Chapter 13: Arc 1: Chapter 12

There was no clock in this strange world, but from the movement of the sun across the sky, Bianca guessed that they had spent at least an hour together before parting. Most of it was spent having sex, so it was time well spent, and she did obtain her cultivation far faster than she was expecting, but it still didn’t feel right to ignore the sect disciples that weren’t far from their location.

She recalled that every realm got a greater range of spiritual perception, but she didn’t recall the exact numbers, so she was slightly concerned that Liu Min would be able to see far enough to have been observing them all along.

Being watched after she gave out permission was one thing – and not something that had happened before – but having the same occur without her having any knowledge of it was not a pleasant possibility. Whatever troubled Song Ming near the end of their encounter also remained on her mind as she returned to the village, as she couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t caused by her in some manner. It wasn’t her intention to add a touch of sourness to Song Ming’s first time, that’s for sure.

‘I hope she tells me about it later, just in case it was my fault. I’d apologise right away,’ Bianca thought, glancing down at her hand, ‘Before that…’

As knowledgeable as Song Ming seemed to her, it was clear that the young woman didn’t know everything, so her initial fearful response to Bianca’s display of cultivation might have been a result of her ignorance. However, if there was something to it, if it was something that would concern, scare or perhaps threaten the disciples of the Calm Skies Sect, then it could spell trouble.

Had there been a problem like this back on Orbis, she could expect to deal with a legal threat of some kind, an army of lawyers presenting all kinds of letters to her with threats she could barely read, never mind understanding or responding to them. It was a scary prospect in its own right, but rarely did that imply any kind of physical injury, just plenty of stress while trying to figure out the best way out of the situation. In the Planar Continents, however, she had personally seen one cultivator trying to handle things with violence over… nothing, as far as she could tell.

Her cultivation and the panel it was connected with, were not nothing. They were something, even if she had no clue what, nor even what to refer to them as. It could very well lead to the disciples, all of whom were likely stronger than Lin Shuming, having a similar response, if not a more intense one.

‘Actually, this dark energy, and the sparks of light within, are similar to that card I got from the old man… Not calling this the Blazing Skull of whatever the fuck it was, though, so…’

She paused, leaned up against a nearby tree, shut her eyes and focused, trying to awaken her creative and artistic side after it had been left to sleep for the last few week. In her art classes, she usually had an easy enough time coming up with names for the artwork she produced, so if she just treated her current condition as a piece of performance art, she was bound to have at least one idea to use as a name.

‘The panel calls my cultivation technique Tyrannical, so I could pull the word Tyrant from that… Hm. Tyrant is fine if I keep the name to myself, which I should do if I keep up the amnesia excuse, but just that isn’t enough…’

“What are you standing around for? Have you not been provided a planar shard?”

A voice threw her out of her contemplations and forced her to open her eyes, causing her to discover one of the Calm Skies Sect’s disciples standing right in front of her, having to look up just a little due to their height difference, and the fact that she was leaning down and glaring at her in a rather intimidating manner.

She had long, blonde hair – not dissimilar to Song Ming’s – with amber eyes, as well as light skin with a healthy tan. Although she was thin, she did have a large chest that tried to tempt Bianca’s attention towards it, especially in the position this woman was currently in.

“Sorry, your name was-”

“Su Mingyu. Hopefully, that will never become ‘Senior Su’ to you, brat,” she straightened her back and spoke with disdain seeming to drip from her every word.

‘Brat? You look to be young enough to have attended college with me!’ Bianca exclaimed in her mind, but had enough sense not to bring such things up right now, “Actually, I have already used the planar shard, and I had just gotten lost in thought on my way back. I was exploring my spiritual perception, you see.”

“Hmph, I’m sure you were,” Su Mingyu said dismissively, “You say you’ve used the shard? Prove it.”

“… How?”

“Let me take a look at your dantian, obviously. I’m not some type of brute that would just look wherever without permission.”

‘I… guess?’ Bianca could appreciate some degree of privacy, so she shrugged, “I’d actually like your advice about it, so I would be happy for you to do so.”

Regardless of the reaction Su Mingyu would have, it was best to prevent her from assuming any kind of foul play, hence Bianca’s attempts to come off as ignorant about the nature of her cultivation. To a certain extent, she was ignorant, so there was little pretending to be done, but she couldn’t share anything about the strange panel without sounding like she was mad, so she did have to hide a small piece of the puzzle.

Su Mingyu didn’t respond vocally, but from her behaviour, it was apparent that she wasn’t concerned about the potential of anything outright dangerous. Most likely, she expected the usual questions that a new cultivator might ask, which was understandable.

Just like Song Ming before her, Su Mingyu got close and reached out with her hand, as if to guide her spiritual perception. She wasn’t sure how it worked outside the body, given that she was barely able to use her inner spiritual perception without significant focus, but it seemed like a common way to use spiritual perception so far.

