When I look back now letting Mingxia take up residence in my Mana Core was one hell of a risk, but everything turned out well in the end. Our strength grew in leaps and bounds thanks to her vast knowledge of almost all aspects of cultivation. She taught us how to make many of the cultivation tools that we used to cement our position in society.

-Excerpt from Telram’s memoirs.

“So let me get this straight,” Lelland groaned as he ran a hand over his face. “You decided that it would be a good idea to take a foreign soul inside your Mana Core?”

“That’s right,” Telram agreed cheerfully.

“This is the same soul that tried to take over your body?” Lelland pressed.

“Yup.”

“Do you not see the problem with that?” Lelland shouted at his friend. “How do we not know that she’s not controlling you right now?!?”

“Because she’s not,” Gerry sighed.

“That’s correct,” Jai agreed. “We would know if he was being controlled.”

“It still seems reckless,” Lelland grumbled irritably. “I can’t believe that you would do something so foolish.”

Why not?” Ryu asked with a wry grin. “This is exactly the sort of thing that I expect from Telram.”

“Thank you,” Telram replied.

“Oh, I didn’t say it was a compliment,” Ryu snorted in reply. “More that I just expect you to do the most random thing that you possibly can and somehow still manage to make it work out for you.”

“That’s enough you lot,” Gerry growled irritably. “What we should be asking is how she’s doing and what she offered Telram for his help.”

“She’s fine,” Telram replied after a moment. “She’s created an area in my Mana Core that I can’t really see into. I can sense what she’s doing but she has some privacy. As for what she offered me. Well, she used to be an incredibly powerful cultivator and knows a lot about cultivating and the techniques that her family taught its scions.”

“And you’re okay with losing control of part of your Mana Core that?” Warren asked.

“Of course, I am,” Telram replied. “She should have some privacy. Besides, she can only do something like that if I let her. She’s not strong enough to control my Mana Core right now. That might change once she’s recovered a bit, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“And what does she think about your cultivation technique?” Gerry asked.

“I haven’t actually asked her,” Telram replied. “I’ll let her get settled before I ask though.”

“So, what are we going to do now?” Ryu asked. “I don’t think there’s really anything else for us to do here. Do we head back?”

“Yeah, I think that would be best,” Telram agreed. “Let’s get out of here. The others are waiting for us.”

Thankfully getting out of the ruins was much simpler than getting in. All they had to do was walk through the portal that they had opened the other day. Once they were outside Telram heard a sigh of relief coming from the spirit of the girl in his Mana Core.

“What’s wrong Mingxia?” he asked her as he climbed up onto Ryu’s back so that the Divine Beast could fly them back over the lake.

“I was just a little worried that you wouldn’t be able to leave with me inside your Mana Core,” she replied. “But I guess that my fears were unfounded.”

“And how does it feel to be outside after so long?” Telram asked as Ryu took to the air.

“Well, the view isn’t exactly what I would call great right now but at least it’s something different from the walls of my prison,” Mingxia sighed.

“By the way, my master was wondering if you had any thoughts about my cultivation technique,” Telram said. “Would you mind talking a look?”

“It is certainly quite interesting,” Mingxia agreed. “I have seen cultivation techniques that create worlds inside of the user’s Mana Core before though.”

“What about the beings living on the planet inside my Mana Core?” he asked causing Mingxia who had exited the glowing orb that she had created for herself in his Mana Core to blink in surprise.

“Wait, there are beings living on that planet?” she asked. “What are they like? Are they intelligent?”

“Yes, they’re still pretty primitive right now as far as I know,” Telram replied. “But I haven’t looked recently, and they did appear pretty suddenly not long after I reached the Ascendant Realm, so I don’t really know how fast they’re going to develop.”

“That is interesting,” Mingxia murmured thoughtfully. “Normally it takes a long time for worlds like these to develop sapient beings. But then again, they’re made from your soul. So, I guess that it does make a certain amount of sense. Your soul might be that powerful. Of course, I could be wrong, and it could just be your cultivation technique. I’ve never actually seen this one before, where did you learn it?”

