Chapter 3
6 BNL (Before Nie Li)
I need to get inside the Heavenly Sacred Border.
The world of Tales of Demons and Gods is a dangerous place, and the power scaling is going to be insane once the main plot gets going. People from the Nether Realm could annihilate Glory City's experts in the span of a few minutes, righteous sects from the Draconic Ruins Realm could wipe out the Nether Realm with a poorly-timed sneeze, the demon sects could – and will – invade the righteous sects with overwhelming force at any given moment, and experts from the realms beyond the Draconic Ruins could obliterate all the sects if they get bored on a slow afternoon. And looming at the top of them all is the Sage Emperor, who countless immortals have sought to overthrow only to get bitch-slapped into oblivion for their trouble.
Closer at hand, Glory City will soon be facing off against people like the Demon Lord – a man who's lived multiple lives by employing the infanticidal Constellation Technique. He's also described as one of the reincarnators that opposed the Sage Emperor in the past… I think? Either way, I don't have the luxury of sitting around and twiddling my thumbs for much longer. Trying to play things safe by studying in the Holy Orchid Institute's library is getting me nowhere. Like I said before, I need to start thinking about this stuff like a real spiritualist. I'm usually a very risk-averse person, but somewhere along the way I've gotten desperate enough to consider taking dangerous gambles even though they could end spectacularly badly. Such is life.
I've been thinking about my options and the best idea I can come up with is to infiltrate the Heavenly Sacred Border, which is the Holy Orchid Institute's private realm for the training of young geniuses. It'll be the perfect place to get the ball rolling with my cultivation. It also might kill me, but that's neither here no there.
My brilliant plan is to enter the Heavenly Sacred Border and convince the ghost of one of the city's founders, Ye Yan, to do me a favor. I need someone who isn't an idiot to teach me how to be a spiritualist and to give me a cultivation technique that doesn't suck as badly as Sun-Devouring Inferno Tiger. I seem to remember Nie Li clowning on this guy when he explored the Heavenly Sacred Border in the manhua since his knowledge about the spiritual arts was much greater due to his past life, so it's possible Ye Yan might not be the best person to ask, but he's who I'm going with. I doubt there are many people in Glory City who are as old and experienced as him, and unfortunately Nie Li's awakening is still a long ways off – if it happens at all, which isn't a guarantee.
The problem with this magnificent strategy is that I'm not a young genius. You have to be somebody for the Institute's administration to let you access the realm, and I'm firmly in the category of 'a nobody.'
Luckily, these days I spend an awful lot of time with a particular 'somebody.' Much more than I'd like.
Shen Xiu is the younger sister of the Sacred Family's patriarch Shen Hong, meaning she gets everything she asks for in life. If I can convince her to go to the Heavenly Sacred Border while dragging me along for the ride, that should solve my problem. Easy in theory, but making it actually happen will be the hard part.
It all starts with another boring day at the Holy Orchid Institute. I meet Shen Xiu in front of her dorm at sunrise, trundle along with her bags to the buildings where our classrooms are located, escort her to class, deposit her bags, sit next to her with one empty seat between us to maintain a socially acceptable distance, gather her bags at the end of class, and follow her wherever she decides to go next. Rinse and repeat.
Right now, we're navigating through the wide halls of the school's central wing while weaving between giggling girls arrayed in ostentatious robes, arrogant young masters accompanied by their cadres of retainers, and downtrodden nobodies much like myself who're trying to make themselves look as small and insignificant as possible. A normal day in the life of a normal student in good ole' cultivator world.
But today I break my usual habit of keeping my head down and my mouth shut. "Lady Shen, did you hear what those girls were saying in the courtyard earlier?" I ask innocently as we step through a door into a walled courtyard. White-barked trees resplendent with cherry blossoms are lining the walkway on either side, forming a natural tunnel with their drooping branches.
"Hmm?" Her piercing ruby eyes swivel towards me and she tilts her head. "I must've missed them. Well don't keep me in suspense, what was it?"
"They were talking about a… Heavenly Sacred Border? Can't say I've ever heard of that before. Do you know what it is? They made it sound like a big deal."
She arches a slim eyebrow. "I do know, as a matter of fact, although the same couldn't be said for most commoners such as yourself. This is privileged knowledge for people of importance in Glory City." She grins and puffs out her chest. This girl loves explaining things to people since it makes her feel smarter than them. Than me, in this case. "The Heavenly Sacred Border is an ancient subsidiary realm located within the Holy Orchid Institute's training ground that's steeped in spiritual energy. Only geniuses under fifteen years of age are permitted to enter, meaning the average spiritualist almost never hears anything about its nature or purpose. It isn't exactly a secret, but it might as well be."
"But you know about it because you're anything but average," I dryly interject.
