PtM Book 16 - Chapter 10: Immortal Heartlock

Chapter 1/3 this week. This one's a chonker at around 7500 words ^^.

--

The library was located on the fourth level of the Heartforge Realm. It sat alone on a terrace of metal and stone that faced the opposing mountain. There were no other buildings beside it, and it was surrounded by something that Cha Ming could only describe as an absolute field of silence.

On the ochre mountain, there existed a mirror image of the same building. This gave the impression that there were two libraries, not one. But the indistinguishable shadows of cultivators going in and out of it made it quite clear that this was not the case; There was only one library, and it was present in two locations simultaneously.

The library was ancient in construction and resembled a stubby version of the tower of babel. Cha Ming could only imagine how many centuries it had taken to transport the giant blocks of ancient rune marble and fuse them into place. The building was essentially a single piece of stone, isolated by design from all forms of energy, whether they be divinity, qi, or spiritual energy.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Cha Ming said. “Immunity to one type of energy is one thing, but all three?”

“It’s rare, even in immortal realms,” Huxian greed. “You can’t use techniques in here no matter how hard you try, and if you do try and fail, the librarian will kick you out.”

“Something tells me you’re speaking from personal experience,” Cha Ming said.

“I tried to prank Baleful Vision,” Huxian grumbled. “It was a harmless joke.”

The entrance to the library was guarded by two thirty-meter-tall golems that towered over those who entered like ancient deities. A candle flickered in each of their eyes, with soul flames that illuminated all disguises and malicious intents. Cha Ming felt their eyes linger on him for a moment as he moved to enter the library, only to get pulled back by Huxian, who ushered him over to the side where a few Daoists lay pondering the contents of a stele with intense concentration.

Cha Ming sat down at Huxian’s urging.

Is there a technique to enter the library? Cha Ming wondered. He looked at the bronze stele, and his eye twitched. There, etched in what seemed to be the strict and binding laws of the Heartforge Realm… were the rules of the library.

There were a total of 176 of them. Most of them were quite pedantic, but they all boiled down to a few things.

1. Don’t damage the books.

2. Don’t do things that could damage the books.

3. Don’t remove books from the library under any circumstance.

4. Fees for books based on their location, and the time limit for studying the various types of books.

“This all seems quite simple to me,” Cha Ming said, but his soft words drew glares from twenty different people, including Huxian. So he could only wait and see if there were additional mysteries on the stele he’d yet to detect.

A few hours passed before a light shone atop one of the cultivators present. A voice spoke out softly to each of them. “Dao God World Ember has completed his punishment and has studied the rules stele for three days and may now enter the library.”

The cultivator in question looked elated. He rose, bowed to towards the stele, and made his way calmly, but not swiftly, towards the entrance of the library.

Cha Ming was certain Huxian would not waste time for no reason, so he continued to wait. A few more cultivators were allowed inside, and finally, Huxian was cleared to enter. “Lord Eight Directions has completed his punishment and has studied the rules stele for one day and may now enter the library.”

Of course we’re here for his punishment, Cha Ming thought. He began to rise, but Huxian held him down again. So they waited. And waited. And waited.

Twelve hours passed, enough time for Cha Ming to decide that enough was enough. Then a a soft voice spoke to them once again, this time in an approving tone. “Daoist Clear Sky has studied the rules stele for twelve hours before entering the library. For showing respect before entering, the probationary period for entering the second through tenth floors of the library are waved.”

Only then did Huxian rise and explain the situation. I didn’t know about this, but apparently you need to spend a week one the first floor to show your good behavior before getting access to the higher floors. I only found out about this cheat after getting punished, so I’ll need to wait. Cha Ming decided then and there that treading lightly in the library and doing his utmost not to upset the librarian was probably the best strategy.

This feeling only increased when they passed the golems and entered the pristine entrance hall where Daoists were allowed to communicate, but only spiritually. They took great care when flipping pages, and even the flipping noises were kept to a bare minimum. Cha Ming could just imagine what kind of panic would ensue of the sound of a tearing page was heard.

Huxian led Cha Ming to a small but non-descript desk where a kindly old man sat. A young cultivator was floating a tray full of books away from the desk to return them to their proper places.

The old man was hunched over the desk and bent over a piece of parchment with a calligraphy brush in hand. This tickled a thought in Cha Ming’s mind, but he set that aside for now. They waited for the old man to finish his project and did not bring up whatever they were here for.

The old librarian was currently drawing out the character for longevity. This did not surprise Cha Ming, because it was said that the quality of one’s calligraphy could be seen whenever one painted this specific character. It was the most practiced character in all of calligraphy.

