Calculating Cultivation

Chapter 35: Demonic Blood Sect

We came to a stop at a desolate mountaintop. I had no idea where we were. The wind and rain rushed by. Aoyin stepped off the floating sword, he gestured at me to follow, and I followed him. He returned the flying sword to his spatial ring. We then went into the mountain, past several doors he easily opened and that slammed shut behind me. Glowing paper lights lit up and then turned off as we passed through the stone hallways.

Escape wasn’t going to be easy or simple. “What do you know about demonic cultivation?” he asked me as we descended into the mountain.

“That you take the cultivation of others and impart it into yourself. To use their power as your own,” I replied.

“Indeed, Yuan Zhou. Indeed. While the righteous sects reject this, I do not begrudge them. For there needs to be sheep for the wolf to eat. My own father only fed me the flesh of cultivators from an early age. I never expected to see someone looking as young as me,” he replied.

“You waited that long by the road?” I asked. He let out a deep chuckle.

“I once disguised myself as a statue and remained perfectly immobile for a decade to kill a rank 8 cultivator. Good times. It took some effort to work out that a spatial ring was still around, but it had clearly been hidden. I was willing to wait a year to find out who killed my disciple,” he said, and I gulped.

“That is very impressive Master Aoyin,” I said while trying to keep my rampant fear under control.

“Not really. You have made waves. My knowledge and spies are quite impressive. I was actually searching for you specifically,” he said.

“Me?” I asked in surprise.

“Hmm, indeed. You killed another one of my disciples in your Half Moon City.” I remembered the demonic cultivator. “That brought you to my attention. I spent time learning about you. A genius under the heavens. Then the personal disciple of Sect Leader Jiang Fengge. I would never be able to snatch you out from under his nose.” We entered a well furnished room with book shelves and a table. He gestured at me to sit at the table, I sat. He sat as well and kept talking.

“But then you went to Imperial City. I learn that you have managed to gain the backing of an Imperial Sect elder. Now that is truly impressive at the second stage of cultivation. You were tracked down to the Crashing Wave Sect and then disappeared into the ocean.”

“Then you escaped, my apprentice died. I had a soul lantern made of course. The Towering Tree sect the other cultivator that dealt the killing blow is a low rank sect, so no soul lantern. But you, you have one. Now you will serve me and help me become an immortal, or die,” he said. I gulped nervously at that.

“Yes, Master,” I replied, and he chuckled.

“I can see you deny the truth in your heart. But do not underestimate me Yuan Zhou. I am second only to the immortals on this continent. And even they would hesitate before my martial might,” he replied. The fact he was willing to say something so boldly, clearly indicated that he thought he was up there in terms of ability.

“And you aren’t going to consume me? To push you to becoming an immortal?” I asked. He grinned even wider at that. Oh no. My heart fell. This was not good.

“Indeed, you truly are a genius. How wonderful. I find lying distasteful. The truth is a much sharper sword. I want you to get past your first bottleneck. The unification of mind, body, and soul. To taste that truth, will give me the push I need,” he said. I closed my eyes. I had to accept this. I had no chance of escape or reversing things right now. In time, hopefully, I would come up with something.

“I know what you are thinking without a technique,” he said. “You want to reverse things and find a way to escape,” he told me.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Hahahaha, oh, so bold. You truly have the arrogance of a genius. To sit here in my lair and say to my face that you will counter my techniques that have been developed over the ages. That truly is an experience.” I suddenly felt my body lock. My right hand rose up and slapped my face. Aoyin was grinning at me as I slapped myself again, and again. After ten slaps my hand lowered to my side and I gained control of my body again. I let out a gasp, breathing heavily.

“Thank you for the lesson, Master,” I said as calmly as I could.

“At least you can learn. I like arrogance, but don’t look down on me so casually. I who have slaughtered sects for killing a disciple of mine. But you have arranged for the deaths of two.” I gulped at this. “You are going to pay me back with your life.” A twisted dagger with hundreds of tiny glowing red symbols on it, appeared above the table. The dagger then floated over to me.

