Chương 10: Go to Hell

It was on the next day that Jin and Elder Flower were once again standing on the flying sword as it thrust its way through the heavens unerringly in the direction of the Mad Monks Sect. There were dark bags under the disciple's eyes. The dead face of yesterday's enemy had not let him sleep. His body was in perfect condition once again, but his mind was full of doubts. He knew now some of the cruelty of this world but had undoubtedly just scratched the surface. Elder Flower was, of course, unaffected.

When they'd left in the morning, Ting had pressed his shoulder reassuringly. For all intents and purposes, the village had returned to normal, minus a few families that no one seemed to care about too much. It was like the fight yesterday had never happened and the murder spree had never occurred. A few mortals had died, and a divergent had been killed as practice for a disciple of a lawful sect. Nothing of value had been lost.

Jin closed his eyes and let the slight amount of wind that got in through the barrier protecting them from falling off, caress his face. Elder Flower didn't seem intent on speaking, and neither was he on prompting a conversation. His view of his mentor had undergone rapid development in the last 24 hours. He spent the rest of the trip in silence, immersed in his own thoughts and feelings. He was slowly starting to come to terms with what had happened the day before.

It was as if he was traversing distance at the same time as his mind traversed trauma. It had all been quite cosmically meaningless, despite the appalling emotional subjectivity of the matter. Elder Flower suddenly spoke. It had been several hours since they'd set off, so Jin had been expecting her words for a while now.

"We're almost there, get yourself together," she ordered. With those words, the flying sword pointed its tip downwards, and they left the beautiful blue sky behind to descend underneath the rainy grey clouds that were gracing cultivation land on that day. The heavens weep, does anyone listen? Jin thought philosophically. They emerged from the clouds like a silver bolt of lightning, and Jin was once again able to enjoy the bird's view of Imperial geography.

There were a few villages scattered about, but they blitzed by too fast for him to make out any details. The rest of the countryside was made up of forests, plains, rivers and mountains. After a few more minutes, they started slowing down, allowing him to enjoy the view of their destination for longer than just the one second that he otherwise would have gotten. It was a mountain just like theirs. From underneath the clouds they were only able to see the bottom half of it.

But already that was covered up with little traditional wooden huts which turned into more classy Buddhist temples of the Japanese variety as one's eyes travelled upwards. There seems to be some sort of commotion at the bottom of the sect where one set of stairs from stone led to what must have been the outer ring of the Mad Monks Sect. There were people there, dozens if not hundreds of them.

They weren't doing anything in particular, just hiding from the rain under different trees, cooking what food they had over fire pits and conversing with each other. Probably about the bad weather. Their chatter reached them even in the sky. Jin was confused because they didn't look like merchants. There weren't any wagons with them. Neither were they cultivators, for which they were dressed too shabbily. There also wasn't a single building in sight, which indicated that this wasn't a permanent village.

It didn't look nomadic either, since everyone was dressed too differently to be part of the same tribe.

"What's happening down there?" Jin asked curiously. The first words that he'd voluntarily spoken since the beginning of the trip this morning.

"People waiting for the disciple selection process." Elder Flower said. Jin nodded in realisation. He'd been discovered by a wandering cultivator affiliated with the sect in his home village and had simply been drafted. That had been that. He never had to go through any sort of exam, nor had he met the man who had brought him to the sect since. It had been a very random occurrence, and if he were any more self-centred he would have thought that it was fated.

"Nothing to concern ourselves with then," Jin said with a shrug and looked away, returning his gaze to the fast approaching five-floor temple that they seemed to be aiming for. There was a large strip of stone emerging from its first floor which jotted out of the building by several hundreds of feet. It looked to be a landing platform, and there was already a small delegation of undistinguishable orange shapes waiting for them there.

Instead of completing landing manoeuvres, Elder Flower stopped in front of the mountain, and simply waited there. A few seconds later, what had previously been a translucent, or invisible film became visible as a hole emerged within it. Its edges glittered a pale blue. It looked like paper having a hole burned into it. Just that, after they flew in, the hole closed itself behind them and they slowly and non-threateningly descended towards the landing platform, where Elder Flower and Jin hopped off the sword.

