Arc 11: Chapter 7
“Alright, disciple, you can go and practise outside. Huang Su and I can watch and potentially offer guidance if we notice anything overt,” Bianca waved the woman away and looked to Yu Juan, “Meanwhile, I have something I’d like to attempt with you later, while reinforcing your mind in the process. It’s not urgent, so just keep it in mind for when neither of us are busy.”
“Very well, Mistress. I’ve been faring decently well the last few months, so it’s not urgent for me either way,” Yu Juan nodded, “I’ll keep it in mind.”
With that, she withdrew from the chamber as well, leaving Bianca alone with Song Ming and Huang Su yet again.
“So… no idea what my disciple will be doing, so if you could keep an eye on her, that’d be great,” she looked to the Phoenix Sect’s leader, withdrawing her gaze after she indicated her agreement, “Anyway… the Demoness Sect.”
“As a name, I am concerned that such a title would simply lead far too many people to assume the worst about our new sect,” Huang Su said, “But I do understand the general principle of the name.”
“Noted, but not the point. I was just thinking about how exactly I should be running it… Do we just pull in random women and tell them to cultivate on the mountain, or should we do advertising? I can’t think of any channels to sponsor, and I’m not sure what the laws on in-video ads are…”
“Uh, Mistress, what is a ‘video’? And ‘ads’?”
“Oh, shit, I meant… basically, I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“That was not difficult to guess, Mistress,” Huang Su sighed, “I… first of all, may I get some water? I would prefer not to-”
“No, you’re staying like that. That was the bet.”
“The bet did not specify-”
“Come on, is it really that bad? Besides, I’m not planning to call anyone else in here, and I doubt that Yu Juan and Jia Bo Xun will gossip about it – not that drinking water afterwards would help solve that anyway.”
“… Very well, Mistress, but only because you insist,” Huang Su gave in, letting out a long, frustrated sigh before straightening her back and focusing on the topic at hand, “I would recommend that our Demoness Sect lays low for a while, focusing mostly on gathering strength. The necromancers should not have the desire to fight us just yet, especially if the corpses that we found-”
“Corpses! Or, rather, corpse. That weird one that they used to attack us,” Bianca jumped up from the seat, “I completely forgot about that. Did anyone look into it?”
“I had made sure to preserve the body, but I had not found an opportunity to examine it in greater detail. However, I am relatively certain as to its identity.”
“Then let’s have a look at it, as soon as someone makes up something nice to say to Jia Bo Xun, anyway.”
The Reaper’s Grave had plenty of room to store corpses, especially with those secret tunnels, but for this specific body they had chosen to keep it near where they had encountered it, beneath the highest pavilion of the Reaper’s Grave, not far from the site of the array core.
Beside the main passage that they had used, there were plenty that had caved in, or otherwise became useless to them. One such passage was cooler than the others, and with a quick pseudo-array – something Bianca was told was achieved merely by placing objects in the environment, their specific arrangement causing planar energy to resonate and act nearly like a regular array – to cool it down further, they had the perfect place to store a body.
The three of them descended to the array core chamber, then that passage, and found the body lying there just as it was when it was put down, marked with several cuts from the defensive array that had incapacitated it before the necromancers fled.
A man with only trousers on, tall and muscular, with prominent scars going across his chest, digging in deep enough to reveal ribs. They had shut his eyes as some form of respect, but they were a brown dulled by his demise. Besides that, there wasn’t too much to glean from his appearance, at least as far as Bianca was concerned.
What had remained of his cultivation had faded away without the control of the necromancers, but it had been obvious at the time that he was an expert in the peak of the Marked Core realm. The fifth realm was a height most did not reach, so that made him a significant figure already.
“From his skills and technique, I was able to surmise that this man was once a member of the Solitary Peak Sect. His use of Manifest Peak, Seek Immortality, Crash the Peak and Claim the Soil was impeccable, implying significant mastery and experience – those are all skills unique to the Solitary Peak Sect, in case that was unclear – so he had to have been a true expert of the sect during life,” Huang Su introduced them, approaching the body from one side while Song Ming and Bianca stood on the other.
“Seek Immortality sounds cool, which skill was that?”
“It is, in fact, a simple fist martial art skill.”
“Then why the fuck is it called something so grand?”
“This is due to the origin of this particular skill. Rumour has it that Seek Immortality contains some profound secret of the world’s Dao, and that cultivating it to a certain peak can allow one to transcend mortality and the ninth realm. Of course, in all the time that the Solitary Peak Sect has been practising it, there has never once been a recorded case of anyone attaining such heights.”
