26 It's time to make like a tree and GTFO

Li Hua was the fifth princess of a nation that was about the same distance away from the Qián dynasty of the young master I used to play chess with. But it was in a perpendicular, ninety-degree offset direction to the south. It was a nation of "small islands", although I would call them continent-sized, that peppered one of the large freshwater lakes that fed into the many, many rivers in this world.

She looked like a princess, too. She even had a little silver-gold coronet on her head, which I thought was both pretentious and fetching. It matched her eyes, too. 

I considered, wistfully, for a moment, to see if I could coax her under my desk in my office, but then I shook my head. If I tried to bed every pretty girl I saw, then I wouldn't get anything else done at all, especially since all female cultivators were generally pretty. It was like supermodel central over here.

Besides, I wasn't following the Chen Dexin model here exactly. I had no need to antagonise this woman because she had already gotten into a disagreement with one of the other Outer Sect gangs, and she had already worked her way through that group like a diesel-powered threshing machine.

Li Hua didn't have the same fighting style as Chen Dexin and me, but that didn't mean she wasn't strong. If anything, she was more "traditionally strong" than either of us was—she used overwhelming force in an above-board, straightforward manner. 

She used water techniques, just like my Mistress, and sought to be as unstoppable as a flood dragon, but I didn't feel like she was that big of a threat, personally. I already knew a few ways to handle this type of cultivator from "spars" with Mistress, who would hold herself back.

I thought she seemed a bit nervous to be meeting me today, but that could have been my imagination. Nalani had led her into the tea room and then departed, and after seating herself in front of me, Li Hua said, "Senior Sister Mei Wen, thank you for inviting me for tea today."

Once again, I felt that seeking training about etiquette and the various things a young miss of means would know was one of my better decisions. I made us both cups of tea, pausing to put a fairly large amount of honey in mine, which caused the woman across from me to relax a little bit.

I suppose it was a signal that the meeting wasn't that serious, but the truth was that I just preferred sweet things. I replied, "Of course, Junior Sister. We haven't had a lot of time to speak privately." That had been intentional on my part.

I continued, "How have you found your life in the Outer Sect? You've made pretty good progress since arriving here." She had been in the fifth level when arriving at the school and now was midway through the sixth. Her combat abilities were better now, too. More refined and more efficient from a Qi-used to advantage gained perspective.

We talked congenially for almost an hour, and this time, getting to know her better in person firmed my decision. Nalani did not want to succeed me. Specifically, she said that while she was cultivating much faster, it would still be seven to ten years before she broke through, so she had asked me to approach Li Hua.

But I had more loyalty to Nalani herself and would force her to do it if I didn't think the woman across from me would treat her properly. I had already investigated a dozen girls that followed Li Hua, and she didn't have anything like a second-in-command like I had, so I was hoping that this could be a win-win.

"The reason I asked you over here today is... The Disciple's Union President is an inherited position, and I won't be in the Outer Sect much longer," I told her this straight.

She widened her eyes a bit, seeming a bit surprised, and said, "I have to admit... I'm surprised. I have done a little research about your position, and I had expected you to nominate Senior Sister Nalani." She then shook her head and said, "First of all, congratulations on your pending breakthrough."

"En," I acknowledged her thanks and inclined my head, "Honestly, she was my first choice but she recommended you. I believe she could do the job, but she says she might remain in the Outer Sect for another ten years. Her goal is to focus on her cultivation now so that she can breakthrough before the time limit imposed and still be eligible for the Inner Sect. She has already been in the school for ten years."

Li Hua's eyes shone with comprehension, immediately understanding the situation. That was one way that diremonsters were at a disadvantage at the school. They generally cultivated slower, but the time limit of twenty-five years was the same for all disciples in the Outer Sect. Before she could reply, I asked, "Tell me, what do you know about the Disciple's Union President?"

