Sister Quan felt queasy. "Well, that is gross."

Little Tianshi was fascinated. "How does that even work?"

They watched Adam absently pull the skeletal hand trying to pull him into the swamp water.

...The whole limb came up from the muck.

And wiggled. Apparently trying to attack still.

Sister Quan groaned. "Adam, don't play with it. WHY are you playing with it."

Little Tianshi leaned forward. "There is no meat on it. Like... the bones are pure white... does turning into undead clean your body?"

Her guard hummed. "Depends on the energies involved. I've seen some graveyards full of zombies ranging from life-like all the way down to goo covered bone fragments. Skeletons though, from what I've seen... when reborn, they start off by converting their flesh into energy that their bones absorb."

Another watcher chipped in as Adam began waving the skeletal arm around. "Skeletons start off with pure white bones, sure. But as they get stronger, the bones can become other materials, or gain patterns or symbols... I've seen a few begin to emit fumes or consume the rest of their body parts to become a flying skull. Lot of variety there."

An odd noise. "Oh god, he found another body part." Sister Quan stood up abruptly. "I can't handle this. I'm going downstairs to cultivate, please let me know what happens with NO DETAILS later."

Tianshi blinked. "Is that skeletal leg wearing high heels!?"

Yes, she was done with this.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam hummed as he incinerated another body fragment.

Turns out his curse marks were being called by this Corpse Bog. Which meant a couple of good things, right off the bat!

First of all, they were no longer completely lost. Just MOSTLY lost, as the Corpse Bog was a known location but a LARGE location.

Secondly, that odd calling had pretty much settled into a happy hum. Just listening to it as the black marks on his white skin pulsed was soothing.

Something foul from the water and an odd rot in the air... both were drawn to his body. The energies, so dense and complex that it was pointless to try and name them quickly, seeped into his markings and were eagerly entering his Martial Spirit, where they automatically joined with the Asura Stone Chamber.

Although the rate of absorption was high, it was a fraction of a percent of the output already provided by his odd treasure. Gathering all these energies barely made his abilities change by even a measurable amount.

But the variety of energies were greater! Many lesser variants, toxins and raw anger... all the odds and ends that were created when pure death energy interacted with far less violent powers in nature.

Still, relaxed or not, the whole area felt a bit odd.

He reached down... oh, a whole upper torso this time? No head though.

It was interesting to view these 'skeletons' with his senses. Most of these... skelelimbs? Skeleton fragments, anyway. They were bound with Yin, Corpse, and Death energies.

But... these fragments had no governing consciousness. In much the same way that a lobster would flail around after having its head bisected, these animal and human body pieces just... reached for things. Mostly things without matching energy signatures.

If he dumped all the parts together, they might even combine like magnets into a mound. Would that generate enough matter and energy to give it sentience? Necromancy wasn't a well documented art at the best of times, and even if made by a Lich, the Asura Stone didn't provide instructions or anything.

There were a bunch of interesting snakes and... snake like Spirit Beasts under this gray moss though. He could easily detect them, and they seemed confident enough in their ability to hide that they were not fleeing in every direction.

...Well, that and Rockette was still practicing her new 'Do not scare everyone' technique, energy masking through environmental matching. Emtem? Basically 'Energy Shrouding'. Sounded better anyway.

He glanced at an eye the size of his head that was swimming past. No body attached either. Gross. And totally unafraid of Adam too.

How arrogant.

Anyway, he continued to walk on, using his energy detection abilities to feel where the moss density was firm enough for a safe stroll.

Something here was... radiating the energies supporting the area. Whatever it was also the source of resonation with his curse marks was unclear. And it was... that way.

This place was a bit boring when you weren't being poisoned, attacked by corpse pieces, or hunted by the many, MANY snakes.

A few trees (Sample get!), many similar mosses (Yoink!), some odd liquids (Mostly poisonous or so filthy that it was equally tainted and lethal, but woo more free stuff!), and the odd bush.

He also took the bush.

Hadn't tried converting the whole swamp yet though. Not sure he would either, the energies here were not dense enough to tempt him really... Not now that he was able to just expand 'Soil Grid' a bit instead of having to grab a few dozen square miles of land per sample.

You would think so much liquid in the area would be a GREAT source of 'Water' to work with, but it was so tainted with darker energies that it just wasn't worth the effort.

Bummer.

A quick step to the side allowed a maw the size of a van to surge upwards from the flatland of floating moss, missing Adam as it soared upwards to the heavens... A MASSIVE Spirit Beast, covered in scales and with sharp teeth several feet long silently confused about where its meal just went.

Huh. Looks similar to a crocodile, if you ignored the four horns on its head. And the massively long neck.

Adam slid forward a few feet, his body twisting to deliver a harsh palm smash filled with Battle Qi to the exposed neck of the beast, hopefully near the spine.

A wave rippled outwards, the floating moss disturbed by the loud CRACK in the air!

...Fighting on this stuff was annoying. Every step Adam made had to be tested by Rockette multiple times, as the previous movements could destroy the stability of the matted vegetation.

Sensing the Beast... No, it was tricky to detect the insides of the creature with its Spiritual Network still alive, threw off the measurements. So he would have to make some educated guesses when it came to weak points.

Best be sure.

Using the massive flesh as a surface he forced his fingers to grip scars from past battles as handholds, his feet to tear small wounds, and his body to fling upwards. The creature was confused and clearly distressed at how much sudden damage it had received, so this was a good time.

Near the mid point between eyes, Adam pulled his left arm back and infused his cursed marks with extra energy, a black web of poisonous power wrapping around the bright blue energy of his Qi as he prepared to strike.

His fighting style encouraged harsh, firm strikes... and focused on injecting energy into his foe, as he had lots to work with and such an act was hard to deal with even by the most talented opponent... So this should get some attention.

A poisoned impact managed to shift the beast! ...If only a bit.

Adam stood on the frozen creature... and had 'Research' recording. Everything.

The forehead wound was rapidly turning black and converting the nearby flesh into a gray slurry, a liquid that dripped away as more and more of the area was exposed to air.

...Looks like the initial punch managed to fracture the bone under there, but only slightly shook the material within. What cultivation grade had it reached? Grade Seven, easily. This thing felt far too powerful to not have developed its internal Beast Core for cultivation.

Oh, it was shifting!

Adam moved back to a thicker area of bog moss as the enormous head began to fall forward silently, the massive neck falling like a tree as an ever growing mass of a main body beginning to float to the surface.

Was it dead? He had heavily damaged a small section of the spine and directly attacked the skull, but creatures like this had a HUGE amount of vitality. Some could fight on and recover even after being beheaded, so he didn't feel confidant that this was over.

He blinked as a black pattern slowly began to spread through the scales... Ah, the poison.

Even living here, in such a dangerous place, it wasn't like the creatures could just ignore Adam's attack.

Most of the defenses these Beasts had were near the skin and digestive system, so him just... injecting corrosive energies directly into the skull of the beast?

Well, it was likely it had resisted this long only because of how resistant the creatures of this Bog had to be to survive without becoming more corpse zombies and skeletons.

As the (Most likely only temporarily paralyzed) Beast twitched, Adam had a ponder.

...Should he try to harvest this? The meat was clearly not going to last, at the rate the black tainted tissue was increasing and the grey flesh was sloughing away. The Beast Core should be... somewhere over there, near the skull, right? That shouldn't evaporate from the previous attack.

His thoughts were disturbed when the moss... shifted.

...Uh.

A quick vanish and Adam was gone as thin white tentacles suddenly wrapped the paralyzed, poisoned, and wounded horned crocodile... and everything vanished into the black waters below, even as the soft gray moss began to refill the gap.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam blinked on the observation floor. "Well."

One of the guards cursed. "THAT SHIT is so NOT acceptable. I've never heard ANYTHING reported about potential high grade spirit beasts in the Corpse Bog, much less that... that thing!"

He turned to the side, curious. "Do you mean the giant horned snake crocodile thing or the whatever it was with the tentacles?"

Both arms flew upward. "EITHER! There are surveys done EVERY MONTH for places like this, we do NOT want to risk an unknown advanced beast silently gathering a wave of monsters to attack a Sect." He pointed harshly. "This. Is. Not. Acceptable."

Little Tianshi was star struck. "DA! You were like 'ZOOM!' and then 'BANG!'" She frowned. "Then Mr. Whiskers said you were winning when that Spirit Beast jerk stole your prize."

Adam shrugged. "I don't cultivate like normal, so beast cores have little value for me. I was mostly interested to see how my new poison attack was affecting the insides of the thing." Such a shame to lose a good autopsy opportunity.

The lead guard hummed, her voice soft. "You may have accidentally killed the second creature too, if the first one was as full of your poisons as it appeared."

He sighed and fell into a chair, watching the outside Bog stabilize with the others. "No, not likely. Everything in this swamp seems to have high resistance to the stuff, which makes sense. If all the food is poisoned, you better be able to eat it safely."

Tianshi sighed. "I can't believe Sister Quan missed this. That was an amazing fight! How did you move so fast?"

Shrug. "Forced my body to break safety boundaries. Only my surface layer of Adam gets hurt, and it heals quick enough. Can't wait until I can improve my cultivation base a bit more, felt underpowered just now."

Seeing her surprise, he waved at the water. "Took two hits to even stun the creature, and only my poison was able to actually inconvenience it. If that... whatever it was, hadn't taken over the fight? I would have had to keep attacking for like... minutes. Easily."

He pointed at the moss. "The ground isn't stable enough for that. And I didn't want Rockette ripping the energy out of the Beast or exploding it because she is trying to not scare everything away."

He sighed as he leaned back, accepting a drink from one of the more considerate guards.

...Did she wink at him?

Huh. "Anyway, I may be able to do more damage than one would expect, but I think I need to design some stuff to improve my reach. If I shoved my whole fist into that monster's eye, I don't think it would have done much more than pissed it off."

He took a sip... how refreshing! "Point is, I either need a sword or something twenty feet long to get at the good bits... or make some attacks that either extend the reach of my impacts or generate damage from a distance."

Everyone paused as the swamp bulged slightly... no, it was just a fragment of the crocodile's corpse. The tentacles pulled it back down again.

Adam took another sip and sighed. "I guess I could use my forge techniques... But that feels a tad lazy, isn't designed for attacking, and would be tough to share with the guards. Best make something new."

Little Tianshi hadn't been taught that most abilities were passed down, discovered, or collected from ruins... so she accepted the idea most rapidly compared to the crowd of guards around her. "OH! Can you make it explode into flames and then metal spikes... and a wave of lightning and a giant hammer would smash down..."

Aww, she was just so cute. "Maybe later, if you work hard at improving yourself." This drink was wonderful! Rockette should explore whatever berry or fruit this came from, maybe expand the testing priority for them.

He relaxed a little, watching the Bog. "I think... it would be best to create a generic, standard set of attacks and defences first. It would make it convenient to teach to the rest of our Sect, easy to verify how much the other disciples are improving, and allow operating procedures to include such baseline attacks as part of policy for attacking or defending."

The lead guard had stars in her eyes. "What did you have in mind?"

Hmm. "A piercing attack, because I needed a cheap one I could spam during that last fight. A bludgeoning one for fighting skeletons, they don't have 'weak areas' so piercing them is pointless. Crowd control?"

Nothing too powerful, but something that Sect members could collaborate on? "Yes, a group capture technique. One that will at least slow an opponent, but that would grow more powerful the more members work together. If you are VERY strong, you could grip a person in place alone... but even the entry level Sect members could band together to at least buy a little time in a pinch."

Pity shields wouldn't work. Even the simplest version used Battle Qi as ablative armor, the energy costs were through the roof! It was why Adam redirected or absorbed attacks instead of blocking them, it just wasn't productive to try.

Also. "I need to come up with some sort of final, desperation move I think. Our Sect members would be far safer if everyone was worried that a cornered disciple could suddenly launch a single devastating attack... Should I have it include safeguards?"

Sacrificing everything would improve the damage by multiple folds, but would run the risk of future Sect members being forced to sacrifice themselves... and only the bravest, most foolish, and most kind hearted would do such a thing.

Leaving only the cowards, the manipulative, and the betrayers behind.

...Best to only drain them to weakness, with no long term effects. It would also prevent people from ordering suicide runs with strange techniques, as their targets would live afterwards to implicate their 'masters'.

Adam drifted away, the guards automatically providing multiple colored jade slips as his mind began designing simple, efficient, and deadly attacks... that would be enhanced by the Martial Spirits and Battle Qi natures of the various Sect Members.

He needed to wait for the Bog to stabilize for a while anyway, might as well do something productive.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

There may be a limited number of abilities that Adam was looking for, but this was a Cultivation World. Not every person could use an ability the same way as another. This was an important detail to consider when designing base abilities for a Sect.

Aside from obvious stuff like compatibility and talent, some people had defects like Adam used to, such as missing an arm or whatever. Also, some creatures that evolved into other forms and joined the Sect may be more used to using their claws to attack, or if it was a plant? Well maybe they specialized in tentacles, vines, or roots.

So, first to be tackled? Piercing.

Surge energy, create a spiral of compression in a single direction, over consolidate everything with a single weakness (Tip of the cone), and BOOM! A piercing attack.

If shaped right, even the released 'projectile' should be thin, high speed, and rotating. Any additional affects would vary based on the energy types and Martial Spirit of the owner.

The trick that Adam was going to use, however, was to create lots and lots of modified, simplified, and efficient versions of this attack type.

Oh, the base version was of course super flexible. It required thousands of tiny variables to fire, which Adam was able to dynamically set near instantly during the initial attack. But for normal people? Not likely.

So, the cultivation jade slip designed, aside from the explanation parts and practicing methods, included some 'vastly simpler to learn' but 'far more restrictive to modify during battle' options. Best to have lots of options rather than miss the one that someone else might need.

A whole list of versions were crafted, spit into sections.

First, which locations to attack from! The assault could be launched from the hand (Palm, fist, each finger, above, below, in front, etc) or from any number of similar locations that focused around the foot, mouth, eyes, elbows, bum... and so forth. Lots of options, each with thousands of further choices depending on where you initially start.

Second, alterations to the attack method. Super fast versions, ones that focused more on disturbing the opponent's battle rhythm than anything or could surprisingly spiral, curve, or change directions... Ideal for speed fighters. Raw power varieties, where a significant charge up time and reduced flexibility was needed but provided an astounding attack. Beam variations, which were weaker but continuous attacks that could be used as crowd control, even if it sacrificed the degree of piercing possible.

Once you made the first two choices? Move on to the third, mental requirements needed to use the ability. This had sections that were basically fire and forget (Launch and dodge, or set a 'landmine' version as a trap), and other areas that had such harsh needs that they nearly turned Adam into a handicapped person due to how much mental attention was required (Target seeking attacks that could attack targets seeking attackers, Attacks that split into weaker but more numerous attacks during transit, etc).

And while Adam provided ALL the options in a fairly searchable set of lists, he also included a small questionnaire to help new Sect members find their ideal version.

Not perfect by any means, but it should save time and could save lives.

If you have no offense, but can take a hit? Go for the 'cannon' or 'turret' version of the ability. Heavy danger if your opponent is stronger, but in return for slow speed and massive buildup? You might be able to take someone down above your level, or contribute to a fight that would normally leave you waiting on the sidelines.

Weak defense? Kill them with a thousand small 'cuts' with shotgun spread piercing attacks, or create tiny, nonlethal needle sized attacks to distract a foe at a critical moment. Stab eyes, destroy equipment, act as support to a larger group at a critical moment.

And if none of that appeals to you, try one of the augmentation versions. One coated your sword, fist, etc with a series of impact piercing attacks. Once you connect with your foe during your normal attack method, a surprise assault from your blade or fist could open up weaknesses or a flaw in their defense!

Adam himself had tried to learn from his past failure. He was focusing on two versions of his own 'Piercing' skill, so that he wouldn't be crippled by choice at a vital moment.

First, a stationary, single shot turret with a triggered 'fire and forget' feature.

During a conflict, Rockette or Adam could choose a point in space, set up this Piercing attack, and ignore it. When needed, either could designate a target, and all 'turrets' in the area would convert their internal spiritual energy into a single attack! Sure, in the process it would involve consuming themselves, but hopefully in the process it would be surprising a foe at a critical moment.

Secondly, a hand augmentation ablative 'infect' attack.

