Chương 47: 28.2. Rewards and Teaching

Far from the Clear Mirror sect, the suppression of the Ruby Demonic Sect was still ongoing. The traitor, Elder Thorn, was now pale and spitting blood outside of the entrapment formation. It had been three days. The peak masters who had gone to rescue the Nascent Soul elders had succeeded with several losses. The elders there had sat down to recover while the peak masters continued hunting down the demonic sect's members.

The vice-sect master's group was still entangled with the demonic sect elders and the black dragon at the Essence Unity realm, whose body was still swirling around the nearby skies, visible for thousands of kilometers. But neither side had taken casualties or been pushed back. Unfortunately, none of this put Wu Jie in a good mood. What good did those successes do, when the most powerful members of the sect were pinned down like this. He glanced at Thorn, then back at the array formation.

Cracks and splinters covered it and he had located most of the formation nodes, but he was unlikely to be able to break it before— Suddenly, the domains behind him collapsed.

"HAHA!!!" The old witch cackled. Wu Jie saw his senior sister, covered in ghastly wounds and veins pumped full of black poison, spill out of the collapsing domains, trembling and drooling black blood. His eyes narrowed, his expression turning ugly as he let the mirror entities summoned by his Dark Mirror of Heaven technique stall the old witch while he reached out a hand and caught his senior sister, dragging her to his side.

"Not so strong anymore are we! The rest of our sect will soon ravage your pathetic little Clear Mirror sect! We will avenge the humiliation from two centuries ago!" The old witch continued, taunting Wu Jie, the sect master of Clear Mirror sect. Wu Jie turned from the old witch to the array formation, the situation was becoming dire.

"Hmpf." He decided to make a sacrifice. His cultivation dropped suddenly, from close to the peak of the Essence Unity realm back to the beginning of the late stage. Some of the Domain Power inside of him turned into an unimaginable force within his body. With a tap of the finger, the array formation exploded like shattered glass. Countless red lights and illusory glass fragments fell from the skies, the shards twinkling and clacking.

The traitor, Elder Thorn didn't even have the opportunity to run, his body turned to dust as the remnant force from destroying the array formation touched his body. Wu Jie turned his full attention back to the old witch, who stopped laughing and glared at him seriously. The array formation had also been serving to suppress the energy of righteous cultivators. She raised both hands once more, "You will die today."

Wu Jie drew several book-sized golden talismans from his sleeves, which each began floating around him, "that is yet to be seen." Already far away from Wu jie, another talisman shot away, hurling itself towards the Clear Mirror sect. Miu followed behind Shuyue as she led the group in front. The goldfish inside the fishbowl she was carrying was swimming around, nudging the edges of the glass bowl eagerly as it watched the new environment. A larger door came into view at the end of the hall.

Two people were waiting in front of it, one was a maid Miu remembered seeing around a few times, the other was a woman in a green dress, a maid of the Faram estate.

"Your highness." Both the maids bowed as they approached.

"Is my tutor busy?" Shuyue inquired, stopping in front of them.

"Sir Faust sought out sir Faram yesterday. They have been deep in discussion and working on some kind of new cultivation method." The palace maid answered.

"I see." Shuyue mused, before pushing open the door and entering anyway. Miu hesitated.

"Uh…" Miu didn't know if she should follow or not, but Jing, beside her, nudged her along, causing Jung to hiss at her, pointing his nose at her menacingly. Big beady eyes making it hard to take the cute snake seriously though. Inside the room, larger than a hall, countless blackboards filled with writing and diagrams covered the walls and even ceiling, desks were piled high with books and paper and hanging in the center of the room was a massive construct of coloured strings, forming a vague outline of a person.

She saw Faram and Faust leaning over a large desk, scanning a diagram while humming and rubbing their chins.

"That's a problem. We'll have to change the Qi attributes again." Faram spoke calmly.

"... Or…" Faust raised a hand, "hear me out here." He waved a finger around and unraveled one of the strings in the figure suspended above.

"We don't use any counter attributes. Instead… We do something… Like this…" The strings moved, several becoming more… Wobbly? Miu tilted her head as she looked up. Faram didn't respond immediately.

"Use the suppression of other attributes, similar to a five elements suppression?" He asked.

"Something like that. Is it possible?"

"It could be. But now we have to account for the delay and increased complexity. I think we could do something similar with a different set of attributes to use as suppression." Faram undid Faust's changes, "if we take the Yellow and Blue strings, our current key says the two are similar to Yin and Yang from Five Elements theory— we could add some more attributes, forming a suppression from the clash of Yin and Yang attributes among the other Qi lines."