She raised an eyebrow and replied with a smile, "The Disciple's Union President is a diremonster that calls herself Mei Wen. She is reputed to be a species of highly yin-aspected predatory jungle cat, allegedly a Celestial Ghost Cat. She is considered a cultivation genius and would considered that even if she were human. Her non-combat talents include being a registered talisman artist and formations mistress. She allegedly fights using illusory and beguiling techniques, as befitting her status as an ambush predator. Not much is known about her before she came to the school, and I speculate that she came to the human lands because she had a poor affinity for her ancestral cultivation techniques, which may explain why she uses a human one. One of her known weaknesses is her insatiable hunger for beautiful human women—"

I was amused but finally held up a hand and said, "Thank you for that, but I meant more along the lines of the position itself." I was pretty sure she knew exactly what I meant in the first place, but wouldn't miss an opportunity to butter me up. Perhaps it also meant that she was open to the idea of being "devoured."

But no, that would be inappropriate. Despite Chen Dexin doing the same thing, our relationship differed wildly from the one Chen Dexin and I had. Antagonism could be only a half-step away from lust, but Li Hua was more like a junior to me rather than a rival, and a romantic or sexual relationship with my juniors didn't seem appropriate. It was why I had never pursued any of the girls in my clique despite occasionally fantasising about some of them.

Especially considering that I was performing what was essentially a job interview. Chen Dexin hadn't seduced me until after she already offered me the job. Yes, it would be widely inappropriate. 

I sighed. Perhaps in the future, when we were both peers... or closer to peers, as I didn't intend to give her a chance to catch up. 

There would always be power dynamics in any relationship, I supposed. That was one of the factors that attracted me to both Liu Ruxue and Chen Dexin after all.

When she started speaking again, her opinion about the Disciple's Union was similar to what I had before Chen Dexin talked to me—that it was set up as an intentional way to provide resources to disciples that were powerful socially, as one of the ways the school kept many different ways to advance, not solely swinging a sword.

She didn't know that the Disciple's Union was basically the Outer Sect outpost of the Jade Peak, either. I didn't hide the pin that declared my membership to it, so this was a bit of a blind spot for her. Still, she hadn't been around too long, and while she might have easily found out who the last President was, the only place that recorded all previous presidents was our offices. 

You'd have to be a member and then look at the files for all previous presidents before realising that they all joined the Jade Peak.

"I said almost the same thing when I was asked this question, but the position is more important than that. Let me explain," I told her, and explained I did.

She already understood the concept of protecting her own group of close to a dozen followers, so it wasn't that big of a leap. She frowned and said, "So, the main job is to be a role model, then?"

I blinked, and I hadn't thought of it that way, but that was pretty accurate when everything was going correctly. There were anywhere from twelve hundred to thirteen hundred Outer Sect disciples, and twenty per cent were female. 

The number of girls in my group was only about twenty per cent of the total female disciples. We were the largest group, but there were about five other groups of female disciple "gangs." I just didn't think any of their leaders was appropriate to replace me. They were either not strong enough, or alternatively, they were dangerously uncouth.

Being a role model to show the rest of the girls how to protect themselves was one of the parts of the job. 

Finally, I replied, "If everything is going well, that is accurate. But you also have to be seen as a potential hammer for egregious cases. This is why personal strength is important. I've only had to nip something in the bud once this year."

There had been reports that one of the new gang leaders had offered to provide protection for one of the weaker female disciples if she became his girlfriend. Every Disciple's Union President had their own bottom line. Chen Dexin had explained hers to me, and this might have been acceptable to her. However, for me, that was an inch too far over the line.

I then went on to explain the benefits she would receive for all the trouble she would go through, and I could see her start to breathe heavily, clearly very excited and nervous. "You're saying every President is guaranteed entry into the Jade Peak?"

I inclined my head, "More than that. You'd be a member as soon as you took the position. We don't want to encourage a Junior Sister to rush through her cultivation and create a poor foundation just to receive the benefits. You'll receive all the benefits of membership in the Peak, even as an Outer Sect disciple. In effect, you'd be a member of the Outer Sect only by a technicality. We just ask that you keep that part discreet. So, what do you say? Are you willing to do the job?"

"I'm willing!" she said rapidly.

I hummed and nodded, "Alright. I have some conditions."

She looked a little more wary but said, "Of course."

