Story 8 - Tribulation Troubles (3 ?)
Since I was no longer welco to watch Little Spring’s lessons, I headed over to the Sect Leader’s hall.
I entered the side area where disciples filed reports and finished paperwork. A few of them talked excitedly while others quietly handed jade slips to each other.
Daoist Early Rise Swift Brush rushed down the bustling room. The young cultivator looked like he was about to burst with energy, figuratively.
His eyes widened and he slid to a stop right in front of .
After hastily bowing, he said, “Great Martial Aunt Lin! I just had an epiphany on the Dao of Paperwork this morning!”
What?! Really? So soon?
I coughed and stood up straight, clasping my hands behind my back like the little master I was. “Very good! I knew the Dao of Paperwork would be perfect for you.”
Well if anyone looked like they were born to push papers, it was Early Rise Swift Brush.
He nodded sagely. “I’ve recently taught it to so promising young peak disciples. Breaking it down to teach it to others helped organize my thoughts and delve deeper into its secrets.” He clasped his hand in an encouraging fist. “Soon, all the paperwork on the Indomitable Peak will get finished faster than in any other sect!”
“That sounds like a solid goal to start out with.”
His eyes glittered in a way that made think he was looking for more direction. Shit. What do I say?
“Always keep in mind that there is more to the Dao of Paperwork than the mundane.”
His eyes widened. “Because Paperwork is used to navigate laws, and the universe is composed of laws? So if I can...”
He trailed off as if his mind was just blown, then a heavy universal energy rained down on him.
Another epiphany? Didn’t he just get one?
“Oh! I’m about to transcend! I need to go.”
The fuck just happened?
He pulled out his flying sword and rushed away. Probably to go through his tribulation.
What the hell kind of Dao did I just help invent? And there were going to be more practitioners?
Were the heavens tired of doing paperwork and decided to speed run clerks through their realms?
***
At the end of the lotus-thed hall, my friend, Peerless Resolve sat on his very uncomfortable-looking seat.
“Martial Aunt Lin, I heard you exchanged swordsmanship notes with Sword Master Salamander.”
“And I won.”
Despite his attempts to have a blank face, I could see his exhaustion in the slight downturn of his lips and the few wrinkles around his eyes. “Doesn’t this break the low profile image you keep agreeing to cultivate?”
There were just so things I needed to happen, and this spar had been one of them.
“I ntioned that I’d try to cultivate it.” I waved off his concerns. “It’s fine. It’s not like I beat him while he was at his full cultivation level.”
“He’s a sword cultivator, and you’re not,” he deadpanned.
“Salamander took his defeat well.”
My friend looked exasperated. “Regardless of how he takes it, doing sothing like this will put you back on the radar of the demonic cultivators.”
He was right, and I was downplaying the dangers.
I knew that.
But I also saw that Salamander was on the cusp of transcending his Nascent Soul Tribulation, and there were things he needed to practice and discover before he did.
Considering that it had been months since I’d last heard the sect leader talk about demonic infiltrators, I figured this might also help shake them up a bit. Maybe get my friend’s investigation rolling again.
“If the demonic cultivators have a list of disciples to watch out for, they would have put on it when I destroyed part of Fairy Garlic’s kitchen, or when I cured the plague.”
My old friend looked at as if I were a ball of trouble that had rolled into his formation and knocked down half the flags.
“Actually, it would have been when you first entered the sect.” He cleared his throat. “And since we’re speaking of the demonic sect — I have news that they’re going to try sothing drastic soon.”
“I doubt that they’ll attack the sect directly. At least not right now.”
“Not directly. I don’t want to discuss it. Any significantly different actions taken could alert these infiltrators and put our disciples in danger. For now, just be careful and keep a low profile.”
Sotis I wonder if he’s t . “I’ll try.”
I an, it was hard to not show how incredible I was when a re joke of mine could turn into a whole new style of cultivation. But, I knew how to be subtle when necessary.
“Also, I think you should finally transcend your tribulation... for your own protection.”
I frowned.
“I understand that you’ve been putting it off until you’re ready, but you don’t need to be prepared for every possible eventuality.”
I raised my hand to pause him, but he continued.
“Your increased difficulty is causing you so stress. But you shouldn’t put it off much longer. Doing so could give rise to inner demons.”
? Have inner demons? Ridiculous. Honestly, he should just relax. I had this handled. I wasn’t worried, I just... needed to be completely prepared for every possible eventuality.
“There are still a few more preparations I have to make. But I’ll go through it soon.”
“You’ve said that for months now. How soon is soon? A week? Two?”
“I have a ntal list of things I need to ensure I get out of my tribulation alive. Once I have everything on the list, I’ll call it down.”
“From what I heard, Salamander is even letting you borrow his new pagoda defensive treasure.”
“While that will be useful, anything could happen during a tribulation.”
“Like what?”
“So malicious person could get close to , increasing the difficulty of my tribulation.”
“Aunt Lin, while that is a real risk, it rarely happens as long as you prepare a good place to transcend.”
“I already have a few spots picked out.”
“Then why don’t we head to one of them now? We can even call over Salamander and have him give you the defensive tool.”
