Chapter 3

Eric felt a bit annoyed when the door opened and Valerie stopped talking. He was learning a great deal from her about this world. Valerie was currently going to a graduate school in order to become a doctor. Which was kind of ironic since he had spent most of his time since transmigrating with nurses and doctors.

At the same time he had quickly discovered that his new memories were severely limited. If he was correct he hadn’t even graduated from highschool. Thankfully one of the advantages of having access to the status screen was that it automatically translated language. Something he had taken for granted in his past life. Nearly everyone in his last life spoke the same language. One of the many things he learned from Valerie was that this world had hundreds of languages.

“Valerie. What are you doing here?” A woman said.

Looking over Eric was surprised to see a very pale woman with white hair standing in the doorway. She was wearing a police uniform and it was apparent that she knew Valerie. Despite how different from Valerie she looked, Eric couldn’t help but feel that both were equally attractive. Plus she gave him the same feeling of missing something important that Valerie did.

“Nicole?” Valerie said seemingly shocked. After a moment she recovered. “I just came to make sure that he was alright. What are you doing here?” She asked.

“We’re here on an investigation.” An overweight middle aged man said pushing past Nicole into the room. Based on the fact that he was carrying a gun and badge, but was wearing a suit instead of a uniform, Eric guessed he was a detective. Eric instantly disliked him. Especially when he started eyeballing Valerie. He was practically drooling.

“Here hoping to avoid a civil lawsuit?” The detective said leering at Valerie.

“Lawsuit? What are you talking about?” Valerie said clearly confused.

“Well you were driving over fifty miles an hour in a thirty five. That’s reckless driving. You’re remarkably lucky that John survived. Otherwise you would be looking at vehicular manslaughter.” The detective said and then looked over at Nicole and smiled.

It took Eric a moment to catch on to what the man was saying. First he had to remember that on this plane his name was John instead of Eric. Then he was able to piece together that the man believed that Eric would be suing Valerie. Even after he figured that part out he couldn’t figure out why the man seemed so happy about it.

“Like I said before Valerie can handle herself.” Nicole said with far less emotion than Eric and the man had clearly expected.

Eric couldn’t help but frown at her reaction. It was remarkably cold. Especially since Eric could tell that Valerie and Nicole were at the very least friends. That thought suddenly triggered a memory for him. One that left him staring at Nicole and Valerie in shock.

The man seemed angry at Nicole’s response but it didn’t stop him. “Well as surprised as I am to see Valerie here I came to talk to you John. How are you feeling?”

Eric was tempted not to answer the man. Finally he decided not answering was likely to make the entire situation worse. “I’m doing fine. The doctor’s seem to be amazed at my progress. I should be healed up in no time.” He finally replied.

“Yes it’s remarkable that you survived. Although I’d say you have a long road to recovery. Forty three broken bones. Including breaking your spine in three places. What are the odds that the doctor’s are giving you that you will be able to walk again?” The detective said with a sneer.

Valerie and Nicole both looked at Eric and the detective in horror. Clearly neither of them had known just how extensively Eric was injured. Of course Eric had known mere moments after he woke up. Over the course of a lifetime of cultivating, mostly spent weaker than his enemies, he had broken just about every bone in his body multiple times. This didn’t rank in his top hundred worst times being injured.

“I haven’t talked to the doctor’s yet. But I’m sure I’ll be up and about in a week or two.” Eric said.

The detective frowned and shook his head like he couldn’t believe what Eric was saying. “I’d say closer to six months or a year if you are lucky. Those medical bills are going to pile up. If you aren’t suing you must have some pretty decent medical insurance. Of course it’s unlikely an insurance company won’t try to recoup those losses.” The detective said and then looked over at Valerie and Nicole again.

Eric was starting to get an idea of what the detective was doing. Clearly he didn’t care about Eric. What he cared about was Valerie and Nicole. It was just as clear that he was trying to blackmail them in some way. Although Eric wasn’t sure what he had to do with the whole situation.

