Cultivating Chaos 6 -ch 5-

Agent Crow had remained in the parking garage as Ash was escorted into a very large elevator. It was easily four times the size he was used to and the doors were wide enough to match it.

There were no buttons on the inside either. It was a slick panel without any indication that there was a way to control the elevator at all.

“It’s a freight elevator,” murmured Ash as he looked at the ground. There were a number of scratches in the floor that would indicate heavy items were dragged or rolled across it often.

“I think this’ll be interesting,” Xiuying said, her fingers clicking away at the console in her hands. “Though I probably should swap with someone else. Like Siu.”

“If that’s what you feel is best, dear Xiu, my wife,” Ash said, put an arm around her shoulder, and drew her close.

She immediately let the console fall to her side and held it with one hand, her other arm curling around him as she pressed herself into him. She nuzzled him for several seconds.

“Yes, I’ll trade with Siu,” she said then sighed. “I’ll go play this some more. It’s fun! You don’t mind, do you?”

“Not at all. Enjoy yourself, Xiu,” Ash said and kissed the top of her head.

She was gone in a flash, replaced with Siu. Standing just about in the exact same spot, in fact.

Who kissed Ash on the lips, tapped him with her fan, and stepped away from him. Her fan unfolding and lightly fanning it in front of her face.

“You know, I find this rather fun. Interesting, even,” Siu said in Kingdoms, turning to look up into the corner of the elevator. “I can imagine you growing up in such a world like this. Living your life.

“Being somewhat normal and every day, never realizing just how much potential you’d have the moment you were given a chance.

“Now you’re Lord Sheng. Master of the Brides and Knights of Sheng and two realms. The Emperor will need to be wary of you and very soon.”

Ash raised his eyebrows at that as the elevator continued to move downward.

“I’m having fun, too. This is like a lovely resource run! Intelligence gathering and resources. Lots and lots. I’m just, scouring all the trash, taking anything that someone doesn’t want.

“So much resources and all it takes is just a teeny-weensy bit of effort on my part to fix a thing.

“I can’t wait for trash day. That’ll be a great one!”

Is it really that easy for you?

“Oh yes! Very much so. Infinitely so. I just ask a Bride for a quick hand, use an ability on my own, or just some Qi.”

Ash nodded his head at that as the elevator dinged.

“It’s as easy at that.Voila, we have a new resource,” Locke admitted with a giggle. “Also, I know this is annoying to be here, but I’m learning a great deal from them. There’s a lot of people, talking, paper records, active monitors, I’m going through all of it I can. I wish we had time to scrub through their recordings but I’m afraid we just don’t have that kind of time.”

The doors slid open and Ash found himself staring at a large number of armed and armored soldiers. They were wearing a lot of gear and had a very similar resemblance to what he would swear came from his own world.

It’s fine. I don’t mind being here. I suddenly get the impression that I’m going to be forced to open an embassy somewhere on this world. Better I figure it out now so we can plunk it down.

“Yes. I admit it. Everyone is very infatuated with this world so far. All of it.”

“Step out of the elevator,” said a commanding voice.

Hui, Ash, and Siu, did just that. There was no reason not to.

“You will obey all my commands and do what we ask you to,” called the same voice. It was one of the soldiers in the crowd.

“I mean, up to a point, certainly,” Ash allowed with a laugh. “I’m not going to do anything I don’t want to. I’m mostly here for convenience since it seems easier than… forcing anything.”

“You will follow my orders. First you will go down the hall and each of you will go into a separate room,” continued the voice.

“No,” Hui stated.

“No,” declared Siu at the exact same time.

One of the soldiers stepped forward with what looked a lot like a tazer to Ash.

“You will comply,” called the voice from earlier.

“No,” repeated Hui, moving toward the soldier with a tazer. “Is that a gun? I haven’t seen this one yet. Does it shoot a similar round?”

As she approached, the soldier fired.

Hui snatched the two probes as they hurtled toward her and then held them up in her hand.

“They’re very small. They weren’t traveling very fast either,” she muttered and looked at the two prongs that had wires trailing off behind them. “What do they-oh. Oh! They have a little bit of lightning Qi in them. How curious. Is that all it does though?”

“It would probably knock a citizen flat, Hui,” Ash explained.

“Ahhhh, a citizen’s weapon, yes. Though these look different,” Hui stated and gestured at the rifles. Even as the man with the tazer continued to pull the tazer.