The brush in the old man’s hands was ornate and ancient. In fact, the aura on it was older than the man himself. The paper was of extremely high quality, and the inkstone he’d used to manually grind ink was half-used-up.

It was the inkstone’s cover that stood out to Cha Ming, because on it was a signature. That same signature could be seen many times on the wall behind the librarian’s desk, where several plum blossom painting scrolls were hanging, each with their own vertical poem.

Calligraphy was a mysterious occupation. Whoever wrote characters with such attention and detail would inevitably inject the ink with their understanding of the Dao and natural laws. Cha Ming felt his soul loosen up just by reading just a few of the few plum blossom poems.

The signature after each poem was especially effective, as was infused with laws related to the stars and the void. Just a single glance caused three complete void-aligned runes to appear inside his spiritual sea, ready to be used at any time.

The librarian noticed this, because he looked up and smiled when it happened. Then he saw Huxian and frowned. “Someone who appreciates the arts has finally come to visit, but in the company of a naughty fox. I don’t sense a library card on you, child. I take it this is your first time here?”

“Indeed it is,” Cha Ming replied with a bow.

The old man adjusted his spectacles. “I see that you’ve also meditated on the stele. Well done. Respect is so hard to find these days.” He waved his hand and summoned a jade and ochre slip from a pile and floated it to Cha Ming. “Touch it with your Heartforge Medallion.” Cha Ming did so, and the library card to turned clear, another odity. “Please give me a rundown of the costs involved for reading in the library, and late fees should books not be returned within one week.”

“Points are charged hourly for access to the library,” Cha Ming said. “The fees start at one point per hour and doubles each time one climbs a floor. At most one hundred books can be kept at a single time, for a maximum of one week, though this varies at the higher levels.

“Those who return books late will find their hourly cost doubled, and this will double again every week thereafter. Damage to books is unacceptable and punishment will be meted out. Suitable punishments include but are not limited to point deductions, permanent expulsion from the library, and or death.”

“Very good,” the librarian said. “And what do you think of this character, young man?” He turned the scroll over, and Cha Ming was hit with a sense of stillness in time as the entire world caught its breath. Once again, several runes popped up in this spiritual sea – some of them were even valuable time runes.

“Deep,” Cha Ming said. “Unfathomably so for a cultivator of my level. And beautiful. The hook at the bottom of the character and the drooping sides reminds me of a flame caught in a cauldron. It catches my heart and locks it away for a single, endless moment.”

“Yes, that is characteristic of the cauldron-style calligraphy I have been practicing, and also a pale shadow of my Dao,” the old man said with a satisfied expression. “Good. Very good!”

“Might I have a look at your brush?” Cha Ming asked. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but notice the calligraphy behind your desk and the fact that their signature matches that on the inkstone box, and that the brush shares the same aura. It must be a very powerful individual who wrote these poems. Forgive me for saying so, but his cultivation must be unfathomable.”

“Oh yes! He’s quite famous in the immortal realms,” the old man said excitedly. “Between Heartforge Realm openings I spend most of my time in the Temperate Heaven, where quite a few of us gather to exchange insights on art and calligraphy. This artist is known as Immortal Plum Blossom, not because his Dao has anything to do with plum blossoms, but because he is obsessed with writing poetry on plum blossom paintings, despite them having no with relation to the paintings themselves.

“Look here, for example:

“Lightning Divine.

“False tribulation, striking my heart.

“To think you fooled me, essence of the night?

“I close my eyes and save my senses.

“Thinking I will wake with the fragrant dawn.”

Cha Ming’s eye twitched. “I take it they’re not seeing each other anymore?” It was clearly a breakup poem.

“He’s gets around quite a bit, and whenever his relationships go sour, he comes out with this sort of thing,” the librarian said. “Otherwise, I’d never be able to get any of his work. The more famous poems are difficult to find even for immortal kings like myself.”

A sudden thought occurred to Cha Ming. He pulled out a sealed calligraphy box from his storage ring. It was one of the items Sun Wukong had given him. “I wasn’t sure why my teacher had me take this to the Heartforge Realm, but seeing you practice calligraphy makes me think he intended for you to have it,” Cha Ming said. He took out the calligraphy set from his storage ring and placed it on the desk.

“You teacher?” the librarian said. “Ah yes, young Wukong. That rascal. I banned him many times back in the day, and I very much regretted it later on when he burned down a wing of my personal library.” Cha Ming’s heart seized as all the social credit he’d built up vanished in a puff of smoke.