A small packet of energies would compress at each finger tip, Adam's Battle Qi would strengthen those fingers and create sharp claw tips as a delivery method... And after touching a foe, inject that energy in a thin spike as deep as possible.

Use his Blue energy, and it was inserting raw fire deep inside the target.

But if he used his Curse marks?

Well, it should be more effective than punching a reinforced crocodile skull with his bare fist and HOPING that the damage would spread to the distant brain before someone else got hurt.

He had considered focusing all that power into his palm instead, a single shot pile driving spike... but eventual consideration threw it out the window when it came to improving his battle ability.

Because he could ALWAYS make a large single attack... but the point of these two skills was to improve his UNCONSCIOUS fighting ability.

He was merging the two skills into his 'Immense Fist' style, which already included many claw and harsh fist attacks as part of its slow but forceful assault method.

Each rip of his fingers now left blue energy trails while the black cursed energy consolidated at the tips... a deadly surprise for anything that blocked him. Each punch of his hand launched a light blue flame, a turret in all but name that would launch a fierce piercing attack when directed at a single target.

Adam COULD create a tainted poison bolt for those turrets as well, but...

But he wouldn't. Far too dangerous.

Unlike his claws, it was VERY possible for his turrets to accidentally hit something or someone incidentally as the battle could shift heavily and positions would change unexpectedly.

Any damage by his OWN Qi would be a harsh, but a theoretically fixable wound.

But if powered by his curses? It would corrode MOST accidental targets far too quickly for him to feel comfortable about it. Or even notice in time.

It was a concern, as the 'Flame Spear Turrets' (Maybe find a cooler name? Ask Tianshi.) were meant to be launched automatically as additional surprise support for Adam (Also, to act as a light source for fighting in bad conditions).

In the end, to feel more at ease with his own developing attack style, he modified the turret attack so that either himself or Rockette had to designate which ones would launch first BEFORE designating a target to launch at.

Sure, it was slightly more complicated than 'Everything fire there!', but he had the mental ability to easily handle it... and it should reduce the chance that Adam was ALSO surprised by his own ability.

Adam again did a battle routine inside his own personal Cultivation Cave in Rockette, focusing on each solid, imposing step of his 'Immense Fist' style. As he grew more comfortable with the movements, it was shifting the entire attack method to follow a rhythm. A pattern of aggression and stability.

Step. Claw. Step. Slide. Step. Punch. Step. Guard.

A beat, where the ground itself seemed to resonate with each attack... to build a momentum of sorts, where the longer one would fight Adam the more and more the attacker would be drawn in to follow the subtle rhythm.

They would Dodge. Attack. Dive. Move.

All to his own pace. The inevitable, grinding pace of mountains and glaciers.

As he continued... he moved on to the Qi Techniques that he was TRULY compatible with.

The Bludgeoning series.

Unlike Piercing, these formed stable spirals of energy as a base. More like shields than daggers or hammers, they deliberately formed wide surfaces and inflicted enhanced momentum during conflict when possible.

The 'Locations to attack from' part of this new jade slip was similar to the Piercing Techniques. Maybe a bit more focus on the forehead, as a headbutt was a famous attack move that LOVED to be a blunt impact assault, but mostly the same.

Modifications though? Spirals that acted like ablative attacks, withstanding a single blow VERY well. Spirals that twisted into themselves, creating a grinding like surface. Ones that pulled outside attacks inward as a fuel source, others that were dedicated to shifting people, objects, or energy slightly off course.

Adam had again focused on two versions of Bludgeoning attack, and again, they were near autonomous to better merge with his attack patterns.

First, Momentum Redirection. A thin energy spiral would form on his skin or above his armor, and on impact the energy would accelerate FAR faster than needed to absorb the damage, flow over his body in multiple paths to reduce the strain, then either be moved into the other hand or weapon to retaliate... or be shifted into his firm footing to impact the ground.

It wasn't damage nullification, and Adam's version actually forced the diluted impacts inwards to the other conceptual Adams within, creating a large number of minor wounds on multiple Adams rather than hurting his outside shell or damaging the ground he needed to fight on.

With THIS trick, if he could use it without thought, he could safely fight on that bog moss out there. The attacks would injure him, sure... but he wouldn't be hurled downward into that black water with whatever ate that monster earlier.

Secondly? Ablative Bashing. Conflicting spirals on his knuckles, forehead, elbows, knees, and feet would just BARELY be stable.

If they come in firm contact, either when attacking or blocking? Then power would blast in all directions, his momentum redirection helping to ensure a wave of pressure would mostly attack outwards while his foes would find themselves facing a wall of force.

Step. Shift (theoretical) Attack. Step. PUNCH!

His right fist CRACKED as a light blue fog of energy CRUSHED the crystal floor of his cultivation cave. The soft tremor of movement in the room was hopefully caught by Rockette, but was entirely satisfying to the boy as he continued his routine.

This would be useful for normal fights against things that needed cohesion. Zombies, Skeletons, several plant Spirit Beasts, and small crowds of weak but numerous attackers... It was like a more compressed, less maintenance heavy version of his strong punch used earlier.

A moment of thought established the conflicting spirals of energy on his fist again... and then he could ignore it. The energy would naturally build up over time as it came in contact with his Momentum Redirection technique, even while his own movements and even soft breaths would generate potential energy and build up power in these patterns for the next attack.

He could manually power these fragile spirals of course, but why not build up strong attacks for free? If he had to punch twice, then he was probably doing something wrong anyway... or what he was punching would be better off with him injecting corrosive claws into the target instead.

As for the 'Final Attack' techniques or the 'Capture Techniques' so recently crafted? He didn't bother adding either category to his attack routine.

The 'Immense Fist' style did not rely on controlling the opponent, only controlling one's self. And if he needed to use one of the many Capture Techniques, it was both easier and more reasonable for Rockette to do that instead.

So with four abilities to train, Adam was moving in his cave... slowly. Each step harsh, but with care to be as precise as possible. Speed would come later, when the new punches, claws, and defensive steps were automatic and instinctive.

But for now? Slow. Stable. Progress.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Quan blinked. "Why are we stationary? Is Adam diving in the water for something?"

The guards were all hunched over some jade slips for some reason, but had paused when she walked in. The leader stood up and came close. "Good afternoon, Sister Quan. Adam had a short conflict with some sort of Spirit Beast earlier, and decided to design some new Battle Techniques to both improve himself and to increase the ability of the Burning Sword Sect as a result."

...What? No. "I am going to have a snack first, something warm to drink, THEN we will discuss... whatever the hell you just said."

Seriously, too much too soon.

Later, when she felt more awake, she tried again. "So."

Sheesh. "Giant... snake crocodile horned thing. Tried to eat Brother Adam."

Seemed normal for the child. "Then he punched it until it fell over." Because of course. "And poisoned it." Not surprising, he had been working on making his black tattoo more controlled and safe, since it covered his skin and could easily affect others.

She frowned. "Then both of them nearly died to something massive underwater."

A series of nods.

And... those jade slips. "So the boy, finding his ability to punch monsters into submission insufficient... made a thousand or so new battle techniques from scratch. Again. But THIS time, aimed at crafting cheap, efficient attacks that make our secret Sect techniques look both annoying to use and pathetically weak."

Well, THAT was going to happen eventually anyway. He had been half way there already before they even left. "Well... whatever makes him happy I guess. Has anyone seen little Tianshi?"

Several guards pointed up.

Blinking, Sister Quan raised her vision...

Uh. Huh.

She took a stabilizing breath. "LITTLE TIANSHI!"

A distant voice. "Yes?"

Calm. "Why did you put vines all over the ceiling?"

Her tiny head showed up in the vegetation. "Mr. Whiskers told me to use my Martial Spirit when launching a bludgeoning attack, and it created a sort of nest up here."

The girl grinned. "It's my tree house. No one can come up." She paused. "Except you. And Master. And maybe a few of the nicer guards." She pointed at the heavens. "But it is MY tree house, so you gotta follow my rules. And bring cookies."

Aww. So cute! "How did you even get up there?"

A spike of nature stabbed into the ground, thin vines spawning from the edge nearest the table to snap out and steal an apple like fruit... and then everything was yanked back upwards with a SNAP.

The little girl grinned. "Piercing attacks can act different with Green energy and my Betel Nut Seed works through the generated plants."

Sister Quan was more thinking about the inevitable whiplash. That would be a terrifying travel method. "Can't you make a staircase or ladder or something?"

Tiny confusion. "Well... yeah. But it isn't as cool as the whip vine express!"

Sigh. Yeah, she was Adam's Disciple.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam emerged from the caverns onto the moss with... excessive caution.

It took a week or so, but... this should work? Right?

Momentum Redirection.

Not the automatic, reaction instantiated version. A deliberate, more focused application of the theory, while using his Domain to spread his weight out over the dull moss...

With hesitant steps...

Solid!

Alright, so far so good!

Adam walked a bit, keeping his senses on the footing. With a slightly malformed Domain shape that emphasized a wide, low 'foot print'... this should be safe, right?

The ongoing theory was that both prior monsters had tracked him by his previous, more obvious footsteps. So... hopefully NOW, nothing in the black water will suddenly pop up to say 'Hello!' and 'How do YOU taste today?'.

His steps became more confidant as he continued to practice the technique.

So far, the biggest issue? Using this ability required constant Spirit Energy movement around his body and into the lower part of the domain to be sufficiently stable... Which meant Rockette's Energy Shroud technique had issues fully hiding her spiritual impact on the area.

Thus when walking on tissue paper or whatever, Adam would clearly feel like a Cultivator.

Which was fine. Theoretically 'Research' thought that Rockette would EVENTUALLY be able to hide his energies even when attacking or using abilities... but not for a while. Maybe after a few more cultivation levels? For now though, his 'cultivation base' would vary based on how well she was hiding the excess energy resonance.

Step... Yes, this should be fine.

Rapidly, his speed reached an ever higher peak... just had to push a bit harder on the moving surface and redirect his speed vectors forward! So easy!

As his steps began to drift over the material, he had a sudden thought.

...He hadn't practiced stopping.

Glancing down... he was basically floating several feet above the surface now.

...Hadn't practiced landing either.

Uh.

This should be fine.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam blinked at the black mist floating everywhere.

Eww.

So, lessons learned. Once you reached a certain speed, his new technique just got... super efficient. And with so few trees, bushes, or... anything to judge his own speed against?

He had been going DAMN fast.

A chunk of bone landed with a 'gloomp' nearby, instantly piercing the moss and sinking away.

Eww.

Adam had like... two seconds or less to see the WHATEVER it was trying to surface from the bog. Plus, not really paying attention to that in the first place, so it caught him off guard.

Then he had hit it... and ALL of his velocity vanished into the now spreading cloud of poisonous meat mist. Momentum Redirection had used his Domain to just... keep shoving all that force into the monster.

And when the impact tried to exit the other side? Momentum Redirection was like "Oh! Free Energy in Adam's Domain! Here, have another sample!"

...In the end, the entire creature was now a cloud of former flesh. Even the portions below the water had been within his Domain reach, and the entire Spirit Beast had acted like a balloon full of explosions and surprise.

EWW.

Like... he was consuming all the air nearby into Rockette for conversion just to prevent monster gas from getting in his mouth. The few chunks still falling down? It wasn't even the creature he hit, it was the OTHER Spirit Beast that his unfortunate target had been trying to pounce on!

Rockette formed on his shoulder and vibrated. "Young Sage?"

Ah, the lead guard. "Yes?"

Her voice was... fascinated. "Is THAT ability on these jade slips?"

Another chunk of skull landed a bit further away.

Eww. "Yes. Check 'Momentum Redirection' under the bludgeoning slip... but if you want a similar effect, it may be easier to learn the 'Explosive Tackle' technique instead. Less complicated to use, less energy needed... I only got this result from running for a few hours and accelerating so much."

As it was, he had ended up frantically redirecting the damage inward to the conceptual Adams within... otherwise this mist might have just kept being smashed by power. Or attracted more creatures from nearby.

He wasn't entirely sure HOW fast he had been traveling, but the momentum gathered was NOT to be underestimated. Stung like hell too.

Next time, just shove the extra power straight up and let it do whatever it wants! Why should HE suffer just become some massive wall of flesh wanted to eat some smaller mound of flesh in the middle of nowhere?

Rockette wiggled on his shoulder as he began running again. "Which version of the tackle should we attempt to learn then?"

Adam twisted slightly as his speed slowly picked up again. "For the same results, the Explosive variation would work... but if you get it wrong your own body will get damaged to a lesser extent. Maybe try the Knock Back Tackle option? Things won't explode on impact, but in exchange all that energy is dedicated to clearing the area. Great for crowd control."

Seriously, run mindlessly for literal hours at high speed... and smack into the ONE OBSTACLE in the area. Sure he hadn't really been paying attention to his path, more on optimising his energy use and speed... but yeah, that had been a shock.

Run. Run. Run.

A slide to the side... wait, what?

Stopping instantly, shoving the excess momentum inside a spiral pattern for temporary storage, Adam checked the white tower he nearly smacked into. It was easily thick enough that a dozen people couldn't work together to hug the thing, and massively tall!

Tapping the surface... it seemed oddly soft? Or just fragile, like how balsa wood felt like foam rather than actual lumber. Yet the material, whatever it was, could easily resist his few attempts at damaging it.

Not a shell, or a tube... The surface was obviously worn from exposure, but at the same time the strength displayed clearly showed that a MASSIVE amount of energy would be required to make even a minor amount of change to this stuff.

Yet... even though Adam was not near the source of the Curse Tattoo call, this object...

A thought had his energies tap into the white tower... and it was as if there was a void. He couldn't quite connect with it. Not repelled, not a true void... just a slight miss?

Glancing at the black marks on his hands... They seemed to react to this column, though faintly. But he didn't want to try further examination while sitting in this muck, exposed to the waters below...

Blinking, Adam looked up at the SOLID pillar. And up. It should stop at some point, right? And he could probably sit up there, far from the goo and gross stuff down here...

Well, why not?

Using the stored energies from his run, he forced his body to hurl upward. Following the pure white surface, he left his hand touching lightly as he moved faster, the black curse marks tingling at the contact.

There were a few pits and small openings, though tiny, that made it easy to redirect his path as he continued to fly along the white vertical trail... But how tall WAS this thing?

He really hadn't bothered to measure the distance covered so far, but this was easily taller than any building he had seen up to this point. Not sure if it was taller than the trees he absorbed... but at the very least, this was turning into something of a journey.

Rockette formed on his shoulder again. "Adam, why is the observation platform showing everything sideways?"

Twisting so that he was flying upwards back first, he hummed. "Good... morning? I think? Did you sleep well, Sister Quan?"

This area wasn't affected by the massive volcanic eruption from the wastes of the Ash Forest, but the Corpse Bog had its own dim mists that made it hard to see. Hopefully at the top of this... thing... there would be some bright clear skies.

Her voice was still confused. "Little Tianshi has been making some plant based structures and stuff for the last day or so, and I've been helping her shift stuff around, set up furniture, use Qi Forms to make more oddly shaped stuff."

Hmm? Lucky. When HE tried to make stuff, it formed with Blue Flames or his Curse Marks. Neither one felt good as a sofa or whatever. "I heard she was making a clubhouse?"

The woman chuckled. "If you can call a fifty floor structure a 'clubhouse', then sure. Rockette just kept opening up more space for little Tianshi to build into... it is basically a nature themed mansion at this point. Even has tiny fountains of Soul Water and all kinds of berry bushes and fruit trees."

He grinned, ignoring how his stored momentum kept hurling him backwards. "Good for her! I can't wait to check it out later."

Sister Quan seemed to refocus. "Now... are you floating?" Oops, there was some annoyance in her voice now. "Did you break through to Saint level already!? I swear, I leave you alone for just five minutes..."

Adam chuckled. "No, I decided to take some time on that. Maybe a year or two." He blinked. Was that a growl? "This is just an odd use to my defensive bludgeoning technique. I can store up momentum, including the stuff generated from my heavy runs, and just release it in specific directions and at desired rates."

He spun slightly. "If I match the rate at which I am falling, I float. If I get it low, I sink. If I overshoot, I fly upwards."

Her voice paused. "Adam, is the view NOT messed up, and you are traveling vertically rather than floating horizontally?"

A glance... good, he wasn't drifting away from the stupid tall tower. "Pretty much. Found this odd object in the swamp... it is far away from whatever is calling my tattoos, but still reacts the same way. Decided to climb to the top, find a comfortable place to meditate, and find out why."

