite all that brainpower that went into agonizing over anything that could give him an edge - he had not accomplished anything when it came to solving the issue. At least, it felt like so.
Maybe if he had even more time to focus on cultivating, he could have found a way even without the Komainu's help.
But, his mental state had not been very good even before coming to this world - and that was putting it mildly.
It felt so good to finally have another win under his belt other than beating those people of the Diamond Dust sect.
The Komainu could sense his happiness, and began smiling and wagging its tail as its ears perked up.
"Back on Ear- where I'm from, they used to say that every dog is the best in the world," Tang Ze said. "But, I think that applies without any conditions to you." Tang Ze was gushing with praise, and that caused the Komainu to become even happier than before, its tail wagging so fast that it was kicking up dust clouds and which could easily injure any mortal that came too close to it.
"Hey - calm down a little!"
One thing was a bit of a blemish on Tang Ze's happiness.
He knew he shouldn't have been feeling this way, but he slightly resented the fact that this teammates had benefitted too.
It had taken him so long just to get to square one - and in that time, they had all managed to move up a minor realm as well! Not to mention Zhang Long had actually gone up two minor realms in the time period that Tang Ze had joined.
Granted, there were reasons for this. Chen Yu and Yin Tiang had benefited from receiving Tang Ze's shares of resources, and Zhang Long had benefited from breaking through thanks to Tang Ze (this had let him skip a minor realm as well as increased his potential later on). Zhang Long had also had another stroke of luck with finding the inheritance near his village.
There was a reason they had been able to advance so suddenly.
"The Qi here is really thick!"
"Yeah, it must have been building up for months!"
The Qi from the Komainu was much more dense than it normally would have been - likely it had been in storage until this moment.
Though Tang Ze knew that it was wrong, he couldn't help but resent them slightly for benefitting from something that he had accomplished. It was the wrong way to go about it, especially as they had all tried to help him - but Tang Ze still felt that it would've meant so much more if only he had gotten to benefit from this.
He shook these thoughts out of his head - if he kept going down that kind of path, who knew what kind of person he'd end up being?
He should be happy for his own success, yes - but he didn't want to become the kind of person who thought, "It's not enough for me to know that I'm flying in First Class - I need to know that all of my friends are in Economy!"
He had heard that phrase from a business tycoon, and at the time he couldn't help but think how petty that line of thinking was. And yet, here he was, nearly falling prey to the same mental trap.
There was a similar story told since ancient times: A man was granted three wishes, though whatsoever he asked for, his neighbor would get double. The man asked for wealth, his neighbor received double. The man asked for land, and his neighbor got twice as much land. And for this third and final wish - after careful consideration, he asked to be made blind in a single eye.
Such thoughts disappeared quickly - Tang Ze wasn't going to let something like that dampen his mood.
And he saw no reason to give in to the green-eyed monster.
His low speed of cultivation was an issue, but now that he could use pills like the others could, he should be able to catch up. There wasn't supposed to be that much of a difference in ascending between minor realms at the Qi Condensation level, so he would likely still be behind for the foreseeable future.
Still, it was progress in some form after all this time, and he was grateful to be able to finally start. And as the decades would turn into centuries, this gap would slowly narrow.
However, this was not the only stroke of luck that Tang Ze got through this.
Because the Komainu was doing so much better after he had been with it, he had been promoted to a normal Initiate from a probationary one by Elder He Xuan.
"Excellent work - I look forward to seeing more of your exploits," Elder He Xuan had said when giving him the news.
The issue with the Komainu had actually been quite a bit of a problem for the sect, and apparently solving it qualified as an 'act of valor.'
Zhang Long explained why that was in a bit more detail for Tang Ze's sake.
"All the Komainu cubs are from a single line near the main sect headquarters - training these was supposed to be a test in and of itself, and the fact that one of them was not doing well did not look good on our division," he said.
Tang Ze personally thought it was better for the cub to be near its family rather than with the sect were that the case, though no one really seemed to care about his opinion on this matter. And he couldn't really do anything that would change their minds.
And so, that day, Tang Ze finally got his white Initiate belt from the sect, making his uniform the exact same as the others in his squad.
He had tried to modify his costume if only slightly at times so that he could get some benefit from a costume, though the prefects had always called him out on it despite how small the modifications were. They were likely targeting him specifically and just looking for an excuse to reprimand him, as he saw others walking around with small touches to their uniforms. But, whenever he protested this, they would always tell him that such a thing did not excuse him from doing something like that.
For now though, he was happy with his new uniform, as he was finally fully one of them.
This also meant that it was much harder to kick him out, to the chagrin of many of the prefects. However, upon learning that he had solved the issue with the Komainu, many of them re-evaluated their opinions of him, if only slightly. He had moved up in their eyes, if only microscopically.
Chapter 38 The Lady By The Lake
Tang Ze went to bed extremely happy that night.
What he had been aspiring for and searching for with so much effort he had achieved in the most unexpected of places.