His frustration deepened when the librarian opened the box and discovered a used brush and a half-used inkstone. Damn you Sun Wukong, Cha Ming thought. Why in the seven hells did you give me a used calligraphy set? Could you not have made it a new one at the very least?

The librarian did not share his negative opinion, however, and looked positively delighted. He picked up the brush with reverence and inspected it form multiple angles.

There was also a bamboo scroll that accompanied the ink and the brush. He opened the scroll with trembling hands and sucked in a breath. “You! Youngsters! Get over here quickly!” He flicked his sleeve, and both Cha Ming and Huxian were teleported to his side. Inside the library, where such a thing was supposed to be impossible.”

“Look at this!” The librarian said excitedly. He unrolled the scroll halfway. It was not a plum blossom painting, but a bamboo painting. The style was simple, and it was painted purely with black ink.

He continued unfurling it, and a heavy immortal aura gushed out from the painting.

There were two lines of characters on the scroll which Cha Ming could barely understand. Simply looking at them was enough to solve a piece of Fuxi’s puzzle box he’d worked on for several months before giving up.

Cha Ming was also pleasantly surprised to discover a familiar aura on the painting, the two lines of characters, and the signature. It was the same aura that was present on the brush and the ink – all these items had been painted and used by the same person.

This was quite unusual, since painting and poetry were traditionally considered separate hobbies. Those who owned paintings typically requested famous poets to annotate them, or simply added poems to their personal art collection to express their personal thoughts. Emperors were famous for the practice.

The librarian quietly sighed as he rolled the painting back up. “A painting and poem by Fuxi himself,” he said. “This is a precious gift. Very precious. In fact, it seems I misjudged that monkey. He must have felt terrible for messing up my library back then and decided to make it up to me.” Then he sighed. “But he was always a prideful individual and could never do it in person, so it falls to his student to deliver the apology.”

He carefully packed everything up in his box and put it in his personal storage. “You may now address me as Immortal Heartlock, young man,” the librarian said. “Do let me know if you have any questions or doubts as you wander the library.” He then turned around, humming pleasantly as he opened up a shelf and began mumbling about where to place such an important calligraphy set and scroll in his collection.

Well that was a waste, Huxian muttered. Something autographed by Fuxi? It’s probably worth a fortune.

Cha Ming shook his head. He didn’t believe in coincidences. Teacher must have left it with me for a reason. The librarian is one of the most important people in the Heartforge Realm, and he happens to be a calligraphy enthusiast. Giving him the calligraphy set was definitely the right move.

I’m just saying what you gave out was expensive,Huxian said. You could have probably funded your advancement to mid law stitching for that set, if not all the way up to immortality.

Cha Ming nearly stumbled but caught himself just in time. Wait, seriously?

Now I can see exactly why so many Paper Tiger Clansmen made it in here, Huxian said. It’s wonder Cao Wenluan got so many helpers, and the devilish faction is doing so well. Then there’s you starting off alone and whatnot.

Were Cha Ming’s emotions not dulled by his medicine, he would have kicked down a shelf or something. How dare Huxian not tell him this earlier? He would have definitely not given it as a gift and tried to sell it!

Do you really think so? Cha Ming said. The imbalance between factions could just be bad luck. Plus, things aren’t so simple with the Paper Tiger Clan. There’s internal friction. And besides, you heard the man. I was just delivering a package from Sun Wukong as an apology. I specifically did not gift him something valuable personally.

Huxian wanted to argue but wisely shut his mouth. He too realized that the worth of the gift was different depending on how it was used. Immortal Heartlock was quite old and had probably seen much of this sort of thing. Maybe he saw it for the ruse he was and played along.

This meant that when asking for help, Cha Ming would need to make a choice. He could either ask for help proportional to delivering an expensive calligraphy set, or he could ask for something big in return. But if he did that, he would likely incur a grave penalty.

Huh. It looks like the first ten levels were unbarred for me, Huxian said. It’s working already.

***

The Heartforge Realm’s library was the envy of the universe, in no small part because of its ridiculously large collection of books. The cylindrical walls of the building were lined with shelves ten times taller than the cultivators perusing it, and a dimensional magic was built into the shelves, making them just as deep.

Reading rooms were located inside the tower’s central pillars. These were insulated from the inside so that cultivators could both ponder the mysteries of the books they were reading and actually practice the techniques they described.

At first, Cha Ming assumed that the books couldn’t be taken into the Clear Sky World, but soon received clarification on that point; since the world was situated inside the library’s larger space, he was welcome to make full use of its time-acceleration and realm treasures.

