Ilarya:
I sat in front of the door to the Ambassador’s room on a cushion that had been loaned to me. I hadn’t been allowed to leave for over fifty hours. While I wanted to go to the Spirit Beast slums, the Ambassador had ordered me to keep watch over him while he cultivated, and that was my primary mission, so I didn’t want to fail it without a very good reason. At a minimum he might refuse to let me leave this world in a few days when our mission was over, stranding me here until the war was over. At a maximum I might be arrested for treason or dereliction of duty when I got back to the Earth or the base, and executed. While I wasn’t part of the military, I was technically a military contractor, so I wasn’t sure how they might treat me.
At least I had heard about what was happening in the slums and knew that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Rather than attack and kill the people there, the way they were doing with any humans they decided were enemies, the beasts that took over had essentially declared martial law and instigated a curfew. They claimed that the people living there were brainwashed, and therefore didn’t know any better when they tried to fight back. This meant that as long as they didn’t kill or seriously injure the occupiers when they fought back, they were thrown in prison for ‘training’ instead of being executed. Those that had attacked and killed occupiers, however, were said to be too far gone, and were publicly beheaded, with the ones causing serious injury being publicly beaten instead.
While the Ji and Ye families had sided with the loyalists against the occupiers, many of the noble families, and therefore many of the level five and level four cultivators in the city, had joined them. This had resulted in the city becoming an urban battlefield, with many of the noble mansions becoming fortified areas, as well as the military areas of the city. Those that couldn’t fight or didn’t want to take sides had either tried to flee, some of them being captured by one of the sides and used as examples, or had taken shelter in the beast tide vaults or one of the noble compounds. Some people still chose to travel the streets, but if you were caught by the wrong side, a human being caught by the spirit beasts or a spirit beast being caught by the humans, and couldn’t prove loyalty to that side, you would be captured and may even be executed.
I had spent the last two days in deep meditation, trying to fix as many flaws as I could detect. With the parasites having been cleared from my body, and with me now surviving off of emergency satiation pills from the family stores so that I didn’t risk getting reinfected, I had made a more sensitive version of the parasite isolating talisman, putting as much effort as I could into its detection ability, and only having it affecting the flaws in a way that made them obvious to my senses, and which revealed something about their nature. The ones which limited the flow of qi would have one ‘color’ when I looked at it, natural flaws in my body would have another, injuries another, etc. Of course, after going through so many Rebirths there were very few natural flaws, but I did appear to have some minor genetic issues which caused minor defects.
I fixed the damage first, most of it being from the battle two days ago, then started on the cultivation flaws. I was certain that my cultivation was still hiding many of these flaws, so I would have to use it again after returning to Earth and dropping my cultivation to the mortal level, but for now I would fix what I could. The naturally occurring flaws would have to wait until after I had studied them and understood what was wrong and how to fix it.
The Ambassador’s room had a barrier around it, thanks to the seal plate which I was allowing him to use, so no attack under level four would be able to get to him, but if he did come under attack I was here to make sure that it had an even lower chance to succeed than the barrier gave it.
As I sat there I heard the men at the gate start to gasp and looked up, wondering if this meant that one of the families was attacking again. Both the Mo and Ping families had attacked before, the Ping family sending their level five local family head, so the Ji family patriarch had been forced to join the battle. I had helped defend the manor at that time, but the family’s own level three and four fighters had done most of the work.
At the front gate stood a very beautiful woman wearing an exquisite dress. She had white hair, but looked to be in her twenties. Her skin was also extremely pale, and at first I thought that perhaps she was an albino, but the fact that she had brown eyes made me wonder. Could it be a unique physique instead? She claimed to be from a local pleasure house, and had come here to entertain the men. If that was true, many of the men here were about to lose most of the money they had when they started trying to outbid each other for her limited time.
She saw me and walked over, then bowed. “Are you the famous Li Kev I heard stories about?” she asked, and I nodded. I wasn’t sure what had made me famous, but that was the fake name I was using. “I heard that you killed dozens of enemies when they attacked, and even took down a level four boar that broke into the city, despite being in Early level three. You can even fly despite not having a heavenly root.”
I nodded. “Yes, that was me. Make I have your name, fairy?” I asked, standing up.
“White Fox.” she said, “Illusion Master White Fox.” I could feel a familiar aura at the peak of level two coming from her. While people normally didn’t take a Dao name until they entered level three, some famous people got them before reaching that level, and with her beauty I was certain that she could be a famous local beauty. She walked up to me and put her arm in mine. “If you would like, we can go speak somewhere more private.”
I noticed, however, that her hand felt oddly hairy, despite that fact that it looked smooth. Suspecting that she was a beast in human form, I looked behind her and saw a slight bump at her lower back. Some of the men smiled, no doubt assuming that I was checking out her back side. “Yes, I would enjoy a private conversation.” I said. “My quarters are this way. Tell me, do you like Purple Cloud tea?” Jiang had made it for me four times over the last two days, and I had paid attention to how it was made every time, so I was confident I could make it reasonably well.
