Chapter 3

  ‘’And here, young master, a perfectly, masterfully crafted armament. Designed to maximize output, this jellyfish organ will produce a thick gel that, when applied to the skin, gives a beautiful luster.’’

  ‘’Pass.’’

  ‘’Aaah the young master is discerning indeed! Then! This wonderful ornament. Bone carved from the titanic remains of the Cloud Gatherer, this will surely improve your luck-’’

  ‘’Pass.’’

  The merchant sighed, dropping the act and glaring at Yin and his companions who for some reason still stuck with him. ‘’I don’t have any spirits, kid, what do you want me to say? Should I just conjure one up for you?’’

  Yin scratched at the scab over his nose and winced at the pain it caused. ‘’You could point me in the right direction to get one old man.’’

  The merchant looked terribly offended. ‘’I don’t know what's worse! Giving someone else more business or that you'd think me old! I’m only 47!’’

  ‘’This guy is worthless.’’ Ti Li whispered adorably. Ten patted her head and praised her for saying the correct thing.

  Yin didn’t bother waiting to see if the man would eventually change his mind and pull out the rare goods. Most likely the merchant actually didn’t have any, or he’d have already done it.

  His hair fell over his eyes and Yin brushed it back and sighed, looking down the street towards the road to the next city. It was slower than he’d expected to find resources. The little village he’d grown up in was poor enough that even garbage mushrooms were considered valuable.

  Larger places were supposed to have these kinds of things in excess, and yet they didn’t. At least not for unusually pretty little boys with scars on their faces. Ten had more luck, having scored a pair of treasure blades that she used to make blade madra for her to cultivate.

  But neither of them had been able to get sacred beast meat. Nor was anyone willing to trade scales with them. It was getting to the point where they’d have to stay a few days just to recover from all the walking they were doing.

  Ti Li chewed on a skewer of fried vegetables. Where had she gotten that?

  ‘’Screw it, I’m gonna find someone selling a thousand mile cloud and buy it no matter what. The faster I can get out of the boonies the better.’’ Yin said, giving the merchant a suggestive look. The man scoffed and picked a pebble off the road and threw it at him.

  As Yin danced away he shouted. ‘’Don’t come back here you cheap brat!’’

  Yin was satisfied that that was a good indication that thousand mile clouds were rare out here. Ten and Ti Li trailed after him as he made his way out to a nice spot to rest for the night. Some local peacekeepers kept their eyes on them as they set up under a flower large enough to be called a tree on earth.

  Ten and Ti Li huddled around a clay cup that they’d set a lump of burning coal in, grilling something for dinner. Yin chewed on dried meat he’d gotten for almost nothing and cycled in the way they’d done in the book. Working on his smaller core.

  It was close, only needing a final push to advance to copper. He pulled whisps out of his core cycling them through his body, and simultaneously started a swirl of the energy still in his core. Grinding against the limits of his soul, outwards and down, bit by bit forcing it to grow.

  Every time another wisp made the circuit his soul strained just a little bit more to contain the energy within it. It bordered on discomfort, but Yin knew it was the feeling of being on the verge. Five rounds, ten rounds, twenty two, and finally on the twenty third, as he crammed the wisp back in, the gates broke and his soul expanded. A wave of strength flooded him.

  Finally both parts of his soul were copper. A feeling of equilibrium that had been missing came back to him, and he felt a bit of peace for the first time in a while.

  ‘’How’d you do that?’’ He opened his eyes and then closed one as he saw Ten’s knife hovering barely inches from it. ‘’You’re unaspected, and there's no pure madra in the air. What did you cultivate just now? Keeping something from me?’’

  He glared at her with one eye, mind working a mile a second, arriving at a simple answer. ‘’Are you stupid?’’ Ten was clever and skilled, but not all that worldly.

  ‘’Huhn?’’ She threatened to poke his eye out.