Faust nodded along, "So for our timing we just need to add the conversion constant to the five elements yin-yang energy equation and substitute in… If nothing else, the mathematics of the method work out neatly." Shuyue stopped, arms crossed standing behind the two. She watched the two seemingly ignore her as they continued on with their discussion.

"That is the plan. So long as the math works out we can interpret from their even if our visual model is a bit off."

"If we're introducing another suppression object, then we'll need to adjust the anchor depth to account for suppression pushing them deeper. It would also introduc—" The princess raised a hand and loudly coughed, clearing her throat. Faram and Faust abruptly stilled, then turned around.

"Forgive us your highness."

"Forgive us your highness." The two of them cupped fists and bowed deeply.

"What are you two working on?"

"Completing an Inner Palace blueprint." Faram shared. A document flew out from one of the piles and into his hands, which was presented to Shuyue. Shuyue took the document, briefly looked it over, then tossed it onto one of the piles.

"Whatever you wish for this princess to see, she doesn't see it. So instead, I would like to continue the lessons from last time." Faram was quiet, blankly staring for a moment before he refocused his eyes on Shuyue and nodded.

"Then, let us continue." He led Shuye out of the hall.

"Sir Faust, let us continue this later." Faust nodded. Then, Miu caught Shuyue's gaze and shied back a bit. Shuyue paused in her step, turning back.

"Actually. Sir Faust." She called out.

"Your highness." Faust bowed lightly.

"I'd like to hire you to teach Miu for a time." Faust's eye twitched, but Miu saw Shuyue narrow her eyes slightly and a moment later Faust bowed even deeper, hiding his face.

"Ten gold coins a day is already overpaying. Have her practice imperial script as well." Shuyue turned away and continued after Faram, who was waiting by the door. Miu felt a shiver down her spine as they passed. Even holding back their presence and auras the two were ridiculously powerful. She was just a small Qi Refining realm baby in comparison. After the two passed, she sighed, looking at the floor with her head tilted. The town lord had been powerful, a powerhouse at the Open Palace realm.

Now she was trapped with a bunch of Golden Core and Nascent Soul monsters. She looked up at Faust, who was organizing some of the scrolls and papers, filled with notes and diagrams. He… Kind of did look like the town lord… From the back at least. He turned around, facing her once more. Unlike the town lord, who seemed exhausted even as he sat in the high seat, overseeing the Rising Dragons and Phoenixes tournament, Faust looked like a stone wall— expressionless, with an apathetic gaze.

"Then. Let's move outside. I've been inside for a while." Faust spoke, finishing with the room and walking past her, before closing the room door behind them. The estate maid was already gone, but she saw the palace maid follow the two.

"Uh… Who's that?" Miu asked Faust. Faust glanced backwards at the maid.

"Yunxi. The princess's person." Miu didn't get it, "why is she following you?"

"..." Faust didn't immediately answer, "no need for a kid like you to worry about it." Miu looked back between them, then huffed.

"I'm not a kid. I'm twenty. I had my coming of age ceremony years ago." She corrected him. She saw his eye twitch briefly, before Faust looked at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"No you're not." Miu widened her eyes. She was about to get mad, but then she thought of how she'd been every time she'd met Faust. Ah… She realised that she really had been nothing but timid. She clutched the fishbowl she was hugging tighter, Jung hissing lightly in her ear. She wasn't timid usually. She ran through wild forests, fought beasts, fought hand to hand in the Rising Dragons and Phoenix tournament. But…

But that was all around ordinary people like her parents, around other Qi Refining cultivators, at most, she had been in front of a few Meridian Opening cultivators. The difference between Qi Refining and Meridian Opening wasn't so large she couldn't fight back or run away though. Even the town lord. He had fought a mansion sized beast outside the town walls, but there was only one of him and he was popular. Even ordinary mortals could get an audience with him if they tried hard enough.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. But the princess… Miu gulped at the thought. The Golden Core realm. What kind of power was that. Perhaps an Open Palace cultivator like Faust could crush her like a bug as well. Jung, the poor snake, knew how dangerous he might really be, curling tighter in his presence. But a Golden Core cultivator? Their presence had a physical weight that made it hard to stand.

