No Place to Hide

Fang Shi was leaving the clinic, and the world around him had drastically changed beyond his comprehension. Four days ago when he arrived, he had only held onto a slim hope that this clinic could heal his chronic condition. Instead, his injuries were healed completely, his body were purged of all impurities, his realm went from early foundation establishment to late foundation establishment, and he was now able to utilize wood Qi along side earth and metal.

"Elder Fang", Dr. Ming called out to him as left the building, "Just a reminder, we have food, drink, and pills on the island that are free of impurities at a reasonable cost. If you continue to use the products at your sect, I'm afraid you have to return here again for another purge. Please don't forget to stop by the cultivation center and QR Pod Cafe, the center is full of tested methods and techniques that will fit your lifestyle, and the cafe is the perfect place to perfect them. I would prefer if you don't have return to my clinic."

Fang Shi stopped, and gave Dr. Ming a respectful bow, "I can never thank you for everything you did for me, Doctor. Injuries like mine are very common on the Wu continent, and many people lose their Dao when that happens. I promise I will return here, but not as a patient, but as a guide. I want to bring my fellow cultivators here, so they can be healed, and walk the Dao once again."

Dr. Ming smiled, and said before walking back inside, "I'll be waiting then, peace unto you, my friend."

Fang Shi returned to the hotel room he had rented, pulled out his new Qphone, and contacted all the discples and elders of the Obsidian Bull sect. Before his stay at the clinic, he had informed his fellow elders and the disciples they chaperoned of his situation. He received mostly warm congratulations from the others, and the rest sent him perfunctory messages.

Fang Shi used the facilities in the room to cleanse himself before changing into a new robe from the sect. He left the hotel, caught a taxi, and arrived at a restaurant known as Barbecue AnAn. He had found this restaurant when he searched for places with foods rich in vitality, but had options for food that promoted Qi or mind essence. What caught his attention was that customers would cook their own meat in one of two methods. The first way was 'Yakiniku' which used a small grill that was installed in the middle of the table to cook the meat. The second method was called 'Shabu, Shabu', in which the customer took thin slices of meat, and quickly cook it with heated broth. Fang Shi couldn't help but try both styles that the restaurant offered, along with servings of spirit rice, and an assortment of vegetables. Once he finished the meal, he went to the cultivation center that Dr. Ming had recommended.

As Fang Shi walked into the center, he was surprised to find it wasn't as large as he'd imagined. Dr. Ming had told him it was a place that could test a person's potential, reissue ID cards, sold cultivation methods and techniques, or bought cultivation methods and techniques to test and improve them. He followed the signs, and arrived at the identification processing office. An staff member directed him to the testing artifact, and after a quick moment, was handed a new card.

ID cards had changed since the original issue of them, and the cards issued nowadays had a pentagon graph on it. Talent or potential used to be rated poor, average, excellent, etc, but after the first year, Wei Huoran felt that people with lower potential might feel upset seeing this rating on their cards. He changed it to a new rating system of zero to five levels, and made the pentagon as a visual representation. The pentagon would start as a dot in the middle surrounded by five pentagons of growing size.

When Fang Shi looked at his new card he saw the following:

Fire - 0

Water - 0

Earth - 5

Wood - 4

Metal - 4

Fang Shi was pleased with the addition of the wood root on his card, and now that his information was updated in the registery, he went to the methods and techniques room. When he entered the room, he was relieved to see it was currently mostly empty, only a few people were present. He reasoned that while he was in the clinic, the bulk of the travelers had already been here to seek advice. He walked over to the first counter titled 'Submissions', and greeted the staff.

"Hello, Daoist friend, is this the place to submit cultivation methods and techniques?", Fang asked the woman at the counter.

"Yes", she answered, "Please place any items, scrolls, or manuals here for evaluation. If you don't have it recorded on anything, please take this and write it down. We will inform you if it's already been recorded, or if accept it as a new record."

Fang Shi took a multitude of objects from his storage bag that were taken from enemies or found during his travels, and placed them down.

The woman activated a field on top of the counter, and without touching anything began to store each item into a special array for evaluation.