"Exactly! You've come to understand me so well!" She leans closer to me with a conspiratorial grin, nearly bumping my shoulder and upending the pile of bags in my arms.
One nice thing about carrying her stuff all the time is that I'm getting into better shape than I ever was in my past life, and I wasn't a slob by any means. This works the arms, legs, core, and everything in between, a full body workout every day for hours on end with no days off. But I digress.
"It's said that if somebody passes the tests within the Heavenly Sacred Border, they'll become Glory City's rising star and are practically guaranteed to gain fame and fortune during their lifetime," she theatrically whispers. "Isn't that so exciting?"
I smile internally. Thank you Shen Xiu for being such an airhead. I couldn't have asked for a better opening. The tough thing about this plan is that I need Xiu to think she's the one who came up with the idea of entering the Heavenly Sacred Border, not me. I can't overdo it or else she'll get suspicious.
Outwardly I frown. "Yeah it is, but… there's something I'm confused about."
"Understandable, as you're a commoner and thus possess a lesser intellect than my esteemed self. I cannot fault you for that, my loyal servant, so feel free to ask away!"
"Well… couldn't you make the argument that you're a genius under fifteen years of age?"
She blinks with confusion.
"I'm mean sure, you didn't get into the genius class, but you were able to advance into the demon spiritualist class after only a year. And on top of that, you're also a daughter of the Sacred Family. Doesn't that count for something?"
"…What's your point?" she asks without venom. She sounds curious.
Perfect.
"You talk about the Heavenly Sacred Border like you've never been there, but I would've thought you've gone inside at least once since you're… you." I shrug. "But what do I know? I'm a commoner like you said. I don't know much about this stuff."
Shen Xiu walks next to me in silence for a few long seconds. I risk glancing at her and silently chuckle as I see exactly what I'm hoping to see. She's scowling while rubbing her chin with her dainty fingers, deep in thought. A rare state of being for the young Lady Shen.
"You make a valid point, although you may not have realized it," she says at length. "I am a daughter of the Sacred Family – the sister of the reigning patriarch, as a matter of fact! – and I have greatly exceeded the expectations placed upon me in the Holy Orchid Institute."
No you haven't. You're still below 1 star bronze rank, just like me.
"So why shouldn't I get to see the Heavenly Sacred Border with my own eyes?!" She smacks the bottom of her fist into her palm like she's reaching some great revelation. "It would only make sense! In fact, couldn't it be said that this is a slight against the hallowed name of the Sacred Family? Surely the Institute will recognize that they've wronged me by withholding these opportunities if I bring the matter to their attention posthaste! I can't imagine this was intentional, so in my bountiful benevolence I'll forgive them for unfairly overlooking me just this once. With so many Divine Family brats running around the place and with that ignominious upstart Ye Han stealing my thunder, I'm sure it's been difficult for them to keep up with everything. They're only human after all." She plants her hands on her hips and nods purposefully. "It's settled then. Come, Hu Xian. We're going to the administrative offices!" She points at the sky like a rockstar.
That was faster than I expected. Like taking candy from a baby. Oh, Shen Xiu. I shake my head and smirk triumphantly as I start jogging to keep up with her excited powerwalk. You might be a spoiled brat, but… never change.
This idea is a double-edged sword in several ways. If Shen Xiu goes to the Heavenly Sacred Border, there's a decent chance she could be injured or experience an accident with her cultivation. The hidden realm offers a very high-risk high-reward cultivating environment, which is why it's only open to certified geniuses. My chances of becoming a double agent inside the Sacred Family will be reduced to zero if my future patron gets crippled.
On the other hand, what if she cultivates successfully inside the realm and becomes more powerful than she was in the manhua? What butterfly effects could that create? Will I come to regret it?
My answer to all of these questions is that I don't care as long as I can become stronger. I can deal with the consequences later. Right now, I need to do whatever it takes to advance to bronze rank at the absolute minimum, otherwise I'll fall behind and never become a true demon spiritualist. In this world, that would mean death – if not now or tomorrow, then inevitably within the next decade. According to the original Hu Xian's notes, these early years are the most critical juncture for the growth of my spiritual foundation. I can't afford to do nothing.
-x-
Shen Xiu doesn't waste any time. She marches straight into the Institute's administrative wing, blusters her way past anyone who tries to stop her, and begs the Vice Principle to let her use the Heavenly Sacred Border to advance her cultivation, pretty please. Naturally he agrees, as the staff here seem to love taking every available opportunity to kiss up to the Sacred Family, but he warns her to be careful and insists that she should use artifacts to protect her soul realm due to the intense spiritual pressure inside the hidden realm.
