Chapter 34: Chapter 34

The light prickles at my consciousness. The serene ambiance ensures that the suddenness of sleep cycle termination proceeds smoothly. At least, for me it proceeds smoothly. For Lan Xiaohui, who suddenly experiences my [Tyranny] trait, it is sudden and jarring. A moment ago, she felt safe and warm, and now she looks over her shoulder, looking for lurking threats, before her gaze focuses on me, and a flash of comprehension adorns her features. And relief, for some reason.

She doesn’t say anything when she realizes I am awake, and instead continues to go about her previous business. She holds another knife made of sword Qi and sword energy — much sturdier than the last time I saw it — and plows it into the neck of a large demonic snake, preparing to skin and process it.

I take in my surroundings with my perception and note that we are at the shores of a deep pond with crystal clear, azure waters. The plant-life here is of the spiritual variety, with several Silver Dew Lotuses and configurations of lily pads on the surface.

The Qi here is very abundant, as well. The tree line of the forest is at the very edge of my perception radius, with a vast clearing between this side of the pond and the forest.

It looks like she found a good place to rest, with ample food and water available, and most importantly, Qi.

I am surprised to find out that she has even reached the Mid stage of Qi Refining. How long was I unconscious?

I touch the internal storage array with my consciousness to find out what happened to my refinement queue — surely, by now, it would’ve been completed.

The sub routine immediately informs me that there is a lengthy queue of refinement processes.

[ Processing: Time to completion: 12 days, 19 hours. ]

I find most of my internal storage is taken up by corpses of various animals. Monkeys, wolves, snakes, foxes, and a singular, large bear. In total, they take up about 7 of my 10 cubic meter capacity, stacked and arranged in such a way that they minimize the space they take up.

Of the materials we collected, most of the wood has been processed into spiritual lumber of the Sky grade. I find many of the herbs are missing, and the presence of a variety of medicinal pastes and pellets, also at the Sky grade, but some of them are of the Earth grade. I also find several cold iron ingots, Sky grade, but no presence of the Heavenly Treasure that used to be in that same place. Did I melt it down?

I will run a full inventory check later, and maybe move some things around to minimize the space they take up. Lan Xiaohui is very good at filling up the space horizontally, but it seems she is a bit vertically challenged. Well, I can’t expect a sapient monkey to know the theorems and axioms of proper sorting and storage.

I realize that it is not so much for a desire of efficiency, but that this is also her way of practicing sword Qi. She has a lot of the dead demonic beasts queued up for processing, but she also processes them herself. Her knife is now sharp and durable, and it no longer flexes or bends when she tries to cut into corpses. Perhaps soon, it will even become a useful weapon to her. And she’s still only in the Qi Refining realm.

I try to reference the knowledge she shared with me of the world outside, and compare it to the expectations that my Dao informs me of. If the outside world really is that competitive and secretive — organized, even — then surely, many would consider her to be an applicable addition to their ranks. Possibly even a Core Disciple — whatever that is. I assume it is a station or rank of great importance usually reserved for those of the Golden Core realm, apparently. But if she can already do the things someone in the Golden Core realm can, then does it make a difference if she is only in the Qi Refining realm? Surely, they would understand her future potential.

I focus on her next.

She has worked diligently while I was in standby mode. She killed a great number of creatures — at least eleven, judging by the number of corpses — but I cannot know the exact number, because my internal storage also contains the refined bones, skin, fangs and organs of beasts.

She looks slightly different. Disregarding the dirt and blood that has accumulated on her dress and body, I can see remnants of injuries as well. The scars look like they will fade soon — a benefit of being a cultivator — but I also notice makeshift bandages produced with leaves and lily pads.

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Even in the last fight I observed, she did not stand triumphantly without injury. The wolf had bitten her forearm, but I see no remnants of that wound. The other ones are more recent.

It is not just her physical appearance that is slightly different, but also her demeanor. Even when I woke up, she coldly scanned the area, and then returned to silence. She is becoming accustomed to life in this jungle and its principle law of eat or be eaten. She is truly becoming a creature worthy of respect.

With the sliver of consciousness that can flow into her now, I become more aware of her internal state. I can sense her roots, and the meridians through which her Qi flows as she uses that knife of hers.

Her expression changes slightly, perhaps detecting the presence of foreign consciousness within her body, causing her to hesitate briefly before continuing to process the corpse of the snake. It seems she doesn’t mind my investigations.

Though I am not capable currently of sweeping, or permanent changes, I see a few places in which I could optimize her Qi routing and the infrastructure of her meridians themselves. I am not able to open her vessels — that requires strong, Dao infused Qi — but I can, so to speak, rearrange her spiritual meat.

I decide to give it a try, and experiment. At worst, she will suffer Qi deviation and go insane.

I adjust some of her more critical meridians, shortening the path between the front of her head and her dantian, and adjust the surrounding vessels.

Immediately, the knife in her hands emits a slightly brighter glow, and I can even feel my own [Tyranny] emanating from it. For the first time, I experience what other creatures experience when I look at them.

It is quite pleasant.

The knife also becomes sharper, and she seems surprised at first, but then uses the added stability to quickly skin the corpse with one smooth motion.

“How did you do that?” she asks, now looking at her knife. She knows that this was not her doing, at least.

“I optimized your Qi channels slightly,” I tell her. “But it requires active concentration.”

She nods. Her eyebrows furrow into a thoughtful expression, and she opens her mouth slightly, as if to speak, but then decides against it and goes back to work.

I wonder if it is possible to dedicate a part of my sea of consciousness to perform a task independently.

I add it to my list of experiments.

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