"Firstly, you'll have to complete a task that demonstrates you're capable of running the place on a day-to-day basis," I said. She nodded rapidly, clearly confident in her management abilities, so I added, "Also, I have a list of girls who follow me who I need you to see to," I told her.

She frowned, "I'm not willing to blanketly allow all of your followers into my group."

Internally, I grinned. I had said the same thing to Senior Sister. I waved a hand, "You won't need to. Most understood I cultivated fast enough that I wouldn't be in the Outer Sect too long. However, I have a list of about five that I consider at risk and in need of special protection. You don't necessarily need to allow them into your group, but you'll have to protect them somehow when I am gone. Otherwise, I will force this job on Nalani, who I know will do so."

Li Hua nodded, relieved, "I can definitely do that."

"Lastly, Nalani... I know you do not have what I'd consider a competent second-in-command. I cannot and will not order you to choose someone specifically as your successor when it is your time to leave, but I can force you to take her on as your second, at least for now. If you two don't click, then that's fine, but I'm going to need a commitment from you that you'll at least try. I owe her for all the help she's been to me this year," I said, a little emotion leaking through my voice.

The young woman across from me blinked and then was silent for a moment before nodding, "You're correct, I don't... I'm willing to give her a chance. How about she assist me with whatever task you have set for me, and we'll see how we work together?"

I pursed my lips, "I'm one hundred per cent confident that she could perform the task herself, so her assisting you wouldn't make it much of a test for you." I then paused and said, "This is the same task that Senior Sister Chen Dexin set for me. I'll tell Nalani that she is only able to offer the same assistance she provided me the first time around. Is that alright?"

She chuckled, "That's fine, and you being so confident in her makes me feel better about her already."

"Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to organise the next seasonly Disciple's Connection meeting in ten weeks. This is the most important meeting of the year, as it coincides with opening the sect for new disciples," I told her, and I produced a well-worn leather journal. I did re-write the guidebook, but it was the same one that Chen Dexin gave me. If she used my guide, then it would be too easy.

This meant that I would be losing Nalani early. Although she could do this all herself, it would be a full-time job for several weeks pretending to learn everything from scratch again.

---xxxxxx---

The process for forming your foundation was pretty straightforward. You filled your consciousness with true Qi until the pressure became so strong that the vaporous, mist-like Qi condensed into a liquid, and from then was birthed a spiritual sea of liquid Qi.

The goal was to create as still and as perfect a spiritual sea as possible, and a big part of Qi Gathering was the spiritual equivalent to "earth moving." It was the mental image of turning your spiritual body into terrain. Most people's "spiritual terrain" was hilly or even mountainous, not conducive for the construction of buildings. 

Circulating Qi throughout the Qi Gathering stage was like moving earth around, using equipment and effort to smooth out the tall spots and fill in the depressions. Lastly, you had to create a singular depression big enough to hold your entire cultivation base as a lake or sea.

The process of working through the Foundation Establishment realm to make the breakthrough to the Golden Core realm was turning this liquid sea into a solid, with the creation of pillars to hold your Jindan, or golden core, onto, but that was for another day.

I was sure that there were likely other ways a cultivator could do it, but I thought changing the mental images would be more dangerous than not.

It might be different if I had a hard time cultivating with this method. If everyone thought I was trash, then it would make sense to take a risk and choose a different mental framework and image for your spiritual sea. The risk would be high, but so would the corresponding rewards.

I was a firm believer that there was no such thing as an untalented person. The people we considered "untalented" in cultivation, I just assumed, were untalented in the current style of cultivation that was so popular.

Eighteen months of repeatedly devouring the talents of people condemned to death for crimes made me very understanding that everyone was talented in something and that our current understanding of magic and cultivation was just one narrow path that could be travelled. There was no way that it was the only one.

Just hearing about how Merildwen's parents were discussing the magic of their new world demonstrated that. There were three types of magic, at least. Perhaps there were infinite types for infinite worlds.

But I wasn't a protagonist. I wasn't about to create an entirely novel cultivation system on the off chance it would be superior to the one that had been refined for millions upon millions of years by trillions of people. I wasn't that arrogant.

