Cultivating Chaos 5 -ch 22- (Patreon)

The trip to Ashiok’s tribe had been uneventful.

Two days at a rather sedate pace that left Ash feeling tied down and slow.

Or at least, a sedate pace for Ash.

While he and his group could run for extreme distances, Ashiok’s people could not. The distance they covered was incredible if one considered it from a citizen’s perspective at least.

From Ashiok’s people, Ash and company had turned to a road that apparently would lead them to Horse tribe.

Long beaten down by people traveling between the two tribes for trade.

Ash had a number of thoughts about how these beast tribes worked. That they were all fascinating, but fragile, to his thinking.

Their population centers were small, their numbers limited, and they couldn’t cross-breed or expand their head-count much.

They were magical beasts after all.

Animals that were exposed to a great deal of Qi, through whatever means it may be. Only to become enlightened and then grow an awareness of the world.

Sentience, as it were.

It wouldn’t take more than a few accidents, deaths, or a virulent sickness, to wipe out the magical beast tribes power structure.

The idea that magical beasts could maintain control of an area like this was entirely predicated on someone not deciding to swoop in and kill them for their core.

Which was likely to be quite powerful.

Even Ash had to admit he had briefly considered what it would be like to go after the opposing side for cores. The cores he could get from them would be substantially stronger than anything else.

If I used them to try and make an artifact, I could probably succeed.

Ashiok’s alone is already stronger than anything I’ve gotten my hands on.

I could… I could probably make an artifact like the one the Brides use for the Manse.

If I built it out in a similar way, a large dollhouse looking thing, and inscribed it from top to bottom… then stuck in one of those cores, it’d work.

Just make it a castle.

Call it the Castile or something.

I’ll use that giant Rat’s core as a test run for it. If it works, great, if it doesn’t, well… maybe next time.

“I like that. That’s a good plan. We should do that. When we go back to talk to Ashiok later we should ask if there happen to be any Beast Cores that they’d be willing to trade with.

“Or actually, ask if it’s considered bad form to ask about Cores. For all we know, they consider it to be part and parcel to their corpse and person.”

Good point.

We’ll need to do that.

Thanks as ever, my dearest Locke.

“Of course! I still owe you for taking Siu off and giving her what she needed. Her Dao is so much more complete now.”

In the end, Siu’s Dao had been incredibly simple.

It was very similar to Liu in many ways.

Her Dao was the extreme embodiment of Ash’s desires, wants, and libido. That she should be the center of it all, be part of it, and facilitate and curb when needed.

Everything that went with that was a massive slew of emotional controls to help him in way too many situations.

Though when he thought about it, sex and fighting often had similar chemical responses so it made sense.

It was my pleasure.

Quite literally.

I’m just surprised she turned into such a cuddly and conservative thing.

Only you play any type of games or explore with me, Locke.

“And boy am I so glad about that. They’re all just… happy little vanilla girls who just want you on top of them and staring at them.

“Oh! I think there’s something up ahead. I can feel it. It’s so nice to be able to sense the Qi around us again. The prison really did restrict us quite badly.”

“Locke said there’s something up ahead,” Ash said aloud, interrupting the conversation around him.

Everyone stopped talking and looked down the road they were walking.

Having enjoyed the casual conversation at a leisurely pace with Ashiok, everyone had stated they wished to walk to their next destination. That there was no need to rush or run.

Ash had seen them building bonds amongst themselves that was more than just “a fellow Bride” or “I can trust my back to them”.

They had been developing actual friendships.

Jia and Hui had surprisingly gotten along incredibly well.

“Locke, you could have just told all of us,” Mei teased, reaching over to prod at the other woman. Mei and Locke had actually become friends as well.

Immediately followed by Locke telling Ash to forget everything about ever having a three way with Mei.

“I was already chatting with Ash about something else and I just blurted it out,” Locke admitted. “It feels like a gathering point for Qi, but there’s also… some strange circulations going on there.”

“Oh? Oh. I want to talk to Ash in his head, too,” Xiuying said. “It’s hard to get time alone with him.”

There was no response to her words.

Likely because they all actually had alone time with him quite often, in fact.

His bed was getting an incredible workout and Ash’s libido was being force-fed and drained repeatedly.

