Sister Quan carefully moved towards the Pasture Caverns... Rockette mentioned he would be here.

She heard Adam before she saw him. "You guys just wait, once I finish the really COOL modules... and maybe some sort of transportation method, I don't like all this traveling really. Shouldn't be too hard to use a space pocket with two openings to act like a hallway, even if the calculations look horrible. Yes it does, yes it does!"

She crept up... and saw Adam laying on his back the four Bull Chicken baby's playing in his blue flames while he shook one over his head. "Sure the bubbles keep popping, but eventually I can stabilize the stupid things to handle more than one connection at a time. Or maybe I can connect one of those time pockets, so that I can close off the damn things without everyone inside being frozen in place..."

She held back a giggle as Adam gently moved the Bull Chicken (Bicken? Sure, the Bicken.) off his face, the furry thing having climbed onto his head to better chew his hair. "I can sort of understand not including the modules that were unstable, or the ones that automate complicated stuff with excessive Qi being supplied rather than doing all the stuff I do when activating them... But still, I have all those workshop modules!"

The Bicken being held in the air seemed happy to lick the boy's arms, the blue flames rolling along. Adam sighed, pulling the tiny thing into a hug. "It's going to suck when you weigh two tons. Maybe I should modify you guys to just stay cute forever. Rockette knows you're dumb enough not to care either way, even if you are geniuses compared to your parents."

Sister Quan cleared her throat. "Brother Adam?"

He froze, mid cuddle. "...Can we pretend I was doing something super manly when you walked in? Like, bench pressing a boulder or something?"

Her grin answered him fast enough. He shrugged. "Well, whatever. How are the kids liking their new toys?"

She chuckled, and sat next to him to pet the babies. "They love them, of course. The lead guard said we are getting something similar?"

Adam sighed. "Yeah, but unlike THEIR stuff ours is less restricted. And because it is 'so impressive'" He grumbled. "We are going to have to stay in the next big city we hit so our guards can report in, get instructions, and send ANOTHER emergency message. Apparently our Sect has outposts in most major places in their territory with special equipment for situations like this."

He paused. "Well, not like THIS, exactly. I doubt most people can predict the stuff I get up to, really. But once Elder Cho has a Master Pocket Tattoo of her own, we can message her, send cool stuff we find, and securely send anything else later on. Should fix a lot of problems."

Sister Quan nudged his shoulder. "That's all nice, but I just want to let you know that I found it cool. That it was and is an amazing creation." She chuckled. "Even if the scope of potential terrifies me. It is a bit disturbing how you can reorganize society by trying to help children cultivate more easily."

Adam squeezed his Bicken... and both of them paused when it let out a little high pitch 'Merr'.

He grinned. "Now THAT was adorable. I should design more cute things."

Sister Quan poked him. "No. So... can I have one of these new tattoo things?"

Adam sighed. "Later. I think I am close to finishing the Workshop Modules... It projects tools, counters, some gadgets, an oven or two, sinks... all kinds of stuff!"

He grinned. "The kitchen Workshop not only has space to prepare food, but custom space pocket connections that you can connect to different sources. Like... not NOW, it isn't working right. The work around requires an interface layer that requests items and ensures nothing tries to open an already used address because... uh."

A wince. "Yeah, very dangerous. But once I get it all finished, tested, tested MORE, add some more safeties and design methods of failure that won't hurt anyone... THEN I can finish our designs. The blacksmith Workshop was WAY easier in comparison... You can even store projects away in smaller pockets and come back later!"

She blinked. "That sounds... good?"

Adam sighed. "Well, honestly everything is modular. So I could just give you what I got now with no problems, and let you change your modules around at a later time."

He tried to pull the other Bicken into a hug with his current one. "But uh. I want you to see the final product, you know? Show you something impressive."

Daww. Sister Quan hugged the blushing boy. "You already HAVE done something impressive... but I understand. Feel free to wait until you feel its ready to show off, alright?"

The pair relaxed in the fire red fields, playing with the baby Bickens, and just wasting time.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

It was rare for all the guards to be having a meeting... but it was nighttime, the camp was (theoretically) being protected by the young cultivators of the Frozen Tiger Sect, and the three Burning Sword Sect members were all inside Rockette, the safest place available.

The lead guard tapped the table. "We can't suppress this information. Not fully. Too many witnesses, not allowed to end them, and if we DID somehow pull it off without being caught by Brother Adam, Rockette would know anyway."

A round of grumbling. A guard sighed. "I can't believe we already used the emergency cube... and less than a week later, needed a SECOND one. I've never HEARD of them being used before, not recently at least!"

Her neighbor chuckled. "At least this most recent headache will let us warn the Sect in the future without destroying a new cube every week."

One of the more pessimistic guards was not as happy. "Until the Blood Drinking Sect or the Demon Flame Sect begins torturing more people to get their hands on the things."

The lead guard waved that off. "The young Sage walked me through the defenses of this new tattoo... that will not be an issue." She waves at the mark on her neck. "Aside from the abilities of the mark itself, Adam's version currently being tested directly connects to Rockette, his Soul, and our Soul. If an enemy somehow gains access to the damn tattoo... well, it will be handled. And probably everything they know will be stolen, all spiritual energy drained, and their soul consumed."

Several guards cursed. "Shit. And what if he did that to US?"

The more optimistic guards chuckled. "Brother Sage could do that NOW, without the mark, and there is little we could do to stop him. That boy can just shove raw power into someone, yank it out, or just unleash that damn eye on you and wipe your mind."

Her neighbor nodded. "The child COULD, but likely would find that boring and annoying or inconvenient to do. He spends more time testing stuff and whatnot than he does cultivating... not that he isn't a prodigy in THAT as well."

The lead guard waved them to silence. "The next city is on Mount Kirin, I will personally meet with out people in the Burning Sword embassy." She glared at them. "You WILL be professional while I take care of this. You WILL guard our people, and the people that Brother Adam took under his wing while I am absent. Understood?"

Nods.

She frowned. "I. Said. Understood?"

They stood. "YES SIR!"

Good. "I don't expect any issues, which is even MORE of a reason to be cautious. Adam attracts impossible things, I do NOT want to be surprised by the next one if possible. Are you following our current policies?"

The other squad nodded. "One with a blindfold, one with earplugs, one using spiritual sensing, one watching the camp rather than outside the perimeter, the last to watch us for mental issues, domination, or Soul attacks."

She held back a proud smile. "Good. Stay sharp, we arrive at Mount Kirin in two days."

As they all relaxed slightly, the wise ass chuckled. "What do we do if the young Sage takes the mountain too?"

...He wouldn't, right? She kept her face unconcerned. "Then we make sure to blame someone else if possible and run. Now, get back on duty while the rest of us return to the Crystal Caverns."

He SHOULDN'T. Or he should tell her first.

...Damn it, she better go check.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam was taking a break.

Over a dozen modules were either being modified, created, or reviewed. He would do more later.

His Soil Grid gardens were producing a mountain of food now, at all levels of maturation and with crazy variety. He would oversee that at some point.

The Four Eye Flame Bull parents apparently decided NOT to wait for their four new eggs to hatch, so now there were EIGHT eggs waiting to become baby Bickens, as Sister Quan had named them. Not his problem.

He was just relaxing.

He had a goal... but his CURRENT methods were inefficient. And to be honest, some of the adventures were pretty scary. That massive corpse walker was terrifying.

But now, what did he have? What did he need?

Food? Both spiritual and mundane, he was now blessed. Some variety could still be desired, but this wasn't an issue. Though his 'Normal Water' might cause a problem at some point.

Shelter? His Martial Spirit was big enough to be a Realm of her own, and didn't seem to be ready to stop expanding. When he got tired of cultivating, who knew how big this place would be.

Energy? His Ying Yang Cycle Pond was creating MORE power as it interacted with itself and the Yin Pool and Yang Platform. Not to mention the raw energy within the Soul Water being generated, that stuff was useful all over the place.

Also? His Asura Eye. Adam wasn't sure HOW much power there was in that other reality where demons and angels fought for all time, but it was a lot and the tiny percentage being poured into his Poison Cave was still an astonishing volume of energy for him to use as desired.

He didn't really NEED to use his Domain to gather heaven and earth energy from nature. Still did though, free stuff was free.

But... he had a goal. To learn the inner workings of concepts, of cultivation... to improve and empower his System back home.

And this Master Pocket Tattoo was the first BIG step!

Because it didn't just allow him to gain information, nor just tempt the Sect to willingly stuff all the secret data they had into the thing for Rockette to send to 'Research'...

No, it was something more powerful and useful for Adam's long term goals.

Through this new interface, he could set missions. Reward Sect cultivators with rare resources, treasures, or even pure power shaped with the perfect ratio for the individual...

Why should ADAM wander around, stealing volcanoes and stuff? Searching hundreds of places for rumors and things... when he could pay others to do it for him?

HE could focus on the stuff only HE could do, like advance his cultivation, designing the Essential Cultivation Techniques' for Sister Quan and Tianshi, do science and stuff... While the hundreds of thousands of Sect members could find new plants, capture Spirit Beasts, turn in treasures, deliver secrets for rewards...

Because honestly, something in this Realm might be using him to solve problems.

Some concept might be why he stumbled on these rare items, valuable lizard pet, dangerous places, and so forth.

This was a time without a hero, no protagonist, no 'Main Character' for this period of history. He paid a LOT of power to ensure this was true.

So WHY was he finding places that nearly turned the world into chaos? Beasts best left unfound? Secret treasonous plots against beautiful tragic figures?

Something, be it fate, destiny, or just narrative momentum was trying to make him the tool of this Realm.

It wouldn't be as obvious to Adam if he hadn't spent so long in Rockette, his Martial Spirit separated from normal reality. If he wasn't an outsider on some level.

Would staying at home fix the issue? Maybe. Maybe not.

Hell, the urge to return to the Sect may be due to ANOTHER critical event that could only be avoided by him being present.

But something inside felt like this new method, sending minions out into the world? THIS might cut down on the sudden events, impossible coincidences, and improbable meetings.

Little Tianshi burst into his cultivation cave. "Da! The city at Mount Kirin is having a huge festival!"

...Damn it.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The festival was apparently an annual thing.

On the top of Mount Kirin, at the center of the local city (Named 'Kirin City', what imagination!) was the graveyard. Originally, the local culture of civilians believed that burying the dead so close to the sky would help them ascend to the afterlife and join their ancestors... but at the tip of the mountain was a small weed.

Unnoticed for years, the weed began to adapt to the Death energies that naturally gathered at the peak graveyard... and eventually mutated into a pretty impressive tree that was shaped like a weeping willow.

The locals called it the 'Sympathy Willow', and as it converted necrotic energies into sustenance it did indeed produce powerful 'tears', liquid full of healthy and powerful spiritual energies... basically waste products from consuming the remnant powers of the deceased.

The festival was both a farewell for those who died in the last year, and a celebration that their families and loved ones were blessed by the Sympathy Willow after their passing... As if the ones leaving onwards were giving a final gift.

Considering the conceptual nature of this land, it may even be true.

The streets were filled with both stalls selling trinkets and festival food... and small shrines, both praising various deities and memorializing those who passed on, loved ones buried on that mountain for the willow to weep over.

Honestly, little Tianshi was just a bit too young to catch the bigger ideas beyond 'Big lights and fires, fun music, new snacks and food' and 'kids to play with!'

Which was fine.

Adam on the other hand was keeping his eyes open. All three of them, even if only cultivators could see the Asura Eye examining the world from his forehead. She was staying in his Poison Cavern for now, projecting a version of herself onto Adam's body through Yang poison... and she was watching carefully.

Tianshi pulled Sister Quan by the hand. "They have some kind of honey candy over there!"... and Adam followed idly behind.

Hmm... that stuff existed back on Earth Bet too. 'Dragon`s Beard' candy was easy enough to make when you had access to maltose syrup and sugar... Make a hardish puck of super sugar saturated syrup, pierce a hole through it, coat the thing with corn starch... Then get to work.

Stretch it into a loop, twist it so that one large ring became a figure eight, hold both loops into a NEW, single loop... and repeat. More corn starch so the thing won't stick to itself, and eventually the loops become thin strands, thousands of them! A sweet snack similar to cotton candy.

Of course, HERE who knew what the ingredients were. Clearly the white powder wasn't corn starch, and seemed to be ground up from some sort of bark by an assistant.

Tasted good though.

The shrines were less morbid than Adam expected too. Most had something like tributes to momentous achievements of their past, moments of glory for those no longer able to continue. Some were stories of riches, others massive loss that they failed to avenge, even a couple that were actually funny or just odd.

Still... the care shown here was honest. As brave, bold, evil, good, or just incompetent as these people may have been... they were loved and they would be missed.

As the group moved on to view one of the nearby shrines, Adam felt Rockette guide his Asura Eye's focus away... and then her poison clone on Adam vanished, the pair off on some sort of adventure.

Good, they deserved to have fun too!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Deep under the mountain, in a cave slightly too short for his height, the black robed man was frowning. "What holdup?"

The formation master sweated. "The energy barrier is fine! No really, totally fine... I just want to review the sacrificial formation a little longer. Make sure nothing is damaged, the Beast Cores are aligned correctly, the spirit stones unmodified..."

A claw like hand tapped with annoyance. "I believe... that you did that two days ago. And found no issues."

Shit. "But with a project of this importance, should something go wrong..."

It was all lies of course. He was just horrified to find out a few details at the last moment.

Working with the Dark Night Sect to undermine the Weeping Forest Sect? Fine.

Getting free resources, rare goods, and being able to sap a bit from the top for his own gain? Great!

Spending almost two decades designing the formation? Part of the job, really. The fact that the Dark Night Sect did all the dangerous work, dug these underground tunnels, killed witnesses... well, it all made his end even easier!

It wasn't like morality was an issue. As long as he had wealth and power, a few hundred thousand sacrifices were fine. Most were just human wastes anyway, unable to cultivate at all.

However... a small comment, one he wasn't supposed to hear, suddenly made him realize a bit of an issue.

The 'ignition' sacrifice, the one that caused this massive underground formation to begin consumption? The key position, that required a human full of regret, skinned, defleshed, and with their Soul bound to their defiled bones and tormented?

Yeah, it was almost REQUIRED that HE be the sacrifice. "I'll just need a few hours, three at most, and we will be ready to..."

The monstrous claw that ripped into his torso made it difficult to talk. Didn't hurt as much as he had expected, but that was what the future torture was for...

As he was dragged by the Dark Night Brother further down the caves, somehow it was so much worse knowing EXACTLY what was about to happen to him... and that he had added in several UNNEEDED torments because his twisted personality found it humorous.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Rockette and the Asura Eye watched the ongoing torture of the tainted man, the preparation of the massive formation... and continued to drain the spiritual energy from the concealing formation above the tunnel system. It wouldn't collapse yet, but free power was free power.

Unknown to the mutated Sect members, busy slicing skin and removing muscle, several... minor changes were being applied to the formation outside their view. The Asura Eye's Yin and Yang poisons shifted some lines, drained a few Beast Cores, stole or moved certain spirit stones...

And tiny black specks, nearly unnoticeably small rock eyes, were left in the tunnels to watch the results... And prepare to step in if the changes didn't work.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam, little Tianshi, and Sister Quan had meandered away from the rest of the caravan people and Sister Dian's group. They were now in a thick crowd, watching a MASSIVE formation being set up for the major festivities.

It was for the highlight of the year, when cultivators from the local Weeping Forest Sect would activate this 'Cleansing' formation. From Adam's discerning eye, the massive pattern acted sort of like squeezing a sponge, forcing all energies in the local graveyard into the tree at the summit... the awesome light show and noises would just be a happy byproduct.

He DID however notice some strange structures that were tapping into this formation though, from deep underground. After a quick check... Rockette told him it was under control, so whatever. From what he could feel, if things went wrong it would be easy enough to rip the power out of the formation before it could get going anyway.

The strange ritual looked ready to begin, as Adam helped lift Tianshi to see better on his shoulders. The whole thing had multiple stages and even intermissions... it was almost like outdoor theater really.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Rockette hummed as she, again, just in case mind you, applied the 'Formation Adaptation' technique on the underground glowing pattern.

Turns out, compared to converting Adam's customized Formation Scripting Language to something that works locally? Well, converting this local mess into his lingo was WAY easier.

Cost almost nothing in energy for this one step to basically decode anyone else's fancy artwork.

After that? She just passed the raw pattern and the translation over to 'Research', and the whole thing was easily understood... and then even more easy to modify.

From what she could tell, the ORIGINAL plan here was to take advantage of this festival up on the mountain to harvest... all kinds of things.

Because 'upstairs', like every year, the Weeping Forest Sect was using their strongest cultivators to power an ANCIENT formation pattern, one designed to feed that odd tree with all the 'negative' energies within the mountain, 'cleansing' it.

But now, CONNECTED to that formation... was this complicated mess. It was designed to redirect all that energy into this odd offshoot over there, to then pass down into the mountain to these tunnels...

And to filter through that guy.

His bones were black from fire, all flesh gone, every organ removed... Soul tied to the concepts of corruption, pain, vengeance, rage, and more. The magically aware skeleton was still twitching as it was being stabbed on a pike, installed deep in this formation.

That power from upstairs would originally be pulled here, tainted by his existence, shoved into this massive array further down... and used to fuel the largest sacrificial formation Rockette had ever seen. Larger than any she had even heard of, even in legend or warnings from Adam's readings!

Everyone would die. All the people on the mountain, everyone within several dozen miles, even everyone down here in the tunnels... though it was clear that the cultivators down here didn't know that last nugget.

It would strip power, Qi, spiritual energy, concepts... it would convert skin, flesh, organs, and bones... treasures would be damaged or destroyed, cultivation resources would be consumed...

And all of it would be used as fuel for THAT guy, way over there. The ONLY guy standing in a smaller formation circle, where all that power was shaped to be passed into.

...Shame Rockette had so much time to alter things.

Just a poor, sad situation.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Gristle held back a cackle as he watched the edge of the massive formation begin to glow black.

Even with that annoying screaming from the damned formation master, that cursed skeleton's whining couldn't prevent the joy filling his crooked heart.

This was it.

A lifetime of effort... well, considering the number of sacrifices over the years, MANY lifetimes of effort, all coming to a point tonight.

His stitched face twisted into a grin as the screams suddenly increased, his fellow Sect 'Brothers' now realizing that they were more 'ingredients' than 'participants'.

This method was found in his youth, an inheritance formerly lost in a valley twisted with darkness and filled with damned Souls. Souls that were initially sacrificed to provide him enough power to become a Houtian Warrior to begin with, despite his lack of skill, natural talent, and aptitude.

His progress up to and through the Xiantian Realm was rapid and simple! Just capture other cultivators, consume them, and use his gathered momentum to both harvest their energies and overwhelm their Souls. Eventually he established his 'Dark Night Sect', hundreds of years ago, for one single reason. THIS one reason.

Because there had been an issue. A pebble in his path to glory.

Power? He had harvested oceans of it. Enough to even break through to the fabled Saint Realm, one step away from the God Realms. His name made powerful foes tremble.

Knowledge? He had refined his inherited techniques to extreme levels, and trained his ability to torture and dissect his feed to perfection! Their twisted bodies and broken Souls gave up their deepest secrets with tears and regrets. The hidden was exposed to his desires.

Insight? He had gathered a massive data mountain of memories, many cultivators perspectives and special encounters open for his purview. The revelations of brilliant innovators danced at his touch!

But still.

He couldn't break through to the Saint Realm.

So... So close.

Unacceptable.

Starting his own Sect had been his solution. It provided a herd to butcher, lifespans to steal, resources for his own use... it gave him time to fix his deepest flaw.

For he had a terrible foundation.

