Chapter 6: Ling Shuren

Beside a mountain cliff overlooking a city down below, a girl sat embracing her knees, sniffing.

She was in green robe. Her black, shiny hair covered her sides and forehead. Aged around fifteen or so, she had a look of regret, at the same time looking out at the city, still wishing to go out and explore more of the world. She knew the outside world was full of danger, yet her desire and curiosity could not be satiated by just looking from afar. To make it worse, she kept hearing stories of amazing adventure and fateful encounters from her senior brothers and sisters.

It was a world she longed for, full of romance and thrill.

From her back, a black hole appeared. A young man in black robe came out from it.

He observed her, she did not even notice him appearing. He was An Shan, entering her, Ling Shuren’s soul world. It was the world of her deepest subconscious, encompassing her full experience and desire. Entering someone’s soul world could very well be risky, but in her case it was not. If it was a world belonging to a Titan-Star cultivator, he definitely would not dare to be so arrogant. She however, was too young to take control of her own world. Plus, her soul world was quite small due to her limited experience. However, it seemed to have good scenery a good distance away. He could even sense wind whistling, as if longing for a far away place.

‘So her wish was to explore the world, hm, typical I guess. Can’t criticize it too much,’

He walked towards her. By the time he stopped behind her, she noticed him. Turning to him, she had a look of wary.

“…Who are you, big brother?”

“Hm, just your average sect member. What’re you doing here, alone? It’s going to rain soon,”

Looking up, her world was full of black clouds, as if waiting for a thunderstorm to appear. Hearing this, only then she realized it. Seeing the big brother was a fellow sect member and clearly having no ill intent, she was not so guarded anymore.

“Ah, I didn’t notice… I’m just looking at the city. What’re you doing here, big brother?”

“Just walking around, and saw you, little sister. Looking out there for so long, you want to go out or something?”

“Ah, em…”

“Hm, kind of remind me of myself years back. I used to travel a lot…”

“R-really?”

He piqued her interest.

Proceeding from there, he related to her stories of him travelling and encountering mystical beasts, meeting friends and foes alike, then embroiled in different conflicts. Having heard all that, she kept urging him to continue. Each time it seemed like he was about to conclude his story, she would ask more questions and more explanations, of how he got out of the situations… And what happened soon after.

Her interest in his adventure was genuine, even he felt tired telling so many of his personal stories. Then again, it was rather… fun. Her various expressions and fidgeting as she kept listening, were interesting to see, honestly. Finally concluding it was enough, he stopped just before she could hear, the answer of his proposal to his beloved.

“That’s it. I guess this is as far as I can tell,”

“B-big brother! Don’t joke around like that! Don’t leave the story hanging like that! Cliffhanger like that, too cruel…”

“I really can’t. I’m running out of time,”

“Brother! Y-you’re not a hero, you’re a villain! Uhh,”

She complained while holding his robe, tears in her eyes. With him still refusing, she even hit his shoulder several times. Yet without her noticing, the black clouds over them had been replaced by the white clouds, hovering peacefully over the blue sky.

Sunlight greeted them, full of delight.

“Eh, don’t be selfish. I’m just too tired, sleepy,”

“J-just a little more! Please,”

“…Alright, tell you what,”

“You’re continuing?”

Sparkles in her eyes, An Shan was almost blinded by them.

He calmed her down.

“I really can’t, please understand. But I promised I’ll continue the story later, alright?”

“Uhh, alright… But you promised! Don’t pretend you can’t remember it later,”

“Haha, yeah. I promised, of course I’ll remember. But in exchange, little sister… I need you to do something,”

“Ehh,”

“Don’t fret, it’s nothing complicated,”

He explained to her what he needed her to do.

He wished for her to be strong, in will and in effort. Should challenges come and knock her down, she must stand up, again and again! If she truly wanted to explore the world, she was bound to face challenges and difficulty. So she needed to temper her will, strengthened her resolve… Even facing death!

He wished for her to be adamant, never give up.

“Just remember, beyond hardship there’ll be benefit. You’ll have to stay strong, always. You do this, I’ll continue the story the next time we meet,”

“Ehh, why so much condition? I don’t quite get it,”

“Like I said, don’t fret! Weak people complained all the time, they get killed before even getting to the good part of the adventure! Don’t you want to experience it all for yourself, instead of just hearing other people’s story?”

“…By myself?”