“I actually made it,” Telram replied awkwardly, bracing himself for her to start shouting at him but to his surprise she didn’t look bothered by this.

“I see,” she nodded. “I guess that’s not too surprising. It’s a little weird that you don’t know much about your own cultivation technique, but I guess that its not unheard of for new techniques to have unforeseen effects.”

“That would be very helpful if you wouldn’t mind,” Telram agreed. “Actually, I’m a little surprised by the way you reacted to finding out that I created my own cultivation technique or rather your lack of reaction.”

“What do you mean?” Mingxia asked. “It’s a little unusual maybe but I’ve known a few people who’ve made their own cultivation techniques.”

“Maybe it was like that back when you were alive,” Telram replied. “But I’m literally the only person that anyone that I know has ever heard of successfully creating a functioning cultivation technique.”

“Really?” Mingxia asked. “Things must’ve changed a lot in the past thousand years or so. Can you tell me about the current state of the world?”

“Of course,” Telram nodded. “Now, where to begin.”

Telram spent the entire length of the ride over to the lakeshore and a large chunk of the journey back through the Mana Zone explaining how Nerrus worked these days. To his surprise Mingxia didn’t even know what world Nerrus was. At first, he assumed that it had just been called something different when she was alive but as he told her more it became clear that she’d never even so much as heard of a world like Nerrus before. What really threw her off was that Mana was harmful to normal people. Apparently, that wasn’t a thing in any of the worlds that she had been familiar with and was horrified by the thought of Mana which she saw as a force for growth making people unwell.

She was less surprised by the way that a lot of noble families treated commoners. She didn’t seem particularly happy about it, but it didn’t seem like she was all that interested in changing it either. She wasn’t surprised to hear that most of them were at each other’s throats though. Back when she was alive, she had been a high-ranking member of a clan which was sort of like an extended family except that people could also be asked to join the clan. That reminded me a little of the guards that the nobles hired except guards usually didn’t get to marry into the noble family after getting hired which was normal for clan members who joined the clan later in life.

What really surprised Telram was how interested Mingxia was in the idea of the school that he had made. Apparently, along with clans which were basically extended noble families there were also sects that functioned more like the school that Telram had created back when she was alive, and she had always been interested in them. She seemed quite happy with the idea of helping establish one of these sects which was a few steps more than Telram had really planned himself, but he certainly didn’t dislike the idea. It was basically just a much larger form of the school that he had already made so it wasn’t like he wouldn’t have gotten there eventually but it was still good to have a firm goal for the future again rather than just trying to keep the school a secret for as long as possible.

As they set up camp for the night Telram told the others about this new plan that was beginning to brew in his brain. He had originally only planned to gain enough power that it would be difficult for the noble families to bring their forces to bear on them without weakening themselves too much but now he wanted to gain as much. No more power than they had. He wanted to create a place where anyone who wanted could learn to cultivate that could work to bring down the noble families that mistreated those they ruled over. Lelland looked uncomfortable at this but Telram was quick to assure him that he wasn’t going to just attack the noble families at random. If they were willing to work with him, he was more than happy to leave them be and even work with them if they wanted to like he had always been.

If they were going to do this then they would have to accelerate their plan of finding more powerful cultivators to join their ranks. Thankfully now that Telram had Mingxia inside his Mana Core he actually had something to draw them over to his side. He might still be weak, but he had a cultivator from over a thousand years ago who had apparently reached a cultivation level that was beyond the Immortal Realm living inside his Mana Core who was willing to share her wisdom with him. Even as he suggested this to Mingxia, he could feel the approval coming off the young seeming woman in waves.

It was honestly a little surprising that she was willing to cooperate with him this much. He knew that she was interested in the idea of a sect, but he hadn’t thought that she would be willing to hand out her clan’s knowledge like he was asking her to.