With that settled, she hustles all the way to her family's mansion beyond the walls of the Holy Orchid Institute and flexes her status as Shen Hong's sister to reappropriate a defensive artifact. She selects a gilded talisman designed to shield low-ranking spiritualists against more powerful experts with higher soul force. The rich gold-and-jade pendant looks like it's worth more than I am, but the cost of mere objects is of no consequence to the young Lady Shen.
I don't get one since I'm just a lowly bag-toting commoner, which I suppose isn't surprising. I contemplate trying to steal the talisman from her, but that's admittedly a stupid idea. She quickly becomes enamored with the idea of the Heavenly Sacred Border and refuses to let the talisman out of her sight for even an instant. Maybe my half-assed manipulations were too successful.
I mentally shrug. It isn't my fault she's as gullible as a puppy.
After that, Shen Xiu dismisses me for the day and tells me to meet her at the Institute's southern gate tomorrow morning. It's a long walk back to the dorms but nothing I haven't done before. I can't wait to reach a high spiritualist rank so I can fly around everywhere. It's good to have goals, I guess. If nothing else, slogging through the crowded streets along with the rest of my fellow mortals means I have plenty of time to finalize my plans.
One idea I've been floating around is trying to nab the bird soul puppet schematics from the Heavenly Marks family and using it to house Ye Yan's soul, but… nah. There would be too many moving parts to account for, and regardless, I don't think Ye Yan can leave the Heavenly Sacred Border without the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword also being removed.
Needless to say, that isn't going to happen. The Thunder God's Meteorite Sword is a powerful artifact by the standards of the Draconic Ruins Realm, much less our Tiny World, so in other words it's a Big Deal. It could easily turn my soul realm into ectoplasmic jelly.
Nie Li had a tough time dealing with the grossly overpowered sword, so I definitely shouldn't take the risk. This scheme of mine is going to be dangerous enough already.
Entering the Heavenly Sacred Border is incredibly risky and there's a good chance it'll literally pulverize me. I'm not even a 1 star bronze rank spiritualist, meaning this is practically suicide. However, at this point I need to start taking risks unless I want to stagnate forever. I need a breakthrough in my cultivation asap.
Begging Ye Yan to teach me how to stop being a scrub is one of two reasons I want access to the Heavenly Sacred Border, with the other being to take advantage of the realm's immense spiritual pressure. According to Nie Li in the manhua, it can damage your soul-sea if you aren't careful but also provides major boosts to cultivation and demon spirit growth.
This is my ticket to the big leagues. If I can't pull this off, then either I'll be screwed indefinitely or I'll be dead and won't have to worry about it anymore. So… let's see what happens.
-x-
Shen Xiu and her trusty sidekick – me, unfortunately – are standing in a stone-flagged courtyard while staring in awe at a massive stone staircase that cuts straight up the side of a mountain. Our heads tilt back further and further, but still we can't see all the way to the top. This mountain is huge. Like, Himalayas huge.
"We're seriously gonna climb that thing?" I deadpan. I can already hear my calves crying out for mercy.
"Stop pouting, Hu Xian. You should look more excited! My glorious destiny awaits me!" Shen Xiu prances between a pair of white-robed Institute guardsmen who're professionally ignoring her antics and starts skipping up the steps three at a time. I sigh and dutifully follow. I might've thought twice about this if I'd known the Heavenly Sacred Border is located at the top of xianxia Mount Everest.
It takes several hours of continuous climbing to reach the top. Shen Xiu doesn't want to stop for anything, but I pester her into taking a few breaks for water and a snack. She needs a breather every now and then despite her over-the-top enthusiasm, and the same can be said for me.
By the time the clouds have thinned out enough for us to see our destination, I'm panting and sweating like a half-dead dog locked inside a Toyota shitbox in a Walmart parking lot.
Perched atop the cloud-swaddled peak is a sprawling structure crowned with a luminescent turquoise roof that looks like a historical palace straight out of a Japanese postcard. At the base of the structure, directly at the top of the stairs, is an enormous wooden gate flanked by a few senior wardens of the Institute who watch us intently as we crest the final step. On the other side of the gate should be the Heavenly Sacred Border.
We pull ourselves together and approach the gigantic gate with varying levels of delight and trepidation. The damn thing looks big enough for a cruiseliner to sail right on through without any problems.
I swallow heavily and wipe perspiration from my forehead. Now that we're here, I'm starting to imagine all the different ways this could go horribly wrong. What if I step through the gate and instantly get vaporized by the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword? Or what if there were other dangers inside the realm that Nie Li never encountered in the books?
"Are you frightened for my sake, Hu Xian? I assure you that you needn't be worried."
I glance at Xiu and find her grinning impishly at me. "Lady Shen, pardon my language but I'm fucking terrified."
For myself, not for you, goes unsaid.
