Ch 58: Getting started

Tessa’s view

It was awful. All I could do was watch as Alice saved our little world at the cost of her own life. Her trunk and leaves turned black. Even her tall doll avatar turned entirely black. The little doll she gave me had no connection to her, so it was spared, but that just made it all the sadder to me. 

At least Alice made sure all important formations would remain active. Though with her gone, the land won’t be quite as amazing as it has been in the past. 

There was one bright wonderful thing; I could feel Alice’s soul somewhere. She was still in the upper realm. I just needed to find her again. The world is bigger now, so it will likely take a while, but I’ve done this before. I’ll ask her followers to help me spread the word. Spread Alice’s books and teachings, and seek out clues for where she has gone.

I understand, Alice. Let’s change this world for the better, whether god likes it or not!

---

Alice’s view

Uh… I can see, but I can’t move? What am I now? … A rock! Seriously? I’m a rock in a riverbed. I’ve heard of precious stones full of ki, but not of rock cultivation. Can they even cultivate? I’ve never even heard of a rock spirit. Though I suppose on Earth people sometimes talk about the Spirit of Rock, but that’s something else entirely.

When I try to cultivate, I can’t seem to hold ki. Am I just an ordinary rock? Even Jade can hold ki. I think I need to learn something entirely different. I still have some ability to control ki, and my divine sense lets me be aware of my surroundings. Maybe I can still do things if I use the ki around me efficiently enough.

Thankfully, I could use the earth ki I found around me to mess with my stone body shape, and carved a ki path and formation into my body. Now I could hold ki! … Is it just me, or do I seem to use formations for everything I do? I suppose it was the first really powerful trick I learned in cultivation. Everything since then has either been about super basic stuff like how ki is made and how it changes, or some trick involving formations.

Unfortunately, while I have ki now, it’s really not properly fused with my body. It’s just being held in a formation. It’s also pretty clear I don’t have ki veins at all. I’ve never studied how to create or alter ki veins beyond what was needed for the water pearl trick, and that was just a case of overloading my body with ki and using a formation to keep that from killing me. That won’t work here when I don’t have ki veins to overload.

Ch 59: Found

“Eh? This stone…” 

Some guy found me.

“It’s gathering and storing ki? Perfect! This can help me cultivate faster!”

Now I’ve become an amulet. Eh? Hey! Don’t cut me!

Oh, I see, they carved some modifications into my formation to make the ki flow into the wearer more easily.

---

I can’t seem to properly fuse ki into my body, but I can refine my body with the ki passing through. Maybe if I improve my stony form, I can cultivate in some way? Or maybe this is rock cultivation?

Well, I can at least observe this guy’s cultivation technique.

---

Oh no, no no no, that’s a terrible technique!

“I’m really glad I stole this technique, it’s amazing! With this, I’ll surely gain the power I seek!”

It’s like the opposite of everything I try to teach people. Instead of matching the technique to the person, this method is all about changing the person to match the method! The end result effectively destroys whomever they originally were, and overwrites them with a new personality and soul.

“The Sword of the Tyrant. Truly worthy of the name. Hehe, all who looked down on me shall pay.”

It is a fitting name. It will turn anyone who practices it into a tyrant. A person who seeks to rule over others, and cares about power above all else. It even focuses on sword cultivation, which is all about creating a soul weapon of deadly power. It’s one of the strongest combat focused cultivation styles I’ve seen used. The only paths that are deadlier would probably be the poison and death paths. The former is largely unknown, and the latter is forbidden, practiced only by demonic sects.

Sure, the cultivation book uses pretty phrases like how it’s important in sword cultivation to become as sharp and strong as one’s sword, and as cold as steel. That’s just disguising that they are trying to mold the cultivator into a specific type of thinking. 

Thankfully, I still had a ton of ki control, even with the formations directing ki to my wearer, and enough divine sense range to see and mess with ki anywhere in the room we were in. This allowed me to secretly start rewriting his book.

Plotting out how to make changes such that he’d not notice, while still redirecting his cultivation into a better direction was hard, and distracted me from doing much of anything else. However, I felt like this was important. This guy’s luck was clearly good, finding me and that book. Made me think god was trying to make me one of his cheats to help him advance and conquer the upper realm, which he would no doubt do if he got strong enough. That’s the kind of person the Sword of the Tyrant will turn someone into.

Ch 60: Swordcraft

Oh dear, he’s looking at me and then back at the instructions on sword creation and back at me again. I do hope he’s not planning to try and make me into his sword. No way! If I was gonna be anyone’s sword, I’d be Tessa’s! Not yours!

