Story 10 - The Spy Who Rocked Too Hard (Part 17 🎸) (Patreon)

Author’s Note: Hi everyone! I’ll give more details in the author’s note at the end of the chapter but Part 18 will be delayed till next week (probably Wednesday or Thursday). I apologize for the inconvenience and I appreciate your patience! You all are the best!

For those who prefer Google Docs, here is the link to Part 17.

Part 17

I finished packing away all my formation flags that survived the stampede. Sadly, my simple protective formations hadn’t done shit to save me from those beasts. That just meant that I’d have to use stronger arrays in the future. Of course, that would require better equipment which I’d have to make later.

My two little mentees ran into the wrecked courtyard and then up to me.

“Senior Linlin!” Shadow Panther said. “I can’t believe we actually kept those beasts in a mental illusion!”

Three Drops awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “I had no idea music could be so strong.”

This fucker. “How many times have I told you not to underestimate the Dao of Rock?”

He winced. “At least seven.”

“Then I shouldn't have to repeat myself anymore.”

The two shared a look and then they both bowed. “We know you’re moving to the inner sect, but we hope to remain your students.”

“We want to keep learning about rock!”

These two... It was about damn time! “If you’re willing to become my official students, then I’ll keep teaching you both for as long as I can.” I clasped my hands behind my back like the master I was. “From today, you’re both my adorable students.”

I pulled out two jade slips and dumped the next several months’ worth of lessons on them.

“You can use these to self-study. I’m going to be very busy for a while.” I had an evil scroll to find and poison arts to learn. There was also the band of Foundation Establishment equivalent musicians I needed to gather so I could heal poor Ghosty. His condition hadn’t improved at all. Frankly, I was getting worried and I owed him a cure. For karma. And… because the ghost saved my ass.

While I was at it, I should look for ingredients to make him a new body soon. If I remembered correctly, there were a few high-quality ingredients that were cheap in this part of the world.

Before, when I had first told Ghosty I would create a new body to house his soul, I had only been planning on making him a decent but inexpensive one. But he’d proven himself. It wouldn’t be fair to skimp on the ingredients. Or take a long time to find them. In fact, I planned to make him the best new body I could.

I tossed the jade slips to my new students. They quickly reviewed the information I’d given them.

“Senior Linlin. Is it okay for us to have this?” Shadow Panther asked nervously.

“It’s fine.”

Three Drops clutched the jade tightly. “We promise to never show this to anyone else.”

I scowled. “Who said you had to do that? Hell, make copies. Spread it around. Teach more people about the Dao of Rock! But only those who love the music. If you don’t love it, you’re not going to enjoy playing it. Connecting with the songs you’re playing is an important part of mastering rock.”

They both nodded and Shadow Panther smiled. “We could tell that after we learned more about the reasoning behind the song, we could play it at a higher level.”

“Of course!”

“Ah, one thing,” Three Drops said. “You mentioned that you could help me fix my Poison Body Cultivation issue.”

“I’m still working on it. I need access to the information in the inner sect to help you, though.”

“Even if you can’t solve it. I’m glad I found another way to cultivate.”

It was always fun to see new students show enthusiasm for their chosen path.

***

I said goodbye to my students and told them that I’d check on their progress in a week right before Gold String Delicate Touch zipped over on his brush spiritual tool.

“Sister Linlin! Are you alright?” His brow was furrowed, and he seemed genuinely worried.

“I’m obviously fine.”

I once again brought out a bass. This one was new. I’d made it during one of the few hour-long breaks I gave my students. “Did you see?”

“I saw. I wanted to help but that Golden Core expert came out and...”

I couldn’t resist teasing him. “You saw how badass I am and now you want to join my band to learn about the Dao of Rock?”

His mouth opened. “How did you know?”

What? I got it right? Holy shit! I thought for sure he’d keep playing hard to get.

I grinned evilly. “Because I’m a genius. You won’t regret studying the Dao of Rock.”

“I hope not.” He paused. “Actually, I wanted to learn from you earlier, but I can’t risk picking up something that doesn’t make me stronger. My… family was wiped out not too long ago. I need strength to defend myself. Your fight just then...”

“Showed you how strong my Dao of Rock is?”

“Yes. And, I’m fascinated by the new genre and instruments.”

“What about writing your own rock songs?”

“That was... also very tempting.” The tips of his ears turned red.

“Good. Because you’ll get the chance to create your own songs with me and your fellow band members once I recruit them.”

I handed him the bass and a jade slip I’d been preparing for whoever I could coerce into becoming my bassist. Well, I was hoping it would be him, but I might have needed to choose someone else.

