The Inheritance.
By Arne, Dec. 2025.
CHAPTER 1 - Rude Awakening.
Sandra Harker lasted eight years. Eight years of wheezing, withering limbs and numbing hands. Following her death in 1961 she quite unexpectedly met a god. When it reincarnated her into the body of another young woman dying from lung failure, she didn't even have time to hurl an insult before she found herself back in a bed.
So here she was, suddenly looking up at an unfamiliar stone roof but feeling the same familiar wheeze. Panicking. Would she keep dying like this? Had the god robbed her of a final release? Why was she being punished? She had never hurt anyone. She had been kind even to an ant trapped in her hospital room.
Her breathing quickened to a staccato as she became one with the new body, but with each forced breath she seemed to leave some part of her old self in the distance. The god was taking something from her—not her memories, but- but what?
She held onto something—only a little of it left. In her confusion she almost failed to notice her breathing settling to become eerily measured. That was strange.
She narrowed her eyes and frowned, only then discovering that something sat plastered against her forehead. She threw it off. It was just a strange sleep mask. She focused on the breathing. It wasn't so bad now that she was calm, but the wrap of coarse old bed sheets around her body failed to suppress the lingering shivers of a cold sweat. She appeared to had just come out of a fever. And had someone just been talking? She looked around, noticing the strangeness of the small room she was in.
The walls had been precisely built from large green stone bricks, but the floor was more of an uneven mishmash of grey slabs. To the right of her bed stood two vacant ones, old and rickety. Was this some kind of dormitory, or could it be an orphanage or a boarding school for the poor? It better not be a nunnery or monastery, or worse—a creepy prisoner dungeon.
—"Hey. Hurry and get up." a voice said.
Sandra hastily sat up, the bed creaking the way she expected her body to. She turned to her left just in time to see a worn grey robe slide over the head of a woman with her back still turned.
—"Lazy idiot." the unfamiliar woman muttered as her arms struggled blindly to find sleeves.
Her enviable figure felt out of place, like an extra for a medieval peasant that was a little too shapely to be convincing. She wore a peculiar tank top cut halfway down her ribs. It had the natural off-white colour of cotton, and an occult symbol embroidered on the back.
Made out of the same half-bleached fabric, a tattered panty sat carelessly stretched across the woman's butt crack, ill-fitting and wrinkled into a low triangle. The woman seemed oblivious to this fact and soon the robe covered the spectacle.
Sandra froze for a while, only snapping out of it when the woman slammed a crude wooden closet shut and turned, showing a nasty judgmental scowl. She had an average looking face, no hint of makeup, and curly dark brown hair that wasn't especially tidy. All taken together, Sandra's growing notion that this was a primitive place cemented.
—"The big lady is really going to smack us all if you continue to dawdle. Now get up!"
She pulled Sandra's bed sheets off and threw them to the floor, huffed, and stomped off towards a doorless doorway. She was seemingly unaware of Sandra's severe medical condition.
—"I'm not gonna make excuses for you anymore." she hissed, her head turning to deliver a vicious glare.
Then she left, and Sandra listened as the pitter patter of feet faded into silence.
Wanting her bed sheets back, Sandra got up, wobbled and froze wide-eyed as her bare feet hit the cold stone floor. She had just stood up; her body seemed strong, despite the disease and fading fever.
She looked down at her moderate chest and saw the occult symbol on the tank top. It was just three lines but with some imagination they could be interpreted as a stylized upside down sword stabbing a sun.
Further down she saw the low triangular panty, two gaps flanking the subtle press of her bush. Her body seemed a bit malnourished and pale, and she wasn't too pleased about the undergarments, but she could stand—walk! After making a playful squat and a few arm swings, she started wheezing though and had to sit down with her head between her knees.
Her dark hair fell down, hanging long and straight. She noticed worrying hints of grey and hoped it was due to stress rather then age.
Speaking of stress, judging by the tone of the woman, trouble really would come knocking if she lingered. She got to the closet and found a grey robe waiting for her, and very gingerly put it on. It also had the strange symbol on it, but was otherwise quite featureless. Now... where was she going? Maybe she could find a washing room, or a place to eat breakfast?
She cautiously left the bedroom and started wandering barefoot through seemingly purposeless twisty stone corridors that didn't give her a sense of place or context. There were no torches or lanterns, nor windows, and the shadows were so diffuse she couldn't even tell where the light was coming from. Magic? All put together, she was now sure she was not even in Earth's past but somewhere else, and a vague feeling of surreal dread crept up on her.
Her mind had once been exceptional—she definitely wouldn't lose her way in a spooky maze, but now she was too much in a daze from the willfull exhaustion. After twenty minutes of aimless meandering she was wheezing. Even so she couldn't help but to keep moving—it had been so long since she had last been able to.
The air smelled like moss and was a little thin, but perhaps that was just her failing lungs acting up.
Turning one of the many corners she came upon a dead end and thought to turn back, but then she noticed the first wall ornament she had seen thus far. It was a small polished copper shield, just... sitting there. More than a little curious about her new appearance she momentarily paused to observe her reflection. It frowned back at her in response. She had good reason to be sullen, but her pale and downturned lips made the expression seem permanent. Fighting it she tried a smile, and immediately dropped it, hiding her sharp canines. Total psychopath smile. Her frown deepened.
The rest of her face was a bit nondescript, except for the tiny butterfly-shaped beauty mark that sat perched on a wrinkle of her glabella. It was one of those things which would make her instantly recognisable in a crime drama. "Do you remember what the murderer looked like Ms Dobson?" "Well, I don't know, but there was a sort of mark, right... here. And she wore the most maniacal grin..."
The thought reminded Sandra that someone might eventually put a wanted poster with her mug on it, and she felt the urge to leave this place entirely.
Occasionally she passed by other grey robed women who either walked hurriedly with their heads lowered or were busy with some chore. Their hair really wasn't much better either, and she saw no cherry lips, nor subtle shades of blue on fluttering eyes. Sandra wasn't much for that sort of thing, but it was strange to see people so... raw.
Not yet wanting to expose her complete ignorance by trying to start a conversation, she instead looked for a group of these dungeon sisters to eavesdrop on—with little luck.
And as she stubbornly progressed, the design of the grey robes worn changed into something that almost appeared fashionable next to the plain and crude thing Sandra wore. The fancy sisters wearing them walked with their chins high, and when they saw Sandra they even sneered and shooed at her as if she was in a place far above her station. It didn't at all seem like a good idea to approach them.
Were there no nice people here?
The worry in her heart just grew as she moved on. Sporadic banners and stone reliefs now decorated the green stone walls. People here might be even more uppity. She was going to turn back when her nose picked up something that made her belly rumble—a cafeteria. Peeking in through an arch she saw that it was full of women in fine black uniform robes.
From a fashion standpoint these outfits were a wee bit strange, Sandra thought. Spooky cult boarding school—that's what it looked like.
They wore a pleated A-line dress that Sandra found surprisingly modern, but it also had a sinister hood and long sleeves which might hide daggers. The near black fabric had some purple and gold embroideries which slightly differed, perhaps being indicative of rank. Exposed below the pleated A-line skirt were tall black boots, two rows of jagged black teeth running along the shin bone. Some of the women carried melee weapons at their hips, or had left a staff leaning against their dining table.
With everyone appearing to be in the same age bracket, Sandra more and more felt that this was indeed a university or boarding school for the occult. Though some of the women had a bit of character and even a few scars, everyone looked surprisingly healthy and well proportioned.
These high class women were being served by the high ranked grey robes. There was a system with maid servants? Perhaps this place had a caste system. Sandra sighed. Unfortunately it really seemed like she couldn't just step in and take a seat. However, if there was a kitchen nearby she might be able to snatch something.
As she headed down a promising corridor she was pushed aside by a black robe taking long steps. Her robe- well, uniform was different with dangling flaps on the front and back, exposing a pair of dangerous legs. Looking up, Sandra saw that they belonged to a stern looking beauty with long black silky hair. She was angrily tugging two stumbling younger grey robes by their ears, giving off the aura of a dominatrix.
—"We didn't mean to! We didn't mean to!" they whined.
—"Shut up and take your twenty or I'll tell the head mistress."
—"But- but-"
—"Thirty."
They grew silent.
The black robe pulled them into a room. Sandra caught up just as a red wooden door slammed shut. Footsteps pressed behind her so she didn't stay to eavesdrop. The corridor turned into a staircase leading up, but ended in a locked black iron door, trapping her in a dead end. While the people behind her were probably going to open it, it might be off limit to grey robes. Spotting a broom leaning next to the door she just picked it up and started sweeping, casting an eye on her pursuers.
—"...unbelievable. Looks like The Black Rose of Cairn has this tournament in the bag. I wonder what kind of pills she ate to reach power level 5 so quickly?"
—"I heard from the head mistress that a bottle of low grade marrow cleansing pills was won in an auction and are being distributed."
—"Wish I got some..."
The two black robes grew silent as they passed her and faced the door. Sandra could only see their backs and hear the clinking of keys. The door rumbled and creaked as it swung, almost as if part of a vault with Sandra trapped inside. She felt like a prisoner or slave, because before the door closed, one of the black robes turned and looked wearily at Sandra as if she was a lowly but sneaky rat looking to escape.
Perhaps this door was a way out of this place then? Could she steal a key or pick the lock? She patted her clothes but didn't even find a pocket. Not that she expected to find a paperclip or know how to pick a lock. Sighing she turned back, taking the broom with her just in case she needed to look busy.
On her way she heard a smacking sound as she passed the red door, and faint voices.
—"It's thirty! Yeah, it's thirty!"
—"That's fifteen each you idiots. Can't you count? Also, didn't I tell you two to shut up?"
Sandra winced. Thirty? Thirty what? The smacking resumed. Not eavesdropping! Not eavesdropping! She instinctively covered her butt. She had to escape from this weirdo place—it was some kind of dominatrix lair!