Hearing his explanation, she froze. When her mind got back into motion, her eyes glittered. He extended his pinky finger. Knowing what he meant, she extended hers. Their fingers connected, bending on one another.

She nodded.

“Alright, I promised you, big brother.”

“Good, I trust you will honor it, little sister.”

“Un! Then maybe, not just telling me, you’ll take me out with you?”

“…Fine, but only if you behave, and if I have time,”

Facing her glittering eyes, An Shan’s eyes twitched. He could not refuse her.

From then on, a simple pact was consented. It was made, even when the other party did not even know his name… To her, he was simply her fellow sect’s big brother.

Yes, your average sect’s big brother.

…

‘…Soul Pact, complete.’

An Shan opened his eyes.

Looking at the now sleeping Ling Shuren, he sighed. It was unexpected, for her to add another condition for him. Then again, it was nothing complicated so he agreed. With this in place, her chance of surviving and transcending the coming trial, increased. But for how much, that would depend on her. He did what he could. Now, for the trial.

He turned to Xiao Mei, sitting silently beside him.

“I’m starting. Whatever you witness, just stay silent. Help hold her if you want, but if you divert my attention away, you might as well kill your own friend with your hand right now,”

“…Un,”

She nodded furiously. An Shan knew this troublesome girl had difficulty controlling her mouth, so he used her good side to control her. As long as it concerned someone she cared, she would go to extra length to help.

Right now, he really must concentrate.

An Shan placed both hands on Ling Shuren’s lower dantian, her belly. To save her life, he had to use his soul technique to control the disintegration of her Sub-stars and Protostars, reverting her cultivation back all the way back to Purification Stage, three whole stages lower. Her cultivation would go down from that of an early expert to that of an early practitioner. This process was not something a Titan-Star could do. In fact, even Soul-Titans would find it hard to do it well.

‘I could use my Soul to contain her system and disperse them into Cloud Forming Stage, but,’

Seeing her tainted cultivation, he knew how to best approach the problem.

Such cultivation, it would be better to part with it. It would be a lot better for her in the long run, to go down one whole stage more, to purify her Qi and to start practicing a much better cultivation. One of the reasons why her Heavenly System suffered such terrible damage, was partly due to the low quality cultivation. Back in his days, it was a lot harder to crush someone’s dantian during one on one. The opponent had to be someone at least two whole stages higher to even have a good 50% chance.

It would be easier to capture first, and a lot easier to just kill.

‘With her talent, she should cultivate the Nineteen-Stars, Three-Layers Heavenly Design Cultivation. It’ll be a bit slow in the purification stage, but in the long run…’

He pressed his soul into her, taking control of her Heavenly System.

She shook violently. Half-conscious, she was about to shout, yet her voice was stuck in her throat. With only hollow sound coming out and eyes of white, she was akin to someone possessed by evil spirit. Her whole muscles was shivering violently, her white robe almost come undone. She was convulsing. Her limbs kept banging on the floor, violently. Seeing this, Xiao Mei panicked.

Nonetheless, she recalled ancestor’s warning, she did not say anything. She could only pressed Ling Shuren’s shoulders with all her strength, her little hand pressed her robe together with her body. Seeing An Shan closing his eyes in full concentration, she tried to at least prevent her from hitting her head on the floor.

Within Ling Shuren’s Heavenly System, all three of her Sub-Stars had disintegrated.

They slowly blew out, yet layers of consciousness contained the explosion, directing it to circulate within in a spiral form. Ling Shuren’s cultivation, from Sub-Stars Stage, reverted down to Protostars Stage. An Shan used the following circulating force to take down all nine of her Protostars, forcefully integrating them into the massive spiral. As soon as all nine Protostars were taken out, her cultivation lowered to Cloud Forming Stage. Violent spiral in her inner space kept circulating. By right, this was already enough for her to survive.

However, An Shan had plans for her. Thus;

‘Reverting spiral, back to origin. Cloud, back to one point,’

The violent spiral seemed to come to a stop.

No, not quite. It started to move backwards. With An Shan guiding it, the massive Heavenly Cloud of various colors spiraled back, slowly becoming smaller and smaller. As time went by, the spiral finally stopped into one point. The whole massive colorful cloud, had been compressed into one sphere, so tiny it was barely visible even to his Soul’s Eye. From afar, the sphere was as though part of the nothingness.

‘Complete. It’s even better,’

Even better than he had expected, this came as a surprise.

