Chapter 16

  ‘’The Everwood Continent can be roughly divided into the territories ruled by Monarch Silentborn, the Empire of Six Leaves, the twelve kingdoms and lastly the grand cage containing the Dreadgod: Silent King.’’

  Secretary switched voices from a dry old man to a younger and deeper one.

  ‘’On the subject of travel and- [Irrelevant information redacted] -So we can safely say that travel from Titan’s Grove to the closest neighboring great population center, Goldriver Serpents Den, in the average cloudship can take as little as, but most likely more than, seventeen days.’’

  Switching again, this time to an androgynous tone. ‘’The Miniature Rose moves roughly sixty two point oh zero one one six percent faster than the average cloudship during the day. However, in the absence of sunlight the ship slows down to only thirty point-’’

  ‘’Thank you Secretary!’’ Yin interjected, patting the literally bloated remnant containing his little spirit friend. Secretary had gone to the library to consume knowledge. Extremely literally. Some very expensive dream tablets were ruined before someone educated Secretary on how to use them properly.

  ‘’So we’re looking at maybe a month one way since we’re stopping to train and stretch our legs.’’ Duong mused, laying on his back on the cloud, head by the boundary that kept the wind from making the deck impossible to walk on. ‘’And you were going to go back, what was it.. In a hundred days?’’

  Yin nodded, continuing to pet Secretary on the head when the remnant grabbed his arm and pulled it back down when he stopped. He was almost certain remnants couldn’t physically feel touch in any way that mattered. ‘’Yeah, one hundred days to get to peak jade in my Falling Star core, then I’ll go back and get my remnant.’’

  ‘’That’s gonna be rough.’’ Duong sighed, and outside the ship Montai whizzed past in a blur, followed by a storm of knives. ‘’Recovering after training is going to take a lot longer out in the sticks where we don’t have cycling rooms personalized for us.’’

  ‘’Aaaughh geeeeze if only SOMEONE had thought to copy the gathering scripts. Sigh.’’ Yin said the word ‘sigh’ as obnoxiously as possible. ‘’No, not Secretary, I did, I mean Secretary did too but I spent a bunch of time learning how to write my own. We might need some sources of vital energy for life and venom, though.’’

  In a fresh, feminine tone Secretary chimed in. ‘’Secretary is working on designs for a base~’’ Yin was almost sure the twinkling stars that appeared when the remnant mimed a wink were not an illusion technique. ‘’I’m making everyone's rooms~’’

  ‘’I hope you’re keeping in mind that we’re gonna be the ones who build it all when we get there.’’ Duong said, dry as ever, watching Montai launch a gust of sharp wind back at Ten.

  ‘’[Discarding]’’ Secretary made a sound similar to a chugging computer. ‘’Secretary will make something simple enough for you to build.’’ Its voice was now a mixture of smoky baritone and husky whispers. ‘’Simple, simple.’’

  ‘’Thank you, Secretary.’’ Yin praised and gave a last pat. ‘’Looks like they’re just about done, I’ll go get Ti Li and we can go have our own session.’’ Outside Montai was pinned to the ground by dozens of knives, Ten looked worse for wear though, most of her clothes ripped and bloody in some spots.

  Walking into the crew quarters Yin found Ti Li laying in one of the bunks, so he simply grabbed her clothes and pulled her over his shoulder. Then he had to use his pure cloak and rushed out and leaped off the deck of the Miniature Rose before the little demon could flail hard enough to get free.

  The short drop took him down to the expansive clearing they had parked in for the day of training. It was a meadow that stretched far enough that a city could comfortably be placed inside without cutting down any of the trees that surrounded it, but Yin was still going to call it a clearing.

  Ti Li managed to slap Yin in the face and simultaneously knee his spine so he dropped her with complete disregard for her comfort. Ten looked like she would have had something to say about that if her lungs weren’t working overtime to keep her alive at the moment.

  Duong brought the cloudship down closer to the ground before jumping off.

  ‘’Alright, let's start with the easiest first. Cloak. You guys know the base cycling pattern to cloak right? Holy shit, you two..’’ Yin considered giving up before even starting when both his students failed to show even the most basic of knowledge. ‘’Wait, Duong I’ve seen you use pure madra.’’

  The pinched expression Duong had could have been anger, shame, constipation or anything else. ‘’That wasn’t really a cloak though, I just pushed madra out to keep the dangerous energy away.’’

  Secretary did a flip off the cloudship and landed head first in the soft grass.

  —

  With some help from the few dozen expert classes Secretary had in its repository they managed to coax both Ti Li and Duong to find the most basic of patterns for their skill to be built on.