Gristle's decades of effort had been focused on stealing the abilities of others... not refining it into his own, personal base of power. It created a wall, even if ever so thin, that he could not yet break through.

A barrier to the Realm of Saints... and eventually God Realm itself.

But not after tonight!

The formation glowed with strange purples and greens as more and more of his most powerful, most mentally damaged Sect members died. Raised by his hand to also harvest THEIR brothers and sisters, raised to accept all the flaws and disadvantages that Gristle sought to avoid. Lode stones to attract curses and absorb flaws, while storing power for this moment!

Now, these fat lambs would be ready for his feast.

These dying fools were unaware that he had already sacrificed the rest of his Sect while they were stationed here, under the mountain. That these black crystals he added to the formation were filled with damned Souls, with years of effort, with raw power.

The draining of the ritual above, the tainting of the energy, the consumption of his centuries of effort... It would barely be enough to start this formation below. It would recoil on the world, devour any life on the mountain above and miles around...

And become his fuel to ascension!

His body may be partially formed from the corpses of millions, his soul stitched from fragments, his energy a stolen mess of energies... But with this raw power he would FORCE himself to become a Saint.

The ability to fly, a body of steel, immune to poisons, unaging...

And he would finally gain his future Saint realm space, a second life, an area of dominion that could only be formed once...

His stolen teeth were sharp with grins as he focused.

With this much power, he could FORCE his body to reform as perfect, as designed to better steal even more from others in the future. After all, only the destruction of the Soul could actually kill a Saint, and though mutated his Soul was powerful.

Becoming a Saint was a fantasy to most, but was merely a stepping stone to Gristle, the Damned Devourer!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam was glaring at the floor.

Yeah, something was going on down there. Rockette was being all vague too, and that wasn't making him feel reassured. He may have to take some steps.

He blinked as Tianshi passed him a robe. "Here Da, you gotta wear it with the black side showing!"

Ah, these. He wore the oversized cheap clothing, white on inside, black without.

It was a major part of this ritual. All the festival goers would wear these 'funeral robes' in respect to the dead and passed relatives as the final ceremony began. Once it reached the peak, everyone would then reverse the outfit to show the purification was successful, and to wish well those who left the world behind.

This thing was very oversized of course, the makers didn't know who would end up with these outfits, but it was the thought that mattered.

Another pop from below, more black twisted souls screaming and being unmade... Rockette?

"Ding."

...Fine. "When will we know to swap colors?"

Sister Quan hummed. "The tree itself will light up, it is supposed to be quite the spectacle!"

Something sick and sweet swirled underground.

Yeah, 'I got this' or not? Adam wasn't going to sit around and do nothing.

Some careful Domain applications had small swirls of spirit energy surrounding the nearby children, elderly, and those who felt vulnerable to sudden energy shifts.

...Considering Adam could alter his domain to cover the entire mountain range if he was accurate while bending it over the surface, 'nearby' was a bit relative.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Gristle held back a shudder as the final stage approached.

This... this is why he killed everyone else. All his Sect, his workers, his loyal followers, his minions.

This formation didn't need THAT many sacrifices, although that bothered him not.

No, it was because of THIS stage of the ritual. The most unstable, the most dangerous, the most fragile.

All the other power sources were already drained, the formation master's soul was corrupted and shattered as his cursed skeleton acted like the ultimate energy filter, removing all ownership, negative emotions, curses, revenge techniques, and more from the grid... His still screaming skeleton dripped black sludges of impurities as the cleansed power was sent through the entire pattern cycle again for even more refining.

But this last stage he couldn't find a way to avoid... Over the last few decades, he had certainly looked!

Now, he needed his flesh itself to become processed. To scrape his own power from his soul, his corpse fragments from his stolen bones, his energies from their corrupted circuits. To ensure his future might wouldn't lose his current power base.

He had the power of the Weeping Willow ritual, used to consume the energy from the crystalized souls and fragments he brought here tonight, to power the deadly formation that would become pure, unowned, raw power with only a single purpose... Only one goal...

But for him to have a perfect foundation, for his stitched together, mangled soul to be contained?

He needed to sacrifice his current mortal form.

The last step before forcing reality to make him a full Saint.

The next step to godhood.

As his body dissolved, flesh dripping and bones crumbling, the formation held his mutated and stitched Soul within the grids, stable without a corpse shell. The massive remains of his many victims would join the cleansing cycle while keeping his spiritual self chained to this plane...

Then his new body would be crafted!

Raw power would ensure his body would be unmutated, able to withstand his gruesome presence, meridians strong enough to endure his terrifying and enhanced liquid Qi, Soul forced to bond tightly to a new home!

His vision dimmed as he cackled with glee, feeling the grip of master formation patterns hold him away from the... the...

...In the end, he never saw or noticed the modified formation as it continued to refine away his flesh, his bones, his Qi... and then his Soul.

Honestly, the end of his journey for power was likely too peaceful for one like him.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam blinked. Huh.

There was now a strange cycle of energy forming down there, a cleansed soul soaked in unimaginable levels of evil and corruption bound to a heavily cursed skeleton that continuously wiped away energy signatures. In fact, some of the resulting purified power he saw was now beginning to seep into the mountain itself.

...Oh crap, the ceremony up here on the surface might be self perpetuating now. Shit. Rockette?

"...Ding."

Double shit. Right, what would be the effects?

Any energies related to death, corruption, poison... all would be drawn to this graveyard on mount Kirin. And sucked into this never ending ritual far below. Then used to reinforce the power flowing over this mountain.

That power was still being focused toward that 'Weeping Willow', so uh... the 'glowing' effect was not going to stop once it got started.

Also, overflow.

There was ALREADY too much power being cleaned downstairs right now, excess was leaking into the mountain and city as runoff already.

This whole area would likely become a holy region in the next decade or so, especially if the local Sect doesn't lock down this location to outsiders... Any outside Cultivators would theoretically be a great source of corruption for these formations to harvest and recycle.

...Could he duplicate this without the apparent torture and mutilated body aspects? This thing would be pretty useful against anyone trying to use the darker abilities in the world. Undead techniques would just unravel, curses collapse, possessions fall apart.

Then again, everything Rockette was submitting right now was making his blood crawl. It was gross, it was creepy, it was malicious... and in the end, Adam felt he could make something better anyway, something actually designed from the ground up rather than this hodgepodge that Rockette and the Asura Eye had scraped together.

On one hand? He hadn't needed to do anything himself! It was a bit refreshing really.

On the OTHER hand, there was no one left for Adam to have a 'talk' to, or to experiment on.

Which was... frustrating.

His attention was pulled as Tianshi tugged his robe. "Da, swap it! You gotta flip your cloak! The tree's glowing!"

Chuckling, he did as instructed and watched with a careful eye as the cleansed energies impacted his defensive barriers around the young and vulnerable.

Even if this wave of energy was beneficial, it could still kill people unprepared through shock... It should be fine to slowly weaken the protection over the night, so that they could get used to this pulsing spiritual energy being released.

Considering that this was going to be the new 'normal', it was probably best to let them adapt.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Elder Cho frowned. "Call them back."

She glanced at the innocent looking ring that Adam's guard had the boy create.

With THIS level of creation, this type of advancement? Being away from the Sect wouldn't be enough to protect anything.

Might as well have him nearby, where they could try to support him as he destroys culture and traditions by accident.

With a mental sigh, she began, AGAIN, the massive and complicated process to meet with the Burning Sword Sect's Patriarch . AGAIN. In less than a week, no less.

But... glancing at the ring, such an innocent item that would allow their Sect to not be robbed, their people to become more powerful, their resources to be easier to trade an safer to bestow...

Well, it was worth it.

Her eye twitched at the massive mound of documentation to be filled out.

AGAIN.

...Still worth it.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

It was... MUCH later.

Frankly, Adam was a bit miffed that the lead guard just ASSUMED that HE was involved in all this mess!

It was technically just his Martial Spirit. Mostly.

But yeah, the tree glowed. A lot.

There was now a small STREAM of 'tears', the tree itself was growing at a slow but visible rate, little motes of light kept floating up from the ground... and it was NOT. HIS. FAULT.

...That being said, showing the lead guard the screaming black skeleton didn't really make her feel any confidence with his denials. Because she said that was something she could see Adam doing, especially if that person was targeting Tianshi or Sister Quan.

Which he was.

And uh. Arguing that point was not really believable. Even HE knew that attacking his friends was a bit of a trigger issue.

So they were heading back to the Sect.

Rockette was able to connect to Sister Dian and her tattoo network, the kids would still be able to get their needed spiritual energy through tattoo trades and energy allocations (At least until they returned to their OWN Sect), and if anything came up Sister Dian could send Rockette a message, no problem!

True, Adam hadn't made it even a full year before various issues forced him to come back... which was a bit embarrassing, honestly.

But on the other hand, reality seemed to be... pushing him.

Best get out of the world for a while, spend some time cultivating, and put out missions for other Sect members to get him the fun stuff he desired... hopefully without plots, monsters, or rare events.

Adam blinked.

Huh. Looks like Elder Cho just gave the Marked Tattoo (Ring Version!) he made to the Patriarch of the Burning Sword Sect.

Wonder what he thinks about it?

After all, it had a long way to go. Right now? It could only trade units of energy, items, information, and communication. Plus a few gimmicks, like portable workshops and that attempt at time accelerated cheese maturation spacial pockets.

Bet he will be impressed when Adam gets that 'Fast Travel' system to stop exploding!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The trip back to the Burning Sword Sect clarified something important to Adam.

He had been too obvious. Too unusual.

Something was reacting to his existence, even if it had taken almost a whole year for whatever it was to notice. Or maybe... maybe it was attracted by his most recent actions.

The most obvious example of evidence?

This. Crazy. Shit.

Even before leaving the mountain city, he had been getting something similar to 'quests'. Find my pet, help a lost child find their sibling, help poor family find rumored treasure in a hidden valley, said valley was full of some sort of lightning spirits, kill the local monster pack, etc etc.

And yes, at first he was fine just accepting them all and spending his free time doing experiments and improving the tattoo network.

There was time to waste anyway, since the Guards and Sister Quan were bartering for new plants for the Caverns, since animal testing was put on hold for several reasons. Why not help out a few people?

But the more Adam did directly, the worse things got.

It took Rockette to notice the pattern, but if he accepted a trial or filled a request, two or three more would show up in an hour or less. Unusual problems would show up, strange people caught, unknown schemes exposed...

Yet, if he assigned a guard to do one of the tasks?

Nothing.

The issue would be handled in less than ten minutes, they would get paid or thanked, and that would be it.

Everyone happy, no fluffy attack bats, no cultivator trying to scare local children to increase his sales of portable lamps, nothing! And even if the same guard did a dozen 'missions', THEY didn't get a dozen more requests like he was suffering under!

By the time the team was leaving the mountain, Adam was sending the five off duty guards on a dozen missions an hour, their work earning all kinds of strange payments and rewards... and NOTHING was going wrong.

As long as he stayed out of it.

Little Tianshi found it hilarious. She was watching via Rockette as the guards were being sent to shady alleys, rare forest groves, haunted caves, treasured valleys, mythical locations with mysterious clues... and then? Nothing. Nothing happened.

Then Adam would say to himself 'I must have been imagining things!', decide to help someone comb their horse, and it would explode into cheese or something. Evil cheese.

So yeah, Adam was hiding inside Rockette for the next... who knew how long, by popular demand. At least Rockette was having fun in the flaming wagon while the lead guard drove homewards.

Oh, he still got stuff done and was trying some new formation work... but if he left Rockette for a moment, even to just walk a bit or share a meal? Some odd plant would attack, or a creature would try to poop on everyone, he would fall into a hidden pit of slimes, or something.

As for WHY things had started getting so bad? Well, he had a theory.

Adam sighed in his Cultivation Cave within Rockette, the tattoo design editors put aside as he once again felt within the foam between the unseen.

These space and time pockets, these empty bubbles of foam... well, he had a theory focused on this.

All this time, when he had been zooming inwards? Viewing the boundaries closer and closer until he found pockets that were of a useful size to his work? He had sort of ignored some basic considerations in that process.

For example, it wasn't like the foam bubbles stopped existing in smaller forms at the level he was working with.

Even now, the smallest pockets had boundaries of their own with more foam. It was trivial to find ever smaller and smaller bubbles, useless to his needs yet existing, forever and ever.

So... what about the other direction?

His theory, one that he dared not test for fear of drawing even more dangerous attention, was that those largest bubbles were but foam on even larger and larger pockets.

And that if one kept zooming out, eventually, one would see these infinite layers of foam as what they were: A boundary.

Separation, between what is and what isn't.

Inside and outside.

Or, as he secretly pondered? The boundary on the outside of a living cell.

Cultivators could ascend after all, and eventually develop an inner space or Realm. There were stories of some places where whole civilizations were transmigrated into a powerful people's soul, becoming sources of worship and power in return for protection or more.

Of worlds within grains of sand, universes in a drop of dew.

If there was some entity that was so unimaginably large that the barriers between proteins contained infinite recursive space and time pockets in the foam... it would explain what was going on now.

Because Adam had been poking it.

And initially, he had poked it on a MUCH higher level than his own. Far, far beyond the pockets that cultivators searched for and used in this Plane.

So, this wave of... narrative issues? This field of 'USE ME' that Adam was being targeted by?

It felt like an automatic immune response. Or, of some unconscious layer of reality higher up that was trying to focus downwards on him.

If he gave in and personally got involved in everything, it would either kill him (unlikely), or force him to advance his cultivation enough to ascend a few dimensions. A sort of unwritten balancing force on this Realm, that kept powerful people from acting as tyrants and gods on lower levels.

Which was a bit freaky.

SO, Adam was staying inside, letting whatever the hell was trying to make him a main character wander away (Hopefully), and giving time for whatever he had accidentally poked to lose interest or misplace the targeting information.

The Foam was infinite, after all... if he stayed under the radar, he could hide forever.

He didn't let this situation stop him from playing with the tattoos and local Foam however.

Sticking to the stuff roughly at his level of size (Up to maybe a galaxy or whatever) would probably not draw further attention... those pockets got accessed, modified, and destroyed all the time under his senses. It was how some minor worlds and such 'treasures' connected to this Plane, how secret cultivation Realms could sometime appear once in a century or so.

And seriously, those first space pockets he 'touched'? Huge. Beyond large.

Shifting his body and letting spiritual energy soak his bones (Because why not at this point), Adam sighed and focused on cultivation. Thankfully, the next steps were easy enough... from Seventh Order up to Tenth Order it was all about increasing the internal Battle Qi density inside his spiritual network, every increase preparation for transforming his gas like inner energy into liquid form.

The liquid Qi used far less per technique but released way more energy in the process, it was a major road block for cultivators and made it easy to outlast and overpower cultivators at lower levels. Right now Adam was deliberately slowing the whole process down, forcing his internal energies to continue to enhance his system and meridian routes instead of pushing onto the next steps.

Because if he advanced too far, too fast, under THIS kind of unseen observation?

He... he might have to leave.

The man in a crystal cave slumped slightly.

Wandering around, looking for treasure, finding adventure? That was cool.

But being FORCED into events, no matter how well intentioned? It can all go south quick.

There were movies, books, comics, plays... thousands of them, where the hero got NO pause. No break. No real 'Happy Ever After' until all the stories stopped.

Save the kingdom? Aliens attack. Defeat the villain? Their son comes back for revenge.

Save royalty? Your princess is in another castle.

Seriously, there were whole categories of stories where bad things never. stop. happening.

He thought back to past fiction he had read (Or did he? Might be another implanted memory.) where the main character got sick. And betrayed. And attacked. And lost people. And failed to save the day. Same girl the whole time too, and she was insulted by everyone on top of it!

Hell, Inuyasha himself was a lesser version of this trope. Boy was a moron through lack of education and guidance, mean through betrayal and schemes, and the series used him as the but of jokes to 'lighten things up', even though he had nearly no parenting and was being assaulted most of his life. Maybe.

He found his memories on that world were a bit fuzzy... then again, he had been sleeping most of that visit.

Thankfully, this reality wasn't a focused grim dark nightmare like others. Lots of good people died, but it was more a power fantasy... in general, things would go alright. Bad things would become benefits, kidnapped lovers would either be saved in time or be taken to some rare encounter and find a famous teacher or immense treasure.

Well, if you were the main character. Rules were a bit more unforgiving for background people, and there were suggestions of some truly evil shit if you looked carefully at some of the off comments the hero ignores.

That said? How could he learn anything if he was hounded by missions? If every meal was interrupted by quest hooks and urgent needs? Forget having time to examine stuff, or do research out there.

Worse, what if these 'last minute save' situations he kept bumping into were being retroactively CAUSED by this... whatever it was?

Because statistically, at least one of these quests that Adam handed off should have ALSO found something unusual or astounding. Not just the ones that HE picked personally.

Even when he selected a task while hidden inside his Martial Spirit, unusual results would happen once he attempted to follow through outside...

And he couldn't just hide here forever, because he DID have a mission.

Conceptual cultivation was going to be the foundational base of his new System.

Adam glanced at his notes, stored in his personal Tattoo mark. The ones that wouldn't be shared with the Sects, built on his private Rockette network that would hook in secretly in the background to all the other marks.

His plan felt solid, as far as he could tell. Concepts were not quite part of the Soul, or genetics, or even space and time. Some could exist before they were discovered, or last after all those that crafted it passed away... it was a stabilized and secure building base far more suited for the System.

Because if he did this right, then Adam wouldn't be required for ensuring future success! If his people got sent through time or reality, if he lost them somehow... they wouldn't lose the support he was building.

Even if cloned. Even if reincarnated. Even if sent to an afterlife where Adam couldn't follow.

Most importantly, if parts of the System were incompatible with local reality? The Concepts behind it would adapt as much as possible to use local alternatives. After all, you might not be able to make a sandwich out of rock or lasers... but you can make the CONCEPT of a sandwich out of anything!

It was like art, in a way. Tell the universe, 'This is what I need', and let reality explain to the System how it can be done.

He moved more test data around as 'Research' chewed away. The illusionary holograms, projected into his mind via Rockette's Tattoo modules, showed dozens of transparent windows displaying code, representation of elements, energies, modules, floating keyboard and mentally controlled mouse available if he didn't want to just mentally control it all directly.

This wouldn't be quick. According to 'Research', the bare framework would take decades to finish at the most optimistic rates... but he had the time to work on this. Lifespan would not be an issue.

If.

If he could keep working here.

Yet should Adam be unable to get reality to stop trying to squish him or use him as a tool...

He may have to leave this Realm early. Before death. Before even really getting started.

It was against ALL his plans! His ideas, his goals! The frustration was making his body burn as he focused on his notes.

So. Options. What could he do?

First, he was letting the guards and Sister Quan carry Rockette home. It would take weeks without him using his massive cheaty speed tricks to make progress, but that was fine. But hopefully time, space, and avoiding the local pocket would let this... whatever it was pass along and leave him alone.

Which... unfortunately, was probably unlikely. If this was some sort of response from higher levels of foam, then traveling anywhere in this infinite Plane would be a miniscule change.

And even if it worked? That might take decades. Or longer. Depends on what was behind this.

So no. He would try anyway, but this was the least likely workaround.

Second consideration, a local reincarnation. A brainless clone or someone who was near death and willing to make a deal. He would have Rockette enter their body after their Martial Spirit passes on as well, then use his techniques to get that body back into shape.

Painful, time consuming, he would have to rebuild his cultivation from scratch (Annoying!), and it would cause issues with ethics and the Sect. But possible. Maybe. If being reborn this way didn't just end up feeling the same to higher levels once his body was remodeled to match his Soul and Martial Spirit.