Stillness while under pressure was a very important part of this final process. It was called the Foundation realm, and a cement foundation was exactly the correct way to think about it. The smoother, denser and more level, the better. Plus, ever since I had found myself in this body, I made it a habit to perform periodic self-examinations of my spirit and soul. 

When you found a literal devilish contract surrounding your soul, this became a pretty rational thing to do, and I had continued it even after that contract vanished—just in case. This turned out to be a huge advantage that I had over most cultivators at my level. You didn't awaken your spiritual sense until you reached the Foundation Establishment, so most people's methods for examining their own spirit, soul and consciousness were very limited.

As for me? I had been watching the "spiritual earth moving" process from the beginning. It allowed me to identify spots that still appeared rough and contribute more actively to their smoothing while cultivating, rather than just relying on my cultivation method to do so passively. 

It was one of the reasons I cultivated so quickly at my stage and why I never needed to stabilise myself after a breakthrough. I simply wouldn't try to breakthrough if I thought there was still work to be done.

It wasn't impossible for other cultivators to do the same. There was a formation I had been reading about called a "cognisance formation" that provided a huge benefit for spiritual introspection—a lot better than even my methods that used Wizardry. 

However, it was rare enough that not only did the books not talk about how to make one, but as far as I knew, we didn't have any at all in the school. If we did, then they were definitely not available for Qi Gathering disciples at all, given how important spiritual self-knowledge was to survive the Nascent Soul tribulation.

If they existed here, then they were all being monopolised by all of the Golden Core elders, for sure. But theoretically, someone rich enough—the child of an immortal perhaps—could have the same advantages that I had.

The Foundation Establishment breakthrough was the safest of all realm breakthroughs, being the first, but still, over thirty to forty per cent of people attempting it failed, and failure had a chance to cause serious internal injuries or death. 

You were intentionally putting yourself under incredibly high spiritual pressure, so it wasn't that unusual for some people to explode. Thinking about that... there seemed to be a lot of ways to randomly explode while cultivating immortality, didn't there? It was a wonder that I had never seen it happen yet.

Sitting lotus-style in my Private Sanctum, I slowly increased the spiritual pressure by pushing all of my true qi through my meridians. Normally, you cycled it back through the meridians, but I was terminating the cycle. 

I was trying to empty all of my meridians into my core just under my ribcage. This was why even if you didn't suffer any injuries in a failed breakthrough, you almost always lost a significant amount of cultivation, usually at least two to three levels.

This was your "violet palace" or Zifu, although some called it your dantian, or sea of qi.

I preferred thinking of it as the violet palace, myself because once you phase changed your qi into a solid when you formed a golden core, that's what it would be. The mental image of a "palace" worked best for me to create a very still, very level qi sea as if it were the literal cement foundation I was pouring while building a house.

If I thought of it as a sea, then invariably, I would think of the roiling waves in a sea. I was a sailor long enough to know that no sea was ever totally becalmed, but waves or disturbances in your sea of qi were totally contraindicated when breaking through.

Amusingly, one of the better mental images that had worked for me in the last phases of my Qi Gathering was from a cartoon. I remembered when Rick showed Morty "true level" in one episode, and I used that as a mental device to help me give some "true level" to the terrain around and in my Qi sea. I wasn't entirely sure it worked, but it seemed to.

I dabbled in precision too, after all!

Already, my sea of consciousness was an endless fogbank of true Qi in its vapour state, but the pressure was slowly increasing to the point where every now and then, a drop would form, condense and fall into the area I had prepared for it.

I was going slowly. I had already tried condensing the Qi a little faster, but it caused pain. This was a new experience for me in cultivation, and I was not too fond of it. Going slowly, it was just a comfortable pressure building up. This did mean that the process of my breakthrough was much longer than average, though.

If I had a weaker mentality or the inability to focus or be patient, this would be a significant risk. But I had always been very patient. Spending time in The Woods That Wend heightened that to dizzying heights, too. Both Merildwen and I had spent both an instant and forever in that place, and it had been the main reason I had been such a screaming, blubbering mess when I got control of myself in "the frozen place."