“I will ensure you can’t escape. The Ever Seeking Dagger. Stab yourself with it,” he said with a grin. I didn’t hesitate, quickly picking it up with my right hand. I was planning to stab my left hand, but spikes shot out of the hilt into my right hand.

“Ahhhhh!” I screamed and tried to throw it away, but my hand wouldn’t open. I felt my blood being sucked out. A couple of seconds later I managed to open my bloody hand and dropped the dagger on the table. There were no spikes visible on the hilt. I opened my mouth to speak and a pill flew inside of my mouth. I gagged and was forced to swallow it.

“The Poison of the Unseen Snake. And now the final thing to make sure you never escape beyond my grasp.” A glowing black shard about the size of a needle appeared in his hand and he threw it at me. It struck between my eyes and there was quite a bit of pain in my head. “That one is quite special. I won’t tell you the name of it to keep you guessing, but it is something of my own creation. Call it Aoyin’s Fang.”

“What…?” I gasped out through the pain I was feeling. I glanced at my right hand and blinked as it was already healed. I focused on what was happening with my cultivation while he talked.

“If you escape all three bindings, then you truly are a genius blessed by the heavens. To escape even one, I would consider that a miracle. To escape two, even with the help of an Immortal that might be possible. But all three. No,” he said with a malicious grin.

“You won’t kill me now, not after having entrapped me,” I looked up defiantly and he nodded.

“Indeed. But what are you going to do? Go crying home to daddy Fengge. Help me daddy! Help me!” Aoyin teased me with the same evil grin he had. I wanted to say I would make him regret it, but didn’t dare insult him or look down on him. I was completely outmatched in every way possible. “I will tell you what any cultivator will do, after they know, you have talked to me. They will either kill you on the spot if they are smart, or hand you over to the Imperial Sect so they can try and find information about me.”

“You want me to get past the first bottleneck? How?” I asked. If I was going to suffer and be trapped, I would extract all the knowledge I could first, with the hopes of escaping Aoyin’s clutches one day.

“Pragmatic, I like it. You remind me of me. I am sure you are thinking about your revenge on me already. I did the same with my father. His screams were amazing as I devoured his cultivation. That is why you will make for a great demonic cultivator. The answer is simple. You will follow the path of blood. Killing other cultivators, to empower your cultivation.”

“And how does that work? I can get motes, but the rest?” I asked.

“You take in their energy and offload the negative effects of rapid cultivation. Well, you seem to be well on your way to offsetting the negative effects. Stealing from the high-level beasts, in their little secret underwater gardens. When they realize what you have done, they will be coughing out blood. That would be the case if I hadn’t killed one,” he said with a smile and put a spirit stone on the table. My eyes went wide at it. It had the most energy of any spirit stone I had ever seen.

“They followed me?” I asked in surprise.

“Oh, you sweet righteous child. Of course, they followed you. The Crushing Depths Of The Ocean, was quite a challenge to kill. But you were healing in the Crashing Wave Sect, so you probably didn’t sense the massive storm and tsunamis that were unleashed.” I shook my head numbly at that.

“A shame. Beast gardens are quite dangerous to steal from, since the beasts will pursue you,” he said.

“This wasn’t told to me,” I replied.

“Oh daddy sect leader, please tell me of the dangers of my idiotic plans, with my stupid cultivation,” he said with a chuckle. “You know they want you to die and are using you. But unlike those so called righteous sects, I let you know exactly what I am doing.”

“You plan to eventually kill me, they don’t,” I countered.

“That is true. But my methods are much better than their methods. Going into the Firmament? Bah! Your useless sect leader, ran back with his tail between his legs. Complete and utter trash. I won’t claim to do better, but I want you to stay alive until I come for you,” Aoyin said.

“So what? I kill a cultivator? Stick them in a pot and make a pill?” I asked.

“Hmm, that is normally what I have my lesser disciples do. Teaches them patience. But I think with you, I will take a different approach. One I reserve for my most promising disciples,” he said and waved a hand. What could only be described as torture device. It was a large coffin. “Just toss a corpse in here, and it does all the work. Self-powered by the corpses too.” He said with a grin. I got up and looked it over.

There were a lot of formations and possibly arrays all over it. I put the coffin away in my mid-rank storage ring. “Thank you, Master,” I said.