On the other hand, that option might expose him entirely to this unseen scrutiny, without the protection of a Soul and body connection.

So... no, not likely.

The third and final option? The Abyss. A dangerous Transfer.

He would have FAR less control than a usual jump, almost no protection like normal, as his power from Squishy was mostly spent GETTING here. Not to mention that 'Transfer' wasn't intentionally included with his Soul Shard, so it may act... VERY quirky.

And to get away without unseen followers, he may have to have Rockette send a fragment in his place, leaving him living here for the rest of his life as planned while the new fragment attempted to draw away the focus of reality.

Yet honestly, that option was the one he felt most comfortable with.

It would have consequences, as expected.

According to Research, local Adam would lose the ability to advance his cultivation further.

His 'potential' and 'future' would move on to the next Realm, obviously. It would have to if he wanted to be convincing to any voyeurs.

His local shard abilities, 'Growth', 'Purification', and 'Research' would significantly lower in power, as their main cores left with his future self... And they might need to be modified in the new Realm just to remain stable after being damaged. Which would suck.

But he would then be able to live here, with his Disciple and his Sect. He would still have Rockette, he would still have the Crystal Caverns, absolute energy control, his abilities in general. Power? His Martial Spirit generated it. Age? Optional. Death?

VERY unlikely.

And at the end of it all, when everyone began to die and pass away... he would come home. To his other family, to be rejoined with the Adam far way and likely having gifted the guy a MASSIVE headache from experiencing a lifetime of memories.

...Adam paused. Huh.

Actually, if he did choose to travel again to escape this situation... it was likely that his future selves would do something similar. It could be dozens, or thousands... millions of lifetimes, all being sent home to reincorporate as one.

...Meh, sucks to be him. THIS Adam was going to be king of the Sect, with a lifetime of conceptual investigation and experiments! Surrounded by friends, researchers, and his awesome tattoo network!

In fact, screw it! When he became a Saint, he would send the shard off anyway. Any stronger than that and his body might get forced to head off to some other planet or plane that could handle that level of power.

Or he would start attracting attention that would put his loved ones in danger, or call some powerful calamity down on the Sect. Better to hack himself rather than risk that issue.

Although it was a bit odd to consider how out of touch he was compared to the locals.

Really, how many people would willingly cripple their path to godhood or higher to spend more time with weaker loved ones? Can't be that many, and it strongly goes against the Cultivator culture in general. 'I shall fight against the Heavens! Oh wait, nah I be good.' Heh.

Then again, most people couldn't make their loved ones younger, supply infinite food, water, and cultivation resources, and make powerful foes pop by forcing too much energy into their spiritual network. So he might be a special situation. Meh.

Now to try and make something similar to the internet using pocket dimensions, ink, and a custom formation programming language. Good times!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Quan sighed as the massive gates of the Burning Sword Sect slowly came into view. "Finally."

The five guards nodded, while Rockette was in Sister Quan's lap being hugged. Everyone else was in the Caverns.

The journey had turned... odd. Ever since the ritual on Mount Kirin went strange, more and more things just started getting in the group's way. Brother Adam had a theory that the world was hunting him, the rest of the group strongly believed that it was due to the rumors being spread about the boy by the merchant caravan they had just finished traveling with.

Because stories of a powerful boy, with unlimited strange items and food? Yeah, that stands out.

Either way, the trip back had been full of tiny, mostly boring adventures... As long as Brother Adam stayed out of it.

None of that mattered now, though. "We need to report to Elder Cho first."

The guards nodded again and they moved onward.

After checking into the mission hall and doing a bit more paperwork than expected... the group ended up in a fairly nice office, looking at the young appearing but world weary Elder as she looked over piles of reports.

Elder Cho tapped the table as she read the papers.

...Several times.

Leaning back in her chair, she looked at the tiny blue floating rock girl on the table.

Rockette was happily picking up a report, carrying it to other piles, and placing them randomly. "Ding!"

Not that the little one knew what the piles meant. She could read, it was just more fun to make a mess.

Elder Cho sighed. "Lock down the room."

Invisible people left, the empty room was more empty, and numerous barriers locked things down. Hard.

Sister Quan held back a gulp. "Elder?"

The woman sighed. "I need everyone but Brother Chongsheng to vacate these... 'Crystal Caverns' within young Rockette."

The tiny rock held up both arms floating in circles. "Ding!"

The older woman gave a small smile. "Brother Adam then." She sighed. "This will need to be escalated far, so everyone else besides the little one and Brother Adam will have to wait here. I will have supplies delivered." She glanced at the lead guard. "You know the procedure?"

The armored woman gave a sharp nod. "Yes Elder!"

Elder Cho stood with a sigh. "Well, best get this over with."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The Patriarch of the Burning Sword Sect was... a little confused. "And he is... inside the tiny elemental?"

Elder Cho nodded, little Rockette's tiny arms playing with her hair. "This is his Martial Spirit. Formerly the spirit crystal Shard I mentioned."

He held back a frown, trying to feel the situation out with his spiritual senses.

...Considering that Brother Adam's ability was absolute energy control, it wasn't so surprising that he was unable to feel anything.

Annoying, but not surprising.

He stepped closer. There were members of the sect taller than him, if few, but towering over the tiny child like rock being made him feel oversized. He bowed anyway. "Greetings, Rockette of Brother Chongsheng."

She waved.

He glanced at the Elder. "And she will handle transportation?"

The woman nodded. "After debriefing the entire group, I was given documentation of a full tour and detailed responses to my questioning. I can verify the location is safe to any ally of Brother Adam, that the destination is secure from intrusion or assault, and that the various members of his team have temporarily vacated the area."

...Huh. "Temporarily?"

She nodded. "The entire group of guards have begun transferring to become permanent members of his security detail. Having seen the resources and secure nature of the facilities, I admit that I would be tempted to migrate as well. At the very least, I fully support allowing Brother Adam to make significant changes in the Sect if he can duplicate some of the advancements he has managed there."

Considering the resources spent to lock down his meditation chamber for a second time, it BETTER live up to the reports. If he hadn't gone through a dozen protocols to verify Elder Cho's mental status and identity, he would have assumed this to be yet another assassination attempt.

A glance at the provided ring though... The benefits, theoretical or otherwise, were just too high. Sects had died for less potential gain, and even if the idea of allowing himself to be under the control of another and transported away from this secured facility bothered him... well, cultivators had to have willpower to become as strong as himself.

A nod. "Then please send us both."

...It was hard to remain stoic when crystal teeth began to rise from the ground beneath him, but it was mentioned in the reports.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam blinked.

Elder Cho and some tall old guy (Probably the Patriarch) had just shown up in the Caverns. Observation floor, it felt like. Ah, he had the ring... yeah, that was the Patriarch.

It took a second to finish his current notes, close the module windows, and head up there. "Elder Cho! Lovely to have you visit."

The woman had a wry smile. "Brother Adam, I would like to introduce you to our Patriarch... who has come to discuss your new advances."

The man himself reached down and had a surprisingly warm smile. "Young Chongsheng, I can not stress how much paperwork you've managed to accumulate for my people these last few months."

Ah. Oops? "Sorry?"

He chuckled. "No no no, don't waste time with that. I've always had a personal belief that the strain of cultivation only allows the eccentric to advance... no average or normal person can defy the heavens after all!" His gaze was wandering. "Such spiritual energy here... It is astounding, reports or no!"

Meh, he hasn't seen the cultivation caves yet. "So... I guess we should start with a tour? And please, call me Brother Adam."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The tour took a while.

The Soil grid? Mild interest.

The (still being grown) ore veins? Well, it looked like mostly empty caves, so... move on.

The farms? The man was fascinated, and the tour was put on hold as he and Elder Cho debated about how much if any of the plants Adam was willing to share should actually be transplanted for the Sect to grow externally.

It heavily depended on what was going to be used for trade, as those items had to be shown to exist somewhere or people would get suspicious. Maybe even let a few plants get stolen so others with Adam's abilities could waste time duplicating his work over a few generations.

The Four Eye Flame Bulls and their baby Bickens? Oh yeah, the Sect leader was beyond willing to invest in the herd. Adam was pretty much assured a massive land donation for pasture modification just from this one advancement alone!

Infinite source of Spirit Energy?

Infinite amounts of Soul Water?

The Yin Yang Cycle Pond?

...Uh. Yeah, Adam was getting a bit concerned about how quiet the Patriarch was becoming.

The man turned. "You can't share this. Any of this. Young Cho was correct to tell you and your guards to keep this secret... even rumors of the situation would place targets on our people."

Adam sighed. "Too much of a good thing?"

A nod.

The boy frowned. "Fine. Still, we can ensure the Sect can benefit from this. The Tattoo network has some optional modules I've been working on... ones that can capture Spirit Energy, filter it into units, use one type of unit to convert into one more useful to the cultivator, and so forth. We can use that as a cover, creating an energy market for our Sect members to sell spiritual energy to each other... and I can secretly build up unique unit reserves for the Sect's treasury."

The Patriarch frowned. "How much power can you spare without damaging your cultivation? I won't sacrifice your future to gain short term profit."

Elder Cho snorted. "The boy probably won't even notice the difference. He practically spouts raw power by accident. More importantly, can we use that option to cleanse the energies around the sect? Have our people capture the low level energies around and then release the purified and consolidated energies afterwards?"

Adam thought... then nodded. "I had to make an export method so we could sell energy units outside the Sect anyway. Came up with a modified crystal pattern. We will lose some energy converting power into a custom spirit stone design I came up with, but once it stabilizes you can use it for all sorts of stuff. Sister Quan suggested using it for pill creation or equipment forging."

The man hummed. "May I see a sample?"

Both adults stood there staring as Adam held up a perfectly round stone glowing green, the size of a grape.

Elder Cho accepted the rock, her hand barely shaking at all. "This... this is far more pure than any spirit stone I've seen before. And what is this energy type?"

Adam started showing more and more glowing rocks. "That one was what I consider to be 'Nature energy', or more accurately, 'Garden energy' collected from my Soil Grid farms. Actual 'Nature Energy' isn't that green, because it includes energies from the environment and the animals in the area."

The Patriarch accepted a few other stones, his spiritual senses examining them. "...Trying to price these is going to be a nightmare. How many types are you producing?"

He shrugged. "Out of all the spiritual energy I produce, half I keep for personal use and the other half is converted into these things. Every time I find an energy type I don't recognise, I purify enough to create a useful sample for me to build up for future needs and add it to the list of production."

Adam waved, a wall of rocks floating behind him shifting in pattern and color. "There are thousands of stone types so far, and tens of thousands that are currently delayed while trace elements are being built up until I can get enough to work with reliably."

Adam waived the hand upward. "My Domain is still collecting heaven and earth energies from the sky, and I get all kinds of odd energy traces from up there. Many types aren't even stable enough for me to identify. Yet."

He continued walking, ignoring the other two as they continued to examine the glowing objects. "I'll be honest though, I think it will be much safer and more profitable for the Sect to sell stuff like the new Storage Rings. They cost WAY less to make after all the research I had to do getting this Tattoo network setup."

Seriously, Adam had done SO MUCH WORK getting this Tattoo mess sorted.

Designing techniques to safely make formation development tools, instructing the formation tools to correctly set up the needed space pockets, crafting the new Formation Scripting Language and the associated 'Compiler/Deployment' formation pattern to affect the outside world correctly...

After all THAT trouble, crafting a basic Storage Ring from near worthless materials was a snap.

Hell, if you had a working Tattoo node available and a few development modules installed, you could easily mass produce things of far better quality than currently treasured by the Sect. It would crater the market... well, at least it would outside the Sect.

They would have the superior Tattoo storage modules after all, why bother with easily stolen rings?

That didn't even count the stranger stuff he made while experimenting, like the rings that sorted materials rather than storing them or the ones that filtered energies and what not. And he hadn't touched time pockets yet... especially not now when something beyond local reality was puting narrative pressure on the whole area.

Adam hummed. "That said, I'm afraid the Tattoos I've already designed might not work correctly on the more advanced cultivators." He glanced at the Patriarch. "At higher levels, the body becomes more and more conceptual and energy based. Tattoos or formations of any kind would warp or be modified too easily, and I doubt anyone THAT powerful would accept a pattern being applied to their Soul or equivalent. They would only be able to safely use customized rings like the one I passed to Elder Cho."

The Patriarch hummed, looking at his ring. "Considering that many fights can destroy high level cultivator's bodies in the process, it would be unlikely that the regrown parts would still possess the needed markings. It is why normal skin art never really became popular with cultivation experts... too easily lost compared to an object or two that can be easily hidden away or replaced."

Adam grimaced. "Yeah, I've lost a lot of skin and muscles in past fights... If Rockette didn't possess direct access to MY marking, I would have real difficulties testing stuff as it is. My Cultivation Cells can be forced to stay in the right shape... but they tend to shift a bit when I train to become more effective and enhanced."

Not to mention his internal fears that cultivation breakthroughs would force him to replace his own Tattoo access node each and every time. For one person? Easy! For ALL high level cultivators? Never ending, boring, unappreciated busy work. He could charge for the maintenance work maybe... but he didn't really need more wealth. To him, his time was more valuable.

At least he could design methods or supply tools to easily repair, duplicate, or replace 'Tattoo Rings' easily enough. The less work for Adam, the better!

Eventually the tour ended in the eating area of the Caverns, Adam sharing some of the more delicious cultivation dishes that Sister Quan and the guards had developed as they began talking brass tacks, as it where. The fine details.

...Sadly, as time passed, Adam found himself stuck with more and more negotiations than expected.

His original goal of 'Dump it all on upper management' was turning into more a 'Construct a framework for Management to work with'... and it was looking like it would take forever. Even with a lack of desire for profit (And the paperwork that goes with it), it barely made a dent in the talking involved with the complexity of these life changing suggestions.

After SEVERAL painful, slow hours... they had to take a break so Elder Cho could release his friends from protective custody and everyone (Besides Adam, thankfully) could go through the security protocols that were involved with temporarily kidnapping the leader of a Sect to do secret negotiations.

...The same negotiations that Elder Cho estimated would take literal weeks. Maybe months.

And that was the ultra fast, expedited method!

Damn it. Both these old people should go away and let him science up some time pockets!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam had... vastly underestimated how much additional work would be shoved onto his workbench.

His original plan? A tattoo for each member, anchor the server to the Sect and a few backup points, ensure that more tattoo nodes could be made... and done!

And true, the Server Node didn't NEED to be connected to the world directly, the rings could address it either way... but it was a bit of extra service that could be easily modified later.

In actual consultation though, the work list was massive.

First, the Server was going to be upgraded. All storage modules would use space marked by the Sect Server's master pocket, so that nothing in the Sect would be lost even if their members were robbed or skinned alive or something.

Second? Tiered Tattoo node versions.

After a few weeks of conversation, the final tiers of node were as followed: Rings (Wood, Stone, Copper, Silver, Gold), Tattoos (initiate, outer, inner, disciple, elder, patriarch), and Stations (application, modification, upgrade, maintenance, removal).

If it wasn't obvious, the Station option was the new one Adam had to design. Developed to be heavy, nearly impossible to move, destroy itself if someone tries to steal it, and can be operated by Sect members to do all the various nitty gritty tattoo node detail work.

Anyway, the three types were Rings, Tattoos, and those Stations.

Why so many types? Simple.

Unlike some of the more secretive Sects, the Burning Sword Sect was both an openly 'Righteous' Sect as well as a Sect willing to work with civilians. They didn't take children away from normal families like some places, and they didn't forbid members from mingling with those without power.

So Adam had a new tier of equipment, the 'Wood Ring' nodes. They all came with a custom module installed that absorbed ambient spirit energy to allow non cultivators to access the built in features. The built in, heavily limited and restricted features.

First, these Wood Rings had a simplified storage space. Around a meter cubed to use as desired. They also allowed access to a basic connection to the public Sect Market, where they could sell directly to the Sect from the inventory or purchase small objects to be delivered directly into storage.

Normal shipping would still exist, since many things were larger than three feet or so in size, but lots of small things would be easily moved around this way.

There was also a very basic messaging system, allowing the Wood Ring owner to mark the Soul signatures of people they met with access to the network into a friends list for future conversations. It had to be set up in person, and if the ring was used too long it would shut down to recharge from local energy, but it was more than acceptable to most people.

But that was it. The rings were cheap, going to be mass produced, and would be given out to nearly everyone in the city and towns surrounding the Sect.

So cheap, that stealing one would feel pointless. No reason to kill Sect family members if anyone can get one. They all lacked security too... for safety reasons. It would be better for your family to be robbed than for them to be tortured for a password or maimed to use body parts for authentication.

All Wooden Rings would basically be connected with their own massive network, one that the Sect could moderate if needed... or spy on, not that they would tell anyone that bit.

When some enemy Sect asshole kills their people and steals their equipment? Why yes, the Burning Sword Sect WOULD like a live map, real time audio, and high level thought recordings of those stupid enough to wear the things after attacking their true owners.

The next step up in quality would be Stone Rings, given to any and all Cultivators that live in the local areas under the Burning Sword Sect's control but not able to become an actual member.

As these cultivators would have Qi to operate the stone devices correctly, these rings would all have actual security tied to their owner's energy signature for access. They would also grant the option to pay the Burning Sword Sect to recover your goods if the ring is destroyed or lost, and provide a small selection of optional modifications for a fee.

For one, the Stone Rings could support storage modules of much larger size if desired. It allowed larger amounts and a greater volume of trade to be sent to and from the public Sect Market, and granted access to a public Sect Cultivator Market that sold cultivation resources and other more dangerous goods not suggested for civilians.

But most of all, the Stone Rings could purchase cultivation manuals and techniques that were normally only sold in the public sections of the Sect's Repository of Knowledge Pagoda. While no NEW information would be leaked this way, it would allow Cultivators to purchase and trade techniques without their enemies (Or friends) finding out their secrets or training goals... These were going to be popular.

Meanwhile, the other rings were for the Sect only. Copper for initiates, Silver for Outer Sect members, Gold for Inner Sect disciples and everyone else. When the user got a Tattoo, the mark and the Rings would link together and could share space and abilities, while hopefully making outsiders assume that only the Rings were important.

Meanwhile, the Tattoos would have the GOOD features too dangerous to put in a portable object alone. Each level of Tattoo would permit more space for modules, and the variety and power of those modules would increase as well...

For example, the Initiate Tattoo was barely stronger than those Stone Rings to be sold outside, while the Outer and Inner Sect Member Tattoos could access both the Cultivation Database (With restrictions of course) and access to the Sect Tattoo Net. The highest permission Tattoos such as the ones for the elders and the patriarch) added tools for moderation, administration, and various modules that generated statistics and helped enforce Sect rules and access permissions.

Higher levels could allow lower levels additional permissions if needed, although those requests would be logged and easily reviewed if someone was trying something tricky.

Needless to say, this made Adam's plan of 'One Server, many Nodes' WAY more complicated. Annoyingly more complicated.

At this point, there were three Servers... The Public Server, handling the Wood and Stone Rings and the Public Sect Market; The Sect Server, which was the major platform for the whole shebang and hosted the Tattoo Net; and The Development Server, where new modules would be created, documentation and additional manuals could be added to the Cultivation Database and then classified to appropriate access levels, and so forth.

And it took a lot of arguing by Adam to keep it down to three! At one point, the Patriarch argued that there should be a server for every branch of the Sect and every department within those branches! It took hours to convince them to just make nested messaging forums inside the Tattoo Net instead, and many examples before the others truly understood the topic being discussed!

Side note: After two weeks of arguments and not knowing the Patriarch's name, Adam just started calling him Pat. Because becoming Patriarch required giving up your family name to become 'neutral' when you gained political power, but Adam was sick of saying 'Our Respected Leader the Patriarch' after only one or two times.