Breathing heavily she hurried on. She was finally about to faint from the pressure. The depraved god, her disease, the strange corridors, the stalking black robes... it was too much even for her. Her vision narrowed into a tunnel then a faint spot. She had to hunch over and feel her way along the walls with hands that had turned a prickly numb. She lost her sight as her flailing hands knocked a door open, then she fainted.
CHAPTER 2 - A Fistful of Panties.
She came to with her head rested face down in a soft pillow that smelled freshly washed. Was she back in her hospital bed? Had it all been a dream?
—"Ah, you're awake? I was a little worried you might be dead."
Sandra twisted her head out of the pillow. Looking up she saw a black robed woman standing at a steaming wash basin, a soft glow lighting her angelic face. However, the scene was ruined when she pulled up a pair of the skimpy triangular panties, dashed them into shape and carefully clipped them next to others on a drying line. Around her, dry and neatly stacked on shelves were even more panties.
Sandra groaned about her situation and buried her face back in the comfy pillow, breathing heavily through her squished nose. She deeply regretted it a minute later when she discovered that the comfy pillow too was a pile of panties. She gasped and sat up on her knees, speechless. If there was a god—which there was—it was surely taunting her. It had said she might get a great opportunity, but if this was it she didn't want it.
—"Sorry about that, but the stone floor is a bit wobbly here." the mystery woman said. "And these are all clean, if you need a change."
She returned to hanging panties up, seemingly having an endless supply in the basin. The basin stood balanced on a single peg, like a spinning top. Was it also a centrifuge with a built in heater? The room really was rather hot. Just like with the light Sandra couldn't tell where the heat came from—the basin didn't have a fire under it but she suspected it might be the source.
A strip of paper was stuck to the cauldron. Sandra recognized it as a fulu using in Chinese exorcism rituals. It had the characters for the local equivalent of detergentem written on it, but with extra spooky lines. If it was a spell then it seemed to be doing an excellent job.
Up under the roof a number of busy drying lines sat on rails. When the woman filled one up she slid it back and pulled up an empty one. With so many servant girl panties—over fifteen hundred by Sandra's quick estimate—the chances of this woman knowing her were slim and she took the plunge.
—"Excuse me, I'm new here and haven't quite gotten oriented yet, can you help me?"
The woman frowned.
—"With what? Weren't you assigned a handler? Which section are you from?"
—"No, there was a mistake and I came in separately."
Sandra got nervous about the series of questions and tried going on the offensive.
—"Anyways, why is someone with your status doing laundry?"
The black robed woman shook another pair of panties into shape and huffed, staring blankly through them for a while.
—"Got demoted. Some sisters set me up." she said, her tamper flaring as she hung the panties up a bit askew, then got busy with her work. "You should get going."
No no no, this was her only semi-friendly contact so far. She needed to think of something!
—"Hum, I can help you stack. I have nowhere else to be anyways."
When her new potential friend just nodded at a packed clothing line in the back, Sandra got up, her knees popping awkwardly and she gave an embarrassed smile.
Then she couldn't think of a way to start up a new conversation and spent half an hour in silence, neatly stacking warm dry panties. Her panty count had been quite wrong, not because she was bad at estimations—she had once won a price guessing bowled candies—but because a servant appeared to drop off two large baskets of used panties just as they finished emptying the washing thing. This caused her companion to sigh.
—"How large is this place anyways? How many people live here?" Sandra asked.
—"The sect has grown quite a bit recently. 12000 disciples, give or take."
—"Wow, but, uh, I was thinking about... these." Sandra said, flicking a pair of panties. "These are just for the servants right?"
—"Oh, this is just for lair six. Probably 90000 servant girls all lairs combined. 4000 each? Not really sure. I was sentenced to wash a million of these damned servant panties, then I can finally get my rank token back."
—"Holy macaroni!" Sandra exclaimed after some thought.
—"Huh? Macaroni? Is that a land god from out in the boonies or something?"
—"No, I just did some math in my head. It's gotta be around 1500 per work day, so this will take you 666 days.... right?"
The black robed woman finally looked a bit amused.
—"Since when were servants that good at math? Noble background?"
Sandra gave a wry smile, and a rumbling belly gave her a reason to shift the topic.
—"I... think I'm a little hungry."
Hearing this, the woman's smile turned into confusion.
—"Why don't you just source?"
Sandra froze. Source? Find a food source?
—"Source. You don't know how to source? They didn't teach you anything?" the woman said a little vexed.
—"I'm afraid not. I saw a cafeteria. It smelled great."
—"That's spirit food for disciples. Servants don't get to refine expensive spirit food. They must source after becoming a sect servant. It's cheaper than arranging food for mortals. Do you know how much food 90000 servants would need daily? This place doesn't even have the infrastructure for that sort of thing."
Sandra was so confused. And hungry.
—"Alright, I'll teach you the technique. Normally I'm not allowed but it's such a standard low level technique anyways."
She walked up to Sandra and put her finger against her forehead. Sandra felt a zap and got a terrible headache, falling on her butt. The woman got talkative and leaned in.
—"I'll tell you a secret though. While sourcing keeps you young and healthy, the price is a greatly reduced lifespan since part of the energy comes from your soul. But, well, many mortals don't make it to 40 or 50 anyways."
She thought for a while, perhaps finding her comment rather harsh.
—"...if you can, it's best to try and become a disciple so you can refine spirit food. What was your core test result? Hum... Oh. It's not good right? Then you'll need a small miracle I'm afraid. No one would waste a dragon scale on a lowly servant."
—"...but, uh, you'll never know, right?" she added realizing that she had been too harsh again..
Sandra only half listened as her head was swimming.
After recovering from the zap she felt as if she had learned a new skill, like suddenly being able to wiggle the ears. She started pulling, or sourcing as it was called. It felt like taking a breath of fresh air, and the pit of hunger in her stomach filled up. It felt so good she let out a long aaah.
—"There you go. Better now? Super easy to use, right?"
Sandra just nodded. It felt different from eating. Too brief. She'd still like to eat a yummy cake, but she was no longer physically hungry. In the long run this sourcing technique might feel rather flat she supposed, but even so...
—"Despite its drawbacks, this technique could totally eradicate starvation, right? Why keep it a secret?" she asked, looking thoughtful as she got up, feeling energetic.
—"It could and it has. Don't even need a core to use it. But like all cultivation techniques it also reduces fertility in both sexes. Good for women who don't like the cramps—but think about it... where do cultivators come from? Mortals. According to an old story, someone once spread sourcing to an island struck by a famine and its population dropped to zero within a century, so-"
The woman was interrupted when two black robed disciples peeked in, their eyes sparkling with glee. One was itty bitty with a glossy black bobcut, and the other tall and voluptuous, the sides of her head shaved, leaving only a peculiar red side bang.
—"Oh, wow, look at this pervert enjoying herself. What a great opportunity that fell in her lap. Do you think she's close to a breakthrough in her washing technique?"
—"Uhum, giving up the tournament for this was truly a sage choice."
They laughed and disappeared as soon as they had delivered their clearly premeditated lines.
Sandra watched her companion thrust air out her nose like an angry bull.
—"...Who were those two?"
—"The ones who set me up. Needed me out of the way for this year's tournament." she replied, breathing out.
—"Well, you're still young, right? Try next year?"
—"Yeah I'm only 49, but 50 will be too old for next year's junior tournament. With my time wasted here... well, I'm losing a lot of opportunities. 49 is the best age to get a good place."
Sandra was stunned. Only 49? Only? Junior? Was this a spirit food aging thing? Thinking about it, now Sandra couldn't really guess how old her new body was, and she might have to add her old age on top of it. She could very well be the same age as the woman, or even older.
The woman softly sighed and continued.
—"Could be much worse though. Some are sent to the howling pit. Get locked in the dungeon of the dead, or exiled to the valley of sorrows. Or just wantonly crippled or killed on the spot. And it's not like I stood a chance of winning that tournament with my talent."
The punishment was indeed more weird than horrible. Sandra thought for a while, her mind all over the place.
—"Wait, who washes all of the tops?"
CHAPTER 3 - Finding a New Place.
The woman's name was Shao and she had been assigned a quarter near the washing room, which they now shared. Shao had long been stripped of her personal servants, so she covertly took Sandra in and they developed a vague friendship as weeks passed by.
Sandra didn't know what her name had been here so she had given Shao her Earth name, which Shao wrote out as Kzandrah in the local syllabic language. Sandra found that she was vaguely familiar with the glyphs, but it seemed like rudimentary knowledge of the language was the only part of her predecessor's memory that she got to keep. On Earth she had been something of a polyglot and soon she was able to read the sect's basic primer from cover to cover. Unfortunately it didn't give out any of these mysterious techniques, and her predecessor's progress had apparently been wiped. She only got to keep the damned lungs.
Sandra learned that the sect was called Order of the Eternal Sun and was considered quite small despite having more than a hundred thousand members when including the servants. All-female sects were about as rare as all-male monk monasteries. Most sects were actually mixed gender with a population at over half a million.
The purpose of a sect was to develop powerful cultivators and sects fought all the time over resources, mysterious opportunities and secret spaces, which were some sort of bottled off worlds if Sandra understood things correctly. Sects also defended the world against various demonic beasts—the animal equivalent of cultivators. The world was incredibly vast with countless empires an continents.
The Order of the Eternal Sun was comprised of 80000 servants who did menial labour, and 10000 high servants who generally worked as personal maids, but the meat of the sect was the 12000 disciples, of which 600 were high disciples which received special attention. Shao's increasingly elusive goal was to become a high disciple. Above the high disciples were nine rarely seen elite disciples—the idols of all other disciples. There were also various special positions, like disciplinary officers, librarians, elders, and sect master.
