Now that they were relatively safe, indoors, and together at night, Kepa Ying figures this would be a good time to socialize and bond with the immortal humanized beast she had tied herself to. Grabbing a couple of smaller crates for them to use as chairs and chat, the girl uses some of the packing material from the open crates as cushioning. All the handmade cloth keeping the bottles from breaking against each other was probably about as valuable as the crates themselves.

Completely ignoring the seats she had just prepared for him, the beast instead goes out to the front of the shop. She patiently waits for him to return for a full five seconds before going after him, and finds him holding a small ball of fire, which he extinguishes by closing his hand around it.

“If you come back to the back room, I made comfortable chairs,” Kepa Ying offers, not sure what the beast’s affinity actually was. She was pretty sure she had seen him fire a massive ball of lightning back at the mountain, though that might have been the affinity of the Chosen of Heaven. The area around the plateau had seemed a bit less scorched than she would have thought even controlled amounts of fire would have made it, and she hadn’t even felt an increased temperature to indicate the battle had involved fire at all. That could just be an expression of the beast’s incredible control, and the reason he hadn’t been concerned in the slightest about the fire spreading throughout the town.

“Place marker offer, if you bring them in here, there isn’t a giant hole in the wall,” the beast says.

That would probably have been one of the idioms that he had apparently ‘dumped’ from the translator to increase accuracy of translation. It was working from what she could tell, he had been much less terrifying every time he said anything at this point. Maybe he was not actually a domineering personality, and all the aggressive language had been a side effect of the translator speaking for him in a manner that it thought would suit his station. It wouldn’t exactly be the first time in history that a subordinate had been too zealous in their pursuit of face for their master.

“Okay, but we need to talk,” she says, returning to the back room, and pulling the crates out into the main area of the shop. When she gets back, the beast had disappeared. Typical, as soon as she said she wanted to talk, he ran away.

Sitting down on the cushion, Kepa Ying closes her eyes to try meditating again. Focusing on the concept of focusing, she tries to empty her mind to allow the Energy of the Heavens to enter her body. She doesn’t know how long she spends doing so, but it couldn’t have been more than three minutes before the door at the front of the store opens up again, letting a blast of hot air rush through the entire building, causing bottles to shake against the wall as the wind makes its way from the door to the hole in the back wall. Opening her eyes, she finds the beast trying to push the door closed from the inside, so she stands up and pulls the door shut with her on the outside.

Night had fallen in full, and it was dangerous to be outdoors. All the buildings near the liquor store had signs of fire on them, but there was no light being generated that she could see. A quick shiver runs down Kepa Ying’s spine as she imagines how close it must have actually gotten; she had thought that this side of the street was safe from the spreading inferno. The heat wasn’t that bad, though there was a slight haze over the sky that indicated it was much warmer higher up. Deciding not to chance being outside any longer than she needed to be, the girl goes around to the side of the shop where the hole in the wall allows entry.

Sitting on the counter instead of the comfortable boxes, the beast is drinking from one of the many bottles coating the walls. Irritated, Kepa Ying doesn’t look directly toward him as she walks directly to the far seat, letting herself down onto the cushion and closing her eyes to continue meditation. Eventually she’d make progress on empowering her body, if she just kept trying.

“What are you doing?”

Apparently the beast had never heard of staying quiet during meditation.

“I’m trying to meditate, to draw in the Energy of the Heavens and temper my body,” she replies, keeping her eyes closed.

“Oh. Keep doing that for a minute then, I haven’t been able to detect any changes.”

Well that was insulting. She may not be able to just have the ribbons of power enter her body just from being near it and not concentrating at all like the beast could, but… Oh right, she could look with the helmet and see where the Energy of the Heavens actually was. She didn’t have to rely on drawing it from wherever it happened to be. As long as the beast hadn’t already absorbed all of it, she could just move her chair over to exactly where the Energy was floating, and draw it in.

There was a slight remnant of Heavenly Energy left up on the counter, drifting slowly into the beast. It looked like he had already cleared out the entire rest of the shop while she had been out. Of course the beast had a reason for sitting there.