  ‘’Ok, good. Now, don’t stop those patterns, and tell me what pure madra is to you. Duong first, Ti Li you can write it down if you’d like.’’ Yin absently watched his students, more interested in Secretary who was doing it’s own cycling. It was actually cultivating, somehow getting dream energy from the tiny group of sapients.

  ‘’For me it’s.. Purity. Pff, duh. I mean.. It’s a force that combats corruption, disease and.. something like that.’’ Duong started and stopped, face pinched into a grimace that would scare a crying child into silence.

  ‘’Silence.’’ Ti Li said quietly, speaking for the first time in so long that Yin couldn’t remember the last. ‘’Obscurity. Erasure.’’

  ‘’Big words.’’ Yin praised, and the little girl glared at him for it, ungrateful. ‘’Keep your view in mind for later, today we’re doing cloaks, so the aspect I want you to keep in mind is that pure madra is distilled human power. Run faster, jump higher, think faster and punch harder.’’

  There was a pause.

  ‘’Go. Go ahead, try to use your cloaks.’’ Yin was growing so incredibly tired of needing to give the go ahead for people to do things. Was it his fault? Was he phrasing things in a way that his sentences seemed incomplete?

  Duong got it down after only a few minutes, Ti Li currently just wasting madra with some coaching words from lecturers Secretary replayed for her. Yin’s taller friend got up and bounced around and ran in a wide circle faster than most athletes on earth would ever have been able to go. And he wasn’t even pushing it yet.

  ‘’Getting used to it?’’ Yin asked.

  Duong nodded, the motion long and deliberate, obviously not used to using the cloak yet. That the guy had managed to spend years in Titan’s Grove and not learn it before today was insane. But then again Duong didn’t seem to have Yin’s need for strength.

  ‘’Good, then we can move on to the absolute basics of fighting. Duong, I am going to hit you now.’’ Yin cloaked and, in a burst that left his legs sore for a few moments, closed the distance to Duong.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The larger boy staggered back, still maintaining his cloak but other than that didn’t react properly. Yin’s fist impacted the right side of his chest, knocking the air out of Duong.

  Yin felt an odd mix of pity and anger as Duong fell onto his butt and coughed, rubbing his chest with a fearful look. Even Yin hadn’t reacted like that the first time Yeng had decided to punch him.

  ‘’Get up. Now it’s your turn, punch me.’’ Yin spread his arms wide, inviting.

  ‘’Wait,’’ Duong coughed again as he got up, face set in an odd mask of nearly crying and nearly mad with rage. ‘’Shouldn’t you teach me how to block or punch first?’’

  ‘’That’s lesson number two. Now, hit me.’’

  ‘’But Yin-’’

  ‘’Hit me.’’

  ‘’I don’t thin-’’ Duong staggered back a few steps, cupping the side of his face that Yin had lightly hit. Yin stepped into his nonexistent guard and hit him in the gut again with no real force.

  It took four more hits before Duong finally raised his arm back, Yin stopped and let it land.

  He saw stars for a second, the blow had been much heavier than he’d expected. Duong huffed, his cloak had faded. ‘’Good.. I already hit you a few times so it’s still your turn.’’

  ‘’Stop this, Yin..’’ Duong pleaded, sounding like he might break down completely. Yin hadn’t thought his mentality was this weak.

  ‘’Dude, the purpose of this is to get you used to two extremely important things, okay? The most fundamental fucking thing to a martial artists.. How to hit. And how to keep going after getting hit.’’

  ‘’You could master every martial arts move there is, become the grandmaster of all trades. And it would do absolutely nothing for you if you’re not willing to hit someone. Worse, if you knew all that and crumbled the first time someone landed one on you. Duong, we’re not gonna have a dozen lords, ladies and a monarch to wipe our butts out here. The only person you can rely on is you.’’

  ‘’Now, hit me.’’

  —

  ‘’Now, hit me.’’

  Zeurel wasted no time and swung.

  Missing Yin's head without him even needing to move.

  Silence reigned, uncontested by all gathered to watch Yin teach his girlfriend the basics of fighting.

  ‘’Sh-Shut up!’’ Zeurels shoulders shivered and her head hung down.

  Yin brushed a hand through his now shorter hair. ‘’Ok, any time, throw your first punch whenever you’re ready.’’

  She tried a right straight like she’d once watched Margo do it. Getting into the right stance and even going as far as to slowly reach out and tap his cheek to measure the distance. Then she tried again.

  Stepping into it too far and missing his face by a hair's breadth this time.

  …

  ‘’Pff- Agh!’’ Yin’s laugh was cut short when she headbutted him.

  —

  Duong and Zeurel were doing slow motion sparring. Ti Li was getting instructions from Ten on how to punch and kick. And Montai had disappeared with Grandfather when no one was looking.