Eric knew just how to deal with the detective. He had dealt with a number of evil people. Almost all of them made the detective look like an inconsequential bully.

“What did you say your name was again Detective?” Eric asked politely.

The detective frowned and looked back at Eric. “Detective Hill.” He finally said.

“Detective Hill I can tell you have some nefarious purpose in coming here today. Something to do with the two young ladies. Let me make something clear to you. They are under my protection. If I even suspect you of doing something to harm them then I will make sure you regret it.” Eric said glaring at detective Hill.

The detective’s face turned red in anger. Clearly he had a bit of a temper. “Are you threatening me? It’s illegal to threaten a police officer. I could have you thrown in jail.” He practically yelled.

Eric gave him a cold look and let out a bit of his killing intent. He had killed an uncountable number of enemies. Entire nations had been decimated by him alone. Inevitably the result was that he developed a remarkably strong killing intent. That killing intent depended on his soul not on his cultivation level. As far as he could tell his soul had been brought into this world intact so his killing intent shouldn’t have changed.

The effect was almost instantaneous. Despite Detective Hill being the target of his killing intent filled the eyes of everyone in the room. A loud crash came from outside the room as one of the nurses dropped a tray. Wincing Eric realized that perhaps he had released a bit too much killing intent for a null world.

“I don’t make threats detective. I make promises.” Eric said and then drew back his killing intent. The smell of urine filled the room. Clearly his killing intent had been a bit too much for the detective. Turning detective Hill ran out of the room. Eric could hear what sounded like a few people screaming in the rest of the hospital. It was actually a bit ironic that a man that couldn’t get out of bed could cause so much fear.

Valerie and Nicole stayed but both were looking at Eric with eyes filled with fear. With a sigh Eric turned to them. “Sorry about that but I couldn’t take much more of that fool.”

Nicole was the first to recover. “What was that?” She asked.

Eric considered what to tell them for a moment. Eventually he decided that being direct would be easiest. “My killing intent. How about both of you take a seat and I’ll explain. I expect there is a great deal about the universe that you don’t know.”

Valerie and Nicole looked at one another. Clearly the use of his killing intent had scared both of them. “Don’t worry, I'm not going to hurt you. In fact, I want to help you. Some of those secrets are directly relevant to both of you.” Eric said.

As he had hoped that both reassured them and piqued their interest enough that they both sat down. Now that they were sitting down Eric took a moment to figure out where to begin. Ultimately he decided that the best place to start was with his own history.

“Have either of you heard about transmigration?” Eric asked.

Both women frowned and shook their heads. “It’s when a soul is moved from one body into another. Usually it occurs when instead of being reborn a soul attaches to the body of someone that is near death. Close enough to dying that their soul has left their body but their body hasn’t died yet. The result is that the soul is reborn in a fully grown body with the memories of both their past life and the memories of the new body's life before they transmigrated. Usually whichever set of memories has a longer life ends up being dominant. Although in some cases it’s resulted in more of a merger between the original and transmigrated personalities.”

“Are you saying that you have transmigrated?” Valerie asked, looking a bit confused.

“Exactly. I used to be a powerful cultivator in another plane. As punishment a powerful goddess transmigrated me to this plane.” Eric explained.

Nicole frowned. “Sounds crazy. Me and the detective reviewed your medical files before coming into the room. You’re on quite a few antipsychotics.”

For a moment Eric felt a bit of fear. He needed Nicole and Valerie to believe him. The chance of him running into another pair like them was astronomically small. Then he remembered the killing intent that he had used.

“Part of that punishment was putting me in a body riddled with various mental and physical issues. But my mental issues wouldn’t explain the killing intent that you felt a few minutes ago.” Eric said.

Reluctantly Nicole and Valerie both nodded. That much fear of a man with a broken back lying in a hospital bed really couldn’t easily be explained. “What’s a cultivator?” Valerie asked.

“At its most basic level a cultivator is someone that harnesses energy in order to improve their physical body. At later levels they can also manipulate that energy to perform otherwise impossible feats. At the highest level they become immortal and are capable of destroying entire planets with their attacks. I’m hoping that both of you will allow me to teach you how to cultivate.” Eric said.