I sighed. “As good as that tool is, I can’t stand inside it and breeze my way through. Doing that would just anger the heavens and cause to fail.”
“I wasn’t suggesting that you just stand there.”
“But that’s what I’d have to do if I don’t complete my preparations. Trust , Nephew. I know what I’m doing.”
Despite his nearly blank face, he looked unconvinced. I didn’t bla him. If so 11-year-old girl told what I told him, I’d have an even worse reaction.
“Besides, I haven’t finished my body cultivation. How can you expect to transcend without completing sothing so integral to my foundation?”
“Fine. Just try to do it soti within the next week or two.”
I was an Immortal Ascension Stage monster. I wasn’t scared of a silly Qi Condensation tribulation that had the strength of Foundation Establishnt.
***
After working for a few hours at the Sect Leader’s hall, I finally received a secret sound transmission from my new favorite black market dealer.
The thing about sects was that if I went through legitimate sources, I would get what my contribution points paid for. This was technically the only way to buy things within the sect.
But disciples in the know, like myself, knew better.
There were secret monthly markets where inner sect mbers gathered covertly to trade or sell.
Then there were a few shady individuals on each peak who were always open for a profitable transaction.
Disciples called these individuals black market dealers or fucking-shaless-conn.
If these dealers didn’t recognize what they had, a clever custor could profit off them. Of course, if the custor wasn’t careful, a bag of dicinal herbs would actually be full of poison.
For an expert like myself, these were people who would always make a loss. But they usually made so much from their other ignorant clients that it didn’t matter too much.
I activated the simple obfuscation token I’d made. It changed my face, deepened my voice, and blurred my silhouette.
Once satisfied, I entered the rendezvous point.
This particular dealer had set up at an abandoned immortal cave that had lost all of its spiritual energy long ago.
“Dear Custor, as I told you at the ti of your purchase — you couldn’t return items you’ve purchased.”
“You said that they were high-quality Emperor Jade stones.”
“I said that they were mined near where high-quality Emperor Jade stones were found. And they are technically jade.”
“But they have no spirituality. They may as well be rocks. Why should I give you spirit stones for this?”
“There are no returns or exchanges.” My black market dealer gestured to . “And my next custor is here. Please leave.”
“I’m never coming here again!”
“Thank you!”
He stord toward the exit. The guy and that eagle pendant looked familiar. I was pretty sure I’d seen him before in my past life, but I couldn’t rember where.
Well, whatever. I had shit to buy!
Unfortunately, before he passed , he stopped and leaned over.
In a threatening voice, he said, “You should just use contribution points at the Indomitable Peak’s treasure pavilion. All these black market dealers are frauds and tricksters.”
I shrugged. “The girl used your greed against you. It’s not her fault you were too ignorant to notice.”
Compared to all the nasty sches of the internet conn from my past-past life, these dealers were ta.
He blushed. “You’re lucky I don’t have ti for this.” He then flicked his sleeve and took off on his flying sword.
I watched him go, then eyed my dealer. “He’s likely going to send a sect enforcer over soon.”
While I couldn’t see her through her obfuscating hood, her obvious amusent ca through when she said, “He has to file a complaint about first. Either way, we better make this quick.”
She sat down on the stone cave floor.
After a swift cleaning technique that earned a startled jerk from the cloaked figure, I took a seat in front of her.
“Was that really necessary, dear custor?”
“Absolutely.”
She pulled out a lted crimson tal piece about the size of my hand. “This broken shard was once part of an Immortal Ascension cultivator’s sword. It’s made from Three Star Red Titanium. Which was exactly what you were looking for.”
Then she placed several large folded pieces of dark gray leather next to it. “I also received this in the sa shipnt. The hide from a Magnificent Black Rhino — a spiritual beast that reaches stage 5.”
Then she pulled out a familiar tree that awkwardly took up half the space of the cave and had to bend a bit to fit inside it. Its leaves tickled my hair. I awkwardly tilted my head so it wouldn’t touch .
She coughed and rubbed her shadowed face in embarrassnt, but didn’t apologize. Yeah, she probably shouldn’t have taken it out inside the immortal cave. At least the ceiling was high in here, and this spiritual version of this tree was very bendy.
The girl must have had a very special bag to keep a whole tree in there without it losing its energy.
After scanning everything with my divine sense, I confird my suspicions. This was definitely what I was looking for.
“I’m not sure why you need this, but I happened to have a contact who imported it over here.”
“It’s called a Spiritual Rubber Tree. This one is exactly the size I requested, too.”
“Then shall we go over pricing?” She pointed to the Red Titanium. “Ten mid-grade spirit stones. The Leather is very hard to co by, but I’ll give you a deal since you’re a repeat custor. Twenty mid-grade. And because of how far my contacts had to travel to find such a weird tree, it’s two mid-grade.”
I batted away the leaf that kept touching my head. It slapped my forehead. Doing my best to ignore it, I cleared my throat. “The tree’s price is fine since it’s an item I specifically requested, but this sword shard is not worth ten mid-grade spirit stones. It’s not even worth 10,000 regular ones.”
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