“You believe that members of my clan betrayed me, right?” Mingxia replied when he asked her about it once everyone else had gone to bed. They hadn’t really gotten a lot of sleep in the ruins because they were worried about being attacked so everyone was trying to get at least some sleep now.

“You saw the murals on the walls of the ruins,” Telram reminded her.

“Right, that’s what convinced me that you were correct,” Mingxia nodded. “So, if they did betray me then why wouldn’t I be willing to give you the knowledge that they built up over tens of thousands of years?”

“Do you really believe that everyone in your clan wanted to betray you?” Telram pressed. “It’s entirely possible that there were clan members who were on your side.”

“Even if that were true when the ruins were built that was over a thousand years ago it might not be today,” Mingxia pointed out. “If we’re right then the people who betrayed me will have had all this time to taint what everyone else thinks about me. So as much as I hate to admit it, if we ever encounter a member of my clan then they’re probably going to be my enemy.”

“I see,’ Telram nodded.

Mingxia looked pretty depressed when she said this which made sense. Her clan was her family and the idea that someone’s family would betray them like Mingxia’s clan members seemed to have betrayed her was one that Telram didn’t like thinking about.

“Shall we talk about something else?” Telram asked her gently.

“That would be good,” Mingxia nodded. “What did you have in mind?”

“You mentioned something earlier that interested me earlier about the Mana in this world,” Telram replied. “Something about it being polluted somehow?”

“Yes, that’s the only reason that I can think of for the Mana of this world affecting people in the way that you claim,” Mingxia agreed.

“What could cause something like that to happen?”

“I have no idea,” Mingxia replied. “I’ve heard of Mana being polluted before but nothing on this scale.”

“Maybe the Mana isn’t even polluted,” Telram said thoughtfully. “Supposedly this world wasn’t even home to humans until around a thousand years ago and from what I’ve learned the first people to arrive here didn’t even know what cultivation was.”

“No, I checked the Mana in your Mana Core after we first talked about this,” Mingxia replied. “There are signs of it being purified but it was definitely polluted by something.”

“That’s interesting,” Telram mused. “I don’t really think I’ve done anything special to purify my Mana though.”

“It’s probably just a function of your Mana Core,” Mingxia replied. “It’s a little different from how mine worked. Although that doesn’t explain everything.”

“What do you mean?” Telram asked seeing the somewhat sly look on Mingxia’s face. “Did you figure something else out?”

“Yes, I found a village of those ‘beings’ that you were talking about,” Mingxia replied. “They’re really interesting. But the most interesting thing about them is that their method of cultivation is different from anything that I’ve seen before.”

“Are you saying that they are purifying my Mana in some way?” Telram asked interestedly.

“That’s correct,” Mingxia agreed. “Another interesting thing about them is that what few of them that have reached the Ascendant Realm all seem to be able to use all four types of Elemental Mana. They do specialize in different types of Elemental mana though.”

“You did mention that these beings were formed from my spirit so that doesn’t really surprise me,” Telram pointed out. “So that doesn’t really surprise me. It is interesting though. I should keep more of an eye on them.”

“Yes, you absolutely should,” Mingxia agreed. “They are a part of your cultivation technique so you should be spending as much tie as possible studying them and seeing what you can apply to yourself which should be pretty much anything. At the moment you have more than enough Mana to increase your cultivation level so it’s more important that you understand your cultivation technique right now.”

“Agreed,” Telram nodded. “I assumed that was the case. By the way, is it comfortable in my Mana Core?”

“It’s more comfortable than being sealed inside of my mostly dead body,” Mingxia replied. “Thank you for allowing me to create my own space by the way.”

“That’s no problem,” Telram chuckled. “You deserve as much privacy as I can offer you.”

“Thank you,” Mingxia said as she bowed her head to his spiritual body. “You didn’t have to do that, but I still appreciate it.”

“Yes, I did,” Telram disagreed. “It might not be something that I promised you when I made the Karmic Oath to help you, but it would’ve been wrong for me to deny you privacy.”