They both went silent, Adam listening to the wind as his body continued to fly upward. Thankfully, his 'defensive trick' built up huge momentum when running... his reserves of velocity was fine for now, even with how tall this thing was.

Sister Quan seemed hesitant. "What... IS that thing?"

Adam hummed. "Not entirely sure. Not wood or any mineral. If I didn't know better... Well."

...It WAS a conceptual world. Things impossible to exist elsewhere MIGHT exist here. No, they probably HAD to exist in places like this, where the shear inconceivable wouldn't self destruct just from trying to form substance.

He frowned. "I... think this might be a bone."

He continued to zoom upwards along the white road, Sister Quan equally silent.

Adam's frown turned into a grimace. "Worse... it might actually be a tooth."

Aside from the wind, they both contemplated how large such a creature would have to be.

...Damn, he really, REALLY hoped it was dead.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The armored woman turned to the others. "No one beside us can travel with the Young Sage."

The other guards nodded. One of the men sighed. "Aside from how dangerous it is, you need a strong mind not to just fall into depression from how amazing the things he accomplishes are."

Another nod. "He also is either attracted to, or is actively attracting, impossible things. Either that, or no investigation found these 'White Towers' suspicious enough to report, or died before they could submit their findings."

One of the guards who had been cultivating in her cave recently blinked. "So... there ARE more than one tower? It isn't just some massive horn or something from a single creature?"

The leader grimaced. "I had Adam use his domain to search outward in a thin disk, showing the results in here thanks to Rockette. It is distant, but there are at LEAST ten 'White Towers'... and they are in the form of a small arc. Quite possibly, if we could see it all... in the shape of a large circle."

A few curses. "It is going to be some giant mouth, isn't it? Can't just be some religious stones used in a ritual that condemned a kingdom, or a strange series of limbless trees that summon zombies and stuff as fertilizer, or a fancy structure left by a cultivator who ran out of room for some random mountain sized junk..."

Another slapped his shoulder. "Well, if it IS a mouth, we are probably safe. This thing biting down would create a world impact that NO one would miss, at least none of the many surrounding Sects. And Rockette is now able to 'Shroud' her stupid power levels... Adam would feel far less 'delicious' than the many monsters we already passed, monsters this massive 'mouth' also ignored."

One of the gloomier guards wasn't having it. "Then Adam will accidentally awaken it. Or summon it as a zombie, if it's dead. Or sneak into its stomach voluntarily just to 'have a quick look', and find out whatever the hell it is has a baby or something."

The conversation... paused a little. Before another smacked the guy in the head. "We DON'T need to give the world ideas. Especially considering the things that happen around the Young Sage NORMALLY."

The lead guard nodded in agreement. "Our job is currently to protect the two mortal Sect members and be helpful as possible to the Young Sage. Things like this... whatever it is?" A quick wave at the massive white pillar the boy was STILL flying along. "That is beyond our jurisdiction. Not our problem."

A weight seemed to lift from the group. The lead smiled. "Now, I need you to all explore the 'Tree House' little Tianshi set up over there, verify that it is structurally sound, and for delta group to prepare for another taste testing session with Sister Quan."

She ignored the groans. "Rockette has just finished a MASSIVE round of testing with the Soil Grid gardens, and I am sure we will all be thankful after finding any successes discovered along the way."

Seriously, they needed more training. SHE was used to guard details with no food, limited water, no appreciation, and no time to self improve or cultivate. Problems included, this was a DREAM gig compared to past work.

She held back a giggle while powerful men and women grumbled like children as they left to eat free food.

And if SHE got to avoid the gross 'Surprise Snacks' along the way?

Well... That was just a benefit to leadership, really.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The idle conversation at the table was interrupted by Adam's stunned voice. "Wow."

Everyone was currently eating lunch, but looked up at... well nothing really, as this third level didn't have an observation window.

Sister Quan wiped her mouth. "What is it, Adam?"

He seemed... distracted? "I... well, I guess I have good news. Sort of."

The lead guard focused. "What is the situation?"

Adam's voice was a little dull for some reason. "I am entirely positive that the 'White Tower' is not a tooth, though I think it may be confirmed to be some form of bone now. Though one with a VERY odd texture."

Considering that he had lost all stored momentum hours ago and had to craft new propulsion by gripping the tiny openings in the tower to generate thrust... well, he had been climbing for over a day now. Something with a tooth that long would be beyond monstrous.

One of the other guards just didn't care. "As long as we aren't climbing INTO A DAMN MOUTH I consider today to be nothing but pure victory."

Adam hummed. "Might want to hold off on the celebration for now. I was planning on reaching the top of the White Tower to hopefully find a safe spot to meditate and examine this thing... But uh."

Rockette popped open a sheet of Crystal, showing the outside to a listening crowd.

"Based on the second, angled white column connected to it? I think this is a skeletal leg."

...It was beautiful.

At some point, Adam had passed the lowest level of cloud coverage... below, the odd gray mist from the corpse bog bubbled and rolled like a strange potion, or a cursed sea. Here, clear blue skies made the white columns glisten!

...All of them.

Adam stood on a marble white surface, as if the vertical nature and rules about gravity were annoyances for other people. Near his side, connected with white fragments... a SECOND, equally massive white pillar was connected, and angled away to vanish into the distance...

And farther in the background? Several dozen white 'threads', likely more of these bone pillars, reached into the heavens... and angled in towards some unknown center.

The lead guard was stunned. "How... how tall IS this thing? It can't be man made, it just can't be!"

Little Tianshi blinked. "Mr. Whiskers says it might be something called a 'Bone Walker'. And that they shouldn't exist here."

Everyone turned to stare at the tiny whiskered lizard... who was idly chewing on a blue and yellow berry.

Sister Quan glanced at the thin white spokes leading off... somewhere. "Does he know anything about these... 'Bone Walkers'? Are we in danger?"

The little girl shrugged. "According to him, he only heard tales of these things from his parents. They are SUPER old stories, and most just talk about how they show up in places doomed to die." She took another bite of her sandwich. "No one is sure if they are called to places of death or if they CAUSE the disasters."

She shrugged. "We should be fine though, Master can do anything."

Adam hummed. "I... I guess I could consume this thing." He frowned, the high winds making it a tad hard to hear. "But then I would have a giant whatever this is inside Rockette, and that sounds gross. Can't eat it, and it is WAY too big for most fights or whatever."

With a nod, he lunged toward the second, tilted white pillar that headed towards the Cursed Mark's call... and began to pick up speed. "I'll decide what to do when we get to the main body. For all we know, it may have died already."

Tianshi hummed. "Mr. Whiskers says that in the legends, 'Bone Walkers' absorb the energy and body parts of the dead to grow in size. So he isn't sure they were ever alive to begin with."

Adam winced. "Gross. Yeah, not going to bring this thing inside, that is just icky."

One of the... less courageous guards was close to fainting. "Can we NOT climb the legs of a giant zombie multi-limbed monster from legend!? We were farming and stuff a few days ago, let's go back to that!"

His neighbor snorted. "STILL better than directly climbing into something's mouth. I swear I have been having visions of... and the teeth just... drool everywhere..."

Adam chuckled. "Well, let's not rule it out until we get to see what there is to see first!"

The arguments continued, but as the boy flew along a white road in the sky over a gray ocean of chaos, the sky shone bright and the wind was crisp. Which was good.

Based on how long it took to REACH this level so far, they likely had a long journey to traverse.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Quan was meditating.

Unlike Tianshi, who was new to this whole cultivation scene, THIS Sister had experience!

...Which was all the more galling to be behind the child in practicing the 'Gentle Rebirth Body Cultivation Technique' (Version 3.5322). Each new revision of the jade slip increased her conversion rate and reduced the pain and strain to the body... but Little Tianshi was just so talented at this!

Still, there was nothing better to do.

Adam's trip had lost its audience fairly quickly. He was endlessly running on a white pillar of bone, no background or audio to listen to, no changes... even existential terror at being so near such an impossible beast got boring over time.

So SHE was focusing on her own improvements.

Working for so long with Adam, he had long ago mapped a cultivation technique or two to modify her own path, to simplify it, remove issues or bottlenecks that would have been expected... and after a long time, she would eventually be able to swap over to the (ever popular) 'Houtian Realm Seventh Order Essential Cultivation Method.'

You know, AFTER Adam got around to designing it. He hadn't reached Seventh Order yet, after all.

And while she would LOVE to just give up her cultivation progress and swap to his amazing 'Houtian Realm Fourth Order Essential Cultivation Method' NOW, the complex issues of her past cultivation methods made it too dangerous.

There were too many weaknesses, uneven enhancements... so Adam had made a series of techniques that would, one after another, address and fix those problems. And she WAS using them.

But for now, she meditated.

Within her thoughts, her Martial Spirit, the Three Eye Crow, was flying through her meridian routes. Unlike Adam, who could control his internal energies individually and on the most basic level, SHE had to cheat a little by using visualization tricks like this to guide the heaven and earth spiritual energy down each correct path.

At the same time, she forced herself to address an internal concern... a personal doubt that had begun to bother her at night.

Her spirit... just felt so lifeless compared to Rockette. When not directed, her Martial Spirit would, at best, fly around her during meditation and open its beak to consume spiritual power.

That was it.

It didn't hum with crystal tunes at night, or offer a warm drink on a cold day, or grant absolute dominion of reality within a modifiable radius to the user.

And that had never been an issue before. She had seen THOUSANDS of Martial Spirits, from bushes to beasts to swords... any intelligence was low level, reactionary, or even near a comatose state. They would breathe, or the limbs would wiggle... but nothing more.

And that had been fine.

Now?

Her Three Eye Crow was not just some meditation tool, or useful attack method.

It was a reflection of herself... and it felt so dull. So lifeless.

Thus, while she didn't slack in training each method Adam gave, while she didn't stop working and practicing to use both her new and old abilities, to gain ever more control and precision... she also spent some time each session like this.

Just... meditating.

These birds, while being made mostly of flames, were known for one thing more than simple attack damage.

It was their vision.

The third eye was unable to see light, but possibilities. It improved concept contemplation, could theoretically see seconds into the future to help avoid damage in a fight, detect discrepancies in a situation or conversation. Maybe more... they were hard to study.

She just... hadn't bothered to spend time attempting this.

It took time.

Just normal cultivation took years, simple abilities took months if you were a prodigy, each step was agonizing... so who would spend decades examining their own Martial Spirit for no gain?

But Rockette showed that her Crow could be... more. Tianshi showed that a Martial Spirit could improve, or even shift form without a full 'Evolution' at the various cultivation stages.

And... in the end, it was a reflection of herself. And she expected more from herself.

Time drifted.

She watched her flame fly with wings of determination through her meridian route, not trying to add more spiritual energy than was arbitrarily collected, not trying to strengthen her system... just, watching her Crow fly.

As the path became more and more traveled... she encouraged the spirit to fly free. To shift a tad farther around this bend, to swirl in that area... to just explore her spiritual network, without forcing change or improvement.

Sister Quan was unaware of how much time passed this way, but the sudden call of the guards broke her from her meditative state with a shock!

Adam was nearing ANOTHER white column, another section of that impossible limb they were climbing!

As she left her cultivation cave, she failed to notice the faint eyes following her exit... Three flames closed back to slumber as her Martial Spirit returned to her system.

It would support her like always. Together.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam crouched behind a bone spike.

It had taken half a month of high speed travel... but everyone in his Martial Spirit could see the main body of the Spirit Beast he was climbing. Assuming it WAS a Spirit Beast.

THOUSANDS of bone limbs stretched in every direction! It was less like standing on a stone beam and MORE like being stuck inside a bone funnel, with a squished sphere being held in the center.

It had no front, no back. It had no mouth or jaws, as far as Adam could see.

He was projecting his voice inside Rockette, and having her NOT repeat the responses out loud... stealth was key, here. [Holy. Crap.]

He could hear Sister Quan's stunned voice inside. [What... No, WHY is it covered in eyes!?]

It was true. The squished, potato shaped 'body' of the many limbed spider like beast was COVERED in sockets.

Eye Sockets.

Not just the bottom, which would make sense as the many limbs were in the way to easily see anything, but his Spiritual Sensing ability showed that the ENTIRE monster was either limbs or eye sockets.

And each eye was... odd.

Some were the size of a cat. Others, according to his sensing, smaller than a fingernail. Most were round orbs... others, shaped like barrels or cubes.

Some even seemed to be segmented like insects, or slit, or had hexagons or ovals to see through... it was chaotic.

But the most disturbing feature of the beast was... the blinking.

Every eye had SOME form of eyelid. If it was made of bone as well like the limbs, then it was some sort of shell shaped structure that was able to close the various eyes away from the world...

But when the blink was over, when the eye opened again?

The eyes shifted locations.

Hell, when an eye 'opened', the eye SOCKET was shifting shape too!

It wasn't a frantic movement.

Each individual eye seemed to be open for around five minutes to a half hour, with no easily determined pattern.

But this potato body was large enough to build a mansion on... so there were a LOT of eyes to examine, all blinking at odd moments that somehow always caught the viewer off guard.

Adam heard a weak voice pop up. [I am sorry. Can we go back to scary mouths again? I want to go back to scary mouths.]

He glanced to one of the larger orbs. [Well... if it helps, I think THAT eye IS a mouth. Hard to tell with it moving around, though. Pretty sure I saw a tongue made of eyes inside it though.]

Sister Quan seemed determined. [Tianshi, go work on your homework.]

A whine. [But... but look at all the cool gross stuff out there! I want to see more!]

Yeah, she seemed pretty determined indeed. [Go. Now. Or you have to taste new fruit with the sacrificial guard squad.]

An angry voice chipped in. [I KNEW we were getting odd labels! This is SO unfair!]

Adam tried to freeze. [Shit.]

Everyone went quiet.

Damn it.

The lead guard was hesitant. [Young Sage?]

Adam was having a hard time focusing. [I... I think an eye opened up UNDER my hand. The hand on the leg.]

Everyone's attention turned to his right hand... which was palming a glowing green orb, watching the boy curiously.

Several inside agreed. [Shit.]

The eye felt... hard. It clearly WASN'T a goo bag like with humans, but more a specialized stone or solidified material of some sort. It also wasn't sticky or gooey, which... which was good for Adam's mental stress, if nothing else.

...Based on the fact that nothing was trying to throw him off, attack, OR move him away... maybe these eyes didn't have nerve endings? Right?

Then again, what were the chances that an eye ball couldn't SEE him as well?

He felt tension rise as he prepared to dive off the beast... which would be a bit of an issue. The legs that branched off in every direction were so dense here, that it was a near solid mass in every direction unless he ran off a GOOD distance.

It... it couldn't be fast too, right? Something this big should move slowly or it would like... trip or something. And when a Spirit Beast with over a thousand legs trips, that would be a HUGE deal, right? Would have been a BIG story, everyone would know to avoid the 'tripping trees' or whatever.

Unless no one had survived such accidents...

Nope, not helping him stay calm!

Glancing at the... still motionless eye...

Shit.

Screw it!

With a quick jerk, Adam clenched his hand and YANKED out the orb from the socket!

[WHAT!?][MASTER!][BROTHER ADAM!][Of course he did.][YOUNG SAGE!]

And...

And.

Nothing happened.

Adam blinked at the green orb in his palm... and it blinked back.

Oh. The eyelid is PART of the eye.

...Also: Gross.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Rockette's stone form was (mostly) hidden outside as Adam and his new... prize?

As they both were consumed by ghost Rockette and brought into the caverns.

He gently placed the green eye stone on the table, the rest watching from a distance.

...It was looking around.

Adam shrugged. "I don't know what to do with it."

Sister Quan? Exasperated. "HONESTLY, don't go bringing odd things in here! WHY did you bring it in here!?"

He reached out... and poked the eye again. It blinked. "Because the 'Bone Walker' was freaking me out, and I was worried that if I stayed out there any longer, more and more eyes would show up. Or it would move. Or it wouldn't, but I would move... or something."

Little Tianshi was sitting near the center spiral staircase, technically 'doing her homework' on the spreadsheet that was ignored beside her. "It's creepy that it keeps staring at me."

Adam blinked. "Hmm?"

And stepped left.

And right.

And left?

He nodded. "Good catch Disciple Tianshi! It IS staring at us!"

A guard ignored her tiny 'Tee hee' and began to circle the table. Concerned. "Are... are you sure?"