Outside of the reclusive sects, mortals outnumbered sect disciples forty thousand to one as most mortals weren't born with the internal core necessary for cultivation. The sects would only recruit those with cores, but many were never discovered and died without ever knowing what secret potential their bodies hid. Sandra's predecessor must have been tested, but likely only had a very low grade core like most servants. Each step up in grade got a magnitude rarer, from very low, to low, mid, high, very high, grand, celestial and high celestial.
Shao had a mid grade core, making her one in four million, but this grade was only considered passable for a sect disciple. It didn't make sense for the sect to waste resources on disciples with a growth potential below that, but a small sect like The Order of the Eternal Sun also couldn't count on finding anyone with a core grade above the grand grade. If it did, it would surely rise to the heavens.
Shao had made up for the shortcoming of her mid grade core with hard work, but now all that hard work was apparently pouring out between her fingers. She was pretty tight-lipped about just how she had been set up, but it included misappropriation of sect resources.
Every now and then Shao's antagonists would show up but only ever to jeer. No one came to look for Sandra—the servant who had gone missing—but eventually she still found herself in trouble. Her lungs got worse until she couldn't even covertly help out in the washroom. Shao had gotten her some sort of mystery pill that helped a bit and she was deeply grateful, but then she relapsed and finally got bedridden.
Now she felt useless but she wasn't exactly unfamiliar with lying in bed. She just missed her books. Her mind needed something to churn. During her years in the hospital she spent most of her time reading. However, with death looming she had no interest in higher education and had simply wasted her final decade in the hospital bed reading schlock and nonsense, including some pretty rare works from the past
She had learned twelve languages, some just to read a single obscure book. But the book she had spent the most time with wasn't even written in any particular language. It was called "The Inheritance" and was like all of her favourites terribly obscure. A local museum had loaned her a copy after a plea from the hospital. The book simply listed 10000 glyphs assumed to be numbers between zero and eleven. A few mathematicians had proposed it was some kind of table but hadn't even been able to map the numbers convincingly.
Sandra had eventually memorized them all. In her mind the numbers formed a stepping route through what might be a single path maze looking something a bit like the figures witches and Nazcans used to walk. With the directional mapping she had worked out, the path did not ever cross itself, but it also didn't form a particular figure and that had bothered her quite a bit.
Having lost her mobility at that point she was unable to write, so she had instead worked out the entire maze in her mind. That project had wasted the last six months of her life. Utterly useless, she had thought, but now as she laid there on her floor mattress in Shao's quarters she felt a rush of excitement.
Looking up at the roof she noticed twelve small faint marks and felt that there was a connection. According to Shao, the room was very old and had once served some other unknown purpose. In fact, the Order of the Eternal Sun had actually just occupied an ancient underground ruin that the sect founder had stumbled upon 700 years ago. The current residents didn't even know how the lighting system worked, but it might have been operating night and day for thousands of years. If anything was known about the original purpose of the installation, this was not something the author of the sect's basic primer seemed ready to share.
Sandra thought. The Inheritance. Twelve marks. A puzzle?
She stumbled up from her bed but immediately felt the blood drain from her head and nearly fainted. Her broken lungs now failed to provide her with enough oxygen and sourcing didn't seem to help. Shao had prepared another pill for her, but she wasn't supposed to eat it yet as it could perhaps be refined into one of a higher grade. But this was too important. Sandra couldn't wait to solve the puzzle, so she crawled over to Shao's nightstand and stole the pill.
It melted in her mouth and the effect was immediate. She felt warmth and vigour radiate through her body. Unfortunately the pill didn't heal anything—it just replenished energy similar to refueling an old car with a leaky gas tank. Now she was on the clock.
She got up and stood on her toes under the marks. After brushing them off she saw that they resembled the glyphs from that book. It looked a bit like a telephone dial, but it couldn't spin since it was just a rock engraving.
She tried pushing the glyphs in sequence, but nothing happened. It was just hard rock. Thinking about it, she didn't know which number was zero. Or north in the maze. She had just arbitrarily assigned the first number in the book as north and zero, and adjusted the others relative to that.
Ah, did it matter? Would a secret code just be 0 1 2 3 and so forth? Getting an idea she punched in another 12 digits—the first ones from the book. BAZAPP!
Suddenly she found herself in absolute darkness illuminated only by a pinhole light, as if she was in a closet with a missing knob, ready to peep. It was the first time in quite some time she had been in darkness and it felt surreal.
Succumbing to the temptation she peeped out. She didn't see a couple in bed, but a massive round room—probably 200 meters across and made out of blood red stone. Twelve stone arches held up its circumference. The floor was the colour of bone. Under a hole in the domed roof stood three people that very well could be elders of the sect judging by their special robes. They were taking notes and waiting for a black robed elite disciple who was pacing around randomly in the room, her footsteps faintly echoing as if there was a piece of metal put under her boots to measure steps. Tap, tap, tap.
The steps were all wrong. Sandra lost interest where she stood trapped in her stone closet. She of course had no way of getting back to Shao's quarters and could only wait. After half an hour the pacer was finally finished, shrugged and left the center of the room to speak with the elders. Sandra couldn't make out what they were saying. She hoped they would just leave, but the pacer was immediately sent back to work after some affirmative nods. Half a day passed like this. More people showed up. New shifts. Those who left just jumped up into the hole in the roof, as if super powered amazons.
After two days the effect of the pill was nearly gone and Sandra felt weak and her wheezing returned, her lungs threatening to expose her, or eventually kill her. If not... would she become a skeleton in a closet? Just as she thought she might have to tumble out of the closet and reveal herself, everyone departed and the room was left empty and liminal.
Sandra pushed at the closet door. Then pulled. It was stuck. Was she just too weak? She sat on the floor and tried pushing with her legs. Still stuck. She was out of ideas. Maybe it was just a solid stone coffin she was in. She searched all around the walls in the dark. Nothing. Then she remembered something she had seen in a black and white movie with spaceships. She stuck a finger out through the hole and pressed it sideways, feeling the door budge a bit. After a while she could see a slit of light and she worked her fingers through, pressing the stone door sideways, into a slot and out of the way. She was out.
After taking care to slide the door back in place she made it to the center of the room. There were no glyphs anywhere, but one arch framed a deity statue. She would have to assume it indicated the point of the first glyph, and that a mirrored solution was also valid, so she immediately started pacing, her bare feet making no sound. The floor was smooth and featureless, with no indication of how long a step should be. If she drifted too far out of alignment with the arches, then her angles would be off, so she took small steps. 100 steps. 500 steps. 1000 steps.
After 3000 steps she was wheezing badly. After 5000 steps she had to start taking small breaks. Over an hour had passed. She was afraid she might get interrupted. Caught. The sect elders seemed to view this place as important and would probably wrangle her secret out.
At 9000 steps she nearly fainted, but she also felt like she was on a path and didn't even need to keep her eyes open or think too much, which saved energy. She walked hunched, elbows on her knees with her butt out, probably looking like an idiot. At 9500 steps she blacked out on the floor, and didn't know how much time had passed when she woke up again. The last 500 steps she didn't even remember, but when she woke up she was in another place filled with fluffy warm clouds. She was drifting through the heavens, her grey robe fluttering. She felt refreshed.
CHAPTER 4 - Strange Encounters.
Ahead of her was a floating castle, layered like a pagoda. It radiated a golden light and seemed benevolent. She floated inside and came to a stop in front of a white bearded grandpa in a richly decorated robe. Twelve magical swords were spinning behind him in a radial halo formation where he stood straight with his hands clasped behind his back. He was laughing.
—"Ho ho ho! Welcome inheritor. I have waited 6000 years for you. You have proven yourself worthy of-" he started, but then froze.
He squinted at Sandra, who didn't know what to do with herself, so she just pinched her robe and did a courtesy.
—"Hah? This is not at all what I expected. How unusual. How truly unusual. Not even from this universe? Could it have been one of the clues I threw into the maelstrom on a whim back then?"
He retracted his sword halo and started to pace around her. She only followed him with her eyes.
—"Hmm, not much to work with. Fate sure is strange sometimes."
He stopped right in front of her.
—"Alright, I have already ruined my introduction, so I'll get straight to the point. I'm Ghamlin Witer. Before I transcended I left twelve inheritances, each monitored by a sliver of my soul. In order to claim an inheritance you must not only find this place, but also promise under the heavens to fulfill a lingering wish of mine, such as resolving a grudge, guard a place, or keep a legacy. It is pretty standard stuff as far as these things go."
—"You have found site nine and these are your potential rewards." he said, waving twelve objects into existence.
Sandra couldn't tell what any of it was so her face didn't change.
The old man coughed.
—"It's pretty good stuff. Since you are the third person to find one of my inheritances, you can pick any of my ten remaining quests, swear the oath and the treasures are yours. Of course, you can also keep the oath by completing any of my quests. The quest you pick will however be reserved just for you and blanked out to others."
A scroll appeared, listing the quests.
1. Guard the Gravefields of Kalibab on the Gu continent for 1000 years.
2. Covertly protect the Cloudstep sect on the Gu continent for 1000 years.
3. Find six celestial grade core disciples for the Cloudstep sect on the Gu continent before transcending.
4. Root out and exterminate the final remnants of the Hellblade sect anywhere in the world.
5. Reserved.
6. Successfully sabotage a transcension attempt of Orvar Lux or one of his descendants.
7. Transcend and bring a phoenix bloodline egg, or four grains of millennial world essence as a present.
8. Defeat the demonized star dragon.
9. Wipe the Nanria continent clean of taint.
10. Completed.
11. Create a heaven grade artwork and donate it to the city of Minaria on the Gu continent.
12. Wipe out every last damn flutter toad in the world!
Sandra of course couldn't gauge how difficult any of these were, so she just picked one based on feels. She would make this Orvar Lux's life miserable. Why not?