She remembered when the princess held her hand to help her write her letter like she was a kid. Even restrained, she remembered trembling violently. She couldn't stop it. It didn't help that even Jung was wrapped around her waist so tightly she felt her ribs straining. But to actually be thought of as a kid? Miu lashed out, "I know I'm short! I know I've been a trembling mess! But you would be too if you were suddenly kidnapped by the princess! The strongest person I've met wasn't even as strong as you!

And you're one of the weakest people I've met so far!" Miu huffed, breathing heavily. Then, she froze. Eh? Did I just yell at him? Miu realised. Sweat forming on her back, she slowly craned her neck up to meet Faust's gaze. He looked back at her apathetically.

"I suppose looks make it hard to judge age." He commented, turning to continue walking, "how old do you think Faram is?" Miu blinked a few times, then shook her head clear before increasing her stride to catch up. Faust hadn't gotten angry at her. And unlike the servants and guards who only stared at her coldly, he spoke to her, without crushing her with his presence and aura. Exhaling in relief, Miu tilted her head and thought the question over, "twenty five?" She answered hesitantly.

"A hundred and sixty." Miu stared wide eyed with her mouth agape. In looks or behaviour, she always thought Faram was just a young prodigy.

"How old do you think Miss Yunxi is?" Faust gestured to the maid behind them. Miu turned and scrutinised her closely, then vaguely felt the Golden Core aura and snapped back around to face forward. Voice shaking from making eye contact with the Golden Core maid, Miu made a guess.

"Uh… Eighteen?"

"Forty two." Yunxi informed her. Miu blinked, then took a second look at Yunxi before her fear of the Golden Core realm could stop her. She quickly turned back to Faust "Uhm—" She began.

"I'm twenty nine." Faust assured her. Miu breathed a sigh of relief. Faust more or less looked his age. His skin had no wrinkles and was unblemished, but his build and jaw made him seem around his thirties. At least, she had never seen a twenty year old with such broad shoulders or long hair. She looked at him again.

His hair was mostly kept in place by a golden ornament that clung around the hair, disappearing underneath and only leaving a portion revealed where a short golden chain dangled with a few small red jewels. It wasn't something Miu's family could afford, but she knew one or two people in her village had simple jeweled golden ornaments as family heirlooms. But they said it was actually brass, not gold. Not that she could tell the difference. Soon, Faust led them outside to the garden.

Miu sat across from Faust in the same seats as they had when they first met at Faram's estate. The fishbowl placed on the stone table in the sun, while the goldfish inside rammed the side trying to reach the small artificial stream surrounding the stone seating area. Swinging her legs idly under the table, Miu looked around. She wasn't trembling so much this time. Being surrounded by Golden Core cultivators, in front of Faust at least, she didn't feel as much pressure as the last time they were here.

"Hmmm." Faust hummed after sitting down.

"What exactly do you want to learn? The princess didn't specify." He asked.

"How to become strong!" Miu immediately answered. If she was strong enough then she wouldn't have to be constantly trembling in fear that any random word or gesture could end her life. She wouldn't be held prisoner or like a pet either.

"Everyone wants to become strong. Be more specific."

"Ack!" Miu almost choked on her saliva.

"Then—then I want to learn how to use my elemental attribute!"

"That's Five Elements theory. I don't do that."

"Pft! Wha— What's the difference!?"

"It's been in development for a little over two million years, but Heavenly Axiom theory is the successor to Five Elements Theory, which has been the dominant theory on how the world works for nearly a hundred million years." Miu blinked, "I mean… What's the difference between the theories?"

"People spend their entire lives studying that exact question. Faram has studied it extensively which is why he uses them interchangeably. Considering the Yellow and Blue Qi lines as Yin and Yang Qi…" He muttered, sliding paper and a brush towards her before continuing.

"To tell you one of the differences. Five Elements Theory considers every type of naturally appearing Qi as its own type of Qi. Heavenly Axiom theory is the modern theory because it considers engineered types of Qi and types that could only theoretically exist, which have started to be used in more advanced methods, techniques, spells, formations, arrays and just about any subject beneath the Nascent Soul realm." Faust paused, leaning against one hand with his eyes closed. Miu waited for him to continue.

"Uh…" Was it rude to ask him to continue? Miu thought, hesitating.

"The princess also asked for you to practice imperial script. So, think about it. I've told you that much, so ask a question based on that. Write the questions down before asking." Faust cracked one eye open, settling his gaze on her briefly. Miu nodded slowly, then looked down at the paper and brush, before picking them up and awkwardly flicking her wrist to form the elegant curves of imperial script characters. But her hand was too small and she couldn't make the larger curves or delicate flicks of the wrist.