The old guy was fine with it, surprisingly. Though that might be due to the man making cultivation progress after many years thanks to using Adam's' Gentle Rebirth Body Cultivation Technique' (Version 3.6142)... The old guy had visibly relaxed after some sort of breakthrough and seemed much more mellow than the first few meetings.

Anyway, Pat had Adam design a dozen rings that could only do a few things: Scan a manual, jade slip, book, scroll, or slab; Transcribe that data into the Development Server's Cultivation Database for Adam to process (AKA, Fix) and Pat to classify; and destroy itself if discovered or stolen.

The leader had a bunch of personal guards at the Sect's Repository of Knowledge Pagoda right now shoving all kinds of delicious data into the Servers... the same Servers that Rockette had complete back door access to. Score!

'Research' was hungry, consuming, and happy!

All that said though, Adam was still stuck inside his Martial Spirit. His one attempt at freedom a few days ago, to simply walk outside, had a meteor nearly smack into his skull... even before he fully exited the Caverns!

Sure, it was a space rock with all kinds of neat materials in it and the Sect had gone nuts for a few hours examining the thing, but that was more than enough of a sign for Adam to continue laying low.

Oh, and he had broken through to Eighth and then Ninth Order Houtian Warrior.

Woo.

His Qi was thick like heavy mist in his spiritual network, his meridians feeling stuffy... but other than gaining exponentially more space for energy and materials in Rockette, nothing important happened. Didn't even get a pretty light show... maybe because he had cleared out far more impurities than a cultivator was supposed to at this point?

His argument was at this point: 'I do not want to cultivate right now. Period.'

So he wouldn't. Screw it, he had enough power for now anyway.

Instead he was redirecting all that excess energy into making more and more spirit stones for the Sect Market inventory. Focusing on Flame, Fire, Solar, Heat, and Friction energies of course, it WAS a fire focused Sect after all, but he had enough time and a desire to be a completionist that he was adding all sorts of glowing stones.

There were even a few rocks stuffed with Binding energy which... went odd. Pat said they looked like normal rocks and he couldn't sense or access the thing at all! Made it damn odd and hard to set a price on the thing.

A material that was basically impossible to acquire without Adam doing the leg work? Valuable!

A material that was actually impossible to USE by anyone besides Adam and little Tianshi? Useless.

That was another issue, as a side note.

The pricing of the Market.

Many of the things Adam was stuffing onto the virtual shelves never existed before, or at least never in theses quantities and at these qualities. Forget the most rare items like Soul Water and Yin or Yang Spirit Stones, he was putting items never discovered in the past like the sugar pinecones and the water apples on sale.

Then there were existing items that were being sold right now in the Sect store that would be literally worthless once the Tattoo Public and Internal Sect Market went live.

Who would buy a bruised 300 year old ginseng herb when Adam was filling the shelves with week old versions with a hundred times the amount of contained spiritual power?

Not to mention, some items like the previous storage rings would be both over priced and under quality once Adam's supply smashed down onto the table.

In the end, Adam just bit the bullet and used his never ending contribution points to just buy out the whole Sect Store, while the Patriarch temporarily put a ban on buying new stock. Basically, Pat would forbid the store to resupply NOW, let them do a bunch of sales and last minute clearance attempts... and Adam would guarantee in contract to purchase any leftover stock at cost after two weeks.

Then the new Sect market (both Public and Internal) would go live, and the Sect members running the store outside would take over all the hard work in the Tattoo network.

...It was a bit disturbing how Adam could buy everything in the Sect's store right now and still have funds left over. True, it didn't count some of the really rare and expensive stuff that you had to visit the Store to purchase, like the vault treasures and historical goods... but still, he was rolling in the coin at this point.

And uh. The amount in his accounts would probably only go higher when all these new items go online. Not counting the hundreds of new techniques, methods, and tricks he personally added to the Cultivation Database. And the payments he was earning for reviewing all the incoming literature the guards at the Sect's Repository of Knowledge Pagoda were passing along.

After all, it only took a few examples before Pat gave Adam a custom Sect mission to analyze all Sect cultivation literature and provide translations, clarifications, and possible improvements. It felt odd to have access to things FAR beyond his clearance level, but Pat's argument was the things Adam had discovered already went beyond most of the manuals in quality and danger levels... so why not bend a few rules to make the Sect's most powerful techniques easier to use, cheaper to activate, and more powerful to apply?

...That said, this mission was classified out the wazoo. Very unlikely to ever be declassified either, and his name wasn't being placed on ANYTHING when it came to the most delicate materials being added to the Cultivation Database.

Which was fine by him.

Adam didn't want people bothering him every five minutes, he was already considered a genius and a prodigy... why would he want credit for THIS mess of paperwork and frustration?

Must have been some OTHER powerful unknown cultivator who simplified a text that generations had agonized over. And improved it. And made dozens of variations of the stupid thing, because more than a few of these super high level techniques were actually tricks to turn people into cultivation resources for their masters and family.

Seriously, cultivators were twisted. It was clear that half these cultivation methods were only documented because the people who were supposed to kill the user for their delicious, succulent Qi... had just met some bad end before the final moment of victory.

Then their unknowing victims begin passing down the suicide tricks as rare and treasured methods to gain power.

In a way, the hard to read language and technical errors when transcribing their knowledge actually saved a few generations from being consumed by Sect outsiders who happened to train in similar skills!

At least it was fascinating. Some 'attacks' were actually simple quality of life techniques that someone attempted to enhance with more power and better control, like the camp fire lighting trick that some dude tried to turn into a flamethrower. Or the water collection technique that a messed up woman had twisted to slowly dehydrate her enemies.

Others were just... slightly scary. There were a dozen or so documents that after analysis were... just disturbing.

This one, for example, was a collection of technique fragments that some cultivator assumed were connected to each other.

'Research' disagreed.

However, through dumb luck or reality having a sense of humor, some moron combined a beast taming method, a knife sharpening technique, an electricity generation cultivation derivative process, and a method to preserve strawberries... into a perfume generating smoke cloud attack.

The cloud would make tiny cuts into the victims skin, modify the target into generating certain pheromones, and... well, it didn't even smell like strawberries. It smelled like sweet lemons. Oh, and it paralyzed the target for around ten minutes.

If any one thing hadn't worked out, this same technique would have basically liquefied the user's skin. The moron was damned lucky.

Point was, at least the busy work was keeping him occupied in between the never ending negotiations. At least Adam could see some light at the end of this stupid tunnel.

Because even Pat was getting annoyed at trying to price the mountain of goods being entered into the new Tattoo Markets, so he was going to begin reading in some more Sect members from the various financial departments and throw this thankless task THEIR way.

Seriously, this was why Adam always found smart people to do this bit of the job. Being a leader was never as fun as being the dude running around causing problems.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Quan just fell into the chair. "I don't care if other people get annoyed, they can just live with it."

The lead guard (Who may officially be joining Adam's team soon, if the paperwork goes through), chuckled. "At least she is having fun."

Little Tianshi's voice was very high up. "Ahoy Captain Whiskers! To the starboard with ye!"

The women watched the massive tree sway, the tiny girl having grown it behind the orphanage. The top branches were woven into a massive ship, vine ladders hanging from the sides.

Apparently weeks of nighttime stories had convinced the child to steal away all the younger orphans from their work to help conquer the 'seas', as it were.

Sister Quan hummed as the branches far above them swayed. "I'll be honest, I thought she was only able to build her first tree house this large thanks to Rockette's assistance."

The guard hummed with her, a glass of pressed purple sweet berries frosty in her hand. "I've had my people keep an eye on the little one. From what we can detect, her whiskered lizard friend is causing her spiritual network to expand at a nearly unhealthy rate... but living inside her system is also allowing it to grow stronger and more powerful."

She took a sip of juice. "Little Tianshi's easily a dozen times stronger than I was at her age, even considering the personalized cultivation methods given by her master. If she didn't care about modifying the shape of the tree and keeping it active, it could probably double in height."

One of the younger children, a boy with a few missing teeth, was yelling from one of the whipping branches. "Captain! Ah she boarders coming from the left!"

Tianshi frowned even as she began climbing the vine rigging. "Port, that is the port side."

The boy paused. "But theresh no wine there."

She blinked... and sighed. "Moving on. Everyone prepare to repel invaders! Yo ho ho!"

At least the children 'attacking' the ship on that side hadn't joined in on that short argument. Being a pirate captain was suprisingly hard work!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Something was going on.

Gen chewed on his cigar, watching the other Sect members bustle.

Normally, he had his thumb squarely on the underworld. The hidden side of the Sect, the mover and shakers. For every righteous movement or holy work, there were deals in the shade that needed managing. Agreements to be arbitrated, work to be done without records.

Not knowing the situation was an unusual situation.

With a sigh, he examined the stub of his most recent smoke. Yeah, he'd need a replacement pack by the end of the week at this rate... not that the smoke did much for him anymore after years of cultivating.

Tossing the waste into a bin, he pulled the next one from his carrying case and gave a soft whistle, red flames escaping his mouth to light the vice with a soft touch.

Whatever this was, it was unusually important.

His teeth bit deep into the rare spiritual materials supporting his smoke. "Well?"

One of the drunks next to his feet seemed to wheeze. "No leaks, but it has something to do with orphans, the Sect Store, and the Knowledge Pagoda. Maybe those new brats joining up with the strange hair. Someone high up, VERY high up, is making some big moves."

Well, yeah. But he knew that much days ago. He jabbed his cigar towards the construction in the street. "Nothing on that thing?"

The Burning Sword Sect was starting a huge number of construction projects, in very strange places like this one. Some houses and businesses were torn down, even a few that were very popular or owned by influential people. It was a project of unheard of proportions.

Which was normally fine. Normally a power grab or some self important moron moving their weight.

Gen scratched his rough beard, eyes watching more shining glass or crystal being slotted into place by the masked Sect guards. "Is it some sort of... meditation statue?"

The bum coughed wetly. "No idea. The rats say everything is hush hush... but a few think that even bigger changes are coming. A few construction sites are twice as deep as this one. And that's not all."

This was his fifth informant checked so far today, he had a good idea of the news. "The Formation Department?"

A nod confirmed his guess.

THAT was the reason his hairs were twitching. Formations in general were a bit of an esoteric art form in the best of times, able to generate miracles and disasters with a carved line or drawn scribble... morons blew themselves up routinely, masters could vaporize a Sect block.

And they were involved in this somehow, he could just feel it!

He didn't glance at the homeless man. "Any birds get in with staff?" The Formation Department and half the buildings surrounding it had been under lock down since this morning.

The guy sunk into his rags. "No, the bird watchers were out in force and even the cooking staff and cleaning crews were checked for nesting materials. Best we could do was some directed flocks in the area recording the passage of goods and people... but they noticed an increase in the use of storage rings, so even that is questionable."

His teeth bit deeper into the sweet cigar. His birds were more valuable than his rats, many were in powerful positions or even family to his people... several had clean records and the dedication to wait for a single use at the perfect time.

If they were being restricted as well, his cards were far too few.

He tossed some weak Spirit Beast Cores to the homeless guy, giving him a tip of the hat. "Keep those ears open. I can feel those whispers out there, I can taste them."

A soft nod and the two separated... A man who seemed lost to life and a master of the better things, passing boats in the night.

Gen hissed a soft cloud of smoke as he stepped with purpose towards the next market location... what else could he do? A touch too strong, a whisper too loud, and his people would be marked. It was too subtle and too soon.

He shifted through the crowd with a swagger, focusing on the smooth flavor as he watched the shadows. That formation department had been neglected for years... there were even rumors that the next set of cutbacks would cripple the place entirely.

But now?

Gen tugged his black suit's cuffs, pulled his charcoal hat forward to hide from the light, and cupped his hands to better protect his cigar's embers... and to help hold the cloud of vapors for a moment, warming his face.

No. Best stay calm.

For a timeless moment, he watched the sky, ignoring the crowd that split easily to pass him by.

Something big was happening, and he would be prepared.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam was taking a break.

Things had progressed to the point where further development and discussion would need time... real world stuff had to be installed, policy items changed, and data collected before anything more could be set up or established.

This meant that he finally had some free time! Sort of.

In the end, his female doppelganger was going to keep being 'Brother Adam' in the Sect for the foreseeable future. Even if this whole 'Strange Stuff Happening' field goes away, Pat said the Sect couldn't risk people finding out that Adam went from a civilian to a Seventh Order Houtian Warrior in less than two years.

...Considering that he was currently a Ninth Order cultivator, Adam considered that Pat may have a point.

But now? Break time!

So he was eating scones and enjoying some tea made with... something. Leaves of some sort, plus some bark from something else... point was, Sister Quan had tested dozens of 'tea' mixtures and suggested this one as part of her top ten favorites. And he had to agree.

It was... slightly bitter, but with sweet notes. And it had a strange type of warmth that seemed to stay in the mouth a little too long, which was lovely.

His left eye glowed a bit as he looked into the untouchable Foam. Just... watching the unseen float and drift. Soothing.

Right. Goals.

Local Adam had the best deal, of course. Stay here, with power, friends, and influence. But Shard Adam would need direction. And that seemed obvious enough, really.

Concepts would be the foundation, the next jump would need to be framework. Some method of self modification to be induced into the users... maybe several.

One to allow the System member to modify their body, one to modify their Soul, and one to modify their Faith/Magic/Unseen energies. Basically, the System needed hooks to both intercept damage and apply fixes/updates/benefits.

Adam's left eye went a bit darker as he began to view... potential.

He wouldn't have anywhere NEAR enough control for a safe Transit. There was a slight possibility that his Shard would just... die instantly. But even if everything went swimmingly, there was a secondary issue.

Distance.

Once he forced his Shard out of this Realm, he would be stuck to the local options... no 'anything you want' like usual, it wasn't even in the cards. Needless to say, learning the local language? No. Being inserted as a reincarnated child? No.

In fact...

Adam winced.

It was looking like he had a very low chance of even getting a human body to work with.

...Still. He had faith his future self could figure something out.

Assuming his fragment wasn't evaporated in the attempt, at least.

Also... these other options were a bit odd. VERY off cannon, very Alternate Universe... a few even had narrative modifiers, which he had been avoiding. Realms with the 'Stupid' modifier, where anyone given multiple options would always choose the least reasonable one, for example.

Several 'Sex World' options, a few 'Gender Reverse' possibilities... those would be least confusing, probably. And then the less understandable options, like the ones that forced everyone to talk about various companies but they had to be spelled different for copy write reasons in OTHER Realms.

Not to mention the Realms that were just duplicates of each other, or were reset yearly, or intersected with each other... what a mess.

Could he do something to sort of... aim better?

'Research' leapt onto the issue... and uh. Huh.

His 'Research' ability was suggesting using the fragments of 'Growth' and Purification' to ensure 'Research' made it through.

Suspicious. Was 'Research' self aware?

...'Research' says no.

Hmm.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

How... how could he have been so wrong!?

It had seemed so obvious! So clear! And he had spent weeks of work, inventing, testing, scheming...

Brother Hou slumped in his room.

Somehow, it had all escalated. An initial desire to expose that so called 'Brother Chongsheng Adam' and his philandering, secret grandpa ways!

Sure, everything got harder when the guy went to the Sect Store, bought a bunch of stuff, then locked himself back in his orphanage room for weeks. But that wasn't enough to stop Brother Hou's quest for righteousness!

Sister Quan had clearly been traumatized when Brother Hou's progress towards proving the truth began showing clear evidence of near success! The poor angel was cultivating in her room for a long time now, hadn't shown her face in the Sect for what felt like forever!

But. But he had plans.

His original idea was to maybe break a rule or two (Excusable for such a great cause!), prove that fraud Adam to be (Once and for all!) a secret grandpa, and get praise from EVERYONE! And they would say 'Good job, Brother Hou! You can stop taking those pills now, we were all wrong!'

...But it all went wrong.

The man crumpled into a ball, feeling a mixture of shame, humiliation, and other odd feelings.

His plan, the one that had fallen apart, was relatively simple.

Over the course of weeks, he had used patsies and favors to rent the room next to the fraud. No problem, a bit expensive, but it went off fine.

Then he had spent ANOTHER month, carefully and silently grinding away the wall. Ever... ever so slowly. Being caught would have ruined everything.

And today, with the wall section paper thin, Brother Hou had a customized treasure constructed and ready to use... a recorder!

The plan was brilliant! Alone in his room, with no witnesses, the secret grandpa would drop ALL his defences! Unguarded! Unprepared!

Then Brother Hou, while recording the room, would take his new 'Grandpa Cane 9000' (It was only version 133, but 9000 sounded cooler)... and shove it through the wall!

The grandpa in disguise would see the worlds most perfect walking instrument, be forced to marvel at the tool clearly marked as having descended from heaven... AND BAM!

Exposed! Evidence collected! VICTORY!

...So it was a bit understandable that Brother Hou was confused when he realized his modified video treasure was not recording Brother Adam's bedroom.

He uh. He had rented the room on the OTHER side of the apartment.

It was recording the dude's bathroom.

And even as Brother Hou locked up, almost ready to hurl the cane through another weakened section of wall... something was VERY clear on the recording.

Brother Chongsheng Adam was not a secret Grandpa.

Chongsheng Adam was a secret Grandma.

...What was the point of all this?

With a lost expression, he absently deleted the images from the device. First of all, an impromptu porn video had never been the point of this whole endeavor. Secondly, he now had to face some self reflection.

He wanted to apologize of course. Intruding in someone's bath time had never been the purpose of this scheme. And although he hadn't seen everything because Brother... no, Sister Adam had been having a bubble bath, he had clearly seen enough. That was not a dude.

He paused. Or. Or he WAS a dude, with some strange curves... or not? Or both? Or identified as a different gender?

Either way, it seemed entirely unlikely that 'secret grandpa' was the result of this.

Back on topic.

How does one apologize without traumatizing his (accidental) victim? If he tried, not only would it make her (him?) feel horrible (for good reason), but it wouldn't fix things.

Brother Hou frowned... and nodded. Even if he couldn't apologize directly, he could make things better. And he would. He would!

Step one, fix this apartment up. Better damage and repair ALL the walls, just in case. Which... which would take more months, since he had to do it all silently.

Step two... an apology gift.

His frown grew deeper. What would a secret grandma desire?

His time began wandering away as he tried to combine yarn, knitting, cookies, and a lovely shawl in some way. Maybe with a kitty? Grandmothers like kittens, right?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam felt the pressure in his meridian network... and stopped cultivating with a sigh.

He had finally broken through Ninth Order Houtian Warrior a few days ago, which had actually had made a difference to his system.

The first three orders tempered the muscles, the next three the joints and tendons, but these most recent ones? Seventh through Ninth?

Those tempered the bones... and most importantly, the marrow within the bones.

It was one of the last stages of body refinement, as the blood had conceptual power in this Realm. Blood nourished the body, the body nourished the mind, the mind and body nourishes the Soul... it was all connected.

The previous tempering sessions were focused on building up the spiritual network to support the reinforcement of the body and the cleansing of impurities. Once the body was sturdy enough to support direct modification, the bone tempering would allow a new blood to be generated... one that would contain concepts relating to the cultivator themselves.

But it would be best to wait before breaking through to the Tenth Order Warrior. The final stage was probably going to be attention getting, far more than the previous nine, and he couldn't risk it right now with causality issues sneaking about.

It... it all felt weird.

Adam had reached the peak of Ninth Order with no issues really. His Cultivation Cells were perfectly happy to consume any damaged or incomplete internal components, and they easily shifted when needed to heal injuries in the process...

