Chapter 46

Giving Maw Di's Nuts

 

Five types of "snacks" daily, for seven of the elemental types. Water and wind doubling up in the soda, and metal with lightning in the steel lozenge. The other three, wood, fire and stone each on their own. It takes almost an hour each for the soda and combining 25 Grade 1 Qi Stones into 1 Grade 3 Qi Stone. The rest take another half hour in total.

This will leave his progress towards the Wood Unique Physique way behind all the other types. So I'll have to give him extras of Di's Golden Nuts. About a dozen each day. This means my work on his Physiques takes four hours each day.

Kujo's training with the others lasts for two two hour sessions each day, early morning and late evening. With all of his "helpers" starting and stopping at the same time. This way everyone stays a bit rested just in case.

All the regenerating his body is doing takes a lot of food to empower. The same amount of nutrition paste that lasts my 600-Kilo Uncle¹remember he's like half-metal.
so he's more dense than a normal tiger.
it also affects his weight, hehehe. a full week, only lasts 3 days on this 50-Kilo wolf. He lost a bit of weight when he changed species. Right now he weighs more than most wolves, but is still more than a bit smaller than some I've seen.

It turns out body tempering types of cultivation work the same as researched and tested on Earth by olympic trainers. The bulk of a person's growth comes out of recovering from fatigue and light injury, such as the muscle fibers tearing during workouts. So long as they are properly nutrified.

So it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that Kujo already gained a Level during this past week. Putting him in the middle part of Tier 3. From Kara's report about their first time in going to that city, everyone easily gained a Level a few days after a single session of removing impurities. So why didn't he level up sooner like they did?

. hmm . . It probably has to do with just how much impurities had built up over time. And of course a young master from a good-size sect would have been shielded from that as much as they could afford to do so. Not so for a bunch of bandits. The amount they had would have slowed or nearly stopped their progression. Whereas his lower levels of impurities would have had much less effect. While access to pills, arrays, and expert advice among other things would to help push him past whatever bottlenecks did come up.

So all of the former bandits had reached their bottlenecks. As well as Mom and Uncle. Which I loosened for them. However this young master, and his seer had already passed all of their bottlenecks and so had to wait for the next one. I haven't started yet on the three otter tigresses, and I wasn't keeping a close watch on my three humans.

Zo Ro) 'Hao Long, did any of you three break through to your next Level since we met?'

Hao) "Yes, Master. All three of us broke through our bottlenecks within a week after. May I ask why you wish to know?"

Z) 'You may. .'

. .

I explain my guesswork to him. Including the fact I had never truly experienced a bottleneck myself. Sure I reached bottlenecks, but they were always as weak as wet tissue paper, whereas for others they could be as strong as a brick wall, or even stronger.

H) "Th- This!"

Z) 'Amazing, right?'

H) "I have heard of treasures which could have a similar effect before, but only rarely. They almost never reach an auction house, perhaps only once or twice in each millenium. And when they do, it is only in an Empire's capital. And even then one needs to pay a Grade 5 Qi Stone as an entry fee, just to be allowed to enter and bid. . Amazing does not even begin to describe it. If other cultivators heard about this, they would fill an entire plain²not to be confused with plane.
and no, I don't mean the aircraft. to kowtow at your feet en masse, just to beg to be taken as your loyal slaves as well."

Z) 'Well that sounds. . troublesome. I had figured that some of them, especially the stronger ones, or sect and clan leaders, would instead try to capture and enslave me. In order to gain these same benefits perpetually. Or sell these benefits to others continuously.'

He looks pensive, stroking his chin in deep thought.

H) "Yes, that sounds more likely than what I said. Either way, I understand why you wanted to keep it a secret for as long as possible, Master."

Z) 'Hey, I'm not that old. My second birthday is still months off. Call me young master.'

H) "Of course, Young Master."

Vixen) 'Good day, my kit.'

Z) (nuzzle) 'Good day, Maw.³by an amazing coincidence, the chinese word for mother sounds almost EXACTLY like this english word. But be careful not to mispronounce it as the chinese word for horse ;P From the time of year, I guess you are going to try to find a new husband soon?'

V) 'No. At least not this year. Too many painful memories. . Instead I wanted to ask you what was happening with that poor wolf of yours?'

I explain to her about the Unique Physiques and the process he's going through to gain them.

Z) 'Did you want it for yourself too?'

V) 'Maybe, but not if it's as painful as you say. And like it looks.'

Z) 'I could provide some Elemental Qi infused snacks and skip the attack portion entirely.'

V) 'Oh, good. Let's do that then.'

Z) 'Butt..fire and lightning are still painful tortures as snacks. So you'd have to skip them too. And without fire, the other 4 Main Affinities will be unbalanced in any combination. Like that, you'd have to pick just one, and maybe a common affinity along with it. So, any preference?'

V) 'Stone Fox. . Metal Fox. . Water Fox. . Wood Fox. . I'm not sure. I'll have to answer you later.'

Z) 'Any one of those, plus wind. That's all I can do for you, for now. Though I can't guess that wind would work well with stone or metal. . On the other paw, the method I have available to grant wind Qi would also carry water Qi. And "water begets wood,"⁴going clockwise on the diagram, each type of Qi can enhance -
or transform into - the next type so either of those are probably good choices.'

