Chapter 4: Aftermath? And some cultivation

So, how did you like Teen Titans?

[It was good? I don't know how to describe it, like it's a good show with a good message. But that isn't something I would watch.]

Huh, well everyone has their own tastes. You should be grateful though, I didn't make you watch the reboot, that shit was horrible.

[Yes, thank you very much]

Wow, the sarcasm is heavy but you know what? Fuck you. With that I cut off our connection and let her watch the reboot.

Heh, that's what you get for being sarcastic with me.

Now what should I do? Maybe play some Chess with dad again? Hmm, yeah that sounds fun, even though he's been a little addicted to it, like everyone else that I gave the gift to.

I had just stood up and was about to walk out of my room when somehow everything changed, I could feel something in the air, something heavy. I felt that I couldn't breathe for a moment before the pressure on me lessened.

Quickly, I immediately reconnected to Ling, this wasn't a playing matter anymore. Ling what's going on, what's going on with this pressure?

[Quick Yun, we have to go, that pressure is from someone strong enough to destroy us]

What? No. Why would I leave everyone behind and just go by myself? I have to warn them.

Another bit of pressure soon followed but this time it felt different, familiar even. The fuck is going on?

[Yun… That energy you just sensed, it feels familiar doesn't it?]

Yeah it feels like I've sensed it before, somewhere.

[I didn't tell you this before but I've been learning to sense the energy of this world and how it feels, that energy wave just now, it felt like Dongxue's, even if much better refined and pure.]

What does this mean though? Is Aunt Dongxue in any trouble? I should probably go to them either way, hopefully nothing bad has happened.

I quickly run out of the room and into the hallway, I slip into my shoes before I open the door and begin to run towards Xia Manor.

[I'm not sure what this means, but I think it has something to do with her special body, maybe it awakened]

That… Doesn't sound too good. Hopefully, we'll be able to help with something. I run faster, thankfully I've been active a lot so I don't get tired easily, but it still feels like I'm running slow.

I don't know why but I'm having a bad feeling, and I have that dropping feeling in my stomach. With all my heart I really hope that nothing bad is going on.

[You should hurry, I feel Dongxue's energy signature moving up in the sky]

I ran faster than I've ever run before, I really need to make it. I could almost see the manor, just a little more, just a few more meters.

Running for a little longer, I saw the manor but I could also see someone in the sky, a figure that I was familiar with, it was someone I've been calling an Aunt for over 4 years. She was up there, slowly moving away.

I saw her glance my way, we made eye contact for a moment but she quickly broke it and then she flew off, I came to a slow stop as she vanished from the sky.

Why? What's going on?

I almost fell to the ground, I was so tired that I could barely stand.

[Yun! Focus. You need to get to the manor, let them tell you what happened]

I-Yes you're right, I should see what's going on, though why do my cheeks feel wet?

—

I don't even know what to say. What the fuck!

How in God's name can you be deprived of both your memories and cultivation, just how?

[Yun…]

No, no. I want to know how. Shit doesn't make any sense. And I want to know how you can leave your kids and husband behind.

[Yun, please]

I've never seen a mother who loves her family actually leave, no matter the circumstances. Just how can she do that?

[YUN!]

What?

[Will you listen to me? For heaven's sake, you get why she left don't you?]

I didn't answer because I knew the answer deep down, I just didn't want to acknowledge it.

[I get it, I really do. That woman didn't choose this fate, someone else chose this for her.]

What do you mean? How can someone choose her fate?

[It's both an easy and complicated answer. The easy answer would be that her fate was to awaken at this moment. Of course, I know this answer doesn't satisfy you which is why you have to listen to the more complicated answer.]

What's the complicated answer?

[Being brief? It's that the heavens aren't what people think they are. I caught a glimpse of what they truly were when I almost ascended to Godhood. They were some kind of machine, run with instructions on how to handle the world. I don't know who created them, but my running theory is that it's the same person who created the universe.]

That doesn't explain much. Where are you going with this?

[Right, answer. Fate and destiny are complicated things, if you could master them, then you could essentially rewrite reality. What's important about this, you and I are an anomaly, something that should exist in this universe. We have diturbed the flow of fate, meaning that everything that was planned to happen might nor come true anymore.]

So, you're saying that we made a butterfly effect without realizing it? And that made Aunt Dongxue leave?

