Cultivation Nerd-Chapter 354: The One Above

The sensation of Song Song’s breakthrough lasted only a second before it faded, the pressure dissipating as everything returned to normal.

Muchen turned toward me and asked, “How does someone like you feel when something like that happens?”

“Excuse me?” I raised a questioning brow.

“Well, I myself am rather talented,” he said. “So, despite Song Song’s progress and how she’ll catch up to me in a few decades with something that took me centuries, I don’t despair too much. I had a head start, and my future ceiling is quite high.”

Huh. When I didn’t know much about this guy, he came off as mysterious and intense. But now, seeing how insecure he was about his talent, how clearly intimidated he felt by Song Song, my opinion of him dropped a little.

Just imagine what he’d do if he saw how fast Wu Yan progressed. Hell, even Ye An.

“I never really care much about how fast or slow other people progress through cultivation,” I said. “At least not in the way you’re implying.”

Was I amazed and often curious about how people like Song Song, Ye An, and Wu Yan cultivated so quickly? Of course. For example, Ye An’s body naturally absorbing Qi to advance her cultivation was fascinating.

But jealousy? No.

I didn’t mind my mediocre talent. It allowed me to experiment, to take my time advancing… well, not that I had much of a choice there.

Most people treated cultivation as a tool to overpower rivals, to kill enemies.

But there was more to it than that.

It was… beautiful. The way the human body changed with each breakthrough was something I could never quite put into words.

“We might not be as alike as your teacher assumed,” Muchen said, smiling. “But I like that look in your eyes, boy.”

Calling me boy despite my position was impolite, but I didn’t care enough to call him out on it. I doubted he meant it as an insult.

“Will you push past your limits with a mentality like that?” he chuckled. “Or will you be shackled by your talent like so many before you? I can’t wait to see how your life turns out.”

He really could have used more subtlety. If I were someone more prickly, treating my life like entertainment would’ve earned him a lifelong grudge.

“Thanks for the encouragement,” I said. “But you’ll likely end up disappointed.”

The process of making the medicine didn’t take long. Still, he kept asking questions about the pills’ usage, about whether they might work on someone with a more human-like build.

Weird questions all around.

I answered them as best I could, careful to keep certain things firmly in the background.

These weren’t pills in the conventional sense. Still, I had no intention of explaining their proper administration to anyone else, at least not yet. Not until I found a way for someone other than myself to use them safely. Otherwise, it would only encourage people to turn to human experimentation in the name of faster results.

I believed in spreading knowledge as widely as possible. But I had no desire to provide incentives for crossing that particular line.

About ten minutes later, Muchen finished up and idly played with a white jade bottle, twirling it between his fingers before tapping two crimson pills against its rim. He made the entire process look effortless, and for someone like him, it probably was.

Without any theatrics, he handed me the bottle and stored the bronze furnace back into his storage ring.

“I made two pills, just in case,” he said. “I also took some of the leftover blood as payment, so you don’t owe me anything.”

Under normal circumstances, I would have been relieved that he accepted such payment with no favors owed and no lingering obligations. But free things often turned out to be the most expensive.

“I still don’t understand why you decided to create something that’s essentially compressed blood,” he added. “But aside from that, your research is impressive.”

I nodded and slipped the white jade bottle into my storage ring.

“You mentioned an offer earlier,” I said, nudging the conversation where I knew he wanted it to go.

“Oh, right. Almost forgot,” he chuckled casually. “The deal is simple. If the sect goes under, I’ve got a position lined up as vice-mayor of Goldwatch City… Goldwall… or whatever it’s called these days. They change the name every time a new mayor shows up, I swear.”

He muttered the last part under his breath. I tuned out the irrelevant bits and focused on the substance of his offer.

I knew Goldwatch City. It was where we’d stopped before heading to the Four-Way Immortal’s Tomb years ago. The city was guarded by an Immortal and governed by a Nascent Soul expert. It lacked the territorial reach and subordinate power structure of a great sect, but it sat just beneath them, strong enough that none of the great sects wanted trouble with it.

A lot of strange things happened there.

“Sure, great sects have things money can’t buy,” he said, smiling knowingly. “Nascent Soul beast parts. Yang fruits. But that doesn’t make Goldwatch City a dead end. Especially with the kind of research you’re doing. To the family that rules the city and to the Immortal guarding it, you might be worth more than having me there.”

“Huh? Why would that be?” I frowned. “I know my own limits and my value. Please don’t try to coddle reality for me.”

But this was all a farce, and I already had a rough idea of what he meant. Still, I needed to hear it from him to see whether he would lie to my face about the true nature of Goldwatch City.

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“You’re missing the main point, boy. I might seem impressive in your eyes, but under the gaze of someone who has an infinity of time at their fingertips, I’m nothing,” he said. “After many years, the Immortal in charge of Goldwatch City stopped producing offspring.”

…Okay? Was that supposed to mean something? Why would I care whether some old dragon decided to stop bedding people?

“But his descendants have grown much weaker,” he continued, as if that explained everything. “The last two mayors weren’t even related to him by blood. They were outsiders brought in young for their talent and married into the family.”

That part was interesting, but I already knew it. I’d read as much during my brief stay in Goldwatch City’s library. What those records didn’t explain was the city’s deeper sickness, the way the lowest dregs of society ended up where they were based purely on chance. Not their actions. Not their skills. Not even bad decisions. Just a roll of the dice.

That was also why I doubted Muchen’s offer.

In that city, everything was decided by a roll.