“If you want to see me meditating, sit on the chair,” she says, pulling herself up onto the counter next to him. Tossing the bottle behind the register area, the beast walks over to the closer cushion, a string of liquid from the container following behind him. It coalesces into an orb of alcohol, and he sips from the flying beverage as Kepa Ying attempts to focus. She doesn’t feel anything, but that was fairly typical for her experience in attempting cultivation. The sipping sound eventually stops, and she can sit quietly, for all of three seconds.

“How long is that supposed to take exactly?”

She sighs, and opens her eyes again.

“Depending on the individual cultivator’s talent, it may take longer or shorter to absorb the Energy of the Heavens, but it never takes less than a shi chen to make any sort of discernable progress. All of the sects have a method of detecting a cultivator’s potential, and they assign people a rating of their potential based on how long that takes. A genius would be a one, where someone who is pretty much fated to live their entire life as a commoner would be a ten. This one is a five, like many people throughout the empire. Tens are just as rare as ones, after all.”

“Simple gong turn scattering, understood. That would be the little bit of energy you’re sitting in, correct?”

“Yes, the helmet has a setting that let me see where the Energy of the Heavens is gathering, so I can immerse myself within it instead of trying to pull it over to me. That should reduce the amount of time required to obtain results dramatically from the standard of ‘meditating wherever’.”

“To be clear, it would take one shi chen times the potential rating to make progress, then the figure is reduced by how much energy is already around the person?”

“Correct,” she responds, not sure exactly where the beast was going with this.

“Well, I don’t have the patience for that, so I’ll just collect the energy every time we pass any and put it inside the helmet. How does that work for you?”

“That sounds amazing,” the girl states. Being in constant contact with Heavenly Energy, even if it doesn’t work to automatically cultivate her body, would work perfectly for attuning herself to command the Energy of the Heavens with the advent of the second level, the True Essence Realm. All she needed to do to reach that was finish Body Tempering to advance past the limits of a commoner, then skip through the Innate Realm straight to the ability to manipulate power itself.

“Good. Don’t mind the fact that there’ll be a constant influx of intangible mass flowing into your face, you’ve already agreed to let me do that. While everything is calm for the moment, how about you tell me everything that you would consider basic information? If you start with how you ‘make progress’, that would be for the best.”

Collecting her thoughts, Kepa Ying thinks about what she actually knows about cultivation. It was about getting stronger by absorbing energy, she was pretty sure. She had the levels memorized, and what each level let the cultivator do, and while she didn’t think the beast would need a refresher on what the standard elements did with each other, she may as well talk about those.

“To start with, this is only the human cultivation techniques I’m talking about. Beasts have a completely separate system, and usually only powerful humans have to go into the details about how they work. I only know the absolute basics for beasts, so I’ll get to them last.”

“Two systems, got it.”

“At the lowest part of the cultivation system, humans start as commoners. Until they complete the nine ranks of the Body Tempering Realm, they are considered to be at level zero. During Body Tempering, the human has to refine every part of the body to be powerful enough to withstand all the advancements of the next levels of cultivation, acting as the foundation for all future growth. Muscle Refining, Heart Refining, Lung Refining, Liver Refining, Viscera Refining, Bone Refining, Tendon Refining, Skin Refining, and finally Brain Refining, at which point the commoner hits the level bottleneck. Once they finish all the refinement they can manage, the cultivator has to accumulate power until they break through to the Innate Realm, when they can start using the Energy of the Heavens they accumulate to perform techniques that exceed the limits of even their tempered body.”

“I have concerns about several of those things, but continue.”

“The sects of the empire all have different styles about how to cultivate, and the sects are where the techniques from ages part are kept and propagated. Since using them costs energy, only geniuses at cultivation can afford to study them and master the power they offer, so for ordinary people they’re mostly useful to counter other techniques or show how serious you are about a particular issue, since you’re keeping yourself from progressing if you spend your energy on attacks.”

“Sects, what are those exactly?”

She could handle the change in topic, though it was annoying she couldn’t just keep going with the single train of thought at least until she could get to the interesting parts.