She smirks and steps up to the gate, which slowly creaks open for her by invisible means. "How endearing~" she sings brightly. "Don't lose your head now, oh my loyal servant. I expect you to be waiting for me with a steaming pot of red tea when I emerge~"
She playfully waggles her fingers, takes another step forward, and vanishes into thin air like she was never there.
"…I didn't bring any tea, and I'm sure as hell not going all the way back down the mountain just to find some," I mutter under my breath.
I loiter in front of the gate for a couple of minutes to make sure Xiu is well and truly gone before putting my plan into action. I discreetly look over my shoulder to ensure the Institute's guards are far enough away that they shouldn't notice anything unusual. This gate is so huge, being at least a hundred and fifty yards across, that I could probably yell at them and they wouldn't hear me. I don't think they'll raise the alarm if I sneak into the Heavenly Sacred Border, which technically isn't something I'm supposed to do as the young Lady Shen's servant. The Institute gave her permission to enter but not me.
I take a deep breath. It's now or never.
"Okay. Let's do this." I jump inside the gate before I can think too hard about what exactly I'm getting myself into.
My innards churn violently as I slam face first into an unforgiving stone floor, like gravity somehow rotated ninety degrees for a brief instant. After lying there stunned for a good fifteen seconds, I piteously groan and push myself to my feet.
The Heavenly Sacred Border decided to toss me into a long hallway illuminated by sputtering torches along the walls. It looks exactly the same in both directions, stretching away into dim nothingness. The walls and ceiling are completely bare and devoid of color, giving the impression of a prison or an underground tunnel. When nothing else happens, I shrug and start walking in a random direction.
That turns out to be a mistake. As soon as I take my first step, the hallway suddenly warps and corkscrews in on itself in defiance of all conventional logic. The floor beneath my feet flares every color of the rainbow, blinding me momentarily, and when the light fades I find myself standing among tree trunks in a verdant green forest.
Then it shifts just as quickly into the bustling streets of a sprawling city, then to a mountainous valley, and then to a different forest blanketed in crystalline layers of frozen snow. My surroundings shift again and again, faster than I can keep up.
The air thickens rapidly as this goes on, becoming so heavy that I could swear there are hundred-pound sandbags weighing down my shoulders. My soul-sea throbs and expands without warning, causing alternating waves of hot and cold to wash across my skin. My vision flashes black and white. My heartbeat starts hammering inside my chest so violently that it feels like my body is breaking into pieces.
The pain is excruciating. I make a desperate attempt to enter the serene mental state required for cultivation, hoping to stabilize my soul-sea, but I accomplish absolutely nothing. I feel like I'm trapped inside a trash compactor that's squeezing me into a cube from all sides. My chest is constricted so tightly that I can't breathe at all.
"Ye Yan!" I scream with the last of my oxygen. Crimson globules spew from my mouth. "Glory City… is going to be destroyed… if you don't do something," I wheeze. "Please help me! Don't let me die… or the city is doomed…"
The world around me flickers and darkens.
"I'm begging you to save… my stupid ass. It's for the good of… your city… I swear…"
My orange soul-sea steadily dissolves at the edges as I succumb to the unrelenting spiritual pressure. Molten-hot blood dribbles between my lips. If this goes on for much longer, something inside me is going to snap in half and break irreversibly.
…Until it suddenly doesn't. The spiritual pressure vanishes in the blink of an eye and the strain on my soul realm disappears. It takes me a few seconds to realize what happened as I slowly emerge from a fetal position.
The shifting environment of the Heavenly Sacred Border has been replaced by a featureless cyan-blue void. There's no ground at all beneath my feet as I float through the vacuum of empty space, which causes my brain to reenter holy-fuck-you're-about-to-fall-and-die mode until I wrestle it into submission. Either I'm dead and this is the afterlife or I'm not dead and Ye Yan graciously decided to rescue me from being turned into a pancake.
Without preamble, the figure of a man pops into existence directly in front of me. His body is translucent and tinted slightly blue. He has a full beard, a stylish mustache, bushy eyebrows, white hair slicked back, and a wrinkly face. Instead of legs, his lower body dissipates into a formless blob like a cartoon ghost.
The man crosses his ethereal arms and scowls. "It was incredibly foolish for someone with such low soul force to enter this realm. What in the nine hells were you thinking, boy?"
"Ugh, I couldn't agree more," I gasp with my hands on my knees. "I was counting on you to be in a good mood, or else I would've died just now. This place is a lot worse than I thought it'd be."
"Humph. At least you have the wherewithal to see that much. This realm presents a perilous challenge to all but the most talented geniuses of the younger generations, and a single mistake in cultivation could lead to the permanent crippling of one's soul realm. I perceive from the pitiful amount of soul force within you that you're anything but a genius."
