Cultivating Chaos 4 -ch3- (Patreon)

“It’s really strange,” Rou murmured, peering upward into the orange sky above them. “It isn’t sunrise, or sunset. The coloring is the same though.”

“In the book I read it said the light is weak. Since it’s artificial in nature, that’s no surprise,” Locke replied.

Ash was rather confused by it all.

By this place.

They were slowly moving down a street that reminded him a lot of a run-down semi-industrial area of his homeworld. Buildings that made it three or four stories up at their tallest, all relatively close packed, and mostly falling down.

He’d thought they’d escaped part of the prison when they’d fled the previous evening. Locke had mentioned it was the arrival area, but he really hadn’t understood it till they exited the sewers a few minutes ago.

It was a massive and sprawling city. One that was clearly made by Cultivators and citizens alike. Where there was a great deal that was clearly made by hard labor, and other things that were formed with Qi abilities.

Most especially the floating buildings that were above them in the sky. Hovering in position and looming above like a sullen cloud.

As he thought about it, Ash had glanced up.

Small floating boats connected to ropes that led from the top of a building on the street reached up to the bottom of the floating building. Apparently these were the only way to access said building without having the ability to fly.

Given how little Qi there is here… that’s most everyone. Even Chunhua would have difficulty even floating here since there’s the Qi density is so terrible.

Though that does make me very curious about how the buildings are floating.

Far above those buildings, amongst the sky itself, were several islands. They moved more freely than the buildings but were drifting lazily along.

As far as he could tell, the light was coming distantly from somewhere above them. As if it were always noon.

“— completely enclosed. The whole thing being covered in formations,” Locke murmured. “I’d love to see them up close. I bet there’s a lot we could learn from them. Every formation is just another way of Enchanting something.

“I’ve been able to extract and replicate a great deal of new possibilities from combining it all together. Doesn’t matter what the medium is since it’s all relatively the same thing.”

“Ashely, what should we do first? Your weapon waits a direction,” asked Hui, turning her face toward him and watching him.

The beautiful woman had changed drastically from the woman he’d met once long ago. From a haughty and strong cultivator, to a broken wretch, to a woman who called herself a weapon and took on a new name.

Ash could see her personality still there beneath it all.

When they’d left the sewers she’d made sure to keep Ash away from all the inhabitants. Stating that he’d dirtied himself enough by touching her to cleanse her and that he needed to preserve himself from their filth.

All in all, he could see much of a traditional Cultivator’s point of view in her. That anything other than another Cultivator was beneath notice.

I’ll have to work on that.

“Like Locke suggested. Find a man, have you three ask questions, pretend I don’t exist,” Ash paraphrased. “That way we get some information. With any luck we can find a Qi-Lord’s territory nearby.”

While they’d been standing there, several groups of what Ash could only consider as “guards” had gone by. They were escorting groups of men and women in work clothes carrying all manner of tools.

Not far off was a new group of guards and people. Passing by Ash’s group in the opposite directdion.

One of the women in the group exited the formation to grab something she’d spotted in a heap of trash. Pocketing it she’d went right back into the middle of the group.

Leaving Ash with the belief that they really weren’t directly prisoners of the guards and that they were in truth actually escorting them somewhere.

“Ah! Excuse me, we’re new here,” called Locke to the group in a warm and bubbly voice. “Could you tell me which way the closest Qi-Lord territory is? We’re trying to figure out what to do and we’re just… trying to stay out of everyone’s way.”

One of the guards eyed Locke in a way that any man would. Then he laughed loudly.

“Good luck with that,” the guard spat out.

“That way,” said a man in the group with a pickaxe. He was pointing off behind Ash’s group. “If you’re actually looking to settle down in a place, if you have any strength at all, that’s not a bad place to do it. Otherwise you’re better off with the guards and us. Do your time, pay for your crime.”

“Pay for your crime,” responded everyone in the group.

Right… found the passive sheep. Wanting someone to tell them what to do and a goal to follow. One they can submerge themselves in.

“Well, sounds like we’re going that way then,” Rou muttered.

“Your weapon awaits direction, Ashley,” Hui said. Her eyes had only left him for a moment to confirm what the other group had said. “Please… please direct your Hui.”

Well that’s an odd way to address herself. Even after that short nap she’s still speaking in an odd way.

Hui was wearing a set of clothes Ash had pulled from the Hall. All the wounds on her body had been forcefully treated by Rou and some medicine which had also been taken from the Hall.

While no one else could access their storage, the Hall seemed to be outside of that. An exception that Ash could utilize freely.

From all appearances she was a beautiful woman without anything wrong with her.

Internally she was a mess.

Her Dantian was recovering and she was processing her two types of Qi. Both living Qi and dead Qi. Each were being extracted from her environment and Ash simply providing her with it.

Given what they’d done to her, she could take in either Qi type and convert it to the other with very minimal loss. She was effectively able to gain Qi at double the normal rate of anyone else as she had two sources to gain from.