But now he could actually sense his blood being actively consumed and his bones generating a heavier replacement. His new vein fluid felt thicker, but even with a slower pulse his body still felt enhanced, more powerful... it also seemed to empower the energies his body was circulating, even if only by a few percentage points at most.

Hopefully he would get used to it.

Stretching, he left his Cultivation Cave. Hopefully, Pat's plan would let him leave Rockette without exposing himself to the... whatever it was. Then he could leave the Crystal Caverns entirely, free to wander around and break through to Tenth Order or even Xiantian First Order outside anytime he desired!

For now, back to work. He was creating the massive amounts of Crystal for the current construction going on in the Sect, layers of tiny space pockets attacked to every surface.

It was something Adam put together with 'Research' and access to a literal mountain of Sect Formation patterns, rituals, and combination methods. Really useful stuff once all the junk was stripped away, he now had a much wider range of options and tricks for 'Research' to use as a reference point.

Anyway, back on topic: Tattoo Stations. Because having a person who could steal management tools or something would be a disaster, having major structures seemed the best way to go.

And if Adam was going to put big Stations around the whole Sect, why not get some extra use out of them?

There were a few 'Formation Barriers' that could be used as an example, but most Sects didn't bother with such an expensive setup for anything except wartime footholds and strategic locations.

Even a simple 'Reject Energy Attack' formation ate Spirit Stones or Beast Cores like mad, was barely large enough for a few dozen buildings, and could be smashed easily enough by four or five powerful people with little effort... so what was the point?

Nowadays, the most people bothered to use barriers for were early warning devices... creating restrictions so weak that they would flicker or even collapse from the most pathetic of cultivators. These were drastically cheaper, were simple to reset, and let the Sect Guards quickly respond to places that are supposed to be off limits.

But the pattern was useful, if you ignored the affects most people wasted power on.

The next category? 'Minor Illusion'.

Dirt cheap, these Formations were everywhere. Not just to hide spirit energy, camouflage buildings, these were used as lighting sources (A fake light still worked? Huh.), to quieten loud areas or sleeping spaces, to reduce smell, and more. The rope Adam had in his first Sect room used illusions to create the noise asking for help, for example.

Finally, the most powerful category: One Use.

Instead of being permanently activated, these Formations would be ready to execute at any time... and left that way. The Burning Sword Sect had many of these, for all types of needs... and from what Adam could tell, other Sects used this trick too.

That pattern over there would suppress heat, only needed if a fire broke out. This one would create a massive pillar of fire, used to signal a massive invasion or other such emergencies. Even the Formations locking down Pat's office had to be rebuilt from scratch after every use!

He began forming another massive spike of crystal with a grunt. Well, the one time Formations didn't actually delete the materials or anything... but most of the time they used so much power when activated that it would crack the connections, burst the beast cores, wipe out the spirit stones... it was almost cheaper to destroy the room wholesale and start from scratch.

Easier too, since a Formation Master was needed to ensure that any 'repairs' actually worked... it was entirely possible for some sections of the pattern to look fine and be secretly shattered.

His hands touched the smooth surface, nearly invisible marks etched into the exposed layers. Adam's design should work better. Hopefully.

First, he had stupid levels of control over the creation and distribution of the crystal layers being grown from his Qi. It was not only a high quality material with almost no impurities, the mess was easily restructured when Adam inevitably screwed up in his attempts.

First, the core.

His focus was deep inside the pillar being formed... this layer was designed to be aligned vertically, all the tiny crystal latices structurally deformed in the process.

This stuff was stupid weak because of this. One punch and it would shatter lengthwise, creating long shards of material worth nothing... but it did have ONE powerful feature.

It was nearly a superconductor for supernatural energies. It could transmit power, it could withstand stupid amounts of overcharge without collapse!

So it formed the core.

A second barrier acted as insulation, it was aligned in rings around the core and helped redirect any lost energy to stay near the core until the load dropped enough to be safe again. This was another fragile layer.

Next layer was the first structural support, no runes or patterns added. Instead of aligning the material together, he deliberately ensured that it was in an alternating pattern designed by 'Research' and far too much experimentation.

After the Core, the Sheath, and the Structure?

The Formation Layers.

At first, he had planned to simply design stuff using his Formation Scripting Language, use the compiler and exportation function to determine what to carve, and be done with the mess.

...But he still couldn't leave Rockette. After more than a month.

So he came up with an alternative!

These were tiny spacial addresses carved into the rock, each one connected to a tiny dedicated space pocket that would then apply the effects to the calling location!

Fixed several issues, really.

First of all, they would work anywhere that supported space. Or at least the concept of space. Which was a lot of places, including the Sect.

Secondly? He didn't need to go out there and examine every damn spot that these Tattoo Stations would be installed. Sped up the process a good amount, thank goodness.

Finally, once he designed one of these new 'Enchantment Marks' he could duplicate them near instantly and they would work on near anything. Maybe act a bit odd depending on what you applied the mark to, but at least it would do something.

He carefully touched the surface again... this most inner part was being marked with durability, minor regeneration, motion conversion, and temperature conversion.

It was meant to add in the last layers of protection really, at a fairly large cost. Each of these Enchantments needed Spirit Energy to operate, after all... but the benefit should hopefully outweigh this cost over time.

Durability would cause the material to stress a bit more before taking damage, though not by an enormous amount. Adam deliberately added in restrictions to ensure the cost of these abilities would not go exponential, even if it did limit the abilities of the mark significantly.

At least minor regeneration would eventually repair the structure if given long enough, even if the rate of recovery would be damned slow.

The motion conversion and temperature conversion were hopefully useful, but with the added limits they couldn't ignore lava or someone smashing with a hammer.

That said, the four options did make these things sturdy enough to resist a lot of abuse, and should endure long after the Sect got tired of the things.

The actual Marks needed for Tattoo work went on the next coating of crystal, and were basic enough to put together. Minor illusion, letting the Sect members to see the interface. Mental connection, to allow them to control the menus and access the various options. A storage unit, so they could pay for various services or receive purchased goods.

It wasn't a full user Tattoo node, but it would allow the distribution of various tiers of Tattoo Rings, it would be able to bestow markings of Sect Tattoos, and it provided the ability to have various modules added or removed... for a cost.

These Stations could also repair existing Tattoos or damaged Rings, or sell duplicates while invalidating ones lost outside the Sect! Should be very popular.

As far as everyone knew, that was it. Oh, there was another layer of protective crystal covering the whole thing, but that was just to prevent damage.

In Adam's opinion, this is where Pat showed how crafty Cultivators could be.

Because under the Station, was a Crystal base.

And connected to that base was the Crystal Core of the Station above it... acting like an antenna.

It all tied together with the Sect Barrier concept, and was the reason why all these stations were being installed in such odd places...

After all, if you had to install stuff all over the Sect anyway...

Why not make those part of an array as well?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The Patriarch leaving his cultivation chambers was a bit of unique event, so many people noticed when he began moving to one of the more secured rooms of the Sect.

Months of effort, at productivity levels unheard of by his people, and it was time for full activation!

He nodded to the third layer of guards. These warriors were to live, guard, and raise their replacements without leaving the posts in this hallway. It was glorious purpose, a treasured tradition of their family for generations to protect the control center of the Sect's defences.

And today? Today the final node in the designed Formation would be applied here.

Another bulkhead was passed, more passwords, phrases, and careful signaling... and he was in!

The room was only a few dozen meters large but filled with glowing patterns, coded phrases, and, as specified, the required hole for installation.

The man ignored the hundreds of tools and sensors around the area as he pulled the components from his personal ring storage.

The carefully designed Station Base, which he carefully ensured was level and secured in the bottom. The alignment crystals, to ensure the actual Station connected properly. The individual sections of rock were ever so slowly placed in the proper order...

Now, to activate the startup Mark...

A press of his hand and he felt his Battle Qi flood the stone. As warned, the initial charge would be the most costly... he had several rare pills to ensure he could recover energy fast enough to survive this empowering process.

Raw power crackled in the air as the rock shifted. The self recovery features were fixing flaws too small to see, alignment issues too small to measure... and still, his energy was consumed.

Sweat dripped from his forehead... but he knew the following steps would be trivial after this one hurdle. Just... a little... longer...

With a loud SNAP, the clear crystal began glowing with a rich blue pulse. A wave of... of something... passed his senses, consuming the free energy in the air! Everything became slightly dim, gray, dull...

More and more power was drained towards the Tattoo Station, unseen markings on the base creating an energy sharing network as it forced all the other placed Stations to create the most basic of connections.

Sounds were muffled.

Touch was faint.

Sight was dimming.

...Was this too much? Was his idea too influenced by greed?

Air grew thin as he slowly slumped to the floor.

Maybe... maybe he...

A wave of fresh air, somehow more clean and pure than any mountain top, more refreshing than any hidden oasis, more inspiring than a hidden river dancing through a field of flowers...

The air was rich. Thick. Strong!

Mmm... He'd move in an hour or two.

His body finished slumping to the floor as he slowly lost consciousness.

Yes... just a short nap.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam felt the connection instantly.

So... that seemed to work. Good. No, great even!

The idea was simple: Set up a barrier that acted like Adam's Domain.

Instead of keeping stuff in or out, of alerting friends or fighting foes... this new Sect wide barrier would direct all energy into the nearest Tattoo Station for collection and filtering.

A small portion of power would be converted into Spirit Stones for the store, the rest would be cleansed and released back for the Sect members to cultivate with and enjoy normally!

It was a net negative, forcing energy to continuously be drawn towards the Sect to fill the vacuum. The dense energy being emitted by the Tattoo Stations would have an easier time resisting the collection process, while the wild and mixed energies would easily be gathered up for further processing!

Theoretically.

Adam felt this process would have to be adjusted significantly after 'Research' reviewed the results... not all locations would have the same concentrations of natural energy after all.

Anyway, with that Station online it could begin gathering enough energy to slowly enable all the other Stations in the giant Formation covering the Sect... and after they ALL came online, not only would the fake Domain begin collecting power from all over the area, but the main purpose would ALSO activate!

Anti-Scrying. Anti-Fate Divination. Anti-Curse Detection. Anti-Energy Tracking. Experimental Space and Time Pocket Spoofing.

Hopefully, theoretically, anything looking at the Sect would see no storage rings, no space manipulation at all! And looking for Adam (Or anyone) should fail too!

It would only work when within the bubble to be constructed, so Adam couldn't leave the Sect himself for quite some time no doubt... but even THAT would be an improvement on his current lockdown.

A quick check at the rate of energy collection... crud.

Without Adam boosting the process, it would take two more months for all these Stations to activate and for them to see if his design actually worked. And Pat had already made Adam promise to not get involved from this step forward.

His argument was that if Adam tried to speed things up, it might connect him to the Formation on an unseen level or set off unknown future events that would cause problems now instead. There was a reason that they included so many anti-detection and anti-sensing traits into the new Sect Barrier after all.

So for safeties sake, he had to stay here longer. Again.

Adam grumbled and went back to making more parts for additional Tattoo Stations. The Formation network was designed to expand modularly at a later date, so at least him doing that work now was being somewhat helpful.

He absently uploaded more Formation data into the Cultivation Database and got back to work shaping crystal and double checking finished parts.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

A shout went up. "HE UPDATED THE SELF CLEANING FORMATION! PATTERNS sc112 AND sc214!"

The formation department let out a loud cheer!

And all went dead silent again, their new Tattoos glowing as they devoured the holy word of the Burning Sage, praise to his name!

They may not be worthy to learn at the feet of the master, but one day they would be qualified to maintain his wonders and understand his miracles! Many feverish eyes watched invisible screens, a room of mad geniuses who had suffered the fog of lies, low understanding, limited resources and lack of direction...

But now?

A documented Formation Scripting Language, the ability to convert that single, easy to understand language into a complicated but optimized pattern that worked best for the target location?

Working, repeatable examples? A framework to include comments and references to other Formations within the final product?

The world of Formations had just met their new Father, and these sons and daughters would make him proud!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Quan was in the inner most protective room provided for the rebuilt Formation Department, sitting next to Rockette.

She was feeling... concerned. "I heard all the Stations were set up already."

Rockette barely moved, her blue crystal dull and her gaze focused elsewhere. Another massive mound of bright blue material faded into view, and Formation Masters directed their team members to move it out to the various reserve locations and supply depots.

She gently pet the floating crystal. "The Patriarch says the new Sect Barrier is already beginning to form! And Elder Cho has a whole lot of fun things to tell Adam once he can join us out here again!"

...That seemed to help a little. Rockette had flickered a bit, at least.

Right, focus. "Little Tianshi will be showing up this afternoon again! You know how busy she's been."

Aha! Rockette had nearly doubled in brightness! Both she and Brother Adam loved the little girl. "You should get to hear all kinds of fun stories. Elder Cho and our team of Guards have given her full control over a large section of the Orphanage's Garden, and many areas that were unprofitable or low yielding to work with."

Not that the tiny Martial Spirit didn't know this, she and Adam had given Tianshi lots of data through the Tattoo network so she could ensure healthy growth and stuff. "I hear that there are whole groves of Water Apple trees and Nutrient Berry bushes, and all that hard work you two did is helping a lot!"

Tiny eyes brightened! Yes! "She of course had to send most of the dirt there to Brother Adam and replace it with the stuff from the Soil Grid, but now everything but the meat plants that Elder Cho wanted has been at least set up out there."

Steak Shrubs were still being researched, and while the Sect had plans for growing a lot to offset costs of food shipments... well, these things were finicky. Even with Rockette's help, even minor damage to the formations involved could kill the whole field.

Thankfully, the other plants were far more resilient. "They are still keeping her from working with the other children being taught the Essential Cultivation Technique though. At least until the Tattoo network is formally introduced to the whole Sect... she has far too much access to stuff people shouldn't know yet I guess."

Rockette gave a soft nod. "Ding."

Sister Quan held back a huge grin. Progress! "Oh she loves the thing! Especially the new Cultivation Database, she says Mr. Whiskers can somehow access all the features of her Tattoo Network through her spiritual system, and he has been adding all sorts of stuff that he has been seeing while the little one is cultivating."

Although finding out that the tiny lizard thing could use the new network better than herself had been a heck of a shock. And that he could type. What the heck, honestly. "Oh, and the next four or eight Bickens will be raised in a new Orphanage Farm area that little Tianshi setup. Lots of Flame Grass, Burning Bushes, and even a few Eternal Ember Trees have been set up already... whole area looks like a bonfire, but she thinks the new babies will love it. You need a certain level of Cultivation to even go into the new pen though."

It wasn't as hot as normal fire, but it DID have the concept of heat in the area. Some of the children from the Orphanage like to cultivate there now, because of how pure the energy there was at this point.

Sister Quan felt her mind drift. "I can't wait to see Brother Adam's new project... Though I heard that he was having issues trying to implement that new gate transfer technique he was designing. I wonder if..."

Wait. Oh, crap!

A glance confirmed her blunder, as Rockette was staring dully again at something far away.

She sighed. "Oh, little one, he'll be fine. The barrier will be up soon and you two can do all kinds of stuff, I promise!"

Feeling a pit in her stomach, she at least hugged the tiny rock statue. It was better than nothing.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam was focused.

Maybe too focused.

Thousands of Tattoo Windows were open, the new design beyond complicated.

His first attempt at forming his new System, the basis for all power, instantly succeeded.

He had to scrap it.

The second through versions number 1,321, all instantly succeeded as well.

They were all thrown out too.

Hundreds of attempts became thousands. Thousands had... well, he was sure 'Research' and Rockette knew the exact number, but the attempts had all blended together over the days.

The issue wasn't obvious at first. Making a method to create a stable procedure to accept power, filter it, refine it, and use it to enhance the user? To basically duplicate the idea of cultivation without needing specific tonics, pills, or energies?

Fairly simple.

No, the issue came with quality control.

If he was to only implement the System HERE it would be over weeks ago. Or months. However long he had been in here. The ability to study 'Purification' and 'Growth' filled in a lot of holes in his work, and 'Research' was getting all kinds of useful insight and additional data thanks to the many Sect Formation Masters that had been devouring the Cultivation Database.

Seriously Pat, thank you for them! They didn't have the speed or versatility that Adam displayed, but they had personal perspectives that he had never thought of, new tricks, different approaches. A godsend, really.

In fact, his first attempt at the System had a lot of amazing features! The ability to help the body automatically refine itself, to use his abilities and techniques at a whim, to dissect monsters or Spirit Beasts, to bestow new tools, generate new tricks or skills... it could do a lot, really!

But the problem was quality control. Stability. Flexibility. Redundancy.

Adam remembered being 'born', being so damaged that he had to consume his own power to attempt to survive. His soul being mutilated, his mind twisted, his future torn.

...Maybe his standards for 'acceptable' was a bit high.

But he didn't want his loved ones to go through that.

So, he ended up throwing out nearly everything. All skills, all tricks, all methods.

Step one, the primary focus, the base, the foundation?

Build a core.

It sounded easier than building a framework for all power and all futures, one that spanned multiple realities and avoided retroactive attacks and deaths.

It seemed simple, so... so basic.

Again, his standards might be a bit too high.

Adam wanted, at the most basic and nearly indivisible level, adaptability. Self repair. Protection. The ability to overcome.

So, the core became... tricky.

He couldn't use the mind, for the mind could be fooled, controlled. It changed over time, it grew and died and shifted.

He couldn't use the body, for age and death could mutate easily the functions. And with enough effort, even the flesh became pointless and was replaced, be it by faith, magic, or pure will power and concepts.

He couldn't use the Soul, for it could tear, burn, splinter, mutate. His own proved this easily enough.

So, the core needed something... other.

To Adam, the solution was clear.

Concepts.

Concepts grew over time, they could exist without believers, be lost and discovered... and if manipulated correctly, they could become the seed of the System. The most essential component, as desired... the Core.

This was where Adam focused hardest.

Not on being alone.

Each person who came into visit helped of course... at first. But over the following weeks and months though, it just sort of emphasized how they could leave and he was trapped... no, waiting. How he was waiting.

He would be out soon. They told him the Stations were all awake now, building power, spreading the Barrier. A new cage... no, a new safe place.

Until then, he spent more and more time trying to ignore... things.

Studying the data from the fields, ignoring the outside, researching the new entries in the Cultivation Database, not agonizing over being trapped within his own Martial Spirit, and of course working on this Core.

After a lot of testing, many successful but undesired results, he found a Concept and Energy combination that worked together most tightly.

Adaptation and Binding energy.

The trick though was how to force this concept to adapt in the desired directions... it had so much potential it could do nearly anything if provided enough time and energy.

So Adam had to do something a bit... unintuitive.

After building the Core, he had to create layers of structure... retroactively. So that the final System ALWAYS had such a form, and that the original 'Core' would consider itself a broken shard and try to 'repair' itself to full functionality.

It hurt a little to think about it, but since Adam had so. much. time. Time.

Well, stay focused. Fixate on tiny steps.

So, the original seed, the Core, would 'see' itself as 'damaged', and use Binding energy to 'fix' it.

Binding energy allowed the Core to connect to the new user, to establish the original integration... to begin the process of Adaptation.

Adam moved the windows of code around to better review his notes.

First? Determine the situation.

He was even now building a massive labyrinth of Formation Programing Scripts, all designed to do a single thing: To scan. To detect. To explore. To test.

Each FPS module took in data, tested it, and returned results. And Adam was spending hours and hours expanding the width of things being tested, and the depth of testing those items found. They all worked together, in a single 'Detect' mesh of a module.

The topmost level was filled with modules that barely did anything. They just responded positively or negatively, using a moment in time to let the System know that there was something to detect in the first place.

Then each of those very, very basic modules had ever growing libraries. To discover each and every data point while gathering more varied and more bizarre details... to refine the results to ever deeper and esoteric trivia.