Who would've thought that the Komainu would have an ability like that? Celestial beasts truly were amazing - no wonder the sects put so much effort into raising them.
Now, he could call himself a real cultivator! Granted, he was only at the first minor realm of Qi Condensation, meaning there were plenty of mortals who outpaced him when it came to cultivation.
But now, his cultivation journey could finally begin. And he was only trailing behind right now because he had started out from less than zero. With time, he was sure that he too, could advance through the ranks rapidly.
If nothing else, by leveraging the power of his talent, he could gain abundant resources in the future through things like the upcoming Novice Tournament. If he could secure an abundance of resources for himself, he could make up for the gap that currently existed between him and the other Initiates.
However, all of that could wait for later. For now, he had to rest. While the Komainu had allowed him to breakthrough to the Qi Condensation realm in one go, it had also made him feel extremely tired as a result. It was as if he had spent the whole day hiking back when he had no super strength or endurance at all.
For now, he needed to get some rest.
That night, Tang Ze dreamed.
The same dream as before....
Tang Ze had dreamt of this cavern ever since he had come to this world.
Actually, that wasn't fully accurate, now that he thought about it. He had only had this dream ever since joining the sect. His other dream, the one in which he was walking down a busy street on Earth… now that was a nightmare he'd had over and over even before he'd come to this world.
Still, it was odd that he kept coming back to the same cavern in his dreams, which made him wonder if it was based on something like a video game or movie he had seen in his past life which he had forgotten about, but had remained in his subconscious ever since.
Anyway, it was better to dream of this place than the other dreams which plagued him. This was much better than the usual nightmares he'd otherwise get of being back on Earth, so he wasn't complaining.
The clear water below, the strange heaviness of Qi in the air, and that weird patchwork dress - all were here just as they'd always been. Even though this dream was a bit confusing in that he had no idea why he kept coming back here, at least it was a somewhat peaceful and overall harmless dream.
Tang Ze was used to feeling like something was watching him while he was in this space - though he had once seen the spirit of a woman here.
There had only been one time though when he had spotted her, back during that night when that traitor Xu Feng had tricked Tang Ze into lending him a hand… or tongue to be more accurate.
Just as he turned around, he saw her form yet again, and then immediately retreated two steps.
Before, she had been near the edge of the lake, quite a distance away from him, but as he had turned now - he saw that she was right in front of him!
Even though this was a dream, he couldn't help but feel startled by her sudden appearance.
"Finally, I see that you've come to be able to notice me," the specter said.
"Ah... huh?" Tang Ze asked. Though this was quite lifelike, it also had the strange mental haze that being in a dream had. As such, his thoughts felt slightly sluggish. "Ah... who are you?"
The woman sighed. "My name is Xian Yue. I have been calling out to you for so long - but your cultivation base was so weak that you couldn't notice me. Thank heaven that I can actually speak to you now."
Tang Ze took a moment to process those words. Before this time, he had the ominous feeling as if he was being watched while he had been in here, though he had only seen this lady once… right! A thought suddenly occurred to him.
That was when he had been wearing the Supernatural Sam costume while he fell asleep! It was probably the costume's powers which had let him see her that time, but he had been woken up by Xu Feng before the two of them could talk that night.
He hadn't worn it again because that costume had been heavily damaged when he had 'fought' Tang Ru ('fought' being in quotation marks given it wasn't much of a fight as much as a one-sided pummeling) and he had not made a new one, mainly because working with ghosts had already gotten him into so much trouble he didn't want to meet another one.
That was why he hadn't put two and two together before, not realizing that it was that costume that had made that woman appear in his dreams. He had thought it was just a coincidence or variation of the dream somehow, but there had evidently been more to it.
He wouldn't have slept in a Supernatural Sam costume anyway, it was far more productive and comfortable to sleep in the special pajamas he'd made so that he could gain immense strength even as he slept.
This woman was beautiful in the same way that a lot of the women in this world were beautiful - in an odd, almost alien sort of way. Though again, just like with Zheng Mei, Tang Ze couldn't say that she looked bad per se - just that she was beautiful more in the sense of how an object like a painting might be beautiful, rather than like a person would be beautiful. There was just something… slightly inhuman about the way she looked. Not enough for it to have some kind of uncanny valley effect, but just enough that it felt odd in a way that he couldn't really put his finger on what it was exactly that bothered some part of his mind regarding her appearance.
The small oval of her face was embraced by her long hair that parted on either side - when she was alive it had likely been black, though it was a bit harder to tell as it looked like nearly all of the colors had been bleached out of her visage. A raiment embroidered with lilies at the borders adorned her, and her feet neatly poked out from under it all.
If there had been color to her skin during life, it was completely gone now, leaving it completely devoid of color. She was not completely see-through like Xu Feng's ghost had been, being far more solid in that aspect.
She actually looked nearly solid enough to touch, and were it not for her extreme pallor, lack of colors other than black, blue and white; and the odd white glow that surrounded her - he might've mistaken her for a living person.
"So, you're a ghost?" Tang Ze asked.