He put the instrument in his storage bag and placed the jade slip to his temple. After a brief moment, his eyes widened, then they darted to me.

“Sister Linlin, from what I’ve seen and heard your students talk about — you know formations, forging, alchemy, and demonic music. After taking in a fraction of this information... Just, who are you?”

I scowled. “I’m an International Woman of Mystery. Now, hurry up and join me in the inner sect so we can play together.”

He nodded very seriously. “It won’t be too much longer. Maybe another week.”

“Good.”

His mentees ran into our courtyard. They paused when they saw us.

He frowned at the two girls. “I’m going to take a note from Sister Linlin and increase your training time.”

They paled. “Yes, Senior!”

I had a feeling he regretted taking them as his temporary students and was about to put them through hell.

Right before he and his mentees left, Little Spring arrived. They nodded to each other as they passed. Then the kid ran up to me. “Sister Linlin!”

I crossed my arms and glared at the brat and his little dog, too. “It sure took you a long time to here.”

His cheeks turned red. “Actually, I thought my mentees had improved enough to get me into the inner sect, so I had them tested. We were deep in a nearby forest with a senior beast blood contractor. I didn’t know you were in trouble until I saw the damage done to the outer sect.”

Ah! That asshole White Scale must have waited until Little Spring was gone before sending those beasts after me. That mother fucker assumed the kid was stronger than me just because I was a music cultivator. Idiot. Even though it would have been a difficult fight, I still wanted to kick that guy’s ass.

“It’s a good thing that we’re both going to the inner sect at the same time.”

He nodded, then frowned. “Though, I think they’ll give us separate immortal caves… and we’ll be sent to different peaks.”

::That doesn’t matter. If we split up, we can cover more ground. Those mountains are massive but there has to be a clue about the Scroll of 10,000 Evil Souls somewhere.::

::I’ll look for it whenever I can. I won’t let you down.::

::I know you won’t.:: He was the universe’s protagonist, after all.

“Bork!” Xiao Bai’s fluffy pointed ears folded back as he became alert. He stared toward the broken courtyard entrance.

A gray tracker mouse ran around the corner and darted up to the top of our battered wall.

Xiao Bai started barking at the mouse as if he wanted to eat it while the fluffy rodent-type beast quivered in fear.

A high-pitched ‘mosquito voice’ sounded from the open gate. “Little Sharp Nose. Is this where Junior Verdant Spring is?”

A sickeningly adorable teenage girl with mouse ears stepped into our ruined courtyard. Exaggerated surprise appeared on her small face that was the same shade as mutton fat jade — just like every goddamn Xianxia harem author describes every fucking harem girl.

[Image Link]

I’d definitely seen her before. It was hard to remember her because she mostly stayed on the beast tamer’s mountain, but this girl had been one of Bloodsword’s braindead wives. In fact, she was also the one who died during her tribulation. That donkey-brained idiot spent several decades finding supplies to resurrect her, and — if his wives could be believed — he even traveled to the underworld to bring back part of her soul.

The reason she failed her tribulation was all because of her past as an unorthodox cultivator with a broken cultivation method. While the method was incredibly powerful, it affected her growth potential, making her take too long to reach Nascent Soul and increasing her tribulation’s difficulty.

Actually, if I remembered correctly, even that bitch Violet couldn’t completely cure the side effects.

The girl gasped. “Little Sharp Nose! Are you okay, sweetheart?” She quickly grabbed the tracker mouse and clutched it to her chest. It squeaked cutely as if to complain. She nodded at it as if she could understand what it was saying. “It must have been hard on you.” Then it disappeared inside her tamed beast spatial tool.

“I’m Verdant Spring,” the kid said while picking up Xiao Bai.

“Greetings, Junior! I’m Little Teasing Mouse.” Her lips curved up into an adorable smile. She didn’t look over thirteen. “I’m so happy to meet you!”

“You too.”

She bent down to look at Xiao Bai. “Is he your tamed beast? He is a majestic wolf puppy, isn’t he?”

“Xiao Bai is a dog-type.”

She tilted her head causing her mouse ears to wobble. “Is he?! That’s so amazing! I just want to pet him, and squeeze him, and cuddle him, and pinch his fluffy cheeks. But you’re not supposed to do that with beasts that aren’t yours. But that adorable little face of his makes it soooo hard to resist!”

Little Spring held his puppy tighter and a little away from the girl.