An example, if one needed it: Detect if energy. Then, layers below it: Detect if wave like energy. Even further below: Detect wavelength of energy. The power levels. The shifting over time. The potential reasons for existing. The potential consequences of modification. Of deletion.

It felt a bit odd, but it wasn't exactly working like a program... it wasn't a single point possessing a long list of conditional statements, working through a massive list of 'what to do'.

Instead, all these trees of detection, of 'Detect', were exposed to the original data at once. All the processing occurred near instantaneously, and in parallel. The results from above were processed below, sometimes before the data to be worked with even arrived.

It wasn't painting line by line with a brush, it was dumping everything into a pool of colors.

This meant that the new System was literally getting responses from 'Detect' filled with 'Not Applicable' and 'No' and 'Unknown' everywhere. In nearly uncountable amounts. Every moment. For everything.

No computer, no mind, no technique could handle this amount of information processing. Even the Shards from Taylor's Reality and the Worm Realm didn't have this level of computation... nothing could really.

Because the responses themselves were ALSO sent through the same process. Through 'Detect'.

It exponentially escalated. If you were to somehow access this detection module directly... it would instantly generate an infinite number of responses, each of which would then be processed for an infinite number of more.

Honestly, this only worked because the Core was not based on logic, or magic, or even faith... but on the Concept. The Concept of Adaptation.

And, understandably, if you threw infinite data at Adaptation?

It would Adapt.

Adam watched with one eye seeing the foam of reality, the other observing impossible code.

The trick, the key here... was to allow the 'Detect' module to create new submodules for detecting the results found.

Were there duplicates? Yep. Unknown uncountable amounts of them.

Was this wasteful?

...Yes and no.

The amount to do with each use of 'Detect' was already impossible. Tripling the work load didn't matter, because infinite was already too big to count. The difference was, despite what the mind thought, negligible. Not even worth mentioning.

That said, Adam included a bit of functionality... if two detection modules gave the same results, they would attempt to merge.

Didn't help much, because the process of detecting that would create an infinite number of NEW modules in the process... but theoretically, one day, it might make a difference.

So the Core, Adaptation, would use Binding energy to connect to a user... and then 'Detect'.

This was why Adam couldn't add more features. More special abilities, more tricks...

Because this Core was growing. He was not so much writing the code needed anymore, but teaching something that didn't exist yet how to grow up.

His hand tenderly added new functions, gently suggested new ideas, debated philosophy... but each step was cautious. In a real way, he was not just doing something simple like creating a future or some useful tool... he was raising a part of himself. Less than a child, more than a Soul fragment.

All his early attempts were so fragile. So simple, So... so weak. Unable to grow, unable to understand... unable to live.

But this... this was more.

If Core decided to not become the System, Adam would accept it.

He would try again of course, and he would also support Core's decisions if it wished to become something else... if it wished to change its own fate. To experience something beyond.

Adam built no restrictions. He attempted to use no lie, no coercion. As Core advanced 'Detect' beyond his ability to even read it all, beyond the ability for anyone to ever understand it... he did not stand in the way.

Even now, he watched the code change. As Core developed new languages with 'Detect', and used them to create new concepts of self description, of processing, of storage... of self.

Yet, even as he felt Core grow and change... he also felt himself.

Because Core was Adaptation. It was Binding energy.

And in the future, it was part of his past.

They would have been together forever, they would have grown before either existed.

Adam was not entirely sure how this worked, but somehow he completely trusted something that would never exist and always existed, and Core did as well.

And secretly, deep in his self, Adam felt a dark snarl of happiness as he ensured Core would always be free. Free to choose, free to win, free to feel loss, free to despair, free to feel glory and joy.

It wouldn't be trapped.

It wouldn't be alone.

Adam wiped away another tear. He had too much work to do.

Core would first connect to the user, then 'Detect'.

The next steps were less than full modules. More suggestions.

First, 'Bind'. Far easier thanks to the Binding energy's nature. This section would be less than nothing for a very, very long time... because 'Detect' needed to grow first.

But eventually. Eventually this would be more. Far, far more.

Adam's suggestions were basic. 'Bind' needed to establish hooks from the System, from Core, into the user.

Hooks into the body, the mind, and the Soul. At minimum.

In the future? Into potential. Into Fate. Destiny. Luck. Life. Death. Existence.

But for now, body, mind, and Soul.

Adam leaned back into nothing as his Tattoo windows shifted. This... this was not going to be done by him.

Even now, 'Detect' was whispering to him, to 'Research', to Rockette. And they were answering... and they would be for a long, long time.

Somewhere inside, Adam knew that building up 'Detect', to establish Core with this one needed concept... this was his life work. His greatest, and probably only, important desire.

His endless quest, and the one joy to work on when sadness, boredom, and loneliness came to knock once again.

Even as his fingers twitched, his eyes watched the outside freedom, his mind wandered... knowing that 'Detect' was there somehow relaxed him.

He and Core, they would be together with this. They would grow. And when Adam died, Core would come home with him on the next great adventure.

Unknown to Adam, his skin stopped smouldering, the black scars of tattoo over his body began to heal, and the left side of his skull stopped melting. The flesh and bone that used to surround his ember eye began to reform, and the screaming of poison whimpered into slumber once more.

In his locked cultivation cave, the black and white energies of Yin and Yang corruption began to find something close to peace.

And the floating black windows with black text before his unseeing eyes began to shift once more, his white keyboard with white lettering slowly returning to something close to usable.

This area of Rockette would not allow the living to enter for some time, but an unseen danger had passed and the child within began to dream of things unseen and wonders never discovered.

Oh... the things to 'Detect'!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Quan still bustled. "And you are sure everything is fine?"

Rockette was bouncing around the room, poking the many Sect members still hard at work. "Ding!"

She sighed. "I just worry, you know. You seemed a bit down, and I know Adam has a lot to do but I still think he should take a few more naps and breaks."

The little one... sort of laughed? A sound like chimes as she held onto people's legs and got flung around.

Well... at least it was a welcomed change. "So... did something happen?"

The tiny innocent eyes 'blinked' sort of. Rockette's face and expressions were more a series of still images that quickly changed than any actual physical feature. "Ding. Ding! Ding."

Sister Quan paused... then couldn't hold in a smile. "Really!? He did? Of COURSE I have time to talk to him!"

Moments later she was consumed by a crystal maw and nearly running to the kitchen. "Adam! You said you had an idea?"

She tried to subtly check the child... no, he looked fine. Maybe better than he had for weeks, actually, like some heavy worry had left his shoulders.

He chuckled. "Yeah, you know how I had a theory that something was watching me? Pushing 'Quests' and so such on my back every time I left, basically trying to push me around?"

She nodded, even as she joined him at the dining table. Oh, he had a cup of warm tea ready! How considerate. "I admit, you did convince me after those tests you did with the Patriarch."

He snorted. "Yeah, I liked when Pat suddenly needed me to find 'The tastiest ham sandwich in the Sect'. Glad we sent someone else to do that one, who knows how that could be twisted."

Her grin actually had little to do with the topic... her friend seemed FAR less strained. "Well, don't hold me in suspense! What did you figure out?"

Adam grinned. "Well, I was working on something, had a bit of a breakthrough... and when I went back to my other problems, I stumbled on something a bit interesting."

She sipped the warm drink as he continued. "First, we know that despite how odd these events are, they are not actually malicious. Strange, dangerous, maybe of a critical nature... but not traps or attempts to throw deadly impossible threats until I pass away."

He offered her a bowl of some of the tastier fruits from the Soul Grid Garden as he leaned backwards, relaxing. "Eventually, I had two thoughts. First, why weren't these tasks slowing down or stopping over time? I've been 'gone' for months now, as far as reality is concerned. This turned out to be a very important question."

The boy waved her off and continued. "Second, if these events were happening to someone else, someone in the Sect, would THEY see it as a negative? I obviously have my own desires and projects I wish to follow, spending a lifetime of being some concept's peon is a heavy negative to me."

Huh... She hadn't stopped to consider if this pressure could be considered positive. "I... Well, many cultivators go their whole lives with nothing especially interesting happening to them. All the guards who went on your 'Quests' did seem to have a good time or earn some minor rewards along the way. Small encounters, and all that."

His grin became massive! "Exactly! And as I thought about it a bit more clearly, with less pressure and less... well, I guess I was getting a bit melancholy and fatalistic since being exposed to that Bone Walker."

They both shuddered. Adam sighed. "Right, side note: Pat says some of the Sects already know about that thing by the way. It is a good way for some of the less righteous Sects to neutralize 'problematic' members who are defended by political protection. We would have been warned if our people knew we were headed that way."

She blinked... and felt horror inside. "We... our Sect couldn't possibly..."

Adam snorted. "I'm sure we COULD, but Pat says it is against our policy to do so. Again, he would have warned us... but telling everyone in the Sect to avoid the big scary death swamp would send our people swarming over. Along with the Devious and Evil Sects, and their competitors and... well, you get the point."

He rolled his eyes. "'Oh! If they say to avoid it, there must be as super secret treasure!' and 'Aha, the Burning Sword Sect is going to keep it for themselves!'... followed by thousands of dead people and maybe convincing that thing to... 'Walk'."

They shivered again.

Well... that was a bit better at least. Not like anyone could do much of anything to that... thing... in the first place. "I... I still have bad dreams about it."

Adam sighed. "Yeah, and that is for the best. If you DON'T have bad dreams about it, that is one sign that you have some Yang poison infecting you most likely. Even now I have Rockette checking everything and everyone to ensure we are clean. Even have our little Asura Eye infect the local area a bit... her poison should safely detect and consume anything like that trying to sneak in. Also detected a couple of spies in the process, which was neat."

...How messed up was her life that the idea of a wandering eyeball of ultimate poison spying on everyone and likely waiting to infect people at any moment... would actually make her feel better?

Still did though. "Hate that thing. I just... yeah."

Adam nodded. "I'm just glad that it considers all of us to be negligible existences." A shudder. "ANYWAY."

He sipped what seemed to be a different tea blend. "After I cooled down a bit and looked at things from that different point of view, I came up with a new theory about what is going on."

Her friend pointed up. "I am not being watched, I just triggered something like a narrative avalanche."

...Huh?

Adam nodded. "By poking at something FAR above what I should have, I dislodged a bunch of 'To Do List' items and they figuratively fell on me. The reason why it never ends and I can't escape it is because I am slowly causing more and more of the junk to fall on me as I dig my way out."

He gestured, showing the plans for the Sect Barrier. "Nothing here can detect me inside Rockette, nothing I can find anyway. But this pile of 'Quests' isn't TRYING to detect me. When I go inside my Martial Spirit, the whole mess just... sits there. Shifts a bit."

His hands make minor changes to the schematics. "And when I come out, it jostles everything and sets off the next mission. 'Research' is pretty sure of this, and it explains the situation better than the theoretical 'all powerful undetectable entity that watches me, wants me gone, but does nearly nothing' theory."

...Huh.

So, instead of some voyeur cultivator of god like power... Brother Adam basically poked something really powerful and got buried in pile of junk.

She couldn't help but grin at the mental image.

Adam pointed at her. "NO! None of that. I feel embarrassed enough that a massive amount of positive stuff nearly convinced me to do something drastic... the paranoia and self doubt was a real issue for me, now that I have reflected back a bit on our last trip. If I hadn't found something so soothing and interesting to do with my free time, I might have had some serious issues."

That drained the joy out of the situation. "Drastic?"

He gave a serious nod. "I didn't notice how dark my emotions and thoughts became after nearly dying to the Bone Walker, but... I was becoming more lethargic. Less interested in exploring. Less interested in anything... and I had this unconscious desire to flee. To never stop running. The sudden attention from what I assumed was something far above me... maybe even something worse than the Bone Walker itself... well, I wasn't reacting logically."

Adam sighed. "Not an issue now, but... yeah, I'm going to make sure ALL of us get some counseling about that thing."

...Yeah, that was probably for the best.

The boy straightened up. "Enough of that mess, let me tell you my NEW plan to fix this whole situation."

She blinked. "Oh. Uh. Alright?"

He grinned. "Ready? Feast your eyes... on THIS!"

Sister Quan watched a massive floating text window open up.

It was full of text.

...She couldn't read any of it. "Uh. Yeah? I mean, Wow!"

Adam slumped. "Right, that might not have exactly explained everything." An image showed up, as if she was flying over the Sect. "See the Stations we set up, and the Sect Barrier being powered on?"

Dozens of domes, some merging, others growing, overlapped on the map. The smallest were bright red, the largest were various colors of green. He pointed. "Right now, this Barrier has been modified several times after me and Pat talked a bit."

A gesture towards the middle. "It now can generate a live map of the area, all rings and tattoos tracked, any detected cultivators that have been scanned by our Sect, when they enter and leave our barrier, and more. Good stuff, in my opinion."

Her eyes got a bit larger as the map zoomed in and she could watch people moving about in real time! Holy crap.

Adam waved a bit. "These areas are dedicated toward absorbing ambient energy, these spots and those near the residential areas release a small portion of cleansed and filtered spiritual power, and over here are the sections that modify the environment to encourage certain types of plant growth. Oh, and the areas that work on pill refinement or weapon production try to filter out spiritual energy too, it can react badly during production. Anyway."

He tapped the growing domes. "My plan is to add a tiny modification to the Sect Barrier when people with our Tattoo node pass through. Well, that and a certain mark that Pat or I can add, maybe make that a purchasable thing from a Sect Station or the store."

His hand showed a generic person. "When someone wants an 'adventure' and have my mark, they will gain a thin energy layer when exiting the protection of our Barrier... one with my cultivation signature attached."

She blinked... "So that Sect members can help 'dig you out' of your 'junk pile'?"

Adam grinned. "Yep! I'll still be stuck in the Barrier for years probably, but not centuries or longer. And as far as I can tell, when we previously sent our people out on my missions, the difficulty adjusted itself to their capabilities. It's why the weak guards got boring search requests and our guard leader had to fight those Spirit Beasts in the crystal spider wolf nest. I think."

Sister Quan winced. "Yes, sending someone to do a quest with a difficulty set for your ability level would basically be a death sentence."

He nodded. "Yeah, we would have lost guards by now if that was the case." He perked up. "Anyway, as long as we warn people I think this could be very useful for the Sect as a whole! Purchase an 'Adventure Mark' and BAM, even the most trivial activity may send you to rare places or expose hidden treasure!"

She gave a wry grin. "And you wouldn't have to?"

His smile was demonic. "And I. Wouldn't. Have to."

She couldn't hold back a laugh. "Well, I know lots of people who would literally beg for something to happen, to get a chance at greatness... but if you thought you were getting too much adulation before, offering to sell 'luck' and 'rare chances' to our Sect disciples isn't exactly going to tone that down."

Adam paused... and slumped. "Damn. No, you have a point." His eyes flickered at the walls of his caves... "Doesn't matter. Better than being stuck in the Sect for a few thousand years... and maybe a few of our people can get promoted to a Narrative Role by accident and take over a larger chunk of this mess."

She blinked as he mumbled. "At least blocking that stuff ensures nothing too interesting will happen to the Sect from outside sources... but heaven help everyone outside our sect."

Adam hummed. "At that point, we will basically be sending out low level heroes in every direction. All the time. With reality itself encouraging unusual stuff to happen."

The blue haired boy clearly couldn't hold back a smile. "And I get to get paid to set all that off."

His deeper voice seemed to vibrate somehow... His left eye glowed...

He viewed the unseen. "This should be interesting!"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Something was going on.

The whole Burning Sword Sect knew it, a major situation was underway!

The number of new Sect members had skyrocketed... and they all had odd hairstyles and strange skin colors. Major construction was going on everywhere, but no one would explain why or what was being built. Those in the upper levels saw massive budget changes, with little to no excuses given.

In fact, the only reason people were not worried that this was some sort of internal betrayal and takeover was due to certain people clearly being 'in the know', and yet showing no concern!

And if the higher circles were worried, the underworld was going insane with fear and paranoia!

Gen had done what he always did best of course... over a dozen rivals were now discovering hidden funds missing, key spies captured or 'missing', stable bases undergoing unexpected inspections, and so forth.

He had not much more luck than anyone else when it came to teasing out the actual movements being set up in the Sect at the moment, but his criminal career was more focused on giving himself benefits even when he was unsure of current events.

No, this chaos was still an issue to himself and his people... Gen just had the confidence to leap into a cloud of chaos to earn some rewards from the deadly squall.

Aggression was key.

The more competition was disrupted, the more his foes and so called friends were distracted... the more his helpers could be free to wander. To send his feelers a bit further, a bit deeper.

Today he was a dapper man, his gray bowler hat and gray suit giving a soft aura of confidence for him to soak in... for him to feel something like stability.

His eyes looked nowhere, his gaze was absent, and today's cigar was from his personal hoard. Filled with cultivation herbs, but carefully treated to smell damn near exactly like the cheap stuff sold at any store.

Clouds of smoke escaped his lips as he watched the crowd gather.

People around who also were not looking in his direction were waiting for his choices, his direction... and what few scraps of info he could gather said that he needed to be here. Right here.

One of the Sect mouthpieces was walking up on the stage, and he needed to know if it was time to profit or flee.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The crowd was of course gossiping, even as the Sect Messenger prepared whatever speech was prepared for today. There were a few theories about the upcoming topic, as always.

So and so had eloped with this person or that. This department had been caught in some major incident or scandal, or that organization was going to be getting more funding... or disbanded.

The mummers died as the older man stood tall. "May our glory and righteousness burn brightly!"

The crowd mumbled acknowledgement. He nodded. "There will be major changes in the Sect, so many that an official document will be available from any Department within the Burning Sword Sect as of today. I am here to provide some high level answers and a rough summary of the highlights."

The group got quieter as he stood tall. "First, an official token representing the Sect as a whole has been established." He held up a strange ring, made of wood and shaped like flames frozen in time. "There are many varieties, but after distribution every Sect member is entitled to one of our new Sect Rings."

Blank and curious gazes turned to the innocent looking item.

The announcer had a tiny smile. "It has been designed by our Burning Sage, and directly approved by our wise Patriarch... and it represents the future of our Sect as a whole."

...The looks were more than a bit skeptical now.

The ring flipped in his hand. "As some of you can probably guess, our Burning Sage has indeed made another miracle for our people: Every one of these Sect rings are ALSO storage rings."

Gasps filled the courtyard, tens of thousands of cultivators imagining the impossible cost of such a project!

He gave a nod. "Indeed. What's more, this ring, the cheapest and lowest quality Sect identification token, is intended not for our Outer Disciples or even their servants... but for your friends, family, and servants back home. For civilians."

All eyes watched the wooden object flip in the air. The announcer nodded. "I have seen this for myself: The cheapest of rings are capable of absorbing Spirit Energy from the air and provide enough power to operate even for our loved ones with no talent or ability."

The ring vanished, a new trio now in his hands. "While wood and stone rings are for our people and others outside the Sect that help them, we ourselves will be using these: The Copper, Silver, and Golden Sect Rings."

He chuckled as the hungry people lusted over the objects. "Far stronger than anything that will be used outside of our people, these have so many abilities that I won't bother explaining them. Please look forward to the included documentation explaining them all when you receive your own."

The announcer stored away the props and stood tall. "Next, the Sect has established these Crystal Stations through out our territory... and more will be constructed over the next few decades. As some may already have guessed, they are related to these new rings we are now distributing: These not only can provide you your new Sect Token, but if you are robbed or somehow lose your storage ring, they can replace the missing Token... and regain access to your items previously stored away."

He waved a hand. "Again, the documentation explains it all, but essentially it will be much easier to protect your belongings, prevent stolen items from being extracted, and regain access even if your ring is destroyed completely. Please look forward to it."

