“It's time to wake up.” Jing’s soft voice flowed into the ears of the captured disciples.
Ju Ju immediately rose from her sleep and attempted to strike out at the voice. Upon trying this, she realized that her arms and legs were bound while her qi was completely drained. Wen and Yi woke up soon after she did and they all realized they’ve been captured. Jing lightly clapped her hands to bring their attention to herself.
“I’m Jing. If you haven’t realized yet. I don’t know why you came for me or how you found me but I’m sure you’ll be very willing to explain everything I want to know in just a moment.” Jing spoke.
They were inside a building. A building that definitely didn’t belong inside the Immortal Forest. The three captured cultivators wondered where have they been taken and how long were they out? But mostly importantly what did Jing plan to do to them?
Jing initially planned to kill them all in the forest just like she did with the others that were careless enough to get caught by her without any life-saving treasures. But she recognized the green-haired girl. She was very well-known in the Inner Court because of her skill. It would be a waste killing someone like this, plus she would be very useful to her. Jing only had 2 followers of hers in the Inner Court. Hu Tao and Wan Qing.
Gaining a Great Prodigy to her side would help move things along when she eventually starts trying to take over the Inner Court just like she was doing with the Outer Court now. But maybe she was getting ahead of herself. She’s yet to take complete control over the Outer Court but was already looking to control the Inner Court as well.
‘One step at a time. There’s no rush.’ Jing told herself.
“You. Why were you looking for me?” Jing pointed to the black-haired guy.
“I’ve come to make a challenge.” Yi answered confidently.
“Oh. Interesting. With me or one of my Angels?” Jing asked.
“You.” Yi didn’t know what angels she was talking about.
“Alright. What’s this challenge and why should I accept it?” Jing humored him.
“Duel me in an official dueling ring. If I win, you will become a certain elder’s student. If I lose, you are compensated with 10 middle-tier spirit stones for accepting the challenge.” He explained as if she had no choice but to accept such a great offer.
His face slowly turning into a scowl after she burst out in laughter wasn’t a surprise. She made sure to laugh good and long just so he could understand just how ridiculous the offer he just made to her was. But it seemed he didn’t understand that at all and only thought she was making fun of him. Jing was laughing at him but she was mostly laughing at his master for thinking she could be tempted by a measly 10 middle-tier spirit stones.
“You’re stupider than I thought.” Wen commented.
“Idiot.” Ju Ju added.
“Shut it! What’s so damn funny!? It makes sense to me! In fact I'd say that 10 middle-tier spirit stones are more than enough for a simple Qi Gatherer like you!” He yelled.
“Another one that wasn’t told everything about me. You won’t hold much use to me but I’ll ask just to be polite. Who is the elder that wanted me as his student?” Jing asked.
“Hmph. Defeat me in a dueling ring and I'll tell you.” His head was swiftly removed from his neck by a whip.
“Ah shit. I’m going to die.” Wen realized.
Jing let his head roll down his body and stop at her feet. She picked it up and saw that his eyes still held the same arrogance as before. He didn’t even realize he was moments away from death. Completely confident that she’d accept his absurd conditions. Poor idiot didn’t even realize he was being used and in such an inefficient manner as well. The ignorance of some of these elders truly made her brain crinkle in confusion. With how old they all are, shouldn’t they be a bit wiser?
“I don’t plan to kill you all. I believe that killing is a waste of...” She paused. “Valuable resources. You see, people can be used in all sorts of ways while they are alive. Even the idiotic, ignorant, and disabled. I killed him because he would be more useful to me dead than alive. I don’t know much about you.” She pointed to Wen. “But you... are very famous.” Jing smiled at Ju Ju.
“So tell me why you’re here.” Wen already accepted in his heart that he was going to die to this crazy Qi Gatherer.
“I came to watch you. My master sent me here to observe you and everything that goes on around you.” He honestly shared.
“This master is?”
“Elder Sun.” He told her.
“That’s a new name I haven’t heard yet...” Jing muttered.