“Gah! How? This stone has a will? Drat. It’s too strong for me. I’ll have to use something else.”

Jerk. Stupid cultivators and their stupid fondness for dominating and controlling everything. Rather than forcing an existing will to bow to you, it’s better to create one from a piece of your soul instead. That way there’s no conflict! … Unless you really can’t get along with yourself at all, in which case I hope you find a spirit you can get along with and befriend.

Sadly, standard practice is for cultivators to forcibly subdue any spirit an item may have, and they are very fond of stealing from or mugging each other. One of many reasons I hate cultivation worlds (even if I guiltily enjoyed reading their stories sometimes). 

Eventually the guy decided to forge his own sword. I may have influenced that decision with a few notes and explanations of how to do so added to the book. While I may be no expert on it, I did learn a thing or two from Tessa about blacksmithing. I also know a fair bit about soul weapons, and actually have one! Well, I don’t use it as a weapon, I use it as a flying stool I can use for a seat anywhere, or a way to travel. Too bad I can’t summon the thing right now. Not enough ki.

I tampered with his forging. Some of what I did helped him make the sword, but some of what I did was insert a piece of my own soul as a kind of hidden trap. I didn’t trust this guy, and needed a way to ensure I could escape if necessary. Despite my efforts to change his path, he seems a natural for dominating others, and not in the fun way.

Ch 61: Luck

The luck of protagonist characters is crazy. He just ends up in one crazy situation after another and barely survives. Yet every time he ends up stronger than before, due to finding some special item or technique, or just having a breakthrough in his own understanding of cultivation. 

Meanwhile, I’ve slowly transformed into a piece of jade. Compared to his cultivation rate, he’s advancing far faster than I am. He’s managed to advance several stages of cultivation in just a matter of years, and while some of that is easily explained by the vastly higher ki levels of the upper realm, that alone isn’t enough. 

Honestly, I think he’s crazy the way he risks his life over and over just to maintain his fast advancement rate. If he’d just slow down, and be content with slower advancement, he’d not have to risk his life so much. I’ve witnessed dozens die in pursuit of the same goals he has, some of them dying to his sword during fights over some ancient herb or old treasure.

Unless god just likes watching people die, I don’t see how this kind of setup makes sense. It’s hard for the world to really make progress when so many die. The main keys to progress are population and trade. Population because the more people there are, the better the chance of new discoveries being made, and trade because that’s important for helping new discoveries spread. So having such large numbers of talented people die (It’s always the most talented that take these risks) just seems like such a waste to me.

At least my skill at manipulating ki from afar has improved, and I’ve secretly saved a few lives. Though knowing cultivation stories, they will probably keep taking dumb risks and just die later, maybe even trying to fight this guy again.

I can’t shake the suspicion that I’ll eventually have to kill him. He hasn’t done anything too bad yet. Every time he’s killed someone, it’s been self-defense. People would attack him to take something he found first, or just because they are arrogant and mean, and he’d be forced to defend himself. Yet it really feels like it’s not due to his kindness, but that he’s surrounded by people even worse than him.

---

Random civilian in a town:

While all the others stared in awe as a great cultivator walked by, I noticed a sound by the tree behind me… is this a book? Basic Cultivation, written by Alice. Who’s Alice? Is this a secret book? Where did it come from?

---

Tessa’s view

I knew I was getting close when people started to recognize the books I handed out. There was talk of someone having found a similar book with the same author. What was strange though, is when I tracked down people that had received books, they had merely found them next to a tree. No one gave it to them, and it was always a different tree.

Why wouldn’t Alice be showing herself? Why would she be hiding?

Ch 62: I will not be controlled

Ah, he’s finished soul refinement.

“Now, it’s time I made you mine!”

Stupid fool. Trying to control me? You can’t win against me in a soul battle.

“What? Why does a rock have the soul of a tree? No matter, I’ll cut you down and make you mine! All will bow before me!”

“You really are a stupid fool. I tried to direct you towards a different path, yet you remain obsessed with domination.”

“Tried to redirect me? What are you talking about you stupid rock? I got here on my own power. Everything was found and gained by myself. I’m just using you for more power, and once I make you mine, I’ll be able to get even more power from you. I’ll make you share all your secrets.”

“I was afraid this would happen. It really is difficult to change a person’s path when their environment is so terrible.”

“Urk! What?! What did you do? My sword!”

“Also my sword. Hopefully, you’ll do better in your next life.”