Her meridians were frayed and torn from the change-over and getting used to their new Qi. As well as her Dao having been scooped out entirely and restarted.

Having never passed out and all that’d been done, it was a wonder that Hui wasn’t a raving lunatic. Though the way she looked at him left Ash wondering if part of her mind had been fractured after all.

He’d truly hoped a quick nap might help her, but it didn’t seem to have corrected anything.

“Hui, are you alright?” Ash asked instead.

“I’m very well, Ashley. I’m just… I’m… eager… to begin working,” Hui admitted, her words taking on a breathless quality. “I can feel myself growing in power. That I’m slowly correcting my own difficulties the longer I circulate my new cultivating method. The fact that I can do it passively constantly is very helpful.

“I just… I want to begin earning my keep as your weapon. I was talented and powerful before. Had we met at my prime I would have forced you to kill me, or I might have beaten you. Now-now I feel as if I’m going to grow even further.”

In other words… it’s just like everyone else I’ve helped out.

When they feel indebted, they feel it to the core of their being. It becomes all encompassing.

Doubly so since a pledge was involved.

This is what you’re always warning me about, isn’t it Locke? That these women are survivors that would gladly do what they had to?

“Exactly. You get a bit squirrely with the idea of a woman selling their body for gains. Men do the same for female cultivators in the opposite direction, too, you know.

“In this realm… the vast majority of the men and women in this realm don’t think like you do. They’d consider it an even trade depending on the price,” Locke confirmed. “She is much like the Brides of Sheng. All willingly joined without coercion for the price they were given in exchange. Not one women in the Brides of Sheng joined without them wishing to. Wanting to. It’s completely and only voluntary.

“And before you get huffy, I made a change just before we left. I forced it through with Mei so it’s already in effect.

“I abolished the adoption rights that Yue had put in for them. I also put in term limits for them to remain Brides. Now, the Brides of Sheng can only serve for thirty years and then must retire back to the Sheng alliance and work to improve and expand it. That means taking a husband and having children.

“I knew you were uncomfortable with it so I had it changed. Have no fear, Ash. I’ll protect you when I can.”

You did? I… thanks!

Yeah, thank you. Thanks a lot.

It really did bother me.

I know they bartered themselves into debt to get what they wanted, but not having limits on that was… that was just too much. Bad enough if they’ve pledged to me since I can’t release those easily.

“Yes, they pledged. All of them. Mei had it done while you were sleeping and I worked to silence the racket it made so you’d sleep through it,” confessed Locke. “It was easier that way since they weren’t going to listen to you asking them not to pledge.

“But everything else is fine. It’s more like a military service now. Where they put their lives on the line and then retire out to a normal service in the alliance.

“There’s even some beginnings of a male version of it. The Brother’s of Sheng. They’ll all be dedicated to you as a brother and won’t be pledging either, obviously.

“Yue was against it but… err… we need a viable gene pool to work within and without. That means lots of other men in the alliance. It was funny at first, but now that it’s an actual clan we need to correct our foundation.”

Ash was stunned.

He had no idea Locke had been doing all this behind the scenes.

For him, specifically, no less.

Locke would had to have fought Yue directly on most of this.

Thank you, my wife. Locke Sheng, thank you.

“That’s the way we go then, dear Hui,” Ash murmured and looked over his shoulder. He couldn’t see a way through the buildings directly behind them, but he imagined they could find a street that’d take them that way.

“Of course… husband,”purred Locke a second before a green arrow appeared at the bottom of his vision. It was directing him. “I’ll lead you, darling.”

“Your weapon will lead the way, merely direct me,” Hui said and then lifted her chin up fractionally. A smile swept over her faces and lit her face up in a way that emphasized her incredibly good looks. “I shall knock all those aside who get too close to you. Your weapon will take the dirt and grim in your stead and push it away.”

Oh… great.

Another Na.

That’s not what I needed.

“Does that mean you want him to grab you by the handle?” Locke asked with a laugh as they began walking.

“Yes. He should grasp his weapon tightly. Grasp it tightly and use it frequently in every way he wishes. His weapon will remain with him in all things so he should utilize it in all things. I’m his to use. From the bathroom to the bedroom to the trash when he’s done with me and has fed me Chen’s heart. Use me in all things,” Hui stated without any subtlety or embarrassment. “The weapon of Ashley Sheng is what Hui is.”

Worse… worse than Na.

Definitely not what I needed.

***

Ash now understood what the man had meant when he said that you couldn’t miss it.

An entire block from one side, to the other, had been flattened to nothing. Torn down to the stones and earth with nothing left behind at all.

In front of them was a large wall that rose an easy forty or fifty feet into the air. One that was topped with guards and towers in equal number.

They were armed, watching, and patrolling.

This was quite literally a city, within a city.

“This is all so strange,” Rou mumbled with a small shake of her head. “I’m honestly not even sure how to take all this.”