 

The brat’s appearance and general attitude – not to mention an obvious glow to her appearance – made it very clear that she had not gone straight back to the village after supposedly using her planar shard. If she wanted to, Su Mingyu might have been able to make a few decent guesses about the exact types of activities this girl engaged in, but she was below such things, nor did she really care about her behaviour.

If she was going to join the Calm Skies Sect, that would be a very different case, of course.

‘Alright, let’s see what she’s done with herself and our technique. Most likely, she’s confused as to the frailty of her initial cultivation, so…’

With her palm near the brat’s belly, she pushed her spiritual perception into her body, minimizing the distance it had to travel in the outside air and thus ensuring that she would have the greatest clarity possible. She was here on behalf of her sect, after all, so it wouldn’t do to be lazy or improper when it came to handling any potential future disciples.

Her spiritual perception entered that region within the body where the dantian resided, and the instant it did, she felt a wave of indescribable discomfort flooding over her. She saw the strange darkness within her, forming a sphere within the dantian, a few bright shades sparking and blazing within but being consumed by the general void. When she saw it, it felt as if that energy looked back, as if two eyes stared at her with rage and fury and a dominating intent that went against everything that she believed to be right and true.

“D-Demon…” the word involuntarily spilled from her lips, moment before she revoked her spiritual perception and composed herself, thinking about this rationally.

There was no way that a girl like this could accidentally create or discover a demonic cultivation technique of some kind. If she did obtain it, there was no good reason for her to allow her cultivation to be observed by a member of one of the sects that was widely considered to be righteous, avoiding unnecessary violence and attempting to uphold some semblance of law and order.

‘More importantly, there’s no way this girl could have found and killed a bunch of people, or whatever it is that a demonic method would require. So, it can’t be that…’ Su Mingyu frowned as she stared at the brat before her, who showed signs of concern but nothing resembling the response of a demon.

“W-What does that mean?”

“Huh?”

“Why did you call me a… a demon?” the brat asked, continuing to act like a simple ignorant villager and nothing more.

That confused her more than anything, “You don’t even know what a demon is? What demonic means? How ignorant can you be, village girl?”

“Not from here, actually…”

“Where are you from, then? What kind of desolate jungle or dark, empty cave have you come from to know nothing at all?” Su Mingyu questioned, “I doubt that there is any place where such ignorance is common.”

“I don’t know, I lost my memories and woke up a few weeks ago.”

“… Ah. I see…” her frustration dulled as she realised that her anger was entirely misplaced. It also made it very clear that if she was telling the truth – a possibility, given how convincing she had been behaving so far – there was no way to learn anything from her now. Whoever this brat had been, she might as well have been nobody now.

It would certainly explain the way in which she was able to overlook the basics and act so ignorant.

“I will speak with Senior Sister Liu, but for now, you should learn how to use that energy of yours just in case you ever feel like fighting someone else in this place,” she said, glancing to the side when she felt someone’s attention on them, though she saw nobody there, “Since your energy is… different, our lessons will not benefit you as much, but the basics are the same across all techniques and all manifestations of planar energy… more or less.”

 

‘More or less? This would be like my science teacher telling me that gravity is more or less consistent… which it might be, because I got a D- on my last exam,’ Bianca made sure to frown visibly, “So, you will teach me and the others that succeeded in attaining a cultivation?”

Whether Su Mingyu picked up on her deliberate expression or not, she didn’t show it, “Yes, exactly.”

She pointed in the vague direction of the clearing where the Calm Skies Sect had entered Xi Village, then looked up at the sky, finding the sun to be nearly at its peak.

“Just in time, actually. Rush on ahead, and I’ll proceed to do my own thing, as I would have done before you interrupted me, you brat,” she waved her away and departed quickly, not giving Bianca a second glance.

For a while, Bianca hesitated to follow her instructions, given how her energy had already scared two people with more knowledge of cultivation and the Planar Continents. In the moment Su Mingyu had looked at her cultivation, she looked like she was about to hit her, so if one of the stronger Calm Skies Sect disciples had the same idea and used their apparent vast strength to lethally injure her in the moment before they regained their composure.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted some movement, and when she turned towards it, she spotted the familiar figure belonging to Lin Shuming. He seemed to be heading away from her.

‘Has he been staring again? Wait, if he’s been here for a while… oh fuck, he might have noticed Su Mingyu’s reaction…’ Bianca sighed, and instantly began walking in the direction provided by the Calm Skies Sect disciple, ‘Guess I should make sure I know what I’m doing, just in case he tries to attack me or Song Ming again.’

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It was still difficult to imagine that someone would wish to get into a fight with her – using proper weapons, no less – over literally nothing, but Lin Shuming proved very clearly that she was in potential danger the moment she crossed whatever line he had.