[You are right on the first part, not the second. Dongxue could have always left, be it now or later. From what we've been told so far, this would have happened. We might have accelerated the process, but that's about it.]

What are we supposed to do then? I feel so useless right now.

[A few things come to mind but I don't think you should take any action right now]

Why? Because I have a child's body?

[Not at all, I was thinking more in line with whom you have on your lap]

I looked down to see both Qingyue and Yuanba sleeping. They both had cried their eyes out before getting some sleep. I had the maids bring them into a room inside so they could sleep.

[They need you right now, as much as they need their father. They don't have any friends outside your little group, so they wouldn't be able to make the connections needed to have more people whom they can depend on. Not with this trauma that will likely stay with them their entire lives.]

I see your point. It still feels wrong to not go after her, to try to bring her back home, where she belongs.

[You just have to give it time, you need to grow up first, begin to cultivate, actually have some power to you. I don't think you need to worry too much about Dongxue, she'll be fine.]

You make a point. I just need to grow up a little and then I'll bring her back.

I felt my eyes begin to drop, was I this tired? Didn't realize it.

[You should get some proper sleep, there is no need to come into your mind palace]

I think I will do so.

As my eyes began to shut down, I could hear Ling saying something, though I wasn't sure what she said.

—

POV: Xia Hongyi

Yet again, Hongyi was sitting in his bed, not able to sleep. He looked at his children, both sleeping with him. They've been doing so ever since his wife, their mother, left all of them.

Hongyi has always tried to do his best, to always stay uptight with his morals, to not cheat people, to treat people with respect no matter who. It was all things he's been taught when he was but a child and he's been teaching his children the same.

He knew that this world was anything but pretty. People killed for nothing, betrayed each other for just little benefits. It's why he never became a cultivator, not because he couldn't but because he had realized that when you enter the cultivation world, there was nothing stopping those monsters from getting you.

Cultivators for the most part ignored 'mortals', it's why most of the population didn't become cultivators, even if everyone could cultivate.

For the most part, Hongyi didn't care where you came from, as long as you were willing to put in the work required. It was also why he didn't leave that girl he saw lying unconscious outside the city, he had helped personally to make sure she was alright.

Of course, when it came out that she didn't remember anything of her past, he had taken her in. He was more than happy to employ her. After that chapter had closed, one thing had led to another and they got married, both happy and in love.

Soon enough, he had his first child with his wife, Dongxue as she wanted to be known. They named their child Qingyue, for her clear and melodious silver eyes who she had inherited from her mother.

Another year had gone by and he had another child, this time a son. He had named his son Yuanba, because he was energetic when he was born.

Hongyi sighed as his memories once again flashed. They were happy, they truly were. But everything had changed when his wife had regained her old memories.

With her old memories came back her cultivation and her past. He still didn't understand what she was afraid of, but it was mostly likely her fear for them.

From what he could gather, she wasn't from this world. While he didn't understand that fully, he knew that there were pocket dimensions like the one in the Heavenly Sword Villa.

Another point was that wherever she had come from was secretive, at least in the tone she was conveying it. He would have to be careful while searching up information about this, Realm of Gods.

Most importantly though, he had to stay strong. For his children's sake. Because if they couldn't see their own father strong then they might never recover.

Yes, he had to stay strong for their sake. "All for my children's sake"

—

POV: Song Yun

"So why are we up so early in the morning?" I glare at my dad who seems to be immune to it.

"Why else? We're going to start your training"

"Isn't it too early?"

"For your age or time?"

"Yes"

He just gave me a chuckle "Don't go getting smart with me young man. I also began training at your age, my father, your grandfather, made sure that I was up to his standards before letting me cultivate"

"What standards?" Now it's my turn to be confused, was there some correlation between working out and cultivating? I thought you just needed to sit down and meditate every day.

"Cultivation isn't just sitting down and meditating, at least not in the beginning. When you wish to enter Elementary Profound, you need to do it with your own energy." My own energy? But people in this stage shouldn't have any energy to pull from. "I can see your confusion but don't worry, I'll explain things." He sat down at the grass patch and signaled me to do the same.

After getting ourselves comfortable, he began to explain things. "Let me first give you the rundown on Profound vines. Profound vines are called like that because they sit inside your body, they don't interfere directly with it. Instead, they are there so you can store the profound energy you cultivate."