  ‘’Humans produce pure madra, just a little bit,’’ The knife kissed a shallow line in his cheek. ‘’All I had to do was make room for more to be produced by cycling. Easy. There’s no way I’m the first to have figured that out.’’

  Ten eased up with the knife but her glare cut him regardless. ‘’That’s impossible. You can’t make that much.’’

  He chuckled dryly. ‘’Yeah, it took eight years and two mushrooms.’’

  She muttered in disgust at how inefficient it was to not just take an aspect and advance the normal way. Then she paused as she went to her sleeping bag. ‘’Eight years?’’

  ‘’I’m not going to miss those two.’’ Yin told her as he settled against the stalk of the massive flower.

  —

  Another day, another city, another cut in his arm from Ten who’d just gotten bored and decided to slash him. He also might have made her mad by complaining about their bad luck for a few days, but taking a knife to someone was a pretty big overreaction.

  Yin had high hopes for this place though, a big difference between it and the others they’d been through was the architecture. Buildings made of shaped stone reaching far into the sky, some with clinging vines making them vibrant and lively.

  The streets were impressive too, many actual shops instead of street stalls. And scripted signs making colorful advertisements for the wares available. They’d passed by a place that, to Yin, reeked of thousand mile clouds. The very second he could slip away from Ten and Ti Li he’d go back there and try to buy one.

  But there was more he needed than just a vehicle. Cultivation resources, gear and weapons, more information on how to optimize his eventual iron body. The fact that he was having trouble finding information on the last one didn’t make sense to him. He was surely on Em- That Monarch's land. And her whole deal had been freedom of information and unity in language to reduce divides among people and races.

  The only reason he could think of was that they were still sort of in the vicinity of the Silent King. The route they’d taken had been a loose arc around the cage holding the Dreadgod. It made some sense, having dream related information banks around the dream Dreadgod sounded like a bad idea.

  But it still made things harder for Yin so he cursed whoever made the decision in his head. If they could at least get a damned map so they could move more quickly towards the capital he’d be grateful.

  Ti Li picked a random establishment and decided she wanted to eat there, and neither of her seniors dared to tell her no. They took their seats at an outdoor service and soon a young jade came to give them menus. When Ti Li told him she couldn’t read he came back with a sheet where every dish on offer was painted.

  Ten slowly forged her madra into the tight shape of a scale, sweat beaded her forehead from the effort. Soon a dull gray coin clinked onto the table. Payment done, they ordered what they wanted.

  Ten kept sending suspicious glances his way as he worked his way through the large potato like root that tasted like a sweet pie. After the meal as they sat and enjoyed feeling so full, Ten finally asked. ‘’You’re trying to ditch us, ain’t you?’’

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Yin thought about it for a moment and decided that lying wouldn’t really get him anywhere. ‘’Yeah.’’ He leaned back, balancing on the back legs of his chair.

  Ten didn’t seem all that torn up by it, looking more tired than anything. Ti Li was still stuffing her face with the steamed vegetables tray she’d ordered even though they looked cold. ‘’I get that you don’t like us, but you’re the only one we know out here. Do you mind sticking with us? At least until I can find a job somewhere.’’

  ‘’You’ve been looking for jobs? As what? An Assassin?’’ Yin felt honestly confused by her statement.

  He’d grown a bit quicker since he’d entered the copper realm and managed to catch her thrown fork in the meat of his palm instead of his face. ‘’Ow.’’

  ‘’Mutt.’’ She growled. ‘’I want to work with warriors, real ones. How many of those have you seen so far? Not one we’ve passed has been even as strong as Marunil.’’

  Yin winced as he pulled the fork out of his hand, and gripped a napkin to keep from bleeding on anything. He waved to the waiter with a smile so the teenager would stop looking like he was about to call for a guard. ‘’Maybe,’’ She glared at him. ‘’I’d be a bit more keen to stick around if you didn’t do stuff like this all the time.’’

  ‘’Also, you could work your way up. Outdo all the weaklings or whatever and then ask to be sent to a.. stronger place? Harder missions?’’ Yin wasn’t sure how they did things.