“Well… the answer to that is carefully and with caution. Remember, you’re my wife and a weak cultivator. We don’t discuss why we were sent here. You’re not a Qi-Healer at all,” Ash repeated again. It was a simple story they’d come up with. “Locke, my other wife, Hui… Hui is our communal familial servant.”

“Yep, yep!” Locke stated cheerfully. “This should be kinda fun? We’re just nobodies! We can do whatever we want as long as we keep our heads down.”

“Should we find others to join us?” Rou asked curiously. “We’re not planning on staying here so… if we make friends, do we try to get them out with us?”

Ash had been staring at the back of Hui while listening to Locke and Rou.

She was circulating her Qi back and forth. Converting live Qi to dead Qi and back, then back again. Each time she completed a cycle she forced it through her meridians and back again.

He could feel it every time she made a circuit. Each time she forcefully expanded her Qi-sea and redfined her Dao. In less than twenty-four hours she was rapidly approaching the end of the Mortal Refiner level.

Shit, she’ll likely pop into Spirit Refiner in the next hour or two.

How will we handle tribulations?

“I’ll just eat them. I can still open portals to the Hall, I just can’t… go there,” Locke answered.

Ash had a weird thought at her response and filed it away for later. He wanted to explore it but they had other needs right now.

The group of four began moving to the hodgepodge made gates. A blending of terribly made metals and wood slammed together.

There was also a faint feeling of Qi running through it as if they’d used materials that’d been at one point enchanted.

Neither of the two guards stopped them, asked them a question, or even paid them attention. They briefly looked over Rou, Locke, and Hui as a man would, then ignored the trio.

In fact, Ash realized belatedly as he walked by them that they weren’t even Cultivators. They had no Dantians or Qi inside them.

Given the quizzical looks on his companions, Ash figured they’d all noticed the same thing as well. That or they were surprised the guards left them alone.

Walking into the “city” of the Qi-Lord, Ash found it was very similar to the slum quarter where he grew up. Everything had a damp sheen to it that one could nearly call slime.

Dirt and detritus was practically everywhere.

Around them were a number of ugly and squat homes. Made out of whatever was available and thrown together as sturdily as they could manage.

“It’s pretty bad. Though I haven’t actually felt any Cultivators yet. These are all citizens. Which is kind of weird. I thought this was a Cultivator’s prison,” Locke worriedly shared.

Ash nodded his head as they kept walking.

This wasn’t a surprise to him if he was being honest.

If there was no Qi here, and people were people and sough comfort in each other, then there would be a great many people born here. With a lack of Qi and people being born regularly, that meant there’d be a number of citizens born inside of this prison.

“Let’s find a room,” Ash blurted out when he suddenly felt Liu wake up. Wake up and immediately reach out to him with her own Dao. It was as if he was in a bedroom and she was quite literally clawing at the door. “We can listen in on conversations in the common room and figure out what to do next there while I talk to the others.”

“You can talk to them?” Rou asked with hope in her voice.

“Liu. He can talk to Liu,” Locke interjected. “Her Dao is him. Quite literally.”

“The weapon of Ashley Sheng would like her Dao to be reformed again,” Hui quickly threw in.

“Not possible. You wouldn’t want it anyways,” Locke cautioned. “Ah, let’s go that way. I’m confident that there’s an inn there.”

“Why do you think that?” asked Ash.

“Lots of people that are fucking, drinking, or sleeping,” Locke answered while laughing. She quickly moved to the head of the group and began leading the way.

Valid reasoning.

Super valid reasoning.

I think that’d probably be an inn, too.

“I’d like to do all three, of those, by the way,” Locke then added, looking back at him with a wide smile. “Especially the first one. I need you to emit some Qi into me. As much as you can spare. There’s so little Qi here.”

Rou cleared her throat, but before she could add her own wishes in, Hui clapped her hands together quickly and with force. Shattering Rou’s attempt.

“Your weapon would like the last one, but is open to the first one if you need it of her. If you do use Hui for the first one, please treat Hui gently as she’s only known one man.

“Do not misunderstand, Hui is very eager to experience Ashley’s needs personally. I’m-I’m very inexperienced but willing,” Hui stated, somehow mixing up all three forms of speaking. From an item, to third person, to first person.

Ash now firmly believed she was not right in the head. There was something certainly wrong with Hui after her transformation.

That or her Dantian being damaged had affected her far more than she’d let on. That her quiet acceptance of it and wishing to simply let her life slip away had been only the surface of her feelings.

“I… for myself, I’d have to agree with both Locke and Hui for my needs. I’d like to experience all three and it must be stated,” Rou added on, whatever embarrassment she had going right out the window. “And yes, I clearly have to be forward if I’m going to keep pace with these two while we’re stuck here. I have no idea how long that’ll be, but I can’t afford to become a decorative piece that’s set aside.”

Saying nothing, Ash really didn’t want to respond.

Just as Locke often shut down with him being aggressive, he often did as well.