Jing has recently learned of many elder names ever since she came out of the Treasured Plains. She was genuinely surprised at how many elders there were in the sect and how elders were ranked in the first place. It was probably negligence on her part but she never really thought much of the elders at all because of how they treated her when she first joined the sect. The only elder she had a positive opinion of was Elder Lang, her previous spellmaster teacher. It turns out he was a Minor Elder, someone that didn’t hold much influence, connections, or power either. Above a Minor Elder was a Major Elder and then above them was a Pillar Elder. Pillar Elders were the sect’s key figures. They were the elders that made sure everything within the sect was running smoothly along with increasing its strength. The only ranks above the Pillar Elders were the three Head Elders, the Supreme Commander, and then the Sect Leader.
Most of them seemed kind of worthless to her since there were so many disciples in the sect without someone guiding them. Hell, they let someone like Hu Tao and Wan Qing run around for who knows how long without someone guiding them. Hu Tao was one of the strongest disciples in the Outer Court only second to a disciple named Manchu. Hu Tao said that Manchu was his only rival in this life which naturally made Jing interested in this Manchu. She planned to investigate him more deeply in the future but for now, he wasn’t something to worry about. It must be known that he also didn’t have an elder as his master or teacher.
“He’s a Major Elder on the cusps of becoming a Pillar Elder.” Wen said.
“Now tell me why should I let you live and run back to your little master to tell him all about me?” Jing teasingly smiled, looking like a mischievous devil who just found a new toy.
“I am willing to betray Elder Sun entirely if you don’t kill me.” This statement made Jing’s eyebrows raise slightly.
“What use would you bring to me?” Jing questioned.
He was a strong cultivator no doubt. He was at the 8th stage of the Qi Consolidation realm. A higher cultivation rank than any of her followers but something like that wasn’t enough to make her want him. Everyone one of her Angels would reach his stage eventually if they didn’t somehow die. She probably had enough resources to drown someone to the peak of cultivation. Cultivation stages weren’t something she felt that she needed to care about in the long run.
“I could work for you and give you information on Elder Sun.”
“Interesting idea but the thing is... I have no interest in Elder Sun. All I needed to know of him was his name and ranking. You see, I tend to remember everything someone has done to me and try to process why would they do that. He wanted to watch me for some reason and when I encounter him in the future, I'll be sure to bring this up.”
“He wanted to make use of your talent, I remember. If you managed to survive and somehow prove yourself useful to him, he wanted us to recruit you.” Wen added.
“There are more of you?”
“Yes. There are 4 others sent by Elder Sun to watch you at all times. I was the only one to track you out here.”
“So, he just wanted to use me. How typical.” Jing laughed.
“Alright. You gave me a lot of useful information. Most disciples don’t talk as much as you do unless I make them. That was a nice deviation from the usual.” Jing said. “While I can’t just let you go free just yet, as I have something I wish for you to do, you can rest easy now as I don’t plan on killing you anymore.” Jing eased his worries.
‘She was planning on killing me too!?’ He cried in his heart.
Jing moved her gaze over to Ju Ju. She proudly held out her chest and stared back.
“I come on behalf of my master, Elder Tu. He wishes to bring you over to his side with the items inside the storage rings I brought.” Ju Ju explained in a concise manner.
“Oh, those were gifts for me? Well, I have to say that this Elder Tu is quite kind. I can’t say that I'll join under him but we can form a partnership of some sorts. Tell him to meet me in my home and we can discuss this more intimately.” Jing told her.
‘Are you insane? Does she think she’s on par with a Pillar Elder like Elder Tu?! That he would be willing to sit down and discuss with someone in the Qi Gathering stage!? He might hold a liking to you right now but the amount of disrespect you’re showing him is too much!’ Ju Ju thought Jing was out of her mind.
“Understood.” But it wasn’t her place to say any of that.
“Follow me.” Jing broke the illusion formation she created.
Making them realize that the bindings they felt and the lack of access to their qi was all in their heads. They never left the Immortal Forest and apparently Jing was a talented spellmaster as well.