She shook her head. "No, I am much more than a ghost. I am the soul of an Eternal Soul cultivator."
Right - Tang Ze had learned a thing or two about the higher realms of cultivation. And by that he quite literally meant a thing or two, as he was more occupied with whatever could help him get to the first minor realm of Qi Condensation and little else.
The process of ascension to enlightenment involved several steps. The first two stages, Qi Condensation and Qi Refinement allowed the body to quickly uptake and utilize Qi for its own purposes.
To become more than a mortal, it was necessary to temper both body and soul. In Golden Core stage, the cultivator's own body would develop into a golden core - capable of handling the rigors of refining the soul.
Tempering the soul required more effort - which is why the next two stages Nascent Soul and Eternal Soul were both dedicated to the same. Both of these cultivators had tempered their souls so that they could remain in the world even after their bodies were destroyed - though they would be largely powerless until they found another vessel to occupy.
This was the soul of an Eternal Soul cultivator - capable of persisting in this world without its body for several centuries or even millennia!
As he contemplated this, Tang Ze had a burning question in his mind which he felt that he just had to ask.
"Why are you wearing clothes?" Tang Ze asked.
"W-what?" Xian Yue asked him. "Why are you asking that?"
"I mean to say, why do you have clothes when you're a spirit? Do you take your clothes with you when you die? Do clothes also have souls?"
"Would you prefer I present myself to you naked?!"
"That would make more sense, honestly."
"Why you shameless-" Xian Yue began, furiously blushing which brought out a slightly darker tinge to her cheeks, before Tang Ze put a hand up to stop her before she could begin her tirade.
"Lady, I am a man who deals in various kinds of clothes," Tang Ze said. "That's what I do - make various kinds of costumes. Given that this is my trade of sorts, I naturally want to know about all kinds of fabrics, and I was just curious as to what these spectral clothes were made of." What would a ghost's - or soul's fabric feel like? Could he cut it or sew it like regular clothing or did it need special instruments for that? It looked solid enough to touch, but could he actually do so? His reasoning was so on point that even Xian Yue began to take him seriously, after all it was partially due to his talent that she was seeking him out so desperately. That is, until he added something else: "That's why I wanted to request that you remove them - for scientific purposes, of course."
"To think that you would say such things with such a straight face!" Xian Yue said, cheeks turning dark again. It was odd to see someone 'blush' without their face turning red and only turning slightly darker. "It's rather impressive in a negative sense of the word."
Tang Ze shrugged. "I mean, not really. This is all just a dream, right? So what does it matter what I say - wait, no…" he suddenly had a horrified expression on his face. "…this isn't just a dream!?" His thoughts had been rather sluggish because of the dream-like state they were in, but of course, he wouldn't have said something like he had earlier asking her to undress herself if he thought he was talking to an actual woman!
But as the gears in his head turned, slower than usual, but they turned nonetheless - he realized that based on their whole conversation right up till now, it was far more likely that this was real and not a product of an overactive imagination. Why else would this cavern always remain exactly the same when he dreamt of it? Why else had he only seen this woman twice, there being a logical explanation for the same both times? Dreams don't work on logic!
Xian Yue shook her head. "You are dreaming, but this is as real as anything else in this world." She sighed - it would take her far too long to explain things while Tang Ze was dreaming, and as it was, she would eventually need his actual physical presence where she was. "I need you to come to this cavern, it is located under Ling Yuan mountain. Come visit me, there is a favor I have to ask of you."
Tang Ze still had a thousand questions in his head, but the world around him started to dissolve. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what I said earlier -" he had begun to apologize, but Xian Yue interrupted him with a frantic look on her face.
"Ah - you're waking up. No matter, forget about everything else - remember! Ling Yuan mountain!" Xian Yue said, her face turning to fog as Tang Ze opened his eyes.
Chapter 39 What Zero Girlfriends Does To A Cultivator
The squad didn't have an early morning task to do today, thankfully, but they still all got up far too early for Tang Ze's liking even on normal days - to do things like get ready, clean up the common area and their rooms, etc.
However, despite how groggy his head felt at being woken up at this 'early' hour, the dream was still vivid in Tang Ze's memory.
"Ah, there was something I wanted to ask you all about," Tang Ze said to the others while they were having breakfast.
"What's going on?"
"I uh, had a strange dream," Tang Ze said. "Actually, I've had this dream before - but there was something different about it now. There was a woman there, and she was really beautiful, but it wasn't an actual woman though, it was her spirit, and she was talking to me."
The others suddenly had worried looks on their faces, and they glanced at each other. While they didn't say anything, from their expressions Tang Ze could figure they were communicating to each other something along the lines of 'I was worried that something like this would happen in the future, and now it actually has.'
Zhang Long walked over to Tang Ze and clasped him on his shoulder. "Brother Tang Ze," Zhang Long began. They never addressed each other with honorifics, so this alone set off alarm bells in Tang Ze's mind. What was so wrong with what he had just told them to elicit this kind of reaction? "I think it's obvious what's going on. The fact that you don't have a girlfriend has been messing with your head - causing you to have weird dreams like this."
