ATG 7

Now that Carl had finally made contact and allied with the Yun Family and set them in motion to gathering allies, he did not vary his normal daily routine. Making a big change to his schedule immediately after meeting with the Yun Family would look incredibly suspicious to any spies that were watching the Yun Family, thus negating their efforts to move discreetly as they rallied their allies.

He had already passed off and redirected his duties as a doctor to the Mu family shop, the Silver Needle, when he made his deal with them. So aside from continuing to make various medicines, pills, and potions to be sold there, he found he suddenly had a lot of free time. So with the restriction of not doing anything unusual or stand out, Carl spent some time in thought over what he would fill his time with study or training wise. With the upcoming counter offensive coming, Carl decided he would spend a large chunk of his time experimenting with combining various magic and profound crafting practices to help his allies in their endeavors.

Shortly after entering the world and gaining his knowledge of crafting from his perks, Carl found that there were many instances where spells and runes were able to do many of the same things that profound inscriptions and arrays could. Communication devices, dimensional storage space, medicine, etc. were all things that had direct duplicates in both systems.

But after that point there was a great divergence. The two societies, magical and profound, were vastly different. The magical society of Earth found themselves outnumbered and hunted by the non magical peoples, or taken advantage of by the muggle Lords. So they decided to hide from the muggles in order to protect themselves, rather than fight.

The magical society then developed their practical magic along the lines of hiding and protection. Instead of massively powerful direct combat magic, they researched defensive and hiding wards and spells. They created spells that would ensure they could be self sufficient in their daily lives, as well as being capable of hiding themselves from the vast population of muggles. And even their combat magic was kept relatively low key so they wouldn't gain attention from unwanted outsiders.

The profound cultivation society of Blue Pole Star had a vastly different environment. They lived in a hostile world where beasts could grow strong enough to destroy entire cities with barely any effort. Those who practiced Profound Cultivation weren't a fraction of the whole society, they were the main focus of their entire people. Everything about their society was focused on the goals of surviving and prospering through strength.

They needed to grow stronger to be able to carve out a place for their families to live. So most of their efforts went into learning how to get stronger, faster, and more powerful. They created attack techniques that could kill a beast as large as a small mountain. They learned movement techniques to keep up with creatures that could be faster than a jet plane. They learned defensive techniques to protect themselves from creatures that could be more destructive than an ICBM. Everything about their society was geared towards getting stronger.

Magic and Profound Energy were, however, two separate energy sources. Despite sometimes being able to do the same thing, they seemed to have two different "frequencies", so to speak, and rarely interfered with each other. And the two energy sources also had a different frequency from his Ki that he learned from the HSDK world.

Now that Carl had been to several different worlds, in addition to some of the perks he gained from this one, he was starting to come up with several ideas about how things worked.

The first idea had to do with magic. He had two worlds he gained magic from, the BtVS world and the HP world. Despite the different magic systems and how the practitioners gained magic, the two world's magic was on the same frequency. Magic was magic, no matter where he went.

In the BtVS world, when he had needed to cast magic, he had basically been a conduit for magic. He would suck it in from outside his body, and then utilize it immediately. But he had no storage capacity. When he gained the HP version of magic, he gained a magical core that resided in his head. It constantly drew magic into his body and stored it, ready for future use.

The placement of his magical core in his head followed the theme that Carl thought was the main focus of a magic user: their intelligence and mental abilities.

The perks that he had gained from the ATG world added some more ideas. The Great Way of the Buddha was a technique focused on enhancing the body, totally separate from the Profound Veins. After some investigation of his own body, he found that the energy from The Great Way of the Buddha was incredibly similar to his Ki. The technique was a way to "ingest" energy from outside the body and convert it to Ki to enhance his body.

It was different from the methods of the HSDK world, where they simply focused on exercise and more exercise to temper the body. With the Great Way of the Buddha, the technique used outside energy to temper and nourish the body.

And the center for his Ki core was where his heart was. Another symbolic location in his body. The heart pumps the blood that keeps the body alive. It is the metaphorical center of his physical body.