  Ten looked like she wanted to argue. She was only seventeen, and Yin wasn’t entirely sure how old he was now in total, somewhere in the sixties at least. But she was the worst, and he had no desire to keep entertaining her sadistic tendencies. ‘’I’m gonna try to get to Titan’s Grove. Let’s meet again if you make it there, thanks for the food.’’ Yin walked backwards out of the sitting area, vigilant in case Ten decided to send a bladed missile his way.

  —

  Thousand mile clouds, constructs taking the shape of fluffy pillows of mist. Standard size was a roughly cubic meter cloud of varying color. Usually blue, green or white because cloud and wind madra were best suited to the creation of the vehicles.

  Yin had his eyes in a deep blue one, made from water and cloud, a rain thousand mile cloud.

  ‘’Any way I can bring the price down?’’ Yin asked for maybe the fourth time.

  ‘’Five highgold scales of water, earth or fire. No, I will not go lower. If you’d like the red one-’’

  ‘’The red one won’t mesh with my image, I’d look like a- what are they called? Redmooner?’’

  The clerk looked suitably offended at the mere mention, if inaccurate, of a Dreadgod cult. He scoffed. ‘’Well! No one should possibly make such a mistake, the red is from the fire madra it’s constructed of.’’

  ‘’Eeeh.’’ Yin played tough customer. ‘’Give you five lowgold life scales for it.’’ He blatantly ignored the price tag of 10 lowgold scales of the elements already listed for it.

  Yin noticed too late that the clerk was playing him back, the corners of his mouth rose minutely. ‘’Aiie, no choice then, business is slow I can only reluctantly agree.’’ He ushered Yin over to a script covered tray and observed him closely as he retrieved the currency from his backpack. When the dense energy coins hit the tray it lit up, showing how strong the coins were. The clerk nodded in satisfaction and went into a back room for a second, returning with a script covered wooden box.

  ‘’And here you are, honored customer, a fire attuned thousand mile cloud.’’ All smiles now, the complete bastard. Yin accepted the box and wrote down the instructions on how to unseal and operate it. Then he spat on the floor and gave the clerk a rude gesture as he left.

  Wasting no time he pulled a finger along on the side of the box, the script there activated by the minute amount of pure madra he fed it. The sides of the box all popped away and the cloud inside expanded like an airbag.

  Yin jumped up on it and fell off as the thing slid away under him. Another attempt was more successful as he infused some madra into it before getting on. Then it was time for testing.

  A sliver of madra entered and the cloud expanded, he directed the next sliver into another section of the control script and was rewarded by it floating up and forward. He had enough madra to make it go for a few hours, time to see how fast the thing would go.

  Navigating over people's heads to some dismay he exited the center of the city and aimed roughly south, where Titan’s Grove would be. He picked up speed, soaring higher over buildings, fields and then forest.

  His hair was pulled tightly against his scalp by the wind. Yin felt tears spill from his eyes, and not only from the wind. For the first time in eleven years he felt free. No abusive parents, no teachers who didn’t actually care for him, no psychotic tagalongs who liked to hurt him for petty reasons.

  Alone.

  The elation died down at that thought. Maybe he could find nicer companions on the road.

  —

  People were not fond of strangers, especially weird ones. Such as fine featured boys with curly pale green hair and scars in their faces. People seemed especially distrusting of such boys. Having a split soul may or may not have had something to do with it.

  Also being a double pure artist.

  But Yin didn’t let little setbacks stop him, he was still going to follow his plan, spending half a year on the road was nothing but a little roadblock.

  His dwindling supply of cash scales and lack of cultivation resources to show for it didn’t demoralize him either. He’d kept up the cultivation technique from the book he couldn’t remember the name of, both of his cores were approaching halfway to iron. If he could just get his hands on some actual sublime fruits or meat he’d be able to get himself to the verge of advancement in no time.Then he’d just need to figure out what iron body would best fit his potential second path.

