Book 2, Chapter 12 – World's Most Stressed-Out Cat Gets To Deal With More Of Whatever This Is (Patreon)

“He does have an eye for the interesting ones, doesn’t he?”

-Personal notes of Grandmaster Errath, vocally recorded.

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The sounds are a fucking nightmare on her nerves.

Maen can’t help but feel like this is the worst, most shittiest, most terrible town in the entire third ring. There might be someplace infested with mind-control worms or an active case of flaming dysentery that tops it for sheer terribleness, but honestly, it’s incredibly difficult to imagine anyplace she’d rather be less than she is now.

And to make it even more depressing, they’re really trying.

More than once, they’ve thrown a feast or festival, really going all out to celebrate the arrival of the Empire’s chosen in this little backwater corner. A shrine has been set up in the courtyard where the Imperial Guards dropped off their enchanted transport, and every day there are fresh pastries, flowers, and sticks of incense decorating it. The sect around which the town has been built is hardly impressive compared to the Purple Flame Burning Lotus Sect, but for being the only powerful force in weeks of travel by conventional methods, it stands proud. The Beastly Flame Hunters Sect has made sure to do everything possible to accommodate their incoming visitors, giving Taurus and his “pets” full access to their cultivation chambers and the empty manses of absent core disciples. 

Everywhere she goes, she sees a place that stands against the flowing tides of the wilds, and who seem genuinely pleased at being visited. 

She can’t help but shudder at that. 

From the side-streets of town, she makes her way to one of the observation arrays that Taurus and his apprentice created. Yun Ka spent most of the first two days on-site making sure she had something set up that they could use, bringing materials out of the spatially-warped carriage that brought them here and cutting down a piece of the woods all around. 

Another thing that got them applause and praise. Clearly, lumber is an important commodity to such an out-of-the-way place, but the way that plants can encroach up to and into the nearby farmlands makes it clear that their harvests are tricky things. Suddenly having a few extra tons of wood to trade with or use, as well as cleared territory all around their borders, didn’t exactly diminish the number of sacrifices offered at shrines being set up all around the village edges.

She sighs, still carrying the buckets of water she originally tasked herself with retrieving. She knows she’s being uncharitable, ungrateful, even bitter, but it’s hard to avoid. She grew up in a place far more provincial than this town, made of thatch and luck rather than bricks and official sect protections. The fact that it’s so far from proper highways or defenses isn’t the village or the sect’s fault (probably), and they seem to be doing the best they can with what they have.

And she can smell the undercurrent. She wouldn’t have a few weeks ago, before her rescuer and captor helped teach her, but now she can detect what her instincts are trying to tell her. Pleased or not, there is still a half-dozen new cultivators and several magically armored soldiers standing in their city, and they must be aware of how little they could do to protect themselves if things turned sour. 

Discipline and common sense have kept things calm so far, luckily. The military guard they have, and of course the members of the Altered Cultivation Division, all seem to either not care or be much too disciplined to be harassing the townsfolk, something Maen is grateful for.

Well. Except Kaena. They spend, like, all their time harassing the sect’s elders and the town’s chief and officials and just about anyone important at all, actually. In their case, though, it’s the kind of harassment some people pay for, and would certainly pay to watch, the androgynous and gorgeous figure dancing between and very much confusing a pretty solid number of the town’s more relevant members. Maen isn’t sure if they’re trying to get the town to fight over their attention or convince its residents to start an orgy the minute the Division leaves. It might be that they don’t much care which the village chooses.

Maen walks into the stone chamber surrounding the detection arrays, doing her best to be very, very careful of the runic formations all around and the magics casually strewn about.

The stone was clearly raised through cultivation, summoned or formed wholesale out of stone and without so much as a seam to say otherwise. The sect’s contribution; the Beastly Flame Hunters Sect was more than eager to assist in providing “security” for the esteemed cultivator’s needs, which Taurus didn’t seem inclined to mind.