Watching her, Faust commented, "you use your whole arm for writing, not just the wrist." He reached out and held her above the elbow and at the wrist, guiding her whole arm. The characters really did become easier to replicate, though they still weren't neat. He retracted his arms, letting her continue on her own, staying silent until she was finished. Miu looked up, then noticed the way Qi was moving around him.

"Sir Faust?"

"Mhm?"

"Are you refining Innate Qi?"

"Yes."

"Isn't it dangerous to do without deep mediation and preparation?" Miu remembered what the old man used to say. To be careful of everything involving the dan-tian. Faust shrugged lightly, "dangerous in the same way everything in cultivation is. In theory you can go from the early Qi refining realm to the peak of the Open Palace realm in a few days. But nobody has ever done it successfully without dying."

He tapped a finger on the bench, "since I reached a point where I was just collecting resources and merit without advancing my cultivation any further, I simply spent all my free time refining more Innate Qi. You can never have too much of it and I've practiced techniques to make it faster and safer."

"Are there techniques like that?!" Miu exclaimed. Why had she never heard about them? Faust looked at her, then at the paper in front of her. Miu felt her face twitch but looked down and begrudgingly wrote her question down first. As soon as she finished writing, Faust started speaking again.

"As you know, since you're at the late stage of Qi Refining, refining Innate Qi is just acclimating neutral Spirit Qi until it takes on the properties of your Innate Qi that makes up your dan-tian." Faust began.

"The danger here—" he continued, "is that you could affect the Innate Qi of your dan-tian, locking yourself out of cultivation as you wouldn't be able to refine more Innate Qi. Most of that danger is because manually controlling Qi is hard. And the risk of tainting your dan-tian's Qi is because truly perfect Spirit Qi is near impossible to refine from chaotic environmental Qi's."

"Knowing this, why don't you tell me two ways you could refine Innate Qi faster or safer." Miu took the question seriously. The first problem was manually controlling Qi. But she couldn't think of how you could… Not … control Qi manually. You did it the same for techniques right? So then… Pure Spirit Qi…

"By using a technique that makes a purer Spirit Qi?" Miu answered. Faust tapped on the paper in front of her.

"Ah…" Miu, spilling ink all over the page, scribbled her answer down in imperial script.

"That is one of the methods. It is one of the advantages of learning a Qi control or transformation technique. Take my Qi Transformation technique. It lets me make ninety-seven percent attributeless Spirit Qi as compared to the average of seventy-seven percent." She thought long and hard about a second one, but after several minutes, gave up.

"The other is simple." Faust said.

"You already know Innate Qi is used to make constructs in your spirit body. So, the second method is to use the already refined Innate Qi to make a construct that lets you run Spirit Qi through it faster and safer than the dan-tian." Miu felt her jaw drop. Faust's apathetic expression twitched slightly into a smile before disappearing. Immediately, Miu closed her eyes and sent her senses inward, trying to make out her dan-tian. There was Spirit Qi she had already refined and trapped in her body.

There was also the bit of Innate Qi she had already managed to refine, floating around. If it's just a construct to pass Spirit Qi through, she thought. Tap!

"Ah!" Before she could try anything, Miu was snapped out of her meditation by a sharp poke to the forehead.

"Don't do something stupid. You learnt of the possibility so find a method and study it first."

"Sir Faust, why doesn't everyone do these things?"

"Why didn't you?"

"Because— Oh." It occurred to her that she would have known about it if it was common knowledge, "but why doesn't everyone know?" She changed her question.

"Because there's an incentive to keep rogue cultivators weak. To control how fast your subordinates grow. There's misinformation everywhere. Many just believe in purity over progress. I could continue, but there's a lot of reasons. But I think you'll find most cultivation families use both these methods. It's why most established families can reliably produce Open Palace realm masters and why the Golden Core realm is considered the threshold for being a real cultivator."

The palace maid who had been following them suddenly placed a tray of tea on the table, moving a cup in front of them both and filling them from the teapot.

"Sir Faust's knowledge is truly vast." It was so quiet that Miu almost didn't notice her before she spoke. Yunxi swiftly left the teapot and took back the tray, standing back off to the side of the clearing in the garden. Miu saw Faust glaring out of the corner of her eye, but she didn't know what it meant, so looked back down and focused on the paper in front of her.