—"Nice! That's a good one. I'll have to warn you though, the Lux family is a nasty piece of work, so be careful. But if they catch you, don't be afraid to tell them I sent you—ho ho ho!"
With some luck it was something she could complete sooner than later. The other quests seemed like a lot of work.
For the oath, Sandra was made to hold up a hand, and after repeating some words she felt her heart clench. Should she break the oath, the heavens would supposedly scatter her soul. Just how it could know she had gone astray she didn't want to think about.
—"Good. Good. Now, since you don't seem to understand what these treasures are, I will quickly summarize." Ghamlin said waving his hand, creating another scroll out of thin air.
He seemed to enjoy showing off. The scroll unfurled, floating in the air.
One self adjustable celestial grade demon forged full body armour.
One cloak of stealth.
One celestial grade sabre, the Mountain piercer, forged by Duhamar of the deep.
One spacial ring with an energy rich secret space. Capable of storing itself, yourself and any living things.
One alchemist starter kit with a cauldron and secret manual, written by yours truly in his youth 12000 years ago.
One bottle with five celestial grade marrow cleansing pills refined in a star furnace giving them additional interesting properties. Diminishing returns, should you consume them all... though I wouldn't blame you as they're quite tasty.
Six greater dragon scales for improving your core.
—"This place will now dissolve and the soul sliver will return to me. Perhaps we will meet one day. Goodbye."
The world faded away and Sandra found herself standing on a tiny cloud in a void with just the treasures and the two scrolls floating around her.
—"Ah, right, since you will need to refine some stuff, I'll leave this bit of space lingering. Just jump off the cloud when you're done. Goodbye for real now."
Sandra breathed out. She didn't know where to start. Was this her opportunity? It must be, so she sat down on the fluffy cloud and reflexively patted it. The cloud purred. That was strange. And it seemed to breathe rhythmically. Well, things were already weird, so why not.
She changed out of her grey robe first. Her top and skimpy panties didn't bother her at this point and going commando under a metal armour seemed deeply wrong, so she just kept the servant undergarments on. Even if the old man had had women's panties among his treasures, well, who knows where those might have come from.
The blood red full plate armour adjusted perfectly to her body and looked quite spooky, with horns on the helmet. She was unrecognizable in it. The cloak was just a cloak and might need some form of activation. Perhaps she wasn't powerful enough to use it yet.
The ring took a while to figure out, but after putting it on and focusing she managed to deposit, withdraw and deposit her old robe. She didn't dare to go inside though. What if that counted as leaving the cloud? She just put the alchemy stuff in for now, deciding to deal with it last.
As soon as she touched one of the dragon scales it dissolved and she fainted. When she woke up she didn't feel any different, or did she? She felt something like a lump in her throat. Perhaps that was just her body. Had she made a mistake--used it wrong? Wasted it? She had once read a book on viscerosception and interoception but it had obviously not covered the topic of body altering magical dragon scales, though it did mention the placebo effect.
Well, now she didn't dare to touch any of the other scales. She deposited them into the ring along with the scrolls, leaving her with just the pill bottle.
She popped the cork and the fragrance that spilled out made her high as a kite. She had to close it back up again. The smell alone put her into a state of trance and she disappeared into a fog for who knows how long.
When she came to she felt very healthy and quite a bit stronger. She popped the cork again and sniffed. The scene from before repeated. After waking up again she wondered... how on earth was she supposed to actually eat these? Wouldn't she just explode?
No, the old man would have warned her. She had to go all in. What else was she supposed to do? Sell them? No way.
So she held her breath, popped the cork a third time and poured a pill into her palm.
—"Aah, that smells so good, but don't eat that sitting on me!" a fluffy voice said.
Sandra looked around in surprise.
—"It's me. I'm a cloud child. A child cloud. Anyhow, go into the space if you're going to eat that because you'll make a mess."
A talking cloud? She put the pill back in the bottle and looked down.
—"Uh, it won't count as leaving this place, will it?" she asked warily.
—"No, there's a portal below. That's the only way to leave. But... waah, I'd like a pill too." the cloud said.
—"It's a marrow cleansing pill. Since when did clouds have bones?"
—"Since when could you sit on a cloud? Anyhow, I can smell that the effect of those pills is a little special. I'm very sensitive to gasses. Which is also why I don't want you to sit on me when you eat the pill."
—"Uh, that doesn't sound-" Sandra started, her enthusiasm blunted.
—"Yeah I'd get naked. Of course, I'm already naked." the little cloud said.
—"Alright, then I'm going in. See you later cloudogator."
—"Hey. Hey. What about me?" the cloud pestered.
—"What about what?"
—"At least let me come inside and have a look. It's not like I'll miss your company, it's just that I have never seen a ring space before. I was just born."
What a strange little cloud. Sandra brought herself and her guest into the space, then she realized that she couldn't exit without first ejecting the cloud or she would fall. Well, that was a later problem.
The space was just an acre of soil, a small pond, and a fake sky. With a single beanbag-sized cloud exploring it. Sandra chuckled at the sight..
—"Not much to see huh? Oh, hey, if you were just born, then how can you speak?"
—"Elemental bloodline memories. It sometimes happens. I don't think it was supposed to in this case though—I was just meant to be a temporary platform."
—"Eeeh? A cloud talking about blood and bones..." Sandra muttered as she undressed.
The cloud backed off slightly seeing her pop the cork, ready to eat a pill.
—"That bad huh?"
—"No, I think the space will deal with it. Maybe." the cloud said hesitantly.
Sandra swallowed the pill. Her eyes popped. Then she blacked out.
CHAPTER 5 - Elsewhere.
Far away in a grand castle, an ageing king reads a letter with trembling hands.
- - -
To whom it may concern at registrant's address:
Capital of the Nyx Empire, The Imperial Castle
We regret to inform you that Kzandrah Alhadora Exelci is now presumed dead by the sect.
Our condolences,
Secretary of registrations,
The Order of the Eternal Sun.
- - -
His queen leaned into him, sobbing. Their only child and pride, dead. There had been little hope for her of course, with the incurable disease, but there had at least been hope for a few years. Miracles happened at sects. And the mere mention of their cultivator princess had caused rival empires to warily back off.
Now? Presumed... dead. The letter hadn't even mentioned how she had died. He hoped she had gone out in a blaze of glory. The battle princess, surrounded, making a last stand to save a besieged city from rampaging great beasts.
CHAPTER 6 - New Diet.
Sandra woke up, scratching a butt cheek. Her whole body was itchy. She was covered head to toe by a black crust. It seemed odourless. She had expected worse by hearsay.
—"Aaah, you're awake." the little cloud said, hovering up and circling her. "You were out for quite some time. Days? Months? I don't have a good grasp of time. Anyhow, the space took care of the impurities quite quickly."
Sandra started cracking the black crust off her skin. Beneath was soft skin, and a more muscular body than she remembered. Her lungs felt like they could compete with air balloons. Did she even need to breathe now? She danced like a naked madwoman, finding that if she put some effort in, she could jump from one end of the space to the other in a single bound, though this did cause her to get embedded like a human carrot in the dirt a few times.
Seeing this the cloud sighed.
Following her transformation, and a bit of cleanup in the pond, Sandra eventually busied herself with the alchemy starter kit. Unfortunately the land was barren and the kit only came with a single mystery seed which probably would take years to grow, but she planted it anyway. Perhaps this was the old man's way of telling her to do some work of her own.
She didn't need to source as the residual energies of the pill still roiled inside of her, so she was only happy to dive into her favourite pastime—reading weird books.
Alchemy was incredibly complex and without herbs and other materials all she could do was theorize. She read the 600 page tome without understanding all that much, though now she could recognize a lot of herbs.
She was glad to discover that the dragon scale hadn't been wasted. While dragon scales could come from lesser and greater dragons, they actually couldn't be refined further. Handling them was a bit special as they could easily merge with anyone nearby. Most cultivators would immediately absorb them, but a big sect might be interested in keeping one or two in storage to boost a genius.
She lost track of time. Similar to the sect dungeon, there was no day and night cycle in the space, and she fainted whenever she absorbed a dragon scale or pill. Her hair grew long and she had to cut it with the fancy sabre several times. Her greys were long gone.
Unsure if the pills had much of an effect after the third one, she gave one to little cloud who seemed very happy despite its attempt at masking that fact. Now she only had one dragon scale left, and one pill. Without a testing stone she couldn't tell what had happened to her core or body, and the space wasn't large enough for any extravagant movement. She also didn't know any special techniques, aside from the still theoretical alchemy techniques that she couldn't use but still studied.
One day the seed sprouted. Little cloud had been watering it as Sandra forgot. She had found an interesting puzzle in the alchemy book and eventually solved it by touching another dial, this one hidden on the back cover. The book sucked her in with a slurp. Aah! Wasn't she now within a space, within a space, within a space? Things just kept getting weirder.
—"Ho ho ho. I finally got a visitor? And who might this- Aah! Put something on!"
She didn't bother to wear the armour or robe in the space, so she had appeared in just her undergarments. Now she found herself standing in a small alchemy chamber, facing a familiar figure who had quickly turned his back to her. It was grandpa Ghamlin again. This version of him seemed completely unaware that they had met before, unless she had become unrecognizable that is.
A small intricate box appeared floating in front of her.
—"This is the Nine Revolution Infernal Rainbow Lotus pill, only rewarded to alchemists with great comprehension. After consuming it elemental fire will take root in your body. This is a great boon to alchemists. Ah, it's time for me to go—Goodbye!"
This Ghamlin seemed rushed—he just presented her with the reward for solving the puzzle, then he was off, the soul sliver apparently eager to return to himself. This guy.
Inside the box was a lustrous pill which she ate on the spot. Then she fainted.