The interior, however, has been kept purely for the use of the runemaster and his apprentice. Apparently, you can store powdered Jade in amber, and when the resulting substance is put into tubes and piping, it acts as a directed Qi conductor. Yun Ka tried to explain that there’s a ton of downsides to the convenience, that it’s a simplistic system, that better materials or proper array-work would negate any advantage, but ultimately, Maen just needs to know that there’s tubes full of goop more valuable than the life savings of her entire family strewn about the floor, and she should absolutely not be stepping on, tripping over, or spilling water on any of them.

Speaking of a lack of cleanliness or safety regulations, she perks up as she sees the aforementioned scientist staring down at a podium.

“Honored Yun Ka, I’ve got the water you requested.” She balances the buckets carefully on her shoulders as she does a light bow.

Yun Ka looks up from the podium, a bit startled. “Ah,” she replies. “Hello, junior cultivator Maen Fa. If it might assist you, you do not need to use honorifics when addressing me outside of a political interaction. You can if you want to. I don’t mind. You can just call me Yun Ka. If you’re more comfortable with it.”

Maen smiles. She can’t help it. In spite of some of her mannerisms, Yun Ka tends to be surprisingly easy to talk to. She’s direct, albeit deeply awkward, but it’s nice to have someone who seems sincere in everything she says, especially when amongst strangers. Even after weeks, she’d still consider Yun Ka more stranger than friend, but she’s also the only one of the Division of Altered Cultivation that Maen feels even somewhat comfortable around. 

Mmh. She tries not to think too hard on Raika. It makes her remember when she last saw her.

“I appreciate your consideration, Yun Ka,” Maen replies, smiling at the fact they’ve had almost this exact exchange three times now, the equation repeating with new variables. “I need to deposit the water, but I’ll be back in a moment. Will you be here?”

Yun Ka nods, her eyes locked to the glowing symbols floating on the podium in front of her. “That is most likely. I’m getting some fascinating readings. I have to keep an eye on them.”

Maen nods, leaving the room over some more discarded arcane mechanisms to step into one of the side-chambers of the stone house built for them. It doesn’t take her long to finish her task; one of the many machines they took out of the carriage and into the building is a sort of metal tank or block, hollow on the inside, which apparently (according to Yun Ka, anyways) cleans and purifies any liquids put into it. For now, they’re using it for extra clean water, for rituals, drinking, and even bathing, if someone fills it enough.

Maen is barely in the Qi-Gathering Realm of cultivation, no better than a determined villager might be. She doesn’t have anything special to herself as far as she can tell. She’s surrounded by strangers, and Raika is– 

Maen has nothing to do. So, like a good servant, she fills the water.

When done, she hops back into the main room. The cultivator that summoned the stone structure gave it a domed ceiling and with a hole at its apex, through which several tubes and pipes of Qi-conducting alchemy squiggle up the walls towards. There are several brass, gold and silver rods extended from a central mechanism that emerge from the hole out into the night air, connected to the podium that Yun Ka is currently staring at intently. If Maen focuses, she can hear them vibrating ever so slightly, like wind chimes.

She stands there, a bit awkwardly. Tries to speak, then pauses, more than once.

“What can I help you with, Maen Fa?” Yun Ka asks, still not looking away from the podium.

“Just Maen is fine,” she replies quickly. “I was wondering if there’d been any news? On Raika?”

Yun Ka hums, turning her gaze at Maen for just a moment. Then she looks back down, starting to play with some of the symbols on the array in front of her. Connected as it is to the mechanism in the roof and the swirling, vein-like diagrams and arrays carved into the walls all around, it’s made of the same stone as the rest of the building, with the exception of its peak. Atop it is a piece of black material where small grains of white sand dance and shift in accordance to the symbols and touched or created by Yun Ka, who taps at them and emits slight waves of her Qi. It’s always disconcerting; with the most minimal use of her Qi, the whole panel shifts, sand and lights scurrying into new shapes and words and diagrams. Then again, Yun Ka using her Qi is always a bit weird, and Maen has no idea why. Something about the smell? Or just a vague feeling?