Flower sheathed her weapon and transportation method back where it belonged, onto her belt and the two parties started walking towards each other on the long stone walkway. The three individuals that the Mad Monks Sect had put forward were all dressed in burnt orange robes and had staves in their hands. The weapons evoked bad memories in Jin, but the tranquil-looking faces and the bald heads make him feel strangely at home.

He'd never been to Japan, or any other Buddhist countries, but seeing something so similar still made him feel strangely at ease.

"Greetings Elder Flower. We welcome you to our sect," The first person in the little greeting committee said. A man of indistinguishable age, with a glittering bald head which would probably have reflected the sun had it been out, and a somewhat muscular appearance. Covered as he was in its entirety by the garb of his organisation, it was hard to tell. The man bowed his head slightly, as did the people standing behind him.

One similarly bald woman and one very old-looking man with a wispy beard going all the way to his waistline. Elder Flower returned to greeting, and bowed a bit lower, while Jin tried to make his forehead touch the floor behind her.

"Greetings Elder Kwang. I'm glad to be welcomed in your beautiful sect once again," Elder Flower said. This confirmed to Jin that Elder Flower was a common liaison between at least this martial sect. Perhaps they could respect a warrior more, or she had more diplomatic talent than Jin had assumed. Actually, thinking about it, the only other Elder he'd met that would be suited for the role was Elder Qin. But he had the very important role of instructing the outer disciples and likely couldn't travel so freely.

Elder Flower had at least been the kindest Elder that he had ever met. Sure, he hasn't met many but it still counted right?

"I would like to greet our guests properly with some tea," Elder Kwang said, seemingly satisfied with the ceremony of greetings being exchanged.

"We can discuss your stay while sitting down comfortably, rather than standing around in this frigid wind and rain." It was still raining on them, but as a cultivator, Jin had learned to blend out these things. His body was too strong to go down to a common cold anyway, so the rain was just a discomfort which was impolite to not be able to ignore. It was one of the few pieces of culture that Jin had managed to understand since his abrupt entrance into this world.

Showing an inability to handle basic discomforts such as rain and hunger was a quick way to get oneself branded as weak of will.

"I agree, a cup of tea would be nice," Elder Flower said and the five people started walking towards the temple to which the landing platform was attached, with its red arching roofs, and its seamless brown wooden construction. Throughout the entirety of their interaction, only two of the five had actually spoken and it seemed like it would stay that way, as the older man, or at least the older-looking man, and the woman of the Mad Monks Sect remained completely silent.

Jin walked all the way to the back and was able to just relax his face a bit from the placid mask that he had put on earlier. Their walk was sedentary, and slow. Considering how fast cultivators could truly be once they chose to kick their feet, it was odd that they liked to do things as slowly as possible sometimes.

They entered the temple through the front door, and Elder Kwang led them to a room where five cushions were placed around a low wooden table with five cups of steaming tea already waiting for them there. There would be no ceremony, apparently. The five of them sat down. Jin made sure to sit down slightly behind and to the right of Elder Flower so that he would be on her left from the view of the monks, who were sitting opposite them.

This was the lowest station that one could take upon themselves in a seating arrangement, so it was his duty to take it. On the side of the monks, Elder Kwang said in the middle in the front, the older man sat slightly behind him on the right and the woman sat even further back on the left. These were differences of a few inches, but they determined and communicated a strict hierarchy. Without talking, the cultivators first enjoyed the tea for a few minutes, or hours.

It was hard to keep track of the time with these people. It was good tea at least and it seemed to stay perpetually at the perfect temperature no matter how long they sipped at it. Eventually, Elder Kwang spoke.

"You know Elder Zhao of course," he said to Flower, pointing with his chin in a small gesture at the old man.

"He is responsible for the care of our outer disciples. To my left is core disciple Fangqia, she is researching a new spell. Upon completion, she will attain the rank of Elder."

"Junior greets senior," core disciple Fangqia said, bowing her head slightly. Flower nodded at the introductions and flickered her eyes to her right, where Jin was seated.

"This is inner disciple Jin, he is a talented new acquisition of the sect and has developed the gift that I am bringing to thank you for your hospitality." A hand went to her pouch, and she pulled out the illusion Room that he'd given to her for safekeeping. It was easier for her to carry it around with her dimensional pocket, then for him with his perfectly normal pockets. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Elder Kwang tilted his head sideways, as the square artefact hummed with low amounts of qi and lit up in purple and blue.