She woke up feeling really woozy and quite hot. There was no black goo coming out of her skin this time, but rather a scorched spot where she had fainted. Her hair might have completely burned off at one point because it was rather short. The undergarments which she had put to the side looked a bit toasty, but they were already falling apart anyways. She could pick up some new ones. Wasn't it about time to return to the real world?
She walked out a door and returned to her space, the alchemy room fading behind her.
—"Uwaah, you were gone so long! But it's not like I missed you or anything." little cloud said, immediately hovering up to her.
—"Huh? How long?"
—"I don't know. Days? Months? Many months? Could be years. Probably not decades. Point is you were gone. Oh, look at the tree—it's quite nice right? I've been watering it!"
The sapling had grown into a small fruit tree, with a few flower buds looking ready to open up. Was the soil special or was it just a fast growing tree? Or... had a lot of time actually passed? It was hard to say.
By her own estimate, she had been gone from the real world for months, plus however long she was unconscious. Her friend Shao was probably worried.
CHAPTER 7 - The Red Demon.
Sandra stepped out of her ring space and into Ghamlin's miniature heaven space, remembering to eject little cloud first. The cloud belonged to this space after all.
She wore the red horned armour, figuring that if she was in her servant uniform and the sect elders were present when she appeared in the round stepping puzzle room, well, they might actually straight up assault and rob her. The armour was more imposing and at least she'd be protected.
Unfortunately she hadn't figured out how to activate the stealth robe. The fancy sword she could just wave around threateningly she supposed. There were sword techniques, but she didn't know any. The ring was the only thing she knew how to use. She could enter it and hide, but then she would be trapped. Someone might just wait outside and get her while she was disoriented. No, she needed to escape the dungeon-like sect and get some breathing room.
Her sourcing skill of course wasn't of much use now, and she hadn't needed to recently due to all the residual pill effects. Now she really was a bit hungry though. Snack hungry. There was another reason to leave. Outside of the sect in the wilderness there were many opportunities. It was how the sect got their resources after all. And she wanted to see the world, take a walk through a forest on her own two legs, not be trapped in a dungeon packed with strange competitive madwomen and fall victim to their unknown designs.
Sandra prepared herself for whatever was to come—the preparation mostly consisting of a strong determination to wing it.
—"I guess this is goodbye, little cloud." she said, saluting as she stepped ramrod straight off the small cloud and fell down into the portal below.
She passed through the portal and reappeared back in the large stepping puzzle room. There were no elders in the room, just a strange woman who froze in her pacing, spun and immediately threw like 100 swords at her.
—"Who intrudes!?" her attacker yelled.
What the heck? Sandra barely had time to react and there was no way to dodge. Just when she was going to end up looking like a pincushion, a fluffy blur appeared in front of her, easily deflecting the swords with a whirl. It was little cloud!
—"Huh? You followed me little cloud?"
—"It's not like I wanted to, just got a strange feeling that's all." the little cloud said, crackling with lightning, clearly ready to defend.
Sandra thought it was quite cute and felt warm inside.
Seeing how her attack had been blocked so easily, the woman's face turned a little pale.
—"Aah... seniors, please don't take my outburst to heart, I was just on edge. May I know seniors' names?" the woman said, cupping her fists.
Huh? A change in tone? Who was this strange disciple? And what would be a good reply? She thought for a bit. It was best to give off the impression that she belonged to the place.
—"I... am the guardian... of Ghamlin. And this is... Thunder Cloud." Sandra improvised, trying to sound a bit ominous. "Congratulations! You have solved the maze, and I have appeared."
She didn't know where she was going with this, but since she had already snatched the inheritance it felt cruel to let these people continue pacing.
—"I will now inspect your sect to see if it's worthy." she said, thinking of that spirit food she had wanted to taste on her first day here.
Perhaps this random woman could show her around?
—"Re-really? I solved the maze?" the woman asked, her eyes darting between Sandra and the statue.
Sandra spun on her heel and pretended to lecture, waving a finger.
—"It was a test of patience. Persistence. Of method. And now there will be a test of foundation. Bring me a fruit. A book. A robe. And a disciple. I sense a disciple with hidden potential..."
She made a psychic sharlatan gesture, touching her temples even though she was wearing the horned helmet.
—"Aha! Her name is... Su... no, Shao. A disciple named Shao. I can sense something unusual about her."
—"I see. I'll bring everything over right away." the woman said, quickly bowing before disappearing up the hole in the roof.
Sandra breathed out. Her ruse seemed to have worked.
While she waited she and little cloud took a look at the statue. It was indeed Ghamlin, but in his youth. She got the distinct feeling the white haired grandpa image was just something he had come up with to make an impression.
When Sandra's sensitive ears picked up the faint sound of fluttering robes she immediately clasped her hands behind her back, mimicking Ghamlin. She held off turning and just stood looking at the statue for a while. Then she heard a deliberate cough. That was her cue.
She turned to discover that a whole group of people had come down the hole. Sandra vaguely recognized a few as elders—she had seen them before when peeping out from the closet, but oddly enough the strange woman took the lead of the formation and the others seemed cowed by her presence.
Aah! Was she the sect master?
—"Well?" Sandra said, needlessly narrowing her eyes hidden by the helmet, really getting into her role.
The sect master pulled three items out of her spacial ring. Like Ghamlin, she was able to use some form of telekinesis, so she floated them over to Sandra. Sandra however did not know how to use telekinesis and panicked when the items had reached halfways.
—"Cloud. Cloud!" she hissed, sending it eyes.
Little cloud seemed to do the equivalent of rolling its eye as it understood her meaning. It met up with the items and they dropped on it's back. Sandra thought she had been busted, but then she could hear the whispers of the elders.
—"Extravagant! An elemental cloud! Extravagant!"
Little cloud arrived in front of her with the items. She immediately picked up the fruit, turning it over. She had no idea what it was. She wanted to eat it right away, so she turned around, flipped up her horned visor and bit into it. Very juicy! Sweet fluids dribbled down her chin as she ravaged it down to its carcass. After finishing it she nearly ugly cried, wiped her face, flipped down the visor and turned.
—"Passable." she said with a straight face, a tear lingering at the corner of one eye.
Her observers seemed incredibly relieved.
The book turned out to be a sword technique book. It might be some sect masterpiece. Very handy!
—"Passable."
The robe was likely not nearly as good as the armour, but its design was exquisite, and who doesn't like to look pretty? She hadn't had the chance so far in either life.
—"Passable."
Everyone breathed out., but the sect master wrung her hands and seemed embarrassed to speak.
—"About the disciple... we have six with that surname. They will be here shortly- ah, here they are now!" she said looking relieved, turning to usher in six nervous looking black robed women.
Sandra frowned. She couldn't spot Shao among them. Her heart sank. Had Shao been killed on some mission while Sandra was away? No, she should still be relegated to laundry duty.
—"I can't sense anything from these." Sandra said, theatrically touching her temples again.
There was some confusion and whispering.
—"We'll check the servants. There has been some demotions..."
Sandra jumped up on little cloud and had it pace theatrically back and forth in the room. She just wanted to help a friend who had once tried to help her. She had gotten two pills from Shao after all.
After twenty awkward minutes two grey robed servants were brought in. Sandra immediately recognized one of them as her Shao. She looked a bit worn. Also, her hair was a mess as if she had been carried at great speed.
—"That one. You recently demoted her?" Sandra asked, pointing.
—"Yes... but not recently. It was 13 years ago."
Sandra froze.
13 years? It had been 13 years? She was about to freak out. She eyed little cloud below, who just shrugged. This thing!
She didn't get time to process. Shao was sent forth by the sect elder who gave an embarrassed smile after realizing that such an outstanding disciple had actually been demoted.
Sandra floated up and met Shao halfway in the large circular room, Ghamlin's statue behind her. She looked down on her friend, who naturally didn't recognize her and was nervous and confused, not even daring to meet the red demon's eyes.
Sandra held her hand out above Shao's head.
—"I bestow upon you... a Greater Dragon Scale!"
There was a gasp from the audience.
—"It's a greater dragon scale! It's really a greater dragon scale. The legends were true! Not one has appeared in the last 3000 years."
Sandra brought her last dragon scale out of the space, and it fell upon Shao. The elders each looked like they wanted to snatch it, but it was too late. It sunk into Shao, who after just a second of stunned hesitation sat down and... did something.
Why didn't she faint? What was going on here? Sandra had planned to "wait for the results", shoo the people away, buying her time to think. But after mere minutes had passed, Shao got up and kowtowed.
—"This unworthy one thanks senior for the gift!"
Sandra just nodded and stroked her chin, mimicking one of Ghamlin's moves even though she didn't have a beard. Shao returned to her superiors who met her halfway with a core grade testing stone.
—"Lower celestial grade core! Same as the sect master! That's... an increase of... of several grades!"
Sandra had absorbed so many of those things and wondered what her grade was now. She wanted to yell "Do me, do me!" at the elder with the testing stone, but that would be such a big giveaway.
The sect master briefly seemed to be mourning a lost opportunity but soon perked up and looked at Sandra, as if seeing a sugar mama with a big supply. Surely the sect master wouldn't be neglected? Unconcerned, Sandra whistled silently to herself, looking up at the sky beyond the roof.
There was a bustle and new robes were brought in for Shao, but before she had a chance to change there was a voice.
—"Ah, who told you we were done? Come back here." Sandra said.
Shao hurried back over.
—"Very good. Now... reach out your hand and receive... a Celestial Grade Marrow Cleansing pill, refined in a Star Furnace!"
She dropped the pill in Shao's hands. The fragrance quickly spread in the room and the elders went crazy, some even sitting down to cultivate on the spot.
Wow, these pills must be hot stuff. Too bad she was out of them now. Fearing someone would bully Shao, Sandra rose slightly on little cloud and spoke.
—"Eat it now."
Hearing this the sect master ordered a reluctant elder to go fetch something while shooting meaningful glances at Shao who had instinctively turned for consultation, perhaps having thought the pill too precious.