Did his control somehow became better over the years, or this girl was simply lucky? Stopping his Soul Technique, Ling Shuren’s body stopped convulsing. He sighed in relief, eyes then fell onto Xiao Mei. The little girl was on top of her friend. She had tears in her eyes, sniffing… Her face was clearly asking, how did it go?

Smiling, he placed his hand on her head, ruffling her hair.

From the ancestor’s action, she could tell it went well. Joyful, she almost laughed out loud, but shut her mouth with her hands. She sure did not want ancestor to kick her out.

“I’ve contained the explosion, stabilize her cultivation. She’s back in Purification Stage, but… If she persevere, good things are bound to happen. You’re her friend, tell her that.”

He explained a little more to Xiao Mei. The little girl deserved it, and he also did not want this descendant of him to think he was incompetent. Plus, she was Ling Shuren’s friend. Having Xiao Mei relayed his message to her was desirable.

Hearing so, she nodded with excitement, then proceeded to tidy up her friend’s robe and blanket. She took some water from beside her, helping her drank some. After that, she took the towel next to her, cleaning up her sweat.

Seeing Xiao Mei acting like this, he smiled. Ever caring, she reminded him of his own sworn siblings. Some were naughty, some haughty, yet they cared for each other.

He looked at Ling Shuren carefully one last time.

‘Hm, then again, if this girl continued to practice that shit-type cultivation… My effort would all be for naught. That’s a bit…”

He turned to Ling Shuren’s Master, Su Min.

While the lady was still sleeping peacefully, he placed his hand on her forehead. His soul entered her upper dantian, her mind. He wanted to imprint within her mind the Nineteen-Stars, Three-Layers Heavenly Design Cultivation. As for how she came to know it, hm, let us just say she got it from a peerless expert many years back. Later, he would put strict directive for her, to teach only Ling Shuren this cultivation, since it fit her perfectly. With this, she would believe she was making her own decision.

He was about to start, yet he stopped.

‘Oh yeah, her own cultivation…’

The disciple had her problem, the Master had her own.

Should he took out the tainted cultivation method from her mind, then engraved his very own cultivation into her? She also needed the Advance Purification Manual. It was important for her to purify her body continuously, and to do so without fail everyday. Since she was the type to guard her chastity, this was in alignment with her value.

Thinking again, that was a lot of information to put in.

...

He took off his hand from her forehead.

What he stopped from doing just now, was Soul Manipulation.

The mind linked directly to the soul’s perception. The act could be said to be immoral, seeing as he would be manipulating someone’s will. He however, begged to differ. As long as it was something good, he did not care in the least!

However this time, he did not use it.

He realized he should not use Soul Manipulation so easily, as it carried its own risk as well. Plus, Soul-Titan, Titan-star or Top-Tier Sensing Formations could sense it when they came in contact. Also, if the directive was a little far from one’s value, or if it was too specific, it would not work at all.

‘Almost made a mistake. For them, there’s no need to use Soul Manipulation at all, there’s other way,’

Observing the sleeping Su Min for a bit more, he placed his hand on her tender cheek.

“When you wake up, be calm and accept it as fate. Wake up when I snapped my finger, alright? Treat your disciple well, my dear descendant of Su,”

Soul Manipulation might be too much, so he used suggestion instead.

As he said so, his head drowsed off. He shook his head, hand pinching his temple. Using his soul to knock out Su Min and treat Ling Shuren, this much already made him sleepy. He was so sleepy, he even thought of sleeping right there. He eyed the twin mounts of Su Min’s. Nice fragrant entered his nose, his mind started to hallucinate.

‘Ah, soft, bouncy pillows… Let’s try for a bit? No, An Shan! Don’t sleep, not yet!’

He slapped his own face!

It was fortunate he refrained from using Soul Manipulation, or he would have fallen asleep on someone. It could get troublesome if an ancestor of his level was found sleeping… there. Yup, there. Turning to Xiao Mei, he noticed the little girl’s curiosity. She wondered what he was doing, her face clearly showed her confusion.

He waved his hand.

“Our business ends here,”

He said, not wishing to waste any time. He wondered if it was right to ask her this, then again, Xiao Mei was his descendant. What could go wrong, anyway?

Thus he asked her;

“…Little plum, any good place to sleep?”

“…?”

…

Chapter 6 ‘Ling Shuren’ End