"Many thanks," he said as the illusion Room slid, without anyone touching it, across the table to land at the man's hands where he curiously grasped it, before putting it back down. It was now Elder Zhao who looked at the Room in curiosity and spoke for the first time.

"May I?" he asked.

"I assume this is meant more for our outer disciples. If I understand the restrictions of Illusion Room creation correctly, then they are mostly conceived for those of either the same level of cultivation or lower."

"Elder Zhao remembers perfectly," Flower complimented.

"That is indeed the case." The Elder nodded. He stroked his beard once with his left hand and touched the illusion Room with his right pointer finger, and his gaze went blank. Jin was surprised to see someone not from the sect interact with the Room so easily, but if the Mad Monks were indeed a sect that they had dealings with often, then it made sense for them to be familiar with their product. Nobody spoke again for the hour or so it took for Elder Zhao to properly inspect the illusion Room from within.

Jin assumed that was because it would be impolite to ask him to leave before his gift had been properly inspected, but that his seniors didn't want to speak about certain topics in front of him. Flower hadn't really communicated to him that his Room would be a gift, but considering the template was already in his mind he doubted that she wouldn't simply give him another Room he could insert it in when they came back to their mountain.

Thankfully Elder Zhao came out of the Room with a tight smile instead of a frown at which point he addressed Jin with a simple nod of approval.

"We graciously accept the gift in the context in which it was given," the man said in a slightly raspy tone of voice.

"It gladdens me to see that your disciples are developing properly."

"Thank you for your kind words," Elder Flower replied while Jin bowed his head in thanks behind her. Elder Kwang spoke up, getting to the point of the meeting.

"Perhaps you would like to show inner disciple Jin more of the sect while we discuss?" Elder Zhao?" The old Elder thoughtfully stroked his beard and shot Jin a penetrating look.

"Actually," he started.

"Perhaps it would be better for inner disciple Jin to stay here. He might have something to contribute to the discussion," he said. Elder Kwang shot his neighbour a sharp look, and even Fangqin's eyes widened at the suggestion. Jin, for his part, was mostly confused. He couldn't really imagine any sort of scenario in which his opinion would be considered valuable by the people in the room. Although, Elder Zhao seemed to disagree.

"Inner disciple Jin is certainly innovative. He could certainly provide an interesting insight into most matters. And if he is to be wrong, we can simply disregard his opinion without much worry," Elder Flower piped up. Jin inwardly rolled his eyes at the wording, outwardly, he simply nodded his head.

"This inner disciple is flattered by the Elder's words," he said. Leaving out which Elder he actually meant. Elder Kwang seemed to have gathered his wits about him during the exchange and seemed to hedgingly agree, considering his lack of insistence that Jin be sent away for the sensitive conversation to come.

"I will trust my colleagues' judgement in this case and examine the Illusion Room you have gifted us with great interest later on," the man said thoughtfully.

"Now on to other matters, the relevant ones." He paused for a few seconds as if trying to find the right words.

"We are finding ourselves, as a sect, at a precipice. As you know, Elder Flower, our techniques require a great amount of mental fortitude. That is why we are much more ascetic than other sects and why we focus so much of our time on non-cultivation-based meditation. The issue that we are experiencing in recent times is that we are finding it difficult to find outer disciples who have the necessary prerequisites to mentally withstand the harsh requirements," he eventually said.

Elder Flower nodded, as if she understood perfectly, while Jin remained mostly in the dark about what had actually been said. Apparently, the Mad Monks Sect was based on a cultivation method which required a strong mental fortitude? And they hadn't been successful in finding disciples who had that mental fortitude?

"I see," Elder Flower replied.

"I understand the need for a fighting method of unleashed emotions to require a calm counterpart in daily life, but I do not think the Illusion Room Sect is qualified to help train people's minds." Elder Kwang shook his head.

"No, there is indeed nothing that you can do to help train the necessary mental fortitude."

"We were recently discussing how we can tackle the problem," Elder Zhao said.