"True, true," Yin Tiang said. "The only scenario in which Tang Ze could get his little brother wet is if he washes it himself - ah, no offense intended."
"Indeed," Chen Yu said, shaking his head. "None of the female sect members want to even be near him after he broke into their side. No doubt this has caused severe psychological trauma to him, which has manifested in this kind of dream." After that incident, all of them were aware of what Tang Ze did. Although the others had also taken credit for the same, the women knew the truth, and the others had only tried to claim credit around the men. As such, only Tang Ze's reputation was tainted among the women - which he thought was fair, given that he was the one who had crossed over, but no one would believe his explanation involving Xu Feng at all, which he thought was quite unfair. Why was he being forced to bear the consequences of Xu Feng's actions?!
Tang Ze sighed. "There's nothing like that going on - I don't have psychological trauma or anything because of not getting a girlfriend or anything like that."
"Right," Zhang Long said, sounding unconvinced. "So, you had a dream about a spirit, and rather than reacting in the normal way by being scared or running away - you described her as 'beautiful?' Ah, I think you can see why we're all concerned for you, Brother Tang Ze. Surely you don't think that's normal behavior?"
"No, no, it's not like that," Tang Ze said.
"Okay - so you saw the spirit of a woman in your dreams. What happened next?" Zhang Long asked.
"I ah… that's right! I asked her if she could take her clothes off," Tang Ze said, only realizing how that must have sounded after the words left his mouth. The others gave him deadpan looks, so he quickly added. "I mean, I just wanted to know what kind of fabric it was made of, y'know, it was nothing like that, I mean, it was entirely for research purposes-"
Zhang Long clasped Tang Ze's shoulders again. "Right…"
None of the other three were even the slightest bit convinced by Tang Ze's explanation.
"You know," Zhang Long said. "I think I can ask Jin Zhen if she has any friends who are single - if you're fine dating a mortal woman. Ah, but those kind of girls would be looking for marriage though, I should warn you, and not just some fun."
"Nah, he needs something quick and easy without having to commit," Yin Tiang said, waving his hand. "Look, Tang Ze, I know this brothel a ways out - they buy contraceptives from our sect, I think you can easily get in and it should be cheap - plus I have cures for most venereal diseases even if you happen to catch one."
"Nah," Chen Yu said. "I still think that my idea is the best - he should pretend to collapse from an 'Extreme Yang Physique.' Then again, I think some of the women hate you so much that they wouldn't even try to save you…" Yin Tiang and Zhang Long shook their heads at this suggestion, both of them still believing it to be preposterous.
Tang Ze sighed. "Look guys, I'm serious, what I wanted to know was that the spirit was asking me to visit her at…" He frowned. Due to all of this conversation, he had been distracted and forgotten what the name of the place was!
"Oh, I wouldn't go anywhere if a spirit asks you to visit it," Chen Yu said. "It's probably just a malignant demoness who wants to steal your Yang energy."
"True," Yin Tiang said. "I heard of this Golden Core cultivator at another branch, who, while he was walking down a dark path in the woods at night - he was likely picking Moonspun Flowers; an alluring woman invited him to join her behind a group of trees, and once they had done the deed, he had found that his cultivation progress from the last few months was gone as the woman disappeared into the shadows! True story, at least, the guy swears it was true."
"That's crazy," Zhang Long said.
"Actually what's crazy is that he would later be found wandering the same place loudly saying things like, 'Ah, I'm a vulnerable cultivator and it would be a real shame if any demonesses came to try to take advantage of me right now,'" Yin Tiang added.
"Truly horrifying," Chen Yu said. "Would you mind giving me the exact coordinates of where that took place so that I can make sure I never wander there by accident?"
"Right, that is crazy," Tang Ze said. "But again, not what's happening with me… at least I don't think so…"
The day proceeded as it usually, though there was something quite different in the way that Tang Ze perceived things.
Ever since he had gotten to the first minor realm of Qi Condensation, it was like he had been partially blind his whole life and someone had suddenly granted him a pair of corrective glasses.
The whole world seemed different now. Qi was everywhere, he could sense it flowing through his friend's meridians brightly, but there were more subtle Qi flows he hadn't noticed before. Like the tiny spots represented by the bees collecting pollen, or the even slower, but still present nonetheless, flow of Qi in the trees in the courtyards.
People also looked at him differently now - likely because they could now tell he was a cultivator, and they seemed to give him a bit more respect than usual thanks to that. Well, either that was the reason, or it was the white sash around his waist. There was also the possibility that they had heard of him 'curing' the Komainu.
Regardless of the underlying cause, there was a new spring in his step now as he took note of it.
The others had offered to give him a portion of their pills given that he had given them his share before, but Tang Ze was fine with things as they were.
He felt bad for his envious thoughts yesterday knowing how much they had all tried to help him before then, and he just wanted to be better. He was okay with them all starting with a blank slate and forgetting about the earlier shares of his pills.
That night, he found himself back in that same cavern.