Which brought him to Profound Energy. In most of the stories, the cultivators would have a Dantian that they formed that would be the center of their cultivation energy. As they absorbed the energy of the Heavens, it would fortify their soul, which would have a trickle down effect of enhancing their body and minds after enhancing their souls.

And while the cultivation methods of ATG didn't have a Dantian and was instead replaced by the Profound Veins, he found it telling that the inner world that stored energy granted by the Nine Profound Exquisite Body was where his Dantian would be.

Carl then came to the conclusion that since the cultivation practices focused first on strengthening the soul, then it made sense to him that his soul center was at his Dantian, just slightly below and behind his navel.

Body, Mind, and Soul. Three different focuses and methods to enhance an individual aspect of the person, which then trickled down to make improvements to the rest of the person as a whole. Could the techniques from one method be adapted to another? Could he use the basics from the profound cultivation and body cultivation techniques in order to create magic cultivation techniques? Carl thought it was highly possible, although it would be time consuming to convert the techniques.

He already had profound cultivation techniques that were focused on enhancing his soul first, and then the improvements would trickle down and improve his mind and body.

And now that he had the Great Way of the Buddha technique, he had proof that there were methods to absorb nature energy and use it to improve his physical body, which would then trickle down to his mind and soul and enhance them too.

So he knew that it was highly likely that somewhere out there were techniques to cultivate and enhance his mind and magic, and then it would trickle down and strengthen his body and soul. He already had proof that magic enhanced the physical bodies of wizards, so the theory was sound, in Carl's mind.

So where were his techniques used to cultivate magical energy and strengthen his mind, and then trickle down and enhance his body and soul? The magic worlds he had been to previously didn't have such techniques. Getting stronger wasn't their main focus, so much as using what they had.

But the history of both the BtVS and HP worlds gave him hints. Merlin was a hugely powerful wizard, capable of great feats of magic that the average wizard couldn't do. How did he get so strong? Was it really just the accident of his genetics, or was there more to it?

In the BtVS world, the lore said that True Demons were in charge of the Earth in the beginning, and it was Hell for the humans. And then at some point the great human Mages banded together and kicked out the Demons. How did the human mages get strong enough to do that under the Demon's rule, considering how weak humans were when Carl lived there? They must have had a method to enhance themselves that was lost sometime in the past.

Due to all these thoughts, Carl was interested in attempting to come up with a method to create a magical cultivation technique that would strengthen his magic. Carl determined that it would be a long term goal, something that he would have to develop gradually while he focused on other things in this world. He still had to help the Yun Family overcome their secret enemies and once more bring order to the Empire.

So for the time being he would focus on getting stronger with the Great Way of the Buddha body cultivation technique, and the Golden Crow's Record of the Burning World stages that would increase his skill and control over fire.

Which brought him back to his ideas for crafting useful tools. The focus of the HP world crafting was different from the profound cultivation techniques. But if he could use the ideas and techniques from both in one device, or a series of tools at least, then he would be able to give his side a decisive advantage in the upcoming conflict.

So aside from Carl's far reaching goal to create a magical cultivation system and his current cultivation practicing to get to the peak, he busied himself crafting various devices that would be helpful in the upcoming counter attack against the Yun Family's enemies. He would stockpile them for now and distribute them to his allies before they sprung the trap. Carl was determined to do all he could to get all of the conspirators in one go.

XX

Over the month following Carl's meeting and healing of Yun Qinghong and Mu Yurou, Carl kept in regular contact with Yun Qinghong using the mirrors as the Yun Family Patriarch started organizing his family and meeting with trusted allies to pass along the mirror communicators that Carl had passed him.

There were a lot of things that Yun Qinghong was doing and organizing that Carl was not privy to. Not only was he an outsider to the Yun Family, albeit a somewhat trusted ally, but he was considered pretty weak on the cultivation scale. He had only recently broke through into the Emperor Realm, which at the age of early 20s in the Illusory Demon Realm was considered very weak and untalented. Most of the youth of the important families were at least in the Tyrant realm, if not the Sovereign realm by the time they reached his apparent age.