Adam paused. "Am I sure what?"

The man glared at the eyeball. "Are you sure it is staring at you? Like right now?"

The boy glanced back at the eye. It blinked. "Yep."

The guard was on the opposite side of the table. "Because right now, I am positive it is staring at ME. How can it be staring at you?"

...Adam turned to the others. "Just a quick check... Does everyone see the eye as looking directly at you?"

A lot of nods. Then the eye blinked... and everyone pointed at it. "''''''It Blinked."''''''

...Huh. "Neat how a single eyelid can blink an eyeball in multiple directions at once."

The lead guard groaned, her voice strained. "Which means it may not be 'looking' or 'blinking' at all, and is only CONVINCING our minds that it is. Marvelous."

Adam hummed. "Well... at the very least, I guess we can leave now."

That caught SEVERAL guards... off guard? Heh. "What?"

He shrugged. "You know that 'pull' that had been guiding us this way?"

Nods.

He pointed. "This was it."

They all turned to the eye.

Yep.

Adam poked it again. "From what Rockette and 'Research' can determine, each of those... things..." Gross gross gross. "Not only was part of the 'Bone Walker'... but had their own cultivation network. And from what was detected as I absorbed this object?"

His skin tattoos blackened as his curse marks throbbed with energy... and the green eye sort of curled up into a smile, eyelids closed in happiness. "Each eye seemed to resonate with a different type of spiritual energy." Didn't it only have ONE eyelid before? Odd.

Sister Quan glanced back at the (disturbing) viewing panel showing the outside. "That seems... really improbable that you would bump into it that easily."

He shrugged. "I didn't. This thing felt my curse tattoos touching the 'Bone Walker' and came over to check them out. It's probably why it didn't resist me plucking it, and why the thing didn't complain about me stealing it or consuming it in here."

...Was the eye PURRING!? It was almost trying to pet itself against his curses.

One of the other guards was still staring at the monstrosity outside. "So what are we going to do about... that?"

Adam shrugged. "Nothing."

He looked up... and paused at the stunned expressions everyone had. "What? It isn't doing anything but standing in a swamp, I don't want it inside here, and I found the thing trying to connect us together."

His hand lifted the eyeball and idly tossed it in the air, playing a version of catch with himself. The orb seemed amused. "Now that I HAVE the... whatever this is, we can leave. This swamp bog thing may have some neat energies in it, but Rockette's had a month to sample and sort stuff... I am beyond ready to get out of here."

It looked like Sister Quan was voted by the others to act as the voice of reason today. "But... Adam, you can't just steal that eyeball and leave!"

He blinked. "Why not? I think this whole adventure went rather well! Besides, I'm sure this isn't the ONLY oversized possibly reality destroying monster around. This one seems happy enough to stand in a deserted swamp and do nothing."

The boy paused thoughtfully. "Or stand still, doing nothing, and thus CREATING a swamp. Either/Or, really."

Another guard was watching the bone structure outside... shift. "I'm happy not to try and mess with this thing." She grimaced as more eyes vanished and moved around... some on the legs, most on the 'potato' body. "Heaven help us, if you brought that thing in here, no matter WHAT FORM it takes... I don't think I could sleep again. Not in the same area. Hell, not in different areas."

Adam nodded. "Exactly. It is gross, I don't need whatever it is, it is gross, Rockette can get energy samples elsewhere easily, it is gross, even if I stole it I would have no use for it, it is gross, and I am worried if we stick around this creature will... wake up. Or move. Or something."

He pointed. "Also, it is gross."

Sister Quan backed up another step as the eye blinked again. "Adam, please get that thing out of here. I am seriously freaking out over the thing."

Huh. Well, fair enough. "Rockette?"

Ding!

The eyeball vanished... and showed up in the room with the Asura Stone.

Adam ignored the eye that was... now blinking rapidly as it appeared and vanished from the walls of the crystal cave full of white fog and black poison. It seemed happy enough. "There, I put it away."

One of the guards seemed to be nearing her edge. "Good. Can we leave now? I want to leave."

He nodded. "Sure! Which way?" Glancing at the screen... "We have lots of legs to choose from, so feel free to give me a hint and we will get started."

The lead guard glanced at... some sort of object. And pointed. "That way is toward our Sect." She pointed to the left, ninety degrees away. "Can we flee that way? So that, if this thing tries to follow you later, we won't lead it to our home?"

Everyone shuddered slightly at the thought of white pillars falling from the sky.

Adam gave a weak smile. "No problem!"

Glancing back at the screen... he sighed. "Now... Now I have to go back out there again. Alone. With the gross. Great."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Tianshi and Mr. Whiskers watched the eyeball from their tree house, Rockette being nice enough to let her have an observation window setup near her vine couch.

It was neat! Especially without the whole... gross, mutant spider part attached.

The eye was oddly happy looking, trapped in a crystal cave filled with white fog, black poison and curses. It would open up on the wall, floor, or ceiling... look around... then blink away to another surface.

...Watching it was oddly soothing.

As for stuff going on outside, Adam managed to run away without issue. Though there WAS a bit of a freakout when a random eye had opened up and he nearly stepped on it on his way out... but he didn't kick it, the Walker didn't move, and no other eyes were seen on the following (rapid) 'RUN AWAY' expedition.

Which was good!

So her master was back to running on a white column in the sky... although the emotional atmosphere inside Rockette was MUCH better now.

Not heading towards a possible mouth or actual mutant demon spider? Everyone was FAR happier now. Even the guards forced to taste the many, MANY fruit, vegetable, and herb varieties for Sister Quan were complaining with a happy heart and a smile!

Which was good, those teams always complained until they found the next surprise... then they would brag for a few days about how awesome they were, which was ALSO annoying.

The most recent surprise?

Planting poisonous plants in Soil Squares that matched the Corpse Bog? It caused the bushes, trees, and vines to draw in even more poison... which made the produce growing on them safe to eat. Mostly.

Because all the dangerous stuff was too useful for the plant to allow it to enter the leaves, fruits, and so forth. It kept being pulled into the roots and stalks.

This meant that the root products became DOUBLY dangerous to eat, but also that several deadly berry bushes and killing fruit trees suddenly began to produce safe materials to grow and harvest! And those amazing white berries that Da always ate could now be grown safely so that SHE could eat one too!

You know, without instantly dying or having her organs explode or something.

Just in case though, Adam was the final tester for all the more... exotic and dangerous things grown in the crystal gardens. Which led to some humorous side effects, like when his skin turned blue for a while or hair grew everywhere.

Easy enough for Adam to shake off and fix, but it would have been risky for... more fragile people. Like everyone else.

Her attention shifted back to the screen as the eye vanished... and moved to the black pool edge.

Neat.

Mr. Whiskers made a grumble, and she shared another 'Meat Turnip'. Had the texture and flavor of a very VERY mild flavored steak, but was shaped like a turnip. Mostly bland, but Mr. Whiskers loved the things.

It was a bit unfortunate, but the more flavor something had the more likely it was for the product to have... odd effects. Da claimed he could start producing less exotic produce eventually... At least, he was pretty sure he could once he consumed some farmland and fertile soil samples. And did some tests. One day.

The plains had been wild land after all, and the Corpse Bog and Ash Forest were not exactly normal growing ground either. Once he knew what NOT to do, he could safely make food that wasn't so... strangely shaped, oddly flavored, and bizarrely textured.

At least, that was what he claimed.

Though... Sister Quan had told her that the REAL problem was Adam himself.

He was scared to let anything grow for too long.

So the only foods they could actually harvest... were the strangest ones. The bushes, trees, vines and roots that could produce fruits and stuff SUPER fast, rather than at 'normal' rates. And of course, such strange plants could only make stranger results.

When she asked why her Master was concerned, Sister Quan had mumbled something about Da being terrified about singing cabbages or something.

...Which sounded like him, really.

Anyway, Sister Quan was having a quiet argument with Tianshi's Master every night after dinner. She said she could convince him to let the various farm squares actually GROW some normal food eventually... but it would likely have to wait until they could find some farmlands outside and he could examine them first.

Then maybe, MAYBE he would listen to her and trust her opinions about how long a growth period would still be 'safe' for harvesting.

For now? Pink apples and stripped berries for everyone!

Idly, as she and her tattoo pet watched an eldritch eye playing in a cursed room of death and poison, the little girl wondered why her Master was worried about strange cabbages at the same time while raising an entire FARMLAND of mutant produce.

Seemed counter productive.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam was perched on one of the LAST leg segments. Only the long white column downward to (Presumably) the Corpse Bog surface moss below!

Most importantly... "FINALLY! I. Want. Out!"

Time to see something OTHER than white bones, blue skies, and and endless gray sea of mist!

Rockette vibrated on his shoulder, a soft woman's voice near his ear. "You will want to turn a bit... yes, that way... Good, you are now pointed toward the Sect."

A glance... good, it wasn't an angle heading back towards the massive sort-of-spider. That lead guard gave reliable directions! Woo! "Right, here we go!"

Two steps back... and LAUNCH!

The wind sang in his ears, his eyes closing and a smile growing on his face... as he fell.

Free from the bonds of earth and gravity (But not really), he just enjoyed the heavy wind whipping past his body.

He would have 'Momentum Redirection' prepared for the eventual landing... but that was later.

He would have to again flee alone across the land again... but that was later.

Right now?

He watched the sun glisten in the distance as he seemed to hover in the sky, nothing nearby to help judge his speed or angle other than the vanishing white columns behind him.

Landing? Yeah, he could use both 'Momentum Redirection' and 'Ablative Bashing' to both capture this speed and burn off any excess, and it would be useful to ensure easy travel later now that he had so much practice at 'hovering' and high speed directional movement.

But for the moment, Adam felt truly free...

It was glorious!

Considering that the Xiantian Cultivation Realm had to be crossed before reaching the Saint Realm, flight was normally far, FAR out of reach for a boy still trapped in the latter Orders of Houtian Realm.

But for now, the skies were his.

Some time passed peacefully.

A soft voice interrupted his thoughts. "Adam?"

He blinked, and glanced at Rockette... who was floating along, like a falling rock shouldn't really be able to do. "Yes?"

The guard's voice seemed amused. "You... You are going to safely land, right?"

Adam blinked. "Yes? Why do you..."

He vanished into gray moss with a massive splash!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

That. Was. Embarrassing.

Adam flexed his body, feeling his body shift back into a more healthy state. Liquids in general tend to resist movement at higher velocities... if Adam had been traveling at free fall velocities, he may have only dove so deep.

But at the speed he had achieved? His skeletal system was powdered. Every muscle torn, most organs pulverized... Yeah, it was bad.

Didn't stop there, either. The impact ended up crushing his internal Adams over twelve levels deep.

Even a number of his Cultivation Cells exploded due to the impact. Which was the major reason for the delay in healing... any undamaged cells just shifted back into place fairly quickly. And he didn't want to pull the reserve storage mode Cultivation Cells out for something so minor.

Trying to look around... yeah, that was pointless. This water was naturally dark due to the floating junk in it combined with the odd chemicals, and the massive layer of gray moss acting like a shade umbrella didn't exactly brighten up the area either.

Still... there WERE big things down here.

Adam pulsed his spiritual energy as subtly as Rockette could handle. It would reduce his reach significantly, but by using a thin disk of his domain as a carrier wave he SHOULD get something close to a scan of the black water...

Oh.

...Oh shit.

Right, the fuck away: Let's get to it.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam surfaced as he tore through the moss... and Rockette formed on his shoulder, little Tianshi's giggles matching with Sister Quan's laughter. Sounded like a few guards were sniggering in the background too.

Move, move, move.

The rock vibrated. "Da, you made an AMAZING splash! I couldn't SEE how high the water went!"

Move, move, move.

The laughter quieted down... and the mood became a little odd. "Young Sage? You... you are not moving in the correct direction."

Adam nodded. "Change in plans. We are running this way until we leave the Corpse Bog entirely. Maybe a bit further."

...Yeah, that killed the mood. Sister Quan sighed. "What happened? Did you find something underwater?"

A guard jumped in. "It wasn't that tentacled thing again, was it?"

He shook his head. "Worse."

Move, move, move.

The guards seemed hesitant to ask... but Tianshi was young enough to not read the mood. "What did you see Da?"

Adam focused on increasing his speed, Momentum Redirection pushing his limits higher. "Couldn't directly see anything, was too dark down there. But I had Rockette do a subtle scan, just to make sure nothing was sneaking up on me."

Enough speed was built up that he could waste a little of it to float above the moss itself and split the wind resistance blocking his progression. "There were a lot of Spirit Beasts, sure. But even when using the most subtle observation method I know, I was still able to reach back to the 'White Tower' I just jumped from."

The lead guard was serious. "Did it move!?"

Adam sighed, speed still increasing. "Worse. At least bad in my opinion because of what it suggests."

He forced more and more energy into the area, sacrificing internal Qi to push even further ahead. "Did anyone ask themselves... what the 'Bone Walker' was standing on? I mean under the white tower legs."

One of the guards seemed hesitant. "I... I didn't think about it. Was it a... rock or something?" Another one sighed. "Was it a bone mountain?"

Adam felt his face fall into a frown. "Under the water, under the white tower... was a black tower."

He did not look back as he ran. "I think the 'Bone Walker' has two halves. The Yin half, which we climbed and was similar to the Yin pond we found... and the portion under the Corpse Bog."

No wonder the water was black. "The Yang half."

Tianshi seemed distracted. "If they are like... opposites of each other... Would the Yang half be all arms and covered in mouthes?"

Adam ran faster.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The lead guard turned to her people. "Get back to work."

Seriously, there was nothing they could do but get stronger and wait for Adam to escape this god damned swamp of death and eldritch monstrosities.

...Maybe once they escape the bog, she would stop having moments of soul wrenching terror with images of black hands reaching out of the murk to drag them down.

Down into the depths to be consumed by an antispider covered in moving mouths.

With a shiver she got busy managing the rest of her team. Anything to avoid focusing on how powerless this situation made her feel, despite her years of cultivation advancement and decades of technique practice.

Why did it matter if she could hurl fire? Would heat even be NOTICED by the whatever it was down there!?

...Maybe she should go to her cultivation cave and just... meditate for a while. Settle her emotions.

Glancing at the screen, where the most powerful boy she had ever met was fleeing as fast as he could with some underlayer of fear hidden on a serious face...

Yes. Some meditation and self reflection would help. Her being emotionally compromised wouldn't help anyone.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Is it following? Shit. No, right?

Should he check?

But what if it WAS following him?

Adam glanced at his hand... and it was shaking.

...Whatever was down there, it CLEARLY was affecting his mind. Might have been doing so for a long time too... it just got super noticeable as he tried to LEAVE the Bog.

Which was fine, he had wanted out of this damn swamp BEFORE being forced to feel raw fear. It must be some kind of conceptual terrorizing ability though, because two Adam's had their hearts destabilized before he even detected the danger.

Tianshi would have likely suffered brain damage if she had been under that strain.

Like... shit. The poison and spores and stuff were NOTHING compared to that raw terror being emitted from under the water. No, it was VERY good that he had decided to walk on top of that whole mess, probably slowed down this whole process of fear insertion.

But yeah, fuck this place.

At this point, Adam was traveling so fast it was damaging the moss and what few bushes and stray trees were being passed. A slow moving 'V' wave was spreading behind the control of his Domain, anything disturbed unable to react before he was long gone.

Rockette was doing her best to keep the disturbance low... but his current speed forced him to fly head first, the wind far too strong for him to change orientation without slowing things down significantly.

Even abusing his domain... well, he would leave traces. Which might not even be a bad thing... if something was following him, he didn't want to LOSE the monster and have it accidentally choose the RIGHT direction, leading it towards the Burning Sword Sect.

Despite the stress, and the growing fear that the LACK of problems was the first sign that he was wandering straight into an ambush... time passed with only his fears catching up to him.

Mostly.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Run.

He had stopped listening to Rockette, he needed to run.

Flee.

No time to drink.

Faster.

Can't waste time eating.

Further.

Sleep for the weak.

Only his domain was guiding his path.

His eyes were closed.

Only his customized technique allowed his body to move.

Limbs were heavy.

His muscles were sore.

Light was dim.

Must move faster.

Unnoticed to the boy, his curse marks were pitch black, pulsing, and straining against his tattoo restrictions, trying to corrode something not physical.

Because the Yin poisons collected so far attempted to corrupt his body... while the new Yang poison from Beneath was trying to decay his mind and sense of self.