However, not all changes were bad, and it was the reason I could easily spend as much time as I did in that place learning to read by shoving my disembodied soul into books.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

At this rate, this would only take me almost a full twenty-four hours of concentration. I could do that sitting on my head if I had to, though. The only downside was I couldn't allow my mind to wander anymore, as it was wont to do. Not even for a moment. I'd just focus on the drips now like I was brewing a coffee.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

---xxxxxx---

I wasn't quite in a trance, but it wasn't that far off from one, either. I never increased the pace further than the continuous drips of large Qi droplets. My first realisation that I was finishing was that the vapour clouds in my sea of consciousness thinned and then seemed to disappear.

If these clouds of Qi were analogous to clouds of water vapour, then there was still some Qi in the air, though. It was just saturated now, so I didn't release the pressure. I felt that I could break through now but that I would lose something if I did, so I just continued.

The drops came slower until, eventually, they stopped completely. At that point, my breakthrough proceeded all on its own without me even starting it. My meridians were so empty that they created a sort of vacuum suction force and swirled like a silver luminescent Qi vortex centred on my body.

For a few seconds, the drips changed to a flood. It was so surprising that it wasn't painful, but I had to concentrate to keep my head from exploding.

Then, as fast as it started, it stopped. I tilted over and fall onto my face, sighing in contentment. I almost doubled my total true qi capacity at once there at the end, judging from how big my Qi sea was now. The qi suction phenomenon was widely reported, but few people reached the stage of a physical qi vortex forming around their body.

My intuition told me that it was a combination of my excellent preparation and not giving up, even when it took minutes and minutes for each last Qi drop. If I had let some Qi remain, then it would have backfilled into my meridians, and the amount of "vacuum force" created would have been significantly less, even if there had been only a few drops left.

This made what my Mistress told me about breaking through make more sense, which was that if I felt like I could break through, then I shouldn't. The breakthrough happened on its own for me, so maybe that was normal for someone with a superior performance like this.

My soul felt larger, stronger and looser in my body.

And my body... it was disgusting. I had been ready for this, but the black gunk that covered every inch of my body was absolutely disgusting.

I stood up on wobbly legs, ripped off the throw-away gown I had prepared for this event and squinted. I could sense through the walls now, with my spiritual sense unlocked, but I didn't need to actually see where I wanted to go.

I cast Dimension Door and teleported directly into my bathroom, and turned on the shower to the hottest it could go and stepped inside. The hottest setting was just close to being boiling water and would have caused significant scalding injuries on a normal human. I was a little bit weak against heat attacks, but even still, I could withstand regular hot water.

Li Hua had an attack using a water whip of super-heated water that would be dangerous to me, but I think she must have used some special method to keep it under pressure even while using it as a whip, as it instantly turned to steam and could even set things on fire when it touched them.

Seeing water set something on fire was pretty wicked cool. That wasn't an ability she was permitted to use in spars, but she had shown it to me after I had pretty much acquiesced to the fact that she would be my successor. 

The disciple's meeting was this week, followed by the sect opening again the following week, but her organisation skills and administration ability were far in excess of mine, so I didn't expect anything to go wrong, so I was going to step down early.

That way, she could have the better position of being the Disciple Union President at the time the new disciples arrived. This would increase her position with them, compared to taking over afterwards.

But first, I was going to take a nap.

---xxxxxx---

After a few hours of rest, I got up and put on my disciple's robes. Specifically, I put on the ones for Inner Sect disciples that I had bought in advance and casually clipped the Jade Peak pin from my old robes onto my lapel.

Things had been going so great with my successor that I had basically given her my office in the Disciple's Union for the past couple of weeks. Everyone knew that she was my replacement, so I decided to go make things official.

I pulled out the pin for the Disciple's Union President, tossed it in my hand a few times and then put it away in my dimensional space. The flying treasure that my Mistress acquired for me was suited for me, but I didn't exactly like the way it looked.

It was a flying cloud like the Flying Nimbus that Goku used—not as pretty as the lotus-type treasure the girl that Xiao Li had a crush on had. However, this sort of nebulous and formless treasure was very suited for cultivators who specialised in illusions, as I might be able to make it and me invisible while travelling. That would be something I had to work on.