It did nothing at all to Hui.

“I would’ve called them rifles but I’m not sure they are. Larger round size,” Ash offered.

“Ooh! I want one,” gushed Hui and moved forward.

She moved at Cultivator speed and plucked one out of the hand’s of a soldier and had already moved away before they even knew she had done it.

Upon realizing she’d just disarmed one, someone shot at her.

A single shot.

As if whoever had fired had been in shock but everyone else had better trigger discipline.

The round struck her even as she held the rifle out to Ash.

“Ow, that stung!” hissed Hui, looking down at her lower back. She reached up and pressed her fingers at a point on her body. “It felt like when Tala kicks me when we’re doing light sparing. These are much more powerful.”

Ash sighed and looked to the soldiers.

“Well, you’re welcome to try and continue this… farce… or we can move it along,” Ash said with a shrug. “They don’t want to separate from me, and honestly, you couldn’t force it anyways. What now?”

Several soldier’s rushed forward, their weapons hanging at their sides.

They all put hands on Ash and he could feel their muscles flexing as they wrestled him to the ground.

Despite how strong he was, his weight was still determined by physics. He could be thrown easily.

As he slammed into the ground, he saw a surprised look on Siu and Hui’s face. The two beautiful women looked so shocked it caused Ash to laugh.

Even as they put his arms behind his back and started to hand-cuff him, Ash laughed. He had barely felt them when they struck him in the side.

Or even the ground when he was slammed into it.

Not one bit of it had registered as pain at all, but more as someone pushing at him.

“I pulled Siu and Hui into the Hall before they started killing everyone.”

Ah, thank you.

While I don’t think this is going to go very well, it’s better to not have to bury a whole bunch of people or have to deal with corpses.

Those are a lot harder to smooth rough edges out of than just words and someone tickling me.

Ash was tied up, bound, handcuffed, and a bag was stuck over his head even as he had those thoughts.

Unable to help himself, Ash just laughed at it all. Laughed as they did their best to bend him with pain compliance and binding him.

In the end, he just put his focus elsewhere as they did what they would. He was willing to see where it went and what they wanted to do.

As they carried him off, he focused elsewhere instead.

Putting his attention to his cultivation, he found it once again so strange that there was no Qi here. Not a single scrap, slip, or hint of it, in fact.

He looked further inward.

His middle Dantian had settled now. The two silver pillars were in a line with his golden one.

There were almost no statues at all here and the numbers of Knight statues at the perimeter had increased again.

Unfortunately, there still wasn’t much to do here.

Nor was he truly actively cultivating Qi.

At this moment in time, he was acting more like a giant filter for all his Brides.

They sent him impure Qi endlessly.

Which he filtered, purified, and put back into himself or the Hall.

All the while, pushing purified Qi back to the Brides through the Chains they all held.

Or the Bonds of Sheng, he supposed. The name was spreading further and faster than he expected. Even the Knights liked the name.

Ash was suddenly ripped out of his idle contemplation as someone pulled the bag off his head.

He found himself in a room with a mirrored wall, a table, a chair, and nothing else. The person who had pulled the bag off was already leaving through the door.

“Oh, well, here we are then,” Ash murmured dryly. “Were you going to free my hands now? It’d be nice. My nose kind of itches.”

“We’re going to ask you questions,” said a voice over the intercom, completely ignoring him.

“Oh? Alright. Are we talking like, twenty questions? If so, I’m down. I play it with my wife often and we’ve gotten pretty nasty about it. Anyways… do you want to start? Should I?” Ash asked. At the same time he twisted his wrists and casually broke the handcuffs. Moving his hands in front of hims he looked to them curiously.

With a sniff he reached to his left wrist with his right hand and casually bent the cuffs off himself. Shattering the metal in a spray of metal.

Ash then flicked the broken remains onto the table.

Looking down to his feet he looked to the handcuffs there.

They were different than handcuffs that’d been on his wrists but similar.

Reaching down he pulled at the chain between the two, snapping it without much issue or effort at all. Laying his fingers to the shackles themselves.

Breaking each off, he set them down on the table, then pushed the pile of broken things to the side. Once done he brushes his hands off against one another then summoned a donut, a soda, and a bag of chips.

Popping open the bag he started in on them immediately. Grabbing several and stuffing them into his mouth.