Books on lower floors had multiple copies, and one wasn’t allowed to sign more than one copy at a time. More books wouldn’t necessarily help a cultivator, since a cultivator’s comprehension skills were the real bottleneck, thus the limit of a hundred books at a time and a per hour fee.

Several days passed by as Huxian and Cha Ming cycled through thousands of books on the first few floors. This greatly annoyed the library’s clerks, who gave them the fisheye at every opportunity.

The fact that these clerks were annoyingly unhelpful whenever they asked for specifics didn’t help matters. They knew where to return books but were not intimately familiar with their contents.

So the duo could only sift through them one at a time in the hopes of finding something useful. It was boring, tedious work. “Who would have thought there’d be so many soul cultivation methods?” Cha Ming said. “But I wonder – the names sound impressive, but why are all the techniques so similar?”

Huxian was equally annoyed. “It’s like they all tried to work around a patent, just so they didn’t have to the original make royalties.” Don’t they know that this kind of patent is only good for a thousand immortal years, and after that, it’s public domain?”

“Wait, are you serious?” Cha Ming asked. “There are patents for cultivation techniques in the immortal realms?”

“It depends on which plane you’re living in, but yes,” Huxian said. “It promotes innovation, which is in pretty short supply. But that’s the immortal realms for you.”

“Babylon Tower Soul Refining technique,” Cha Ming read from one of the scrolls. “Build your soul up as a corkscrew; Pierce the heavens and be watered by fresh rains. Huxian, I think this is a drunkard’s soul cultivation method. He was clearly hoping to pierce a barrel and have wine rain down on him as a cultivation shortcut.”

“I think you’re right,” Huxian said after looking over the technique. “But it’s useless because the ingredients for that wine went extinct two aeons ago.” He tossed the scroll to the reject pile and picked up another one.

“I think we should just ask for help,” Cha Ming said. “This is getting a little ridiculous.”

“No way,” Huxian said stubbornly. “We are not wasting that kind of favor on our first consult.”

“But the points…” Cha Ming said. They were on the third floor, which meant that for every hour that passed, four points would be deducted. Already, they’d accrued 168 points each worth of library charges. “We need to find a fix for my soul, Huxian, and we need to do it before we run out of points.”

Huxian gritted his teeth. “This is cat poop. Very unfair. Why is it so hard to find anything in this darned library? I refuse to give in!” Cha Ming tried many more times that day, but Huxian would not be deterred.

The next day, they scoured the fourth floor, incurring 192 points in charges each. The day after, they went to the fifth floor and incurred 384 points in charges. Only then did Huxian’s ears droop as he admitted defeat. “Who would have known it’d be so hard. This whole place is just a money trap.”

“Most people do the smart thing and find one of the manylibrarians for a consultation,” an old voice said, causing them both to freeze in place. “The hourly charges are typically best used to study complex texts, not wander the library like a scriv on their first day.”

“Immortal Heartlock,” Cha Ming said. They both turned and bowed. “What can we do for you, sir?”

“It’s not what you can do for me, but what I can do for you,” the librarian said. “You two are making an absurd amount of work for my clerks, when you could have instead spent a few hundred points to get a librarian to track something down.” Cha Ming glared at Huxian with a look that said I told you so.

The immortal librarian ignored their silent exchange and picked up one of the books. “I see. Soul cultivation. One of you is a demon, so it must be you that’s interested.” He shook his head. “Double charging by having two people wasting their time as well. But I guess you’re new at this.”

He waved his sleeve, and suddenly they were keenly aware that they were back on the bottom floor, in an area that did not charge them points. The books came with them, but Immortal Heartlock swept his sleeve, and they shot out through slits in space and returned to their original locations.

Both Huxian and Cha Ming were amazed, because neither of them could even sense their cultivation in this area, forget use any abilities “I will consult for you today,” Immortal Heartlock said. “And for the sake of saving thousands of man hours for my clerks, I will give you a discount.” He pointed to Cha Ming. “You. Two thousand points for a consultation on solving the admittedly horrendous state of your soul. And believe me, it’s a bargain.”

Cha Ming did not hesitate to hand over his library card, which Immortal Heartlock tapped on the jade medallion on his chest. The immortal librarian then stretched out his fingers and created a projection of Cha Ming’s soul, a sewn-together and could fall apart at any moment. “You are wounded. The injuries are both chronic and traumatic. You first exhausted your soul to the breaking point before suffering either great loss or great pain, therefore tearing your soul apart. Now explain to me who stitched you up so badly so I can discipline after we’re finished.”

This was a rather long story, but they told it in fifteen minutes. The more they spoke, the more Immortal Heartlock’s expression darkened, but he never interrupted. “Let’s not talk about the horrendous job those charlatans did and focus on the key issue,” the librarian said once they were finished.