Right now, many of my illusory spells were rendered useless unless I punched down and fought against people below my realm. Spiritual sense could see through the majority of illusory spells I cast, including Invisibility. That was bad. Magic Aura could defeat spiritual sense, but it would be a lot of work to rejigger most of my illusory spells to include this spellform.

It was possible, and it wasn't as hard as creating a totally new spell, but it would definitely shift Invisibility from a level two spell to a level three, at least. Four, if I proceeded with the combination in a half-assed way.

That was the bad news. The good news was that since breaking through, my magic felt inexhaustible. It wasn't, but comparatively, it was an amazing feeling. I definitely had at least twice the number of "spell slots" now, possibly treble for the first and second levels.

This wouldn't let me cast fifth-level spells any sooner, but it would make it so that I could cast my existing spells longer. I couldn't wait to tell Merildwen's parents. They would be so jealous. I probably had more second-level spell castings per day than they did!

Also, the distance I had travelled with Dimension Door was much further than it was supposed to be, with no change to the difficulty of casting it. 

That was a huge benefit, as combat at my level was now reaching the point of being much longer ranged, and some of my spells just couldn't be used if they stayed within the standard range for Wizardry spells. 

In the Foundation Establishment realm, I was reaching the point where many of the Daoist techniques were as useful or even more useful than Wizardry spells. At least spells of the levels I had access to, but if my magic scaled with the increased size and density of my soul, then that would allow me still to use spells, perhaps even lower-levelled ones, as trump cards.

I pulled the flying treasure my Mistress had given me in advance out of my spatial ring and inspected it. This wasn't a type of treasure that required what I considered "attunement." I could use it right away, and there wasn't a limit to how many of these types of treasures I could have.

That said, I'd never used it before, so I sent my spiritual sense deep into it to figure out its user interface.

After some brief tests close to the ground, I figured it out. It was quite simple. One nice part about a semi-solid cloud was it was very comfortable. More so than the softest La-Z-Boy recliner. I settled into it and then shot out into the air, moving at double the speed of sound.

No sonic booms were created, though, as they used some sort of magic to prevent the formation and propagation of shockwaves. It was like it slipped through the air and was completely silent. There wasn't even the relative wind blowing against my face, it having been diverted somehow.

I arrived at the Disciple Union offices in a flash. I put away the treasure several hundred metres up and had intended to use Feather Fall to make an entrance, but I realised it wasn't really necessary anymore. Not only was I durable enough to survive terminal velocity now, but now that I could easily extend my Qi outside my body without putting it in a spellform or technique, I could make something equivalent to a parachute.

It felt like I had four or five new invisible limbs, kind of like those Diclonius girls from the anime Elfen Lied that I had seen ten or more years ago. I wonder if I could rip someone's head off with this sort of telekinetic ability like they could in that show. It would need to be practised.

I walked in and was greeted warmly. Half of my girls still worked here, but I had allowed Li Hua to hire on all of her girls. My followers who weren't joining her group weren't disgruntled. They all knew I wouldn't be in this position for long, and they privately felt that I could still help them a lot just by them having a friend in an important part of the school.

"Is Junior Sister Li Hua in?" I asked Nalani, who greeted me warmly—she even gave me a hug.

She smiled, "She is. You can go on in. Congratulations, Senior Sister, on breaking through."

Nalani and Li Hua hit it off pretty well, which I wasn't surprised at. Nalani was a natural "follower" personality, but she was competent and intelligent enough to be someone's highly trusted lieutenant or adjutant. If you gave her a goal, she could accomplish it even if it meant managing and leading subordinates, but she seemed to dislike the forming of goals herself.

She was worth her weight in spirit stones to someone like me and Li Hua, in other words.

I stepped into what was still, technically, my office. Li Hua was behind my desk, peering at the illusory holograph of the display interface I and one of my Senior Sisters at Jade Peak created. It was a moment of cognitive dissonance for me because it so much resembled someone working on a computer that I almost tripped. I had seen my spreadsheet system be used before, but I had never walked in on someone using it.

Creating a scientific calculator ended up not being too difficult, and I used that invention to get the attention of one of the Golden Core Senior Sisters, Elder Qianhui, at Jade Peak. She was the one on the peak who was the most knowledgeable about formations, and I begged her to assist me with my "Excel project."