Xian Yue stared at him. "You didn't come…"
"Yeah, uh, this is kind of awkward, but I sort of forgot where this was again?" Tang Ze said.
"Ling Yuan Mountain! Remember that this time!" Xian Yue said.
Tang Ze scratched his chin suspiciously. "You're not just trying to steal my Yang energy are you?" The last time he had trusted a ghostly presence, things had not turned out peachy for him. Well, she wasn't exactly a ghost but still…
"What? No! What does that even mean?" Xian Yue asked. "I have something else to ask you - but I need you to be here physically first!"
Tang Ze wasn't really crazy about approaching her after what his squad mates had told him, but he would consider it.
In the future, after taking the necessary precautions that is.
As a side benefit of Tang Ze helping the Komainu out, he was basically made its 'unofficial caretaker' and he and his squad were assigned to it at least once a week, so that Tang Ze could help it routinely get the exercise it needed.
Tang Ze and his squad didn't mind this at all, as taking care of the Komainu was far better than some of the other tasks that they could be assigned to.
"It's already wagging its tail the moment it sees you - it seems to really like you, Tang Ze," Zhang Long said as they went to go give it a bath first as usual.
"Yeah," Tang Ze said.
There were also other things - like the fact that it would sometimes let out Qi, which would help them in their cultivation, and also the fact that Tang Ze could use some of its fur to make things like wigs - he was actually trying to gather some to make a fake beard, which was something he hadn't gotten with the costume set that Yin Tiang had given him.
Once Tang Ze and the Komainu were done running around, he told the others that they could head back to the sect as he was fine leading the Komainu back to its shed on his own.
The Komainu gave him a sad whimper when it realized that Tang Ze was leaving. "Don't worry - I'll be back next week!" It perked up whenever he said those words.
As Tang Ze was headed back to the sect, someone stopped him.
"Ah, would you happen to be Tang Ze by any chance?" the man asked.
"Uh, yes," Tang Ze said. "Do you need something?"
"No, no," the man said. "I just wanted to congratulate you - and say that I truly appreciate your work helping the Komainu out. I had seen the sect Komainu when it had first been brought here as a puppy, and had been quite worried about its health when I heard that it was declining, so to see that it's finally feeling better is wonderful news."
"Ah, it was nothing," Tang Ze said. He scanned the man up and down - who was this guy? He was wearing a sect uniform, but not of any kind that Tang Ze recognized. It was 't an Initiate or Regular uniform, and to cap it all off, he couldn't feel a drop of Qi from this person, and he should have been able to unless he was beyond the Qi Refinement realm. "Are you one of the Komainu's caretakers?"
The man shook his head and gently smiled. "No, no, if only my days could be spent playing with the Komainu from sunrise to sunset, that would be paradise in a way - but, I have a different role in the sect. I merely saw you on my way, and wished to congratulate you, and ah - come to think of it, take this as a personal 'thank you' from me for your work."
He reached into this pocket and handed Tang Ze a small envelope. "There are first-class Qi Condensation pills in there, I had heard your cultivation was lagging behind your peers. Take it as a sign of gratitude from me, and hopefully it will help you catch up with them."
"Ah - there's no need for-" Tang Ze was about to say before the man pressed it into this hands, and then went on his way.
Chapter 40 Using Pills
Tang Ze opened up the envelope to see that indeed, there were three pills inside of it. Were they really first-class pills though? He couldn't tell.
As it was, it was a rather stupid idea to take drugs from someone who he didn't know even in this world, though he thought to get Yin Tiang to take a look at them later.
Before heading back to their common living quarters, Tang Ze decided to visit the sect library. He had asked around regarding what Ling Yuan mountain even was, and where it was located. The location was easy enough to get - it was quite far from here, and was actually outside of the Rising Phoenix sect's demesne. Tang Ze could get around that, but other than the location he couldn't find much more about the area.
The mountain didn't seem to have any special lore or history to it. As for Xian Yue, Tang Ze tried to see if there were records of her, but she probably belonged to a different sect as he couldn't find her name in the Rising Phoenix sect's records. That name could have also been an alias.
Having not gotten much further regarding digging into this mystery, he supposed the only way he was going to learn more about it was to finally try to open Pandora's Box by visiting her. She spoke to him every single night now, asking when he was finally going to show up to the point where it was getting really annoying. He could tell that she was getting rather annoyed as well.
Still, though he had resolved to go there, he was going to take the necessary precautions of course.
Hence, the costume he was putting the finishing touches on back in their common living quarters.
He took the small pieces of fur from the Komainu and set about working on them. He needed them dyed white for what he was going to use them for. After that, he would need to get them to stick together so that they could act like a fake beard, and he would need some string as well so that he could easily hang it around his face - although an adhesive one would be better, he didn't want to commit to that just yet as that would be a pain to take off.
