CH1: Artificial Psyren

Stealing from 11-year-olds did not make me a bad person. How else was I supposed to support my girlfriend's clan? She needed help, but she didn't come to me. So, in the last six months, I dropped some 40,000 mid-grade spirit stones in her room. Lui Fang's clan was rich in honor but poor in resources. She was prideful, and I couldn't embarrass her. I was fortunate that my job was in high demand.

Young Master Hu Ye was a stout lad of 11, a dao seedling who picked his nose while glaring down at me. He wasn't going to catch me; my crime was too good even for core elders.

When I mentioned Dao Seedling, he broke 5 of 9 locks of mortality in body tempering. He could fly.

I only broke a lock in 20 years of cultivation and couldn't fly without a tool at peak foundation. At two significant stages of power above Young Master Hu Ye, I wasn't his match. If that 11-year-old wanted to kick my butt, there wasn't a thing I could do to stop him.

"The sun," Hu Ye said.

I smiled pleasantly at the young master. It was easy knowing who I would see tonight.

"Could you clarify that, Young Master?"

"Landscaper, I want a sun in my dimension. Get me a sun that I can walk on."

I pictured the snot-nosed boy burning to a crisp and some elder snapping my spine like a twig for it.

"Can your budget handle another 2000 mid-grade spirit stones?"

The boy sneered like the thought of being unable to afford his cultivation haven was unimaginable. I wish I had money to blow like that.

Two thousand mid-grade spirit stones were more than I made in a century. As a peak foundation outer disciple, I was given a single mid-grade spirit stone every month. This was the norm I trained in the Thunder Eagle sect, so I owed my service to the sect.

At 35, I was getting on in years. White hairs appeared on my mustache, along with grey hair on what little hair I had left. A gut had started growing that I couldn't get rid of no matter how much I trained. In six months, my girlfriend still hadn't let me touch her. She kept saying I had to prove my worth to her clan before we could get more intimate.

How much more help can I be? In the four months since I found out, I left 40,000 mid-grade spirit stones for her, but I had a good feeling about tonight.

"You gray-bearded dolt. I want a source of sun chi. That shouldn't be too hard. I need to made chi gathering by the tournament next month. Old dog, this is the trick we keep you around for, so fetch me a sun."

I kept my smile up, imagining Lui Fang's creamy thighs instead of the arrogant boy screaming at me.

"Don't worry, young master. Supply the spirit stones, and I will get it done," I said.

"That's what I'm talking about, dog. Do well enough, and I'll give you a bone," Yu said.

When I woke up in this magical world, I thought I had won the lottery. Nope, I was just another loser among the millions who entered the Thunder Eagle sect.

"Why aren't you wearing your badge? How will I tip you if you don't have one?" the boy said.

A look from the young master was enough to know I was dismissed. How cute he thought I was doing this without being paid.

Early on, I learned that I was a poor cultivation talent. Twenty was too old to cultivate, but the sect could always use another servant. Fortunately, the sect had a library with an exciting way of sectioning off people. Things like formation and array crafting were free to learn the foundations in, but a good combination for spirit arts was locked up. I couldn't understand most of the good ones because I had learned terrible fragments.

The library had all the information I needed to learn how to make a formation to channel more energy to my body. I couldn't find a good place to cultivate, so why not make one? Years later, an 11-year-old Lui Fang asked me to make an area like my own, and that started my landscaping business.

Years later, Lui Fang left me a note, and we have been together since.

Being with her gave me hope. I believed in investing in myself again.

A tear in space in the middle of our grassy field grabbed my attention. Some of Core Elder Yu's disciples had ripped open a space. We were in the middle of a spiritually rich tract of land carefully fed with spirit beast manure over the past year.

My business relied on cultivators like Elder Yu being too busy with sect matters and their own cultivation to make money off the new Dao Seed grant. Thanks to the tournament, landscaping was in high demand. Dao seedlings who qualified were willing to do anything to get a final breakthrough.

Two core cultivators placed posts on both sides of the tear, stabilizing it. A reading appeared well-lit in the dark of Pitch Mountain's yin-type atmosphere. The moon overhead blocked the sun well enough to let the numbers shine bright. Twenty thousand cubic meters wasn't big enough for a sun, but I could install something nice for the brat.

I couldn't compete in cultivation, so I researched anything and everything in the library. Somewhere along my research, I found information on a race called the Psyrens. They were a group of soul cultivators with incredibly dense souls. They were easily capable of gathering vast amounts of energy. Some said their energy reserves were infinitely refilling without cultivating.

After falling down multiple rabbit holes, I slapped some seals on my body. Seals are like applications for formations and arrays. They are everything in a formation or array condensed into a small tattoo. I had two seals on my body: a skull with a third eye on my chest just above my heart and a Thunder Eagle on my left shoulder. One gathered soul-nourishing resources from the chi in the air, while the other maintained the size and shape of my soul. The pain from both had become normal.

