Vessel of Worlds

Have either of you heard of this thing called baleful aura? Does it carry any harm? Andy asked in thought.

"Baleful aura—we've heard of it, and know a little," Youruo said softly. "As a rule, it's the accumulated malice left from slaying living things of one's own rank or higher—cultivators, beasts, and the like. That residue is called baleful aura. I seem to recall there are even techniques that cultivate it directly—wielding baleful aura to tremendous effect, for attack and defense alike, endlessly versatile. The details, though, Youruo can't remember. Elder Sister?"

"I remember little more. Why—is Master troubled by baleful aura?" Youlan asked with concern.

I never noticed it before. But since entering Core Formation my senses have sharpened again, and sure enough—there's a layer of malice wound about me that won't disperse, faint, there and not there. The 'baleful aura' cultivators speak of, no doubt. It certainly can't harm me now—but if it keeps accumulating year upon year, I don't know whether trouble follows, Andy conveyed to the ghost sisters.

Exchange by spiritual sense, mind to mind, ran far faster than any speech or gesture; in the space of a blink the three had traded their views. At last Andy concluded: Since the aura does nothing yet, the problem can wait until I find a technique made to deal with it.

They chatted on through various curiosities—above all Andy's Primal Unity Technique, spanning all five elements, able to shift the color of his escape-light at will. The sisters had never heard of such a thing and burned with curiosity, question after question, until Andy simply projected the entire method into their awareness to read.

"Master, we two have truly never seen nor heard of this Primal Unity Technique. It may well have appeared in the Star Sea only after we died," Youlan said.

"Heh—when I learned Master was five-rooted, I worried a good long while! I couldn't understand how Master formed his core at all—and thought that with five roots, condensing a Nascent Soul would be harder than climbing to heaven. Who knew Master held a primary technique this mighty! Master's Nascent Soul has real hope—and Elder Sister and I have real hope of rebirth!" Youruo's voice sparkled with excitement.

Nascent Soul? Hah—a thing that distant offers nothing to grip. What matters now is raising my strength as far as it will go, then hunting a run of rank-six and rank-seven beasts and refining their cores into a few furnaces of pills. That's the real work, Andy sighed, unhurried.

"Well said, Master—but rank-six and rank-seven beasts are no easy prey. Even Core Formation cultivators hunt them only in teams, for better odds. Most sea beasts are masters of water-escape; the moment they're overmatched they dive deep, and no one can touch them," Youlan said.

"Oh! Master—Youruo has a puzzle, please enlighten me. Has the cultivation world changed so enormously these past thousands of years that resources are richer now than in our lifetime?" Youruo suddenly asked.

Short as their acquaintance was, Andy had already read the twins' differing natures. Youlan the elder was steady, her words most often solicitous; Youruo the younger was quick and mischievous, forever asking after everything. Youlan brooded on the past, an unmeant thread of sorrow in her voice; Youruo was bright and artless, seemingly untroubled that she had died and survived only as half a wisp of soul.

But both sisters longed with all they had for the chance to be human again—and so gave their whole loyalty to their single hope: Andy.

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Of course not. These resources form a grain at a time over thousands and tens of thousands of years—nothing beside what cultivators consume. Resources only ever grow scarcer, Andy answered without hesitation.

"Then how does Master—at early-stage Core Formation—possess so many high-grade spirit stones? The quantity frightened Elder Sister and me half out of our wits! Did Master discover some superb spirit stone vein?" Youruo asked, mystified.

The corner of Andy's mouth curled in a small, secretive smile, but his mind answered only mildly: No hurry on that. You'll both understand soon enough.

The sisters sank into baffled thought and fell silent.

After a while, Youlan—who so rarely raised questions of her own—spoke with a faintly bashful air: "Master... might we trouble you with one thing? Our garments are truly not fit to be seen. Could Master grant us each a proper dress?"

"I had thought of it, in fact—but I don't know how it's done. Mortal clothing—you can't wear that, surely?" Andy said with a slight smile.

"Oh, that's easy!" Youruo cut in eagerly. "Master need only prepare us each a garment woven of spirit-silk and spirit-thread. We refine it with our yin fire, and then we can wear it!" On the subject of new clothes the girl seemed to catch fire, and hurried on: "Master—Ice Jade Silkworm silk would be best! Pink, ideally. If there's no pink, white is lovely too—mm, pale green could also be considered. As for the cut—a layered-petal long gown would be perfect, though a short jacket over an underskirt would just barely do..."

"Enough! I'll take you both to a proper dressmaker for female cultivators—tell me whatever you want when we're there." Andy cut the girl off before she could finish, his head already swimming.

To his complete speechlessness, Youruo—seeing her master's interest exhausted—simply turned and took the topic up with Youlan instead. The two whispered away inside his own body; and though Andy could have monitored every word, upon hearing nothing but silks and cuts and colors, he decisively withdrew his attention and left the sisters to chatter in bliss.

Women—beautiful women above all—truly were strange beyond fathoming. Not even cultivators escaped it. Even two lady-ghosts whose bodies were long destroyed, whose souls survived at less than half—even they cared this much. In this, the ghost-servant sisters were the very image of Jian Xin'er on Guling Street, and of every beauty-loving mortal girl he had ever seen.

At the thought, Andy smiled inwardly. And how fared Jian Xin'er now? With her triple spiritual roots, forming a core would be no light matter... Yet judging by her conduct before her Foundation Establishment, she was no longer an innocent girl but a woman who knew how to plan for herself, how to bargain the greatest gain for her own road—and who knew precisely her advantages and the uses they could be put to. Seen so, Jian Xin'er scarcely needed his worry. Her devotion to the Dao yielded nothing to his own; she would find her way to her ends.

Beyond Jian Xin'er, the only others he still carried in mind were a few cultivators of the Jian family—and the "alchemist," Liu Yingying.

Liu Yingying's aptitude was likewise ordinary—and her face, cruelly, all too beautiful. Since the ancients it was said: a fair face, a thin fate. Her life had been one turning of misfortune after another; had Andy not happened by, she might still be living deceived at the side of Situ Xin, keeping daily company with her husband's murderer. He had left her artifacts, talismans, and spirit stones in quantity—enough to cultivate in peace for a long age—but whether she had ever achieved Foundation Establishment, he had no way to know. If her luck had failed her, then by the count of years she must now be nearing her coffin.

Andy sighed softly at fate's caprice. With his own five-rooted aptitude, were the Vessel of Worlds not in his hands, he too would be a man in his twilight. Now that the road toward the great Dao lay open to him, he treasured the chance all the more—his fate would be gripped in his own two hands, and no other's.

At his current speed of flight, and with early-stage Core Formation openly upon him, no cultivator in the waters off Island Five dared entertain designs—so he flew on without the least disturbance.

But passing over a cluster of fire-red coral islands, Andy suddenly halted in midair, gazing down with keen interest at an enormous crab several zhang across, red from claw to shell.

He knew this beast intimately—the Supreme Yang Crab, among the rank-five beasts he had hunted most often of all.

And this rank-five beast—the rough equal of early Core Formation, yet no threat whatsoever to him now—would serve perfectly to test the powers of the Verdant Sap Ruler and the Heart-Beguiling Bell.