Worse... A malevolent guiding force was ensuring that every individual assault was more effective, perfectly timed...

An energy equally as dangerous as the Yin types gathered, but a type his body hadn't had a chance to adapt to at all. An attack from an unknown foe.

His soul and mind were fighting... with little if any progress. Each attempt to break free, to adapt, was causing his mind to lose focus and slowly blank away. Losing ground. Falling...

As the Yang energies infiltrated his curse tattoos... they began to spread internally, to the recurring copies of himself within... assuming it to be a deeper, untouched weakness to grow within. How unfortunate.

For the new poison.

And the one trying to guide it.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam blinked.

Everything was clear... but something very weak was trying to dig into his thoughts.

What... what happened?

A movement of spiritual energy... and he realized several things.

First, he was not Adam Prime.

He was one of the recursion Adams, buried deep with the conceptual layers.

Specifically, he was Adam 312, with over three hundred Adams above him in the layer chain.

...Those Adams were struggling.

He absently reached out and gripped the 'worm'. A mouth with a tail, dark black body... even the fangs were pitch dark, the maw exposed a cavity of hunger.

This was the infiltrating Yang poison. One being directed by this strange conceptual force... pure Yang energy didn't have this type of motivation behind it.

Was it even truly focused at Adam directly?

No... it was more a general rage and desire to destroy.

Still, choices had been made... thus there must be consequences.

Adam looked at the squirming worm of poison.

At this level? This far inside Rockette's concept of recursion?

Things were a bit... flexible.

His face split open, jaws unhinged, teeth sharpening into needle fangs...

After all, he had recently made techniques to 'Consume' land, concepts, forests...

The worm screamed, and tried to flee. So near, so close, an army of worms could save it. An ocean of poison would allow it to escape. The remainder of its power could have strengthened it.

Then Adam's jaws clenched on the strange flesh... and it died.

Adam idly chewed as he examined the small fragment being chewed and absorbed.

There were... hooks.

Twisted barbs, that were not physical... more mental triggers. When they found a thought or concept that they were close to matching, they would latch onto the creature (Or Adam in this case) and slowly tear holes into the minds and souls of the target.

Each attack was focused on FIRST destroying the ability to detect the attacks. After being crippled and unable to sense the danger, it would try and corrode willpower and sense of self... to just generally remove the ability for the target to defend itself.

And it worked. On many Adams.

But not on all of them.

Nor on the many, MANY more layers below.

A thought had the Adam below share an undamaged sample of Soul and Mind. Another had Adam compare it with his OWN damaged mind... and rapidly repair the damage while 'Research' examined the Soul differences.

Several weak areas used to enter the mind... then set aside, while the Yang poison was directed to open new, more obvious holes for attack from within. It was another layer of defense, so that if someone attempted to resist being destroyed they would defend the wrong areas of the mind and self.

This tainted Yang Beast clearly had goals.

The lost memories? Everything to do with the Yin Bone walker. Everything to do with the larger beasts in the Corpse Bog. Basically, anything interesting was being harvested from his mind and soul.

...Certainly explained the lack of Sect reports about this place.

At the same time, this worm was trying to dig out his own memories, to tear his thoughts and learn about the world around it... or simply what targets needed to be assaulted if he managed to escape.

Thankfully, his mind was... not normal. And his Soul was intricately bound to Rockette... who was still fighting off each attempt by the invader.

The data gathered was... insufficient. Only the bare fingertip of a foothold, against a master of mental attacks and soul damage. His other selves were being further and further damaged, even as examined the remains of this one worm.

He glanced upward.

All that said... even with only the most tiny of advantages...

Well, Adam had done more with less before.

His unnatural mouth opened wider into a grin... a blue tongue of flame absently escaping his maw and licking his needle teeth.

So some self important fragment of a Spirit Beast, riding a wave of tainted Yang energy, was so self assured that it could consume Adam? Seemed a bit backward.

After all, he was a tad peckish.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The Yang worms were slowly digging deeper. The overall assault had slowed considerably after discovering this hidden defensive area. Clearly, this odd place with so many targets was some sort of artificial method to block away the true center, the most valuable data!

The fragment of spirit controlling the worms was far too distracted now to fully watch all the different combat fronts... but it didn't matter. Every single target was easily compromised, then slowly being corrupted... eventually this Cultivator would start opening his own defenses, attacking the same mental structures required to prevent future assaults...

Like all previous prey, he would fail, expose all secrets, and beg to be devoured.

It would be glorious! So delicious! So fulfilling!

Thousands of tiny mouths tried to focus on these odd patterns hidden away. They would all be infected, they would all offer their treasures to the nest.

The thoughts of the worm cut off as a claw like hand suddenly clutched its rubbery flesh!

NO!

NO THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!

It didn't HAVE flesh! It was pure energy!

Struggling was... no, it was failing! It couldn't move!

Sharp pain, impossible pain, pierced the maw's body... and everything went black.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The worms had to invade the souls and minds of their targets to gain access and begin their assaults in earnest.

Adam however? He just had to ask.

He trusted himself, after all.

Adam 311 just felt relief as he mentally fell back, a stronger and less stressed Adam 312 taking over the fight while passing him data.

...Wow.

He had taken a TON of soul damage.

Without the samples and the assistance of 'Research', he wouldn't even be able to MEASURE how hurt he was. Or find it odd, if he got beyond lucky when checking.

As he forced his mind to repair lost thoughts, damaged areas of his soul... COULD he touch his own soul before? Not this directly. 'Research' was directly passing the data devoured from the worms to Rockette, and she was testing various techniques to help with Adam's recovery progress.

Still, without the backup of Recursion, fixing this mess would be impossible. In fact, Adam wasn't so much 'Healing' or 'Fixing' his Soul... more like using raw Qi to SHOVE his soul into the right shape, using the Recursion souls as templates.

His mind was easy, manipulating memories? Something THAT basic he did all the time.

Otherwise he would have to read stuff several times, or would forget useful details... no, it was the Soul aspect that was causing issues and delaying his recovery.

He blinked as a wave of new data flooded his senses.

And focused on Adam 312.

...Who was humming happily, worm tails hanging from his grinding jaws. Sharp needle teeth were tearing thin slits into the screaming poison beasts, even as his clawed hands reached for more snacks.

Glancing at the recovery rate of his Soul... it would still take a while.

...And Adam 312 looked busy.

With a growing smile, Adam 311 looked upward, his teeth sharpening into needles as his jaws began to unhinge.

After all, he also felt a bit peckish.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam 310 blinked as he mentally fell back, a stronger and (For some reason) hungry Adam 311 taking over the fight against the endless worms while passing him data.

A list of strange conceptual Soul barbs and hooks filled his thoughts. How to curl various ideas like lures for future assaults, using similar energies to open attack paths. Some basic methods to recover Soul damage, and... wait.

Soul damage? That sounded important.

He had several comparison samples, showing an undamaged template followed by more examples of how damage was spread by these strange poisons. With more data, he was able to see faster methods of recover, and he passed the data and his thoughts to Rockette to add to her 'Research' session.

He started the recovery process, and kept examining the information.

With the data from Adam 311, who was still consuming worms on his lower level, Adam 310 had more freedom to examine the consumed thoughts and tricks as the Adams learned how to more efficiently consume the invaders. Less data loss through acquisition', more concepts stolen from the attacker...

And it tasted amazing...

With a growing smile, Adam 310 looked upward, his teeth sharpening into needles as his jaws began to unhinge.

It was probably a good idea to get more delicious data samples, right?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Quan and Little Tianshi were watching Adam with concern.

He had stopped talking three days ago.

His tattoos had begun to rot into his flesh, while black fluid flowed in the open wounds.

His right eye was blank, his left eye was less than a pin prick of light.

But he continued to flee from the Corpse Bog.

The little one tugged her sleeve. "Did Da change? Is he getting better?"

She shook her head. "Rockette says that it will be fine, just be patient."

But Sister Quan knew more than that.

This was the defensive method that allowed the Corpse Bog to seem so 'safe', so 'boring'.

And Adam, as the only one exposed to that environment for this whole journey, was now facing some sort of attack alone.

It was getting worse as they tried to flee the Bog. Absolute black liquid was oozing up from the passing waters, twisting into ribbons as they dug into the open wounds of Adam's cursed tattoos.

But what could they do? Even as they approached the outer rim of the swamp, it was still far too deadly to exit the protections of Rockette's crystal caverns.

So they watched Adam slowly degrade. He fell from speaking odd phrases, to eventually responding with quiet mumbling... to this silent dash into the distance.

She wasn't sure what was worse... watching her friend in such pain and danger, or having to stay positive and happy around his disciple. Only Rockette's assurance had kept the little one from breaking down into tears.

Her attention was grabbed by a guard. "HE STOPPED!"

Everyone turned to the observation dome!

...Adam was floating above the moss, a massive spiral of momentum energy swirling in reserves behind him. It gave an odd glow to the scene.

His tattoos were now wide weeping wounds of black ooze, some so wide that they combined with the nearby marks and left wide openings directly down to his bleached white bones... bones which should NOT be that white.

...There was no blood.

No... No, it was more that the blood itself now looked like Bog water, thickened into a near gel like state.

Adam was floating without care to his body, his blue hair floating in unseen wind, his gaze blank... but his left eye had a growing blue flame pulsing. Swelling.

The lead guard cursed. "Shit. SHIT. Look at his hands!"

Everyone shifted their gazes. The hands were mostly exposed bones due to the tattoo wounds...

But the white finger bone tips were extending. Sharpening.

...Clearly they were becoming claws.

One of the more calm guards sighed. "His teeth are changing too."

Sister Quan felt her heart jump and her chest hurt as she saw a close friend begin to grin... with a jaw full of horrifying needle teeth.

Another guard gulped. "This... this might be bad."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

A curtain lifted.

The clouds parted.

Adam Prime felt his jaw flex as Adam 2 began to smile, even as he fell back mentally and began examining the new data.

So. Much. Data.

Unlike Yin poison, which needed actual material to infect others... Yang poison was soul and mentally focused. The ideas alone were enough to attack others.

Thousands, no... billions of worms were consumed. Each one a different variance of Yang poison, all guided by a swarm like intelligence. A fragment of a fragment that had clearly infected his body way back when he FIRST entered the Corpse Bog.

Maybe the reason why the Bone Walker ignored him... was because it knew he was already compromised. Easily harvested at any time.

Well... If so? That may have been a poor decision on the creatures part.

Adam 2 cackled with madness as he used his bone claws to tear into Adam Prime's chest, exposing his heart and the dead flesh surrounding it.

On the positive side, this process had given 'Research' lots of material. It would take more time of course, but Adam now had a through, practical guide to real world Soul battles.

Also he picked up lots of interesting tricks and techniques, as well as a good example to why keeping backups and doing memory comparisons were important.

Adam 2's jaws unhinged as his left hand pierced Adam Prime's heart... and tore a black worm from the exposed cavity.

Yeah, gross.

As Adam 2 gleefully consumed the immaterial parasite, Adam began reviewing his body state.

Lots of soul wounds opened. Backdoors created. Dangerous packets, which would have deadly consequences if not dismantled, scattered through random thoughts, memories, and even a few along cultivation routes and near meridian nodes.

That had to go.

Oh, and there were sabotage instructions modified into the adaptation processes, defensive measures were either erased or disabled, energy was deliberately wasted or even used to attack untouched flesh...

A pulse had Adam 2 return to within, another fully activated his Cultivation Cells.

"Consume."

His body shrank in half, the dead flesh and corrupted body fragments devoured by healthy Cultivation Cells as they rapidly shifted positions... then the reserves were accessed.

Trillions of cells in Storage Mode would finally be useful!

A jerk made his body pulse in mid air as limbs stretched, muscles repaired, flesh 'regrew', bone cracks sealed...

He blinked. "Wight, gwatta fwix my mwouth."

And get rid of these claws, the sharp bone tips made his 'healed' fingers look all strange and disturbing.

Rockette formed on his shoulder with a happy 'DING'! "Adam?"

He blinked, even as his body began to compress. Too many Storage Mode Cells had tripled his muscle mass and he didn't want to change his wardrobe. "Yeth?"

Rockette was wobbling back and forth in joy even as the transmitted voices seemed... concerned. "Are... Are you alright?"

He nodded. "I methed up my teeth." Trying to point, he ended up staring at his hands. "Altho, I methed up my handth."

Adam gave a pointed thumbs up. "I can fixth it!"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Quan sighed. "Yeah, he's fine. I on the other hand... I want to get drunk and then sleep it off." She walked away, pulling little Tianshi away toward her own room as well. "But since we ran out of the hard stuff months ago, and it is already FAR too late..."

She ignored the little girl's pouting. "I am going to read the little one a story and then have us both go to sleep. No one wake us up, have breakfast ready, and tell Adam we are glad he is alright."

Rockette happily gave a 'Ding' as the two left for their rooms.

The lead guard fell into a chair. "The Burning Sage just tore his own heart open to consume the monster attacking him." She glared at the other, stunned guards. "We need to increase our training."

Silent nods agreed.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ow.

Ow ow ow.

Adam gave a misshapen sigh as he walked onwards out of the Corpse Bog.

Turns out? Taking so much physical, mental, and Soul damage at once? Not just painful, but difficult to repair. Each inner Adam had slightly made the issue worse by choosing the SAME mutations while fighting back for survival, reinforcing the permanence of his new form.

It was fixable, and his many, MANY layers were all working with Rockette and 'Research' to both speed the process up and test out the new (experimental) soul abilities: Methods to examine, modify, damage, backup, restore... and theoretically, how to overwrite the Soul.

The only reason he could risk such attempts now?

Well... He had accidentally created a method to do the last option. His 'Shove Qi at it till it looks right' ability, while wasteful and dangerous, was technically a method to overwhelm and overwrite the contents of another being's soul.

The fact that the other soul being rewritten was his OWN soul, done with consent... well that made everything muddy and complicated. Which 'Research' loved.

But WHILE he tried to design new Soul abilities, the only easy to repair part of the layers were the harvested memories, the physical decay and wounds, and so on.

The modified jaw structures? Those were not designed nor implemented by choice, they were automatically shifting into those shapes to better support the concept of 'Soul Consumption'.

Adam gave a garbled sigh. Theoretically, once he better understood the concept, this and the other side effects would easily be reverted and prevented. The concept of 'Grasp' was easy enough to define internally, and now his hands stopped trying to regress his flesh and sharpen his bones.

Woo. Progress.

He winced as he continued to float low over the Bog, fleeing even as black energies and liquid rose from the material world to seep into his tattoos. Well, half of the tattoos.

Right, the curse marks had mutated after he had consumed so much Yang poison.

Before, his body scars had shifted into the patterns on his skin, then pulsed between the white and black energies being emitted by the Asura Stone. A strange situation to be sure, but hard work and experimentation had managed to stabilize the changes between the two stages and colors, allowing him to adapt and eventually ignore the issue.

Said issue? A lack of conceptual balance.

His body was being bathed in large batches of Yin Poisons, but without a balance he was forced to CREATE a replacement the only way he knew how: By forcing his body to adapt and his energy to oppose it.

And really, that was a losing battle to begin with.

Over time? The poisons, energies, and emotions had been growing in variety. Increasing with intensity, even if the overall output of the Asura Stone was capped to a set rate. Growing more powerful.

Now that he had managed to consume a great counter force though? This Yang poison caused the skin marks to shift automatically. They both repelled similar power and summoned the opposite...

Now, his skin was covered in marks. White patterns interwoven with Black marks, where the Yin poisons had extracted themselves into the silvery network and the Yang poisons had seeped into the dim shadow runes.

For a very short period, he had looked like some sort of death metal fanboy, with his whole skin pulsing in a white and black light show! But it didn't take long for the draw pulling the dissimilar energies together to mutate the tattoos further.

Now, his body was covered in thin lines. Marks slimmer than a hair, in a pattern so complicated that it almost made Adam fall asleep trying to trace them.

From a distance? The two colors made his skin look gray. A strange, almost shimmering gray.

Oddly enough, this made him look slightly MORE normal, now that he didn't have massive unknown tattoos visible on his skin all the time. To see them properly at this stage, the observer would have to get close enough to his body to lick it... and uh.

Yeah, that would be weird. And noticeable.