The Phoenix Sect’s leader gently raised one of the man’s hands, turning it slightly to showcase the back of the hand to them.
“It may be difficult to tell at a glance, but his skin is hardened and greatly refined. I would imagine that this man has been practising Seek Immortality since youth,” lowering the hand again, Huang Su quickly conjured flames around her fingers to cleanse them, “All of that leaves us with a single likely suspect, a man that had disappeared some time ago, much to the Solitary Peak Sect’s anger at the time. No suspect had been found then, and it remained an unsolved mystery for decades.”
“Was it their Sect Master?”
“No, but you are not too far off, Mistress. It was the Sect Master’s only child – at the time – named Song Mudan. He was set to inherit the position in the future, but with his disappearance, the Sect Master, Long Musong, was forced to find a new heir.”
“… So, the necromancers did something that they shouldn’t have, but managed to cover it up for now, right?”
“Indeed.”
“Then, if we were able to reveal this to the Solitary Peak Sect – I assume the influence of the necromancers on the body should be obvious to them – they’d be potential allies, at least against the necromancers, right?”
“Correct, Mistress. I cannot be certain that they will accept our explanation, nor can I be sure that the necromancers would leave this alone. There is a chance that they will attempt to frame us in their stead, although this is unlikely due to the rather obvious presence of their energy and corpse preservation methods.”
“In other words, as long as we can ensure that they believe us and don’t try to swat us away, we should definitely do it,” Bianca said, and Huang Su nodded in agreement, “Great, put that on the list. I don’t know where the Solitary Peak Sect even is, but as long as they can help us out in terms of improving our reputation, that would be good too.”
“Are you concerned about it, Mistress?”
“Hm? Oh, well… ultimately, while I would prefer to just do whatever, I’m pretty sure there’ll be problems if the majority of the cultivation world wants us dead. So, leveraging the good PR from taking out the evil necromancers and revealing whatever schemes they’ve come up with should let the Demoness Sect develop a bit more freely,” Bianca explained, “Oh, when I said PR… you know what, it probably made enough sense.”
“I believe I understood the meaning of it, yes. I would be able to take care of it, except there are certain troubles that would interrupt me in my current state.”
“Oh?”
“Remember that I was last seen in the Phoenix Sect, fleeing with you. Going to the Solitary Peak Sect would require me to explain the matter to them, and I doubt that there is any specific claim I could make that would assuage their concerns. As such, it might be best for someone else to go in my place, but… at your current cultivation realms, it would be highly dangerous.”
“Right… is there some way for us to contact them, then? Perhaps send a message over and have them come to us? Then, while they’re within the boundaries of the array, only the Sect Master would be able to harm us, and even then, as long as he believes us, it would be the necromancers that earn his ire,” Bianca suggested, “Can we… throw a talisman or something?”
“No, we cannot… but I will consider the matter. The Solitary Peak Sect is not far from us- right, you did mention that you were unaware of the exact location. Allow me a moment…” Huang Su barely even needed that to pull out a map, unfurl it and point to the Reaper’s Grave on it, “We are here, Mistress. The Solitary Peak Sect is just to the north-east.”
“Oh shit, I didn’t realise we were that close… Uh, is the Exarch going to take them down soon?”
“I doubt it. Most sects have many decades of foundations and treasures. Unlike the relatively weak force of the Dancer’s Abode, and the declining strength of Long Shiyi and her forces, the Solitary Peak Sect has a seventh realm expert and a defensive array that will be vastly more effective than what the current state of the Reaper’s Grave array can result in.”
“Plus, I doubt the Exarch would want to split its forces right now, anyway.”
Bianca was caught off-guard by the sudden contribution, turning to spot the kitsune limping over, clearly having failed to recover fully from their encounter earlier in the day.
“Xue Yaling? What are you doing here?”
“Can I not visit my illustrious Sect Mistress during her busy day? Mainly, I just followed you lot and got curious about the subjects you discussed. Simply put, I’d say that the Solitary Peak Sect can reasonably be said to be safe, for now, but if the Exarch can take down Long Shiyi and absorb her forces – and that is a matter of when, not how, unfortunately – then I could see it turning towards the Solitary Peak Sect in the north and us in the west.”
“In other words, nowhere near as soon as I fear?”
“Yeah, we should have a few years at the very least. Plenty of time for you to fuck enough bitches to reach the sixth realm, which would make you an undesirable target for any kind of ‘easy’ conquest, if you get my meaning.”