These steps would've been much easier back on Earth even if he couldn't just buy the costume off of a store. For example, the adhesive - he couldn't just run down to the store to get some glue, he had to find something like that himself. He had heard that glue was made or used to be made from horses, but that was the limit of his knowledge. How was it made from horses? And was modern glue also made from horses? He also didn't have the time or money to experiment with such things to see what would work and what wouldn't.
Even if he found something like it on the market, buying it was a different problem since the sect did not usually give them the metal coins commonly used outside when they distributed resources, so he often had to barter for things. Many people were happy to help him with stuff in exchange for cultivation resources which were relatively easy to sell. He had gotten the white dye he was currently using for the beard through such a deal, and he would sometimes find things that other people were throwing out to use.
Some things though were just nearly impossible to find or manufacture. Say, contact lenses that could change your eye color. Maybe there was an alchemical solution that could do so, but Yin Tiang didn't know about one. It was a rather niche use after all and Tang Ze couldn't imagine that there was a lot of demand for such a product other than from someone like himself.
Ultimately, this led to some rather shoddy and odd costumes that he would otherwise not have found to be acceptable back on Earth. He had not yet managed to make one which was more than seventy percent acceptable according to his talent, so his talent clearly agreed with him in that regard as well.
A lot of them not only did not look that pleasant, but they were also not really that durable and would fall apart if worn for more than a day, and when they did, he would lose their powers. Tang Ze would've liked to have multiple sets of the same costume for situations like these - but that was not feasible for a number of reasons. Lack of resources was one, but also, they would take up too much space.
The others had already been more than accommodating with him having an extensive wardrobe, but he really couldn't expand it any more until he got more space.
Something he likely wouldn't get until he had gotten past the rank of Initiate.
He was already on a first-name basis with the sect's tailor, but even he couldn't help Tang Ze out that much. While the tailor and seamstress were good, they were good at their tasks when it came to making the regular clothes the people of this area and time period usually wore - they had not seen or heard of things like the costumes that Tang Ze made for his cosplays. It was hard for him to describe such things to them, and oftentimes, they would just shake their heads, saying that they didn't know of any solution.
These thoughts weighed on Tang Ze as he waited for the fur to finish dyeing, and once the others walked in, he remembered the pills he had been given.
He handed one of them to Yin Tiang. "General rule of thumb - don't take things that strangers give you," Yin Tiang said, examining them closely. "I can't really see anything wrong with them, but there could be a hundred ways to tamper with them without me being able to tell. I could try to find out, but that would destroy them in the process."
"Who gave them to you again?" Zhang Long asked.
Once Tang Ze had finished recounting the story again, this time with more details, Zhang Long said, "Ah - that must've been the sect janitor! You couldn't tell his cultivation level because he's at Golden Core! So these aren't weird pills from a stranger - you know who it is. It's safe to take them then."
Tang Ze looked down at them, not feeling entirely sure. He trusted Zhang Long - and Zhang Long seemed to trust this person completely, but was this really okay?
"So, they're first-grade pills right, what makes them different from the ones we get?" Tang Ze asked.
Yin Tiang sighed, as he usually did whenever asked a very basic alchemical question that he felt the others should already know the answer to. "Pills have Qi energy, but because they are based on either plants or animals, and they are ingested instead of being absorbed from the air, since they aren't the body's normal Qi - much like eating food this process generates waste as well. The waste has to be removed by the body's meridians. Higher quality pills not only have more Qi, but they also generate less waste. So you can use more of them in a single go, they don't have as many side effects, and you get more value from them per pill. But, if this is your first time taking them, I still wouldn't take two of them at the same time. Space it out by at least twelve hours."
That part was easy enough to do, Tang Ze could take one now and then another one the next morning.
It was his first time using a pill, and with a slight bit of hesitation, he swallowed it. It didn't carry any of the bitter aftertaste of medicine on Earth, and for a while, he didn't feel anything and went back to working on his new idea for a costume.
He likely couldn't feel anything because it would take time for it to be digested - though he began to notice the difference within half an hour. It was as if a small fire had been lit within his stomach, not to the point of being uncomfortable, but if he hadn't been at the Qi Condensation stage, he would not have noticed the slow flow of Qi from his stomach, down to his lower dantian, and eventually through his meridians.
Cultivation at the Qi Condensation level was often compared to, at least by Tang Ze's teachers, to paving a road. In the beginning, at the Zeroth stage, it was as if there was a wild, expansive forest with no path made for Qi to flow.
At the first minor realm of Qi Condensation, it was as if a portion of the forest had been cleared and eight paths had been developed in it, but they were very rough paths which were difficult to traverse. In order to facilitate the flow of as much Qi as possible, they had to eventually be turned into paved roads before one could ascend to Qi Refinement.
Initially, the roads would just be dirt and overgrown weeds, though through a series of stages, one would build upon them. First, by removing the weeds, then by flattening the roads, then by making a rough dirt path, then building upon it with a layer of underlying support in the form of gravel, and then finally with the last layer of bricks.
That was going a bit too far into the road metaphor for Tang Ze's taste, but it was rather accurate to what Qi Condensation was mainly about.