Hence, even if she didn’t actually end up fighting him, it would be good to know the kinds of things that that man could do. It would let her assess his threat properly, and have some degree of confidence.

More importantly, though, being close to the Calm Skies Sect disciples would mean being away from him, and less thinking about someone wanting to attack her. She wasn’t used to this sort of thing, even if it had been going on for a while, just as she was still not used to people not having a proper weekly schedule, among other things. One was a lot more important, though.

 

“Ah, you’re finally here. Considering you don’t seem distraught, I must assume that things went decently enough,” Liu Min greeted Bianca with her usual warmth, “Did you see Su Mingyu on your way here?”

“Yes, she checked out my cultivation… um, you should speak with her later about that.”

“Why should… huh,” she made no outward movement, nor did she get particularly close to Bianca – instead remaining among a group of youths from Xi Village that had succeeded in gaining a cultivation before she did – but from her reaction, it was obvious that she must have had a look at her cultivation, “That is strange. I will speak with her when she returns.”

Although she remained pleasant enough, some of her earlier warmth faded visibly, though she didn’t turn outright hostile. She had been harsher to some of those in her own sect, so, presumably, it was still fine.

There was a moment of silence before Liu Ming gestured towards the semi-circle formed around her.

“Please, take a seat and pay attention. I’ll guide all of you on how to channel your energy, employ it in action, how to understand your progress and assess your cultivation stage, how to assess the impurities within your energy, and more. This is likely to be dry and dull for some of you, but that is what cultivation is like,” she smiled, shifting her focus to the group as a whole, “You need the boring bits to get to the fun stuff, and after a while… the fun stuff may not be that fun.”

An awkward silence followed, where most of the youths looked confused and Liu Min was lost in her thoughts, with the other disciples at the scene not daring to make a noise. There were three of them there, aside from Liu Min, two being women while the last was one of them men that, from what Bianca had been able to overhear, was in the third realm.

The third realm supposedly produced an anchor that resided within the dantians of cultivators in that realm and above, but from the side, from her casual perspective, she could see no major differences.

He was just like any other guy, and Liu Min, who was apparently in the fourth realm, also seemed similar, but at least she had been leading the group of disciples as they walked in the sky. That left enough of an impression for her to come off as a bit less of a common woman – and it helped that she was unusually attractive in her own way.

“Anyway, let’s start with everyone being seated. Bianca, that includes you.”

She quickly followed the instruction, having remained standing while focusing on her own thoughts. There was a place at the side of the semi-circle, which she promptly occupied before anyone there had the idea to close it up.

“Excellent. Sit comfortably, and focus on the energy that you should have accumulated within your dantian. You don’t need much of it at all, but if you have been unsuccessful in absorbing a few more particles after the first, then you will need to make do with just that…” Liu Min glanced at Bianca, “If you have plenty, then I would recommend separating a strand that you can comfortably control, and experiment with more after you’ve gotten the hang of it. Nobody benefits from you accidentally frying yourself, or your head, while trying to catch the dragon as a mere hawk.”

As self-explanatory as the metaphor was, Bianca felt a little confused. Her energy had been circulating just fine when she used the panel, though that immediately cleared up her confusion.

Whatever this panel was, wherever it came from, it or something related to it was responsible for her cultivation right now. She had not handled it on her own, and perhaps she might never be able to use it on her own as she had still not read the manual provided to her, nor did she find herself possessing any kind of innate skill with it.

That encouraged her to focus on what Liu Min was saying, just in case it proved helpful.

“Fortunately, this is simple enough. Just as you will have absorbed the planar energy, control it within you and lead it to travel along a set of meridians. It doesn’t matter where you lead it, though I would recommend the women here to focus it around the dantian – you know the place, I’m sure,” she said, manifesting some of her sky-like energy and creating a small circle, with a strand of brighter light that travelled throughout it, “Follow the meridians and lead the energy back to the dantian.”

“Wait, is that it?” Bianca couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“Yes, it is. It’s rather simple to circulate energy around the body, but it is not only essential for you, but also extends into future realms quite nicely. Externalised planar constructs emulate meridian circulation to a certain extent, and when you reach the fourth realm, like I have, you can stabilise energy out in the world, creating near-permanent constructs and arrays, such as this one.”

She took hold of the circulation circle and brought it down to the level of Bianca’s eyes, before tossing it up in the air and catching it as if it was just some ordinary object.

“If you try hard enough, you could create the foundation for countless generations to follow, letting them prosper and grow long after your inevitable demise,” Liu Min dispersed the circle, “So, focus on being able to control your energy. Everything else requires it.”