A line of men and women walked in front of the stage as he continued. "Please direct questions to my assistants, and then please begin the process of requesting Sect Token Rings from the various Crystal Stations constructed in the area. Thank you."

...The community square descended into Chaos!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam had felt fairly smart.

The new spirit energy barriers were finally becoming fully active, the coverage was expanding over more territory than just the Sect and the local towns, and some clever Formation sympathetic relationship tricks had allowed distant Sect branch facilities to connect to the central system.

The barrier itself was also something he was proud of. Aside from the important stuff, he and Pat had added all sorts of fun features. Tracking of signatures, cleansing of local impurities, even low level conceptual repair and reinforcement of approved structures!

At the time, he had wondered why no one had bothered doing something this useful before!

...Well, now it was more obvious.

Right, so the issue is due to the composition of heaven and earth spiritual energy.

Imagine that all the energy available to access is like a... a river.

It goes in every direction and can pass through solid objects, but ignore that part.

The river is mostly made up of pebbles ranging from grains of sand to large grapes. Yes, that doesn't make sense, and they shouldn't float along, but they do... so ignore that.

As the pebbles bumble along, the weaker bits and less refined material falls apart or is crushed into liquids of every type. Again, ignore how impossible this is. These liquids are infinite in type, ranging from blood to oils to vinegars to all kinds of stuff.

As the liquids interact, some combine, some explode, some swap parts of each other... and occasionally, some of this liquid become gas. Thin whisps of gasses that are so rare and so unusual, that they are almost always unique to all nearby gasses.

Eventually, similar (Or extremely opposite) gasses build up into common clouds...

Those clouds are what cultivators have to absorb, sift through to find the right cloud for their specific needs, and then separate and use.

This is why normally, Sects would search for and find some rare place with certain 'treasures', either physical, spiritual, or locational, that would improve this horrifically slow process of 'refining' heaven and earth spiritual energy into something useful.

The form of the treasure didn't really matter. It could be a Formation created by man or nature or whatever, a herb, a Spirit Beast, a tear in reality, the echoes of a conceptually powerful battle... anything.

No, it was the actions of the treasure was the important part.

From what Adam could determine, treasures fell into certain categories: Collective, Attractive, Repulsive, and Catalyst. There were no doubt many more, but they were the four Adam had the most data gathered for so far.

Collective treasures traded time for power.

Over the course of many years, they would absorb relevant energies and refine them, allowing them to release all that power in a single burst that could even be more grand and impressive than what reality itself could generate!

Spirit herbs were the common example, many rare ones would gather power over millions of years and eventually learn how to transform, gain the shapes of animals or even cultivators, and so forth. This was why cultivators were able to benefit so greatly from pills... even the cheapest ones used ingredients that had collected energy for dozens of years.

Downside: It took forever to empower these treasures, and it was used up nearly instantly.

Attractive examples would be places like here, the Burning Sword Sect. The volcano below was so powerful, and had been so powerful for so many eons, that the area within its realm attracted and supported any powers or energies that were related to heat, weight, light, and so forth. Anything even tangentially related to volcanoes flourished here. Basically, Attractive Treasures didn't force a build up of energies, but allowed only certain energies to easily collect in one place.

Of course, this ALSO came with an obvious downside: Once the spirit energy pressure built up to a certain level, an Attractive Treasure couldn't over come the situation. Unless the gathered power was used up or pulled away, the thing became practically useless. This is a big reason why so many Sects try to get more members, so that fresh energy can be drawn forth as they cultivate.

Repulsive treasures were like Adam's old Asura Stone, now the Asura Eye. It generated a field of energy or something else that shoved any unacceptable power away from the area. When the Asura Stone was still in that Yin energy pool, everything else felt the world being shoved away from the location.

Example? Adam had felt the pulse of rejection literally MILES from the location, and if he hadn't absorbed the thing the range would have only expanded further no doubt.

Things like this were amazing if the limited energies permitted in that area matched your needs... but for everyone else this was a menace, and you would likely have whole Sect armies marching in to kick your ass if you allowed your Repulsive Treasure to shove away THEIR valuable Treasured locations and items.

No, Adam had designed his Formation around the 'Catalyst' version of local empowerment.

The structured spirit barriers would force the river pebbles to collide more often, the liquids to mix more frequently, the gasses to collect more rapidly... and then, as the clouds of spirit energy were generated?

Collect the clouds, detect the powers within, filter similar or matching energies together, refine impurities out of the mess (Shove THOSE back in the river outside for future processing), purify the final product... and use the unwanted powers as fuel to continue the whole mess!

Theoretically, it was a self sustaining process that would not need Adam to hand hold the whole thing, which was important!

Realistically? It needed time.

EVERYTHING could be converted into usable energy eventually after being collected by his newly crafted barriers... but the simpler stuff converted faster and was worth almost nothing.

It took TIME for the complicated powers to be converted into something usable. Even with all the improvements to the Formation designs, this entire mess was like a massive engine with a very... very slow startup.

Right now Adam was cheating.

Rockette was stealing all the weaker energies from processing storage and directly imputing an equivalent amount of transformed Qi into the formation.

This allowed the barrier to focus on the more powerful but very slow super energy clouds being refined, get some real momentum going and ensure stuff would stay stable.

Sure, Adam was burning through Qi quickly, even if the new stuff was getting refined and collected much faster thanks to Rockette's talents... but he wanted this working FASTER, not twenty years from now.

So a week or two passed, he did some designing work on (With?) Core, he produced more and more Crystal components for the many Stations being set up everywhere, and just... felt more and more frustrated.

Eventually Adam threw up his hands, talked with Pat, and set up a massive pair of energy spirals directly above the Sect's barriers. Two cyclones of spirit energy directly smashing EVERYTHING into metaphorical powder.

To use the earlier river metaphor, he had basically installed the worlds scariest waterfall/whirlpool/blender combination directly over the largest collector node in the barrier network.

Sure, the pebbles were becoming powder, the liquid was exploding into steam, and the gasses were nearly liquifying again due to intense pressure before being gobbled up by the Sect Formation's Maw... but uh. Oh, right.

Don't fly over the Sect anymore.

Ever.

In the end, Adam and Pat added a bit of a weak physical deterrent and a illusionary warning above the Sect Barriers declaring 'No Trespassers'.

No point in wasting valuable energy, if someone ignored the signs they wouldn't be alive to complain later.

Adam shuddered. A bird had flown into that area before the safety warnings could be set up... Instant chunky salsa. Thankfully the gore also got refined before leaving a blood mist rain over the area. Gross.

Anyway, being forced to manually support the supposedly 'Self-Sustaining' Sect Barrier had really hit his confidence levels. Sure, once this big lug finished processing enough energy it would be able to speed up all the involved processes in an exponential fashion, until it hit the programmed limits and was able to both filter and refine all the nearby energies and release stuff more pure and useful...

But until then, he had to do hacks like this deadly as hell spirit energy grinder over the Sect. Just thinking about it felt both embarrassing and dangerous, like duct taping a chainsaw to a Roomba.

That was why the NEXT feature of this barrier was going to be tested using the Sect's test animals, rather than by Outer Disciples.

Adam felt a headache coming. "Why... what's up with these animals?"

Seriously, what the hell.

The Department leader seemed uncomfortable. Maybe because he was talking to Adam through Rockette's crystal displays? He was still stuck in the Crystal Caverns after all. "Sir, this is our remaining stock."

Adam looked over the... subjects.

There were less than a dozen. Rabbits, dogs, cats, ducks, geese, turtles, so on and so forth. Even some gold fishes. "Can't we use something less... Look, WHY do they look like this?"

Little Tianshi would kick his ass if he used these!

The man almost blushed! "Well, most of the rest of our test subjects have been requisitioned by the Formation Department."

...What? "Hang on, please."

A different crystal display floated up, showing the Sect Patriarch who was surrounded by paperwork. The old guy blinked. "Adam? Did something go wrong with the tests?"

He tried to have a calm breath. "Sort of. Do you know why the Formation Department has confiscated nearly ALL testing animals?"

The Sect Leader blinked... and a nearly invisible man handed him a report. "Ah. After we moved the entire Knowledge Pagoda library into the Tattoo network, we shifted all documents from the second floor upwards into secured storage."

He browed through the document. "It seems one of the committees felt it would be safer to leave traps and decoys on those floors to catch infiltration attempts. Our people will be safe since they no longer need to visit, and the Formation Department was incredibly eager to put all their new products into use."

Adam nodded. "Lots of traps?"

Pat nodded back. "As the Pagoda is located deep within the Sect, they needed many tests to ensure potential failures or even successes wouldn't damage the area." He blinked. "Are they out of subjects? I know it is difficult to breed healthy creatures with low intelligence levels in areas with high spiritual density, our research animal production has never been high."

Adam winced. "Not... technically?" He had Rockette show an image. "It's just..."

Pat... looked surprise. "Those are the most adorable animals I have ever seen."

The boy threw up his hands. "I KNOW! What the heck!? That pug over there has MASSIVE eyes! And I swear that turtle looks like a cartoon mascot!"

The man paused. "A what?"

Adam threw his hand to the side. "Not the point. What am I supposed to do here? Sister Quan would rant for hours if I accidentally killed one of these things! I'm scared to even introduce people to these guys, they would instantly try to adopt them! I would rather work on captured criminals instead!"

Pat sighed. "I mentioned this before. Our Sect will not test anything on outsiders."

The boy grumbled. "Is this part of being a 'Religious Sect' thing?"

The Patriarch shook his head. "No, not alone. Cultivators sometimes survive ordeals and defy the odds with willpower alone... You are only considering the dangers involved with these next experiments. The threat to our people, or in this case adorable animals."

He leaned forward. "But what about the benefits? What is the absolute best case scenario that could occur here?"

Adam paused. "Uh. Something close to absolute luck I guess? Every action would lead to new opportunities that the target would just barely be able to accomplish, and... uh."

The old man leaned back. "And THAT is why we don't involve outsiders, more so than just because of the public relation aspect. Many evil or 'might makes right' Sects fall not due to arrogance or incompetence, but from their own test subjects and victims. If you torture millions, and only one becomes an all powerful vengeance demon... well, you get the point."

Sigh... well, it was a good point. "But seriously, what happened here?"

Pat placed the report down. "From what I can tell, the new formation data in the cultivation database has increased the advancement of our Formation Department like giving a tiger wings. The months of us setting up the Sect Barrier gave them plenty of time to refine their designs, test new features, create many advancements... and they needed to test them."

He sighed. "Any animal with a defect, or that was mean, or that was ugly... those were the first picked to be test subjects, obviously. Through the process of selection, the few animals you have access to are the ones no one could bear to work on, even with such a rich desire to advance their craft."

...What was he supposed to do? 'Hey, bring over that sheep with the comically soft and clean wool! No? What about the cat with nine tails, each a beautiful color and...'

No, this was a problem.

Adam hesitated. "Maybe... maybe I could reverse the testing method?"

Pat glanced up. "In what way?"

He passed on a revised testing schedule. "I was going to start by applying an 'Adventure Token' possessing 1% of my aura. Increase it to 10% if nothing happens, reduce it to 0.1% if a mess occurs."

Damn it, this would suck. "Instead, I can start at 0.01%... no, better be safe. Maybe 0.0001%? Ideally it would be an amount so small that NOTHING happens."

The old man nodded. "Sneak your way upwards to ensure the safety of the subjects for as long as possible?" He chuckled. "It would slow everything and delay the sale of tokens on the tattoo Sect Store, but that's fine. As long as you don't anger your disciple, friend, and new guardian squad."

Adam held back a snort. As if he couldn't feel the deadpan stares at the back of his head from his guards. They would NOT be impressed if Adam accidentally exploded such adorableness. "Hopefully it won't matter. Maybe they can even handle 50% or more of my aura signature when the 'Luck' drops on their heads... After all, this just affects how fast the events tumble down on their existences, it would take thousands of 100% aura decoys decades to get rid of this current mess."

And that doesn't even consider the possibility of Adam making that unseen 'potential adventure' mountain even larger later on!

Adam blinked as one of his guards (They still refuse to share their names, some sort of honor thing) passed him a note.

And groaned. "I got to go Pat, one of my traitor security detail members told the orphans about the animals. If I don't hurry they will all be gone before I get back."

He ignored Pat's chuckles as he turned to the other screen... yeah, most of the creatures were gone. Only the rabbit and pug were left behind, and THEY were being pet by Sister Quan and little Tianshi.