Tang Ze felt a strange warmth moving through his meridians - it was like what he felt back when he was meditating and gathering Qi, though if he had to quantify it, it was a dozen times stronger.
Not only that, but it was steady. When Tang Ze tried to do it himself, his concentration would naturally waver after a while, and this stream of Qi would be interrupted. But, the Qi from the pills continued to flow for several hours without any pause, working on his meridians and upgrading them so that they were one step closer to maturity.
Tang Ze could see how this would help with cultivation given that it was far steadier and stronger than his own ability to gather Qi from the environment and drive it towards his meridians - maybe his own ability would get better with time, but even if he got two or three times better at that he could see how these pills would still be useful.
Not to mention, it was a way that he could cultivate even while he was sleeping.
He went to sleep, to find Xian Yue in his dreams asking him yet again why he hadn't gone to visit her yet - and he reassured her that he would try to visit her tomorrow.
By then, his new costume would be ready.
Chapter 41 Meeting Xian Yue: Part One
The next morning, Tang Ze came back into the common area after finishing his costume.
"Ah, Tang Ze, is that… are you dressed up as a mage?" Zhang Long asked.
"Yes," Tang Ze replied. He had finished the fake beard and tied it around his chin. The robe had been easy enough to make - it was not hard to get a set of black robes. As for the hat, he had initially made it using paper, but managed to find a more durable one made of felt in the market. Overall, this was still only about thirty-three percent good per his talent, but that was more than enough for what he wanted to do.
"Be careful," Yin Tiang said. "Some people might beat you up if they see you wandering around like that."
"Yeah, I might've been one of them if I didn't know who you were," Chen Yu added.
"Oh, I could tell," Tang Ze said. He was coming back from the mess hall just now. "The people at the mess hall told me 'We don't serve your kind here!' and told me to get lost when they saw me in this costume - and I got more dirty looks from people than I ever have before."
Tang Ze was aware that mages and cultivators did not get along very well. Common jokes or sentences he'd heard regarding cultivator's opinions of mages included: "Mages are just baboons wielding sticks thinking that they can play god.", "The only thing more fragile than a mage's spells are their egos.", and "What use are spellbooks when they cannot save you from the tribulations of heaven?"
He had not expected things to be as bad as he had just experienced though.
He had wanted to test out some of its abilities outside, but had greatly underestimated the amount of disdain cultivators had for mages; having never witnessed it for himself and being a newcomer to this world.
With the benefit of hindsight, it had clearly been a mistake to go around wandering about in his new costume.
"Ah, sounds bad," Zhang Long said. "Wait - let me make breakfast today then. But - why are you dressed up like that? Is that also a character?"
"Yeah," Tang Ze said. This costume was that of a famous and powerful spellcaster back on Earth. "He can teleport, which is how I'm going to visit Ling Yuan mountain." He could've tried flying, but it was a considerable distance away even then, and this character had several other abilities that might come in handy in case he needed to make a swift exit from there.
"You're going to meet this imaginary girlfriend of yours?" Yin Tiang asked.
"She - she's not imaginary," Tang Ze said. "She's just not in this sect is all. And she's not my girlfriend."
"Keep telling yourself that."
"Anyway," Chen Yu said. "Be careful that she doesn't suck the Yang energy out of you, 'kay?"
The other three laughed gently at Tang Ze, who sighed.
Whatever, Tang Ze thought. Once he was done with breakfast, he visualized that place he kept seeing in his dreams, and then teleported there.
"Ha! So this does exist," Tang Ze muttered to himself. The cavern looked quite different in daylight, with some luminescence filtering in, though it still had a quiet, haunting feel to it. The walls merged towards each other until they met at the top, though there must have been some sort of side passage along the way which let some light in. The small lake in the center was surrounded by grass, and the lake water itself was perfectly clear. Tang Ze couldn't see or feel that there were any major life forms like fish inside of it, however.
He turned around to see that same patchwork dress. As he approached it, he also noticed Xian Yue approaching him.
"Ah, hello," Tang Ze said. "You look just like you did in my dreams." He only realized how corny that sounded after he had said it - even though he had been intending it in a different context.
He could see her more clearly now devoid of the mental haze that dreams had, and it was even more obvious to him that she didn't seem like any of the ghosts that he had seen up till now. She was far too solid for that to be the case, it was as if she was a real woman and had simply spray painted herself with glowing blue paint. Though, some things did give her away, like the lack of color in her skin and clothes.
He could see more of the details on her clothes, including the individual fibers that wove them together. Not only did she have lilies embroidered into the edges, but there was a pattern of a long vine tracing from her left shoulder to her waist that he had missed as the design was very light. She was wearing sandals - though it made Tang Ze wonder why she needed those if she could float. Could she float though? Xu Feng's ghost had been able to, but maybe the souls of Eternal Soul cultivators were different from ghosts in that aspect?
"Well, this place is real after all," Xian Yue said. "I've been waiting for you here for so long - what took you all this time?"