I had seen it myself, the golden dragon, or at least its influence, exerted through some metaphysical construct that gathered luck, fate, or whatever name one wanted to give it. Positions were decided by chance. Lives were weighed by probability. Even success or ruin came down to numbers falling the right way.

Any position I gained there would be the same. There was also a larger conspiracy in that place that I had only seen the tip of.

That was not a place I wanted to live.

More importantly, the Immortal guarding Goldwatch City was unlikely to help us with Song Song’s situation. Her father had rolled well there in the past. If anything, they might support him if events came to their attention. And honestly, from their perspective, that would be the logical choice.

The Blood Step Immortal was a far more attractive ally than two up-jumped cultivators.

No matter how one looked at it, the outcome was obvious.

“So, with their bloodline weakening,” Muchen concluded, “they’re likely to value your research far more than they would value someone like me.”

“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to refuse for now,” I said calmly. “That said, if you decide to join them, you can tell Goldwatch City I’m willing to sell my research.”

“Well, sadly, you can’t have it both ways,” he said with a smile. “But I like the idea. I’ll just buy it from you and pass it off as my own.”

I raised an eyebrow.

He wasn’t even trying to hide that?

As if reading my thoughts, he added, “I won’t insult your intelligence by doing something like that behind your back. It’s not in my nature to create needless enemies; at least not ones who hate me enough to accept losses just to drag me down with them.”

I didn’t take his blatant plans to heart. After all, he was at least planning to pay me before claiming the research as his own. Besides, he was buying something I intended to make public for free once it was finished.

After that exchange, Muchen left without saying much else. I also exited my laboratory and began walking toward my house, choosing not to fly. There were too many things swirling in my mind.

For example, whether Muchen had seen through the little trick that had taken me a disgusting amount of time to figure out. So long, in fact, that when I finally did, I felt almost stupid for missing it.

With that embarrassment lingering in the back of my mind, I eventually levitated off the ground and flew toward my house, deciding not to spend any more time wallowing in doubt.

I landed in the front yard. Speedy was there beside the wooden house, sleeping soundly as always.

I approached and sat down next to him.

“It’s been a while since we spent time together like this, hasn’t it?” I asked rhetorically. “Just the two of us… things used to be so much simpler back then.”

I smiled faintly. “Well, I suppose it was never really just the two of us. There was also Shan Sha. And the librarian. That was… fun.”

Deep down, I knew I was stalling. Doubting my own creations.

Speedy stirred, lifting his massive head from the ground before rubbing his scaly snout against my shoulder.

I smiled and patted his head.

Then I stood and pulled several tubes from my storage ring. Each one had a thin, finger-length needle on one end, and on the other, a translucent sachet resembling an empty IV bag.

I had considered forming them out of jade using my techniques, but decided against it. Qi-constructed objects might interfere with the alchemical properties of the medicine.

I retrieved a simple coat hanger and bent it into a crude stand, hanging the IV so gravity could do the work. Without ceremony, I imbued Qi into the needle and pierced it cleanly into Speedy’s hind leg.

He merely snorted, glaring at me in mild annoyance, but didn’t raise his defenses in the slightest. If he had, I would’ve had a tough time piercing him at all.

I knew I’d hit a vein. Good.

Taking a deep breath, I steadied my thoughts. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Everything should go smoothly. This time, a professional alchemist had handled the preparation, unlike my earlier trials, where faulty medicine had been an ever-present risk. There was less room for error than ever before.

I retrieved one of the pills Muchen had prepared and dissolved it into a carefully measured liquid mixture of vitality potions combined with what passed in this world for immune suppressants, designed to allow the treatment to take hold.

After everything was mixed into the IV bag, I stared at it for a while, watching carefully for any adverse reactions or anything that hadn’t happened before.

The part I considered most embarrassing about this entire procedure was something painfully obvious in hindsight. Even though the pill was technically medicine, condensed blood, refined and stabilized. Unlike humans, who would be poisoned by it, most beasts simply weren’t affected strongly enough. They ate all kinds of things. The poison wouldn’t even register. It would just pass straight through them.

Theoretically, everything could work out, but in practice they would digest and shit out the medicine faster than it could take effect. Worse, it would be contaminated by stomach acids before it ever pierced the stomach lining.

It had taken me about five full hours of being an idiot, trying to think of another solution, before IVs finally came to mind.

Thankfully, nobody knew. And nobody would ever know about this moment of a reincarnator who had almost forgotten to use the knowledge from his previous life.

Many people talked about uplifting the world they reincarnated into. The only thing I was uplifting right now was my own disappointment in myself. I was becoming more and more like a native. That had its advantages, but it also meant I was slowly forgetting the advantages my previous world had given me.

It was strange to think about, but I was changing as a person.

I watched the crimson, blood-like liquid flow down the tube and into Speedy’s vein, a strange anxiety settling in my chest.

What if something went wrong?

This wasn’t some lab mouse. It wasn’t a mindless wild beast I could discard if things failed.

This was my friend.

For the first time, I felt fear, not because the procedure was dangerous, but because I had never used humans or intelligent beasts in these trials, even though they would have given better results.

I never had it in me to do something like that.

But if something went horribly wrong, if Speedy died because of this–

I took another deep breath as the medicine finally reached the end of the tube and entered his veins.

I stood there, waiting. Anxious. Watching for a mistake to rear its head.

At first, nothing happened.

Then Speedy let out a loud burp. A soft light briefly formed around his body, only to fade a moment later.

And then I felt it.

Speedy had broken through to Foundation Establishment.

His element was Strong Defense.

Everything had gone well.