Anyway, the Yang poison attacks continued on his body, but they were not TARGETING him directly. It seemed that whenever a strand of 'Hive Poison' detected an unaffected creature, it was designed to dive right in!

At which point they were sucked into the black curse marks and devoured.

It wasn't as profitable as Adam had hoped. While the strain that initially infected his body had put a lot of effort into gathering data from Adam's memories... none of it managed to escape. And any NEW strains? If they gained information, they would have returned to their master... not attack a new target.

The hunting method of 'Control the creature, bring it back for conversion' really backfired in this particular scenario... the ability for a person to resist was unthinkable to the creator of this attack. Hell, it was unthinkable to the 'Hive Poison' itself!

Adam now had millions of memories stolen from these Yang assaults, ever growing, which all had some rant about how being defeated was impossible, life itself denies these actions, you shall rue the day that...

Blah blah blah.

There was certainly a point of diminishing returns. The first attack taught Adam the basics of attack and defense, some examples, and a fragmented selection of other data that didn't survive the retaliation process.

The second attack, literally seconds later? MUCH better data recovery. Tasted like pumpkin too, which was neat. Though those worms had tiny mouths for tongues and no tail, so they looked like ping pong balls rather than the expected 'Socks with mouths' he had grown so used to seeing.

By the eighth attack, he was able to learn enough from the samples to coble together an automated defense to intrusions.

By the fifteenth? Not just a defense, he managed to automate a counter infiltration Mind and Soul attack, developed a sorting method that would manage consumed memories and ensure that Soul fragments were easier to handle and search...

And after so much effort? He was finally able to have Rockette oversee the whole process without needing to be involved directly.

There had been thousands upon thousands of attacks since then. Maybe because Yang poisons didn't need the material commitment to produce so many, just Qi and knowledge... but there was a LOT of data being gathered as his defenses devoured each new attempt.

There were repeats of course. Those gathered samples didn't last long enough to do more than make a mental note that they occurred. But after so many similar variations, even brand new, unseen Yang assaults were examined, dissected, and reviewed without his involvement.

So now his body was absorbing Yang energy and poison at a high rate as he fled the Bog.

Useful? Yes. Especially as he got closer to the rim of the area, where the poison was concentrated to ensure any infiltrators didn't escape with useful data.

Interesting? No, not enough for him to try and stick around to harvest this stuff. He did NOT want to find out what this Yin Yang Bone Walker did if it found an escaping target somehow evading the initial attacks of its automated defences.

He winced as another jaw bone fragment was corrected WAY deep inside... Adam 215, it felt like.

Well, at least it was step towards normality. Whatever that was at this point.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Quan had waited for the others to wander away from the dinner table before having Rockette send Adam his food. Thankfully the Martial Spirit was able to strip any contaminants from the returned dishes. "Adam?"

His voice came from the walls. "Mmm, so good... Oh. Yes?"

She sighed. The boy wasn't really talking, his mouth was still a horrifying mess. He was just cheating by having Rockette simulate his words for her. "Can we talk about it again?"

A weary sigh. "Fine, fine. Once more."

A nod. "Why don't you want to allow the Soil Grid Garden plants to grow longer before being destroyed and replanted? I think we both know your other excuses were a bit... obvious and silly."

The sound of wind was relaxing. Even when eating, the boy was using his strange 'Momentum Redirection' trick to continue fleeing this damned place.

With a sigh, Adam grumbled. "Look, in the Sect, I found notes about animals cultivating. About our plants cultivating."

She blinked. "Yes?"

He kept talking between bites of food. "The idea that my ham sandwich could have advanced far enough to talk? To beg for mercy? That bothers me. A lot."

Adam continued, probably waving his hand around even if she couldn't see it. "Now I am not sure if it is normal to everyone else, if it is just one of those hidden things that everyone knows and just don't talk about, or if I am being a baby about the issue... but I don't want the things raised in Rockette to begin transforming into animals or becoming human shaped. Especially if I am going to eat it."

...What?

She dropped her head into her hands. "Adam, technically that is true... but the process takes a while."

His voice was serious. "I know, but I didn't want to take the risk. Especially because the energies in Rockette are so much more dense and plentiful in there than normally found outside."

She sighed. "No, Adam... I mean a LONG while."

A pause. "Like... five years?"

An eyebrow twitched. "For a cultivating creature, specifically a Spirit Beast? One that already has the genetics to automatically form a Beast Core? They might, MIGHT be able to transform into a human shape after about eighty years or so of dedicated effort. If they are beyond gifted, they might be able to gain sentience within forty years."

She waved a hand. "That assumes they have access to spiritual energies as pure and plentiful like in here though. Otherwise, THOUSANDS of weaker Spirit Beasts would have to be consumed before they could reach those levels of cultivation or ability... and to be honest, a similar mountain of Beast Cores would be consumed by normal cultivators as well, if they wanted even a fraction of your advancement rate."

A sigh. "In other words: If you decided to raise Spirit Beasts in here, enhance them, give them the amazing foods being developed? They may eventually gain a sense of self in like... twenty years or so. And I would be SURPRISED if it was that fast. Since most Spirit Beasts are good for harvest, sale, and so forth within a few years of growth at worst? It won't be an issue."

She just... his whole concept about how quick cultivation was? Completely bullshit broken. "That, by the way, only counts for Spirit Beasts. If it is a normal animal? It would take a thousand generations or more on average before you are likely to find one or two mutate into a new Spirit Beast species. And those new species probably won't even be able to form a Beast Core themselves."

She turned a glare at the wall. "Also? Plants take longer. Much, MUCH longer. They don't normally hunt, though there are exceptions, so they can only absorb water, minerals, sunlight, and spiritual energy. They must go the long, slow way to power."

Her head hurt. "The only reason spiritually powerful plants are so common is because they don't die of old age, not usually. They get longer to try and advance their cultivation base compared to everyone else."

Adam seemed... confused. "But... what about the Sect? Don't they have tons of spirit herbs? This should be a big issue!"

Sister Quan shook her head. "And? You also saw that despite the literal massive fields as far as the eye can see, not a single one of the plants were running around or whatever. Some of those herbs were easily a thousand years old."

She glared. "If it was THAT easy to get Spirit Beasts or Spiritual Treasures to improve, our Sect would be focusing on THAT instead of raising beets."

Yes, Brother Adam sounded surprised. "Huh."

She sighed. "How long has this been bothering you?"

He grumbled. A while then.

Sister Quan leaned back in her chair. "If that really was the issue behind all this... are you fine with letting Rockette extend the growing cycle? I'm not sure what amount of time you allocated before, but it clearly doesn't give enough time for these creations to develop and mature."

Adam sighed. "Yeah, you convinced me. Now I feel a bit silly... I guess I just assumed plants would be like, twice as slow as me or something when cultivating."

He couldn't see her expression, which was good, as he continued. "Seriously though, taking a year to improve? Then again, I'm not entirely sure why I had such high expectations from the vegetable kingdom to begin with. I've certainly seen a lot of wildlife that was not covered in leaves or vines out here."

Calm. Don't let his messed up world view shake you Quan! You can do this!

Adam seemed more interested at least. "You know what? This should really increase the new varieties of berries, fruits, veggies, and so on and so forth. Yeah, let's do it!"

Well... at least she wouldn't have to waste time on this argument after meals anymore.

As she accepted the clean plates returned by Adam, she heard something that made her pause.

"I wonder how many samples we will get now that plants can grow for more than a day at a time?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The moss was getting thinner.

It was even possible to see exposed sections of Corpse Bog water in a few areas... and the depth was shallow!

Adam grinned as he flew closer and closer to the edge of this horrible place. The slight sting of more Yang poison being harvest was background noise at this point.

His jaw was mostly fixed, his teeth were only slightly sharp, and in another month or so his body would have completely recovered... even if his Soul needed at least two months of healing. Well, that was assuming 'Research' didn't improve on the Soul Techniques he had already developed.

Speaking of which, he tried to share these new tricks with the others... and found a couple of stumbling blocks. First, they couldn't detect the energies involved. Second, the Soul tricks were far too dangerous to actually train with... learn how to use after a certain level of competence? Sure!

Attempt to practice them as a method of improvement? Deadly and possibly self destructive.

So Adam had to spend even more time designing safe and easy (Also known as 'useless') Soul Techniques that could be safely attempted, had few if any drawbacks to failure, and could expose a newly learning Cultivator to the touch (and minor manipulation) of the Soul itself.

As a medical professional, Sister Quan was the most excited. There were several injuries her profession encountered that had to be left untreated due to underlying Soul injuries, curses, and infections.

Treatment was theoretically POSSIBLE if she could gain this skill set!

So she pestered Adam about the subject a lot. Rockette was buzzing away on his shoulder as he ran and she offered advice, asked questions, and tested new theories he designed (As he was a damaged research subject).

To keep things safe, all the new (useless) abilities focused on detection, minor manipulation, and encouraging self recovery rather than letting the Healer make conscious changes in the Souls she worked with.

Which was (mostly) fine... except Adam didn't want her working on the guards (And CERTAINLY not little Tianshi), so they decided that she could begin exploring the underdeveloped Souls of the Four Eye Flame Bulls instead.

It was suggested by Sister Quan, which was good... Because Adam had forgotten he had a couple of Spirit Beasts nomming away at rare herbs in his Martial Spirit at this point.

He sighed, body flying over the surface of the thinning Bog.

Right, the Bulls.

They uh. They had been modified by Adam. As mentioned before. Heavily modified.

A lot.

At some point in the previous leg of the journey, he had just gotten bored and did all kinds of testing with 'Research' to pass the time.

He felt it wasn't a big deal over all... The animals were too dumb to care, none of the changes caused pain or reduced the lifespan of the creatures.

In fact, the vast majority of the modifications IMPROVED the beasts in various ways. The ones that didn't were cosmetic, like increasing hair length for sheering or changing eye color to 'look more cool'.

Which was why Adam was currently so confused. "Just... one more time."

Sister Quan grumbled. "Shouldn't YOU be the one giving ME answers!?"

Damn it. "Please?"

She snorted. "Fine. As far as I can tell, your 'breeding pair' of Four Eye Flame Bulls have laid over three hundred eggs. Thankfully, the majority of them are infertile... only four seem to be ready to actually hatch."

Just... when did he do THAT? "I... I don't suppose Four Eye Flame Bulls normally lay eggs?"

Her voice was dry. "No. No they do not."

Little Tianshi was over the moon! "Da, the non-baby eggs are all bright red and warm! Like... they don't burn or anything, but they are really sturdy and I bet they would be great to warm up places in the winter!"

Adam narrowed his eyes. The question was... did HE change them to breed via eggs rather than impregnation, or was it a mutation from their much more powerful diet?

Sister Quan answered. "It was you. You did this. Eating lots of good food doesn't make things like this happen."

He paused. "I... I didn't say that out loud though?"

The girls chuckled before she responded. "You only fixed your jaw enough to talk a few days ago... you haven't told Rockette to stop translating your thoughts to sound I guess."

Is that true?

Rockette was happy these days, the further they left the Bog. Ding!

Well... oops. Please stop exposing my random thoughts to others, dear.

Ding!

Adam hummed. "Well... what are we going to do? I don't want to risk going inside Rockette myself until we leave the Bog and I have a few days to test myself for issues first. And I CERTAINLY don't want you OR those eggs coming out here."

Sister Quan grunted, probably lifting an egg. "These things are easy enough to examine with medical skills at the moment, and we can gather the eggs for the tasting guards to check out."

Little Tianshi seemed fascinated. "They are kind of like massive, flaming chicken-cows now. I wonder if these taste like beef?"

Adam... wasn't sure. Huh. "How can you tell which eggs can be eaten and which will become... whatever the hell those mutated Spirit Beast Bulls are?"

The older woman was moving something. "These ones for eating are all bright red, smaller in size, and are just above warm to the touch. THOSE on the other hand..."

Tianshi jumped in the conversation. "The baby eggs are almost twice as big, the shells are almost white with a blue tinge, and they are WAY too hot for either of us to move around. Plus, the momma and poppa keep nudging them into various fire pits... neither of the Bulls seem to care about the other eggs at all."

Sister Quan agreed. "I did double check using medical techniques and none of the smaller ones are fertilized. They are also not poisonous, have high nutritional value... If the tasting guards give it a passing grade, we may want this to become a new food source."

Adam just... wasn't sure how to handle this.

He went silent as he listened to the two girls maneuver the parents around, order the Guards to use a long tool to carefully shift the potential new Bull eggs into a central area pit, then followed the various tests being done with the smaller (and hopefully delicious) red eggs...

His thoughts were a bit odd.

WOULD the new animals, should those eggs actually hatch, be Four Eye Flame Bulls? He didn't remember when in the experimentation he had made that change, thus he wasn't sure if all the changes he had made (Which were CLEARLY numerous) could be passed down genetically.

Also... the changes were so significant, that he wasn't entirely sure what the life cycle of these new creatures would be. They would eat little, store much energy, use that energy gained far more efficiently...

Oh crud, he had experimented on 'Genetic Memories' too. Shoved all kinds of stuff about cultivation into the Bulls to see if he could pass down data genetically like the Martial Spirits could pass down innate abilities conceptually.

That... that was supposed to be taken out before attempting to breed these damn things.

And clearly, he had NOT finished that project as planned, since at least egg laying was left in there. Probably got sidetracked when Ash Forest exploded after collection.

COULD they still have normal babies through sex and via their womb? Did he remove those parts entirely? Maybe. Honestly, he should have kept better notes when he did the 'Nothing to do, why not modify stuff?' thing... up TILL that point 'Research' had a full documentary going!

Well... crap.

If they turn out to be too intelligent, he would turn the babies infertile until they were adults. They would only produce consumable eggs until they were old enough to make a decision on their own. That... that was being a responsible sort of half parent, right?

Four Eye Flame Bulls WERE occasionally harvested, at least in human society. They were turned into beast of burdens due to how inefficient it was to butcher them.

This species took a lot of food, water, and time to grow... so it was a better return on the money to take advantage of their tremendous physical strength rather than a one time payoff from meat collection. Their meat was pretty flavorless and tough too.

Of course, that was before Adam started fiddling.

Now? Assuming he didn't accidentally make all these eggs into genius babies, growing them for slaughter was fully on the table, so to speak.

From what few notes he HAD on the topic, the process of improving the muscles and bones had several delicious side effects. More fat distributed more thoroughly, acting as energy reserves, for example.

Also, theoretically? Making them so much stronger meant that MOST of their muscles will be used less often. They barely needed to move to generate enormous motion... it was intended to improve their ability as pack animals.

If they didn't need to poop? Barely needed to eat? Mostly didn't move?

Then various trips didn't need as many pit stops. They could move faster with less stress on the animals involved. Low maintenance, high performance, high endurance.

Side effect?

These creatures would be COVERED in high quality, delicious meat with amazing fat content distributed throughout it. The muscles would be of amazing quality but rarely used... And uh.

Did he make the bones mint flavored? Maybe? It wasn't documented.

Crud.

Depending on how tasty these eggs were? It was entirely possible that ALL raised kids would become invited to the dinner table. Sheesh.

At least he knew inbreeding wouldn't be an issue. He had a limited breeding pool as it was, making sure any and all changes would not cause genetic issues was a major concern from the start after all. Even with the fun and random changes, ensuring safe breeding was mandatory at every stage.

...Shit. "Sister Quan?"

A shuffle of annoyance. "Yes?"

Adam winced. "Just checking... but does the female Four Eye Flame Bull seem to have prominent udders?"

A pause. "Let me check."

An awkward silence.

Finally... "No, no she does not."

Oh thank heavens, he DID remove that. Some vague memory about the milking attempt producing pure fire... a good reason to get rid of the feature. "Oh good."

Sister Quan sounded... concerned. "Adam..."

Uh. "Yes?"

She coughed. "Were... were you adding 'Prominent Udders' to the Bulls?"

...Well ANYTHING sounded dirty if you phrased it like THAT. "No comment."

Seriously, some people and their filthy minds.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Little Tianshi had moved several of the 'Fire Eggs' into her treehouse, even if Mr. Whiskers was only able to supervise the process. It took several trips, even with root manipulation to help.

These things were awesome! It required hard work to break one open (The guards ended up using a sword on the watermelon sized things) and they were always giving off a warm glow and this soft heat...

So she ended up moving a dozen into her treehouse bedroom, wrapped a whole bunch of the massive things in a thick mattress of vines... and BAM! A heated bed!