Sandra rose further, just so she could establish dominance.
—"Senior, we're bringing in a marrow cleansing chamber." the sect master spoke.
A what now?
Then even the sect master sat down to cultivate. Were these sneaky gits just trying to buy time because the pill smelled so good?
Shao seemed like she was trapped between a rock and a hard place, slowly bringing the pill up to her mouth. Then a contraption that looked like a telephone box arrived. When Shao tossed her clothes and stepped inside, the fragrance in the air faded and some of the elders sighed.
Sandra was curious how long Shao would take to absorb the pill. When she came out after less than an hour Sandra nearly tore her already short hair. What was going on?
—"That's a little slow, but passable." she commented, an eye twitching.
Shao seemed to have transformed and was faintly sparkling and radiant before she somehow sucked that aura in. If it had happened to Sandra too, she probably slept through it.
She now had a sneaking suspicion there was a way to absorb pills by using a technique. Plundering the sect's technique library would solve a lot of problems, but now she was out of goodies after showing off. She needed to buy time. Keep them hanging. They would pester her if she settled down here, and she couldn't actually fight.
Sandra thought for a while.
—"This sect is not too bad. I wish to inspect the upper level and surface fortifications."
Shao was whisked off, and the room emptied. Eventually only the sect master remained, standing under the hole obediently. When Sandra approached on little cloud she jumped up. Sandra floated up after but had to step off little cloud when she bumped the rather long helmet horns against the roof of a corridor. She put little cloud into her space, an action which made the sect master swallow for some reason.
The sect master—her name still unknown—cautiously started reciting general information about the sect, some of it right out of the sect primer, toning down the fact that the Order of the Eternal Sun was in fact a rather small sect. Sandra just hummed and nodded mysteriously.
They took some sort of secret shaft shortcut up that required a bit of agility, but fortunately jumping was one of the things Sandra was now better at.
The sect master talked about some kind of defensive formations and spirit stone driver networks. Most of it flew over her head. She just needed to get out. Couldn't the woman just hurry up?
Eventually they passed through a few steel doors and reached the surface. The stars were out, and there was a chill in the air. Sandra sighed and turned to the sect master.
—"This has been real interesting, sect master. I shall return with my final verdict when I sense that the disciple has made progress." she said, swiftly bringing out little cloud and flying off, probably leaving the sect master a little confused—Sandra didn't turn to look.
Ha ha ha—free at least!
CHAPTER 8 - The World.
Little cloud was fast. They soared over mountains, forests and lakes, spotting a few towns and cities burning like ember in the dark. After deeming herself at a safe distance, she had little cloud land in a clearing. It wasn't hard for her to see in the dark, but she felt mentally exhausted and zoned out, falling half asleep until the sun rose.
Then another sun rose. What the heck? Then a third one appeared. Something felt deeply wrong about their movement too. This world and its nonsense. Sandra tried to brush it aside, and instead went to explore the forest; Little cloud zoomed off to explore the sky.
The trees were tall, like giant oaks. A few birds were greeting the new day with their strange chirps. She spotted one in a tree. It was actually a lizard with a beak, and colourful fish fins spread open on its neck.
—"Whiirpt! Whiirpt!" it sang, apparently trying to attract a mate.
Not far away a large four-legged beetle sat camouflaged against a fallen tree trunk. It looked nasty with its predator pincers, but it was the trunk that made Sandra wary. It wasn't a windthrow. The thick tree had been cut like butter. By who or what?
She calmed down a bit when she noticed that it wasn't a fresh cut—small fungoid things were growing along the tree rings.
Looking down she found that the forest floor had many unfamiliar plants growing on it, but she did recognize a few herbs and plants mentioned in the alchemy book. None of them were at all rare, but they still made Sandra a bit giddy. For the first time she felt like she could make use of one of her skills. She completely pushed her fear of the unknown wilderness aside and started greedily foraging.
After two hours she had collected quite a bit. Three-leaved blue weed, Shine root, Quicksprout grass, and the less common Psycho earth plum. Though substitute ingredients, these could be used to make a simple healing pill. She replanted many of the herbs in her space, even bringing in a few fluffy pollinators, then eagerly got seated at the cauldron with a prepared stash of herbs.
Normally one would have to light a fire under the cauldron, but since she had the elemental fire inside of her she was supposed to use that. The alchemy book had a whole chapter on it, and she went over it in her head. It was unavoidably obtuse. How would one describe riding a bike to a person who had never even seen one?
It took her half an hour to force the fire out of her palms. She had tried to envision fire, but only succeeded after envisioning the heat of a mirage. It was more of a presence. When she projected it against the cauldron it floated up lightly, and she found that if she carefully varied the field strength she could keep it stationary. Keeping the cauldron afloat was necessary for the process, otherwise pill refinement would be like baking bread or pastries in an oven with uneven heat.
She felt pretty good about mastering the skill so quickly, but then she reached for a bundle of quicksprout grass, forgetting to turn off the hand heat... and had to watch in horror as her prepared supply shriveled up. Also, with one hand off the cauldron it got unbalanced and fell into the dirt with a thud and a hiss.
Thinking about it she realized that skilled alchemists likely used their telekinesis to float ingredients into the cauldron, but Ghamlin must have considered it such a low level technique it wasn't even worth mentioning in his starter book—it would be like explaining that when riding a bike you must use your eyes to see and neck muscles to turn your head.
This wasn't good, because a lot of recipes mentioned stirring, compressing, separating, and so forth. She had thought it a little weird that the book never mentioned physical tools like spoons, but now she understood.
There was only three recipes which didn't mention any sort of manipulation, and she only had partial ingredients for one.
When she exited the space she found little cloud waiting above the forest. It looked excited and swooshed down.
—"Hah, I found something good!"
—"Something good? Is it edible?"
—"You'll see. And hear." little cloud said mysteriously.
Pushing her failure aside, Sandra got swept up by little cloud's enthusiasm and jumped up.
Now when it was daytime she saw the strangeness of this world more clearly. Some mountains seemed very large and the horizon looked much too flat. As someone who had read so many nonsense books, Sandra hadn't initially taken parts of the sect primer seriously either. There were supposedly immortal gods flying about, and the world was so large it didn't even make sense. Unless the world spun really fast, there was no way a 24 hour day with normal gravity would work. But given the multiple suns chasing each other in the sky and everything else she had experienced now, maybe there really were empires beyond empires, continets made out of continents, and gods above gods.
After flying for a few minutes little cloud slowed down. Nestled between three mountains on a small plateau stood a few pink trees. She heard it before she saw it—next to a small lake, beneath a rustling layer of pink leaves, snored a massive earthworm-like beast, As little cloud drew close an eye the size of a shield opened up and stared at them.
—"This one is a little troublesome." little cloud commented. "...but there's something precious in that lake."
—"Hum... Could this be one of those beasts that guards precious herbs? Can't you just zap it and scare it off?" Sandra wondered out loud, remembering the resource gathering section of the primer.
—"Maybe. Maybe not. I fear this one is highly resistant to my element. I'd say it's around power level 40.", little cloud said, backing off a bit.
The sect primer had talked about power levels but it was hard to get an idea of what the numbers represented. Aside from the sect master's sword attack Sandra had never seen combat.
—"Then what power level am I?" Sandra asked.
—"Aah, I'd say.. around... zero. The sect master was 35... 38? It's a bit fuzzy."
—"Wait, I'm still level zero? Then what were all of those scales and pills good for?"
—"My bloodline memories are a bit vague on that, but I think if you don't deliberately absorb the pill effects, all of the energies will go to boosting your body and foundation. It's a huge waste of time, for beings who care about such things."
—"You could have told me before I gobbled it all down!"
—"Oh, I thought it was like, your thing, like a strategy, or kink. Anyhow, It's not all bad. A strong foundation is worth it in the long run. Improving your foundation at a high level will be too late. Your cultivation speed should be very fast... uh, once you learn a technique."
Seeing how frustrated Sandra looked, little cloud continued.
—"I think even though you're at power level zero, you should be able to take on anyone below ten with just your body alone, and that's without your fancy equipment. But this beast, no. Unless...".
—"Unless what?"
—"Didn't you get a book?"
She had forgotten about the book and found it laying in the dirt inside her space.
—"Put me down on that peak. I think it's time to practice." she said, pointing at one of the surrounding mountains.
Days passed and she studied the book. It was called Five Blossoms Invincible Sword and was—according to the Ex Libris—one of the sect's most powerful secret techniques. Some moves required her to make use of her internal energy, with no description of how to do that. She sighed—it was the telekinesis situation all over again.
Fortunately most of the foundational moves were just physical moves and she immediately got to practicing those.
The suns rose and set behind her dashing figure. Her comprehension surpassed that of the guideline in the book. She was initially full of energy, maybe due to having eaten that yummy spirit fruit, but after a month of practice her hunger finally resurfaced. With little clouds help, the plants in her space had grown larger, and even the pollinators had increased in size. They resembled cotton balls with wings, two legs, two beady red eyes, and a snout, and were currently happily buzzing about in a blooming tree which had not yet borne fruit.
Wasn't there something yummy down in that lake? She greedily narrowed her eyes brought little cloud out of the space.
—"Hey, little cloud, do you think we can snatch the thing if we split up?"
Little cloud bobbed for a while.
—"Who knows? Should I zap it and see what happens?"
—"You zap it from the other side, and I will sneak in if it takes the bait and moves away. It's a giant earthworm... how fast can it be?"
After having moved into their positions on opposing sides of the pink forest, little cloud started zapping wildly. A few trees exploded and there was a faint smell of cooked meat. The agitated worm roared with its rather spooky mouth and lunged towards the retreating cloud. Seeing this Sandra lept in, moving fast between the trees.
She arrived at the lake and jumped in, armour and all. Just as she was about to break the surface she heard little cloud yell.
