Don't Own anything.
'thought'
"Speech"
"Tvs, Radios, and Text via book or newspaper... when those are around..."
I let out a small yawn as I sit cross-legged on the ground, taping my finger idly on a rock.
"So. Diablo. What's your opinion on this new snake? Keep or absorb? Oh... and for future reference, in these multiple choice questions, one hiss equals option one, two equal two, etcetera."
"Sss-sss."
"Ice it? Just like that? Damn. You are cold blooded."
I nearly burst out laughing as a fucking snake gives me a look like a disappointed parent.
"Regardless, do you just not like their vibe or something?"
She cocks her head to the side, then eventually nods once.
Well, Mr. Snake... you have failed the vibe check. Shame.
"Eh, I'll do it later... technically this woman found it first, so I'll ask her if she wants it. If not, it's going right into my eyes for absorption." I tap my chin as I look back to the blue snake which I had more or less forced to coil up in timeout a short distance away.
Eventually my eyes stray back to the woman laid a short distance away.
There were some slight miscalculations with her body.
I had to quickly reapply some counter venom.
It appears blue snake here has a venom that works in two stages. The first, to kill the target... and the second to really kill the target.
It's as if every single atom of venom is coated in a shell of lesser venom.
Like a pill.
That makes blue boy here quite interesting.
The spirit beast is at least second level. Diablo would probably lose. Plus, he seems to have an innate 'ki ability' in his shielded venom.
If Diablo briefly brought me to my knees, this fucker would render me immobile for a while- after the stage two of the venom began, at least.
This is truly a fortunate encounter. I met some all-powerful senior, he gave me some poison to better myself, and I even found a snake to devour with my Liquid Gold eyes.
At this point, fuck exploring. I should process this poison quickly. I've figured out my new dantian pathway, and now all I need is just time to work through it.
I should be able to make incredible progress with the poison Medicine Master has given me...
I should get him something nice for the next time I see him... provided I don't miscalculate diluting the poison and die horribly.
I should be able to finish a dantian in a week, perhaps? Maybe a month? Regardless, that is much better than the typical five years a normal cultivator would take.
It would change my required time in seclusion from two hundred years to just around three!
I would likely even have a substantial amount of poison left over... so that begs the question.
Immortal body- yes or-
Who am I kidding.
Yes.
I'll need to form an immortal body.
An immortal body is something that sticks with a cultivator from stage two ALL the way up the peak of cultivation.
The name is a little misleading it technically doesn't make you immortal.
What it does is slowly change your physiology. Those who practice Buddhism become a buddha and stuff like that.
Unlocking it basically creates a 'root' or a 'seed' that continually grows with you... it is incredibly difficult to gain an Immortal Body.
The cost is great, and the overall chance of success is only a mere ten percent.
There is nothing to say that you cannot gain it later... but it always starts out as a seed... regardless of your level.
That seed can piggyback off your already known body tempering techniques, but it remains a seed that must be nourished and grown... and growth takes time. Time an energy.
If I unlock it early, all of my cultivation will not only improve myself, but also nourish and invigorate this 'seed'.
It is more efficient to get it early. plus it's more safe, as it increases your power quite a bit as it grows.
The cost, however?
It's fairly similar to what I did with my stage one Cultivation... I just need to spend a lot of my ki to attempt to awaken it, thus... I will be forced to start over again and again and again for my dantians.
But.
I should do it now instead of later.
My head turns as I can see the woman shift, letting out a weak groan as she shifts on the floor.
Her hands shake as her eyes flutter.
After a moment she looks around. "I... I can't move?!"
"Sorry, I paralyzed you so you wouldn't feel any pain. Nor move around and mess with the acupressure I have done to you."
Her eyes snap to the side, looking at me with caution. "It's not safe here... the twin venom azure viper is still around here somewhere."
"Oh. You mean him?" I gesture to the coiled blue snake. "Yeah. It tried to attack me but I taught it the error of its ways."
