Last Flame (3)

As usual, the girl wakes up in the morning of the dimmed forest. Sunshine failed to reach her skin but her face beamed nonetheless. It was another day to play and cultivate.

For Celes to have all the resources she could wish for was paradise! Her stomach was full and if it ever roars in hunger, a flick of the wrist was all that was needed to bring out the stored fruits. Lacking? Empty? It was fine! Just get up and look around. Meat was also juat around the corner, Celes just needed to strengthen her cultivation in order to cope up with the low-ranked beasts. Any burnt pills? Any pantry problems? Just gather as much herbs as possible, as much spiritual fruit as possible and as much meat as possible. Water to quench her thirst were the watermelons so Celes was fine.

Everything was provided but Celes had a huge sense of dissatisfaction eating into her nerves. Her breath stank. Her hair was matted. Her skin was sticky and dirty. Her clothes were worse. Her nails were occupied by unnamed dirt. The woman badly needed a bath. Her life was on the line. That was the biggest curse she ever encountered as a woman in this wretched place - water came only from the rain and when it came, it wouldn't be an average rain but a storm given the fog.

Celes convinced herself that whenever the irregular showers rained down, it wass the scheduled bath time that came once or twice a week.

Celes never felt so frustrated. A proud, royal beast blood runs in her veins and the being would never allow herself to be brought this low. Especially the former sterile room specialist and the modern city girl pampered by showers straight to her home, hot spring trips in Japan or sometimes South Korea, saunas, spas in Thailand and long, summer swims in the Philippines.

Finally, the key to happiness was here! The cauldron behind and the endless resources were on hand! The probability of returning to the former glory of a strong cultivator is already peeping from a distance.

For further understanding, a cultivator's body have eight meridians as there were three dantians it is linked to: upper, middle and lower. All which were unfortunately been injured and damaged. The slower the speed of recovery the lower the possibility of actual healing. That is why for Celes Fallon de Lin with a critical injury, a slow process alone was more than enough. A good sign of actual recovery!

Many months passed before finally unblocking the meridian located on her arms. 'Two out of eight done, that was progress!' she thought. The former could finally generate Qi!

The fact that Celes has been practicing over night on borrowing Qi from the environment have surely guaranteed her success. Several nights of experiments have passed and her arduos labour have finally come to bear some fruits. No matter how mentally degrading and dangerous it was, being able to swipe all the grime and dirt away, feel minty fresh and the instant lightness of the body would be worth the risk! Celes Fallon de Lin could clean herself now with the use of bare minimum Qi!

But Celes' also had poor knowledge about Chinese acupuncture and medicine so all the woman could think of were the western vitamins and medicines she have grown accustomed to. For now, Celes have to settle with multivitamins with minerals made with spiritual fruits and herbs then cooked by Qi in that mystical couldron which should do the magic. Celes nodded to herself in agreement.

Celes' desperation for ultimate cleanliness allowed the ability to clean herself to be the first thing she learned. Previously, Celes worked in a hospital where every inch of a sterile compounding specialist's body had to be clean. It felt like a grave sin was committed when a clean lake or at least a safe river weren't able to be found and accomodate bathing and laundry needs. In addition to her hygiene, she made sure that her current clothes were also clean and stench free.

"Now I just have to slice off this unnecessarily long hair," she grinned. Celes hated the high maintenance of long locks of silky, black hair. It was so ready to get oily, smelly and tangled. In addition, the previous commander-general of the second life have been caught on the tree branches because of her hair. A flick of her wrist summoned a short sword and with a wave of her hand, Celes have cut the unfortunate locks below her shoulder. Her head felt lighter as did her stiff neck.

As time passed in Celes' shelter, all she did was recall and try out her previous knowledge about her martial arts and Qi control as well as analyzing and trying out the extent of its application. These were practiced aside from trying to refine her first pill before bed time. Yes, she has yet to make one as her progress was still at a recovery stage. Therefore, pill makibg was almost like a bedtime routine to make the recovering cultivator sleep peacefully.

Celes stood up with a slumped back. Eyebags darkened under her exhausted eyes as she glared at the couldron. "How I wish for a nearby pharmacy," Celes mumbled.

At the sight of the mystical object, her eyes felt strained and a burst of anger left growling sounds under her mouth. Celes' canines were bared to the open as she just bay wanted to hurt it. "Lucky fat piece of can, you are lucky because you are still of use to me! Fat tin can!"

Celes practiced inhaling and exhaling to try and reduce her irritation but failed. Her eyes glared at the couldron before kicking it but carefully. It might--- the couldron roared as if it was a real beast deafening her sensitive ears and surprising the reborn woman. "I forgot that some objects are mystical because they can respond!"

A smile spreads her lips. If only she could see her face right now, the girl might stop. A murderous, maniacal grin reached her ears and tore the eyes out of any passerby. "I can play with this!"

Celes just found a new toy!

As if the nine dragons and the phoenix carved into the couldron were actually alive, they felt a chill blow by. A fear have now been re-instilled into them and they finally re-acknowledged there owner.

Celes almost broke the cauldron that could have lead to its death, to make herself feel better but of course, the pill-maker had to hold that in and instead, headed outside for martial arts training. The couldron was responsive and was going to be a good tool. It shall serve her better next time.

Swayed by her emotions, Celes skipped-hopped her way out with the roar of a divine beast leaving her mouth. As she had wanted, some beast responded by coming forward. A lone divine beast have just put itself head first on a golden platter ready to be served to the beasts. That's how it should have been.

But Celes, a former general-commander and a divine beast who have once cultivated to a high-ranked martial honour have left a well, highly-tempered body. Given her extraordinary strength and unusual defense, at least Celes could fight the lowest level of spiritual beast. As for the reason? Dinner.