"For this amount of items, it will take approximately an hour before we can give you the result", the staff member informed him, "Will you be available then? Or should we notify you through your Qphone?"

"I will be using the device over there for the next hour", Fang said, "I will return here in an hour afterwards."

Fang bid the employee farewell, and walked over to the row of artifacts on the other side of the room. He read the screen, and followed the instructions displayed on it, inserting his ID card into the proper slot. The screen displayed all his information, but different than the card, an image of his body appeared containing his spiritual roots and the location of all the important points in his body.

Then the artifact spoke, "Elder Fang Shi of the Obsidian Bull sect. Welcome to cultivation center's methods and techniques acquisition portal. Do you wish to search yourself, or have the system prepare a list of recommendations based off your data."

Fang took a moment to think before responding, "How many methods and techniques are there?"

"There are currently over four hundred cultivation methods, and over ten thousand cultivation techniques that are suitable for your capabilities", Fang heard from the artifact.

If he had more time, Fang Shi wouldn't mind taking his time to search through the list to select what he though was most appropriate. Unfortunately, today was his fourth day on the island, and he wasn't given too much time escort the disciples here.

He reluctantly said, "Please recommend me a cultivation method, an offensive, defensive, and movement technique for now."

"Processing your order", the artifact replied.

After only a couple minutes, Fang heard, "I'm sorry Elder Fang Shi, no suitable cultivation method was found. This unit will now start customizing a method that specifically designed for you, stand by."

Fang Shi had already expected this situation, so when he heard the first part, he already started to reply, "That's fine, I didn't expect you to find a suitable method, I can still use the obsidian bull…wait, did you say you're creating a custom method?"

"Yes", the artifact replied, "It's common in this world for cultivation methods to focus on a singular element, so it's not unusual for methods that involve multiple elements to be nonexistent. Over the years, we have collected a considerable amount of information. This allows us to study in depth how methods are compatible with cultivators, and over time we have become increasingly familiar in the creation of new methods. To date, all new cultivation methods that have been created for residents, as well as guests, have been fully compatible without causing side effects or harm to the user."

Fang Shi sat back with excitement filling his mind, trying to imagine what new methods would be created just for him.

After a half an hour, the artifact notified him it had completed the task.

"Elder Fang Shi, this new method created according to your spiritual roots is known as the 'Steel Pine of Earth'", Fang heard before the voice continued, "This method is centered primarily on defense, while being supported by the vitality of wood, and the sharpness of metal. For movement techniques, this unit recommends using the earth or wood escape technique as your advantages are little when it comes to this. I've created an offensive move called 'Steel pine needles', a technique with high strength and durability that will be tough to block head on. Finally, the defensive technique is called, 'Steel Pine's bark', and will cover you in tough and durable armor of Qi. Should you receive attacks while using this ability, the armor can splinter into needles are target enemies in your close vicinity. Also, if you wish you can return to the center to buy techniques specifically for wood, earth, metal, or any combination. Thank you for visiting our center."

When the artifact stopped speaking, a light appeared in a large slot towards the bottom and four manuals came out. Fang Shi took the four manuals, and placed them into his storage bag, ready to head to the Pod Cafe to practice these new gains.

Wei Huoran sat in the chair of his portable workshop he had deployed in his room. For the last four days, he had been collaborating with Sage Hong, the chief of the talisman department in the creation of the talismans that now sat in a box in front of him. The newly named 'Gravitas' talisman numbered at twenty, but Huoran was sure they would be in production very soon. Even though he mainly worked alongside Sage Hong, the other three Sages stayed and watched the process, wanting to gain inspiration from their work.

"Perhaps we should create a ship that dedicated to observing nature", Sage Vigol commented to the other two Sages while watching Hong and Huoran, "This is not the first time Daoist Wei has created amazing new products using his knowledge of what we considered mundane creatures."

Sage Neridia scratched his chin, and nodded in agreement, "I will propose this to Daoist Wei and the Ministers later."

The other two Sages were able to argue with Neridia about who should report it when their conversation was cut short by Huoran.

