Li Li sliced across the thick neck muscles of the Wise Monkey with his talons, causing him to drop his mother. The spirit beast grabbed his throat to prevent himself from dying and tried to roar out in anger from being ambushed. But by the time he could look up, his mother already grabbed him and teleported away with a talisman. They arrived at the bottom of some lake filled with Qi Consolidation spirit beasts. The two of them didn’t need air to breath so, it would be fine if they stayed under.
Li Li summoned the soul of the huge Worm Dragon to ward off the beasts from attacking them. Its gigantic size would frighten the others into not attacking. The incorporeal worm curled around them with its ethereal towers of flesh. With the spirit beasts away, Li Li used this chance to curl himself into his mother’s body. She was alive, she was fine... She didn’t die...
As this was all happening, Jing was receiving her reward from the system while gently petting Li Li. She was inside her mental plane. This was where she could interact with the system’s menu and other functions. Jing stood in front of the gigantic spinning wheel, waiting to receive her prize. Jing was impressed by the being that created this system. Despite her refinement with SCP-914, her enhanced eyes still couldn’t keep track of this wheel when it was spinning at full speed. Another point that proves that SCP-914 wasn’t all powerful even when things were refined on very fine.
The wheel’s pointer slowed to the point to where it was between receiving SCP-353 or gaining the Heaven-ranked sword, Immortal Blood Edge. Jing never knows what an SCP can do until she receives it from the system. So, she couldn’t tell if what she was getting was good or not when it came to an SCP. If she got the sword, she would just switch it for a more interesting weapon with SCP-914's 1:1 option. Jing didn’t know what abilities it held either. Jing hoped that it was something that could allow her to go back and give that impertinent monkey a lesson before fleeing and forcing him to submit when she gets stronger.
[Host has received SCP-353!]
Jing prepared herself for the influx of information about the SCP. The pain she felt when acquiring an SCP’s abilities wasn’t any less than it was when she got her first SCP. It wasn’t the type of pain that could be handled by turning off the nerves that dealt with pain. It targeted something deeper inside of her. She had a feeling that it was the same place where that giant manifestation of SCP-914 was inside her.
‘I might be able to work with this...’ A malicious half smile slowly formed on her face.
SCP-353 was a sentient entity. This mean that she couldn’t summon the being to this world and instead took control of its anomalous properties for herself. If the SCP wasn’t sentient and couldn’t form thoughts of its own, Jing would be able to summon the item or creature right in front of her. This SCP in particular gave her an understanding of several different things that cultivators here knew nothing about. Well, as far as Jing knew, they knew nothing about this type of stuff. But after the situation she just experienced, it was better to assume that nothing was secret or unknown. Arrogance will only lead to her downfall as it almost just did.
Jing could now take almost any infectious bacterial or viral agents within her body. She could siphon them into herself, develop them, and store them for as long as she wants. If she desires to develop them into a certain way, she will gain the symptoms of whichever disease she was trying to change. This lasts for as long as she’s attempting to improve the infectious bacterial. The only limit to the diseases she can harbor is that they must be able to naturally survive within the human body.
With Jing’s refinement, she was sure that her body could handle any types of symptoms. As far as she knew, she was practically immortal already. No wounds could keep her from recovering. Being stabbed through the heart, brain, ripped apart, losing all the blood in her body, none of it would keep her down for long. Jing didn’t let this go to her head though. There were still plenty of ways to deal with a being like herself. She could easily be sealed within a formation for thousands of years if she wasn’t careful.
‘Wait. Li Li did you just talk?!’ Jing suddenly remembered hearing a childish voice calling out mom before she teleported away.
‘I don’t know. Did I?’ Li Li responded in her head.
‘How are you...’ Jing used her qi to sense anything different about herself or Li Li. She didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.
‘Our souls are connected Mom! My Auxiliary technique! I can link our souls and talk to you now!’
‘Is that the only thing it can do?’ Jing asked.
‘I don’t know.’ Li Li answered innocently.