Now what? I’m a plain jade amulet (not even a very good jade yet) worn by a now dead cultivator, that’s been stabbed through by his own sword (secretly my sword). I could try to fly myself out of here on my sword, but I don’t think it’d go well. It would be likely to grab notice. It might be safer to just pretend to be a simple jade amulet like I’ve been doing.

---

“Hmmm, how did he die? Oh, ho, clever little rock. Killed your master, did you? You’re too weak to be of any use to me, but perhaps you could be a good gift for that troublesome new disciple.”

---

Sylvie’s view

Wow! My teacher gave me a flying sword! I can’t use it yet, but this jade pendant he gave me is supposed to help speed up my cultivation. Teacher is great!

Eh? Why is there a book here? I don’t remember seeing a book by this tree before. Basic Cultivation, written by Alice. I wonder who left this here.

Ch 63: A new student

Sylvie is a much nicer person than that other guy was. I’m a little worried though, it’s obvious that teacher gave me to her thinking I’d kill her like I did the guy who had me before. Why would she do something like that?

As time passed, the answer became clear; Sylvie’s teacher despised her, because she was weak and timid. She was far behind the level of cultivation and power of her peers in the inner court, and had apparently only been accepted due to family connections. 

While the one who sent her here, likely had no intention of doing her harm, it was clearly a bad decision. She has been neglected quite badly, and is a terrible match for the cultivation methods taught here.

Sylvie’s veins were fire, wind, and water. It was strange and confusing at first, but as I watched her get a feel for things herself, I started to understand. She was someone who couldn’t really sit still. She definitely wasn’t the sort to be caged. This led to an odd cultivation method: dance. 

I helped her build the formation to gather ki, fixing mistakes and improving things here and there, and then as she danced inside, the wind would grow and eventually she’d be dancing in the middle of a windstorm whipping around the little courtyard she had. Sadly, it felt like there was still something missing. While this did work, it wasn’t ideal. At least it allowed her to keep up with her peers advancement rate, and not fall further behind.

Sylvie’s view

When I tried to follow my teacher’s explanations, I didn’t really understand it well. However, after she gave me a sword and amulet, I suddenly found a strange book with a wood cover. It described cultivation in a simple way that I found much easier to understand. Following it, I was finally able to make real progress in cultivation!

After I completed ki collection in just a year, (while I thought this was fast, my teacher thought I was slow), another book appeared. This one explaining how formations worked, and how to build my own. It included a few formations for gathering ki from the surroundings, and then separating the different types of ki. With this, I was able to cultivate even faster, and wind got way wilder as I did. It felt pretty good.

At the end of my second year, I’d begun to build a formation within my body as the book had advised. However, it was far from complete, as I didn’t really understand what my true self was yet, and with limited understanding, I didn’t dare try to push too far with it. I could use it to help me gather ki, and refine my body, but I didn’t dare to push further into body reforming, even if the book said it could be done.

However, the end of my second year was when we were gathered up for our first outside training mission.

Ch 64: Excursion

Sylvie’s view

As we traveled through the air upon flying swords-

“Ha! I can’t believe you’re making the teacher carry you! Can’t you fly yet?”

And while I tried to ignore my fellow disciples, I had this feeling that flight was the best environment for me to cultivate. I really wanted to fly high in the sky and dance among the clouds. 

We landed at a small village that had apparently been suffering from a vengeful ghost. The villagers of course seemed quite terrified, but it kinda felt like they were more afraid of us than the ghost. Odd.

While waiting for night to fall, I found a large open area and began to cultivate. Leaping around, and dancing, I let myself move freely, embracing the feelings I’d had during the flight. After a while, I realized a cloud was forming above the area, and I thought: I wish I could float freely like that.

That’s my path. Clouds drifting freely in the sky. I think I can finish my internal formation now.

---

Teacher’s view

Such a weak child. Even her cultivation is weak. Dancing? Clouds? How is that supposed to win a fight? I fear she’ll just be an embarrassment in the upcoming tournament. The mountain sword sect prides itself in power and might. Yet all this foolish girl possess is softness. If only she could just die off in an accident somewhere.

---

Sylvie’s view

I’d completely lost track of time, and even had closed my eyes as I danced, just feeling the ki and wind around me. Until a ghost suddenly appeared.

“Eeek!”

I struck it in reflex, then realized such a thing was foolish. Ghosts can only be harmed by ki powered attacks, regular physical attacks won’t work… except it did? I thought only practitioners with a spark of divinity could harm ghosts with their bodies.