“I see,” Mingxia sighed before her expression hardened. “Just be careful Telram. While there are certainly times that your morals will be helpful to you there will likely also be times that someone will use it against you.”

“I know,” Telram agreed. “I like to think that I know when to uphold my morals and when I have no choice but to do something that I find distasteful, but I’d appreciate any advice that you might have for me. I might not take it, but I’ll always consider it.”

“Gods dammit Telram,” the immortal woman sighed. “This is exactly what I mean. I will always offer advice that benefits me even if it doesn’t benefit you. The only thing that I can’t do is actively work against you.”

“That’s why I’ll use my own judgement in the end,” Telram pointed out. “Besides it’s not like I only have you offering me advice.”

“Fine,” Mingxia sighed tiredly. “Is there anything else that you want to talk about?”

“What do you think about my companions?” Telram asked.

“They seem nice enough, I suppose,” Mingxia replied. “They’re all pretty weak though.”

“Well, other than Gerry we’re all pretty much the same age,” Telram pointed out. “And we’re actually pretty powerful for our age.”

“I suppose that I should lower my standards a little then,” Mingxia sighed. “There are obviously a number of things in this world that hold cultivators back and none of you have access to the resources that a top tier clan like mine has access to. No offence.”

“Yeah, you probably should lower your standards a bit,” Telram agreed easily. “I’m sure that things were very different when you were alive.”

“Yeah, your people seem to be much better at using soul energy, but even you aren’t as good at manipulating your Mana as a normal cultivator at a similar cultivation level as you are,” Mingxia sighed. “Although that doesn’t surprise me now that I know about the state of the Mana in this world.”

“Any ideas about how to purify the Mana that we absorb?” Telram asked curiously. “If you don’t, we’ll still look into it ourselves but of you even have an idea of where to start that would be helpful.”

“Hmm, maybe,” Mingxia replied after a few moments. “My clan did have a few methods for dealing with polluted Mana. Sometimes Mana Zones were polluted by one or more of the treasures inside of them so we had to work something out to deal with that so that we could use the Mana Zone to increase our Elemental Affinities. You seem to know a bit about Inscriptions. Have you ever seen something like this?”

Telram blinked as Mingxia drew a complicated pattern in the air in front of her leaving a thin line of Mana behind. The inscription that she had drawn wasn’t familiar to him but then he didn’t expect that it would be since her clan seemed to use a different method of making Inscriptions than what he was used to.

“No, that doesn’t look like anything that I’ve seen before,” he replied. “I take it that this Inscription will purify polluted Mana?”

“It probably won’t be completely effective,” Mingxia replied. “But it should help a little if you add it to a cultivation mat or something.”

“I’m sorry, a what?’ Telram asked causing Mingxia to blink at him in surprise.

“A cultivation mat,” she repeated. “It’s one of the most basic tools that a cultivator can have. Have you really not heard of them?”

“It’s been over a thousand years since you talked to anyone and this is a world that you’re not familiar with,” Telram reminded her. “It shouldn’t surprise you that I don’t know what a cultivation mat is. Hell, we don’t even use the same sort of Inscriptions that you do.”

“Actually, that does make sense,’ Mingxia agreed. “I did notice that you had somehow added Inscriptions to your Mana Core. I should’ve thought of that. Do you want me to show you how to make cultivation mats?”

“Eh, not right now,” Telram decided. “We only have a handful of Inscription materials with us. I’ll ask you when we get home.”

“Alright then,” Mingxia agreed before hesitating slightly. “By the way what is it like where you live?”

“it’s nice,” Telram replied after a few moments. “I enjoy teaching my students and most of the villagers are really nice to me.”

They continued to chat about life in Yulis village for a few more minutes until Gerry tapped Telram’s real body on the shoulder causing him to open his eyes.

“You can get some sleep now if you want,” the older cultivator suggested. “You wouldn’t want to be too tired when we get back to Yulis tomorrow.”

“Good point,” Telram agreed. “I’m sure that everyone’s going to want to see everything that we found. I’ll see you in the morning.”