As we walked away I could hear several men speaking. “I thought he said his dao companion made him promise not to bed another woman.” a man said.
“Maybe he was just able to resist the others.” another man said. “It’s much harder to keep such a promise when directly approached by a beautiful woman, and she certainly is that.” The other men agreed, then went back to work. Maybe they would hire her later, but for now guest Li had won the honor of being the first in the estate to do so.
When we got to my room, I started heating water and made a quick silence zone talisman. When I was finished I steeped the tea leaves, then poured her a glass of tea. Once I poured my own and sat down I sent some qi into the talisman and a barrier four meters in radius surrounded us, centered on the talisman. “There, the area is silenced. Hopefully anyone that tries to listen in will assume I just wanted our activities to not disturb the others. I have a question for you.”
She nodded. “Very well, you may ask it.”
I smiled. “Are you the Nine Tails that told Xiao and the other children stories a few days ago?” I asked.
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She smiled. “Quite observant. No wonder Flame Li thought you might be able to help us.”
I nodded. “While I’d like to help clear the occupiers from the slums, I have to protect my boss. Even presumably going to my room to spend time in dual cultivation might be seen as too much time away from doing so, though I’m sure I can explain it to his satisfaction.”
She nodded. “This isn’t just about the slums being occupied. We do want you to help us drive them out, but even if you can’t we need your help to save Gitan.”
This surprised me. “Did something happen to the old man? Is he in danger?” He was a friendly person and seem to be a good leader, so I didn’t want anything to happen to him.
She nodded. “He tried to stop them from killing a few homeless humans that wandered into the slums. They had acted as purchasing agents for us in the past, so he wanted to spare their lives, but the Captain in charge of the occupiers order them to be beheaded as spies. Gitan put a barrier up so that they could run away, and the Captain accused him of treason. He is scheduled to be executed publicly at sunset to make an example of what they do to those who aid the enemy. Flame Li asked me to get you, believing that you would be willing to help. Not many people inside the slums are willing to fight back to protect him, even though he would do so for them and has helped everyone in the slums several times. Li thought you might be willing, though, so he paid one of the Rat thieves to sneak me into the noble district, where I took human form and stole this dress from an abandoned clothing store.”
I nodded and pulled an identity token from my storage bag. “That belonged to a Mo family member that attacked the estate last night. He was also early level three and we look similar enough, so I’ll use his identity to visit the slums if I can convince my boss.”
She nodded her head but didn’t seem like she thought it would be enough. “While the Mo family is allied with them, and such a ruse might work if you merely met one of their patrols, they won’t allow any humans into the slums at the moment, claiming that the people there need to know they are safe. It will at most allow you to speak with traders from the slums in the designated trade market just outside the slums.” Apparently merchants and business owners like Mr. Stone were allowed to negotiate trade with outsiders in that market area as long as the outsiders weren’t enemies of the occupiers.
“Then how will I manage to get inside? Xiao could probably scout for me, as they might let him enter, but I’ll need to get to where Gitan is if I’m going to rescue him.” They had freed all of the spirit and mortal beasts they had found in the city, so there were many beasts wandering the streets these days. A random Lightning Sparrow showing up shouldn’t raise too many suspicions, even with his legendary bloodline. “I suppose you could put me in a beast bag and smuggle me in. Are the passages you used to escape big enough?”
She shook her head. “I’ve never been good with the shrinking technique, and the beast shrinking technique is even harder. I can only really shrink myself, which I had to do to get through some of the tunnels, so I’m not sure a beast bag would fit.” I nodded and started thinking of a way around this problem, but it seemed she already had an idea. “I think our best bet is to teach you the Shifting Technique. At level three, you should be able to reach competency. If they think you are a spirit beast, they’ll let you in without much resistance.”
“Like Flame Li’s level of competency?” I asked, and she smiled and shook her head.
“You seem more talented than him, and he refuses to practice. He also doesn’t see the point of hiding all of his beast features. You should, instead, be at least as competent as me.”
I smiled. “No offense, but your skin and hair color is a bit off, I could tell you were hiding the fur on your hands with an illusion, and you didn’t properly get rid of your tail.”
She nodded, and her appearance changed. Suddenly she had sandy blonde hair and a normal, if slightly pale, complexion. She reached over and grabbed my hand and it felt like a normal human hand. “While my people do tend to struggle with hiding our tails, as it is a hereditary sign of our power, I am a far better shifter overall than Flame Li, despite being at almost a full realm lower than him. I left the flaws in my shifting so that you would know it was me.”
I nodded. “Then I apologize. In my homeland there were stories of foxes taking human form and marrying human men, even having children with them, and it was usually their tails that gave them away, especially when they were startled and their control of their shifting and illusions started to slip. I should have realized that your tail was your only weakness.”