She was intrigued by the calculator but perplexed at what I was trying to do. She thought my idea to copy over every character in the language was a good one if I was planning to create a word processor, although she called it something else, but that it was insane if what I was making was merely a "visual calculator."

She instantly understood what I was trying to create, too. Cultivation increased your intelligence the further you went, same as your physical strength, although it didn't do anything for your common sense at all—if anything, sometimes that was reduced. But she thought it was a great idea but that I didn't need some complicated, arbitrary input method.

Instead, I should separate cells into three types: labels, formulas and inputs. Instead of inventing a keyboard and input system for any character, I should just copy the jade slate method of drawing any series of characters for each label type.

Then, I would only need enough inputs to enter numbers and dates and a way to input formulas. Rather than type them, she suggested what, in effect, was a drop-down list. You would select the formula from a list and then input the formula parameters. You could do this repeatedly, making one formula the parameter to another as one would expect in a spreadsheet.

It was a clunky way to input a series of formulas, especially when you were used to Excel, but it had the decided advantage of being possible with what we had available to us.

It was only with her help over the past months that the prototype was created. In fact, she did close to half the work, including the entirety of the mechanisms for dates and time as well as the drop-down list for selecting each formula. After that, together, we added quite a lot of formula functions and called it a day.

The school administration was so amazed by the invention that they said they would buy each device for ten thousand contribution points. I made them three, rebuilding the various prototypes that I had tried and failed to build in the past, but I didn't have the heart to make anymore, besides one more for my office here, as well.

The compensation for both selling them, as well as what both me and Elder Qianhui would make from putting the guide to their construction in the Dao Repository, meant that I would probably be wealthy beyond avarice by the time I came back from my adventures—on top of the already huge compensation I was getting from the Sending talismans. My Mistress told me that the members of the alliance had already remarked on them, as thousands had been shipped to the "battle realm" with the latest rotation of participants.

It was nice to have a lot of money, but there were so many things in this world that just couldn't be bought with money, so it wasn't as though I would have nothing to worry about. But it made me want to convert a lot of points into spirit stones, go to an auction, and buy random things like a big shot.

The input method on the visual calculator was a two-handed affair and kind of resembled a numpad on steroids, and to me, it was incredibly clunky, but seeing how fast Li Hua was traversing the spreadsheet made me wonder if it would be difficult to transition to a normal keyboard and mouse-style input later.

She glanced up at me and smiled, and then her eyes widened as she noticed the robes I was wearing. There was no doubt that she noticed that she couldn't detect my cultivation, too. She stood up, saying warmly, "Congratulations, Senior Sister!"

I motioned her down and sat across from her. She looked quizzical and said, "I thought you would wait until the connection meeting was over."

I snorted, "Your administration abilities far outstrip mine. There is no way it's going to be anything but a success. What do they teach princesses in your country?"

"Oh, you know, the usual, zither, painting, administration," she admitted with a wry smile. Then she motioned to the visual calculator, "This device is amazing. I'm not sure if I told you before, but it took me a little while to figure out how useful it is."

She sighed and said, "I wish I could make copies of the display on paper."

I hadn't invented a printer, but...

I nodded, "There is a technique in the utility section of the Dao Repository on the second floor. It's called the Water Press Spell. It's used to make copies of pretty much anything you can see or remember on paper as if it were a printing press. I think it's only five points. That's how I usually make copies of things from jade slates."

She widened her eyes for a second time today and slowly nodded, "I can see how that might work; I assume the 'water' used in the spell is actually ink? Can it make copies of cultivation manuals, I wonder?" It wasn't surprising that a water cultivator instantly understood the mechanics.

"If your understanding of the manual is really high, yes," I admitted with a nod. I had seven demonic spells given to me and practised so far at the school at this point, and I had watched Senior Sister Han Meiying make me copies of each demonic spell or technique with this spell when she gave me new ones after the first two that she had just handed me. 

I had wondered why she had the two books ready to hand me at first, but I had known at the time that her handing me that list filled with demonic techniques was partly a test.