—"Watch out!"
It was too late. The massive worm moved like a blur and swept at her with its tail. Unable to dodge in the air and too panicked to think of escaping into the ring, Sandra took the hit and flew across the lake, and through a tree that got smashed into splinters, then onwards down the mountain, cratering one kilometer away. It had happened so fast even little cloud hadn't been able to intercept her.
She oofed. Her sturdy body and armour had worked together to save her.
—"I guess now we know." little cloud floated up and said. "Anyhow, something else for a snack then?"
Sandra got up, dirt falling off the red demon armour, a branch still stuck on a horn.
—"Let's check a town."
She jumped up and sat crosslegged on little cloud.
After ten minutes of high speed travel they found an empty dirt road. Following it, they came upon a scene. A kid laid cowering beside the road, his basket of steamed buns spilled into the dirt.
—"Please, don't trample the buns, I need money for my mother's medicine..." he begged.
—"Northrunts like you don't even deserve to lick the shit out of our gutters, much less set up a food stall." an armoured rider said mockingly before letting his horse pirouette over the buns. "Now, get, lost."
—"You bastard!" the kid yelled, tears and snot running.
Sandra agreed—what a massive asshole. She jumped down from little cloud, landing next to the rider with a thud. Before he could react to the red demon woman, a kick was sent out. She meant to kick the man's leg and break it against the iron saddle; maybe push the horse aside, but forgot her strength.
The horse exploded into a large shower of guts and bits, pieces of man mixed in there. Some of it flew into the forest, wrecking trees. Some of it sprayed over the kid.
Oh no.
Sandra jumped up on little cloud and they quickly flew off. The horse! The poor horse! Aah! And that kid, no- she would pretend it never happened. What happened? Nothing happened.
Little cloud chortled.
—"What?!"
—"Nothing."
CHAPTER 9 - Unexpected Business.
The town smelled of bakeries, mead and dung. Sandra had put on her fancy robe and didn't dare to use anything but the paved main streets even though the fabric seemingly repelled dirt. She had been going commando ever since she scorched her old undergarments back in the alchemy room, and now she was on the prowl for a store that would buy any of her herbs. Then she could buy some less extravagant clothes and reinfiltrate the sect and nab some technique books.
Most of the people she saw looked young and poor. There were no old folk, except for a few wretched looking beggars that she supposed might actually be middle aged. No one dared to approach her in this gettup. Some even fled to a safe distance. Only a few merchants running stalls selling trinkets seemed to want her attention, shouting out their scams a bit louder.
—"Mysterious stones—try your luck! Extremely rare beauty enhancing herbs! Ancient fans—just arrived from the south!"
After searching the central city blocks she finally found an alchemy house. Inside sat an old man. He did something of a double-take seeing her, then bowed deeply.
—"This one is Queeg. How can my humble establishment serve an immortal?"
Immortal? Did she have that kind of aura? She brushed it off.
—"I have some common herbs and need a bit of... local currency. Are you interested?"
Sandra brought three different herbs out of her space and left them on the counter, soil still on their roots. The old man swallowed his surprise and looked at them for a while, then seemed embarrassed.
—"I do not know the use of these two, but the Glow wort is quite rare and an effective treatment for headaches and... some women's problems. This one is in very good condition too. I can give you one silver. If you have more I'll take them."
He had pointed at the Shine root. And Ghamlin's book didn't mention those uses. Sandra suspected this alchemist probably only knew some folk remedies and wasn't a cultivator alchemist but more of a local doctor. He likely couldn't solve her spirit food problem so she didn't even ask.
The old man seemed a bit stunned when she brought out four more. She left the shop with five silver clinking in her hand.
Next she visited a clothes shop and spent half of her money on a new wardrobe, changing into a generic brown dress with some amateur embroidery work on the hems and sleeves. Now she looked like a country bumpkin with her bonnet shading her face.
As for technique books, there was no town library, just two stores selling a few expensive books for noblewomen. She wasn't in the mood for schlock at the moment. It seemed like getting back to the sect really was her only option. She could try her luck in a larger city, but according to the sect's basic primer the best chance of snapping up rare things in the mortal world was when the sects came together and arranged auctions in neutral territory... but she really was too poor for that sort of thing.
As she was walking out of the town she heard a familiar voice coming from a busy food stall.
—"That's right—it's one delicious skewer with horse meat and fresh forest spices for just a copper. Cheapest in town!"
Sandra looked over. Eh? That was one hardy kid. He seemed to be making a killing.
Though now definitely hungry, she walked right by with quickened steps.
CHAPTER 10 - Backtrack.
Once out of sight, Sandra changed into her armour, brought out little cloud, and the two headed back towards the sect. On their way little cloud spotted a few interesting places, and Sandra snatched a few new herbs... that she also couldn't use.
—"How do you sense these places anyways?" Sandra asked little cloud as they continued their journey.
—"I just use my elemental spirit sense. I believe humans should have something similar—well, similar but not the same."
—"Can't you just teach me your techniques? Like, say, something for cultivation?"
—"I'm a cloud. My Cloud Breathing technique naturally requires thunder meridians, and- Ah! Maybe there is one thing..."
Sandra's ears perked up.
—"Tell me! Tell me!"
—"How about... sucking it in. Like this!" little cloud huffed.
There was no change to the size of little cloud.
—"Wait, I didn't think this through. There is actually no way for you to tell. Anyhow, I just made my core grade and and power level appear lower... to those able to gauge it." little cloud explained.
—"That... actually sounds like something which would work with my plan." Sandra said thoughtfully.
Sandra knew that she was power level zero, but as for her core she only felt a vague sense of a a swollen mass somewhere indistinct. She had only begun to sense it during her recent practice with the sword.
After little cloud explained the technique to her, she was able to shroud this mass, making it dim, then almost invisible. It was like feeling a lump in the throat fade away.
Sandra needed basic techniques so she had enter the sect at a reasonably low level. She also couldn't reveal her equipment or the high level sword technique she was practicing. As soon as she showed up as red demon, she'd be in a mess. No, she would just take it easy, learn cultivation and the telekinesis thing, practice her alchemy, slack off in her space...
—"Eeh? What's this?" little cloud said, interrupting her lazy life daydream.
Below a main road snaked between the mountains. A train of wagons pulled by horses and spearheaded by an escort seemed to be heading towards one of the sect's sentinel outposts. A hundred people sat in rows on open carriages. Most of them seemed to be women, with nobles at the front, middle class people in the middle, and poors a the back. A low ranked black robed sect disciple commanded the group, though she sat slumped as if asleep. This was seemingly one of the dreadfully boring chores disciples sometimes had to take on.
Sensing an opportunity, Sandra tried to think of a way to infiltrate the group.
She flew three kilometers up ahead on little cloud, finding a site for her theatrical entry, only to discover that something else already waited in ambush. Hidden in the forest next to the road waited a pack of six large furry crocodile dogs. Little cloud told her their power level was around eight to nine, which seemed like something she could handle, unlike that worm.
She dropped down in the middle of the pack, identified the pattern, and matched it to the fourth form of the Five Blossoms Invincible Sword technique. She executed three swift strikes with the Mountain piercer sabre. Though she couldn't pull upon the weapon's power, her cuts seemed to extend well beyond the reach of the blade and several trees fell along with the beasts.
Only one of the things had survived and it pounced on her with its massive jaw springing open. She stepped to the side and brought a fist down on its head. It didn't splatter like the horse, but its skull caved in and the front of the beasts large body cratered into the soil with a loud thud that echoed between the mountains.
—"These might be edible. It's spirit meat. Weren't you hungry?" little cloud asked.
That she was, and she didn't want to resort to sourcing just yet.
Unfortunately she only had theoretical knowledge on how to dress and hang an animal, and these crocodile dogs weren't exactly rabbits or fish. Also, in half an hour the wagon train would arrive.
She threw three corpses into the space and decided to just stave off the hunger by chewing on a bitter spirit herb while working out the last quirks of her infiltration plan.
CHAPTER 11 - Scrutiny.
The last sun dove behind a mountain. Liarun ordered the drivers to speed up. Half an hour later the wagon train finally arrived at the sect's outpost, all candidates still accounted for. They had even picked up an extra, having found a bloodied woman collapsed by the road a week back.
The woman had taken a hit to the head and fallen unconscious, just a stone's throw away from a grisly scene that had kept Liarun on the edge for the entire last stretch. What an idiot woman. Trying to reach the testing site on foot, alone... she was lucky to be alive. A rogue cultivator must have passed by and saved her judging by the way the Grokodonks had been killed.
After settling the candidates into the outpost's quarters and ignoring the quibbles of the nobles, she entered the recruitment office and started organizing her travel log. Liarun disliked escort missions. There was always something. At least the contribution reward was decent, and the addition of the Grokodont corpses might even give her a small bonus. She couldn't wait to get back to her cultivation after weeks on the road. She was glad someone else would escort the rejects back.
The night passed, and by midday all of the women had been tested at the stone and separated into groups.
Out of the 100 other women, 44 could enter the sect starting as servants and five could become new disciples. 51 had to be sent home as they had false cores. It wasn't a very good ratio, but the sect couldn't afford to deploy the more precise testing stones out in every village and town, or risk disciples losing them on testing missions. The network of low grade testing stones worked well enough.
The hapless idiot woman was actually doubly fortunate—the testing stone showed that she had a low grade core, enough to enter the sect as a trainee high servant. Perhaps she was one of those possessing the luck of the heavens.
CHAPTER 12 - Back in grey.
After a two day cart ride to the sect mountain, 51 recruits faced a set of grand stairs that eventually caused one person to collapse. Zan Duran and another concerned woman now carried her body up between them, only one of them pretending to huff.
—"Why... the huff... build... the entrance... up on a... mountain?"
—"Closer to the... gods? Further... from... the mortals? Who knows?", Zan Duran replied.