A divine beast, no matter how weak it was would always be a divine beast.

One such example was the huge bird that tasted like chicken once cooked, a Tachy Pheasant. Its gray feathers perfectly camouflaged with the thick fog but one point that allowed Celes to find it was its unsteady and rapid heartbeat. It was faint but loud enough for Celes' tempered body all thanks to her previous self. She slowly made her way above the bird but disappeared from the beast's sight as soon as she was spotted only to appear above it and crash the creature by landing a foot on it's slim neck. Celes grinned and dragged her dinner back home along with some unfortunate beast that dared challenge her based on physical prowess alone.

While eating, Celes' eyes drilled into the cauldron with spite. Her canines were shown as her irritation gradually built up. "Just how much more Qi do I need to activate you?" For the girl, it was no longer just about cultivation but also for her desire to actually be able to touch the annoying cauldron! Celes partly blamed herself for being so picky and minimal before. Who told the former that just a high quality cauldron was enough? She should have made back ups just in case she burns her dantian core! That was called insurance! "Stupid! Arrogant!"

So after dinner, her activities were concluded.

She scanned her current state and saw that another meridian was starting to heal. 'Great!' At this point, Celes could probably at least generate enough power and circulate Qi better. It will surely improve the impact and extent of her martial arts.

Though Celes would not and never ever want to admit, her progress was comparable to a snail's pace much to her displeasure. She flicks her wrist to summon a throwing knife, tied a string on it and threw it at a random direction. But only for it to hit no noisy creature but a tree. A pout pulled her lips in irritation.

If only that woman have not saved the former. Would it have changed her path? Celes thought about not being a general commander at all. 'Probably.'

If the former had no authority, there would been lesser chance of massacres thus lesser chance of dying and being thrown out like trash.

If only the former had not craved for power in the first life. Maybe she would have not been a divine beast but just a regular person. No, absolutely not. Celes doubted being a normal person. Is there even such thing? Every one has their own point of crazy, Celes herself was just bad at hiding it. She sighed. 'A pointless what if.'

If only Celes' greed was limited to food, sleep and sloth. But the being hated sloth. She was not lazy at all, in fact, Celes once lead a riot in the empire to persecute every lazy official and citizen. No one was exempted, not even the little young noble daughters hidden in the households. How dare they laze around while Celes and her people were out there fighting for their lives? They have to work to death!

Celes shook her head. 'No more what ifs!'

Nevertheless, Celes realized that she had to live her life in a better way to avoid waking up in a dump and have a body of a waste, a fallen divine beast humiliated by her own master and comrades.

'Unless provoked ' Celes Fallon de Lin made a promise to herself. 'I would no longer instigate fights.'

Upon that very day, as if the heavens heard her promise, Celes' progress improved but not by leaps and bounds but at a steady, moderate pace.

Two months passed and six of Celes' meridians have finally recovered. It was almost time to start cultivating. An elated expression displayed on her face, much different from her recent frustrated amd irritated looks.

"Now, I can at least refine pills!"

At the same time, the victim of Celes' abusive temper had a sigh of relief. The couldron finally did not have to serve as a punching bag but an actual couldron this time around!

The beginner pills at the lowest tier were the only ones at Celes reach for now but that was enough. Thanks to her modern knowledge with medicine, her way of finding a better solution was a bit better. If she could make her mix of spiritual fruits and herbs as vitamins, meditate and then practice her martial arts then it would be more than enough to satisfy the condition of the first tier of becoming a cultivator.

If Celes could still properly remember, the cultivation rankings in this world starts at the Qi Gathering stage beginning from 1st degree and ending at the 8th degree. If she could achieve all degrees, she can finally start the path of becoming a true cultivator!

"How exciting!"

The thought of finally becoming a member of this world's acknowledged type of citizens made her ignore all her previous short-comings. As Celes had already been a former cultivator, becoming powerful was just below her top three priorities.

The transmigrator thought carefully about her priorities this time around.

First was to find a way to control her evil cheat for cultivation. It had occurred to her that the younger version of her in her previous life had a heroic mindset but was soon corrupted by her power the older and more powerful she became.

Secondly, she wanted peace and if possible, become a merchant. All her modern-esque knowledge would be the path to success.

Thirdly, find a sweet heart. After all, the world would be boring if there was no spice in this last life.

Meanwhile, the couldron also begged its master that she should seek mental help from some ancient psychologist to tighten the screws in her head and fix her temper. In the future, the couldron would find its wish to be a lifetime worth of blessings as soon as that man came into her life. It even pretended to be broken for several days when Celes decided to abandon him!

Back to the current time, Celes nodded to herself in satisfaction and began refining her vitamin pills. Her preparations should be enough to enter the Qi Gathering stage! After all, this stage was the easy one and fastest to achieve especially for the fact that her home was a Qi paradise.

To put it simply, Qi gathering stage is just like a vacuum cleaning stage where the cultobator literally absorbs levels of Qi and train to control and circulate it. As easy as it sounds, Celes would have to practice tremendously.

"Sigh, if only the fog is clear and the sun is out like the summer in Canada when I took the sun for granted! Freaking destination! I hate swamps. I hate fogs. I hate gloomy weathers. I hate the dull, gray sky. This is so boring! Those creature would barely show themselves to play with! Why here?!"

If her grandmother could hear her, the elderly woman would probably wipe her face with her hands and groan. "Of course, it is a challenge. They dumped your corpse here so where else would you appear? In a newly born pig in a dirty pen?" she would scream into Celes' ears.