  Yin looked at Secretary to try to figure out what it was doing. But other than feeling it’s madra churn there was no telling what was going on in there.

  Nothing else to do, Yin decided to start working on completing his forged pure fists. And all there was to it was repetition.

  Cocking a hand back he cycled his madra through his torso and into the clenched fist. Then out into the air. From there he took control of the energy with his will and forced it into the same shape as his hand.

  Slowly the framework was made real, then he filled it out with more and more madra. Finally he punched, and with another effort of will, forced it forward. Launching it from his hand and away into the distance. He felt it leave his area of control and saw it start to degrade quickly after a few dozen meters.

  Close as he was to peak Jade the single forged fist had taken a bit less than a tenth of his pure madra to make. And it had also taken several seconds to do it. His goal was to make it stronger, more rooted in reality and faster to launch. And he had to reduce the time it took to make it to less than half a second at least.

  He kept going, switching hands and launching more and more attacks into the distance. Then his pure core was empty and his channels were ragged from the effort.

  Yin looked at the rest to see how they were doing and paused. Where Secretary had sat in the grass there was now a man in a suit from earth. The man switched into a woman, and then back to man again. It went on and on, eventually settling on a young blonde woman with her hair tied up in a messy bun.

  She nodded, seemingly satisfied and stood, the motion disrupting the illusion slightly, showing the pink remnant underneath. Secretary looked back at Yin, her illusory face sort of reminiscent of his own, smirking. ‘’This is the optimal shape of Secretary.’’ Her voice was that of a lifelong dock worker who smoked ten packs of cigarettes a day.

  ‘’You read my mind.’’ Yin stated, realizing what Secretary had been doing. Not cultivating to increase her madra pool, instead sampling their mental energies to see what they had in their heads. ‘’That’s terrifying, but I totally approve. Do you want to keep that voice or find one that better matches with your new appearance?’’

  Secretary started testing voices, no two the same, for several minutes. Then finally settled on an androgynous one that, in Yin’s opinion, fit her quite well.

  ‘’Well, that’s settled, so what are you planning on doing from here on?’’ Yin asked, starting to cycle his Falling Star path, reading himself for that training.

  Secretary sat perfectly still for a moment and then dropped the illusion, Yin could feel her madra was running low. ‘’Become more powerful Secretary.’’ She spoke with absolute conviction.

  Yin nodded, totally understanding. ‘’Hey wait. Do you have any dream gathering scripts? I don’t think I know any of those characters.’’

  Secretary made the chugging noise again. ‘’Secretary knows forty eight variations. Forty four will be viable for Secretary’s purposes. [Refining]. Secretary has reduced options down to six. Conditions at destination will decide which will be used.’’ The blank pink remnant face turned to Yin expectantly.

  Obliging Yin patted her head.

  —

  His Falling Star path was energy in motion. Energy that would endlessly accelerate until something stood in its path, at which point that energy would annihilate it. Because that was Yin’s view on his path, the madra itself almost categorically refused to be forged.

  For some time now he’d been working on his willpower by doing the breathing technique he’d learned from That Guy. And with all those gains in mental strength he was able to wrangle his madra into moving slightly slower, and not much else.

  So since he couldn’t do forging he’d simply have to move on to casting and ruling.

  Both of which he’d failed to adequately perform for a long time already.

  Light from the sun, force from the entire moving world around him and fire from a little campfire he’d started. The energies were all around him, and with his willpower he could reach out and resonate with them thanks to the madra in his soul.

  He could coax them, almost lure them to coalesce over his hands, and there merge into his Falling Star path. Madra and vital energy met and multiplied, energy grew stronger and more fierce.

  It took all of Yin’s mental strength to keep a loose orb the size of a tennis ball contained over his two cupped hands. Seconds turned into minutes, his channels and willpower straining to the breaking point. And eventually he was forced to let go.

  It all radiated out, blowing his hair back and making his skin feel a little hot.

  Yin wasn’t sure what he was missing, more willpower? Stronger cultivation? Script circles?

  ‘’Script circles..’’ He muttered to himself, turning and heading back to the cloudship. The answer was probably all three combined, but something about script circles..

  Then he remembered. That Abidan. The one who made a formation that covered continents, that shot a blast so massive her enemies hadn’t even been able to respond.

  Script circles.

  Yin grinned, and Ti Li ran into the crew quarters as soon as she saw his expression. He’d have to work with Secretary on it, it would be complex and probably hard to pull out in a real fight, but it would be so worth it.

  The complete version of Ramiel.

  Yin paused and looked at Duong and then Ti Li in the crew quarters. ‘’You guys, if you still have pure madra left, forge it into scales for Secretary please.’’