I wipe my sleeve across my bloody mouth and glare tiredly at the ghost. "Can't disagree with that."
"Being able to recognize the nature of your present reality is a vital skill for any spiritualist. Now if you would be so kind as to answer the question. For what reason have you entered this place so woefully unprepared? Is it related to whatever you were screaming at the top of your lungs just now about my city's safety?"
I hold up a shaky hand. "Before that," I rasp. "A girl entered the Heavenly Sacred Border a couple minutes before I did. Can you make sure she's okay?"
The ghost glowers at me.
"Please? She's an idiot and doesn't know any better, I swear."
"Like you?"
"Worse, if you can believe it."
Ye Yan gives me a skeptical look before doing some kind of Naruto sigil thing with his fingers and vanishing into a whirlpool of blue-and-white mist. A few seconds later, he reappears with Shen Xiu held aloft in one hand like a kitten being carried by its scruff. "Is this her?"
"Yeah, thanks. Is she okay?"
"She's perfectly fine. This artifact pendant shielded her from the worst of the danger, although it wouldn't have lasted much longer before shattering."
He drops the unconscious girl to the transparent not-floor and brushes off his spectral robes with a huff. Shen Xiu is out like a light and seems a bit ruffled around the edges. The fiery little dumbass must've been overwhelmed upon entry like I was. The Sacred Family's talisman wasn't strong enough to stave off the spiritual pressure.
At least she isn't dead. That would've been real bad. I grimace at myself. Good job, moron. You almost got an innocent girl killed. I knew that was a possibility from the very beginning, but what it would mean never truly sunk in until just now. I hope this risk turns out to be worthwhile. It'd better.
And on that note. "Could you, uh… do something to make sure she doesn't wake up until we want her to?"
"I could indeed, but for what reason?" asks Ye Yan.
"I don't want her to hear any of this. My answers to your questions, I mean."
He hums and falls silent as he considers the request. "…Very well then. I assume you have matters of importance to discuss with me, else you wouldn't have so recklessly ventured here at your current level of cultivation. If it could be called that."
I huff with wry amusement. "Yeah, you got me."
The ghostly founder drifts over to Shen Xiu and lightly taps a finger against her forehead. Her breathing evens out and her expression softens as she falls into a deeper slumber. "Now you may proceed without worry."
"Right." I pause to gather my thoughts. I've been rehearsing this speech for a few days now. "This is going to take a while."
I launch into a detailed explanation about the events of Tales of Demons and Gods as best as I can remember them. I tell Ye Yan about the increasingly-nasty political disputes between Glory City's most powerful families, the ravenous hordes of demons pressing against the walls in greater numbers with each passing year, and the upcoming snow wind demon beast invasion that will destroy the city with the indirect assistance of the Sacred Family, who'll retreat like cowards and allow the battlements to fall. I stress that most of the population will be killed and the remainder scattered to the winds as refugees without a place to call home.
That's mostly stuff from the original timeline, not the main timeline where Nie Li awakens with his past memories and saves the city, but I think it serves to get across the urgency of the situation.
I also make it clear that the Sacred Family is in league with the Demon Lord and his Dark Guild, and to top everything off, I reveal that even if Shen Hong's schemes are discovered and stopped before they can come to fruition, his benefactor the Demon Lord is still extremely dangerous and knows all sorts of things about the Nether Realm and beyond. His aspirations don't lie in this world but rather in the realms above. We could eradicate the Sacred Family today and Glory City would be better off for it, but there would still be plenty of others problems needing to be addressed.
When I'm done with the lore dump, Ye Yan is understandably puzzled. "How is it that you know these things? You speak of a future that hasn't yet come to pass, so why are you so certain?"
That's difficult to answer without revealing too much, but I've already come up with an excuse. "My involvement with Shen Xiu there and the Sacred Family has given me opportunities to overhear some things I wasn't supposed to, including interesting factoids about the Dark Guild's activities and Shen Hong's hatred for the City Lord. If I speak out against them too loudly, I'm toast," I conclude. "No question about it." I distinctly remember Shen Hong sending members of the Dark Guild to assassinate Nie Li after he got on their bad side. He had the strength to defeat them without breaking a sweat, but I don't. Not yet, anyways.
My lies aren't completely watertight, but luckily Ye Yan seems to buy them. Hopefully.
My stomach flipflops with apprehension when his expression twists into a thoughtful frown. "I am but a ghost – a spiritual entity bound to this lesser realm in perpetuity, unable to influence the outside world. Why would you bring these weighty matters to me instead of my children's children in Glory City? Surely my noble descendants in the Snow Wind Family would support your righteous cause."