‘That’s fine. We can figure out how this works later but for now you can help me get a little revenge on a certain monkey.’ Jing has been actively using her new ability to siphon several bacterial agents within the surrounding area.
Using her qi as an amplifier, Jing could enhance the range she was able to gather bacteria within her body. Along with improving the rate of their development and potency. She has a nice little gift to give that spirit beast before she returns at a later time to get her revenge and force it under her. After that she can work on other matters.
Jing used a talisman and reappeared in the area where she fought with the Wise Monkey. She arrived with Li Li, holding onto his feet as he flew in the air. Various ailments plagued her skin that made Jing look sickly and freakish. She immediately spotted the beast and prepared two talismans. She lit one slip a few seconds before the other to ensure her survival. Jing refused to let herself be caught off guard again because of her ignorance and arrogance.
The duo arrived directly behind the walking spirit beast and Jing palmed his back, infecting him with a progressive virus that would slowly worsen as time goes on, giving him torturous symptoms that would make suicide a preferable option than living. Of course, she made sure that the bacterial agent wasn’t fatal. It wouldn’t be as sweet if he died before she returns to force him underneath her foot. This might not be honorable but Jing isn’t the type of person to care about something like honor when it didn’t give any benefits to herself.
He attempted to swipe at her with a backhanded swing but the second talisman activated after she infected him, immediately sending her far far away. Getting away so freely almost made Jing feel like laughing with giddy.
“He he he...” It was hard for her to contain the jubilant emotions flowing through her and she laughed loudly and without restraint.
‘I only see you this happy when you are hurting people.’ Li Li spoke with joy, also affected by his mom’s good mood.
“The next few weeks will be quite some fun now that my identity has been exposed to all the elders. The time I was using to slowly bolster my strength, influence, and forces is now gone. I suppose there won’t be any reason to fake my personality or abilities either. Everything I've done during the Treasured Plains were seen by them.”
‘Does this mean I can breakthrough now?’ Li Li asked innocently.
“There isn’t a point to me purposely suppressing my realm either now.” Jing’s stage started to rapidly rise and breakthrough the ranks.
Qi Gathering 5!
Qi Gathering 6!
Qi Gathering 7!
Qi Gathering 8!
And it came to a slow eventual halt once she broke into the 9th stage. This was because of the words she remembered from the Wise Monkey. The amount of qi one can hold in the 9th stage is only determined by how much qi control they possess. Jing figured that this meant that hypothetically, a cultivator could have a nearly endless supply of qi if their talent in qi control is good enough before breaking into the Qi Consolidation realm. She would have to share this information with her followers. Jing sent a message through the special message talisman she gave them all and let them know.
Li Li followed in her steps and also broke through. He didn’t rise as rapidly as Jing did though. He just broke past the barrier keeping him from the Qi Consolidation realm and stayed at the first stage. Jing guessed that he must have felt stifled being forced to stay at the 9th stage so long. It probably wasn’t in a spirit beast’s nature to restrain themselves.
‘Much better!’ He exclaimed.
“Sorry I had you limit yourself for so long. I didn’t know you felt uncomfortable about it.” She said to him.
‘It’s okay Mom. I don’t mind doing hard things for you! I’m not a baby anymore, I can handle tough things!’ He told her.
A rare genuine smile came from Jing.
“I’m proud of you.” She hugged him.
After their warm embrace, Jing was about to take out her special talisman and get in contact with her followers but sensed a familiar qi presence nearby. She looked at Li Li for clarification and he also recognized this qi.
‘Annoying Girl.’ He said.
“Wenling?” Jing saw that her body was covered in blood and she was using her glaive as a walking stick to keep herself up.
Wenling looked up at Jing and fiercely rubbed her eyes.
“It's... really... you... You’re alive...” Those were the last words she spoke before falling unconscious on the ground.
Jing slowly walked over to her with an indescribable look on her face.
Now that Jing is a living Bio-Weapon, this totally adds a lot of room for her to cultivate her Empress of Pain cultivation technique since she can easily start a small outbreak of something terribly painful but non-lethal and gain a ton of power from that.