“You claim to cultivate the Seventy-Two Transformation’s technique. It is a famous epiphany-style soul cultivation technique. Very overbearing, Immortal grade. Risky, but it has safeguards. Something should have prohibited you from causing so much damage to yourself, or at least aided you in resisting it. This is clearly not the case, as your condition started years ago and only worsened since then. It almost seems like you’ve somehow overused Triune Soulburn past its theoretical limits.”

Cha Ming scratched his head. “Triune Soulburn? Is that what’s it’s called?”

Immortal Heartlock frowned. “You don’t even know that much?”

“I just remember gaining the ability when my soul reached the early transcendent realm,” Cha Ming said. “I can’t say I got any details.”

“And where did you find a transmission scroll for this ability in the mortal realms?” Immortal Heartlock asked. “It should not be possible, as unlike your Seventy-Two Transformations Technique, this is fully immortal-grade technique. A mortal realm would collapse the moment it came into contact with such a transmission item.”

“This…” Cha Ming was hesitant to explain, as this was related to the secret of the Clear Sky Brush. But ultimately, since Sun Wukong had guided him to this man, he decided to trust him. “Much like my Seventy-Two Earthly Transformations technique, I gained the ability through my soul bound treasure.”

Immortal Heartlock’s eyes brightened. “Ah, so that’s why! The technique was directly transmitted, so you actually have no idea what it’s capable of!”

“I confess that I don’t,” Cha Ming said. “Would it be possible to take a peek at this technique since I already know it?”

The librarian tapped his chin and nodded. “Although this is a technique from the 16th floor, this is my consultation room, so I can approve that your signing it out. If it is as you say, that you already learned the technique, even as a direct transmission, simply looking it over a single time should be sufficient to gain a deeper understanding of it. I could allow you to review it for a few minutes and charge you a fraction of the hourly fee. It should only cost you few thousand points.”

Cha Ming nearly choked. “Forgive for asking, but in your opinion, is that a worthwhile expenditure? I ask this because I have a recurring monthly expense, and I’d like to preserve my points.”

“I’d honestly recommend you review both the techniques you learned, but if you must prioritize, I suggest Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations first,” Immortal Heartlock said. “By understanding your own cultivation technique on more than an instinctual level, you will be able unlock certain abilities and know the limitations of the technique. Not only will you have a better idea of how to proceed from then on, I’d wager that you will discover a way to heal the damage to your soul or at least mitigate the ongoing damage.”

“Ongoing damage?”

“Yes, your soul is currently dissipating,” Immortal Heartlock said. His expression darkened when he saw Cha Ming’s surprise. “Did this doctor not tell you anything? I swear – I’ll turn that crook into a pig and roast him next time I see him. When someone’s soul is in danger of unravelling within the next century – time acceleration counts, by the way – you tell them! Plain and simple!”

Then calmed down and reached over to a shelf where two book appeared. The one on the right was a powerful treasure, but the one on the left practically oozed immortal energy. “Quick, make up your mind. I’ll be counting.”

Cha Ming immediately picked up the thick jade and gold book entitled Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations. He flipped through its pages quite quickly, as simply scanning over them seemed to be enough to commit them to memory. He closed the book the moment he was finished, and Immortal Heartlock pressed a button on his stopwatch. “How much?” Cha Ming asked.

“Two thousand three hundred points,” Immortal Heartlock said. “Less than expected.”

Cha Ming decided to continue. Seventy-Two Earthly Transformations was the full title of his body cultivation technique, and the book smelled of wind and rain and sand, and its letters were written in gold and fire. It took him slightly more time to read through it than the one before, but the book’s grade was lower, and so were the costs. In total, he spent 1,600 points on it.

Now, Cha Ming only had 2,760 points remaining. Just reading for a few minutes had been extremely expensive, but the benefits were immense. “So that’s how it works,” he muttered. “The technique can be used for the seven normal virtues, and the limit break is normally activated by exhausting one’s virtue temporarily, which can be replenished via meditation or by performing good deeds.”

“Much like the devilish equivalent, yes,” the old librarian said. “It is therefore impossible to damage your soul in most cases.”

“But my angelic endowment is different,” Cha Ming continued. “I condensed hope and faith as a virtue, which is a double-edged sword. There is no limit to how much I can use the technique’s first ability, Triune Soulburn. As long as I have one pair of wings, I can activate a one-fold soul burn. Two wings, two-fold, and three wings, threefold. The downside is that this is very damaging to one’s soul, and should not be overused. Hope is a double-edged sword, which is why those with this virtue would typically gain angelic soul abilities that increase self-preservation.”