“Within the empire, the Imperial Clan only directly controls the center of the continent. All the remaining territory is divided between three factions which were appointed by Imperial Mandate millennium ago. Each sect controls a quarter of the continent, and has approximate free reign over how the environment works, how the people are treated, and the local economy. As long as every sect pays appropriate dividends to the Imperial Clan, the territorial mandate remains intact. Failure to do so would mean that the rest of the world turns against them. We are currently heading toward the territory of the Primordial Grandmist Sect, who use that cloud that you said the name of to temper themselves. They also have access to the ancient artifacts, which makes them a powerhouse for making things. Usually their territory is preserved, but controlled. Grandmist technology is why the plaguelands are contained in the Continental Sect’s territory. Their sect headquarters is extremely slow to respond to anything though.”

“Got it, technology stops plague from spreading.”

“Then there’s the Divine Continent Sect. They’re probably the worst ones possible. They have a whole distributed leadership thing, and also let any of their members do whatever they want. Mostly what they want is to take every possible natural resource for themselves and pretend that the fact they’re better at stealing makes them righteous people. Their territory is a ruined wasteland, and anyone who isn’t directly connected to their leadership might as well be a slave to anyone the slightest bit stronger than them. Since their land has been constantly pillaged with nothing ever renewed, the Continentals always want to try and take everyone else’s land.”

“Got it, Continent is united.”

“It most certainly is not, but on to the Chaotic Demon Sect.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Hey, who is the one telling the story here?”

“You are.”

“Correct. The Chaotic Demon Sect is the faction that controls our territory, and they have been focusing on efficiency ever since the current sect leader took power. As the Energy of the Heavens is fairly evenly spread across the territory, the sect makes sure that there are people cultivating in every part of the land, mainly by making almost the entirety of the region into a farming plot. That means constant inspection to make sure that the plants are growing, or that the animals are healthy, or that pests are being controlled, and low level cultivators are able to do all of that. Everyone gets a basic introduction into cultivation, how to meditate and absorb Energy of the Heavens, and their potential measured. Lower potentials get put into areas that have the most security, since it’s less likely that one of the other sects will be able to reach those places to steal the Energy of the Heavens that belongs to the Chaotic Demon Sect, but the highest potential cultivators study in the headquarters of the sect itself to rapidly grow in strength. With a strong assortment of cultivators, it’s much less likely that another sect would even try to invade and steal the Chaotic Demon Sect’s energy.”

“Pretty basic stuff there. Anything actually interesting?”

“No,” pouts Kepa Ying, “the Chaotic Demon Sect is just the best faction with no problems whatsoever.”

“Taking that under advisement, please continue.”

“So,” she starts, getting back on topic, “once you reach the first level of cultivation, you can use techniques and learn them from the sect you happen to be associated with, but the interesting thing is what happens when you cultivate enough energy to ascend to the second level, the True Essence Realm. That’s when you awaken an attunement to the elemental force you’ve most been associated with throughout your cultivation. Back at the village, you fought against the foreman, who attuned to the element of Earth at the True Essence Realm. He is actually really strong, having already passed into the third level, the Essence Core Realm. Once in the third level, the cultivator focuses on being able to store more Energy of the Heavens within themself to power more techniques or control of their element through the formation of the first of three dantians, the lower dantian in the stomach, but like I said with the first level, using techniques is a good way to slow down your progress toward advancement. That’s why the Chaotic Demon Sect is so devoted to peace with the other sects, fighting just wastes energy.”

“Energy sustainability is a concern, got it.”

“Once the cultivator reaches the fourth level, the Soul Core Realm, that’s when the cultivator starts working on becoming indestructible. With that new level, the middle dantian forms in the cultivator’s heart, and is the source of their toughness. A cultivator of a lower rank that doesn’t have something that specifically evades the source the fourth level cultivator’s durability will find themselves unable to do anything, and lose any fight because the fourth level cultivator can simply outlast anything used against them.”

“Unless they’re over level four, they’re fragile.”

“The fifth level is the Master Core Realm, and the point at which all the three dantians are fully formed with the addition of the upper dantian in the brain. At this point, the cultivator can learn special techniques with their element that can hit hard enough to overwhelm the majority of Soul Core cultivator’s passive defense, but those cost energy. Even at this level, it takes the same amount of time to gather Energy of the Heavens, so unless you want to sit in seclusion and meditate for months at a time, it’s not feasible to get into fights with strong opponents often. Well, at least, not for fights where the goal is to actually hurt each other. Tournaments happen a lot, and there’s actually one coming up soon.”