Not that he was complaining but he did feel somewhat bad at how it almost felt like a game of spin-the-bottle. Only the person he was with last spent the night in his bed.

“We should ready ourselves,” Hui advised. “We are in hostile territory after all. And we still don’t know if that virus remains. There’s no telling if it was based in Qi and has hung around.

“If it is indeed whatever it was that wiped out the population, we should leave it to Ash to purify it. Just as he did the poison.”

Everyone nodding their heads and quite literally got ready. Pulling weapons free, activating abilities, and in some cases, powering up a Dao.

Siu was a good example of that.

She had moved in behind Ash, stuck a hand on his back, ran her Dao up, and unfurled a fan to hold in front of her face. She could fight in hand-to-hand combat and would do well against other Cultivators.

Against spirits, beasts, or otherwise, she was at a disadvantage.

Locke turned her head as they continued to walk and looked off to one side.

“It’s that way. It’s not on the path. I thought… I thought it’d be on the path,” Locke muttered. “Should we go investigate it?”

“I feel like we should,” Moira offered with a sniff. “When I flew along this path earlier, I did see a few points of interest and we added them to the map.

“Chu, is there anything over there?”

Chunhua had already pulled out the table from her storage and held it up casually with one hand while staring at the map.

“No. There isn’t,” Chunhua reported and dismissed the table.

“In other words, it’s something that isn’t visible to the eye. My Elegant Self is a curious Bunny-Wife and would like to see what’s there,” Tala mused aloud, then turned her head to the side and gave Ash a cute smile and widened her eyes. One of her ears slowly flopped to the side and she looked like something out of an anime. “Would you like to explore with your curious and very sweet Bunny-Wife?”

It was finished with a slight raising of her shoulders and a giggle that belonged more to Xiuying than Tala.

Ash wanted to say yes if only because whenever Tala acted like this he was always rewarded for agreeing with her.

“I hate that you can switch between angry and overly cute like that,” Jia grumbled with a sigh then also looked to Ash. “Though I would like to see what it is as well.”

There were a number of nodded heads to that.

Cultivators were curious, aggressive, and strangely romantic.

Tala wrinkled her nose, grinned even wider while holding Ash’s gaze, and gave her head a minute shake, making her ears wobble slightly.

Wanting him not to speak to her actions.

She’d confided in him that the saccharine sweet personality of hers that she often “faked” to get him to do things, was more in line with how she wanted to be.

The gruff warrior exterior and her pride were walls built to defend herself. She was currently having difficulties trying to walk the line between the two.

Who she wanted to be, and who she made herself be.

“Then we’ll go explore,” Ash agreed. He’d cycled up his own Dao and let it build slowly. There was no reason to press on it until there was a need to do something.

He mentally saw it as a river passing by like this.

The group turned off the road and marched on. Leaving the well worn trail by the Horses and Gorillas bilateral trade. Walking into knee high length grasses that obscured much of what could be seen.

There were a number of trees here and there but it was mostly open plains.

Ashiok had warned them that the further they went towards the lands of the Horse, that it would become more and more open. Less and less of a forest and jungle that marked the Ape tribes lands.

Now that they were moving this way, Ash could feel what Locke had been talking about. There was a gathering of Qi that didn’t feel right, as well as some oddities in it.

“It’s strange,” Ash mumbled as he touched the Qi currents. Letting his awareness dip into it and “taste” it.

The Qi was old.

Very old.

Old and concentrated in a way that it was cycling itself. Qi was being drawn in but it was minimal. As if this concentration didn’t want Qi from the outside.

Almost as if it were trying to remain hidden.

Or it was locked away.

“It feels like the prison,” Chunhua commented as they moved through the grass. “As if the Qi is restricted.

“I feel the same,” Ash agreed.

The land rolled gently and the group suddenly found themselves looking down into a small gulley. At the center of it and just about folded into the land was a strange ruin.

It reminded Ash of a tomb in some ways as well as what looked like several sacrificial altars. All of it was contained within the gulley.

“A place of worship?” Na asked. “It reminds me of several places of worship I visited as a child.”

“Yes, yes it does,” concurred Mei with a sigh. “It’s a tomb of sorts and also where worship was done.

