Cultivating Chaos 4 -ch15-

Ash carefully extracted himself from Liu’s Dao and released her.

Though she didn’t release him.

In fact, he felt her travel back with him to his own Dao, hanging on tightly to him. Clinging to him, in fact.

She ended up being dumped into his Qi-Sea and next to his Dao pillar. A moment after her stature came to life and Liu was there.

“It’s so impressive. This is my Dao,” she whispered. Looking around she looked like woman memorizing a scene. Then she left her statue, it reverting back to stone.

He felt her flee back to her own body after giving his Dao a quick cuddle.

Letting out a shaky breath, Ash eased back into his body.

“Oh… you’re back,” Hui whispered, still pressed into his back and holding to him. Her hands felt sweaty as they held to his and his back felt damp as well. “Hui welcomes back Ashley and would like to say thank you. Hui feels very, uh-very good. Hui feels very good.

“Your Qi gave her solace and comfort. Hui must confess that she partially invaded your Qi-Sea while you were elsewhere. Hui apologizes but it was hard not to. I could feel it as keenly as if it were my own from our circular cultivation.”

He had no idea that she’d done so. There’d been no hints or clues that anyone had been in there. If he hadn’t seen Liu do it, he wouldn’t have known she’d been moving around, either.

“I often will go into your Qi-Sea and loiter there. It’s as close to the Hall as I can get now,” Locke added.

My Qi-Sea is not a club-house hangout.

No! Just no.

“It’s fine. I understand. I need to get up though,” Ash mumbled. His mouth felt dry.

“Okay. Let me finish this cicuit. Then we’ll stop, Ashley,” Hui said, her fingers tightening in his. In that moment he realized Hui had changed what she was doing. Rather than a continual feed of Qi, she was now pushing out pulses of Qi.

Large ones.

Ash could feel them roiling around through his Qi-Sea. They’d gone through the slow whirlpool and were being pulled down to the bottom.

A moment later and it left his Qi-Sea and entered his meridians. Gliding down it moved along the pathways, to his palm, and to Hui.

Who let out a soft breath that came out too close to a moan for Ash’s mind.

“Hui thanks Ashley,” whispered Hui.

“Oookay,” he said and waited for a few seconds. When it was obvious she wasn’t going to cultivate anymore through him he disentangled his hands from her.

Getting up he got out of his bed and took several steps away.

Hui slumped forward and landed flat in his bed. She hit the mattress with a poof noise and laid still.

“Err, Hui?” Ash asked.

There was no response from her.

Leaning down he peered into the beautiful woman’s face.

As far as he could tell, she was asleep.

How she managed it, or how it happened, he had no idea.

“She quite literally spent the whole time stuffing her entire Dantian through you. Literally. She left no Qi in her Dantian. She emptied her Qi-Sea. Her handling of her Qi is growing at an exponentially terrifying rate,” Locke murmured. “I misjudged her. She’ll be just as frightening as Chunhua. Those two will stand above all overs from what I can tell right now.”

Ash grunted at that and hesitated.

Then he grabbed the extra blanket he’d put in his wardrobe and tossed it over Hui’s lower half. If she got cold she could pull it up.

Exiting his own room Ash then left the building they were using as sect housing for sect leaders. Which was really just himself, Hui, Rou, and Locke. Though it was large enough for considerably more people.

Stepping out into the training yard, Ash saw Tan.

The boy was once again training with a sword against the dummies Ash had set up. They were stone and carved to look similar to a person. On top of that, he’d enchanted them to self repair.

They’d be perfect for training non-cultivators and low leveled cultivators.

Tan lacked fluidity in his movements. There was a rigidity that was clumsy and awkward.

Nor did he have a Dantian of any size.

For all intents and purposes, he lacked anything and everything that’d make him any sort of combatant. Outside of his willingness and desire to put in effort, he had no assets to apply or use.

How much does Talent really matter?

Could Mei beat the stuffing out of Chunhua? Could Jia? Moira? Tala?

“I… yes? Theoretically, yes. Talent is just the speed of learning. It doesn’t predict potential. Jia and Mei could easily crush Chunhua or Hui with enough training, planning and perseverance. It’s less likely, but possible. Same goes for Tala and Moira.”

Talent is only the starting point.

What if even I’ve looked at this wrong?

“I… what?”

Ash put his hands behind his back and walked over to where Tan was training. His wooden sword clacking repeatedly into the humanoid stone shape.

Tan looked up at Ash and paused.

“What?” asked the boy. He hadn’t really improved in his disposition and seemed annoyed all the time. Not that Ash could blame him given his life.

“What do you plan on doing with yourself?” Ash asked.

Frowning, Tan breathed hard while staring at Ash. After a few seconds passed he shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know. Get a job, I guess? It’s hard to stop doing this given it’s all I’ve done since they hurt my sister,” Tan explained, gesturing at himself. “Training just to kill them. But now it doesn’t matter.”

“You heard that I have to free them?” asked Ash.