While normally the Yun Family members would think him weak, untalented, and not worth allying with for only reaching the Emperor Realm by his apparent age, there were a number of factors that were in his favor and overrode that instinctive reaction.

The first was that he had easily defeated Yun Kuo who was a whole realm higher than him in cultivation. His ability to fight above his apparent cultivation level put him in the category of the strong. After all, the important thing wasn't cultivation level, but actual battle strength.

The next was his great skill as a doctor. They recognized that in order to get as skilled as he was in medicine, he would have had to put an inordinate amount of study time in, which would mean his cultivation level would suffer. That he was as skilled as he was in medicine and yet still strong enough to fight at the Tyrant cultivation level while only an Emperor attested to his amazing skills.

And while all that was what the Yun Family saw as the truth, it was all a big lie due to the Jump Chain shenanigans. They would be incomparably shocked if they knew that Carl had only been cultivating for two and a half years and was already in the Emperor realm.

Carl saw no need to shock them excessively by bragging about it. That would only accomplish two things, in his mind. Get him a reputation as an idiot braggart, and if he was believed then he would get a little too much attention by the stronger cultivators out there who would be convinced he had some treasure on him. Naturally they would consider the treasure to be a waste if it remained in Carl's hands. They would be a better owner of such a treasure and would be more than happy to relieve him of both the supposed treasure and his life.

Discretion was a huge key to staying alive when amongst murder hobos.

Carl had just arrived at the Yun Family grounds while thinking of the past month, and how much work still needed to be done before they could counter attack. He had recently made another breakthrough to Emperor 3, and was arriving at the Yun Family to join Yun Xiao and Seventh Sister in their regular spars.

The attitude of the guards had changed greatly since his last visit a month ago. They were polite while being strict and following the rules. He could tell that his words to the guards last month had made their rounds, and that the Yun Family guards were much more cautious and conscientious in their duties as the public face of the Yun Family.

The two guards on duty soon passed him inside. Over the past month his face had become a regular fixture at the Yun Family, as he spent plenty of time practicing with Yun Xiao. Where as previously he, Yun Xiao, and Seventh Sister had to find out of the way places to practice and go to eat where they wouldn't be harassed by Yun Family members or scolded by Under Heaven Family members, now they could openly join Yun Xiao at his training grounds with the blessings of both Families.

It was amazing the changes that were occurring now that their Patriarch was strong and the family was no longer pulling apart. Even though the secret of Yun Qinghong's recovery was tightly held, if one knew what they were looking for they could see some clues. They would just have to organize and act faster than their enemies did if the news leaked out.

They would likely be helped by the opposition taking time to assess the situation before they acted. They had done all they could to make sure that the Yun Family was weak when they made their move, so if they realized that the Yun Family was stronger than they thought it was, they would have to do some calculations to determine if they should act then, or wait longer while slowly chipping away at the Yun Family before acting.

Carl arrived at the practice field that he had been joining Yun Xiao and Seventh Sister at for the past month and was surprised to see a third figure there. Usually it was just the three of them, so to see another person showing up out of the blue made Carl wonder what was going on.

"Hi, Carl. Glad you could make it." Yun Xiao called out, then a moment later remembered that he needed to introduce their new member. "Oh, yeah. Carl I'd like to introduce Sister Caiyi to you. She's been a family friend for some time, and decided that she would like to join us. Sister Caiyi, this is Carl, a doctor and friend or ours."

"Sister Caiyi, a pleasure to meet you. I hope we get along well." Carl greeted her.

Carl felt a little smile appear on his face at the situation. He could tell that Yun Xiao was feeling awkward. Mostly because he hadn't met Sister Caiyi before that morning. The part where Yun Xiao said that she was a family friend was likely what his father told him verbatim that morning when they met for the first time.

"Brother Carl. Nice to meet you." Sister Caiyi was a stunningly beautiful woman who appeared to be around 22 years old. How old she really was was up for debate in the cultivation world. She had the air of one of those types of ladies that kept herself apart from others, feeling distant and closed off. Unapproachable.