"Everyone is born with it and everyone can cultivate, though everyone can begin at a different age, depending on how fast your Vines mature" I kind of get it, it's like puberty, everyone starts at a different age. "From what I've learned, the youngest you start is 7 and the oldest is 14. Anything older than that means that something is wrong with your Vines."

I still have a year to go, it seems, I'm still 6 after all.

"Now for how to begin cultivation, there are a few ways. The most used way is to meditate and try to draw your vitality in, bit by bit."

"Vitality?" I know that word, it's often used to say life-force. Though, why would someone use their own life-force to cultivate, isn't that exact opposite of why you cultivate?

"Ah. Wait, I said that wrong. I meant vitality as in Stamina, you use that stamina as energy and when your Vines are full of energy, you can enter the first stage of Elementary Profound"

Oh, I get it now. "So, I'm going to work out so that I have plenty of stamina when I begin to cultivate?"

"Yeah, it's what I did when I was your age. It'll make the first few stages of Cultivation so much easier." Oh, while waking up in the morning makes more sense now, I still don't like it. I like to sleep if you haven't noticed.

"Alright, now that we've got that out of the way, let's begin" He stood up with me in tow. "Don't worry, we'll begin slowly, this week we'll just work through the exercises and make sure that you don't hurt yourself. We'll begin the real training after that"

I don't have a good feeling about that last part.

—

I fucking knew it, my dad is a slave driver. Goddamn it all. After that first week, he fucking threw me into the deep end and when I complained that I shouldn't be doing this intensive work out? He just threw pills at me, saying that those will heal me.

I swear I'll get him soon, I haven't been in a pranking mood in ages but now, that old fucker has awakened the beast inside. Hehehehe.

[Don't laugh like that, it's creepy]

Oh. Hey Ling, I see your back. How did it go with your breakthrough?

[It didn't go all that well, it seems like the universe itself hasn't accepted me, it's why I still have to hide inside of you]

Well, that's sad to hear, though do you know why I was accepted so easily?

[If I had to guess, it would be the same reason you survived in that void]

I still don't really get what this 'power' of mine really is, I can't feel it nor use it. It just sits there with no way to see what it really is.

[I get it, you're frustrated but we can't rush this type of things, we do and it could end up horribly]

Yeah I know that, it still feels frustrating.

[Anyway, let's change the subject. What did you learn about cultivation in this world?]

I explained to her what I learned from my good old dad, how to enter Elementary Profound and how only when you entered Elementary did you start with absorbing energy from 'Heaven and earth'.

I also explained that there is something called half-step, it's when you fail to enter the next realm after you cultivate all 10 levels. Something that stood out to me from all of this is that there are profound arts here, it's something that you cultivate.

I didn't really get it, if you absorb energy, you go to the next level, so why need those arts? I get the need for skills, those are important and I can see why. Not Profound arts though. I gave Ling all the info I had, maybe she could help me understand why Profound arts were needed.

So, what do you think?

[Hmm, I said it before, but the cultivation system here is much simpler than that of my world. Though for that Profound art problem that you don't understand, I think I get it, but don't take everything I say at face value, I might be wrong.]

You know why they use them? I don't get it myself.

[Cultivators usually cultivate one element, from the basics we have fire, water, wind, earth. If you go higher, then there is space, time, light and darkness. There is of course a middle ground for the elements that don't go as high as Space and Time but are higher than the four basic elements. I, myself, cultivated the Darkness Element, which then switched two the Darkness Law. Now for why people here use Profound arts, it's easy really, there are multiple elements in the air and when you use a certain art, say for example fire, you take in the fire element.]

Hmm, so they use these Profound arts to absorb one type of element. But what about those arts that don't have an element?

[Those are more elementary, as those arts quickly become harder and harder to use. It's why most people who cultivate only focus on 1 or 2 elements.]

I see, so you either focus on 1 element or you quickly see yourself become a jack of all trades, a master of none.

[Because at those levels, it's better for you to be a master at your element otherwise you will see yourself overwhelmed]

Well, I now know what those arts do and I'll probably have to think of an element I want to master.

[You still have years to decide]

Now that we're done with this, wanna watch One Piece?

[No, it's too long, I'd rather be doing something more productive with my time]

Oh, come on, that's what they all say. At least give it a few episodes if you don't like it then we won't watch it. Please?

[Sigh, I swear]

—

Chapter 4 end