“Since you last asked six hours ago,” Yun Ka says, her voice matter of fact and seemingly free of judgment, “there’s been minimal updates. Last time we checked, there seemed to be four rather drastic Qi signatures heading towards her. Peak Foundational Realm and one Low Core Formation Realm equivalents, according to the sensory arrays, but without higher-quality work I am unable to determine the accuracy of the Beast measurements or their precise locations. Two of those signatures have since experienced flare-ups and then faded, indicating death or cataclysmic injury. However she is managing to confront them, she seems to have continued success, while maintaining a steady trail northwards.”

“So she’s alright? Still?”

“As previously stated, I cannot determine her well-being beyond general survival. The information received on her physical state is well outside normal parameters, and I do not have a proper data-set to compare it to. However she is regaining or evolving her capabilities is new to me. Once we return to the second ring and Central, we’ll be able to properly analyze the data in detail.”

“But she’s–”

“Beyond her status as crippled and voided of her primary spiritual organs, she’s still providing very distinctive readings. She’s fighting well above the predicted metrics, and ahead of nearly all projections. Her original state as a Core Formation Realm cultivator has been thoroughly transformed by her physical disabilities and multiple years as a bottom-tier spiritual organism, adding additional difficulty to determining what is a left-over impact of her original cultivation and what is a new and more unique format. How and why she’s attracting Spirit Beasts is an added complication. It’s all quite wonderful to research.”

Maen shudders. “Not so wonderful up close. With respect, senior.”

Yun Ka blinks, surprised at the comment. A moment later, she makes a little frown, seemingly at herself, and then turns to look at Maen directly. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to minimize the events of your recent retreat.”

Maen does not like to think about that day. Almost a week ago, but fresh.

When Taran brought her back she’d been borderline catatonic from screaming the whole way back. He seemed to have switched to that other personality at some point in the journey, going from silent and generally raspy to “Hao Kai’s” gentle baritone. He spent most of their blind run babbling meaninglessly and chatting to her about anything that would cross their mind, keeping her distracted by the sound of his voice and whatever inane topic he wandered through.

It helped. Only so much it could do, though.

The first day was the worst. She’d been left in a bed, shivering, terrified, filthy, but still had managed to listen in to what was happening. Concern at first, that the arrays and formations being set up were disrupting natural flows too much, that the resources they brought attracted too much attention from local Spirit Beasts. Then fear of a potential beast tide, a wave of transformed bodies capable of wiping whole cities off of the map.

Then, orders from above; Senior Researcher Boriah’s voice, echoing through the sect’s tall ceilings, cool and collected. 

Not a beast tide. Not a miscalculation in their supplies. Whatever had occurred, it seemed to be a response to an unknown factor. When pushed, attributed to the nature of his “latest acquisition”. Orders, then, to monitor the situation, but not interfere unless she tried to retreat to the village.

It wasn’t all bad, of course. She processed that reality over the course of the next few days.

She’d learned a technique. Something instinctive. The ability to hide. 

She’d learned that Raika was strange enough to surprise even people like the Division of Altered Cultivation.

Above all else, she learned that these people couldn’t be trusted.

Taurus, she’d known. But the way Yun Ka had responded… Taran, or Hao Kai, had at least had the common decency to look frustrated, to protest, however lightly. There’d seemed to be an internal struggle, a strange twitching, before the main, rasping voice of Taran took over and confirmed things, a sour look on his face. But Yun Ka had just… nodded. And moved on.

But since then, she had been monitoring. And when Maen hides again, like Raika told her to, it gets easier to sneak looks over her shoulder in between questions. 

It takes effort. Best underdone in a specific mindset. She has to dig down in herself, into something primal and instinctual, picturing herself as something small and hard to notice and quiet. It gets easier as her cultivation progresses, growing like she broke through a blockage and filling the shape of the technique when called.

She breathes out. It’s fine. She’s here. She can focus.

“No apologies necessary,” she assures Yun Ka, who doesn’t seem to have registered the pause. “I lived, and I progress, right? I just… it’s been almost a week, as of today. Don’t you think we should… I don’t know, check on her? Find a way to get in contact?”

Yun Ka shrugs. “Senior Researcher Taurus Boriah has already assured that if it escalates past an acceptable threshold, he will intercept and assist. I trust in his judgment.”