"You... You managed to stop it?! It is a spirit beast at the peak of the second level! It could become a third stage any year now."
"I did indeed manage to stop it." I nod once as I move over to her slightly prone form, beginning to slowly remove acupressure needles. Tightening the bandage I wrapped around her bite wound.
She slowly sits up, bringing a hand to her head, she looks over my body in confusion. "Who... are you?"
"isn't it common courtesy to introduce yourself first?" I hum nonchalantly.
"I am Purple Mist... a disciple of the Poison Mist Sect."
"Well, I am Venom Dragon. A Loose Cultivator who is just wandering the world."
She looks over me with more scrutiny, her eyes locking onto the snake around my neck, and the larger- at the moment- snake sat a short distance away.
"You tame snakes?" She asks.
"No. I wouldn't say Diablo here is 'Tamed'. She is my trusted ally." The side of her head presses into my waiting palm as I gently stroke the top of her head with a finger. "As for it... I dominated it. Suppressing its will with my own."
She bows her head to me. "Thank you... for saving me."
"Think nothing of it." I wave off with a small smile. "I was in the area, and I like helping people. Besides. It's not like I got nothing out of it. A fifth stage cultivator showed up and he was briefly interested in my acupressure method and the medicine I used to cure you. Seeing that I had it handled he left to go find some plant, but not before leaving us both behind a customary gift.
I gesture to the box beside her. "That. Is yours."
She looks to the box and slowly opens it, her eyes widening immensely. "With this pill I could likely break through to the battle king realm!"
"I'm happy for you." I nod slowly as I rise to my feet, stretching my arms above my head. "Oh, and do you mind if I have this Azure Serpent here?"
"Not at all!" She proclaims, shaking her head. "You saved me and managed to subdue it by yourself. It would be incredibly presumptuous for me to ask anything from you."
"Thank you." I bow my head slightly. "In which case... I believe I will head into this cave here to cultivate.
I turn, walking forwards briefly.
I look to the corked gourd-like bottle, then let out a low hum.
'well. Let's dilute it a bit' before I go in. It'll probably be better if I could actually see what I was doing.'
Pov: nearby.
A purple haired woman stares in awe as something that radiates sheer death slowly rises from a bottle in the hand on the man in front of her.
That poison-
It...
It could kill her thousands of times over.
In an instant.
It could liquify her body in moments.
Why does he have something like that?!
It is placed in another bottle... then diluted with water-
The aura of death intensifies.
The energy within the poison becomes a little more than two-fold.
Whatthefuck?!
H-he... he JUST added water!
Could it-
Could he be a seventh stage spirit venerable or greater?!
He lets out a quiet sigh as he looks between the two bottles, a smile on his face, then he seems to take numerous other bottles from his backpack. Glass etched with basic glyphs and runes to make them more durable.
The poison from one of the bottles split as he places the original poison bottle- which now contains poison twice as potent as it did moments before, in his bag.
A small blush appears on her face.
A man... that powerful took time out of his day to save her...
He said that a fifth stage senior gave her a pill, but... how could a fifth stage cultivator be a senior to someone capable of THIS?! It is a genuine miracle what he accomplished. By diluting poison, he made it more than TWICE as strong! That's ridiculous!
Could it be... that he gave the pill to her and didn't want the credit? He didn't want her to be indebted to him?
Yes... that's possible. He has... such a kind heart.
Purple Mist watches as the man continues to split the poison over and over again.
"Ah. Before you leave, I should ask you something." He abruptly states as he turns.
His charming brown eyes twinkle as his light stubble somehow makes him seem even more handsome and dignified.
"What year is it?" He asks.
Did... he just come from seclusion? Ah. That makes sense, it is common for most masters to meditate for decades at a time.
"It's currently nineteen fifty-one." She answers.
"Ah. So about six or so years, then a year of travel. That's not too long. I still have time." He mutters to himself.
Six years is not too long?
Yes, he is definitely a senior... as for why he is hiding his presence like this, she doesn't know.