The other thing that Carl was found of interest in this meeting was that he could feel a sort of resonance with Sister Caiyi from his body. When he did a quick inspection, he could tell that his Golden Crow blood was reacting to her. Which meant that she also had the Golden Crow lineage.

'So, she's of the Royal lineage?' Carl thought. 'If she has such a "pure" bloodline to react to my Golden Crow blood, then could she be the Little Demon Empress? Why would she be around here? Ah, silly me.' Carl snorted inside. 'The Guardian Family's first duty is to the Royal Family. Without the Little Demon Emperor their bloodline is all set to be diluted the next generation. But here comes someone with several drops of Golden Crow blood in him at the perfect time. At the very least he can be used to strengthen the bloodline, if for nothing else. Of course they would tell her about me.' Carl concluded.

After chatting for a bit to get to know each other, which Sister Caiyi barely answered questions but asked a great deal about Carl, he decided to try a different tact. If she was still reserved and unwilling to open up just like that, then action was needed.

"Usually we take this time to spar and improve our techniques. Would Sister Caiyi like to have a spar?" Carl asked.

Yun Xiao and Seventh Sister gave Carl concerned looks. They all three had sensed that Sister Caiyi was in the mid Sovereign Realm. So Carl asking to spar with Sister Caiyi was asking for trouble in their minds. Carl smiled at them to reassure them he would be fine.

Sister Caiyi looked at Carl for several moments before answering. She seemed to be trying to discern his thoughts, trying to figure out what his angle was and why he would spar with someone so obviously stronger than him.

"Fine." She stated coldly.

Carl gave her a small smile in return, before taking his place across from her on the field. He could tell that she didn't think too highly of a mere Emperor 3. But that was fine.

Carl opened up the gates in his veins which multiplied the profound energy he had available. When he saw she was ready, Carl opened up the match by dashing at her, utilizing his profound energy to speed his movements up. He started throwing punches and kicks at Caiyi, testing her defenses and reactions.

Due to Carl's bloodlines and enhancements, the gap between them was not huge, which Carl could see surprised her. With his immense physical strength and speed, added on to his profound energy multiplier from opening the first gate of the Evil God's Profound Veins, he was fighting at the level of a Tyrant 10.

Carl was still far from fighting on her level, but it was closer than Caiyi expected.

As they continued to trade blows, Carl could tell that she hadn't spent a lot of time actually sparring with others. Her speed, strength, and reaction times were all far above Carl's. As a mid level Sovereign she had the advantage.

But Carl had many skills gained from fighting martial artists for years. And he had only continued to practice what he knew despite lacking opponents. He had over two years in the world of cultivation to adapt his fighting style to the use of profound energy, so he had some tricks that continued to surprise her.

But Carl could tell that Caiyi was a top notch talent. As he continued to show her move after move, she adapted just as fast. He could never catch her unprepared when using an attack a second time.

Gradually as the spar lasted longer, Carl noticed that Caiyi had a small smile growing on her face. No one ever took sparring with her seriously, since they were too afraid of her status to risk hurting her. But she could tell that Carl was going all out, using all his tricks on her. To Caiyi it felt refreshing to be treated so openly and aboveboard, instead of the constant flattery and sucking up people usually did even while sparring.

Soon enough Caiyi started counter attacking with less and less restraint. She finally felt like she could cut loose and try out her moves.

Carl almost got swept away, but realized that he needed to up his game. He opened his second gate, the Burning Heart. It amplified his profound energy by 3-4 times, and let him start fighting on the level of a Sovereign.

Caiyi got more excited when she realized Carl had upped his game once more. She started adding in her profound energy attacks, throwing fire at Carl. She abruptly came back to her senses after throwing an attack that was likely to Burn an Emperor to death as the flames inside her rose up and burned her insides. Gritting her teeth, she watched her fire attack engulf Carl, realizing she had gone a bit overboard in her joy at the uninhibited spar.

She felt a sudden pang in her heart. She had only just found someone she could enjoy sparring with, and through her inattention had doomed him with her overly powerful fire attack. It was too late to stop it, she could only watch.