Immortal Heartlock nodded. “I did not expect you to cultivate the same virtue as the Jade Emperor, young man. It is a brave thing to do, but those who cultivate it tend to die young.”

“May I perform a technique in this space?” Cha Ming asked.

“Please do,” Immortal Heartlock said. The restriction eased up, and Cha Ming could sense his abilities return.

By studying the technique in book form, Cha Ming gained a much better understanding. He immediately began to form hand seals and circulated his merit in a certain pattern on his back. He might have lost his wings temporarily, and exhausted his virtue, but the Daoist physician had helped him reshape them.

Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations was a powerful ability. It was an epiphany style soul art similar to the Buddhist Spirit Severing Soul Cultivation Art. That meant that he didn’t have to actively cultivate it to advance. Advancing at the earlier stages was much easier but cultivating its later stages would be extremely difficult.

He also learned that it was a powerful ability relative to others of the same rank. The main reason for this was the Triune Soulburn ability, but there were other benefits. Upon gaining his fourth pair of wings, Cha Ming would gain a second major ability, which for his virtue, Hope, was called Infinite Soul Shattering. There was also a third special ability at the seven-wing threshold, but it was unique for each cultivator.

The technique also provided many angelic abilities. Most angelic cultivation techniques would grant one ability for every second pair of wings, along with some main abilities. Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations, on the other hand, granted one ability for every pair of wings.

What Cha Ming was doing now was activating the two abilities that he should have gained but hadn’t known how to activate. His merit gave shape to an ability that had lain dormant inside Cha Ming’s soul all this time.

It came in the form of a spark that was much smaller than the gray seed in his spiritual sea. Even the iridescent seed competing for territory with the gray seed dwarfed it.

The spark glowed with a pure white light that sometimes flickered black before reverting to its original pristine hue. And whenever it shone white, it chased away both the gray mist from the gray seed and the iridescent mist from the iridescent seed. It only occupied a small area, which made sense, because it had just been born.

“My first ability is called Aura of Inspiration,” Cha Ming said. “The ability to give those around me hope.”

“A dangerous but powerful ability,” Immortal Heartlock said.

“How is that even remotely powerful?” Huxian asked.

“You tell me, little fox,” Immortal Heartlock said. “The skill is useful both in times of peace and in times of war. On the one hand, it can be used on the desperate and give them the strength to keep fighting, to rebuild, and to survive. On the other, it can be used to convince bored salaried employees to take the plunge and change their career, start a business, or propose to the woman they love.”

“So it’s a mind control ability?” Huxian said, rubbing his hands together. “That’s pretty awesome.”

“It’s not a mind control ability,” Cha Ming said, shaking his head. “For one, I can’t chose the topic of inspiration, only the people. It can only build on what’s already there, not create ideas out of nowhere. It feels dangerous though. Very dangerous.”

“It is good that you feel this way, because hope is a double-edged blade,” the librarian said. “This ability is a useful one for you because it is, in a sense, your first self-preservation ability. By artificially stimulating hope, you will better increase your understanding of it and replenish your virtue. And by doing good deeds, you will accrue merit, which will be very beneficial for your soul’s recovery.”

“Now I just have to figure out how to balance it with my other auras,” Cha Ming muttered. He hoped that his next ability would be more immediately useful.

He formed hand seals once again, and this time, his second pair of wings glowed slightly as he gained a second ability, which granted him immediate relief. “I lucked out,” Cha Ming said. “My second ability is called Blessing of Tenacity. It makes my soul stronger and naturally resistant to damage.”

“I noticed it immediately,” Immortal Heartlock said with a nod. “Now, instead of wasting away into oblivion in a century, it’ll take closer to two or three. It will also benefit you greatly in the future, assuming your soul isn’t scattered to the four corners of the universe.”

“Immortal Heartlock, I hesitate to say this but… could you use kinder language when talking about my soul?” Cha Ming asked.

“What do you mean, kinder?” Immortal Heartlock asked. “I didn’t even touch on the possibility of true death with no hope for reincarnation!”

Cha Ming sighed. “Never mind.”

“His soul is still damaged though,” Huxian said. “So really it wasn’t all that useful. Plus, what’s the point in upgrading his defences when a stiff breeze could do him in?”

“Whatever,” Cha Ming said. “Abilities tend to be gained based on need, and the third and sixth abilities are especially powerful. If I can form my third pair before my soul meets its untimely demise, I should find something to help me fix it.”