What she does know is that... She's. In. Love.
Her eyes sparkle as she makes a silent vow to herself. 'Venom Dragon... wherever you go, whatever you do. I will find you... and I will never give up. Even if you try to push me away, it'll be useless! If I want something... I'll get it!'
She looks to the closed box containing a truly potent pill. 'but first I should strengthen myself so I can chase after him for even longer!'
Pain swirls through my very being as the diluted heart destroying poison wracks my mind, body and perhaps even my soul.
But.
No pain no gain.
I may have slightly underestimated my Mouth Acupoint's capability to enhance 'elixirs' I consume.
Plus, my isekai bonus more or less made it so when I diluted the poison... I created a new one... which means the effect of the halves were improved by about four times overall.
Sadly, this can only happen once. Otherwise I'd have infinite poison. But for a potent toxin like the one 'Medicine Master' gifted me? I can dilute the poison dozens of times to suit my needs.
My breath comes out in short pants as I crack open my eyes. Diablo is gone. She wandered off to either hibernate or hunt for some food to keep herself going.
Blue guy?
He's already fully absorbed after I got resistant to his venom.
Even mixing it with Diablo's venom and using acupressure didn't change much, so into the eye he went after about six months.
The only thing that remained of him would be a 'Beast Core' which I fed to Diablo.
She seemed to like it quite a bit.
I flop back, letting out a tired pant as I stare up at the rocky ceiling of the cave.
Once more, I have lost track of how long I have been down here.
My cultivation has been fairly swift, all things considered.
But... my Immortal body?
I have failed to achieve it three times now.
I gathered all of that chi... then spent it all on what's basically a gacha roll.
A breath leaves my lips as I close my eyes and focus deep within my core.
'Ah. I have enough to attempt to awaken my immortal body yet again.'
I figured out the missing link for my specialized Dantian network, by the way.
Heart.
Something that holds special meaning to not only myself, but to the legend of yamata no orochi.
Without my heart trait... I would never have been able to come this far. It is my one saving grace. My greatest treasure.
As for Orochi?
A key part of its legend is its toxic and poisonous blood. The blood which courses through its body, pumped wildly through its mountainous form through its singular heart.
Thus, a Dantian which is a lot more powerful than the standard dantian you'd be getting at its level.
And heart... is where I need to reach... each and every time I want to attempt to gain my immortal body.
'Well, let's try again.'
I sit up, crossing my legs and closing my eyes.
I use my enhanced Chi control to grasp my everything and draw it inwards. Dragging it down further and further. Compacting the energy, spinning it as it reaches my origin dantian.
My eyes snap open as instead of dissipating like mist, as it had the previous three times, it becomes solid. Sinking into the origin dantian.
A thrum of power explodes through my body. It seems to resonate with the power of my acupoints.
My heart beats faster and harder, the thumbs of blood rushing through my ears, everything around me being carved into my mind with perfect detail. The inaccuracies and blurs of my earlier echolocation slipping away. My lungs fill with sheer power, The ki being absorbed by my nose acupoint seeming to grow more potent as it rests within them. My teeth seem to become even more durable and blade-like and my scales... they grow stronger as well.
Dragon... Physique...
A smirk forms on my lips as I slowly rise, doing a few swift jabs. 'it appears my overall physical strength is about at where it would be when I finished unlocking my eighth tail dantian... yet I am merely at my origin.
How much of this is a result of my alternate stage one, and how much is from my Dragon's physique is currently a little hard to tell... I think it might be seventy-thirty?
This number should easily flip during the course of my life and drastically grow as I ascend the cultivation stages... but as I am right now, it is just another brick in the foundation of the beautiful temple that is my body.
With this... I can begin to ascend to the third stage.
It would be wise to figure out what I can change from the original third stage, however.
A normal third stage will find themselves creating the four 'Great Extraordinary Meridians'. The first, the Star Bright Meridian. Next, the Moon Yin Meridian, and that is followed by the Yang Flame, and Void King Meridians.