"Why would they?" I scoff. "I'm just some lowborn kid with negligible talent. They have absolutely no reason to believe anything I say, especially if they're ridiculous ramblings about the Sacred Family working in tandem with the Dark Guild or the existence of demigod-level experts in the Nether Realm."
"…Your logic is sound," Ye Yan grudgingly admits.
"Yep, which means I can't do anything about this until the right time arrives for me to spill the beans. For now, what I can do is become stronger. I need as much spiritual power as I can get, but my current cultivation method will keep holding me back. That brings me to the next thing. The main reason I'm here is because I want you to teach me your best cultivation method so I can help protect Glory City." And myself.
He raises a silvery-blue eyebrow.
"The sooner I can make a name for myself, the sooner I'll be able to gain an audience with the City Lord without getting laughed out of his mansion. I've gotta become somebody who matters in a tangible way, but that isn't going to happen if Sun-Devouring Inferno Tiger is the only thing in my repertoire. Whatever new cultivation method I learn will need to be something that matches my soul-sea color, attribute, and form for maximum effectiveness."
"Attribute? Form?" The ghost sounds confused.
"Don't you know what those are?"
"…Evidently I do not, young man. I've never heard these terms used in the context of a spiritualist's soul realm."
"Huh. Well I don't know what they are either, so I guess that's a dead end for now." I can recall some of this stuff from the books, but I'm honestly not sure about the details. Something else for Nie Li to clarify when he gets here.
Ye Yan gives me a thoroughly bewildered look. "…Attribute and form are mysteries to me, but I am able to deduce the color of your soul-sea if you would wish for it. It's a fairly simple matter."
"I think I've already figured that out, but thanks. Appreciate the thought. Mine is orange."
His frown deepens. "That means you have below-average talent, I regret to inform you. A shame indeed for an aspiring demon spiritualist with such courage and perceptiveness at a young age to be relegated to the wayside by the whims of fate."
"Ah-ah-ah." I wag my finger. "Color doesn't equate to talent, it determines what sorts of techniques work best for the individual. That's all it is."
"…I believe you might be mistaken," the spirit replies in an overly-polite tone.
"I'm not wrong. Believe me or don't, but wait five or six years and you'll see for yourself."
The spirit nods tolerantly and doesn't argue. He probably thinks I'm saying I'll get really powerful and show him he's wrong in a few years' time, but that isn't exactly what I mean. Not that I plan to correct him.
"Anyways, would you be willing to teach me a new cultivation technique?"
"Hmm… perhaps if you are worthy." He scratches his whiskery chin. "You've risked venturing into the Heavenly Sacred Border to bring Glory City's peril to my attention, which is a commendable feat in and of itself. Your future potential is suspect due to the color of your soul-sea, but I know of one advanced technique that weak demon spiritualists have had unexpected success with in the past. It is called Ash Wolves. This technique is suited more for evasion and stealth than direct combat, but it can theoretically carry a talented and dedicated demon spiritualist to 3 star legendary rank if fate smiles upon thems. As I'm sure you know, this is nothing to scoff at-"
"Only 3 star legendary rank? Damn, that sucks. I was hoping for something with better growth potential."
Ye Yan's jaw drops, stunned by my outburst. "My precious technique does not suck!" he sputters. "How vulgar! Do youngsters these days have no respect at all?! You fail to recognize what an incredible boon this will be to you! The rank of 3 star legend is far beyond what the vast majority of spiritualists can ever hope to reach in their lifetime!"
"Not for me," I candidly inform him. "Legendary rank will only be a stepping stone to something much, much greater. Mark my words. So, do you have anything else worth mentioning?"
"…Ash Wolves is the best I can offer you," he grinds his teeth.
I sigh. "Then I guess I'll take it. At least it'll be better than Sun-Devouring Inferno Tiger. What a garbage technique."
"On that, I will have to agree with you," says Ye Yan in an equally dark tone. "I examined the technique within your soul-sea while we were conversing and I frankly cannot understand how any of my descendants could be satisfied with such a wretched method of cultivation. Its existence is a blight of dishonor upon Glory City. For this reason I shall assist you in learning Ash Wolves, but don't mistake my teachings for generosity. I do this for the sake of the city I founded and the people I once governed. However, if I should ever determine that you've spoken falsehoods to me or harbor ill intentions in your heart…"
"You'll kill me and consume my soul or something. Yeah, I get it," I wave him off. "Fair's fair."
For the next hour or so, Ye Yan lectures me about the Ash Wolves technique's advantages and disadvantages. It comes with some excellent abilities that aid with rapid movement, stealth, and defensive, but its offensive capabilities are mediocre at best. It also only allows the user to integrate wolf-type demon spirits, which is a major downside. I don't remember any wolf-type demon spirits from the books off the top of my head. Still, I agree to learn it for a lack of better options. Anything will be better than Sun-Devouring Inferno Tiger.