Some of the techniques were only ones that could be used on other cultivators, like the methods for turning someone into a cultivation Furnace while dual cultivating. How would I ever practice that except here in the school? I still wanted those techniques, just to see how they worked, but they were definitely a trap because she said she would only give me further techniques if I mastered the first two.

Also, there had been a number of techniques that were just too evil. It could be argued that the technique I had that refined humans into spirits was pretty bad because it was, without a doubt, an excruciatingly painful torture, but there were others in that list that made it seem mild. 

I didn't think I would have had a good end if I had picked a couple of those. I could see the school quietly assassinating me if they thought I really had no bottom line. As such, I came to the conclusion that she really did guess which techniques I would choose. Maybe not entirely, as I bet she had maybe five or six books with her, but the ones I chose really were the best for me at the time.

Han Meiying could copy an entire book of evil magic the size of a JK Rowling novel in just a few seconds with the Water Press Spell, which told me that she deeply understood the contents of all of the spells she had copied for me. She presented herself as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but I didn't buy it for a minute. I think she must be part of the school's equivalent to black ops or something along those lines.

To give an idea of how well she understood the material, I had tried making a copy of the blood tracking spell that I practised the same way, and each page had errors. Even then, it took me minutes to do so, and that technique was barely thirty pages long.

I stood her up and pinned the President's pin to her lapel, and followed it up by handing her the Jade Peak pin, "If you don't mind, poke yourself with that pin. You need to drop a drop a blood on the Jade Peak pin to bind it to you so nobody else can use it."

She seemed intrigued and did so, the drop of blood disappearing into the brooch mysteriously. I nodded, "Alright, you're bona fide now. I'll let the Senior Sisters at the Peak know. You are welcome to come up any time you want. As far as we are all concerned, you are a member of the Peak right now. The standard allotment of Qi and Blood pills is sixty a month, but they probably won't arrive till next month. It will probably be double or even triple to make up for it, though, so that is nice. Sometimes, the administration moves slowly."

She looked very proud of herself right now, and she let out a contented sigh, "I have been saving my contribution points when you told me that I would receive a discount at the Dao Repository. Do I have it now? And how much of a discount?"

I nodded towards the Jade Peak pin on her robes and said, "You should have it now, and it is half off."

"Half off!" she grinned like a kid at a candy store. She smiled at me, "What are your plans now, Senior Sister?"

"Adventure," I said simply, "I've been in this place for almost two years now. That's way too long. I'm going to see if a friend or two wants to go wandering around. Get into trouble, get ourselves out of it. The usual."

She blinked, "You're leaving, now? You're not even going to stay until the new disciples come or enter into the tournament now that you've broken through?"

I shook my head. I didn't think I could beat Xiao Li's love interest unless I attacked her from ambush, and that wasn't possible in the tournament. That bitch was like Lina from DoTA 2, and I couldn't move fast enough to dodge her ult. Even going invisible wouldn't save me, as she could use indiscriminate flame attacks to find me and then lock on like a JDAM. I'd seen her do it.

She won every year, so I didn't see a reason to stay around. I would if Xiao Li wanted to come with me and yet still wanted to compete, but I had a feeling he might want to head out, too. Perhaps we could convince Xi Mengyao to come with us. She was like self-propelled artillery, so it would be a good match-up.

"There's no way I can beat Senior Sister Xi Mengyao, and I don't care too much about second place," I said honestly.

Li Hua chuckled and absently rubbed the back of her neck, looking embarrassed, "Ah... yeah... that would be hard, wouldn't it?"

But first, I had to go visit my Mistress. She already told me she'd let me run amock if I broke through, but I had to officially ask her permission to leave the school now. 

Secondly, I had to find Xiao Li. He had joined the Swordlight Peak four months ago when he had broken through and had been receiving personal instruction from the other Nascent Soul cultivator, who looked like a clone of Pai Mei from Kill Bill. He'd already told me he was hankering for some adventure.

Fuck... what was his name? Grand Elder Jingwei? I think. Every time I saw him, I just thought of Pai Mei, though.

I pulled out my Flying Nimbus and hopped on. I just needed my own Chi Chi to sit on my lap, and I'd be set.