The special aspect of this level is that a 'Battle King' can call upon these unlocked Meridians to greatly improve their physical capabilities, with each one granting a larger boost in strength.
If you call upon all four, however, you will begin to ascend to the fourth stage, which always has all four meridians active.
Thus, on average, even the weakest fourth stage cultivators are equal to the strongest third stages.
What if I add more?
More meridians.
If my knowledge is correct, there are eight meridians called the 'Extraordinary Meridians'.
Not the 'GREAT Extraordinary Meridians', but still 'Extraordinary'.
I could likely... slip two in between each of the 'Great' Meridians. the main issue is that some come in pairs... and with the way they are organized, if I did two of each in between the larger meridians would be forced to split the pairs up... but, who's to say that I have to limit each to two... what if I go three minor... into one large, then Pair, Large, Pair, Third Large, final lesser Meridian, and then final Great Meridian.
Fuck it. that sounds good to me. I can make some edits along the way if I need to.
It probably won't be that much of an increase, perhaps like comparing a kaioken times twenty to a kaioken times twenty-one. However that is just my way. Brick. By. Brick. I will build myself up to be undefeatable.
I'm close to breaking through...
However. I am mildly worried of the Heavenly Tribulation... which is why I have stopped my cultivation journey to proceed in an alternate direction.
Technique!
If I fuck up my Heavenly Tribulation, I'll fucking die, so I need to be prepared as physically possible.
I'll need techniques. But, slight issue. I'm a poison cultivator-slash-crafter.
I am given basic information, yes, and I am given knowledge of techniques...
For poison techniques.
My knowledge itself doesn't extend to most combat techniques.
I uh... know how to do ranged acupressure.
Condense poisons in my blood down into capsules for future use? Craft poisons that respond to emotion and killing intent? Make pseudo-sentient poisons?
Possible. I have been given the knowledge.
Buddhist heaven defying core strengthening palm technique to strengthen my body even further?
I mean. It might exist.
No clue if it does, though. Nor do I have ANY information to perform it.
That places me in quite a predicament.
Higher base strength due to my unique way of doing things, but no real offensive or defensive techniques.
I know the 'venom fang' style of martial arts, but that is more of a supplementary style made to force your opponent to take gasping breaths or scratch their skin to inject air-based or injury poisons.
It's a style that isn't supposed to face things head on, like I'll be forced to face the Heavenly Tribulation.
I need to figure out some sort of ward formation. Something that could possibly withstand the force of the Heavenly Tribulation.
Or!
I can play to my strengths! Alchemy!
If I can figure out a pill to temporarily increase the durability of my body... or a pill that grants me some form of elemental resistance, I should be fine with a typical heavenly tribulation. The kind that just has the sky piss lightning at you.
In fact, I've got a couple ideas on elixirs I could use. The first granting a total Lightning resistance of about... ten percent, and the later gives me a resistance to all elements of about five percent.
While they don't stack per say, I'll still take the best of each.
The ten percent electricity resistance and five percent to everything else... it wouldn't bring my electricity resistance to fifteen percent.
I should mention.
This is merely the baseline for the pill in question. If you take into account all of my special boons, I will be looking at something that can bolster my resistance by about eighty percent.
The issue is I'll need some form of pill refining forge... and while I could carve one from stone, the effects of my pills would go down by about... sixty one percent.
But. It looks like I'll be forced to accept that considering my lack of resources.
Ah well... I still need to find some more cultivation plants.
"I'll give you five hundred Yuan for that."
"one thousand." The man at the counter shakes his head.
"Fife hundred fifty." I continue.
"I could do Nine hundred." He continues to barter.
"How about we just meet in the middle at seven hundred and fifty?" I question
The man ponders for a long moment, then lets out a quiet scoff. "Fine. But only if you buy something else."
I select another box of herbs and gesture to it. "How much for this one?"
"Five hundred Yuan."