She could even jump on the new mattress without worrying about her nap time suddenly becoming an eggy mess. Not that she would, she was a big girl and that would be childish. But she could.

Didn't get much height.

The warmth was... not just heat. It seemed to relax the muscles... not a healing field or anything big like that, more just a soothing sort of heat that soaked into the body.

...She would probably make another couple of these 'Egg Beds' for Sister Quan and Da. Then she would get hugs and stuff and maybe an extra slice of cake or something.

Right now, she had finished moving her bedding over to the new sleep area and was watching the crystal screen Rockette had set up to spy on the poison eye Da collected.

The 'Asura Stone Cavern' had changed a lot.

The black pool of poison on the bottom now had floating white patterns shifting on the surface. The white clouds floating above had shifting black runes moving about.

And the eye had combined with the Asura Stone, floating in the middle of the cavern.

Now? The eye was no longer a basic glowing green orb with eyelids.

Its back side was the solid black Asura Stone... the front a white rock eye with several black concentric rings of crystal acting like the iris, the center pupil a mesmerizing glowing blue dot.

The blue dot matched her Master's flames.

It was soothing.

Now however, where ever the Asura Eye glared... a green poison eye would form on that surface. Once the focus was lost? The green eye would blink out of existence.

She wasn't really sure what either of the changes meant, but watching the process just conveyed a feeling of... satisfaction. Of peace. Harmony?

The eye stone seemed happy, though she wasn't sure why. The poison eyes being generated seemed... eager? But completely unconcerned about how short a time they had before fading away. Either they were unaware how little time they had or unconcerned about the issue.

Her idle evening was interrupted by the dinner call.

Ooh! Time to find out how these new Fire Eggs taste!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The lead guard (and to be fair, the other guards as well) stared at their plates.

She poked the 'fried egg'. "Since the Yolk is white, and the Whites are red... do we call this the egg Reds?"

If one ignored the colors, the cracked eggs were shaped fairly normally. A yolk supported by goo, one that apparently hardened when cooked easily enough.

But the center was this glowing white, blue tinged color. And the goo, when cooked, was nearly an unnaturally cheerful red color.

She sat at her place carefully. "At least the portions are large."

Two fried eggs were enough for all twelve of them, if they each had a single serving. The yolks alone were as large as some of the bigger fruits!

Sister Quan chuckled. "True... but the tricky part was cooking them."

She pointed at the wedge like slice she had just served to the lead guard. "These things ignored our attempts to increase their temperature. After all, they were laid in flames and generate heat."

A chuckle. "To cook them? I had to COOL THEM OFF. These things are not 'cooked' so much as 'frozen' into solidity."

The lead guard blinked. "What?" She cautiously used her fork to tear a small segment away... and it tasted like a properly cooked egg. Sort of. "What seasoning did you add to this? It is amazing!"

She laughed. "I know, right? One of the tasting guards found out that the shell was made of reinforced salt, to better resist the high heat involved. Either that or Adam was trying to be clever when designing these things."

Sister Quan passed a bowl of glowing red powder. "This ground up eggshell is safe to eat, but tastes like a mixture of salt and mild peppers. Slightly spicy... I'll be honest, having a renewable seasoning source like this is almost better than the promise of future steak."

The lead guard took another bite, this time with some additional 'Fire Salt'. The Spiritual Energy density in the egg was higher than expected, though not enough to be dangerous to people without a cultivation base... as long as they didn't have more than one serving a day or so.

The 'spice' or 'heat' the new salt was not overly strong either... "And you have to cool them off to cook them?"

Sister Quan nodded, adding some more bright red seasoning to her portion. "Just like how molten metal 'freezes' into a solid, these eggs 'freeze' into 'cooked' eggs. It is the only dish I have ever seen that can be properly cooked without any fireplace or heat source involved."

The guard blinked. "That could be VERY useful in some undercover missions I had. Or in places with little brush or wood to get easy cooking done." Another bite... Mmm! "Especially since those missions wouldn't allow me to just use Battle Qi to generate a cooking source. Sometimes you can't risk using techniques in the field."

Sister Quan chuckled. "It was a heck of a surprise though. We were all still messing around, using bonfires or heated crystal pipes... basically FAILING at cooking these things. Then a guard tried to retrieve a new egg from the refrigeration room and cracked a perfectly boiled egg into the pan."

The cooking woman grinned. "Imagine our SECOND surprise when the boiled egg MELTED back into a 'raw' egg! Though that did help us figure out how to properly prepare these things."

The guard leader looked into the distance wistfully. "I wonder how good a chef I could have been if I could uncook my mistakes and try again?"

Little Tianshi shoved a serving dish to her older friend. "Sister Quan, try the scrambled eggs! The ones with cheese!"

The Sister's expression dropped a little. "Ah... the last of the cheese." They REALLY needed to find a town to trade with for supplies. Still... She took a large bite.

And seemed lost in happiness. "That. Was. Worth. It."

Almost as one, the other guards began reaching for the scrambled cheese eggs.

No wonder the tasting squad had seemed so smug to get that dish first!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam just stood there, enjoying it.

Solid. Land.

The poison mist was still around, so technically this was the outer boundary of the Corpse Bog... but the lack of movement? The ability to just... stand still?

Marvellous.

Even though his recent travel was several inches above the floating surface, he STILL felt like he had 'sea legs'. Like the ground was shifting, as his body tried to counteract nonexistent movement.

Just... just a few more minutes.

He would continue running until out of the mist... maybe a bit further. THEN he could aim towards the Burning Sword Sect, find some sort of town on the way, get directions, buy supplies, purchase some more normal plants, maybe find some useful bushes, trees, and who knew what along the way...

But for now, Adam just wanted to enjoy solid land.

Breathe in... And out...

Right.

With a wide grin (But no longer unnaturally wide! Progress!), Adam spread out his domain, forced energy to be converted into momentum... and...

Ready? Lean forward, dig feet in a bit, clawed fingers getting contact.

Set. Generating momentum using Qi on his domain to resist gravity and compress the ground was still being tested, but should work for this!

And... GO!

His body vanished into the distance!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Quan and the few guards that cooked stared at the... 'Cake'.

The one to her left frowned. "How do we store this?"

Considering what a damn HASSLE it was to make this dish in the first place, it was a good question. Because 'cooking' with these eggs became tricky from the get go... They had to lower the temperature at careful rates, because even when 'cooked', the Fire Eggs somehow warmed up the other items mixed into it.

In other words, something conceptual was forcing other ingredients to ALSO need below room temperature to get things going. And if the 'cold' (but still warm to the taste) cake was NOT kept cooled down?

If stabilized, the dessert was mostly solid at ambient temperatures. Heat it up even a tad too much? It sort of came apart.

A test where they put the cake in an oven? They ended up with ALL the cake ingredients separated... the raw egg mixed with the now unmixed flour and salt and... yeah.

But if they tried to 'cool' it, the thing overcooked.

...Huh.

Sister Quan sighed. "Just... just get it to a stable temperature and store it in one of the rings. Adam plans on examining the storage treasures eventually anyway, so once he somehow makes something a billion times better out of sweater lint we can have him add a time dilation shelf or something to the pantry to store these 'cold foods'."

A guard grumbled. "Nearly burned myself on this 'cold food'. We NEED better names for this stuff."

Another was grinning. "Easy to clean up though, yes? Put the pans and bowls on the heater, then pour off the raw ingredient residue. And if you somehow 'burn' the thing, comes right off with a bit of heat too. No more scraping or elbow work... I love it!"

Sister Quan hummed. "If we make stuff outside of these caverns, we need to find a safe way to get rid of waste material. It would be fine in the summer, but in winter it might catch the trash piles on fire."

Another guard was looking at the list. "Well... I guess that cake is tentatively a success. Not like the meringue attempt." BIG flare up, one guard lost eyebrows. "So far, fried eggs were both easiest to do, easiest to store..." Burn it in the freezer, leave it on the plate until it reaches the perfect doneness you prefer. Lovely. "So what is next?"

Sister Quan tapped her chin. "Well, the bread turned out alright. Even if something in the cake mixture made it a bit finicky, the more basic loaves were great." Hmm. "Should we try to make egg custard?"

The battle against the nature of cooking continued. Results were varied.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam enjoyed another white 'poison berry'. Letting them grow for a week really made the flavor (and poison levels) much better! No seeds inside either, which was a bit odd.

Had a bit of a breakthrough with the Soul techniques, once he fully realized that OTHER people's Souls were less complicated than his own. Drastically reduced the complexity of the useless techniques when that came up.

If Adam's Soul was a city, most people only had a dog house.

...Which, considering that dogs here could be the size of a mountain, didn't say much.

Huh.

Right, if Adam's soul was a massive lake, most people would be a bucket of water. Not a big bucket either, more like the ones used to carry fish back from a day trying to get lunch.

Not those huge fish either, just... normal sized fish?

...What the hell was the size of a normal fish here?

Point was, normal people's Souls didn't have all the fiddly bits that Adam's had. And that was BEFORE Adam mutated himself using all the data from the Yang poison attack.

His Soul had formed all sorts of new, odd bits now. Defensive hooks, spikes, thicker panels... maybe a few sockets and such.

Oh, and the Four Eye Flame Bull (Chickens?) had Souls as complex as a damp rag in this comparison. Considering their mental ability, it wasn't too surprising.

Worst of all? Their mind and Souls were only that advanced AFTER his meddling.

...So yeah, Adam may have turned all their eggs into super genius mutants. It might even be enough to raise the resulting beasts up to 'Mentally challenged animal' rather than the lack luster ability of the mutated parents.

Seriously, he had assumed these animals were slow mentally when purchased due to old age and the general 'I don`t care about anything' attitude that tends to come with it.

Turns out? The whole SPECIES was so dumb that they couldn't recognize danger when it was riding on the cart behind them, scaring off animals in every direction for miles.

At least he wouldn't feel guilty about eating those eggs now.

Eating another berry, he considered the future of food within Rockette.

Would he eventually carve up these bulls for steak (Chicken?) sandwiches? Maybe.

Considering how odd the eggs worked in the kitchen, the various butchering results might be impossible to eat in the first place.

Better to build up a Bull House (A Cow Flock?) of egg layers. Get a stable supply, even if the most useful part of the egg turned out to be the shell instead of the bizarre insides.

One of the guards even found a procedure where using Soul Water, some heated crystal tubes provided by Rockette, and some condensation chambers? They could now separate out the Salt from the Fire Salt, even if the process released a lot of spiritual energy in the process.

Because the flavored salt was lovely, but not every recipe appreciated the extra tastes involved. And some things reacted poorly to the energies included with Fire Salt anyway... so good to have a more basic alternative.

True, the final result seemed a bit too... pure? Maybe because they were using Soul Water in the process... the stuff might count as conceptual salt. More study would be needed at some point.

Meh, it worked well enough and could probably be sold or traded at some point. Not that he really needed more money right now... the extra seasoning option was more valuable really.

He absently had 'Momentum Redirection' swerve his missile like body towards a small grove of trees with some kind of fruit growing on it. His domain was large enough at this point that they were already being consumed by his blue flames as he passed by... Rockette would add it to the Soil Grid for testing later.

What did they need, once they found people again?

Little Tianshi mentioned getting some 'boring' cows so they couldn't run out of cheese again. Poor child really didn't know how annoying it was to convert milk into the other stages. Then again, she was focused more on cultivation than on churning... maybe milking could be a chore for her? Give her some life lessons or something.

Sister Quan was focused on the seasonings. While Salt was a rock and a bit hard to gather for those far away from natural saltwater sources, Pepper and many other seasonings were plants... not that Adam had a lot of samples of those.

The Sect's shop sold mostly seeds and plant trimmings belonging to cultivation resources, after all. Most Cultivators didn't even bother to eat later in life, so focusing on 'useful' plants was logical he supposed... but having seen all the strange results those plant seeds had in his Soil Grid, who KNEW how powerful some mutated ginger could become?

Maybe some transplanted mint actually hid the secrets to future power, and everyone just missed it due to focusing on glowing apples or whatever.

Adam blinked.

People!

A group of a hundred or so, playing with some small Spirit Beasts! Not too far away either!

...Oh.

No, the people were being attacked.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

"Shit." Xe Dian hurled another ice spike at one of the wolves too close to the supporting fighters. "Shit shit shit."

Her other hand yanked back one of her 'Teammates', the massive group of younger Sect followers that leadership had thrust on her to keep alive while trying to get the damn mission done. "If you can't attack from distance, then STAY OUT OF THE WAY!"

They whined when traveling, they sounded like a herd of cats when being 'stealthy', they ate food supplies at double the rate of their damn clients and their one job, THEIR ONE JOB, was to not get in the way while she kept their damn dumbass selves alive!

A stomp had her Martial Spirit, the Ice Panther, activate Instant Soul Transformation and combine with her Qi system. White ice fur began forming over her body as she hurled a massive needle of frozen water through another pair of wolves getting too close to the trade caravan weak points. "REGROUP ON ME!"

No one had died yet, but the fight was young and this pack was clearly being guided by a more powerful Spirit Beast hiding in the background for a good moment to strike.

Thankfully, this section of the trade route was on exposed ground... they had enough time to pull the wagons together as improvised cover and almost enough time to get these young Sect morons into some sort of defensive stance.

SHIT! She fell onto all fours, dove over three or for idiots in the way, and managed to form an ice blade in time to slice the throat of a wolf about to slaughter a young girl who was crying on the ground rather than fighting. WHY did someone like this even apply for a transport mission if she was THIS terrified of violence!?

This HAD to be another 'helpful' suggestion by that snooty group that always gave her grief. You smash ONE PERVERT into the ground, and the fun never stops.

Dian held back another wince as the dead wolf managed to claw her arm as it fell to the blood soaked ground. "SOMEONE PULL THIS ONE TO THE MERCHANTS!" If she couldn't be useful, at least she wouldn't be eagerly waiting for death out here.

Before the girl was dragged away, she forced the child to look up into her eyes. "I need you to stay with the non combatants, keep them calm. Can I trust you to do this?"

Best she could do right now was give the child something to distract her with, it was too dangerous to spend a lot of time on this. Getting a shaky nod, she jumped as high as possible and used half her reserves to hurl a dozen ice needles at critical areas.

Her Martial Spirit's innate ability was Liquid Condensation, an abnormally strong ability to gather fluid from astounding distances for either collection or use... and right now, she was forcing this dry climate to sacrifice water from everywhere so that her Battle Techniques had enough source material for some harsh ice related lessons.

And her second ability, the reason she hoped to survive this mess? Qi Syphon, the ability to steal energy safely from foes during a fight to artificially keep her body active. Done properly, they could survive this!

Her paw-like hand was suddenly covered in frost spikes as she SLAPPED a wolf back into its rightful place: A crater.

Do NOT fuck with her, damn it!

Time passed like a heavy burden, her body forced to move far too much and give more than possible to prevent these young ones and the wealthy clients alive. Forcing the wounded and near collapsing people to move around the wagons, sacrifice some materials and trade goods to act as barriers and reinforce the defensive line?

Profit would be lost, but at least it had bought some time.

The number of wolves stayed constant. These 'Grass Wolves', with fur that blended far too well with the surrounding plains, were clearly being directed by some sort of Alpha... it was near impossible to determine their full numbers, as only thirty wolves were allowed to attack at a time.

It was why she could hold out so long... the beasts were only replacing the fallen as they occurred, so each death was not truly a victory but a signal for the next, rested and ready wolf to join the fight. Even as she devoured the beasts energy to stay conscious, her muscles still became more and more damaged and her body began to have issues.

It. Was. Demoralizing. "We are doing great! Keep up the pressure and I'm SURE we will make it through!"

She wasn't even sure they were half way done. Internally, her instincts predicted that if they HAD made that sort of impact, the hidden attacker would have launched the remaining troops to finish them off in one sweep... the defenders tired and the defences weakened.

The concept was supported by the weakness of the wolves themselves. Grass Wolves are ambush predators... some other wolf pack must have dominated these to act as disposable shock troops.

...Hopefully another wolf pack. If it was a pack of something more powerful, their survival rate would drop from 'Nothing' to 'Just die already'.

Time seemed to both stand still and pass forever as she fought onward, as her comrades were forced to retreat, leaving her more and more alone.

Shit, her arm wound had opened up again and she was too bloody to safely wrap it. "I need some water!"