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I don't care if a story has a harem or not. I like stories written like yours that fascinate from the beginning
Thank you. I myself am one of those readers that have small attention spans. So, if the story doesn't start off with something that interests me, I find it hard to continue reading that story.
@FukinDeadBeat romance can be both good and bad in a story, depends how its done.
Hello I just finished reading all the chapters in like 2 days of finding this little boy. It was great thanks for writing it, and looking forward to what comes next in Jing's adventure.
Thoughts and ideas for the story because xian xia stuff was something that I was really addicted to a few years back. While reading the first 40-50ish chapter and POVs switches were happening every chapter and nothing really got a good amount of focus I was going to comment about that in the end, but I guess ya caught yourself on that point.
The characters are a lot of fun and sure get a lot of focus compared to stuff I'm guessing you read and it's great character wise I don't really have much to comment about since its fun to see something like Xian Xia Web novel focus a lot on the character interaction aspect.
Setting wise I think is where ya could improve the most, honestly my brain is kinda just glazing over all the power levels and setting details. The fun part about the Xian Xia power fantasy, revenge, empowerment genre comes from when the characters opposing the protagonist gets their sh*t and world view turned topsy turvy(Not that I'm saying that this work is that). But the execution of how that usually pans how is what makes some Xian Xia works more interesting compared to others. The crappy ones boil down to the higher number beats the lower number, but the MC's power allows him to beat numbers higher than him… Ok. A lot of other decent ones spend a lot of time building up the setting, the power level structures, the infrastructure that Xian Xia world is built on and how it continues to perpetuate those systems and structures, chapters upon chapters about the crafting system of choice the work wants to focus on pill crafting, formations building, monster taming, etc. sound that the read has a reasonable view about how those system works in this world and how the world and other characters would view said systems, before the 'disruptive' (lol) element known as the MC comes in with new 'innovations' (lol) that collectively makes everyone and the reader sh*t their f*cking pants at how the setting and systems have been upended. Overall that is something that I feel is missing from your work, there's no real baseline power level wise, or setting line that has really been established in the work and give me that exhilarating feeling of making me go ZOMG and sh*t my pants at what the MC did. It's just been like ahh these characters are far more powerful beyond their means… ok nice. No body really cares or takes notice of these things since they just die, and the reader doesn't much care since there no baseline powerlevel that the setting has established immerse the reader in the setting enough to make the brain chemicals go brrr when the characters does the cool thing. We kinda know that they are doing the cool thing but the context isn't really there for me to recognize this cool thing as HOLY sh*t THIS HAPPENED, rather that was a thing that just happened in this world were things kinda happen.
I guess if I had to summarize the context of the battle and why its happening, the emotions and feeling that the characters are placing on the line, or the in the greater world what the battle means for the setting as a whole and how the world will change because of this conflict, otherwise my brain just kinda glazes through that battling for the sake of battling. And Ying slicing the two dude on floor 20 thinking about her friends was the most captivated for a battle in the whole work.
Of course your work maynot be something that you want to make people want to sh*t their pants, and you may just want to exclusively highlight the character interactions which I can respect. But on that angle the character's don't really have any concrete setting ties, at least form what's been written, for me to care much about there existence in this world. Like they kinda are just there as Jing's troops for me the most interesting thing that I can see for them is their interactions with Jing and how it might escalate, because the only captive relationship I care for these characters where they were brought together by Jing and how their own growing relationship with eachother/others might overlap wither their ties to Jing in the future and cause the relationship between them to change.
Setting-wise for the characters I would like to see more about their own existance in this setting so they can contrast it to the anomaly of the existence that is Jings.
Like Bing, he's a fatty, he was a nobody who kinda just happened upon the book of qi of and single martial art. He managed to become a cultivator which should but him a head above most mortals, so shouldn't he be more proud of that? Is it because of his family that he's a bit more humble and didn't let the power go to his head? He had a life outside the sect and before meeting Jing and gaining a ton of windfall benefits that let him live to this point, what was his setting that made him the person that he was today rather than something else, I'm interested in that.