And then when the fire died down, Caiyi gaped at the sight. Carl stood there with a smile, not a burn on him. Though his clothes were near burnt to immodesty. With a blush, Caiyi averted her eyes from the sight.

Carl smirked at Caiyi's reaction to his near nudity. He quickly exchanged his burnt clothes for a fresh pair from his spatial ring.

"It's okay, I'm fine." Carl said to Caiyi.

The beautiful young lady turned around and looked over Carl, double checking that he was indeed uninjured. "How were you not burned? I've killed even Tyrant level beasts with that attack before." Caiyi asked after getting control of her emotions, though she was still struggling with the burning sensation of her bloodline.

While Carl was looking at Caiyi, he noticed what his medical senses were telling him. As a woman with strong Yin affinity, her Yang heavy bloodline actually fought her female Yin nature, causing her to suffer from very high temperatures and the torment of burning. It didn't help that when she exercised too much, her flames had a chance to get out of control.

He quickly pulled out a flame freezing potion from his spatial ring, and handed it to Caiyi. "This potion tastes horrible, but it will help you with the burning your bloodline gives you." Carl advised.

She paused, searching his eyes to see if he suspected who she was. Carl let her know through his expression that he did indeed know she was the Little Demon Empress. And that he didn't care, since she wanted to be known as Sister Caiyi while they practiced and hung out together.

Looking down at the potions bottle for a moment as she considered what she read in Carl's face, she opened it and drank it in one go.

A moment later, she felt blessed relief from the burning inside. She could tell that the flames from her bloodline were still just as hot, they just didn't hurt her anymore. She smiled a thanks at Carl. Carl simply nodded back in welcome.

"As for how I'm able to survive the flames, well." Carl paused for a second to consider what to say. "For a while now I've had a special relationship with fire. It doesn't burn me at all. The actual impact from fire attacks will still hurt, but I just don't burn from fire." Carl admitted.

A gasp of amazement to the side broke Carl and Caiyi's attention away from each other. For a while there, Carl had actually forgotten that Yun Xiao and Seventh Sister were still there. He blinked for a moment, before Seventh Sister rushed over.

"That's so amazing that you don't burn, Brother Carl." Seventh Sister gushed. "And that was amazing, Sister Caiyi, you are so strong! I hope to one day be as strong as you!"

Carl could see that Caiyi was unsure how to react to Seventh Sister. Apparently in her long life as a member of the Royal Family, she never just had a girl friend to chit chat with. Carl stepped away from the two girls to give them a chance to get to know each other and joined Yun Xiao as they started up a spar. He kept an eye on the two girls and was amused to see that Seventh Sister had drawn Caiyi into girly gossip, er…a conversation.

Watching the two girls, Carl had the feeling that they were going to end up being good friends. He turned his attention back to Yun Xiao and started working him through his paces, encouraging him to go all out, to not hold back like he had been for so long against his bullies. Only then would he maximize his abilities. And Yun Xiao was beginning to really come into his own, slowly molding his personality to be more active and confident.

After they all sparred and practiced their techniques for some time, they took a breather and had a servant provide some snacks while they continued to get to know each other.

Over the next several months as Carl frequently went to the Yun Family to practice, Caiyi would show up often. Occasionally she couldn't get away from her duties, but more often than not she was there.

On their third meeting, Carl wordlessly passed Caiyi a spatial ring with a year's supply of flame freezing potions and the first three stages of the Golden Crow's Record of the Burning World. Each potion would last her several days, nearly a week. He felt the potions were the best gift he could give her at the time, giving her the gift of not burning from her bloodline.

From her smile of thanks for the potions, he knew his efforts to brew so many potions was not wasted. But it was her absolutely shocked face when she saw the Golden Crow's Record of the Burning World that amused him greatly.

He had been able to tell that she didn't have the cultivation methods to go along with her Golden Crow bloodline. So he felt that gifting her the record was appropriate, and it would help her control the flames inside her.