“Worshipping their ancestors and entombing them. What a worthless waste of our time. There’s no reason to bother with the bones of the long dead.”

“I almost feel bad in a way,” Rou murmured with a sigh. “No one will note them despite being discovered. If we mention this to others, they’ll come to rob it for nothing than the stones that mark the sites.”

“It’s best to not speak of this in the future,” Hui concurred.

“We won’t be doing any of that. Because it’s more than any of that and it wants us to leave,” Ash ground out between his teeth.

His Dao had ran up against something in those ruins and was now grinding away at it. Something that’d wanted Ash and his whole group to turn away, or turn around.

To ignore what they saw and write it off as nothing of interest.

The feeling was extreme, to put it lightly.

It felt a lot like Ash to the way he’d felt when a very strong Cultivator exerted their pressure over him at the edge of the veil. That it would change his perceptions just based on the difference in power alone.

Except Ash’s Dao didn’t allow him to be swayed to another’s momentum anymore.

He couldn’t be without allowing it or dying.

There was a high-pitched whining followed by a crack of thunder as the force that was pressing on his group shattered apart. The long-standing Qi spell that’d been laid into the surroundings breaking under the force of the snow-flake that’d become an boulder rolling down the hill.

Soon I’ll be an avalanche.

Even tribulations aren’t a concern anymore.

“They’re really not. Kinda anti-climatic in a way. Now they’re just a resource for us to harvest whenever we can.

“Also, I didn’t even realize what was happening with the ruins. Whatever that was, it was effective against me. Against everyone.

“Your Dao kept you on your own path. The power of a Dao is immutable to it’s own cause.”

Does that mean that Siu knows every single want I would ever have in the bedroom?

“I… yes? Yes. Pity I don’t have a Dao but… that’s for living creatures.”

I mean, you’re alive right now.

Figure out what the body’s Dao is even if you yourself technically do have one.

Since, you know, you are that body now.

It would have had it’s own Dao at one point, right?

“It’s a portal? Or a plane?” Chunhua asked sounding breathless. “I wanted to look away. To leave. But now I can see it. It leads somewhere else. Somewhere… old.”

“And unfriendly,” Rou stated. “I can feel the pain and anger roiling off it. I don’t… I probably shouldn’t go in there.”

“Or me,” Xiuying whined, grabbing hold of Rou’s hand and pushing in close to the Qi-Healer. “Sister, won’t you come to the Manse with me? Please?

“I suddenly feel like I really shouldn’t go down there. At all. Not for anything or anyone.”

“I… of course. But… what about everyone else?” Rou asked.

“I don’t know, but I know I shouldn’t go in there. Not for any reason,” Xiuying stated firmly, then vanished.

Sending herself into the Manse.

“Ah… sorry, but this isn’t a place for non-combatants it seems,” Rou apologized and looked around. “Everyone, please make sure you come back to me in a way I can put you back together.”

Rou then vanished as well.

“It would seem we’ve found something unexpected and dangerous,” Mei mused.

“I’m always excited for fortunate encounters now,” Hui declared. “I should’ve realized my fight with Ash earlier was one such encounter. If I had joined him sooner, I think I could’ve been even stronger than I am now!”

“I don’t think so,” answered Ash out of hand as they continued to walk down into the ruins. He could feel the portal Chunhua had mentioned now.

It felt as if it was a hole in a wall.

A lot like when he’d tripped in his home with the Sheng family and his elbow struck the flimsy wall and put a hole in it.

Light would spill in through it and brighten the darkened hall it’d happened in.

“If you’d joined me then, all that would’ve happened was you would have taken Tala’s elemental spot,” he continued, not really thinking about the conversation but wanting to make sure Hui understood that she was perfect as she was. “In retrospect, your ability with Fire was only mediocre at best, Hui. Tala is a being that was made to be fire.

“An extremely hot and intense core surrounded by a more gradual warmth as you radiate outward. Something that can be tamed with care and fed into a bonfire equally.

“You were nowhere near her affinity.

“Not to mention, your power is directly impacted by death. It doesn’t seem as if I’m running into fewer enemies as we go. It seems they’re ever greater.

“Only you could fill the role of my element of Life and Death while being my strategist.”