“Hmm, well follow me. Time to test it out first and fix your cultivation from the blow that was landed on you,” he said and picked up the level 8 spirit stone. He got up and I followed him out of the room into the depths of the mountain.

We soon arrived at horizontal indentations in the wall like a crypt would have. Most were empty. But few had a blue glow over them, with a person inside. “Set the coffin down,” he told me. I quickly got it out. “Hmm, well this is a stage three, so she should do.” Aoyin glanced at me and then at the woman frozen in place in the crypt.

The blue barrier went down. He reached out, grabbed her and then dragged her out. Before she could do anything, she was tossed into the coffin and Aoyin slammed the lid shut. “Hand there,” he pointed at a spot on the top of the coffin. I put my hand in the obvious hand shaped imprint on top. The entire coffin began to emit a sinister red glow from various carvings on it.

There was a scream from the inside. “The more they struggle and scream the better the result,” Aoyin said while I felt sick. There was no choice except to obey. His mere presence in front of me was like a gun to my head. This was going to be my fate one day.

The screams quieted down after a minute along with the occasional shaking of the coffin. The red light dimmed and then went out. “Open it up,” Aoyin said. I removed my hand and opened up the coffin. Inside was a large red spirit stone, not a blue one. “The red ones have a different property. It was tricky getting all the alchemical work integrated into it. Break off a piece and swallow it,” he said. I hesitated at this for a moment, but then obeyed.

The blood crystal shattered into smaller pieces. I picked a small non-jagged one and put it in my mouth. My entire body felt alive. “Feel the power. Shift your motes back into position,” he said and I obeyed. It felt much easier. I cut off half a year of hard work and pain.

“How?” I asked once the energy ran out. This made no sense. Aoyin grinned at me.

“The root of all demonic cultivation. The coffin senses your current cultivation rank and structures the crystal in a way that will help you the most. It only works up to rank 4 despite being a rank 8 demonic tool,” he said with a feral grin at me.

“Thank you Master,” I replied. I put away the remaining shards and the coffin into my storage ring.

“For the second stage, you could have used something like this instead of your astral soul stabilizer, or refined beast essence.”

“But not the Pill of Peace?” I asked. He shook his head.

“The path of mind cultivation is one that resists demonic cultivation. Which is why you will be my bridge.” He wasn’t even hiding his plans. “Get stronger. Counter my methods. Run away. It matters not. In time you will become more desperate and use demonic cultivation to harvest other cultivators in order to live. To break through the bottleneck, with the hope I won’t be there.”

“I don’t have a choice,” I said with a defeated sigh.

“Indeed. The best plans are ones that have no way to fail. Will you really kill yourself? I think not. That means you will fight. I suppose you can live out your remaining life, never cultivating again in order to spite me. But you have hope. Hope I will be killed or you will find a way around my methods before your time is up,” he replied.josei

“Yes…master,” I said with a weak glare. Aoyin just chuckled.

“I like it. Fate turns. Just like I had killed my father, you will try and kill me. So, the wheel of karma will complete, but I will break it.”

“And if you become an immortal through another way?” I asked.

“Then we will speak again. For immortality is but the first step on a great journey young disciple. Come, we shall depart. Where would you like to go?” he asked me.

“Imperial City,” I replied, and he chuckled.

“To sell one of your green ocean lilies and get a red sun rose for your Pill of Peace. Or do you mean to beg for help from an immortal?” he asked.

“To do research at the very least,” I replied, and he nodded.

“Prudent and smart. Well, I will return you to a nearby city and you can make the rest of the trek yourself,” Aoyin said.

“That flying sword?” I asked.

“A toy I picked up from a cultivator. Only something you can use after the bottleneck. A rank 8 treasure,” he said as we made our way back out of his underground base.

“Aren’t you worried, I will know where this place is?” I asked.

“It is already known.” What?! “I can sense your shock. But digging me out isn’t viewed as useful. If the immortals truly wanted to stop me, they could. But they allow demonic cultivators to exist,” he said.

“Why?!” That made no sense.

“Why is something I used to ask myself. But you know the answer,” he said.

“External pressures and they want more immortals,” I said, thinking back onto the conversations I had with the Sect Leader.