Several times over the next months he could tell that she wanted to interrogate him as to where he got the record of cultivation technique, but she held back, despite being of two minds about it. The part of her that was the Little Demon Empress demanded to know where he got the records, where he came from, where he got his Golden Crow bloodline. But the part of her that was enjoying being just Sister Caiyi held back, afraid that she would destroy the most enjoyable part of her life.

Carl was content to leave the questions remain unanswered for now, and just enjoy getting to know Caiyi.

XX

"You are positive it was Duke Huai who ordered this? And the Helian family carried out his order?" Yun Qinghong asked Duke Xu who he was talking to through the communication mirror.

"Yes, I'm positive. I saw the transaction myself. Duke Huai was definitely the one." Duke Xu responded.

Yun Qinghong sighed, and barely refrained from wearily rubbing his face. "Okay. That was the last piece we needed for this puzzle. I'll get back to you in a week with further orders on just what to do. For now, have your men continue what they were doing."

Duke Xu nodded seriously and ended the mirror call. Yun Qinghong turned to Carl who had been waiting in a seat across from him.

"It looks like your information was correct." Yun Qinghong grimaced at the final tally of all who were siding with Duke Huai against them. "How are we going to handle this?" He sighed.

Carl nodded. He sympathized with the man. Organizing such a big event while keeping it secret was difficult. His various magical based tools were proving invaluable for their allies to be able to suss out the information they needed to target the traitors while keeping everything secret.

"One thing we can do to hide the mobilization is schedule it during a time when there is a lot of movement around the Empire anyway." Carl pointed out.

"You're talking about the upcoming entry into the Golden Crow Lightning Flame Valley testing ground." Yun Qinghong said in surprise.

"Yes. There are so many people on the move that we can hide our troop movement among them. The younger generation will be out of the way while going through the proving grounds, so the next generation that is possibly ignorant about the treachery won't be getting underfoot and complicating things. And I doubt the enemy will suspect us of setting off the trap at that time."

Yun Qinghong thought about Carl's proposal for a time. "I think it just might work. I'll run it past the Little Demon Empress and see what she thinks."

Carl smirked a little. Aside from Caiyi, no one else realized he knew who she really was. Over the past several months he had enjoyed their time together. She had a very straightforward personality, having been used to getting what she wanted all her life, but at the same time, being raised with the awareness of her duty shaped her into not being a spoiled princess. It made it so she never had to employ sneaky means to attain what she wanted, so she was not used to the cloak and dagger they had been engaging in with their enemies.

But Caiyi was smart, so after Yun Qinghong would explain why they were doing things a certain way, she would instantly pick up the idea and extrapolate how to use it in many scenarios.

No one aside from Carl knew that he and Caiyi sometimes had conversations over their mirror late at night when no one was around. He gave her a perspective that she never had before, that of a non royal, an outsider. And he learned from her just what her heritage and the Empire meant to her, as well as what duties were expected of her. It was eye opening the amount of worries a ruler had to deal with.

"That's still 6 months away." Yun Qinghong continued thinking aloud. "We're going to need more copies of your maps to hand out to each commander so they don't miss anybody in the sweep."

Carl nodded. "I can make many more in just a few weeks. They will start out unkeyed so you will have to make sure they get keyed when you assign them. The last thing we need is for an enemy to get their hands on one that works for them."

Carl had placed down a series of wards around the capital and especially around each of the Guardian Families and Duke's Palaces. He had then made a version of the Marauder's Map so they could track each individual. On the day of the operation their troops would have a copy of the map to use to make sure they could go straight to their target and subdue them quickly. The idea was that it would lessen the chances of word of the operation getting around and making their work harder for them after they started their operation to capture all the traitors.

"I still find it hard to believe that it has come to this." Yun Qinghong sighed. "Seven of the 12 Guardian Families, taking orders from a traitor Duke Palace."

Carl nodded and patted Yun Qinghong's shoulder in commiseration. "I somehow doubt they knew that Duke Ming and his son Duke Huai were behind the deaths of the previous Demon Emperors. But…"

"But it doesn't matter, since they are following a traitor, they too must suffer the consequences. The best they can hope for now is the Slave Brand to ensure their families won't be destroyed or rebel." Yun Qinghong finished with a growl.