Ash Wolves isn't a powerhouse cultivation method by any means, but it has a lot of general utility and is perfect for someone looking to stay under the radar – which is precisely what I want to do since I'm not Nie Li. By the standards of Glory City, it's a pretty phenomenal technique… but unlike everyone else here, I know about the Nether Realm and the demigod-ranked experts residing there, wielders of the Power of Law who've stepped beyond the rank of legendary. Sticking with Ash Wolves forever won't be an option. Once I reach a certain point, I'll need to find a different cultivation method that can carry me to the level of a demigod and beyond. But it'll have to do for now.
Ye Yan walks me through the first step of Ash Wolves, a body technique he calls 'ashen form,' and gives me some pointers to practice until the next time we meet. According to him, it'll allow me to turn my physical body into a cloud of ash that can disperse and reform at will, a useful ability for avoiding enemy attacks or slipping through confined spaces. In a world where survivability against superhuman foes is paramount, ashen form sounds like it's right up my alley.
We've already been in here for a few hours and people might start getting worried about the young Lady Shen, so once we've wrapped up the lessons on ashen form, I gather Shen Xiu in my arms and wait for the city founder to open a swirling blue-and-white portal to the Heavenly Sacred Border's exit. I'm obliged to hold her in a princess carry to keep her from drooling all over me. She drools all over herself instead.
"Time is of no consequence in the Heavenly Sacred Border," announces Ye Yan as he steps away from the newly-opened portal. "Have patience and do what you must in the world outside, and return here only when you are ready to receive your next lessons. I will be waiting."
"See you then." I give him a nod before plunging into the celestial doorway.
-x-
We emerge from the Institute's hidden realm at the front gate, exactly where Shen Xiu and I first entered. I halt at the top of the enormous mountaintop staircase and inhale appreciatively as the cold wind washes over me. That could've been an unmitigated disaster. We weren't even close to prepared for the Heavenly Sacred Border. Ye Yan, thank you for being a real one.
"Uuuuaaaaw." Shen Xiu arches her back, stretches her arms above her head, and releases a huge yawn. She blinks blearily and looks up at me. "Hu Xian…? What in the world happened?"
I grimace severely, and not entirely for show. "You fell unconscious after you entered the Heavenly Sacred Border, but I was able to get you out of there before it was too late."
She delicately wipes the drool from her mouth, somehow making the action look prim and proper. "I see. And is there any particular reason you're carrying me like this?"
"Would you have preferred I sling you across my shoulders like a sack of rice, Lady Shen?" I ask with a straight face. "That would've been less dignified if you ask me."
"Hmm. You make a good point." She wraps her arms around my neck and kicks down her legs, using me as a pendulum to swing out of my grasp and onto her feet. "Not that I'm complaining, but what possessed you to go inside the hidden realm after me? If it affected me so heavily, I'm frankly astounded that you aren't-"
She freezes.
"…My soul-sea," she whispers.
"What's wrong, Lady Shen?"
Her lips stretch into a veritable cheshire grin. "It's grown. It's finally grown!" She hops up and down like a kangaroo before spinning towards me. "Can you believe it?! It worked!" she shouts to the heavens. "My brilliant plan was a success!"
"Oh, I can believe it," I drawl. Her soul-sea isn't the only one that's gotten bigger.
Mine's been hovering at around 60-ish soul points since last year and hasn't changed much recently, but now that I'm thinking about it, I can acutely feel a difference in size. It's definitely larger than it was this morning, maybe by 20 or even 30 points. I seriously doubt that little escapade with into the Heavenly Sacred Border was enough to get me to bronze rank, but progress is progress and I'll take what I can get. I wasn't even seriously cultivating today.
My fists tighten at my sides with anticipation. Imagine what I could accomplish with just a few more visits, especially once I start mastering Ash Wolves…
"Hu Xian," declares Shen Xiu like an authoritarian dictator addressing her oppressed subjects, giving them no choice in the matter. "We are coming back here once a week."
"Wait, o-once a week?!" I incredulously ask. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for going back inside as often as we can, but once a week sounds like a bit much." I'm totally wiped out after getting bitch-slapped by the Heavenly Sacred Border's spiritual pressure and chatting with Ye Yan for hours. Not to mention Shen Xiu's own inadequacies. "Doesn't that seem like overkill to you? You were passed out cold."
"Yes, but you took care of me until I regained my faculties, which I'll admit has impressed me greatly. I expect you to perform the same duty should it happen again. Am I clear?"