“Yeah. That’s fine. Doesn’t matter. Song was feeding them each other’s balls. Even as they screamed and begged for her to stop,” Tan said with a grin. “She’s feeling better. Obviously. She also knows that you’ll come down on anyone who bothers her like an angry Bultoxi. Destroy everyone who bothers her.

“Locke has been talking to the city-lord about getting her a job at the castle. That’ll be able to help her out in the long run.”

Ash didn’t know what a Bultoxi was, but he figured it was some type of angry creature in the wild. Though everything Tan had said wasn’t wrong, either.

“Okay, but… what about you? What’re you going to do?” Ash pressed. He wanted to know what his plans were. He’d had a weird idea but he didn’t want to suggest anything without know what Tan had in mind for himself.

Just as he’d done previously, Tan shrugged.

“Just a job. Whatever. Do what I can.”

“Can you read? Write?”

Tan shook his head to Ash’s question.

“Do numbers?”

Once again, Than shook his head.

“Any skill sets? Learned skills? Trained?”

The negative head shake never stopped.

“Then… you’re just going to get a manual labor type of job?”

“I guess. Whatever job I can get. Maybe a porter for the hunting groups until I can get a hunting job. I turn seventeen next year so I’ll be old enough then,” Tan elaborated.

Seven… seventeen? Holy crap.

I thought he was like ten! He’s so small!

“Malnutrition. A lack of food at a young age can create irreversible changes. Things that can never be overcome.”

Ash clicked his tongue and rifled around through the Hall. He knew that Yue had provided him with medicine for any type of situation. The changes were high that he’d have something that could force the body to move into a perfect version of itself.

It was intended for critical wounds or wounded limbs, but he figured this was a similar enough situation that it’d work. Or at least he thought it would.

“It might work. I don’t see why it wouldn’t?” offered Locke. “As to what you’re thinking… it could work. No reason it wouldn’t. He couldn’t eve go back to normal afterward. Might even change his lifespan. Might end up living six or seven times a normal human life-span.

“At least if you go through with all the enchantments you’re considering and how to put them onto his body. Especially the ones on his torso.”

“What if I offered you an opportunity. I can’t guarantee it’ll work out, but it’s at least an opportunity,” Ash began. “I could—”

“Yes,” Tan blurted out.

“I… ah… yes?”

“Yes. I’ll take the opportunity.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to suggest.”

“Doesn’t matter. Better than what I was going to do. Even if it was just a janitor for the sect.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be as a janitor,” promised Ash. “I’d turn you into a sect soldier. Probably the first. I’d alter your body. Modify it. Bring it to it’s peak condition, then change it.

“I can theorize about what it’d do to you, but I have no way to know it for certain until after I do it. I’ve never done anything like what I’m considering.”

“Okay, let’s do it,” Tan pushed with a sharp nod of his head. “What do you think it’ll do to me?”

Ash felt like Tan had the order of operations incorrect in his words. He should be asking what it would do before he agreed.

“Make you immune to attacks made of Qi. Enhance your strength, speed, agility. Make you a super-human. It’d take care of all the deficits in your body,” Ash explained. “The rest would be on you. Your and your efforts. Your will. Resolve. Determination.

“I can provide transference papers on martial abilities and arts but… it’d all be a jumble. You’d have to forcefully push your way through it all and figure out what works best.”

Tan’s eyes had grown wide and round. Staring at Ash in a way that made him feel like he was talking to Hui.

“I accept. Yes. I accept. Let’s begin immediately,” Tan demanded, the sword falling out of his hands.

“I’ll need a short time to investigate a few things but… we can begin tomorrow. For now, take this. Take this, go lay down in a field, and prepare to have a really awful experience as it cleanses you,” Ash said and removed a pill from the Hall. He held it out in his palm. “Once we go forward, we can’t go backward. It’ll tear you apart and —”

Tan snatched the pill, slammed his hand to his mouth, and swallowed hard.

“You said go lay down?” Tan asked.

“I… yes. Go lay down somewhere that it’s alright. You’ll make a mess around yourself as it fixes you,” Ash noted.

Tan nodded his head, then grinned at Ash.

“Thank you. I look forward to this.”

Not waiting, the young man ran off then stopped in the grass not far off. He stripped off his clothes, got down to nothing but his underewear, then laid down in the grass.

Staring up at the sky above, he laid there, saying and doing nothing.

I… okay.

I’ll go study those Qi-weapons and figure out how they work. Then… build it in reverse on Tan. So that he’s a non-Qi weapon.

A non-Qi weapon that devours Qi and converts it into energy for himself.

Rubbing a hand against his stomach, Ash moved off. He needed to go to his workshop. He needed to finish up the golems as well as prepare for Tan.

With any luck, he could get done with the former before the night came.

***

Ash held the beast-core and contemplated if he really wanted to do this. Once he put it into the golem, there wouldn’t be any way to go backward. It’d drain the core within moments and integrate it into the patterns he’d carved into the interior sections of the golem

On the outside, it looked like a beautiful stone woman.

Inside, along the seems and where he’d joined the rock together, was a constant line of scrawled etchings. Imbuing, empowering, and enchanting the golem to become everything he’d wanted.