"Alright, everything is completed", Huoran stated, "I will give these to Captain Zhuo, then we will finish our business with the holder of the cat stone. If you are curious about the results, I will broadcast it to everyone here."

Huoran sent a command to his QFold, and it floated into the air, following along at the height as his shoulder. When he entered the flight deck, Captain Zhuo noticed his entry, and nodded in his direction. This was standard procedure during a mission, she was the captain of the ship, and if she and the crew stood to greet him every time he entered, it would hinder the mission.

"Captain Zhuo", Huoran greeted her, "With some luck, the Sages and I were able to successfully collaborate. This box contains a new attack talisman which is the fruit of our labor. I have the ability to find our elusive target without the use of our new array formation, so I must request that I act as a gunner this time in pursuit of this shadow cat."

"I understand, sir", Captain Zhuo replied, "Please decide which cannon position you wish to use."

Huoran thanked the captain before heading to the heading to the weapons station.

"Pardon me fellow Daoist, I know this is unusual", Huoran remarked, "But can you please let me use the forward cannon?"

The cultivator sitting in the chair before Huoran stood up, and motioned for him to sit. Huoran quickly thanked the man before sitting down, removing a talisman from the box, and inserting it into the proper position.

'Quanliyuan', Huoran called out in his head, 'Its time to find end this game of cat and mouse.'

The artifact spirit slightly groaned at the terrible attempt of humor before extending his detection area as far as he could.

'This is far as a can currently see', Quanliyuan said, 'I'm going to need more power if I want to extend the range.'

Huoran pulled a small stone out of his ring, and began to concentrate on absorbing the power inside.

'What are doing?', Quanliyuan questioned him.

'I'm absorbing the power from this small beast core, and converting it to Qi for your use', Huoran answered.

Quanliyuan was quiet for a moment before absorbing the energy and replied, 'Thank you.'

With the boost of power from Huoran, the spirit was able to continue to extend its range until it finally locked onto the shadow cat.

'Here it hides, Xiao Ran', Quanliyuan told him.

"Captain Zhuo", Huoran said, "I have found our target, but it's very cautious. Stay in passive mode, turn seven degree right, and head straight for four point seven kilometers."

Captain Zhuo repeated the orders to the crew, and the frigate moved towards the new destination.

Felinea Stalkerpaw had been hiding deep underground for just over a day, and while hiding was a normal activity for cat beastkins, being the prey was not. The last few days has been a nightmare for her, she who was the ultimate stealth predator, becoming the prey of another hunter.

What confused her the most was how they were able to find her using the stone, and then continue to follow her every time she traveled through shadows to escape their pursuit. She began to suspect that this was due to her stone, when she had found it in the secret cave, the images contained within described how her stone was different than the other twelve. A shortage of a certain material had caused the crafters of the stone to use alternate methods to complete its construction. This had caused the stone to be smaller, and not as capable as the first twelve, but it was imbued with one rare ability. She could jump and hide in shadows to escape the detection of the other stone holders.

Suddenly, her intuition seem to warn her of an impending attack, but unlike the previous times when she could sense their presence, Felinea couldn't see or feel anything approaching her spot. Still, she trusted her gut feeling, so she jumped into the closest shadow to transfer to a new spot. Just as she was halfway through the shadow, an impact hit her location, quickly followed by hundreds of shockwaves in a 5 kilometer area.

Felinea was stunned as each shockwave rippled through the land, air, Qi, and even space seem affected by this attack. Terrible pain racked her body, and before she could do anything more to resist, the stone glowed. Her worst fears came true as the stone attempted to consume her and all the matter and energy around her. She could feel her body changing into the ancient beast trapped inside, a cat the size of a human with two tails, and extremely intelligent. Just as she felt the stone destroying her soul, the a second change happened, and everything within the five kilometer radius of the impact was being drawn towards the center.

Felinea and the being inside the stone panicked as they were pulled into the growing implosion before being crushed to death by the extreme force of gravity. Felinea's mind went dark, and she would never understand what just happened to her as her corpse was in the center of a five kilometer crater with a newly formed ball of mass sitting in the middle.