"We concluded that there is simply an original element which must be present in a cultivator to properly learn our meditation skills as well as to not be prone to losing one's self. Rather than seeking assistance in the training of mental fortitude, we have considered a variety of ways through which we could better screen the initiates we let become outer disciples. The amount of divergence has been too high because the potential of the initiates has been too low.

We need a better way of finding disciples who can contain the beast." Jin wondered if Elder Flower was going to reveal to them that they had met a disciple unable to contain the beast on the way here. He naturally wasn't going to bring it up, of course.

"I see, that is indeed difficult, as most tests can only show at what rate a potential disciple might gather qi, or how strong your body is. Determining mental fortitude has always been one of the hardest tasks for the examiners," Elder Flower mused. Jin thought on the sidelines that the dilemma was very similar to the athlete selection process in his last world. It was hard to measure intangibles such as mental ability and performance under stress.

That was why the NFL apparatus found it much easier to predict the career success of a defensive lineman who relied on their body rather than a quarterback who relied also more on their mind. Flower continued.

"We are not immune to it, and it is rather our exam between outer and inner disciple which filters out those who are unsuited for our path," she said. An admittance of weakness should face an admittance of weakness, to retain a common ground. Face saving, essentially.

"In the past, we have relied on common tests by making the initiates climb the thousand steps, or having them meditate for differing amounts of time to test patience," Elder Zhao said.

"However, these methods have shown themselves to be fallible, and we have considered if there would be more illusionary possibilities to discovering the mental attributes of our potential disciples."

"The first problem I see," Elder Flower said, "is the fact that we have yet to discover a way through which someone's time in an Illusion Room can be spectated by another. It would be rather difficult to see how the initiate handled their scenario."

"A code perhaps," Jin suddenly piped up.

"Upon finishing the scenario they receive a code which they must tell the examiner. Without the code, they cannot pass."

"That's a good point," Elder Flower admitted.

"However, what kind of scenario would let potential disciples prove their mental fortitude? Scenarios are made for training already present martial abilities." It was an interesting question. Unlike the games in his past world, the scenarios of Cultivation Land were much more fixed in their purpose. They were not there for entertainment, but for one specific reason and thus any divergence from this reason was considered to be a breach of the philosophy behind the whole thing.

But if Jin thought about it, wasn't there one specific game genre that was perfectly suited for testing out a disciple's mental fortitude? Especially when one had access to what was essentially perfect 3D technology? Elder Flower crossed her arms.

"The scenario would have to consist of something which would require mental fortitude rather than martial skills. But, most scenarios can be solved more easily with martial skills rather than without. This would skew the results of the test towards those mortals with combat experience."

"This is an issue indeed, someone more suited for combat will find themselves requiring less mental fortitude to pass a test than someone who has never fought. But, while combat skills can be learned, a mental inability to retain a stable mind frame is something that has to be somewhat present from the start." Elder Kwang said.

"And this is where our dilemma starts. We can hardly develop a real-life scenario which would be threatening enough to test for mental fortitude, and thus we consider one of our possibilities to be illusions. We simply wanted to consult with an expert to see what would be possible." Elder Flower turned to Jin.

"What do you think? One of your biggest strengths is innovativity." Jin hummed thoughtfully. It wasn't particularly difficult to come up with a scenario that would test someone's mental fortitude. But explaining it wasn't that easy especially when faced with a bunch of people who outranked him.

"One way that I see with which we could eliminate the advantage that people with martial abilities possess, is simply by removing their ability to fight back against whatever threat we introduce. That way, everyone is equal," he said.

"Remove the option to bring a weapon, and remove the option for obstacles to be destroyed by violence."

"And the scenario itself, what would it consist of?" Elder flower asked.

"We all know that mental fortitude can only be measured by coming up against adversity. The best test of mental fortitude would likely be to elicit as many negative emotions as possible and see how the initiates fare. Since most fears are very individual, we need to base the scenario on something universally horrifying, which can be surmounted by the ability to act under pressure. Universal fears such as that of the inhuman, of being chased, of dark places and of horrible consequences for failure.

Those who break are weak. Those who do not break are at least strong enough to realise the fact that they are in an illusion and that rationally, they should fear nothing. In essence, I am speaking of a scenario directed solely at making the user go through the worst experience of their life. Nothing more and nothing less. The best test of mental fortitude is to send the subject straight to hell."