“Going to have to win the tournament, got it.”

“Where are you getting that from? Anyway, the higher levels of cultivation are harder to know about, since by that point it entirely depends on how the cultivator grew through the previous realms. For the six level, the Progenitor Realm, they can usually do something involving using their element over a widespread area, but the seventh level and beyond are complete mysteries. They’re called the Singularity Realm, the Divine Realm, and then Immortality.”

“What’s the point of just watching an event, might as well participate in it.”

“The tournament is a closed event, there’s only enough spots for three participants from each of the factions! All of the fighters are already chosen, measured, and training to be the absolute best they can be in a limited time frame. Even if you want to join in, the brackets are locked in. Traveling to the Imperial Capital and winning the tournament is not a feasible course of action, particularly since you would have to be confirmed as being third level or lower at the weigh in.”

“That’s fine, I’m pretty sure I don’t have a middle dantian, and my guess is that’s how they identify whether someone has gotten too powerful for a good fight.”

“Oh right, beast cultivation. So the thing about beasts is that unlike cultivators, they don’t get an increased life span by advancing in power, unless they achieve immortality. Because of that, human cultivators can find an old and powerful beast, and form a pact with them to share their strengths. The beast gets their life extended by linking up with the cultivator, and the cultivator get access to the beast’s raw strength. I don’t really know the details about how beasts get stronger though, other than that the forest only has weak beasts.”

“Got it, something in the forest prevents growth.”

“Do you have any other questions I should be answering?”

“Are you any stronger yet?”

“No, of course not!”

“You never know, it might have been enough by now.”

“If I want to get stronger, I still have to use the energy to do something that will temper my body in some way.”

“That’s some good information that I didn’t know I needed. How about you tell me anything you think of, because I don’t know any of it.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“How about now?”

The beast starts picking bottles from the wall, tossing them into the back room where the already opened crates still sit, and Kepa Ying decides to ignore that question.

“We are going to be collecting all these bottles then,” she asks, in a matter of fact sort of way.

“Correct!” responds the beast chipperly, stripping four bottles off the wall at once. He walks over to the mostly empty crate, drops the three he was holding and the one that floated next to him in, and drags the container out into the front of the store. “Would you kindly go and grab the other one?”

“This one listens and obeys,” Kepa Ying says, going out to the back and finding that some other cultivator had come in through the hole in the wall.

“Well what do we have here,” he says, leering, “a local looter. Criminals start early in the Demon territories don’t they?”

“Maassster?” she calls out, her voice going up an octave as she drags on the word.

“That’s not my name,” displays on her screen as noises that approximately correlate to that intent according to the translator emit from the shop.

“Whoa hey,” says the cultivator, raising his hands, “it’s not worth it for me ta fight over one shop worth of loot. Call off the demon and we can just split the haul. You probably wouldn’t be able to take all of it anyway.”

The beast walks around into the storage area.

“You underestimate my power!” he declares, holding an open bottle.

“My master says ‘you underestimate my power’,” Kepa Ying interprets, glad that his approach has stopped the man in his tracks.

“This entire town is burnin’ down, an’ I’m one of a whole crew bringin’ stuff down ta the water. Ya might be able to take me, but we can come up with a solution tha’ don’t mean all ‘a us gotta beat each other down. Thar’s plenty a loot ta go around, could let ya have a cut a tha other places fer the rum.”

The beast shakes his head. Tapping on Kepa Ying’s head, he motions that he wants her to hand him something. She just stands there confused, not entirely sure why he doesn’t just ask for the thing he wants, until the helmet comes off her head and onto the beasts. He says something, and the words that usually appear in front of her head float in front of the helmet, for both of them to read.

“I don’t think you understood me properly. I want all of the alcohol. I will be drinking all of the alcohol. I am going to contain so much alcohol within me I’d need to get a liquor licence to donate blood.”

Bursting into laughter, the cultivator slaps his knee.

“Yer joinin’ the crew. Yer a perfect match fer us, and we’ve got all this an’ more beside. Come on, we can get this on deck and introduce ya ta the captain, then we can celebrate the booze with booze.”

“You know what, you’re all right. Human,” the words say, before the helmet comes back off and goes right back onto Kepa Ying’s head, “you’re in charge of picking up everything.”

That was familiar.