"…Yes, Lady Shen." This isn't the reaction I was expecting from her, but I suppose it isn't a bad thing. Coming back to the HSB more often will mean more lessons about Ash Wolves. The most difficult part will be making sure she doesn't figure out I've spoken with the ghost of one of Glory City's founders. She'll be livid if she learns I've been afforded the honor of speaking to a powerful ancestor while she was snoozing in a puddle of her own spit.
-x-
True to her word, Shen Xiu returns to the Heavenly Sacred Border once every week or two for the next several months with me tagging along. Unlike the first time, I accompany her inside the hidden realm at her request to make sure her amulet doesn't fail again and to bail her out if need be – although that never becomes necessary due to Ye Yan's intercession. The young Lady Shen pokes and prods me incessantly about my apparent ability to resist high levels of spiritual pressure, but I never give her a straight answer. She also boasts about her own increasing strength that enables her to accomplish the same feat as me. In reality, it's all thanks to Ye Yan shielding us from the spiritual pressure whenever we enter.
We're automatically separated each time we step into the hidden realm, which gives Ye Yan a good window of opportunity to find me and erect a soul force barrier that wards away Shen Xiu while we practice Ash Wolves. He also keeps a close eye on her to ensure she doesn't wander too close to the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword.
Shen Xiu starts a new habit of chugging elixirs like they're candy to build up her soul realm so she can take maximum advantage of the Heavenly Sacred Border's dense spiritual energy. I really don't want to know how much of her family's fortune she's blowing on this endeavor, but at least it's an endeavor that pays dividends. Her soul realm starts growing meteorically alongside my own.
Whenever I'm not cultivating, I'm learning more about ashen form and other Ash Wolves techniques from Ye Yan. I have a tough time mastering ashen form due to its weirdness. I mean, the whole idea is to literally dissolve your own body into a cloud of ash that allows you to negate physical attacks, which is a lot more esoteric than… I don't know, punching somebody really hard or whatever more mundane cultivation techniques are supposed to be like.
Ashen form is particularly important because, according to Ye Yan, it forms the basis for all the other Ash Wolves abilities. I won't get anywhere without learning ashen form first, so I double down on it and pour all of my time and energy into figuring it out. Ye Yan's tutelage is especially helpful whenever I run into roadblocks, and there are a lot of them. It's like trying to do a thousand-piece puzzle except every single piece is the exact same shape and color.
But finally the pieces of the puzzle all start to fit together and the metaphorical lightbulb goes off in my head.
My soul-sea is a pool of spiritual energy that I'm able to manipulate however I wish, at least in theory. Learning how exactly to make it do what you want is the hardest part, and it seems to require a lot of trial and error. Thanks to Ye Yan, what I soon realize is that I can't use ashen form on my physical body without first using it on my soul-sea. Only once the soul-sea has been evaporated – transitioning it from one state of metaphysical matter to another – can the same be done to the body. Ye Yan explains this is necessary because of the spiritual connection between the soul-sea and the dantian or some weird mumbo jumbo, but most of it goes over my head. All I know for certain is that ashen form is now within my grasp.
I close my eyes, feel out the shape and form of my soul-sea, and exhale. A cloud of vapor accompanies the unnaturally warm breath. In my mind's eye, my orange soul-sea begins evaporating into a hazy cloud that shimmers like a million fireflies. The heat increases steadily with each inhale and exhale, causing it to vaporize faster and faster, and all the while the fireflies burn more brightly. Somehow I get the feeling that my soul-sea's orange color and the concepts of 'heat' and 'ash' that are central to the Ash Wolves technique are feeding off of one another, accentuating their overall strength. I know for a fact that Ash Wolves is perfectly compatible with my soul-sea.
As soon as my soul-sea is mostly vaporized, I release another steaming-hot breath and force every muscle in my body to relax at the exact same time. When I open my eyes and look down, I find that I've turned into a vaguely person-shaped cloud of brown ash.
"Very impressive. You learn quickly," compliments Ye Yan.
I try to respond but nothing comes out of my nonexistent mouth, so I cancel the technique and my body returns to its regular state with a jarring lurch. The biggest downside of ashen form is that I can't move, speak, or interact with anything while it's active since I basically no longer exist. Also, being weightless one second and suddenly going back to normal the next is gonna take some getting used to.
"I'm telling you, it's all because of my soul-sea's color. Ash Wolves and an orange soul-sea are perfect for each other. You said other demon spiritualist in the past who had weaker soul-sea colors were successful with Ash Wolves, right? That's why."
"If you insist," the ghost demurs.
"One day soon, Nie Li's going to waltz in here and back me up on this. You'll see."
"I don't know who that is."
I smirk. "You will before too long if we're lucky. Like I've said before, give it a few years."
The ghost raises a bushy eyebrow as he's so fond of doing. He doesn't deign to reply.