She nodded and smiled. “Those stories were likely based in fact, if not actually true stories. Many of my people do such things to insure our survival and the resources for our cultivation. To reproduce with a human, though, they would need to be at least level four, as the level four shifting technique allows one to alter their body’s Fundamentals, and that would be necessary for a pregnancy to result.” From the context I guessed that ‘Fundamentals’ was what they called genes, and that foxes were so distantly related to humans that even the increased fertility of cultivators couldn’t overcome the differences. Spirit beasts often mated with similar races, however, so it might be possible for human and ape cultivators to produce viable offspring without genetic engineering, much like how Sung Wugong had children with many species of both monkeys and apes in the story.
I nodded as well, in response, and sipped my tea. “So, if you are going to teach me the shifting technique, I have two questions. First, the easy one. Do you mind if Xiao learns it as well? He’ll need to know it when I return home in a few days, as there aren’t many intelligent spirit beasts there to teach him.” She agreed, and I brought Xiao out. I poured him a glass of tea as well, are put some lightning berries on a plate for him, before telling him that she was going to teach us. He had eaten several of the berries over the last two days, but they only seemed to make his lightning stronger, not unlock new bloodline traits. “Second,” I asked White Fox, “How are we going to hide my qi signature?” Different lifeforms had different patterns in their qi, many of which were tied to their natural talents. While I had a Fire and Metal root evident in my signature, it would be obvious I was a human, even if I didn’t look like it.
“The Shifting technique has methods for mimicking the qi signature of another species.” She pulled out a Flame Rain talisman, though it seemed to have been made with a different method than my own. “This was created by a level three Flame Orangutan in another city, and contains his qi signature. You should be able to look like an Orangutan somewhat easily, as you are already an ape, so if you mimic this signature they shouldn’t be able to tell the difference.” My own method would produce an effect with the signature of the beast the leather came from, but as this one was drawn on cloth made of level three spirit cotton he had left some of his own mental power on the talisman to enhance efficiency of the effect, making up for the inferior energy contained in cloth talismans. When I picked it up I could feel a hint of his Presence within it thanks to my True Daoist training. Could he be a True Daoist as well as a cultivator?
I was about to comment when I sensed a massive rush of qi from the Ambassador’s quarters, like someone at the peak of level four trying to suppress the area for a split second. The barrier must have fallen, but I wasn’t sure if that was the qi trapped inside the barrier, which was released, or an attack directed at it. I quickly apologized for having to leave and ran to his quarters.
As I got there he stepped outside, large waves of Peak level four qi coming off of him. Most of the people in the area were instantly suppressed, collapsing to the ground, but I and several late level threes and level fours managed to stay on our feet. “Sir.” I said. “Your qi is leaking. Can you please contain your aura before it alerts our enemies to your advancement?”
He looked at me and seemed to notice what I had said and nodded, and suddenly the overwhelming pressure disappeared, making him appear to be a mortal. Whatever qi control technique he was using was far better than my own, as I doubted I could make myself appear more than a full major realm lower. “I’m sorry.” he said. “Inside the barrier I didn’t need to control it, and letting it leak actually helped speed up my cultivation.” I nodded. “So,” he said. “Now that I’ve returned to my full strength, I would like to get in another fight. I’ve hit a bottleneck and think that a bit of combat might help me push through it.”
Now that I was no longer being suppressed, I realized that the sheer volume of the qi he was putting out had actually made it more difficult to detect his level. The point he was at now was far over one hundred percent of the way through rank four. I would guess that he had at least 120% of the foundational training he would need to reach the peak. One might as well call him a half-step level five at this point. I wasn’t sure how he had gathered enough qi to reach this point, though. Recultivating took a large amount of qi, just much less than the first time you cultivated to that level. With all of the Dragon Vein energy being routed to the palace so that they could maintain a level four barrier around it, even with the vein being almost empty, the only thing I could think of was that he had managed to acquire a level five relic, material, or pill and had used it as a source of qi.
His high level would mean that the bottleneck he had hit was likely related to recovering past life memories so that his soul could awaken. While I wasn’t sure how combat would help that, maybe he wanted to get used to his new strength or blow off some steam. It was also possible that the fact that he used to be a soldier, and may have been one in a past life, would allow him to use the combat to synchronize with the other set of memories. “Actually, sir, I was just considering heading into the town on a mission. If you would like to join me, I would welcome the assistance.”
He nodded and I lead him to my room. I had no idea what the people would think about me bringing my boss to my room where I was just meeting a prostitute, but I couldn’t care about that now. When I returned there I set up the seal plate so that we would have a proper silence barrier, and introduced the two of them. “Fairy White Fox is from the Beast slums and has come to ask me to help them save the life of someone who was wrongfully sentenced to death. There will likely be combat, including against some level four fighters, so I thought you might be willing to join me.”
After exchanging a few pleasantries, the Ambassador joined us at the table and White Fox began her lessons.