Alice’s view

Neat. Seems a side effect of my cultivation methods is being able to harm ghosts at a much earlier stage than normal. Working on soul refinement early really is beneficial.

Teacher’s view

Eh? How is she able to fight a ghost? She’s even winning? She’s not even using her sword, just her bare fists and feet.

---

Villager’s view

Finally, the ghost is gone and so are they. Those cultivators are terrifying. If we accidentally insult them, they could kill us with ease, and none would defend us. We wouldn’t have called for them if we had any other way of dealing with the ghost.

Eh? Books? Why are there books here? Written by Alice. Hmmm...

Ch 65: Tournament arc?

A few years later:

Tessa’s view

There’s a big tournament happening soon, and I can feel that Alice is here somewhere. I’m not sure why it’s so hard to track her compared to normal, but the signs are all here. Mysterious books with wooden covers written by Alice. A number of ordinary people with cultivation levels far above what people outside a sect would normally have. Unlike the previous world though, these books are being ignored by the sects. Are they really so confident their techniques are better? If Alice is participating, she’ll show them how wrong they are.

---

Alice’s view

I found Sylvie’s fighting style to be wonderful to watch. Her movements as she dodged around the arena were like watching a dance. Clouds would slowly form above the fight, then she’d finish with a loud blast of lightning from the clouds, striking down her opponent with one bolt.

---

VIP room:

“She has thunder!”

“I can’t believe you hid a disciple like that!”

“The legendary thunder ki.”

“How she wielded it doesn’t match the stories.”

“Fast and powerful, that’s the legend.”

“But she wasn’t that fast, just elusive.”

---

Tessa’s view

I think I found Alice. I can definitely sense her from that young woman, but somehow, I don’t think she’s Alice. What’s going on? Is she Alice’s student?

---

Teacher’s view

I can’t believe it. She won. That docile lass won. She didn’t even use a sword! This is the Mountain Sword sect, and our winning disciple didn’t use a sword! I can’t let anyone know that I didn’t teach her anything she’d used. I barely taught her at all. This is gonna be awkward.

… When did Sylvie get a jade tree pendant?

Ch 66: Meeting Tessa

Sylvie’s view

“Did you learn cultivation from Alice?”

“Eh? Who are you?” A strange lady with fiery red hair seemed to be waiting for me, just as I’d escaped the crowds of people seeking to congratulate me on my victory.

“My name is Tessa. I’m looking for Alice. I sense her from you, but you aren’t her… wait, is that pendant a miniature tree?”

“Uh, yes. It became a tree fairly recently. Oh, why am I telling you this! Wait, who’s Alice? How do you know her?”

“She’s the woman I love. She also writes books, like this one.” Tessa then showed me a book just like the ones I’d found.

“Eh? That’s just like the books I found.”

“You found it? She didn’t give them to you?”

“No one was there when I looked. I just suddenly saw a book on the ground by a tree. All the books would just appear the same way.”

“May I have a closer look at your pendant?”

“No, my teacher gave this to me.”

“I’m not asking you to give it to me, I just want to see if it’s really what I think it is.”

“What do you think it is?”

“I think it might be Alice.”

“How could that be?”

“Well… Alice is kinda… special. The last time I found her she was a tree.”

“Seriously? A tree? Is Alice some kind of spirit?”

“She keeps reincarnating when she dies. Last time I watched her die was over a decade ago.”

“Alright.” I stopped hiding the amulet and let her look.

Tessa touched it with a finger. “It really is Alice. You got reincarnated as a rock this time, huh? You must’ve really upset god somehow.”

“She upset a diety and got turned into a rock?”

“Something like that.”

“What’d she do?”

“I’m not really sure. My best guess is it might be related to her befriending the 12 beast emperors.”

“Wow! That’s possible?!”

“Yeah, she invited them in for a feast, and they defended her against human emperors. There was a big fight.”

“I think I heard about that, but assumed it was just another exaggerated rumor. I mean, no one can stand up to the heads of all the sects when they work together.”

“No one huh? Well, Alice did, and I think that might be what upset the god that made this world.”

Tessa was actually a lot of fun to talk to. She wasn’t bossy or mean like all the people in my sect. We must’ve talked for hours.

“Are you alright?” Huh? “You’re crying.” I am? … I am. 

“Ah, it’s just so hard in the Mountain Sword sect. I always have to be on guard. Someone might attack me at any time to try and prove they’re stronger than me and deserve my place in the inner sect. This is the first relaxed conversation I’ve had in a long time.”