“Well? Do I start or do you? You never answered me,” Ash prompted as he chewed. He realized that he would actually have to push them along it seemed. “You’re already wasting my time and I’m trying to be a gracious guest. So far it feels like you’ve been nothing but hostile despite me doing nothing problematic at all.

“Even broke a tornado in half just for funsies but whatever. Come on then. You’ve got till I finish my snack here before I get bored.”

“What’re you here for?” asked the voice.

“Tourism. Told you. On my way to point B. Ended up figuring out I need to go to A2 before I can go to B,” Ash explained. “Next.”

“Where is it you’re going?”

“Home.”

“Where is home?”

“Dunno. Somewhere that way. My home isn’t on your plane. I’m really just looking for an exit from this plane to my own,” Ash said and pointed at where the chains were leading. “Kinda seems like it has to be on the other side of the planet given how it just about seems to be straight down.

“That or the center of the earth. That’d be fucked though. Urgh. I hate caves.”

Ash popped the tab on the soda and took a drink.

It reminded him of a soda from his own world.

“Explain your powers,” demanded the voice. “You’ve demonstrated more than a few that break the rules of the world.”

“No. No thank you. Unless you want to explain your country’s secrets,” Ash answered with a chuckle. “Why would I tell you my secrets if you don’t tell me yours? That just makes no sense at all.

“What I can say is that even if I did explain how my powers work, you wouldn’t be able to do anything with it. In fact, it wouldn’t even make sense to you.

“It’d be like trying to explain how nuclear warheads work to someone from the twelfth century.

“Well, if you had a twelfth century here.

“Maybe you skipped right through your own dark age. That’d be interesting to look into, actually. How many continents are here?”

“It would be best for everyone if you explained your powers,” tried the voice.

“No,” Ash said, smiled, and popped a chip in his mouth. “Next question?”

“Just exactly where is the exit? Do you have more information? If you provided more, we could probably help you out more,” stated the voice.

It sounded the same as the previous one, but Ash felt for sure that this was a different person entirely.

“I really don’t know anything more than what I said. It’s really just a general direction at this point and I gave you it.

“Sorry. It’s fine though. Once I figure out where it is, or just get closer, I can provide more information and get help at that point. As I said, I’m just passing through,” Ash said with a smile, working his way through the potato chip bag.

“Mr. Sheng, involving another nation may complicate your journey unnecessarily,” continued the voice. There was no room for question in it. “We’re not inclined to relinquish our involvement so easily.

“You’re here, under our jurisdiction, and we’d prefer to resolve this matter directly. If you refuse to work with us, we’ll have to consider alternative measures to ensure the safety of our people.”

I never said I was going to ask for help from another nation.

Though I suppose if the exit is on the other side of the world, it makes sense that I would need to involve another nation entirely.

Are they really trying to keep me here against my will though, let alone keep me in their country?

Hm.

Rather possessive for someone we just met.

“I mean, you’re welcome to try. I’ve been polite so far, I’ve even helped, but really you’re just being aggressive and it seems like you don’t want us here. I mean, I was willing to overlook some of it cause I can understand where you’re coming from,” Ash muttered and took a sip of his soda. “I think maybe it’s time we just moved along in the end though. There’s no reason to stay around here any longer and you’re just too… angsty, for me. Possessive.”

“Mr. Sheng, you misunderstand. This is not a matter of wanting or not wanting you here—it’s about ensuring that your presence is not an issue,” the voice declared. “Any actions you take must be ensured that they do not destabilize our world. If you choose to leave without cooperation, we’ll have no choice but to impose measures to prevent further potential disruptions. Consider your next steps carefully.”

Laughing, Ash followed it up with a sigh.

He got it to a degree.

In fact, he could even empathize with them.

That didn’t mean he’d do what they wanted.

Ash would just have to be very careful in his exit to not really harm anyone.

“Yeah… oh well. I tried. We’ll just get a move on then. You’re clearly unhappy with us being here,” Ash murmured and then just finished off his chip bag. Stuffing his mouth full of the chips.

He left the bag there and stood up.

Picking up the soda he drained it quickly, gulping it down.

He dismissed the donut back to the Hall.

“Alright. I’ll go get a map and then head to the nearest country and see if they’re more amenable,” Ash said, turned, and walked to the door.

He didn’t so much as open it, as push it open.

Right off it’s hinges.