The woman didn't open her mouth in response and just grinned, her flat boxer's nose huffing and her tanned farmer's muscles straining. She looked crude but actually had a mid grade core, which would later put her above many of the nobles in the group.
When they finally reached a plateau the woman collapsed onto her butt, and Zan Duran sat down as well.
—"Piece of... cake!" the woman said, wiping some sweat from her brow before reaching out with the hand. "I'm Yordbruc. From, uh, a village that's... east of Bell city fields. You?"
—"Zan Duran. Also from a village." Sandra replied, shaking the calloused wet hand.
—"Our villages will... both be rich then, haha."
The woman was referring to the compensation sects offered to new members. Since mortal money wasn't of much use within the sect, most recruits would have it sent back to their home. Sandra had just thrown her 40 silver into the space since she couldn't come up with a registered address.
—"Mhum." Sandra said while patting the cheeks of the now barely conscious burden they had brought up the stairs.
At the other end of the plateau the entry to the sect gaped open. From what Sandra knew the entry had once been buried, and the sect master herself had excavated it. Over the centuries a few structures had been built to glorify the area and now the archway around the entry was so richly decorated that it would likely stun an emperor. Certain... otherworldly effects had been added.
The group now gathered on the plateau were all looking around in wonder when a black robed high disciple flew out of the entry, standing on a sword. Seeing this feat, everyone gasped and were deeply shocked, and even Sandra raised an eyebrow.
The deity-like woman landed on the archway and drew another archway of falling flower petals with her sword.
—"Fortunate chosen—this is the first day of your new lives. This is your opportunity to give everything for a chance to reach the heavens! Mid grade cores and above, please enter into the sect!" she commanded with a grand augmented voice that almost brought a few recruits to their knees.
—"Oh wow, that's my cue." Yordbruc said, getting up with some effort. "See you inside."
Not likely, given the size of the sect, Sandra thought as she watched her half-jog off to join four others.
—o—
Sandra shimmied on a pair of familiar scant panties while chuckling at the other flustered women getting changed. Her group of eight had been brought into a temporary reception chamber for high servants and had each been given a basket with clothes, a low grade energy pill, a local map covering just a few rooms, and three books on loan. Though the first book was just the sect's basic primer that Sandra had already read, and the other was a boring introduction to their job, the last contained introductory techniques. This is what she had been working for so she was eager to just disappear with it, but that would sabotage her future efforts. How hard could it be to gain access to the sect's low level library?
Just as she was going to thumb through the technique book, a black robed disciple entered and interrupted.
—"High servants of the sect!"
Everyone quieted and looked at the—in their eyes—magnificent super woman with reverence.
—"You will sleep here for a week, study the books, and practice the techniques. No food will be served. This is a test. We have high expectations. Do not stumble at the first step." she said and walked out, leaving the room briefly silent before confused whispering began.
Well that was a little brusque, Sandra thought, but it was perfect for her. She immediately found a bunk and immersed herself in the technique book, evidently setting an example for a few others who followed suit.
She didn't need to learn sourcing and instead secretly chewed on bitter herbs from her space, refining them into energy. The real meat for her was the basic cultivation technique called Three Rivers. It was no wonder she hadn't been able to just come up with a technique of her own—the whole procedure was incredibly intricate and required a great deal of interosception skill. She estimated that it would take months to learn.
Cultivation techniques could not easily be mentally transferred like Shao had with sourcing, but had to be adapted to the user's body. Three Rivers worked for most cultivators with the trade-off that it wasn't very effective. Once a cultivator figured out their body constitution, it was apparently possible to request a more powerful technique from the sect library, and this made Sandra giddy.
There was another technique in the book which she chose to ignore—a fist fighting technique that was very basic in the cultivation world but would probably knock out a professional heavyweight boxer if the user had a level or two.
The other women quickly realised that they needed to focus on learning sourcing and were quite exhausted by day two. Five had to consume their energy pill to extend their study deadline. Sandra didn't spend any time talking to any of the others and kept on practising Three Rivers. Because of her head start, abnormally tuned body, and powerful core, it was much easier for her to sense when energy was properly flowing, and she made a breakthrough after six days. If she still had her original very low grade core, it would have been difficult to receive the feedback necessary to map her meridians.
She spent the last day experimenting with refining the energy pill and various herbs into building her power level, and was pleasantly surprised when she advanced to level one. She felt noticeably stronger and tougher.
The book had a handy table that gave estimates for progression speeds. Sandra was surprised to learn that a low grade core should take weeks or months to reach power level one. While Sandra didn't fit into the table, she still felt bad, figuring that overall her progress was incredibly slow compared to a direct disciple of someone like Ghamlin—she had wasted years in her ignorance and now had to crawl her way to the safety offered by a decent power level.
To be continued.
Plan:
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MC is selected by Yordbruc as maid. Becomes friends? Weird power dynamic since MC is secretly OP.
There's some sect tournament with inter-disciple drama. Yordbruc at a low point. Shitty people get comeuppance, like the duo from 13y ago... they're finding new targets? They look exactly the same btw.
MC's alchemy helps Yordbruc.
Hears rumors about this new super-elite "Shao". Elders are up to something. Power leveling her. Out, but will be returning soon?
She feels bad about dicing earth worm so she instead takes it into her space?
Red devil gives the sect a fruit from the fancy tree just so red devil appears active?
Still can't figure out the stealth cloak.
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Accidental confrontation with Shao in a corridor.. maybe old washroom. Sometimes Shao walks by... lingering memories. Not her PoV tho. Sandra drifts by too, proving a commonality.
Shao had assaulted her bullies for Sandra's sake, resulting in her demotion and 13 years of misery, so she's a little miffed Sandra was just missing and said nothing, apparently not kidnapped/killed. And now Shao still can't tell anyone because Sandra is now Zan Duran. (Sect elders actually DGAF about Shao's record tho.)
What is Sandra's excuse/explanation?
Whatcha doing here (washroom) anyways? The commonality.
Friendship left in peril tho.
Some events in between.
Finally, later:
PoV shift to Shao: Finding out Sandra is red demon is a big shock. Couple this with an event, like a rescue in the wild, a sect outing. Red devil has to appear as Zan Duran is officially too weak. They pair up and things calm down. Sandra forgets to put helmet back on when at a campfire eating spirit meat. Just a quick bite she thought. Shao had to return early from some thing and sees it. Big WTF. Friendship resumed.
——————————————————————————————————————
Red demon makes a name for herself. Perhaps via previous incident where a big thing was killed.
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When she meets her parents:
After finding out what her butterfly mark means she heads over to the Nyx empire which is in trouble. Her royal parents think her as long dead ofc.
Brief PoV shift?
Aura farming sequence. Throne room.
Her royal parents are getting deposed—moved off in chains. You can't do this! Enemy empire is taking over, lead by a cultivator playing "neutral".
Basically a bit of drama and exposition. Things seem urgent. Execution?
Red demon smashes down like a meteor into the royal hall.
--"Red demon, senior, with all due respect--this is none of your business."
--"A can assure you, this is indeed my business."
(Established earlier that cultivators can intervene in matters of family).
Takes helmet off.
Butterfly on her glabella.
The imperial mark!
Antagonist causes some fuzz but is whacked aside, maybe dead. "Oops."
Reunion attempt, parents rushing forth.
PoV end.
However,
The antagonist had a more powerful elder cultivator as backup, and her parents are killed before she gets to know them. A tough fight breaks out.
Little cloud is away at this time for some reason. Helmet still off. Takes a punch to the face.
The fight smashes the participants out of the castle and into a field with not-cows. Old guy is very arrogant. PL 48.
—"Obediently leave your treasures for this lord and this lord can spare you a painful death." he said, flicking some dust off his robe as he drew closer.
Perhaps involve/unleash the earth worm here? Tamed?
... and then when she appears to be winning and stands over him.
—"You can't kill me. I'm an elder of the bla-bla sect."
She grinned maniacally, air hissing through her clenched bloody teeth as she stifled a laughter. She didn't care about his background.
--"I warn you! The Lux family will-"
—"Shut your face grody grandpa." she spat out. "Just obediently leave your corpse here to be trampled in the shit."
Kills him.
Wait, the Lux what now? Now she's tangled.
——————————————————————————————————————
The "inheritance" could also refer to MC inheriting the problems of the predecessor (not just Ghamlin's golden finger).
The bronze mirrors can be used as portals.
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Characters:
Sandra Harker, Zan Duran, Princess Kzandrah
Shao
Yordbruc
Sect master
Bullies
Fainted woman
Ghamlin
God
Parents
Lux family
Other questers of Ghamlin's.
——————————————————————————————————————
Core rarity: 40.00V.LMH.VGC.C
lips curled into a demonic smile
Lina?
——————————————————————————————————————
Why bother getting servants with cores? Well, mortals die even faster if sourcing, and even a very low grade core is useful for some tasks in the sect, and there's always a chance for a servant to rise due to developing a special body constitution.
Many with subpar cores join with hope shining in their eyes. For a moral family having any kind of connection with a sect is big.
——————————————————————————————————————
Outline/Summary thoughts:
MC is reincarnated by a god. Why?
The god takes away some of her empathy and nervousness so she can survive in the world. Will she realize it?
MC is trapped and dying.
What is MC's goal? What does the reader want to find out and see resolved?
MC explores the sect and meets Shao. How close were they?
MC meets OP grandpa and gets her golden finger. Can the reader get excited about what she will use it for? She does help Shao, then she leaves the sect to experience the world. She likes to ponder but also to just wing it. This is a character trait.
She realizes she needs to go back?
MC collects some herbs, loses a battle and visits a town.
Then returns to the sect.
She will meet upgraded Shao again. Reader might care about how her shenanigans affected the sect master and Shao.
MC finally starts cultivating. How is this exciting?