Also, with a cultivation world, I wonder if she could find Qi infused diseases or something to make even more OP stuff.
Also I am currently shipping JingXWenling. Wenling thought it was her taking care of Jing, but now she gets to find out Jing was actually taking care of her the whole time. <3
Lovely
Good the long term power hiding this early on was getting annoying. It was limiting her possibilities, both in access to knowledge and resources. Also now more trouble can find it's way to her which will be both entertaining (for us and her) and stimulating for her growth. Maybe she can find someone willing to sponsor her? I can't see her seriously accepting a master/disciple relationship and it'll be hard to fake it now that her true nature is known so someone willing to facilitate her and her factions growth would be best. So maybe we have someone approaching her to shake her down for her secrets and maybe a neutral third party watching her deal with that from the shadows to get a handle on her abilities and character. After, she either deals with it on her own or the neutral party swoops in to "save" her thus attempting to put her in their debt. Attempting being the key word here. As I don't find Jing being moved by normal methods. She seems the type to value true loyalty and affection while being a cold tsundere about it. I believe she also values upholding her word. But she mostly seems to operate in morally gray territory otherwise. So someone manuvering with clear ulterior motives would not make much progress with her. Thus why I believe it would be best to establish a business relationship with her.
As a side note will she be able to improve the function of SCP-914? Maybe by enhance the result with the energy or abilities gained from cultivation? Because otherwise it's usefulness will be slightly phased out and that would be kind of sad. Since that would imply all SCP's aren't quite up to par compared to the higher ends of the cultivation world which would just make the "SCP" in the title seem vestigial. It would be amazing to see her refine herself and Li Li yet again using an improved process. Though such an OP upgrade would probably be best off being earned after awhile of Jing researching how to go about it. As for the research maybe she could find people or creatures suffering from amputation or disfigurement and get them to agree to a soul bound contract or something similar in exchange for her attempts to "fix" them.
As for her new SCP, couldn't she now create something like organic nanites? Like something to boost the body or aid in cultivation? It could be supplemental to her enhancements already or she could use it as a way to enhance subordinates whose loyalty isn't high enough for her to trust. Or even just use disease's as something like a remote bomb she can plant in people to activate later should the need arise.
Anyways that's all that comes to mind for now I guess.
About SCP 914 I fel that it shouldn't need any improvement if it works as i feel it does cause I Think of it more as a multiplier to the base attributes of whatever is affected by it so if i just take a random number if someone broke through one stage and became able to lift 1 kg more the jing would be able to lift 3 kg more. Or in game terms if normally you put 1 attribute point in strength you do 5% more physical damage but when she put a point in strength she does 15% more physical damage. So I Think the current refinement will stay relevant even in higher cultivation stages.
I don't know the story seems to be going in the direction of saying her current modifications are trivial to higher cultivation levels. You could be right as well but I don't think it's been mentioned how her strength has increased outside of normal cultivating bounds other than her cultivation technique. I suspect that the refinement only put her body at the extreme upper limit of a mortal. The problem being that cultivation aims to exceed that limit. Plus the very fact that the known upper limit of refinement ends on 'very fine' implies there could be higher tiers to the refinement.
@GreyWolf Why doesn't she just try to 'very fine' herself multiple times? Maybe that can bring about the effect you're looking for...