“No need to be so melodramatic,” Immortal Heartlock said. “You’ll be fine.” Cha Ming felt the great urge to slap the man. “In any case, this is a good interim result. Wwe aren’t even done with the consultation. I believe this physician of yours had some recommendations before he stitched your soul up like a side of beef?”

“He mentioned that that for a greater fee, they could perform a high-level surgery to stitch me back together and heal my soul,” Cha Ming said. “The monk said I should get some kind of stabilizer, like a pagoda or phylactery.”

“Of course he said that,” Immortal Heartlock said, looking a little exasperated at this point. “It is an option, though I’ll warn you that anything that isn’t self healing tends to leave soul scars that are difficult to recover from.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Cha Ming asked.

“I think the stiches, though crude, give you options,” Immortal Heartlock said. “They’re good because they will still allow your soul to heal itself naturally. Ideally, you would leave your soul alone while you accrue a vast amount of merit. That’s the best way to heal a soul. You might not have any opportunities now, but I think it’s fine for me to say that in a dozen years or so, you’ll have ample opportunities.”

“So you’re saying that I should stall for time until then,” Cha Ming said.

“Indeed,” Immortal Heartlock said. “There are a few options to consider. The first is like the monk said: build a phylactery or a soul sealing pagoda. As long as the treasure doesn’t break, your soul will live on.”

“Could I use my soul bound treasure?” Cha Ming asked.

“Absolutely not,” Immortal Heartlock said. “A soul bound treasure and the soul bound to it are essentially one and the same. Any other item will do, really, but the stronger the item the better. If there is one disadvantage to this method it’s that by binding your soul to an item, you render it static. You soul will not be able to improve.”

“So you’re saying I wouldn’t be able to heal myself, even with merit,” Cha Ming said. “I would be forced to go the spirit doctor route.”

“That is correct,” Immortal Heartlock said. “Which is why I recommend one of two options. The first is to fuse your soul with your body, and the second to fuse your soul with your core.”

Cha Ming was reminded of the time they stitched Silverfish’s soul to his body after he’d suffered heavy trauma and had almost entered the yellow river. “That makes sense. I did that for someone before.”

“Really now?” Immortal Heartlock said, looking interesting.

“I had to collaborate with someone,” Cha Ming said. “I used my Demon Subduing Intent to seal his soul into his body, and someone else physically stitched them together. I recall him doing quite well after that. He was very strong.”

“People do it all the time, even when uninjured,” Immortal Heartlock said. “There are hundreds of known techniques that do just that. Those few Daoists here that refuse to cultivate their bodies will likely fuse their souls with their law cores.”

“What are the advantages and disadvantages?” Cha Ming asked.

“The advantages are many,” the librarian explained. “Firstly, you gain the ability to fuse both types of energy, qi and spiritual energy, for a much stronger final product. These energies become interchangeable. There are all sorts of side effects, but the main one is a principle called mutually restrained advancement. Without advancing one type of energy, it becomes impossible to advance the other.”

“So if you can’t continue training your soul, your qi cultivation can’t advance, and vice-versa,” Cha Ming said.

“Exactly,” Immortal Heartlock said. “The same happens when you fuse your soul with your body. Your body will gain spiritual properties, and your qi will gain physical properties, both restricting it and enhancing it. Advancement becomes mutually restrained as well, but both entities become stronger.

“If you bind your soul to your core, you create a nascent infant that could in theory possess a body if it isn’t destroyed. The technique is very popular with devilish cultivators for that same reason. And if you bind your soul to your body, as long as the body survives, so does the soul, and vice-versa.”

Cha Ming shivered. “I don’t think I want the ability to posses someone else.”

“There’s nothing stopping you from creating spare bodies for yourself. Artificial ones.” Immortal Heartlock pointed out.

“There must be other disadvantages,” Cha Ming said.

“Only strange side effects, which is why it’s so popular,” Immortal Heartlock said. “But one must be confident in advancing in two paths simultaneously. Failing to advance in one means failing to advance in both.”

Cha Ming frowned. “Can a core be fused with one’s body?”

“Naturally,” Immortal Heartlock said. “I know of over a hundred ways to do it, each of them suited to different kinds of cultivation.”

Cha Ming thought of something then. “Immortal Heartlock – you mentioned fusing soul and core or soul and body, and body and core. I brought up one method, which is via stiching.”

“That is one of the more popular ways, yes,” the immortal librarian said.

“Tell me, do you know what this is?” Cha Ming asked. He summoned an object from his spiritual sea. It was the white needle that Sun Wukong had given him.

Immortal Heartlock’s expression turned grave. “That’s a soul nurturing spirit needle. Very expensive. Tell me, you man – where did you get it?”