“Sounds amazing. What’s the catch?” Nicole said in a tone of voice that clearly showed she was still skeptical about the entire thing.

“This entire planet is what is referred to as a null planet. There are no powers, no energy, no special abilities. In fact the planet itself will pull the energy from a cultivators body making it extremely difficult to become a cultivator. Luckily the two of you are able to cultivate energy faster than most people.” Eric said.

Nicole sighed. “You did say you knew a secret that was relevant to the two of us. What is it?”

“You have a Yin body and Valerie has a Yang body.” Eric said excitedly. Both women just stared at him in confusion.

“I didn’t realize it until Nicole walked in. Pale skin, white hair, and that aloof attitude. All clear signs of a Yin body and personality. Valerie has red hair, tanned skin, and a warm personality. All of which are signs of a Yang body.” Eric explained.

Nicole just shook her head. “What exactly do you mean by a Yin and Yang body? How is that useful?”

“Imagine that Yin represents cold and Yang represents heat. Both also represent a number of other traits. For instance Nicole is aloof and I’ll bet that Valerie has quite a temper when she is angry. Both are opposites and when combined are able to balance one another. The two of you are quite different but were attracted to one another anyway. What it means is that if you both become cultivators your combined energy will produce far greater effects than it would separately. I know a number of formations we can create that will help us cultivate despite being on a null plane.” Eric explained.

Unfortunately it seemed like Valerie and Nicole were both still hesitant. “In my past life there were rulers that would have given their entire kingdoms to be trained by me. Just have a little bit of trust in me. What’s the worst that could happen?” Eric said practically begging.

“What is the worst that could happen? I mean he’s currently stuck in bed.” Valerie said to Nicole with a shrug.

Nicole sighed. “What do we need to do?” She asked. It was obvious that she was still considering whether to say yes or no. Eric was relieved that she was at least considering saying yes.

“Both of you will need to spend the majority of the next week here cultivating. The more time you spend cultivating energy the better. Since we are on a null plane the longer it takes the more energy you will lose.” Eric said.

Valerie shrugged. “My grades are pretty good and I don’t have any tests in the next week. I should be able to convince my teachers to excuse me for a week.”

Nicole nodded. “I have a couple weeks of vacation that the captain keeps on telling me to use. And after the whole situation with detective Hill it would be good to take some time off.” Then she turned to Eric. “If this is some sort of scam I’ll make sure you are charged with fraud.”

“It’s not a scam. Do you want to go ahead and get started?” Eric asked.

Nicole and Valerie looked at each other. “I don’t have any other plans today.” Valerie finally said.

“Unfortunately I do.” Nicole said with a grimace. “I’m still on the clock. And I rode here with Detective Hill. Which means I’m going to have to go find him and head back to the precinct.”

Before Eric could say something Valerie spoke up. “I don’t think you should do that. The way he was talking and acting was pretty disturbing. Are you sure he won’t do something crazy?”

Nicole seemed to consider what she was saying for a bit and then nodded. “I’ll go ahead and call out for the day.” She said and then pulled out her phone and left the room.

“You said I have a yang body right? I thought I heard somewhere that yang had something to do with men.” Valerie said.

Eric nodded. “A common misconception due to the nature of yin and yang bodies. Females born with yang bodies are significantly rarer and die soon after being born. Unless the condition is identified and the correct steps are taken. Same thing for males with yin bodies. You are actually remarkably lucky to have been born in a null plane.”

Nicole came back into the room. “I went ahead and called out for the rest of the week. What now?” She asked.

Eric was a bit surprised that both Nicole and Valerie were so willing to listen to him. Then again it was probably hard for them to deny what they had felt from his killing intent. They had proof that at the very least there was something different about Eric.

“Both of you will need to sit down and get comfortable. Cultivating is similar to meditating in many ways. The more comfortable you are the easier it will be to get into the correct state.” Eric explained.