Carl sighed. He didn't like the idea of slavery one bit. But they were traitors. The only other possible punishment was death. And that would cause too much unrest and alienate the Guardian Families from the Little Demon Empress, which would cause more civil unrest and even more death and misery. So, political expediency and necessity would prevail in this case over morals.

Rather than a quick death, the traitors would be forced to work like dogs to try to erase the stain on their family's honor. It was a chance to redeem their families and keep them from being decimated, even if they had to suffer the rest of their days for the opportunity.

"Yes. As distasteful as it is." Carl trailed off. He had nothing more to say on the matter. They had already been over it enough. "Well, I'm off. I've got a new shipment of rare components coming in that I'd like to spend time playing with and seeing what I can make with them." Carl finally said as he made his way to the door.

Yun Qinghong nodded as he stayed put while Carl made his way out to rejoin Yun Xiao and Seventh Sister. Caiyi couldn't make it that day, and he had already had his spars with Yun Xiao and Seventh Sister before Yun Qinghong had called him to the study to listen to the reports with him and ask his opinion about certain aspects of the operation.

"Hey you two. I'm off. It was a good match today, keep up the hard work." Carl finished with a mocking grin.

Yun Xiao groaned. "Man, you're just too good, Carl. I'll never win!" Yun Xiao hadn't won one round against Carl. Carl purpose was to make sure Yun Xiao was good, not to falsely inflate his ego.

Carl laughed. "Just think though, by sparring with me you're getting better than anyone other than me. Soon you'll be unmatched in the Tyrant Realm!"

Yun Xiao and Seventh Sister had recently broken through to the Tyrant Realm, while Carl was just behind them at the Emperor 8 realm. Carl was sure he would reach the Tyrant realm two months short of his fourth year in the world. Just in time for the trip into the Golden Crow Lightning Flame Valley.

"Until Brother Carl breaks through, at least." Seventh Sister giggled at the mock look of betrayal that Yun Xiao shot her. "There, there." She consoled Yun Xiao. Despite feeling aggrieved, Yun Xiao still perked up under her attention. Seventh Sister had been filling out quite well lately, now that she was 17 and Yun Xiao was 19. And Yun Xiao was quite happy he had a betrothal with her already set. He had seen how many young men tried to flirt with her. It made him very protective and happy for Carl's training that he could use to chase away the scoundrels.

Carl just chuckled at the couple's antics. "Have fun you two, see you next time." Carl waved and departed, making his way back to his building to get into the new items he was promised would arrive that afternoon.

XX

[AN: For any of those readers who are familiar with Chinese Xianxia novels, I'm sure a lot of what I just spouted in this chapter about where the soul is usually located and how cultivation works and whatnot will make you yell "Wrong!" Well, just keep in mind that Jumpchain fiat says otherwise, lol.

But seriously, I'm just making this up in a way that makes sense to me on how to combine the magic, ki, and cultivation systems into one coherent whole for Carl. I decided to have each one have a "center", where their core would be.

So many of the jump chain perks and abilities that they gain just seem to be a hodgepodge of different abilities that only work because the jumpchain says so. One common example is if a jumper went to the Mass Effect world and didn't spend cp on getting biotics, then the biotics wouldn't work outside of the universe. If they had biotics implanted when they were in the world, then once they jumped to a world that didn't have element Zero, they couldn't use their biotics anymore. However if they spent cp to get biotics, then their biotics would continue to work fine everywhere except jump gauntlets.

So in my reasoning, along with Spere's cheats, Carl's magic, ki, and profound energy will basically be powering any abilities he gets. Biotic abilities from ME? Element Zero could basically be considered magic, and the biotic implants convert the magical energy for use.

The Force from Star Wars I might consider either magic or profound energy, not sure which. I'm leaning toward profound energy because there's the whole Light/Dark side that has to do with the character of a person and whether they are "evil" or "good" that makes me think it has to do with someone's soul rather than just their mind/magic. At least that's my take on it.]