Soul density had increased my chi reserves to practically limitless amounts. Unfortunately, chi wasn't the issue; it was my bottleneck. I needed 5 of the 9 locks gone to move into Core, a kind of egg that would eventually hatch a Nascent Soul. To get past the next lock, I had to fly with a fragment that I didn't have.

For a mere 50,000 mid-grade spirit stones, I could purchase a pill from an auction to bypass the lock. My funds were going to my girlfriend's family because, despite not having sex, she made me happy. If I work hard enough and scalp enough of these young masters, maybe I'll get the pill I need and make Lui Fang happy.

So until then, I would use my near-limitlessly regenerating chi to bypass the spirit stone cost.

…

Lui Fang stared at the ritual room in the cold underbelly of Mt. Smog. A smiling Elder Yu had repeatedly walked her through the ritual. Chains fit to hold a peak foundation cultivator were set and oiled.

"Is there no other way?" Lui Fang asked.

The girl watched as the Elder, who looked no older than 12, smiled grandfatherly while hovering high enough that his long flowing robes didn't touch the ground. Even among the Dao seedlings, he was a prodigy. Knowing that such a man thought she, a girl from a fading clan, was worth it made her work harder.

"If you would rather I withdraw my assistance and let the Echo Hyenas tear apart your clan, then you can stop."

Being Elder Yu's disciple gave her family some protection, but it was the spirit stones that they couldn't live without. Twenty thousand mid-grade spirit stones could bribe officials, pay for sanctions on enemy clan merchants, and fuel the cultivation of the elders. It was the difference between her clan existing and a messenger telling her one morning that she was the last of the Lui. Still, it was only enough to hobble along and insufficient to recover. It was clever and to be expected from an elder.

Elder Yu was a master of both soft and hard power.

"I don't want to hurt him. But if it's for the clan, I will do what must be done. How much longer do I need to string him along?"

"Two more weeks, and it will be the new moon when your Yin will be at its zenith. That is when you must strike, or it will be another month, and my protection will wane." Elder Yu shook his head. "I'm already sick of the fool. He asks questions I have no answers to as if he has a future. All he could wish for is to be fuel for someone with talent." Elder Yu said.

She nodded slowly. That was right. She had listened to him complain about his bottleneck enough to know he wasn't moving forward. He was poor, weak, and without a future. The sect treated him as less than a servant. Even though she had used his services, others were ready to take his place.

Atom Newman failed his most important test. If he had capitalized on the demand his ingenuity granted, he could have been in Nascent Soul. Instead, he grew grey hair and looked more like a corpse daily.

But he also asked her about her day, listened, and cared about her problems. Despite his age, his body remained strong, and his tattoos looked impressive. Young masters have continued seeking his landscaping talents in unending streams since he emerged.

If she were a woman without a clan, talent, and hope like Atom, maybe he would be quite the catch. Once she reached the nascent soul realm, she would catch the eyes of men like Elder Yu and be on the track of becoming a core elder. All she needed was the right pill to pass the 8th lock. Soul Tribulation was difficult, but with a soul that loved her like Atom to take the blows, she would smoothly reach the next stage.

"My father says some bandits attacked one of our caravans sending our tribute to the sect."

"Say no more. After Atom leaves for the night, I will give you some financial assistance."

…

A vast white room in my soul swallowed the spirit stones in the budget while I worked to power the campfire. Logs made of arrays black as ink crackled while solar flames licked them. Vast amounts of energy to nurture sun fragments into seeds or sprouts permeated the room. A floor of ash with sprouting natural treasures rose and fell as I watched the time dilation do its work.

The fire remained kept in its kiln, nurtured by seals for eons until its energy was the right kind of ancient to make cultivators orgasm in their pants. I loved it when the young masters, with their sneers and narrowed, distrustful eyes, entered their new cultivation zone for the first time. Those expressions quickly turned to joy, and they rushed off without even thanking me.

I pocketed 12,000 this time and only took enough to eat and pay rent. A spasm ran through my body—no, it was my soul. That had happened a few times in the last few months. It must be time to strengthen the seals again. One of the best uses for my limitless energy production was making my own sealing ink, and one of the best advantages to strengthening my soul was a soul space.

Something that normally only happens in the Severing stage appeared a few years into my soul improvement. At first, it was only a meter cube, but time expanded it.

I went to Lui Fang's apartment in the core sect housing. Most guards let me pass until I reached housing on Honored Mountain. A group of sneering tuffs barred me each in the core realm and sneered at me.

"What are you doing back here, old man? I thought we crippled you last time. Did some outer elder take pity on you?"

They did not go that far last time. I regained my cultivation in a day. It was a terrible use of an off day. Even they weren't enough to kill my smile.