"C-Can I learn them?" She asked timidly. Asking for techniques without giving anything in turn. Shame washed through her immediately.

"Sure, the princess will pay for you anyways."

"I don't think—" Miu began, but was cut off.

"The clothes you're wearing are worth two thousand gold."

"Wa?" Miu's expressions went wide, looking up at Faust horrified, her mouth dropping and eyes popping out of her skull. Long Tao landed in the arena. Far across from him, he saw his opponent, a verdant blade sect disciple at the Meridian Opening realm. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he prepared his glaive.

"There's no need to be nervous. The gap between Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment is vast, but looking into it, most of Foundation Establishment's strength has been moved into the so-called 'Open Palace' realm. The Meridian Opening realm isn't so strong." The old ghost explained. Tao opened his eyes and focused his eyes forward to his opponent across the arena.

Other places were divided by age or cultivation realm, but the sect's Rising Phoenix and Dragons tournament was only divided into the inner and outer sect brackets. If he wanted to win, he had to overcome the realm difference. The bear attack flashed in his mind. As a mortal he had no ability to even begin fighting that beast. Even with body tempering. Now though, he had reached the second level in body tempering and the peak of the Qi Refining realm. With the old ghost's glaive technique, he was confident.

"Begin!" The announcer's voice sounded. The battles had slowed down as there were fewer and fewer matches each day. The final round of the outer sect bracket would be decided the day after tomorrow. The Verdant Blade sect disciple shot forward, crossing the arena rapidly as he closed in on Tao.

"See? Unlike the Inner sect fights, he's still taking so long just to cross the arena. No need to worry." The old ghost assured Tao before disappearing. Gripping the glaive tightly. The Verdant Blade disciple swung a massive emerald saber. Tao jumped up, swinging his glaive. The weapons met with a loud clang! of metal. Using the momentum, Tao manipulated his glaive, throwing himself over the disciple's head. He spun midair, using the glaive technique to spin midair and attack.

The disciple wasn't a rookie however, he continued his swing, letting the spinning force turn him around in time to block the glaive's blade. Tao pushed against his glaive and sent himself sliding back to create distance but the disciple wasn't easy to fool, rushing at him with near equal speed.

"Not easy!" Tao tensed his muscles as he parried a blow upward and counter attacked with a thrust at the disciples neck, but with a twist of the wrist and lean on the body, the glaive was equally parried off of the large emerald blade's flat. The disciple adjusted their feet and was unexpectedly able to swing upwards, nearly cutting through Tao's jaw as he had to lean his whole head back, a scratch forming on his chin. Tao leaped backwards in the same motion to create distance.

He became so engrossed he didn't notice Aneroze, Foria and even Maria from the medical pavilion were all watching his battle intently. Up in the stands, one of the elders who hadn't joined the Ruby Demonic sect subjugation was also observing, caressing his bountiful beard.

"How long has he been in the sect again?" the elder asked. One of the dragon statues on the railings had its eyes light up.

"A little over three months now I believe. He keeps trying to break into the inner sect and I keep beating him up." Gardia, the sect's protective spirit responded from the glowing eyed statue. The elder gazed to the next level of the stands below him, the elders of other sects were laughing with peak masters, stewards and some other administrative personnel of the sect— all those at the Open Palace realm. Suddenly, a talisman flew into the pavilion. The elder frowned. The talisman began transmitting its message.

"Elder, the Vice-sect leader, the others and I are being held down by the Ruby Demonic Sect's forces. They have some kind of backing. I expect a force to also be on its way to plunder the sect itself." Suddenly on his feet, the elder's eyes went wide. A sudden message from one of the sect masters, Wu Jie's talismans? Gardia chuckled, "Looks like they think we're easy picking—" the chuckle was cut off abruptly.

"Gardia?" the elder asked.

"We've been betrayed." Gardia answered, their tone of voice losing its playfulness.

"What do you mean by that?"

"The sect protection array has been inverted. There is no escaping and no way for us to send a message for aid out." The elders face had gone black his expression was so dark.

"I will contact the supreme elders at once."

"No need, they already sensed it." Gardia stopped him. A moment later, the elder heard one of the supreme elders voice's, "don't panic yet. The demonic sect hasn't arrived yet. We'll try to break the barrier and if not, we'll find a way to send a call for help to the capital. If nothing else, the merchants who supply us will notice something off soon and report it." With that, the elder looked back across Starry Sky mountain. Reluctantly, he sat back down, his expression still twisted.