The heavy steel reinforced door crackled under the immense weight of his strength. The brickwork and rebar whining and breaking apart as he went.

Ash simply began walking, a green arrow appearing in front of him and guiding him out.

Locke didn’t even need to be asked to help.

“Mr. Sheng, your actions are now a direct violation of our protocols. This is not a negotiation. Cease immediately, or we will be forced to respond with measures proportional to your actions,” growled out the speaker.

“You’re right, it was never a negotiation,” confirmed Ash as he continued to walk.

Even as he moved, soldiers began swarming him.

Moving at him with an intent to clearly subdue him as they did previously.

This time, Ash didn’t allow it.

He slapped them.

As gently as he could so he didn’t break their necks, he slapped them.

Knocking each and every soldier out with only a single brush of his palm.

He hoped they weren’t dead, but he wasn’t going to remain here to make sure of that, or find out.

More soldiers appeared, barriers were thrown in the way, and they even began shooting at him.

Ash hardened his body with his Qi, ignored all of it, and kept going. Letting them shoot him if only to demonstrate the futility of it.

Eventually he made it to the elevator, which was flooded with soldiers.

“Mr. Sheng, this is your final warning. We understand your capabilities, but we cannot permit unrestricted movement without accountability. Stand down, and we’ll reconsider our approach,” offered a new speaker.

“That’s just stupid. You’re stupid. You want to throw down, then suddenly pull back when you realize you can’t? You’re idiots. All of you,” Ash said with a shake of his head. He casually pushed his way through the soldiers even as they crowded him.

Slapping those down that tried to grab at him.

Those that shot at him, he just ignored.

Their weapons wouldn’t do much to him.

Reaching the elevator doors Ash shoved them open.

The elevator car wasn’t there and it seemed unpowered.

“Oh, fun,” he said and hopped down into the elevator shaft.

He leapt to one side, planted his foot, and pushed off. Shooting toward the other side of the elevator.

Ash continued this, wall jumping back and forth all the way up the elevator shaft.

“Mr. Sheng, you’ve proven your point. We understand the limits of our current measures. However, leaving this facility without our cooperation will have consequences. You’ve made it clear you don’t want a conflict—neither do we. We suggest we talk about a resolution before this becomes a matter for forces beyond either of us,” offered the voice from above and below Ash.

“Even more idiocy. You didn’t want a conflict? You started it! Fools. Foolish. All of you. Don’t you worry your stupid heads. My people and I will be moving straight to the border. Just tell us a direction and we’ll be on our way,” Ash yelled loudly as he jumped.

In the next moment he ended up reaching the top of the elevator shaft.

He knew this because he ended up jumping right through the bottom of the elevator car and crashing into it. Ending up stumbling into the inner elevator door.

“Oh, I’m here,” he muttered and tore the doors open.

He was met by a massive gun barrel that looked as if it belonged on a tank, but it was attached to a car of some sort.

It fired the moment Ash was visible.

Grasping at his Dao, Ash simply redirected the shell. Letting it pass by him harmlessly rather than striking him.

Not wanting a repeat or anything similar, he set forward at a quick jog. Exiting the elevator, the parking garage, and making it onto the street very quickly.

“Get everyone up and moving Locke. I’m afraid we’re leaving,” Ash said aloud as he continued to follow the green arrow. It was likely sending him back to the Hotel where the Brides were.

“Not a problem! We can be at the nearest border in hours if we move quickly. Something akin to … seven or eight hours? Not even that bad, really. We can just move cross country and break contact with them.”

“Sounds like a plan. Okay. Let’s do that,” Ash confirmed as he ran on.

He lamented the fact that the government had been so quick to try to control them. So heavy handed that they couldn’t even see that Ash and his people were beyond their control.

That wasn’t really his problem though. He would just go to the border and ask to speak with someone there and make similar offers to their own government.

If he was refused at that point, he’d just have to keep moving toward his goal.

Asking any country he came across as he went.

He wasn’t going to let something like someone telling him he wasn’t welcome stop him though. If they told him they didn’t want him there, he would move through their country to get to the other side and beyond.

He was going to do his best to move in a straight line to the exit.

Really sucks that we can’t lounge about for a bit and be tourists. It would’ve been nice.

That and the Brides have really been enjoying themselves here.

Ah well.

If it continues like this, we might need to make our recruiting efforts underground.

Ash jogged on with a small shake of his head.