As Liu Min manifested a mass of energy resembling a cloud and sat down on it, remaining silent for now, Bianca decided to attempt it. Thanks to the panel’s circulation, she knew of a path that seemed suitable, and she had a vague notion of what to do, and a much better one of what it should look like. Hence, there was some small chance that she would be able to successfully pull it off and accomplish something.

Turning her gaze inwards, focusing on the channels within her body, she tried to control her energy independently of the panel, a thing that proved immensely difficult from the first second.

When her thoughts turned to controlling energy, they automatically moved to the panel, to this tyrannical thing that gladly moved it for her, forcing her to pause and try again. In that regard, the name she had assigned to it was most certainly suitable, and when she thought to the word used by Su Mingyu a while earlier, she found that it too proved an excellent descriptor, even if it felt unpleasant to hear.

‘Demonic Tyrant… If only I knew where this thing came from,’ Bianca sighed internally while she kept trying to control her energy, ‘I don’t necessarily mind this thing, but if it had an off switch, that would be great…’

It felt like trying to solve a puzzle while the solutions were always beside it, written out so plainly and clearly that it was a struggle not to fully understand them with a single glance. Sure, the puzzle was still there, and she could just solve it independently of the answer, but with how prominent the solution was, she would have to have a will of steel to disregard the solution and actually go through the puzzle in the proper manner.

Worse yet, every time she tried to set her focus on the puzzle alone, the more the solution seemed to grow in size, taking over more and more of the puzzle, until she could barely see anything but the answer – but the Demonic Tyrant, the strange panel, the thing with no known origin or explanation that she could find.

“Bianca, are you having trouble?” Liu Min’s voice interrupted those desperate attempts, and the result almost seemed to be mocking her.

The moment her focus shifted, the Demonic Tyrant performed a circulation around her body within moments, visibly painting a smooth line from start to finish that was likely visible even outside of her body, given that the youths looking in her direction gasped.

Liu Min, on the other hand, acted as if nothing at all was wrong – fortunately enough, as having an adverse reaction at this point would certainly influence the youths – and simply nodded, “I see you just needed a push. That’s fortunate, but you should make sure that you recognise how you succeeded this time. Otherwise, you may need to learn the same lesson numerous times in a row, which will hurt you in the long run.”

“I’ll… keep that in mind,” Bianca struggled to keep the frustration out of her voice.

The only thing she could tell from this was that Liu Min couldn’t detect the influence of the Demonic Tyrant on her, or managed not to respond to it at all.

‘Wait, do I even know that the panel- the Demonic Tyrant thing is not normal for people here? I mean, logically speaking, it wouldn’t be, and Liu Min would surely point it out, and the others… I don’t know that the others are doing, but I doubt that they would struggle much if they had a panel like mine… unless they don’t think anyone has it either, but at that point I think it would be a little too silly.’

Bianca may not have been the most experienced when it came to fantasy lands and stories – schools in Antania tended to occupy most of one’s childhood, and she never had much investment in those – but even she knew that if there was something so common, people would know about it.

It would be like vampires not being known about if one in every five humans was one… or something.

“So, in the first stage, channelling energy means taking the energy that you already have within your dantian and circulating it throughout your body. This will double the enhancement your energy provides to your body passively, meaning that in the first stage, the 10% increase will rise to a 20% one, and in the ninth, it will go from 90% to 180%,” Liu Min explained, “Do note that this increase is usually worthless against someone past the second realm – and in that realm, too – because the sheer power that can produced with planar energy by then will overpower you completely.”

“Senior Liu-”

“Yes, and those in the higher realms don’t ever lose the advantages of lower realms, because that would be nonsensical. Imagine every realm being worse than the last in some way – who would ever cultivate?” Liu Min interrupted one of her juniors, “Anyway, that’s channelling energy. Simple, right?”

Most nodded, and given that Bianca demonstrated apparently great skill, it would be wrong of her to shake her head or request additional advice, at least for now.

 

“None of you have been trained in proper combat, so I’m not letting a single one of you go around punching one another,” Liu Min said, “Instead, you will do normal punches and kicks as practise, and not only will that help you when you inevitably get in a fight at some point in your life, but it will also ensure that you are able to circulate your energy without any need to focus on it.”

Bianca looked at the youths that easily got into some semblance of a fighting stance, and mimicked them, lacking experience in this regard. Her combat skill had only ever been polished in the scuffles against the jerk from college, and those were few in number.

“Don’t be worried about getting this part wrong. As long as you can move around and channel energy in one active situation, it should become trivial in any other, until it occurs as automatically as breathing,” her explanation continued while she took on a far more decent combat posture, or so Bianca and literally every other youth in sight thought, given that they copied her without any hesitation at all.

Most likely, that lot had some idea of what they were doing differently, but Bianca just figured it looked better.

‘If I approach everything like this, I won’t stand a chance, will I? That’s just… great…’

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