“I’d suggest becoming my student officially to get away, but I don’t think they’ll let you leave so easily after winning a tournament, even if it was in the weakest division.”

“Maybe I could convince teacher to let you stay with me?” I really didn’t want her to go. I felt safe with her. The only other person I remember feeling safe with is my mom. Even my teacher was scary, she always seemed to dislike me.

“Sure, lets try that.”

Ch 67: Instructions

Teacher’s view

A wandering deity wants to stay with my student? Sylvie calls her a friend… fine. Maybe this will make it easier to explain why her cultivation differs so much from what we teach here, and why I know nothing about it. I’ll just say that I could tell she wasn’t suited for our cultivation and found her help from outside.

Sylvie’s view

After we got back to my little courtyard, I noticed a new book had appeared. It’s on doll making? Tessa was very interested, saying she’d not seen it before. As I read, with Tessa looking over, I saw she started tearing up.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just, Alice clearly wrote this for us. Look, it’s instructions on using your amulet to make a doll, and the doll requires the amulet after as the core. Please, please give this a try.”

She was right, it really was instructions specific to me, Tessa, and this amulet. While it didn’t name us, it was clearly intended for someone with our elements. It made use of the amulet to compensate for neither of us having wood element ki, when the goal was a living doll made from a plant.

“Alright, let’s do this.” I was a little concerned since the instructions left out any way to actually control the doll, but if what Tessa said about Alice was right, then she’d control the doll herself, and I did consider Alice to be another teacher of mine, since she wrote the books I followed… though I must admit, I found the claim of her being in my amulet to be hard to believe, so I didn’t really think this would do anything other than make a doll missing a controller.

---

Alice’s view

Finally! I needed both Tessa and Sylvie for this, since working without wood ki requires both water and earth ki. I can convert some, but not enough to rely upon just one. Sylvie has water, Tessa has earth; neither have wood, *sigh*.

Using the ki they channelled through me, I shaped a new body out of the tree in Sylvie’s courtyard. When I was done, it was a miniature me I could control and use. A tiny human-like form, with my usual brown skin and green hair and eyes, with my true jade tree body buried inside.

“Hiya, Sylvie! Nice to meet you!” My voice was a bit higher pitched than I expected, but that’s probably related to my tiny size.

“A-Alice?”

“Yup! I’m finally able to talk! Thank you for helping make this doll!” Then turning to Tessa: “I’m back Tessa. Thanks for helping. Sorry for being away so long.”

“Welcome back, Alice, you rascal. I do wish you’d value your own life a little more.”

“Well, that’s kinda hard when there’s so many other things to worry about. I mean, have you seen how this sect teaches their students? It’s not as bad as that sword tyrant nonsense the guy I had to kill used, but they are clearly training with the purpose of becoming living weapons!”

“You killed someone already?”

“Yeah, Sylvie, I killed the guy who had me before you got me. Your teacher knew about that when she gave me to you. I really don’t trust that lady.”

“Did he do something bad?”

“He tried to enslave me. They call it item refinement, but when an item has a will of its own, it’s enslavement.” *sigh* “There’s probably people out there who try to forge an agreement with an item instead of enslaving them, but I’d expect them to be rare, and even then it’s probably only when the item is too strong to forcibly subdue.”

“Are you going to leave now?”

“No, not unless you want me to. I was planning on teaching you. This sect really doesn’t suit you, and while trying to run away might not go well with your current fame, I’d be happy to teach you cultivation and guide you on your own path. No one needs to know who you’re really learning from.”

“Great! I was afraid you’d leave me alone. Now I have two friends!”

Tessa and I both just smiled in response to that.

God’s view

It worked! I finally succeeded at something! Okay, it only worked on the second try, and the first time I ended up getting a promising man killed, but Alice is finally on a path I set for her! She’s now the cheat expert hidden in an item that will allow Sylvie to rise to the top, and dominate over others! I can’t believe it took so many tries to get a plot involving Alice to work right.

Teacher’s view (many, many years later)

That Sylvie actually managed to surpass me! Unbelievable. Every time I hear people praise me for my skill in raising such a wonderful student it irritates me. I did nothing. Everyone is trying to get close to me, thinking it’ll help them get close to her, but I dare not take advantage or it’ll backfire when they realize I have no influence over her. It’s so irritating.

Even worse: there’s now talk of her becoming the leader of the sect. She doesn’t use a sword. Sure, she has one, but she doesn’t use it. How can a sword cultivation sect not have a sword master as the leader?

At least she’s not around now. She left on a journey, to find a good disciple. I hope she never comes back.