The core was the battery and “soul” of it. Loaded with all the abilities, personality, and rules he’d sunk into it.

“Stick it in already,” Locke said from beside him. “You edged me last night and you’re doing it again now. Stop being a clam jam and get on with it.”

He’d teased Locke backward and forward last night and took control of the situation. It’d been a fun exchange of roles.

Ash chuckled, then put the core into the golem. He slid the stone door shut that protected the core. Once sealed, it wouldn’t open again without force, unless he, or the repair golem he had yet to create, asked.

There was a slow humming noise coming from the golem now.

“Truth be told, I didn’t think this is how your work would turn out,” Rou murmured and tilted her head to one side. “This is surprisingly beyond anything I even considered. It’s… I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. Ever heard anything like it. This is realm shattering, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Hui agreed. “I was exposed to… to many things in my time with Shen. Saw many wonders. Many things that’d change the flow of history going forward.

“This is easily amongst those if not beyond it. Hui is impressed by Ashley’s work.”

“I just wish she wasn’t prettier than me. Or prettier than Hui, Mei, or Nah, in fact,” grumbled Locke, reaching out with a hand to touch the stone face. “This is going to make some issues for young men I bet. Falling in love with a non-sentient being.”

“I… yeah. That’s going to happen,” Rou agreed and then laughed. “Oh well. I remember being that young and having puppy love for handsome men well beyond my age and station. They’ll grow out of it.”

The humming coming from the golem ceased and it didn’t do anything further.

“Is… it broken?” Locke asked nervously.

Frowning, Ash put his hand to the chest-plate of the golem. He activated the dormant lines he’d embedded into it so he could dip into the pathways he’d carved into it.

Inspect it to see what was going on. No different than if he’d put a small amount of Qi into a carving he’d laid into someone’s back.

The response he got back was instant and active. Everything was proceeding as intended.

What was happening was the golem was “booting up” and would take some time to do so.

“Oh, it’s just… waking up,” Ash paraphrased.

A second after he said it there was a distant sound of fighting. Cultivator’s fighting, to be exact. The boom and rumble of Qi being utilized in offense and defense.

Turning his head, Ash tried to zero in his hearing on the direction it was coming from. He turned his head slightly one way, then the other, only to realize the sound was coming from beyond the city gates.

From the ruins of the city that the prison was built into.

“Someone’s fighting?” Rou murmured, her head turned in the same direction.

“Seems like it. A lot of someones,” Locke added. “That’s a lot of Qi bleeding off from it, too.”

Now that Locke had mentioned it, Ash could indeed feel Qi moving toward him from inside the interior of the prison. Lots of Qi, in fact. All of it was sweeping toward him after being used in various ways.

“It’s getting closer,” Ash stated as he realized the fact. The fluctuations in Qi were drawing near.

Then the sounds of violence and battle fell away. There was nothing more that could be heard of what was likely to be fighting.

Silence had instead taken it’s place.

Ash, Locke, Rou, and Hui all made the same choice at the same time. They moved away from the sect grounds and began heading for the walls.

It only took a minute for them to make it moving as swiftly as they were. Though by the time they got there, the wall had been filled with soldiers of the city-lord.

All of them bristling with weapons and looking nervous.

Or at least, they’d looked nervous until Ash and his people showed up. Once they appeared everyone looked relieved.

Ash wrapped an arm around Rou and leapt upward. He landed atop the gatehouse itself and set the Qi-Healer down gently next to himself.

A second later and Locke as well as Hui joined him. They were both powerful enough to have made the jump on their own.

“Ah, thank you,” Rou whispered and then grabbed to Ash, holding tightly to him.

“It’s a small army. It’s coming our way,” Locke reported, squinting into the distance. “I’m… much weaker than I was than when I was in the Hall when it comes to stuff like this. I can’t sense them as well as I could have before we came here.

“I know it’s a force of cultivators. I know they’re armed and filled with Qi. I just don’t know who they are or what kind of Qi they’re using. Based on the Qi they’re putting out and what I can sense though, they feel strong. Very strong.”

“Great. That’s the last thing we need,” grumbled Ash, his arm snaking around Rou’s hips and holding her to his side. “Four against a small army. Any idea on actual numbers?”

“No. There’s a good number of them but I don’t know the exact number. I’m sorry,” Locke apologized.

“Hui will go fight them. If Hui kills even one, Hui can begin powering through the fight,” offered Hui.

“No, we’ll use the walls. Plan a defense, get into position and— and… and it doesn’t matter,” Ash remarked with a chuckle.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t something he’d expected.

He probably should have, but he hadn’t.

“It’s a group of Brides,” Ash explained in a simple way.

“Who?” Hui asked.

“A military organization we founded to act for Ash,” Locke explained quickly.

Slowly, a group of uniformed cultivators came out of the wreckage of the city. Coming along a road. They were moving in formation, perfectly timed, and marching.

Their veils fluttered though didn’t move much.

He’d only realized who they were when he felt a familiar presence. One that was unmistkable to him given their situation.

“It’s some of the Brides and Moira,” Ash said, spotting Moira as she leapt out from behind the Brides and began flying his way.