A hand offered a large sloshing canteen over. The guy, maybe one of the merchants? Too brave for this situation anyway... best to yell at him AFTER accepting the help. "Thanks, but you should stay back with the others."

Ignoring his expression, she poured the liquid over the wound. It wouldn't do enough, and she would need medication later, but hopefully it would help clean out the debris, dirt, and foreign material that coated her body from the long and endless fight. "How are the others holding out?"

The man hummed. "Several wounded, though I passed them some basic medication and stuff, so they will be fine. Emotionally the entire group seems on edge of course, even against these weaklings."

Damn it, another cocky guy. No wonder he had the balls to wander off from safety, even if she did appreciate the timely assistance. "Weak or not, they have numbers. Get back to the group, if possible convince the OTHERS to ALSO stay back there, and let me do my job. I'll keep us alive, on my honor." Or, more likely, die trying. Damn it.

He tilted his head. "I mean... sure? But you seem a bit tired. For now, why not let my guards continue to hold off the pack and take a break."

...What?

She blinked away some of the crusted gore from her eyes and looked around properly without defaulting to her spiritual senses. Normally such habits were carefully nurtured, as blinding assaults and debris clouds were common tactics by beasts in the wild... but it did reduce situational awareness.

She saw a number of black armored individuals just... laying waste to the frantically attacking wolf pack. Idle movements slicing entire beasts in half, mild gestures causing the creatures to implode or dissolve into mist.

The guy beside her hummed. "Yeah, I thought about helping out... but my guards have been getting pretty depressed about not being able to assist me for the last few months. You know how it is: Do good on your own for a while, and they all feel relieved. Do good ALL the time, they feel extraneous."

She just... fell back, barely noticing the man (Boy? Fairly muscular for a kid though.) as he provided a chair and guided her into it. "What?"

He nodded. "Saw you were in a bit of a fight, and I was both in the area, completely lost, and looking for directions." His smile was bright. "Got here before anything deadly happened, as far as I can tell. Good luck all around, I think!"

It was over? Really?

With a heavy sigh, she released the Instant Soul Transformation combination and felt her Martial Spirit nearly collapse back into her system, spent entirely, her beastial features fading away. Her Qi reserves were now beyond pitiful, and she felt near systematic shock at this point. "That... that was so hard."

The boy grinned and offered her a warm, wet towel from... somewhere. She forced herself to begin wiping off the layers of filth the constant fighting had bathed her in, weak arms trembling.

He chuckled. "Much more than a simple fight, you basically survived an endurance match! Even after I stepped in here and there to ensure nothing attacked your back, you stayed focused on ensuring not one beast reached your people."

His smile was nice. "Good job!"

...Honestly, even thinking back, she just hadn't noticed him helping. Not consciously. All she could remember was suddenly feeling less pressured, more confidant about attacking, less concerned about counter attacks...

When she asked for water, she KNEW someone was there to hear it, just not with her full attention.

Another blink. "Sorry, I'm still a bit out of it. I'm Xe Dian, from the Frosted Tiger Sect."

He happily shook hands with her. "Chongsheng Adam! I and my people are from the Burning Sword Sect, although we are out on a long term mission right now." He winced. "It has been... quite the adventure so far. Speaking of which, you know the Corpse Bog, that way?"

She looked where he was pointing. "I guess? Why?"

He gave her a serious look. "MASSIVE danger there. Poison aside, there is something that infiltrates intruders and forces them to forget about it later. You need to warn your Sect, as even OURS don't know about it yet. Scary shit."

She blinked. Wait, the massively powerful Burning Sword Sect... DIDN'T know about this? Holy crap. That WAS important then.

Whatever, it would be added to the after action report of this shit situation. "Glad for the assistance, Brother Chongsheng."

He waved her off. "Please, call me Adam. Or if you must, Brother Adam or Burning Sage."

A... strange 'Ding!' came out of nowhere. What?

The guy winced. "Strike that, just call me Adam. I'm not supposed to be known as the Burning Sage by anyone, operational security and all that."

Another 'Ding!'

Another wince. "In fact, forget I mentioned it. Please?"

She couldn't help a small grin as some sort of Crystal Creature with a cute face showed up on his shoulder and seemed to Ding at him in accusations.

Maybe it was some sort of companion Spirit Beast? She had seen weirder.

With a groan, she reached for one of the nearby 'fallback' reserves she had constructed near the battle areas for use during the fight. Should have some clean bandages in there for her arm. "Well, I am beyond grateful for the assist. Mind helping me wrap my arm wound? Can't treat my other issues if one arm is so torn up."

He blinked. "What? It's healed already."

SHE blinked. "Huh?" Glancing at her right arm... the open torn flesh was now smooth and clear. Beyond healed, even past scars and damage seemed gone! "What the... what happened?"

Brother Adam shrugged. "Well you DID just pour an entire canteen of Soul Water onto the area. I'd be more shocked if nothing happened."

...She did WHAT!?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

This caravan was a mess.

Adam relaxed next to his new acquaintance, Xe Dian. Miss Dian was still worn from her recent fight, seemed more than a little distracted, and of course needed some time to gather her thoughts.

He leaned back in his chair, one of the set provided by Rockette from the supplies. Watching the ongoing, low level fights between his guards and the weak wolves... how lovely.

Some bread, a jar with one of the better tasting berry preserves from the Soil Grid Gardens, and some glasses of Soul Water were added to a summoned table. "So, Sister Dian... would you mind talking a bit? I mentioned before that my people and I are beyond lost at the moment."

She was watching the clear glass of water with suspicion. "Is that ALSO incredibly valuable special water?"

He blinked. Technically, since he had rivers of the stuff... "No? Just... Just normal water." She bought that right? Yeah, totally convinced! Go Adam! "Drink up, you were fighting way beyond healthy levels from what I saw."

The odd looks from the still cowering merchants and younger children were a bit expected. Most people didn't take a snack break in the middle of an ongoing conflict. Wimps.

Adam took her dirty, used towel and replaced it with a clean one, soaked in warm Soul Water and ready to help her be a bit more presentable. "Right, so questions. Where are we? Like, in relation to other places."

Thankfully, the young woman seemed so relieved to have a break from fighting that she didn't mind having a bit of a chat. She listed off the nearest towns, the more well known landmarks, and a few cities. The Sects in the area, the publicly known relationships between them, whom to avoid and what issues to not mention.

Honestly, something about drinking the Soul Water seemed to really make her relax. Like unseen wounds or past damages were being wiped away... then again, spilling a bit on her damaged arm cleared THAT whole issue up, so it shouldn't be so surprising.

As the conversation moved on a bit, Adam had Rockette look around inside his Martial Spirit.

Only five guards were allowed to join him outside the caverns, just in case Adam still had some unknown residue from the Corpse Bog. They were all pretty sure he DIDN'T, but a little extra time in the safety of Rockette's domain wouldn't hurt things.

He held up a hand, pausing a fun discussion about nearby areas with interesting wildlife. "Something changed."

Adam snapped his fingers, an unnatural 'DING!' echoing from Rockette on his shoulders and causing the guards to vanish and stand in formation. "A large number of wolves are about to join the fray, along with some sort of larger beast. Three of you guard the group over there, two guard our friend here as she recovers."

One of the guards sighed. "Sir, can't we handle this? Please?"

Adam paused... and sighed. "Fine. But don't damage the thing too much, it feels like some sort of plant animal hybrid and I want to see the body intact if possible." He blinked. "Safety first, of course. If you are in actual danger, explode the damn thing."

He leaned back in his chair. "Sister Dian, have you heard of a large cat with plant vines growing on it? Seems to have some sort of leadership skills."

The woman seemed FAR less stressed with competent fighters taking over. Good, that clearly wasn't healthy. "Maybe? It sounds like either a Vine Lion or a Tentacle Tiger. Maybe a Plain Panther, though those are way more rare. To be honest, without your people any ONE of those would easily wipe us out."

Adam hummed... and moved on. "Well, that aside, would you like to join me in some drink tests? I've been growing all sorts of interesting plants, and I have something of an ongoing quest to determine which leaves might produce the least disgusting variation of a tea substitute."

She blinked as a number of cups showed up on the table, small leaf piles on paper placed beside each. "Least disgusting?"

Adam nodded, making sure HIS samples didn't mix with hers. "All my tests use very, VERY odd plant leaves. Most never seen by other people, most so new that they have no name." He blinked. "Right, if you DO find one that doesn't taste like yuck, you get to name it. That is pretty much the only rule to this game."

She held up a glowing yellow leaf. "Huh."

Adam nodded. "Yeah, those are all probably fine. Don't touch my samples though, I am working through all the poisonous options to see if we get lucky."

Sister Dian's eyes darted to his cups... and the odd, sickly looking leaves near them. "WHAT? WHY!?"

They ignored the massive scream challenging the attacking guards in the background.

He frowned. "Well first of all, no one else traveling with me can handle poisons on this level. We theoretically have a way to make poisonous plants shift the deadly components to the roots and stems, but I don't want to bother with that unless the resulting tea tastes good."

Adam began adding a red leaf (With purple glow) to some hot Soul Water. "Obviously, it would be a waste of time to make thousands of plants safe to brew tea with if the results taste terrible. So best if I have a few cups."

He waved away a large sliced off section of tentacle so it wouldn't hit the table.

The water was now glowing blue. Was that bad? Xe Dian watched with fascinated horror as he took a sip... and grimaced. "Eugh. Aside from the paralysis effect and the theoretical nerve damage, this tastes like spoiled lemon juice and some sort of musky flavor."

He poured the mess to the side, ignoring the tea travesty as it corroded a hole in the soil. "Failure. Though it had retained a good percentage of spiritual energy... but that taste!"

She looked at her own leaves, concerned. "I'm... not sure I want to drink these."

Half a wolf bounced past the pair, making a real mess. They would need to move the caravan onwards before setting up camp, this battlefield was just becoming disgusting.

He snorted. "Your options are all tested by my Sect Sister, Xiao Quan. Safe to drink, safe to touch, safe to inhale. She tested several large batches of samples, which is why MY selection of tests all look strange."

He waved a hand. "YOUR stuff is technically 'good' tea. Full of spiritual energy, raised with an amazing environment, harvested at various times that, according to my people, should provide the best products."

The boy leaned forward. "But! They have not been taste tested. Too many samples to go through, not enough time." He sighed, watching her hesitantly begin to brew a cup with the first batch. "ANY of those would be useful for cultivation... But I want people to look FORWARD to drinking the stuff."

Because once he introduces it to his Sect, he would be forced to see it show up everywhere. Better to take time now rather than be forced to drink disgusting stuff to be 'polite' in the future.

His face fell into a gloomy stare as he looked at his next cup. "Problem is, deadly plants seem to grow faster and with more variety. And I am the only one in my team that can ignore poison and such issues... so I have to do all the work here. For every sample that you could try, I have a dozen more to work through. Bleagh." Pour out that cup too, disgusting.

A distant battle cry had Adam absently wave. "Good job! Keep on doing whatever it is!" But seriously, couldn't you people keep it down a bit? So loud.

She took her first, hesitant sip... and blinked. "It tastes... like nothing?"

Adam nodded. "About half your samples will be like that. Side effect of the plant's rapid growth. I have other variations that are supposed to taste better once they have time to grow and develop, but a lot of the early stuff? Bland at best."

He lifted his next cup... and blinked down inside the empty thing. "Dang it, another mixture that erodes glass. Rockette, can I have a ceramic mug and a replacement sample?"

Sister Dian looked up from another test cup... concerned. "Are you... really alright to drink stuff like that?"

He glanced to the side, seeing some of the leaves trying to escape their fate... and forced them under their empty cup to wait their turn for brewing. "Yeah, I am surprisingly durable. That said, while most of these drinks try to kill me in one way or another... they certainly have flavor!"

His attitude fell a bit as he forced himself to take the next sip. "Not... not good flavor though. Something about deadly plants make them develop super quickly... but not super deliciously. Not yet, at least."

He froze as a WATERFALL of bright red blood covered him, his half the table, his drink, and a good size area to the left. "What?"

A distant 'SORRY!' didn't make himself feel any less gross.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Xe Dian blinked as a near wave of gore covered her odd 'drinking' companion.

The boy blinked, blood pouring down his face... and looked down at his over full 'tea' cup. "...No. Rockette, consume ALL this mess, get me fresh samples, and... PTHEW, oh damn it I got it in my mouth..."

Then he caught on fire.

Because of course he did.

She didn't think she was dead, her imagination wasn't that good, but she WAS starting to think that (if she WAS still in combat) something had made her hallucinate HARD.

A quick look at HER side of the table (Spotless, a boiling container of amazing tasting water, several cups with test samples of tea) compared with HIS side of the table (Bright red, currently covered in fire. Blue fire.) didn't really make this feel more real.

The child seemed bored as blue flames evaporated flesh and blood away, leaving him clean and reaching out towards nothing, a fresh cup appearing at his touch. "I KNOW it was that one sarcastic guard who did this. Guy always seemed a bit annoyed at my antics."

She hesitantly took a sip for the next sample on her side. Another bland one. "Is he going to be a problem?"

The guy snorted. "Not for me. His boss though saw that, and she seems PISSED. Goes to show that having a high cultivation base DOESN'T mean you always make good choices."

He prepared the next cup (These leaves were brown. And square.) "On a different note, this is a trading caravan, yes? Are they willing to barter for materials?"

She blinked. "I guess? Not sure why you would though, they are mostly carrying nonperishable consumer goods. Unless you NEED lots of silk or whatever."

Adam sighed. "I suppose it would be too convenient if they had cheese or spice trimmings. Though my little one would love to get her hands on some good seasoning related plants."

She felt stunned. "You're married!?"

He blinked. "No?"

Ah. "Sorry, didn't mean to bring up bad memories. That was insensitive." She must have passed away after his child was born. He looked so young though!

Adam blinked again. "Uh... don't mention it? Anyway, we have enough supplies to live without concern for some time, it is just the luxury items my people crave right now. Still, I have access to some strange but delicious food... maybe one or two merchants in the caravan would be willing to sell some of their personal supplies for the right price."

Her attention was pulled back as a massive rumble shook the area, a Spirit Beast rising from the thin short grass that should have NEVER concealed it. Standing double the height of the wagons, a HUGE green lion stood over the five guards blocking its path, dozens of thick tentacles covered in armored segments wove a complicated attack net!

Adam frowned. "So... I assume it is a Vine Lion? Huh."

She felt her body lock up.

No, this was a VARIANT Vine Lion! It shouldn't be this big! It shouldn't be HALF this big! And what the HELL was up with those vines!? It was normally trivial to slice the things off, they needed to be flexible and that made defensive strength for the material low!

Her thoughts worsened when an absent swipe shot one of the black armored guards a dozen feet away. "Shit."

Adam nodded. "Yeah, mine was terrible too. I thought, you know, statistically... at least a FEW of these plants should be tasty. When made into tea, I mean. But even though the deadly leaves outnumber the 'fine but unknown' options by over seventy percent, they almost ALL taste HORRIBLE!"

She continued to stare at the FAR too quickly moving monster, her cup trembling in her hand.

He sighed. "But I already tasted THOUSANDS of samples, and I just know, I KNOW, that if I stop now? BAM, next cup will change my life. Make me break down in tears from the glorious deliciousness discovered within."

The Vine Lion's jaws opened in a roar... then opened again, and AGAIN, like some horrifying flower of teeth and mouth. No fucking WONDER the local wolves gave up and chose being used as meat shields over fighting this terror.

Adam frowned. "Guys, that thing is really getting loud."

A guard dodged one of the vines tipped with a wooden spike. "SORRY YOUNG MASTER!"

He waved it away. "No no, have fun. Just let me know if you want me to kill the thing."

With a depressed sigh, he turned to the next cup. "Theoretically, I know that I am being silly over this. That I should give up on these more odd plants and join your section of testing. But at this point I think I have fallen into the trap of the 'Sunk Cost Fallacy'."

Oh. The Vine Lion could discard and launch vines like nets. Holy shit.

Adam frowned. "Because I have tasted so many of these already, doing the logical thing and only testing the 'safe' stuff feels like it would have all been a waste." The blue haired child took the next sip... and smiled! "HA! That one was flavorless! Mark one for the win!"

A guard narrowly dodged a launched number of thorns, each the length of an arm.

And the boy frowned HARDER. "No, wait... there is a sour after taste. I swear, it wasn't NEARLY this frustrating when I was mutating Spirit Beasts for entertainment."

...What?