What the kitsune said made enough sense, even if her wording was as crass as ever. Bianca was already as committed as a woman with split personalities could be to abusing her position of power in the future, so it was really only a matter of time before she had the chance to indulge in this manner. Given that her cock was a feature of a dual cultivation technique, she’d be progressing little by little every time she did so, so she would be able to attain a higher realm before too long.
Already, she was nearing the peak of the third realm… and therefore, the tribulation that would follow.
‘Shit, wasn’t there something about a Display of Excellence? I don’t think I can really do much, unless it will count my Demonic Tyrant’s skills,’ Bianca frowned, which Xue Yaling appeared to misunderstand.
“Oh, right, let me guess, you’re back to insisting that you could never do anything wrong to anyone…”
“No, I… I was just worried about the tribulation.”
“Why would… ah, of course…” the kitsune frowned, but soon looked to Song Ming, who had been standing behind Bianca this whole time and seemed to be more than content simply looking at and smelling her while the others talked, “Actually, I think you have bigger concerns than that. Song Ming hasn’t exactly developed anything noteworthy in terms of cultivation either.”
“Hm?” Bianca’s pet perked up, waking from her stupor, “Sorry, I zoned out… What exactly counts for the Display of Excellence?”
“I think only Huang Su here would know,” the kitsune shrugged, and so all attention was turned to the Phoenix Sect’s leader.
“This is a field that has not been studied extensively, mainly due to the fact that repeating a Display of Excellence cannot be done. Even if someone’s cultivation is dissipated and they then attempt to recover it, they will only need to cross the tribulation and will not be challenged by the Display a second time,” Huang Su explained, “I was able to contribute my overall comprehensions of the Phoenix archetype skills, and the particular skill I use to disguise myself. This allowed me to pass at a decent standard, from my understanding.”
“Even you don’t know?”
“The two primary indicators are the state of your cultivation, current and future, and where your contribution ends up being in the space you see during the Display of Excellence. My cultivation has gone well, leaving me with six searing marks per realm, and my contribution seemed to end up around the middle of the space.”
Bianca felt like she should take notes, “Ah, makes enough sense… so, as long as you’ve figured out some stuff of your own, you should be able to pass?”
“Well… you would indeed be able to pass. However, I would advise that anyone seeking to break into the fourth realm first attempts to develop something distinct and unique – be it a combat style, art, skill, technique, or anything of the sort.”
“So, if Song Ming, for instance, was able to provide her unique physique to the Display, she’d get good results?”
“I… am not certain whether that is possible, but physiques are nonetheless an aspect of cultivation. It should be possible to present it… Xue Yaling’s development of the Shard half-archetype and her iteration on the kitsunes’ preferred technique should also be sufficient-”
“What about my Guide to Cultivation?”
“… Hypothetically. I must admit, I have not had the opportunity to test this with any of the Phoenix Sect’s disciples.”
“Eh, guess I’ll try it out when the time comes,” the kitsune shrugged, surprisingly calm, “Still, there’s one person who’s going to have trouble no matter what, isn’t there?”
Bianca hardly needed to be told what she meant, especially not when that concern was the reason she brought up the subject in the first place.
“So, I should be trying to figure out some way of improving on my skills?”
“Or making a new one, or otherwise contributing something of note. Unless your past self created these skills, you will not be able to provide them to the Display of Excellence as they are,” Huang Su confirmed.
“And you’re two stages away from being able to attempt your tribulation. That means you don’t have too much time to wait. You could, naturally, delay and sit in the ninth stage, but that would be far from optimal… The higher your realm, the greater the reach of spiritual perception, the more energy you’ve got to work with, and as a result, the safer we’ll all be within this array.”
“And the safer you will be when outside, as well,” seeming almost reluctant to agree with the kitsune, Huang Su nevertheless added on, “In the Central Plains, it is generally safe for a fourth realm cultivator to travel, as most bandits and criminals tend to be around the third realm. Naturally, if you are being hunted by a larger or a more powerful force, such a realm will not be sufficient, but it should ensure your ability to escape thanks to the fourth realm movement skill.”
“And that just comes naturally?”
“More or less. At the very least, I had instantly comprehended it, but it could be influenced by your passing of the Display of Excellence.”
‘You two are just telling me to get fucked, aren’t you? Not in a good way, either… although I think Han Rushu didn’t quite appreciate me draining her to the edge of her life, so it was only good for one of us,’ Bianca’s thoughts strayed for a moment, ‘Anyway, point is, I better figure out something before the ninth stage, or else I’ll have to hope that my Demonic Tyrant is able to help.’
What she could already tell was that this was easier said than done, especially for her. She rarely ever used her skills directly, typically relying on the guiding hand of the Demonic Tyrant. How much could she really say she understands about her cultivation?