Nah I don't think it's like a video game blacksmithing system in a "+1 +2 +3" kind of way. The level was "very fine" so even if she did it again it would still be "very fine". It seems to be an optimization on the base material so even after improvement the base is still the same. I can't remember if she's tested for it or not but I know she's definitely never successfully done it before. If she could do it, it would be too OP from a story standpoint as there would be no need for any kind of struggle, or you know cultivation.The only way I could see her doing a "very fine" refinement again is if she wants to use the knowledge she's gained since the last time to improve the image of an optimized self she has in mind as she had a very weak grasp on cultivation when she improved herself. But like I said earlier an upgrade to her refinement now would be kind of OP and shouldn't just pop up out of nowhere in order to avoid feeling like some BS deus ex-machina story element. So research having to be conducted makes sense. I would think a strong knowledge base in all basic cultivation world item making would be reasonable. Like talismans, alchemy, blacksmithing and what not. Since all those would help her understand various ways in how to use qi in creation processes. Well it's either that or two other much less satisfying methods. Could try having to acquire some old forgetten manual to something that no one else can make sense of because it applies to only SCP's or SCP like items. The other would be having to interact with the system in some way to further unlock SCP upgraded capabilities.
@GreyWolf Every major breakthrough (qi gatherer to qi consolidation) usually (based on lore) causes a major change in the cultivator's body and soul. Can't she 'very fine' the new changes?
That aside, you should try reading Cultivating Change here on SH. MC there spent several lifetimes constantly studying and experimenting with cultivation. After figuring out what it's all about, she starts skipping realms. Oh, and OP-ness and plot armor mean nothing to her...
I actually did consider that as an option and is a fairly viable direction for the story to go but feels a little bland. Like reach a new stage and now engage in obligatory second power up for even more power. Having that happen each stage feels a tad bland no? I felt like the research option added some depth and allows Jing to possibly upgrade beyond her current cultivation stage based on her understandings. Literally knowledge becoming power.
Also thanks for the story recommendation, I'll have to look into it.
@GreyWolf Well GreyWolf, the only thing i can tell you as of right now is that SCP-914 will not be irrelevant even when i get close to writing near the end of the story. It's use isn't only limited to making Jing stronger. (Not saying that you were implying that, just saying it isn't something Jing will need to rely on to make herself stronger in the higher cultivation levels.)
Huh, interesting. Thanks for the hint. I guess I'll try rolling that around in my head till it clicks I guess.
@FukinDeadBeat But it will still matter right? You can't tell me some geniuses are capable of matching a 'very fine'd Jing in the higher levels, right? (unless they're several realms above her, like that monkey, that is)
@ARFitS Geniuses huh... I'll leave you with this. What exactly defines as a genius? What kinds of people can be called geniuses and why not other people?
I don't want to spoil anything as i think it would be best to keep it a surprise.
@GreyWolf I've just thought about this a little bit and I've come to one conclusion:
Isn't SCP-914 also limited by the quality of materials? I mean, yes, she can turn an average rock into a weapon that can harm a mid level Qi Gatherer, even if held by an average mortal, but at the end of the day, the materials for the weapon were just one rock. What if she 'very fine'd higher quality materials? Won't that create way more powerful stuff?
In fact, I'm pretty sure that was already proven with the stuff she made for the others, wasn't it?
@ARFitS Yes it is definitely limited by what materials are used. And yes, she did create better stuff later in the story using better materials but the reason those materials were of a higher quality were because they were cultivator material. As such they were all infused with qi, which is presumably the very reason they are considered higher quality materials in the first place. That is why I thought she would need to research multiple item creation methods using qi in order to further understand qi, how it works, and the things you can do with it since when she refined herself she needed a strong mental image of what she wanted out of the refinement.
As for the hint from the author I'm thinking they're referring to the up until now mostly unused settings of SCP-914, rough and coarse. The first thing that comes to mind is being able to use it as an attack or to break down barriers or walls. There is also the option of disassembling opponents weapons mid-combat and breaking down items to further understand them and maybe replicate them on her own. Honestly not to sure since I had to force these ideas to come to mind rather than the natural flow I'm used to. I'm not sure but I think it's because the story hasn't really shown many examples of these functions being used yet. Which I think is wonderful since I've seen too many stories where the main character ignores something painfully obvious to the reader only to discover it in a "great" and critical moment of "insight". Whereas with this setup it seems perfectly understandable how the MC could overlook these functions at first since the possibilities of 1:1 and very fine are just too great and overshadow the seemingly humble "lesser" options. Regardless, looking forward to yet more chapters.