Marvelous.

~~~Broken Adenture~~~

Sister Quan was grumbling. "And you are SURE Mr. Fluffle Pants the First will be safe?"

Don't grumble. "Please just use the stick and poke the rabbit with the badge."

Everyone held their breath as the rabbit... well, he just ignored everything and was chewing some lettuce.

Then the badge touched!

...And it fell over.

Shit. "MEDIC!"

Sister Quan moved over... oh right, she was his nurse at one point. Was she a veterinarian too? "No wounds, no shock, no... huh. He just seems to be asleep."

...Alright? "But no injuries?"

She reached over and began pulling medical notes from her storage ring. Which somehow included pet care books at this point. Maybe the guards? "I... I think he had a cultivation breakthrough?"

Sister Quan turned to the (very) confused Department lead. "What do you have the animals cultivate?"

He shrugged. "We don't? It could mess up future tests!"

Adam sighed. "Right, so... spontaneous cultivation advancement without a cultivation method." He blinked. "And a harem?"

She looked up, confused. "What?"

Little Tianshi was already in cuddle central! "More bunnies!"

Adam held back a groan. "Right, so where did the four apparently female rabbits come from? I thought this courtyard was closed off."

Rockette floated her stone body over to the bushes, showing a hole in the ground... and a fifth rabbit came out and began to snuggle the unconscious Mr. Fluffle Pants the First (Clearly not going to be the last).

...Right. "Sister Quan, please retrieve your rabbit... rabbits. Little Tianshi, we are going to have to test a much weaker Adventure Badge with your pug."

The little one was nearly buried in bunnies. "Will I get more doggies!?"

Adam sighed. "Maybe?" Thank everything holy that he had started off testing with only 0.0000001% 'Adam Aura' saturation. "Please move your pet. Even if she doesn't get a harem, it shouldn't hurt her."

Tianshi nodded. "Mr. Whiskers says that her name is now the Notorious, Powerful, Unblockable Goddess. And should be referred to as such."

Why won't this day end? "Then please move Notorious P.U.G. so we can finalize the Adventure Tokens. I would like to actually leave my Martial Spirit this year."

Although at this percentage, he would have to have millions of disciples using the damn badges for years to actually make a dent in this thing. So much for a quick fix.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Right, so... now is fine, right? Right?

Adam took a deep breath.

This was two months or so since Notorious P.U.G. finished her testing, a 'safe' level of uncontrollable adventure was assigned to the 'Adventure Badges' (The percentage level was... stupid low), and a hundred or so disciples had already helped smooth out the bugs.

Probably.

So this was safe now, right? Right?

Adam felt... so much trepidation.

Suck it up, come on, just... just do it.

Cloaking his aura with a 'generic' aura created after studying thousands of Sect Disciples, Adam took a deep breath... and faded into reality.

...And might have curled up in a ball in existential fear for a few seconds.

...Nothing?

He slowly opened one eye... and ignored the crowd of friends and researchers, searching the surroundings for random bags of money aimed at his head or a pile of princesses or something.

Nothing.

A grin started to spread.

HA!

Of COURSE this would work! It was HIS plan, and 'Research' said this would certainly have no problems this time of course it wouldn't please don't hurt me I'm a good boy...

Adam blinked at little Tianshi patting his head. "It's okay Da, it's safe now."

He absently pulled the adorable little one into a hug. "I've been trying to get out for so long."

Sister Quan came over and hugged them both... but eventually she had to speak up. "Have you tried reducing your aura camouflage?"

He winced.

Yeah... yeah, they should test it. If everything worked, he could get rid of this cloaking technique entirely and... maybe even leave the Sect. Maybe. "I... give me some space, just in case."

The warm arms and his little disciple backed away, and he focused on the layer of alteration Rockette was using to skew his conceptual signature.

He... he could do this. He could!

Drop coverage to 99%.

With a wince, a light blue layer of flame embers sparked over his skin... and... nothing?

A quick glance with his left eye into the void of foam... hmm.

The 'mountain' of adventure WAS a bit taller now, but the shifting was much less... having so many Sect Disciples spreading the effect had made the entire structure MUCH more stable, like a table with... hundreds of legs. Thousands.

...Wow, it looks like the 'Adventure Badge' was VERY popular in the now online Sect Tattoo Store. Was he getting income from this?

Rockette was wandering around, but she could still send thoughts easily enough. 'Ding!'

Huh. Half profit to the orphanage, quarter to the Sect, fifteen percent for little Tianshi, and he pockets a tenth of the income.

...And even then, it was a massive amount being dumped into his accounts. Holy crap!

Right, focus. "It seems stable, I'm going to keep going!"

98%. No change.

97%. No change.

...Maybe try a jump or so?

90%. A wiggle, but nothing big! Ha!

80%. Still acceptable, and it stabilized quick enough.

70%. Fine.

60%. Probably fine.

50%. Yeah, this is going great!

40%... NO 50%! GO BACK TO... NO!

99%! 99%!

Adam winced as he felt ANOTHER pile of 'adventure' suddenly collapse onto the mountain of potential. The pile was so huge that this didn't really increase it by a meaningful amount, but uh... yeah. Probably added another month to paying it down with Sect badge minions.

He flinched as he felt a tiny hand pat his head... oh. "Thanks, little Tianshi." Right, focus. "Fifty percent had no issues, but forty caused a set back. I'm... going to narrow stuff down a little."

The researchers made notes, and he could feel the message boards in the Tattoo network flood with comments as the raw data was being dumped there by Rockette. Right, one more try.

90%... Everything was stable again.

80%, no issue.

70%. Same as before.

60%. Fine.

50%. A bit wobbly.

...49%? It took a bit but, yes. Stable.

48%? ...A bit too much wiggling. For a little too long. But eventually, it settled.

...47? NOPE!

Adam nodded. "Stuck at 50%, anything less and stuff gets... wobbly." Best keep it at 50%, no reason to risk incidents in the future. "Right, Rockette?"

The tiny girl stone waved her arms. "DING!" Good.

Right. "Everyone got the data they wanted?"

The Researchers and Formation masters looked at their projected windows and keyboards... yeah, the Sect LOVED the new Tattoo Network features. After some quick discussion, they gave Adam the nod.

Good. "Sister Quan, Little Tianshi... And I supposed Rockette, Mr. Whiskers, Notorious P.U.G. and etc." The rabbits spent most of their time in Sister Quan's private garden now, they were more of a hands off pet compared to Tianshi's new dog. "Shall we?"

For the first time in what feels like a LIFETIME, Adam, his guards, his friend, his disciple, and a few random rocks, lizards, and self confident pugs... they were all together!

Adam waved a hand, Rockette shifting his clothing.

White shoes, white pants, black undershirt, white jacket, white tie, and... a bit of fashion?

His right hand spawned a bone Sect ring, his Asura Eye blinking on the surface. Rockette jumped onto his left shoulder, her stone limb holding his bright blue hair.

Tugging his sleeves, checking his tie... Right. "I feel like a few weeks on the town. Ladies?"

Little Tianshi giggled as Sister Quan joined Adam, his guards fading into the background.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The Sect was... bustling.

Yeah, busy as heck would be the best description at this point, really.

As Adam moved through the crowd, he just didn't care what people were doing. Where the were going. Why they were traveling.

He just... basked in the feeling of a crowd. Of people. "It feels a bit festive."

Tianshi was nearly skipping, holding Adam's hand tight. "Kan and Mara Li say all kinds of new and interesting stuff is happening now." Who?

Rockette sent a thought. 'Ding.'

Ah, her new friends from the orphanage. "Like what?"

The little one was bouncing along, her back pack pug carrier letting Notorious watch life over her shoulder. "Since everyone has a storage ring now, even normal missions have disciples bringing back more materials in better condition. And they can have more supplies, so the journey is safer and the food is better!"

Sister Quan nodded. "I know my friends have had much better luck when looking for treasures or reagents, and were able to take better advantage of it thanks to your 'gather techniques' you added to the cultivation database."

Adam blinked. Wait. Didn't he make those because how annoying it was to remember the 'correct way' to harvest stuff?

...Best not mention that. "So there is more stuff being brought back to the Sect?"

Sister Quan snorted. "Let's ignore the crazy stuff your 'Adventure Badge' minions are bringing in every day or the insane stuff they are getting into on their trips... Are you even aware how much you've modified our techniques?"

Hmm?

Tianshi blinked at her Da's confusion. "Da, I can't even access most of the Cultivation Database at my cultivation level, but you've been working a LOT." She waved her hand with her ring, a window showing up. "When I first got in, aside from the stuff you made for me, there were like... maybe a hundred techniques I was qualified to train in. And they were super complicated and I needed Sister Quan to even understand half of it."

She pointed at a list. "You finished working on all the stuff I could see in like a week or so after I got in... and that was like forever ago. Then all this new stuff started showing up."

Sister Quan chuckled. "I know a few Elders who argued that the longer you stayed in 'Seclusion', the more advanced the Sect would become. The Patriarch got fairly angry at them suggesting that we slow down Sect Station installations because of how useful your work has been."

Thank you Pat. "I couldn't have done THAT much."

His friend snorted. "ONE of your new techniques would have revolutionized the Burning Sword Sect." She waved at one of the food stalls, a man floating sugar into a complex dragon shape. "After making all our existing abilities easier to use, less costly to activate, and more powerful? Do you even REMEMBER the strange stuff you created?"

The group paused as the candy vendor animated the sugar dragon, as it blew cotton candy breath over the carefully situated sticks.

...Right, that had been during week five, when he got REALLY tired of only eating healthy stuff. Hadn't he made a whole cultivation method centralized on desert production? And one for custodians... and that one for gardeners. Not the three or four he developed for raising spiritual herbs, the one solely for making wonderful gardens that need little maintenance and ensure healthy grass and bushes and such.

Huh. "I might have gone a little overboard."

Tianshi giggled, and then wove her hands as her Qi began to swirl. "The nature and plant based attacks and stuff were useful and all, but I love the stuff you gave me to make living vine jewelry and clothing."

Her hands sprouted bright flowers and near glowing green vines that quickly shifted into a delicate crown! Daw, she was adorable with that on! Best decision ever. "You look amazing honey."

She glowed. "Thanks Da! I had to practice a lot, but Mr. Whiskers said it was okay because these 'relaxation techniques' you designed help develop my Qi control and fine energy manipulation."

Did they? He had just made a bunch of random techniques because he needed a change of pace. "Well done!"

She skipped. "Hee! Hey Da, let's go to the new ice cream place! They can make so many new flavors now that it is easier to keep stuff cold and stuff."

Hmm? Oh right, he had modified that ice corpse torture technique to allow the injection of flavor into deserts.

...Probably not best to mention that.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

So. It was apparently the height of summer now. Or whatever equivalent 'AH TOO HOT' season matched up with it.

Adam took another lick of the 'Millennial Glacier Frost' cone. Supposedly it included some pretty rare ice from a distant location, one filled with spiritual energy. It certainly COST enough for that to be true.

Either way, it tasted fine.

He enjoyed the shade as little Tianshi was sharing her strawberry cone with Mr. Whiskers, and glanced at his (Now actually his) lead guard. "Updates?"

She nodded. Sister Quan had already left to wait in line for another scoop of her 'Glazed Honey of the Sun' cone, so they had some time. "Shall we start with the financial news?"

It was a bit odd for such a talented guard to become something similar to a personal secretary, but the world was an odd place. At least Adam knew she was alright with the change in employment status. "Sure, I know I left a lot of it to your people to handle."

She nodded. "First, while the Sect has started small research farms for the various Soil Grid testing grounds you provided, the majority of the plants Rockette has been working with will only be kept for study."

Fair enough, most of them had been consuming far more energy than they produced in their fruits or seeds or whatever. Only someone like Adam, with near infinite space, time, and energy... only he would consider wasting so many resources for so little profit.

His lead guard continued. "While a few specialty gardens have been established by the Sect Store to continue producing the most popular results still requested by disciples, the Patriarch has decided to focus the bulk efforts in producing a single product."

Hmm? "Which one?"

She took a lick of her own ice cream. "The Chaos Grapes."

...Ah. Those.

It was a combination of grapes, a spiritual herb similar to coriander, and one of the more strange poisonous weeds Rockette had discovered. The 'Chaos Grapes' had been one of the many more interesting cultivation resources Adam had discovered.

They had downsides, which is why he hadn't been too interested in using the things.

Tasted pretty much like nothing, had a terrible nutritional value, and they only had a decent storage capacity when it came to spiritual energy.

But the good points had apparently drawn Pat's attention. "So they gave up on the best and settled for stability?"

She nodded. And it wasn't THAT bad a decision.

Chaos Grapes required some very complex steps and energies to be initially mutated into existence, but after he had some working seeds to duplicate? They were simple enough to grow.

A formation or two to prevent local spiritual energy corruption, some basic patterns to force the soil to produce a specific energy spectrum of power... and bam! Done.

The grapes would basically absorb whatever energy was pumped into the local atmosphere, shove it into the tiny fruits, and slowly build up reserves for use if the area's power supply vanished. Like cactuses storing up water for later use.

The Sect apparently loved the things because after a bit of annoying setup, one plant could be coerced into producing grapes of many energy types. Especially thanks to Adam's more advanced methods of energy gathering, filtering, storing, and transporting.

Why bother teaching disciples a dozen complicated plant handling procedures when they could focus on one single target? Sure, the grapes were not as fast growing as some of Adam's suggestions, and they couldn't convert and store energy as quickly or easily, and the finished product (fruit) would eventually lose that power if not properly stored...

But it was stable, easily adjusted for use with other energies if needed, and nearly perfect for mass production.

Adam paused.

Well. It was either the ease of use, or the ability to turn these spiritual herbs directly into wine.

Oops, his snack was melting. Best keep on top of that. "Did they not want the more powerful stuff? The ones with the really crazy effects?"

She shrugged. "The Patriarch has some secured facilities being set up for the elites, the elders, and the personal disciples to use... but he pointed out that this is for common use. For sale outside the Sect."

She took another bite as Sister Quan returned... and began trying to clean up little Tianshi and Mr. Whiskers, both covered in a mess at this point. "In his and Elder Cho's opinion, it is best that Chaos Grapes be center stage. Even if other Sects end up stealing samples, it won't be too large a loss... and in general it will help boost the Burning Sword Sect while reducing our reliance on outside sources for cultivation and pill production."

He blinked. "Why would anyone try to steal grapes?"

Aww, Tianshi was pouting at her Sister disciple fussing over her! Wait, focus.

The lead guard sighed. "Brother Adam, you need perspective."

Huh?

She slumped slightly. "Brother Adam, most spiritual herbs take at least five years before producing anything usable. By anyone. Decades if more powerful warriors need it to actually do something."

She waved a hand. "Yes, you have created or gathered hundreds of more valuable plants than this one... but even the ones you considered 'trash' or 'worthless' are beyond rare and treasured by normal people."

Adam hummed. "I considered most of them to be annoying space wasters. Rockette took samples and put most of them into storage at this point, my Soil Grid gardens are now focused on the useful stuff, and the tasty options."

His lead guard sighed. "Well, regardless. Ignoring the more rare products that no one dares acknowledge... the Chaos Grapes alone are raw profit. Your finances are obscene."

Meh, everything is profit. "How are the investments going?"

She shrugged. "You are pouring wealth like water towards anyone who likes your ideas or matches your ideal of a 'good' person. It has drastically reduced the number of potential issues and greatly strengthened Elder Cho's supporters. But even then, you are still in the black... your income is a scary thing, Brother Sage."

He glanced at the sky... and the invisible barrier protecting his current freedom. "Hmm. Then maybe it is time for some more investing."

Later, he would need to do some responsible stuff. Meet people, talk about things, blah blah blah.

He smiled as little Tianshi was making huge arm movements while talking to Sister Quan, the tiny Rockette trying to steal a bite of the girls snack.

For now, he just wanted to enjoy some time in the sun, in public, and with his people.

He blinked. "When did little Tianshi's pug get sunglasses?"

His guard winced. "Please ignore everything about that."

Adam squinted. "...Is her ear pierced?"

...Huh. Who would have expected Notorious P.U.G. to have such fashion sense?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

It was a good thing Adam had effectively an unlimited budget, because over the next week or so he spent coin and Sect contribution points like water. Mostly on consumables... he ate out for every meal, wandered around the market buying random junk, and just generally acted like one of those 'silk pants', the spoiled elite brats that caused endless problems by flaunting their wealth.

...Not gambling though. He was kicked out the only time he tried for his now permanent excessive luck. Even with his aura disguised, his pile of 'Adventure' sort of forced anything chance related to go in a positive direction. VERY positive.

He didn't bother with the other popular purchase option either, alcohol. Some of these vintages had impressive levels of spiritual energy, sure... but he had lots of that. And aside from the now common 'Chaos Grapes' being sold and traded everywhere in the Sect, he had Rockette making better tasting fruits and teas that would hold more power and taste good in the process. Why waste money on lower quality products?

Sure, the ongoing breeding program and plants required the use of Rockette's insane energy manipulation abilities to be bred/crossbred/raised/harvested, and most used up way more energy than they stored... but neither was an issue for Adam and he prefered having the good stuff available for snack time.

Plus, his people liked his more esoteric offerings. Compared to his personal stock, most of the offered drinks didn't even make his radar... more than a few relied on the intoxicating effects of high energy content rather than focusing on the flavor produced by the spiritual herbs involved. Yuck.

Yet, behind his wanderlust, he could feel something. A slight pull.

It was hard to detect, it felt benevolent, and it was interesting! So he let the wind drive his movements and wandered the city.

Today Adam was being a bit more random than usual because something new was going on. That, and little Tianshi was off playing with her new friends (Seriously Mr. Whiskers, you make her cultivation progress far too easy!) while Sister Quan was working with half of his guard detail doing something or other.

Anyway, he had already waved away his protection to let this play out. Only five hidden protectors, still too many in his opinion.

Now for the followers... Four spotters, two trailers, and one very inept stalker probably included so Adam would notice him and ignore the other group, all far more talented people who were preparing for some sort of action. Probably an ambush.

How exciting!

Now, he didn't like to think of himself as having a love of violence and death. True or not, it wasn't a sophisticated stance to have in Adam's opinion. But to put his cards on the table here, it had been almost a year (Maybe more than one at this point?) since he had punched a jerk wad or ripped a murderer in half.

His powers might not be configured to force conflict on him, but he normally managed to stumble on it now or then anyway... and it was fairly cathartic dismantling (or dismembering) a group of people who were undeniably unredeemable. Morally acceptable targets were common in this world, and being trapped in his Martial Spirit doing busywork had built up a lot of stress.

Was this going to be a challenge? No, of course not. Fighting ANYONE who relied on Qi or spiritual energy for power wasn't exactly going to be climbing Mt. Everest. But sometimes you didn't want a challenge.

Sometimes you wanted to walk into an army, pick up a mother effer in both hands... and beat jerk wads to death with their recently passed companions.

Plus, it could be considered precision training! Because too much force just popped limbs off and all that. Or salsified people. It took a delicate touch when your raw power was this significant.

Anyway, he was being stalked and that was interesting in itself.

Most people thought the 'Burning Sage' was that 'crippled' 'man' in his old apartment. Which was a bit unfortunate now that his female doppleganger had started dating that nice young man who kept giving him free prunes way back then.

Meh, whatever. He was confident in his sexualtiy. Even if Sister Quan kept teasing him about his 'new preferences'.

Anyway, since most people didn't know he was the 'Sage' giving out so many benefits, that meant these stalkers were targeting him for other reasons... well, probably because he kept flashing insane amounts of money around.

...Yeah, it was probably the fortune flaunting.

Waiting for them to do something however was tedious. At least this cafe was lovely, even if one of his stalkers had clearly bribed someone to put this poison in his drink.

Crappy tea doesn't taste better with this... energy restricting? No, it is something like a neurotoxin that targets the parts of the brain used for controlling Qi and energy in general. His Asura Eye loved the stuff, absorbing it straight from his mouth with each sip... but sadly, the additional ingredient didn't improve the taste at all. At least his visual friend was enjoying this slop.

He glanced at his 'hidden' observers.

Should he act sick or something?

From what the Asura Eye was tasting, this was supposed to be an odorless, tasteless poison. One with subtle effects that would only be noticed after the (probable) future ambush.

Sadly, this dosage was so high that it was both technically lethal while also adding a bitter flavor to the tea. Either there was a store or a competitor that did not appreciate Adam spreading his funds around, or the patsy who poisoned him was totally unused to judging a proper dosage or following orders competently.

With a sigh, he put the drink away. He drank enough to convince his watchers, there was no reason to force himself to drink that slop at this point. What about the sandwiches?

...Eugh. Poisoned too.

Yeah, it is a good thing that tips are not part of the local culture because any restaurant that would compromise their food THIS badly, even when trying to capture/kill a customer... they did not deserve any sort of bonus. Very unprofessional.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

They finally jumped out of 'hiding' on his way to the massage parlor.

Not a euphamisim there, it wasn't a sex shop or anything. Though those are legal here. No, it was a small shop with cultivators who were able to do AMAZING things to Adam's spine. Not a super popular place, surprisingly... then again, most people couldn't reform their body if someone tried to assassinate them during the relaxing experience, so staying calm when someone is touching your neck would be tough for some disciples.

Anyway, the morons were doing stuff. "Hey friend! I've heard you got a bit of spending funds with ya. You know what you need?"

Just great. "What?"

At least the guy was clean and wore decent clothing. Not the stereotypical dirt caked rag wearing bandit. "You need a bit of guidance! I know all the good places in town and the best people to explore them! Ain't that right, Karn."

The meat muscle was nodding. "Das right, yeah."

...Not technically illegal. Certainly didn't justify a bit of limb snapping. Yet. "Sure, I love seeing new places and meeting people." Not really, anyone who knew who he was acted all weird nowadays and most people who DIDN'T know about his story underestimated him since Rockette hid all his power. Lots of cultivators treated weaker people like trash or background scenery, it was a bit annoying.

After a few signals to his guards NOT to smack these morons into the ground, the eight of them (Seven 'friends' and little rich boy Adam!) began heading to some... REALLY sleazy places. Not interesting, just... badly taken care of, low quality goods, sketchy people places. Kids probably got suckered in to visiting here for the feeling of 'danger' and so forth. Probably died here too.

It was frankly a relief when a bag was thrown over his head, a metal slave collar with formations was clamped around his neck, and he was 'knocked out' for transit.

Now he could find the people above these nobodies AND he didn't have to walk to get there! Score!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sister Quan was a mixture of worried, annoyed, and maybe a little furious. "Where exactly is he?"

The lead guard sighed. "Still in transit, his support is following orders."

Her eye twitched. "And he is unconscious."

A shrug. "Acting it, yeah. We are getting a running commentary from the Tattoo network though... he seems to find this quite interesting."

Damn it Adam. "Why is being dragged around with a bag on his head interesting?"

The warrior sighed. "The blindfold stuff isn't what he is babbling about. In one of the locations, marked on the forum map, they applied a slavery tattoo to his body."

What. "What?"

She nodded. "He is STILL babbling about it. Rockette is keeping the Qi from moving through the mark, not that it would work anyway considering his whole body is already covered with runes and markings, but he wanted to seem 'captured' so that he can find any other new slaves captured."

Damn it Adam! "I was only gone a few hours. He's been wandering EVERYWHERE without trouble for weeks! How could all this happen the moment we leave him alone!?"

The guard sighed. "I'm sure he is going to blame the adventure thing, and he may even be right..." She chuckled. "But just in case, you have a lecture ready?"

Sister Quan felt her eyes blaze with justice! "Oh, I have an opinion or two ready."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam could, and possibly SHOULD, kill everyone in the area.

Except his guards and the other victims of course. That would be a dick move.

He was in a room that suppressed spiritual energy, chained on a wall with several other wealthy morons and a disturbing number of young women. Aside from the chains and the metal bars keeping the cells separate, the entire place was COVERED in formations. They blocked sound, heat, scrying (Maybe? It felt like that.), a whole list of energies, and more... above were layers of illusion and camouflage and deterrents.

Considering they didn't have access to his newly designed Formation Script Language, it was pretty impressive getting all this mess to not explode when overlapped like this. It was literally art, and if it wasn't being used to abuse others and cause pain he would vote to preserve the place for historical reasons at the very least!

This whole place was a bunker, hidden under many layers and somehow constructed WITHIN the Burning Sword Sect itself! Who knew how many disciples or servants went missing over the centuries due to this one location?

Adam finished giving all the prisoners in the base an aura coating equivalent to a normal Adventure Badge. Or Adventure Token. Adventure Mark?

Seriously, he has been changing the name every day or so at this point, even if they all applied to the same object normally. Adam was many things, but focused was not one of them.

In this case, as there was no object acting as the effect anchor, it was definitely a Mark... and this right here was an opportunity.

Because here was a heavily reinforced, defended location... UNDER the new Sect Shield coverage.

And more so, here were a large number (Over a thousand from what Rockette could detect) of acceptable, morally terrible targets!

One had to remember, the 'Adventure Marks' did not grant generic fortune or good luck. They took the positive events falling on Adam and distributed them to others, sure... but in the end, each event was only 'safe' for someone with Adam's abilities. The rewards were useful to others, sure... but they were intended for Adam himself.

Honestly, part of the reason the Adventure Badges were safe to give to the mission leaving Disciples in the first place is because Adam considered good events happening to his fellow Sect members to be a positive outcome for himself personally. Any foe stealing one would basically become horrifically unlucky, basically cursed... and likely to accidentally help the victimised Burning Sect Disciple escape by accident thereafter.

So... with only a little preparation?

He focused on the nearest kidnapper.

Aura Coverage: 100%.

Hmm. Actually, since he didn't care if they survived or not...

Aura Coverage: 10,000%.

As if a hundred full Adams were all in the same space/time location. All of which would be given all kinds of lucky or special events dedicated to benefiting... only Adam.

The boy held back a grin as he felt the Sect Shield shift slightly under the pressure... good, this would give him a bit of time to get ready!

Even as his own aura was hidden away, Rockette helped him target each guard and minion in the base... and give them a bit of 'good' luck. A free bit of karma! How thoughtful!

And as the pressure increased on the shield above this hidden human trafficking site... he couldn't help but smile.

After all, he had been waiting for an excuse to break through the Tenth Order Barrier, to reach Xiantian First Order and make some real progress!

His left eye examined the heavy 'fortune' in the foam... and the thousands of 'helpful' new 'friends' who would both assist him in breaking through to the next tier and unknowingly accept the ensuing burden... uh.

The oncoming gifts?

Yeah.

Let's go with that.

As Adam prepared to surge to Tenth Order Level Houtian Warrior, and shatter the barrier to Xiantian First Order... he idly wondered how much power would be shoved into the Sect Barrier's processing reserves due to the upcoming energy surge.

...Maybe he should tell someone?

...Yeah, better tell someone.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The Burning Sword Sect's Patriarch (Pat) blinked. "What the hell does 'Hold on to your hat' mean?"