“My teacher gave it to me as one of my starting items,” Cha Ming said. “The calligraphy set was also from the same place. Could I use this needle to stich my soul? Something tells me this is what he intended.”

“Oh yes, yes it could,” Immortal Heartlock said. “There are few better needles to use at your cultivation realm. But… well, I think I know why he gave you this needle, and why he had you bring me such a precious gift.” He reached through space and picked up a book with his bony hand. The book was black and white with golden lettering. It was clearly an immortal item. “This… is from my personal library. It is called the Divine Law Spirit Stitching Scripture.”

“Divine Law Spirit Stitching Scripture,” Cha Ming repeated. He looked to Huxian, and Huxian nodded. They were both of the same mind on this –if the name was long, it was definitely worth learning.

“The Divine Law Spirit Stitching Scripture channels the power of life and death to stich the body, law core, and soul into a single entity,” Immortal Heartlock explained. “It is very difficult to cultivate.”

“But it can be done,” Cha Ming said.

“Naturally,” Immortal Heartlock said. “It has all the advantages I mentioned before and more, but I think you can imagine the greatest downside to this technique.”

“If I practiced this, I would need to advance in body, law, and spirit simultaneously,” Cha Ming said. “If I were to fall behind on one, I’d be stuck there until I made up the deficiency.”

“In exchange, you gain great stability in your soul, law core, and inner world, and phenomenal cosmic powers,” Immortal Heartlock said. “That last one I was exaggerating a bit. But to cultivate the technique you need two things. The first is to study the technique, which is extremely difficult to comprehend. I can allow you to do so to your heart’s content, but only if you meet the second requirement.” He waved his hand and two projections appeared. One of them was the soul nurturing spirit needle, while the other one appeared to be a darker version of the same needle.

“The needles required for this technique are specific and extreme,” Immortal Heartlock said. “A soul nourishing spirit needle to represent life, and a soul extinguishing spirit needle to represent death. One can save souls on the verge of perishing, while the other can destroy souls with a single well-aimed stab.”

Cha Ming’s expression grew solemn. “It sounds like cultivating the technique could kill me.”

“Just the initial stitching could do it, I’m afraid,” Immortal Heartlock said. “Not to mention the process of fusing your energy afterwards. In fact, let me be blunt – you’re better off learning something else. Your teacher has pushed for extreme and risky solutions to every problem. In my opinion, your soul isn’t worthy risking.”

Cha Ming thought it over a few moments before firming his resolve. “Where can I get such a needle?”

Immortal Heartlock cursed under his breath. “Like teacher like student. Well, if you insist on walking this thorny path, I won’t stop you. You have two choices: the first is to find one in the Tribulant Yin Demiplane, which can be accessed via the teleportation formations in the mission hall. The second way to obtain this needle is to purchase it directly from the Rewards Hall.

“And how much is it worth?” Cha Ming asked, knowing he wouldn’t like the answer.

“Two million points,” Immortal Heartlock said. Cha Ming’s heart practically stopped. “As for this technique… it’s one of the few the library doesn’t possess. But since your teacher believes in you, and apologized with such a gift, I would let you study it free of charge.”

“Two million points are an awful lot,” Cha Ming said. “Should I anchor my soul to something else first?”

“You can’t,” Immortal Heartlock said. “Fusing to objects will change the nature of them, and linking your soul to phylactery once will give you soul treasure-like properties.”

Cha Ming consulted with Huxian a bit before confirming the most important factor. “You said I have two or three centuries?”

“Assuming you don’t aggravate the soul damage, yes,” Immortal Heartlock said.

Then it all boiled down to one question: Did he trust Sun Wukong’s judgement? Did he trust the man who’d thrown him out in the wilderness to survive on his own with a staff and a few pieces of bread?

He was surprised to discover that the answer was yes.

“Then let’s go with that,” Cha Ming said. “I will use medicine to delay my soul’s decay and not fuse it with a treasure.”

Immortal Heartlock took out a jade slip and engraved it with his soul force. “Here you are. This jade lists the type of environment you can find a soul extinguishing spirit needle in. They are rare, but they do get found from time to time.”

“I’ll have to trouble you when I return with the needle then,” Cha Ming said. “Huxian, do you need anything?”

“Naw, I’m good,” Huxian said. “I’ll go talk to a rank and file librarian. My needs are pretty basic.”

They left the conference room and appeared directly in the library’s lobby, just in front of the desk. The people entering and exiting the library eyed them curiously but did not dare comment. Only the chief librarian could teleport people around at his leisure.