  The Devouring Mind would synergize with a dream spirit, creating his own version of the one the main character had in the book. The second he was undecided on even now, with so many options that would potentially become extremely powerful. If his plan worked out he could go for almost anything.

  Something that could go both big and flashy but also efficient and sneaky when need be. His mind kept going back to a name he remembered from his previous life.

  Ramiel.

  Yes, a path of light. Maybe a path of light and thunder for the extra oomph. The image of a lazerbeam impacting a mountain and after a moment vaporizing half of it recurred in his dreams.

  But other paths were equally tempting, water, wind and lighting for a storm path. Shadow and death for an assassin path. A perfect bloodforged iron body paired with a life and force path to become an unkillable juggernaut.

  ‘’He’s muttering again.’’ A guard said, looking at Yin with distrustful, maybe even disgusted, eyes.

  Indeed Yin would not let himself be discouraged by little things. However, being detained in a jail for ‘suspicious conduct’ was more than a small roadblock. Having been here for a few days, being fed grain for two meals a day, and vegetables for the third, Yin decided he’d had enough.

  Daydreaming and wishing wasn’t getting him where he wanted to be fast enough. It was time to take a gamble, risk it for the biscuit.

  …

  Yin was at least 60 percent sure that ‘risk it for the biscuit’ was a phrase in his old life. He couldn’t remember anyone actually saying it out loud but..

  ‘’Emriss Silentborn, can I have your attention for a moment?’’

  He’d caught the guards attention by saying those words, that was for sure, they glared at him in disbelief. A hand had gone to the hilt of a blade, such was the audacity of the words.

  Yin wasn’t alone in the cell anymore.

  A woman, her skin brown bark, hair pale blue leaves, clothes that looked to have grown onto her and a matronly cunning smile, she looked him over. She bent down and wiped some dirt off his face. ‘’Another one of you outsiders. You took a long time to reach out for help. Your caution is admirable.’’

  Three short sentences were enough to put all his worries to rest. Yin felt the effect was unnatural, she must have done something, it couldn’t possibly be that he was starved for positive older female attention.

  The monarch smiled at him, melting the thick walls around his heart. ‘’So what did you want to speak to me about?’’

  ‘’Can you adopt me?’’ Yin asked before his mind could censor him. ‘’M-mommy? I mean- mommy? SHIT!’’ He considered killing himself, not sure how though, since breaking his copper cores would just turn him into an actual cripple.

  Emriss chuckled, adding a thousand deaths to Yin’s pride as a formerly grown man. ‘’Well, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.’’ She casually sat on his stiff cell bed. ‘’I’ve met a couple similar to you now and they’ve had quite the ambitious dreams. So before I decide whether to help you or not, I’d like to hear yours.’’

  Yin bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from saying ‘mommy’ again. And tried to surreptitiously sit on his hand so he wouldn’t try to hug the woman. Then the question sank into his head.

  What was his dream? All he had was a plan for gaining strength.

  ‘’Uhm.. Is it cool if I take some time to think on that?’’ He asked the monarch, causing the prison guards who were watching them to go up in flames. Literally. They both had fire paths and in their rage at the boy who was wasting their Monarch's time they couldn’t keep it in.

  Her eyes bore into him with unparalleled kindness. In this life. Yin could still remember a few very kind people from his previous life.

  ‘’Would you like to take that time here or..?’’

  ‘’With you.’’ Yin’s mouth moved faster than his mind again, not giving him any time to consider if there were traps attached to the statement. It was terrible, he was out of sorts, his body jittered and refused to calm.

  Emriss Silentborn hummed in amusement and wrapped Yin in a loose hug. And in the next moment they were gone.

  The guards stood outside the empty low security cell in silence for a moment.

  ‘’This is the sort of day you should gamble.’’ One said to his colleague.

  ‘’Yeah, I’m asking for a raise.’’ He agreed.