Ugh. I’d forgotten that Little Teasing Mouse had been the typical cute-type harem member. The kind that was always in need of rescuing and never killed their own enemies because they were soft and adorable. Girls like these often used cuteness to get others to do their dirty work for them. There was a term for that… was it ‘holy mother’ or ‘white lotus’? Whatever. Even if I couldn’t remember, this girl’s two-dimensional archetype was fucking annoying. I mean I’d never met a girl like this in real life who wasn't acting their ass off. They only existed in harem fantasy stories as some kind of perfect sweet girl to add to the protagonist’s ever-growing harem.

I narrowed my eyes at her. Usually, I would be worried about one of Bloodsword’s wives being around here, but it answered some questions. For example, it explained why there were so many people with strange hair colors and animal ears.

While I had met this wife of his in my past life, she lived on Beast Tamer’s Peak — a place I avoided like the Demonic Vine Plague. Because I didn’t meet her often, I never developed an overly negative perception of her. Well, aside from generally disliking her trope. Considering the settings the original author used when he created her, I was fairly certain I could trust her to not be some secret psychopath. Then again, some of the most well-known yanderes in fiction pretended to be sweet and kind until they blackened...

But she looked about as dumb as Xiao Bai. Sometimes, those braindead wives were really just braindead.

Little Teasing Mouse jumped up and down, then posed cutely with a finger to her cheek while talking about how amazing the Beast Blood sect was.

I barely stopped myself from cringing at the two-dimensionality of her personality. Only a dumbass harem author would create a character like this inside a ruthless Xianxia.

::Remember to contact me if you ever find yourself in an uncomfortable situation. While you may look older, you haven’t suddenly aged up mentally.::

He sent me an exasperated glance before turning to face Little Teasing Mouse. ::I’ll be fine. I have Xiao Bai for backup and the space if things get dangerous.::

Well, he wasn’t wrong. In the end, the kid had to make his own choices. As his teacher and martial sister, I could only give him the tools to make good, educated decisions. And I had to trust in his plot armor.

I’d feel better about letting him leave if Ghosty were with him. But I wouldn’t be able to cure him without going to the inner sect and recruiting a bunch of Foundation Establishment musicians first.

“Junior Verdant Spring. I’m going to show you all around your new home to get you introduced to the South Peak. That’s where the puppeteers and beast tamers live. You’re gonna love it! Oh! And I’ll teach you all about the cool things we do as beast tamers.”

::Hurry up and go. My ears hurt from hearing her voice.::

::Sister Lin! She’s not that bad.::

::Listen up, kid — in life, there are some people who are perfectly fine as individuals but who you just can’t stand to be around. For me, she’s one of them.::

Little Spring pulled out his flying sword. “Senior, let’s head to the inner sect now.”

“Oh! What a good idea!” She briefly struggled to pull out a massive boat from her bag. “Let’s go together on this!”

Once they were on their way, my ears could rest.

Finally, I could enter the inner sect!

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Author’s Note: Thank you all for reading! You are the best readers a writer could ask for!

So, I had planned to get to this part far sooner than it actually took. TBH, I spent way more time exploring the Dao of Rock than I thought I would. But I don’t regret it. It added a lot of depth to the story and I had a lot of fun writing those chapters while studying the meaning behind each of the songs I mentioned. This way I’ve also established how the ‘magic’ works so that Lin can later solve problems using it. But, it’s about time we get back to the spying portion of the story.

On Health: I still struggled with sleep this week though my stomach issues weren't as bad as they had been. I hope I’m getting better. I don't have much written of the actual story. That said, over the past several weeks I finished a much-needed detailed outline that will help me write a more solid conclusion to this story! Right now, I don't have enough content to edit a second chapter this week. I apologize for that (and I’ll make up for it soon). I’ll have to spend the rest of this week writing like the wind to catch up. I expect to get you all the next edited chapter by next week Wednesday or Thursday.

For those wondering what my process is for writing…

1. Write the overarching goals for the story
2. Write a brief description of every major character’s personality or past
3. Consider some cool set pieces to make the story badass while fitting into the world
4. Write a loose outline
5. Write a more detailed outline for those scenes I’m close to writing. (I can’t write a detailed outline for the whole story because I am a half-organic writer half-plotter. This means that if I add too many details I trick my brain into thinking I’ve already written the story and it won't let me write it.)
6. Write the story rough draft as quickly as possible so I don't have to look at my outline >.> (this usually comes out with the same amount of detail as a JLN)
7. Spend 10 hours editing every part so it is filled out with good descriptions and jokes that fit the story.

So far I’ve failed at the “Write the story as fast as possible" part. I need to work on my speed.