I nod slowly then fish the bills from my pocket "Here."
The man nods his head as I take both boxes and carry on with my browsing of the flea market.
That is some good fortune, if I do say so myself.
For about one hundred and fifty dollars I got a five year ginger- something that could onlybarely be considered a cultivation ingredient and a blade of jade mint grass.
It appears that the flea market does have some treasures hidden within it.
The Ginger isn't useful for cultivation quite yet, but what I can use it for is to make some anti-nausia medicine.
A sigh leaves my lips as I can feel a presence tailing after me.
The past three years of traveling has been fairly interesting.
I think I finally made it into China judging from the names of places and the fact that everyone here speaks Chinese.
Anyways, this person following me... I can tell because of how deliberate they are in their tailing. They match my pace, pause when I do, and their tendency to circle around behind me whenever I turn.
They are... not the best at this.
Against a normal person, sure they'd be borderline invisible.
But I'm not a normal person.
I step into a nearby alleyway and with a sudden burst of speed I lunge to the other side and turn. With a single leap I launch myself into the air. As gravity begins to reclaim me I kick as hard as I can, gaining more upwards propulsion as I seemingly kick off the air itself.
In these three years I've been experimenting.
With techniques.
It's a bit harder than it sounds.
Honestly? I've only managed to get four working so far.
The first, a simple vibrating barrier made of chi. Far more cost effective than simply making a wall of energy. A bit less protective, but it's less... 'rough' in it design. There's a difference between an actual defense technique and just a wall of energy, after all, plus the reduction in energy cost makes it worth using it somewhat.
It's best feat?
It can more or less stop bullets from hitting me. At first, it only worked for low-caliber bullets like a handgun... mostly because I shaped it like a flat barrier.
After that? I turned it into a more cone-like shape. It cost more, but I was able to withstand bullets quite easily.
That was a fairly useful addon to it. There was a time where I was shot by numerous guns in my journey.
With the first iteration of the shield, AK47 rounds managed to pierce through and left some bruises on my jade scales. Afterwards? Most of deflected to the sides. Those that do make it through have lost most of their energy and it's like being weakly punched. Much better than being thrown off my feet like the first iteration.
'Perhaps I could add some spin to the barrier. That might make it useful against other forms of attacks... rip weapons out of hands and redirect and disperse the energy of attacks.'
Regardless, after that I realized I didn't have that many more things to base moves on... sooo I promptly copied One Piece.
The Six Powers.
Shave. Moon Walk. Iron Body.
I've learned those three.
I'm reasonably close to some sort of 'tempest kick'. The main issue is making it cut things.
Shave follows its general explanation in the anime. Tremendous burst of speed for short distances. Might even allow me to punch above my own weight class.
Moon walk was more difficult. I have to expend chi from my feet to use it. I'm simply not strong enough to do it with my normal body, so I have to increase the surface area of the bottom of my feet with chi. It's like I'm wearing moon shoes.
Iron Body is probably the one I'm most pleased with. It is accomplished by tensing my body and more or less circulating my energy throughout it.
It combined with my Jade Scales has made me quite the defensive powerhouse.
Plus, it makes for a good attack to run at someone then become hard as iron.
Or jump off something and land without a care for injury because you are just that tough.
I land on the rooftop and begin slowly walking towards the edge, looking down as the figure turns and rushes into the alley.
I leap off the roof, landing behind them with a thud.
The man freezes in place, body stiffening as I walk forwards.
"So... who are you... and why are you following me?"
"U-Uh..."
I continue walking forwards menacingly as he turns and abruptly runs away as fast as he can.
"…"
Hn.
Judging by the speed...
Not a cultivator.
Meh. Who gives a shit about him, then.
With that, I turn and walk the other direction.
Our grand wanderer has made it to china! Plus... a total psycho greatly misunderstood him and is now MADLY in love with him! And she's not taking no for an answer!
I mean, what sort of dude would say no to THAT?
You'd have to be crazy!