“Can… can I watch, then?” Maen asks. “If you’re not too busy? See what’s happening?”

Yun Ka shrugs. There’s a long, drawn out moment of silence, but… “Alright. I believe that a pause in recordings of other readings won’t be detrimental for a few moments. One moment, please.” She tilts her head to one side, ear coming into contact with a piece of her crown-contraption so full of devices and lenses, touching a blueish stone held there. “Kaena?” she says. “On request, I am initiating a more direct watch on our newest subject. It will be actively ongoing as of now, for the next twenty minutes.”

Maen tilts her head, looking at her. “Why… why summon Kaena?” she asks.

Yun Ka blinks, as if the answer should be obvious. “Because they asked me to,” she replies.

Maen does a blink of her own. She… hadn’t expected that.

Less than a second later, the gorgeous fox of a cultivator flounces into the room, practically skipping. “I heard the good news!” they say, eyes sparkling. “Thank goodness someone has come to their senses, it’s about time that big bully- oh! Hello Maen! Excellent, I was just about to call if you weren’t here.”

Maen wonders just how much of that statement is performative. Could a cultivator so much more experienced than she really not notice Maen’s Qi while approaching?

Doesn’t matter. Just a reminder.

Maen bows graciously. “Thank you, senior sibling,” she says. “It was on my request, I’m just happy that honored Yun Ka has indulged me.”

“Oh nonsense,” Kaena replies, “You should know by now that-- ”

“Quiet!” Yun Ka yells abruptly, interrupting the two of them. Her eyes are wide, showing emotion in a way that Maen has never seen from her. “Kaena, I need you to bind your Qi if you’re in the room, I will stand no fluctuations! Something’s happening, and I need absolute clarity.”

The panic in the academic’s voice shuts everything else up quickly. Maen can’t speak for Kaena, but it’s the loudest she’s ever heard Yun Ka speak, and she steps back and to the side to get out of Kaena’s way and still find an angle to look at the podium. It’s no use, though– she can’t make sense of the squiggles and shapes on it, though she does catch sight of the two blinking, rapidly shifting dots at the center of the mess. 

“What is it? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know!” Yun Ka says with a breathless smile. “Patterns are being recorded but they don’t match any pre-recorded comparisons! Similarities, but the distinctions are– It’s a collapse, or an explosion of some kind, but it tracks as the subject still, it’s like they just-”

And then the screen briefly fizzles, as if distracted or suddenly disoriented, before sharpening to a new level of clarity upon reforming an instant later.

“Senior Researcher Boriah is on site,” Yun Ka says as Maen practically clutches at her, avoiding the contact only just as the gadget-clad figure flinches away seemingly on instinct. “I have his signature, but the other two- one of them is gone, I think, but I can’t tell. Is it an entirely new signature? The tracker is still active, but-”

And then the screen fritzes again, and there is a thunderous sound at the open end of the room they’re in. The screen goes blank, but from the doorway to the exterior, a wave of something washes past Maen, a sickly, feverish heat tasting of Qi in shapes she can’t recognize making her stagger backwards. 

Then, a furred hand reaches through the stone like it’s made of sand, expanding the entrance dramatically to reveal what’s on the other side. Even as it shatters, the formations inscribed on it come to life instead of breaking, forcing the stone to grow in a way that almost seems organic to fit a new shape. 

“Yun Ka,” rumbles a familiar, horrifying voice. “Contact the soldiers. Get another room equipped. I want every bit of sensory equipment we have on this, now.”

Maen, despite his presence, despite the weight of the energy she exudes, tries to step forward. The pressure ramps up the closer she gets, like he’s exercising his power on the world, like he’s using his Qi pressure like a blanket, crushed around where he’s standing. She can see him through the hole, robes covered in blood, something that looks like burns on one of his hands, and then she looks past them, knees trembling and eyes watering from the intensity, and sees what he has brought.

Despite herself, even as she vomits, there is a part inside her that simply nods. Yep, says the voice as she tries to hold her hair back. Somehow, this tracks.