“Exactly. I know what their red lines are and won’t cross them. But you, well you have no backing that matters. Unless you plan to cry to daddy?” he asked malevolently.

“I just might,” I replied.

“Good. Good. When you do, tell Jiang Fengge that this is my revenge for him killing one of my disciples.” It was obvious that Aoyin was only using that as an excuse. He just liked killing people and causing suffering.

It was also obvious that there was a fourth and possibly fifth method he had used on me. The three methods he had visibly to get a hold of me again were too obvious. There would probably be another hidden method tied to this coffin. He made sure I consumed at least one portion of blood crystal.

But when his hand was on my back for the flight. I had felt something much more subtle, that I wanted to ignore as an itch or case of nerves. With the wind blasting me, it wasn’t easy to pin point, but he had done something to me.

There were probably five things I now had to fix as I left Aoyin’s mountain base. I also had no idea how much of what he said was true. I would need to find a formation grandmaster to sort what this coffin did exactly. I hated this feeling, my life not being under my control.

Another half day of traveling, who knows how fast before we slowed down to a stop. I couldn’t keep my eyes open from the wind, and I had no doubt Aoyin could control the strength of the wind getting through. If he wanted to travel without any breeze bothering us, he could have easily done that. A random mountaintop, would be impossible to locate.

I had not way of getting back to him. “Here we are. A short journey back to Imperial City, but you should be able to manage,” he said, and I took a step off his flying sword. I turned around to look at him. That dark hair, those malevolent eyes, and that tattered red robe.

“I had no chance?” I asked with a sigh, and he just chuckled.

“You really didn’t. If you didn’t return than the Crashing Wave Sect would have killed, you. I was ready to wait a year. A genius like yourself is rare. Even more so, one than just wanders around without any protection,” he grinned as his flying sword angled itself upright and he leaned back against it. “Also the coffin isn’t trapped.”

“I don’t believe you,” I replied, and he chuckled.

“Check it out. But it is a rank 8 treasure. If you show daddy Fengge that. What do you think he will do?” Aoyin asked me while floating around me with his arms behind his head, leaning back against his flying sword, in the most casual pose possible.

“He will take it away.” Aoyin waved his hand at me. “And most likely hand the coffin and myself over to the Imperial Sect for benefits.”

“Indeed. They like the chaos, I cause, just not too much,” he pulled out the rank 8 spirit stone from within his robes. “I will pay off the Immortals with this little trinket,” he said as my gaze locked onto the spirit stone.

“Just like that? They let you get away with this?” I asked, resigned. The answer was yes but he clearly wanted to brag.

“Indeed. A rank 8 beast dead and its spirit stone in hand. A little chaos is a small price to pay. What, did you think I would give this to you?” he asked me with a chuckle.

“No. Thank you for the coffin. But I wanted to ask one more thing before you depart Master,” I said.

“Oh, this will be interesting. Power? Knowledge? Want someone dead?” he grinned at me as he floated around, relaxed as ever.

“How will me progressing help you?” I asked.

“Ah, an interesting question, but a simple one. I will give you some insight before I depart, perhaps you will use this knowledge against me. That would be amusing and I hope you do something like that. The centuries can get quite dull. Unlike all those other righteous cultivators, I don’t sit around in a dark room for my entire life.” He was also much more unbalanced and manic, but I wasn’t going to say that. There were clearly issues with his mind.

Something I had heard in my past life, a crazy person telling their story on the street was just a crazy person. A crazy person telling their story in a country club was eccentric. Aoyin’s power meant that I had to take him seriously, even if he was completely off his rocker.

“Cultivation starts and ends at the same way. The divergence grows until the first bottleneck. The divergence to strengthen your true soul, astral soul, or whatever name any of the thousands of sects have come up for it.” I listened intently, since any knowledge would hopefully give me an edge and he was clearly willing to humor me.

“In the end there are three paths. Soul, body, and mind. Each of them different as you align your motes. The later stages of cultivation are about attuning the physical and your energy soul to become one. That is the second bottleneck, on the path to immortality.” I nodded at this. It was similar to what I had read.

