Chương 21: Next Level

"And that's basically what happened," Jin finished, recounting the full story of what had occurred since he'd last seen Ting. His fellow inner disciple kicked her legs out from where they were sitting on the wooden platform jutting out of her tower, which was there for others to land on when they came through the air.

"It sounds like you had an interesting visit, perhaps too interesting. Sect leaders, crazy people, disciple selection ceremony…" the girl trailed off.

"May you live in interesting times is technically considered a curse, I guess," Jin muttered thinking about the Chinese proverb.

"It sure sounds like it. Interesting is never good. Stability is what makes for an easy life and cultivation." Jin hummed thoughtfully. Perhaps what she said was true for those talented enough to progress to the end without any fortuitous encounters, but he doubted that many such people existed. Those born with too much talent often faced greater heavenly tribulations to make up for their better starting point, or so he'd read.

People of only slightly above-average talent like him and Ting would likely get stuck at a bottleneck of cultivation. Perhaps in between one of the stages of Foundation Establishment. Perhaps when they were supposed to form their core, or maybe when they were supposed to explode it to create a nascent soul. Spending long enough at such a stage without any idea when progress would come would likely make anyone obsessed enough with cultivation wish for their life to be interesting.

With chaos, after all, came opportunity. Jin would remain uninterested in any chaos regardless. Fighting demonic cultivators for obscure texts that might help one breakthrough if one sacrificed the middle testicle of a literate goat to the god of blue cheese wasn't his vibe.

"I think it's impossible to live a truly uninteresting life," he said.

"No matter how much one tries it. It is better to simply accept it and to become better at dealing with the dangerous." Ting bobbed her head. She was wearing a ponytail, this time seemingly not feeling the need to do anything special with her hair. It seemed like now that the crisis in her village had been resolved she had quite literally put her hair down.

"There is never any true peace anyway. Even here in the middle of nowhere, I keep hearing about stirrings at the border. There is a larger mass of dark forces approaching and the cultivators stationed there cannot really make out what they are. To be a cultivator is to walk with death, I guess." Jin shrugged.

"To be a mortal is also to walk with death in a world such as this. Everyone is affected by circumstances beyond their control, no? Even those who truly become immortal simply pass on to the next plane where they most likely repeat the cycle."

"I hope there's no border conflict at least. The last one I remember was 50 years ago and already then it delayed the release of an Illusion Room I was working on." Ting tutted.

"Every time it happens, until the resolution of whatever conflict there is, the sect always prioritizes making Illusion Rooms of the enemies currently making issues. If they conform to some sort of standard of course."

"How's your wyvern coming along anyway?" Jin asked, wondering how relaxing it would be to just make an Illusion Room based on a real monster that he could simply use memory jade slips to observe. He would only have to tweak how the inputs of the user translated to outputs from their avatar and perfect the combat system of the monster. Even though he was technically just recreating material he was slowly starting to realize that he was making it more difficult for himself than if he'd simply done it the normal way.

After all, in the end, he still had to live through everything again in his mind, at which point he really could have just gone to the library to experience the memory slips. Similarly, everything had to be translated into the game engine stuck in his head and then be made to fit the consistent reality of the world rather than some sort of twisted video game logic.

Considering that the things he was bringing out were then usually richer in story than any traditional scenarios he was likely putting in more work than people who weren't plagiarizing. Which was sort of funny when he thought about it. Although, considering that Jin had created Outlast while Ting's wyvern still seemed unfinished, there was an implication of something more complex going on. Maybe Jin was just big-brained, or the other people simply worked tirelessly on every pixel.

He'd only been trying the Illusion Rooms fit for outer disciples back at the sect library so it wasn't like he knew what the peak truly looked like. His cultivation and thus his perception simply wasn't advanced enough to work through Illusion Rooms that had more complex scenarios and more detail.

"I hope there isn't stirring at the borders either," he said tiredly. This whole Mad Monks trip had exhausted him beyond compare and even now that he was done with all of it, feeling very happy about it, while also feeling unhappy about the upcoming tournament, he was still experiencing the consequences of some of that burnout he had been about to have right at the end there. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Elder Flower signed me up for that fighting tournament or whatever, but at least that means I won't have to make an Illusion Room for a month right?" he asked aloud.

"Signing you for that tournament is a great honour", Ting said out loud without any seeming conviction.

"Is it though?" Jin asked.

"Well the Elders usually say so and if they do they are likely correct," Ting replied taking care with her words to not appear negative in opinion towards the Elders of the sect, which was important because Elder Flower with her advanced cultivation, no matter how she said that she would go into the bamboo forest to take a walk, could likely still hear them.

"You don't sound very jealous," Jin complained quietly. Ting didn't say anything but simply gave him a look and a smirk. She obviously wasn't very jealous, she just wasn't brave enough to say it out loud. Jin buried his head in his hands and let out a loud sigh. -/- Xiao walked back to his house feeling more peace than he had in a very long time. Who would have thought that simply shaving his head and meditating for one hour a day for a week could give him such a new perspective on life?

He'd only been at the Mad Monks sect for eight days, but he already immensely appreciated their different approach to life. The morning started with an intense bout of physical activity, being led through a kata by an instructor along with the other outer disciples.