"This place is far from where I am," Tang Ze said. "Also, I um, am sorry about what I asked about you disrobing back when we first spoke, I thought it was a dream and I didn't really think it had any consequences and I'm not really like that at all-" he began rambling out an apology, half of which was nearly incoherent.
"Forget that," she said, waving an ethereal hand. "It's good that you're finally here." Her gaze, though revealing a trace of annoyance, still carried quite a bit of warmth, despite her lifeless appearance. "I had a favor I want to ask of you."
"If it involves waking up early in the morning, forget about it," Tang Ze said.
Many cultivators had deep philosophies when it came to how they lived their lives - these were usually developed after profound reflection upon the nature of human existence and the Dao.
One cultivator famously said as his last words, "Let it be known, that I never had a friend who helped me or a foe who wronged me that I did not pay back in full." Another said, "So long as I can obtain enlightenment in the morning, I will have no regrets if I pass away in the evening." Yet another would say, "A cultivator who would give up the pursuit of the Dao for pursuing a woman instead, deserves neither the Dao, nor the woman."
Much like them, Tang Ze had his own philosophy: "If obtaining immortality requires me to wake up early in the morning, then I am content simply dreaming of obtaining immortality."
He really hated having to wake up early.
"What? No, I need your help with this," Xian Yue said, leading him towards the odd dress.
Now that he was closer, Tang Ze could feel the threads of Qi holding the parts of the dress together. This was no ordinary dress. There were a few patches missing, as if it was a puzzle that had not been solved.
"I need you to finish this dress," Xian Yue said. She then frowned. "But before that, please take that ridiculous fake beard off."
"Um… sure?" Tang Ze said, after taking the beard in question off. There were only a few spots missing in the dress, and if she didn't care what he filled them in with, it would take a few hours at most to sew it in. Even if he didn't have much experience sewing things using Qi, he had heard that it wasn't too hard of a skill to master.
"It won't be as easy as you think," Xian Yue said, noticing how nonchalantly Tang Ze agreed to this. "This dress is sewn together with Qi, and there are specific things that need to be fixed to it in a certain order."
"Oh," Tang Ze said. He thought it would be as simple as just sewing a few pieces of cloth in. "What do you need it for?"
Xian Yue shook her head. "It isn't about the dress itself - it's what the dress represents."
"I… don't follow?" Tang Ze said.
"I know you come from a different realm," Xian Yue said, shocking Tang Ze slightly. The only people who were sort of slightly clued in that he came from a different world were Zhang Long and Jin Zhen since Tang Ze had sort of hinted at it when they first met, but neither of them knew the full backstory and might've interpreted what he had said at the time in a completely different way. "But have you heard of my name before? While in this world?"
Tang Ze shook his head.
"So you don't know who I am. Let me start from the beginning then," Xian Yue said. "It starts before I was even born - at least, before I was born as Xian Yue. I remember several of my past lives before I became Xian Yue. Thirty thousand years ago, I was born as a young girl in a small town in this country. This dress you see before you was initially supposed to be my wedding gown - though so little of that original part remains for it to still be called that. On the day of my supposed wedding, my to-be husband abandoned me for another woman. I was distraught, though I found an inheritance later on and began cultivating, hoping to forget those worldly sorrows."
"I did not get past Qi Refinement during the first two lives that I remember," Xian Yue said. "However, I had a fortuitous encounter with another inheritance during my third life - it was right here under this mountain as a matter of fact, and was able to reach the Nascent Soul stage. It was then that I actually began to remember the details of my past lives - and I remembered this dress. I had intended to burn it at first when I had been jilted, but I ultimately decided to bury it outside our house in a small box - thinking perhaps I would use it sometime in the future? Out of mere curiosity, I went back and dug it up. Very little of it was usable, and I began to repair bits of it with other fabrics I had from my other lives."
She started pointing to patches of fabric on the dress. "This? This was from my sect uniform that I wore on my first day when I had joined during my third life. This is what I was gifted when I finally reached the Eternal Soul stage by the Emperor himself. This is from the wedding dress of one of my former friends - she has passed away a long time ago now. Ah this, is from the uniform of a general I defeated."
Like that, she traced over the various patches of fabric used to make the dress. Some of them were in a very sorry state, but Tang Ze was a bit surprised that some of them had held up till this point given how old they were. Perhaps it was the Qi stitches?
The dress told the story of her many lifetimes, though there were doubtlessly pieces missing given how long ago she still remembered.
These were just bits and pieces of the lifetimes that she could recall, probably less than even one percent of the total picture. "Twelve thousand years ago, I reached the Eternal Soul realm. And I have been stuck at the same ever since - even after another lifetime and one more, I had hit a bottleneck that I could not get past."
Tang Ze could understand that such a thing was quite difficult, to put it mildly - in the Raswatian Empire's one hundred thousand year history, there had only been four Hinayana realm cultivators.
He remembered how frustrated he had been at not being able to get past the Zeroth Realm, even though that process had only taken a few months. To be stuck at the same bottleneck for twelve thousand years over the span of three lifetimes- he couldn't even imagine how frustrating that must feel like.