Like Ying, that one chapter where she thinks about friends and what it means to her when she slices two dudes on the 20th floor of the tower was the most compelled I felt in the work, since we went into her setting and why acts the way she does, I'd like to like read 10 chapters of that stuff and more about her past and how she was raised by her grandpa and family that made her in the girl that she was and why going to forge her path foreward and restore her clan, rather then a person who would just want to follow all her desires like Hu Tao, or someone more meek and willing to just accept their circumstances like Bing.
Like Hu Tao, I wouldn't mind reading a few chapters how where the hell he was found in a forest and how found some random cultivation methods of some dead cultivators body and lived among the animals for years before someone picked him up, and why he's a battle junkie and cares so little about anything besides fighting, I like the character too but I would prob like him more if he were more grounded in the setting rather just kinda floating in fiction space, that I just gotta believe that this guy is the way he is.
Same goes for the other 2 or 3 allies left. Over all I think that work could benefit a lot of developing the setting, setting wise(mechanically) or character wise, that would make work more compelling and fun to read. Not that it isn't already I enjoyed it enough to read the 3 novels worth of text in like 2 days.
Anyways thanks for writing those are my thoughts now that I have caught up.
Okay so from what my pea-sized brain could understand from this Awesome comment. 1. You want more face-slapping moments where i highlight how strange Jing and her followers are in the context of the world. Meaning just how strange are they in comparison to those without Jing's resources and items in a situation where it isn't just fighting. 2. Explore more of the setting that isn't just focused around fighting: Pill refining, formation and arrays, blacksmithing, and beast tamers. 3. Show Jing's group interacting with these fields and without even trying, blow the minds of experts who been in that field for decades, centuries, and basically going against everything that field says you should be able to do. 4. Show more of the gang's background and how that background turned them into the person they are today.
Jeez... Do you know how many dozens of chapters I could create with these ideas?! You're trying to suck me dry, aren't cha?!
But for real though, thanks for writing this and letting me know areas i seemed a bit weak at in my story and writing. I always look forward to reading comments and you bringing up these things i had no idea about will allow me to improve this story even more before i reach its conclusion. In the chapters i plan to write going forward i will take careful note of your comment because its just so detailed.
Extra critical comments like these get a fat f*cking thumbs up from me. My goal is to improve my writing enough to the point where i could publish stories as a side job that would interest people as much as they interested me when developing them.
Bruh you can make your own chapter with this amount of words in your comment konb
Thanks for the chapter. Always nice to see an update to it :D
fruit salesman and zombie
Ok, seriously, do the SCP powers they gain from sentient SCPs grow together with the cultivators?
And if so, how?
Qi. There's no qi in the SCP Universe but there is Qi here. And not just a singular energy source either. Lightning qi, fire qi, ice qi, yin qi, and more.
@FukinDeadBeat Not quite what I meant by "How"
Take SCP-106 for example, how is it stronger? It seemed pretty weak from the one I know. It even had none of it's corrosive properties. On top of that, I'd have thought it would make him practically invincible in the Qi Consolidator realm, considering it's toughness plus Hu Tao's cultivation...
That aside, can Jing 1:1 Hu Tao to get rid of the original SCP's will?
@ARFitS That's just because Hu Tao didn't use any of its corrosie properties. He can, he just didn't. For the practically invincible part, after doing some quick research on SCP-106's durability, you are somewhat right. Purely physical moves should do absolutely no damage to Hu Tao. I'll have to do some editing on the past chapters and remember that for future chapters.
And only if she refine Hu Tao and revealed her SCP-914 ability.
@FukinDeadBeat How about putting him to sleep before 1:1ing him?
@ARFitS Being refined would wake him up. I'm not sure if people who go through SCP-914 understand exactly what happened to them after being refined. If they do he would find out. If not, he would just be confused why the hell he can't remember anything and why is Jing in front of him.
@FukinDeadBeat I see, so no super sleeping pills then...
@FukinDeadBeat scp-106 will he be immune to qi?
@Diudisma Continue reading, that question will be answered for you.