“Oh my heavens we’re all unique,” hissed Na in a strangled voice. “Who was it that said they wished they had a unique position? We’re all unique. None of us have overlap.”

“I’m Earth,” Mei began as they closed in on the ruins. “Jia is Water, Na is… well, she’s Jade, now. She’s a unique Cultivator. Her powers are defensive in nature but only… as if they were to defend one person. To defend Ashley.

“Hui is Life and Death… Siu is his physical needs… Locke his emotional and his insihgt.

“Moira is Metal, Tala fire. Rou is our Qi-Healer and Chunhua our Elements expert and formations.

“Ying-Yue was our Wood and Alchemist but… now… it’s Xiuying. Who has the Wood element.”

“It would seem Ashley draws in those he needs for certain roles,” Jia mused.

“Do we have any roles we’re missing? We should keep an eye out for it,” Chunhua stated. “Ahh… sound? Someone who falls into the cultivation of sound?”

“A Magical Beast that has enough power to transform?” suggested Moira. “I read several stories about that.”

Ash snorted at that and stepped up to the “hole in the wall” portal. He could feel that this was indeed where the ancient Qi was.

It was all around the portal and coming out of it as well.

There was nothing you could see with your eyes, but it was 

“—yes. That’d be it. We should keep an eye out for it. Is there any other types of people like Ashley or Xiuying?” asked Tala. “Fated Ones, Fortune’s Chosen, stuff.”

“Ah… I think there’s a Heaven’s Selected? A Chosen of the Heavens? ” Na answered. “But I’m not sure about this. We should ask someone else!”

“I’ll start combing through all the books in the Hall about any of that. I didn’t bother with them because I didn’t think they’d help us at all,” Locke pitched in.

Ash reached out and touched the portal.

There was an immediate resistance to his touch. As if you were attempting to push two magnets toward one another but they had reversed polarities.

They were pushing at each other with a force equal to the force attempting to bring them toward one another.

“It’s another warding,” Chunhua whispered, slowly walking around the portal. “I could sense the previous one after you broke it, this is a similar one, but it is more like a locked door.

“The previous was a sign warning us away without us knowing it, before anyone asks.”

“Can we just punch through it?” asked Mei a second before she took a step toward the portal and quite literally punched it.

Her Earth borne strength was transmitted into her fist as it cracked into the portal.

There was a boom that felt a lot like a very heavy caliber rifle going off.

Jia was laughing and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Amusingly literal, Mei dear,” Jia teased.

Mei shrugged, grinned, and shook her hand briefly.

“It’s harder than anything I’ve ever encountered,” she said with a laugh.

Ash thought on it.

Thought on it and thought on it.

“Do you think Xiuying would be able to accidentally open it?” Ash asked, then sighed, and finally groaned. “Nevermind. She said she shouldn’t be down here for any reason. That’d be a betrayal of her trust.

“She’s not… a good luck charm to be tossed around wildly. She’s a person.”

“Mmm, this is why my Elegant Bunny-Wife Self loves you so,” Tala purred, patting him on the back. “You recognize what would normally happen, but have your own morals to hold you up.”

“Can we try drawing out the Qi?” Moira asked. “It’s bottled up and won’t let us in. Can we pull the Qi out?”

Hui had walked over to a memorial stone tablet that was off to one side.

Such things often explained who was burried here and why.

As well as often sometimes a brief synopsis of their lives.

She reached out to lightly run a finger along the words inscribed their.

“Ashley, this lists out the burial vault as nothing more than a local merchant and his family,” Hui remarked. “That means the portal might have nothing to do with the ruins and is here for another reason.

“Could it be where those who couldn’t get to the prison, went? Is this another bunker of sorts? Is it why the Qi is restricted?”

Raising his eyebrows at that, Ash wondered about her hypothesis.

Then he lifted up his hand that held the ring of the Imperial Clan of the Grassy Vale. It’d opened many of the doors in the Prison’s command facility.

Despite it being found in a realm far from the prison.

“Maybe the ring is also someone who escaped this realm. Someone powerful,” Ash mused. “They wouldn’t have the title ‘imperial’ for no reason after all.”

Ash then reached out and put the ring to the portal.

There was no response.

For only a second, at least.

Then there was a “whump” followed by the world going black as the portal pulled them in.