Those who had joined more recently and were thus lower in skill were at the back of the large square of disciples, while those more senior and thus more likely to ascend to inner disciple stood in the front filing away the last imperfections before potential advancement. After that, they all ate a nutritious meal which while lacking any meat, usually tasted better than anything Xiao had ever had before. He suspected that the monks simply used better ingredients, perhaps vegetables infused with spiritual energy.

He'd heard that some plants could absorb qi from a senior whom he'd found munching on some purple bamboo. After the meal, Xiao was guided through a meditation session. It was a skill that he was still perfecting, so he needed a teacher for the moment. Exercise, good food, a sense of progression and a calm mind had made him feel for the first time in many years truly tranquil and thus happy.

He breathed out a gentle sigh as he entered his little cottage which was simpler than any residence he'd ever inhabited for a longer period, but because it lacked the cohabitation factor with his greatest enemies, the Baos, he already felt at home. He wondered what the sect wanted to announce. He had been informed by his meditation guide that there would be a general assembly of all disciples because some sort of news had come in.

Xiao didn't know what kind of news, but it must have been big if they were willing to mobilise everyone to hear it. After freshening up at the cottage with a bucket of water and a rag, Xiao made his way to the outer disciple administrative pagoda, which he had been shown as a part of the orientation a few days ago. It was a quiet walk, the outer disciples walking beside him seemingly intent on not talking. It was a very peaceful place, the sect.

Xiao would admit though that in time it would perhaps get a bit boring. Nevertheless, still in the honeymoon phase of the relationship, he walked in silence with the other disciples until he reached the courtyard in front of the pagoda. Once everyone had gathered, the Elder he recognised as responsible for the outer ring floated down from the sky and stopped a few metres above the ground so that everyone could see him.

"Disciples of the Mad Monks sect," he greeted.

"I am unhappy to announce that we are entering a state of preparation for potential conflict," he said without any preamble and suddenly the outer disciples were not so quiet anymore. But what did potential conflict mean in this case? Xiao wondered.

"This means that all extracurricular learning and tasks you have been given will be cancelled and replaced solely with combat practice and meditation. The sect will handle your living conditions for the moment so that you may focus entirely on improving your combat ability. Cultivation is currently not advised as maximising one's ability to fight while at a certain realm is a faster and better investment than trying to break through to the next one.

The pagoda shall now become the centre of illusionary training as it will host a variety of Illusion Rooms, which most of you are already familiar with. They will help you familiarise yourself with life-and-death combat. You will be required to complete one scenario a day, and everything further will be discussed with your direct supervisor." The direct supervisor in this case was the oldest disciple in every enclave of cottages.

Xiao instinctively looked around and found the burly woman heading his group standing not far away from him.

"There is no need to panic as states of potential emergency are announced regularly every hundred years or so, however considering the lifespan of outer disciples most of you have not experienced this.

I will say here that the majority of these alarms do not result in any of our disciples seeing actual combat, but we do see it as our responsibility to prepare you as best we can to raise not only your chances of surviving whatever might come but also those of the sect at large," Elder Zhang finished and with a consternated face turned around and went back into the Pagoda.

-/- A few hours later after a much more exhausting training session in which they had also been asked to spar against each other, Xiao stood in a large room containing more of those devilish metal artefacts that he had been so tormented by before being selected as a disciple.

"This one seems relatively new, probably for a more niche threat. It's why you can get it to fulfil your quota, everyone else is doing the tried and tested ones, meanwhile, you're the least likely to be sent out since you're the newest member of the sect," the group leader murmured next to him as she guided him into touching the Illusion Room assuming he had never done so before. Oh, but he had, he had done it before.

Mistaking his trauma for anxiety the group leader gave him a small smile which didn't fit her muscular face.

"Don't worry, they're harmless and any injuries you sustain within them can be easily healed. Quite frankly, considering how scripted some of the enemies are I don't understand why we're practising with them instead of against each other. I don't quite know what this one contains, but it's likely just another heavenly beast that you already know. Like a two-tail tiger or something, although I've never heard of a Dragonslayer Ornstein before. Just fight it as you would a normal enemy and you'll likely succeed."

Xiao gritted his teeth and entered the Illusion Room despite the protests of his heart and his mind. -/- Meanwhile, Jin and Elder Flower advanced on the mountain inhabited by the Illusion Room sect and in the same speedy manner as they had left it, zooming through the air. However, before they'd managed to arrive over the mountain, the sword suddenly ground to a halt in mid-air, ripping Jin out of his musings. He'd been thinking that it was funny that he left two different scenarios at the Mad Monk sect.

But, because perfecting Dragonslayer Ornstein had only taken him a week or two, which in comparison to the suffering he had to endure with Outlast was nothing, he mostly remembered the latter. But, he still had enough thought to spare to wonder how the outer disciples were faring against the armoured knight. It was a much less stressful scenario than Outlast so he hoped they were having some fun. He looked up as the sword abruptly stopped, not being able to see much from his position behind Elder Flower.

"Have we arrived?" he asked curiously. Elder Flower shook her head. This prompted Jin to tilt his head to the side and to try to see what was going on. His heart skipped the beat as he saw that the mountain he'd been reincarnated on was surrounded by what appeared to be a large army. His cultivation-enhanced brain counted at least 30, 000 men, bedecked with different insignias and weapons, but who all shared a black helmet with a red plume of feathers trailing down the back, albeit the length varied.

"It appears that we have a problem," Elder Flower summarised rather accurately.