V) 'Hmmm.. Wind and water.. Wind and wood.. Which would you recommend?'

Z) 'You'll want a balance of several skillsets: Attack, defense, healing, movement and stealth. These 5 at the minimum are necessary for every cultivator, man or Beast. With wind you get excellent movement and also decent attack, stealth can also be included as you can suppress your scent and sound. That leaves defense, healing and a bit more attack. You can never have too much attack power. Though too many options will split your focus and training, leaving you weaker instead. With attack, wood and water are about even, though slightly favoring water. With healing though, wood has a significant advantage. But with defense wood has a clear advantage over water. As for movement, you shouldn't expect much from either. Then back to stealth, wood has an advantage over water, as you could disguise yourself as undergrowth or part of a shrub to someone's vision.
So I suggest wind and wood for you. . A Wood/Wind 🎼 Fox 🦊. Then you can practice music.'

V) 'How did I raise such a brilliant kit?'

Z) 'The "school of hard knocks" helped a bit.
Now, are you sure you want this?'

V) 'Yes kit, please make me a Wood/Wind Fox.'

Z) 'As you wish. First I need to dull your sense of pain. So you won't be hurt when the spells to actually grant you the Unique Physiques are carved into your body. It's actually useful to have a sence of pain, to warn you that you're in trouble. So I won't be able to make this one permanent.'

{NO PAIN}

Z) 'There, it'll last about a week. Be careful in the meantime, your body won't be able to tell you that you're hurt until this wears off. But at least for the next few minutes, that's ideal.'

{ABSORB AND REFINE WOOD ELEMENT QI
TO OBTAIN WOOD UNIQUE PHYSIQUE}

{ABSORB AND REFINE WIND ELEMENT QI
TO OBTAIN WIND UNIQUE PHYSIQUE}

Z) 'Then some blood clotting paste.. and we're done. Now I just need to make you some of the same snacks each day that I'm giving to Kujo.'

So I change my daily quota from: One pop can, one lightning lozenge, one amber ember, a Grade 3 Qi Stone and a dozen Di's Golden Nuts. I add another pop can and 18 more Di's Nuts to give to my Vixen Momma. This makes the total time each day take about 6½ - 7 hours. Oh, now I have a full-time job again. The pay kinda sucks this time around though. Good thing I'm independantly wealthy already. The Forbes list would probably have me in the top 20? Not bad for a 19-month old, moreso a widdle foxy living his whole life in these literal backwoods.

I have been continuing with cultivating using the Qi Stones without stopping. And I'll hit Level 5 tomorrow at this rate. But I've scaled back slightly in how many I use all at once. Ten didn't quite feel right, but nine does. Nine. NINE NINE NEIN! It's even fun to say.

Oops, I lost my train of thought. All those poor memes will have to be pulled from the wreckage.

. . .

After a full week, Kujo comes bounding over.

K) 'Master, the others report they recieved the payment for the first auction.'

Z) 'Finally. Did they get tired of twiddling their thumbs up each others' butts? No, don't ask them that. How much was it?'

K) 'Six- ! Six thousand, four hundred and twelve Qi Stones. And 500 taels of gold.'

Z) 'Tell them I said to bring back purple gold taels instead of regular gold. I have a use for them.'

. . Z) 'While you're here, how are you progressing in your five Main Affinities?' I put the testing stone back out, for him to lay his paw on.

Metal 226 

Earth 198                          Water 327

 

 Fire 194                Wood 193

Z) 'The higher it rises, the slower it improves. And wood is going slower than the rest. Even with so much extra snacks, the lack of attacks make it crawl along compared to the others.'

K) 'How much longer would I need to continue like this?' (whimper)

Z) 'Uncle, with his Metallic Physique, has just under eight hundred affinity for metal. So at a conservative estimate, I'd say about two more months before you started actually gaining the Physiques. Perhaps as much as three? Luckily for you, fire is rising the fastest among them.'

K) 'If I may ask, what is your affinity.'

Sure, why not. It'll probably scare whatever resistance he has left out of him.

Metal 931

Earth 666                          Water 747

 

Fire 1625              Wood 649

Z) 'Hmmm, they all rose a bit. Some more than others. Must've been the time back then with what happened to the bandits.'

V) 'Wha- Whe- the- HOW!?'⁵the hyphen on the side of a word, I use it for 2 reasons: a pause, in the sentence, like, having a comma, but, not the break, in thought. like an Obama speech or a Shatner impression. and sometimes to show that the word got interrupted, beyond simply not finishing it

Z) 'Oh, Maw. Did you want a go at it?' I push the testing stone towards her.

V) 'No. I'd only embarrass myself.'

I turn back to my pet, Kujo. His jaw is hanging down, and it seems as though he hasn't blinked in a while.

Z) 'BLINK! -You seem to be in shock. I wonder why?'

K) 'No way! There's- NO WAY that could be right.'

Z) 'Calm down, Nappa. You all were simply out-Classed.' I point my muzzle back toward the numbers still floating in the air. 'And by a large margin. Anyway, it's time for me to get back to work. Maw still needs another can of Qi soda and then some more of
Di's Golden Nuts.'

Heh, I'll never get tired of saying that name.