“Daos, paths, or understandings, are about converging this understanding to a single point. What you are doing will completely negate the second bottleneck if you make it that far.” I heard his emphasis on the word ‘if’. “There is much more variance. Your daddy Fengge focused on the understanding of the soul itself. That is why he is quite skilled in certain areas.”

“And you will take this understanding from me?” I asked.

“Something like that. No demonic cultivator has stepped into immortality, you know why?” I shook my head. “The understanding is not their own. That is why the best of us get stuck at rank 8. You can steal understanding, and cultivation, but to bridge the gap in true understanding,” he shook his head.

“And I will fix that?” I asked.

“Yes, you will. While I might detest your sect leader, he is right. You are a pig,” my eyes went wide at that. How had Aoyin known he had said that? “Surprised? The truth is quite powerful, disciple. My knowledge is not simple either. Now I will leave you with that little mystery and wish you luck. Since your success is my success. Business is all about knowing who to invest in, not what,” he said. I couldn’t say anything else as there was a sudden blast of wind. I was forced to blink and turn away for a brief moment.

When I looked back Aoyin was gone. His parting words struck me deeply. He invested into people to empower himself, while I invested into businesses. I guess the big difference, was that he liked to kill cultivators at the end while my businesses would bring greater prosperity for just himself.

I turned away from where he had departed and began slowly walking up the road. I felt a strong sense of melancholy and frustration. The sadness came from the fact that the one to truly believe in me, who was a cultivator, was a crazy demonic cultivator. There was constant doubt.

Everything I saw could have easily been an illusion as well. A rank 8, with no scruples could do quite a bit. I had the coffin in my ring though and I could feel Aoyin’s fang pressing down on my mind. Like a tainted sliver, that didn’t help me, the opposite of the astral soul stabilizer. I could kind of sense where it was with my motes in my body, just like I could feel whatever he put in my head.

It was sadly obvious why he didn’t keep me around as well. My hardships and unique solutions would make my cultivation stronger. Also, he couldn’t afford it. While he could whip out a rank 8 crystal, he didn’t think I would make it past the first bottleneck. He was just hedging his bets and getting revenge at the same time.

What Aoyin had done was smart. I felt completely outclassed. It just wasn’t an issue of power either. I had no choice but to continue on my path of cultivation. The more desperate I became, the more I would want to use the coffin. If I had to guess it would make it easier for him to consume me or do whatever horrible thing he was planning if I relied on it.

But the temptation would be there, and he wouldn’t have to fund anything himself. If he kept me locked away, then he would have to take on the costs of my cultivation himself and the headache of me escaping in some way or ruining a plan of his.

The techniques and resources he had used, clearly cost a lot, but I was an investment. What was the value of a rank 8 coffin that turned people into cultivation resources compared to immortality? I had no doubt that he would gladly hand out a hundred coffins if it would be possible.

He might not be lying, but he clearly was bending the truth quite a bit and took a perverse pleasure in doing so. He might also have a connection with my Sect Leader. That was another can of worms I couldn’t even begin to open without a lot of headache. He clearly despised Sect Leader Jiang Fengge and it was personal. This could also be considered as revenge against him.

Aoyin was practically daring me to spill all of this to the Imperial Sect or the Sect Leader. He was right, there would be no mercy. And if there was, how much help would I really get? When he could just toss a rank 8 spirit stone at an immortal as a bribe. What did I have to match that kind of value? The two green ocean lilies in my possession, were nothing but trash compared to such an item.

It was no joke to say I had been put in a bind. At least I was free. “If you are watching, screw you Aoyin!” I said loudly. Nothing happened. Maybe I really was free. But he had patience. That much was clear. He had waited around to catch me on my return to the scene of the battle. I should have taken the spatial ring, but I hadn’t wanted to risk it getting taken as ‘compensation’ by Elder Bo. My paranoia had screwed me over.

The one thing I didn’t get was why bring me to his base if he was going to let me go like this? That was one thing that made no sense out of all this. There was a clue there, I just needed to spot it. And if nothing else, I would come up with a way to kill myself before he could stuff me in an alchemical pot. Aoyin may try to eat me, or consume my cultivation but I was going to stick in his throat regardless.