Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 388

A Vow (I)

The last ten hours have felt quite... same-y. Descend down the narrow, jagged corridors that were once mine shafts, be attacked by a variety of Yin Spirits, watch the kids kill them with relative ease, and emerge into a greater chamber encased fully with Spirit Stones and guarded by one or another rotting beast... rinse, lather, repeat.

Though the journey itself was quite dull, I couldn't complain because my pockets had gotten quite fat--well, quite fat mostly with low-quality stones, but there were about fifteen thousand or so mid-grade ones that were just enough for one of the kids to cultivate for three whole days!

... I always knew these gremlins would be resource-sucking drones, but good God. Forget me; I'm pretty sure only all the Holy Lands combined would be qualified to properly supply them with all that they needed. I've been banking on Long Tao sort of 'guiding' us through some old lairs, but so far... he's never really done that. Well, except today.

Every time the kids would face one of the 'guardian' beasts (though they really weren't that; merely a coalescence of Yin Qi within those big-ass chambers since they had a lot of Spirit Stones), he'd step in just once--when the beasts tried their last ditch effort to retaliate. Other than that, he stayed silent, walked among us, and even grabbed Spirit Stones himself.

Despite our smooth progress, anxiety still rumbled inside of me. The reason? The follow-up quest I got after the kids killed 500 Demonic Beasts, Demonic Annihilation.

When I first bought the Demonic Shattering quest, I simply thought the follow-up would be 'kill 1000', like those shitty games with 'a lot of content', where 'a lot of content' is just doing the same thing over and over and over again, only this time you have to kill 300 demonic elephants that are occupying fjords of the north, for some reason.

This, however, wasn't that.

In fact, the contents of the quest were as vague as any other, forebodingly so.

[Demonic Annihilation]

[Difficulty: ???]

[Context: slay the Sovereign of the Mountains]

[Rewards]

[Reward 1: ??? CP]

[Reward 2: 1 relevant piece of information that Host is not aware of]

[Reward 3: ???]

[Hint: Sovereign is not a mere beast]

It's a 'slay the boss' quest, obviously, but I did not like how generous the rewards were. I mean, I do like generous rewards--but, usually, the system doesn't dole them out for no discernible reason. Especially that '???' next to the creation points. That was straight-up terror-inducing.

As we made our way through yet another chamber, I noticed that they were growing smaller, though richer in higher-quality stones.

"How the hell are they not tired?" Shuren became a bit of a nosy bat over the past few hours. Every once in a while, she'd settle next to me with one question or another, and this time around it was a question I couldn't really answer simply because this one had little to do with them... I think.

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Aside from the healing art that took care of all scrapes and wounds, there was the fact that they recovered Qi inordinately quickly when next to me. Doubly so when they weren't fighting. I'm pretty sure that alone would have quite a few people asking me to become their Master, as it was probably the most overpowered aspect of me (and that's saying something) at this moment.

It was creating some bad habits, however, I noticed--the kids were less 'cautious' with their Qi, choosing to use as much as possible even if control wasn't perfect and quite a bit of it was 'wasted'. Luckily, Long Tao would berate them and fix it for a little while, but I caught even him slipping a few times...

"Well?!" she pulled me out of my thoughts, ones I hadn't even realized I'd fallen into.

"They're talented."

"... so am I," she said. "And far stronger than any of them. Yet, even I feel a bit tired at this point. Rather, how are you not tired? How's that damned alchemist still so spry?!"

Well, I worked really hard on my stamina! This didn't come for free, you know?! I can still remember just how much I struggled simply climbing up to my peak back in the Spirit Sword Sect. I swore to myself that I'd get in shape and never struggle that much!

... except I did, for a while, but it's gotten considerably better. As for Lao Shun... since he's become my disciple, I imagine his recovery has also increased. I am a bit confused as to why he didn't bring up any of the 'sudden' changes he likely experienced becoming my disciple. Cultivating 25% faster, quicker Qi recovery... maybe he's just being considerate?

Of himself, of course. If he asked, it would mean he acknowledged it. And, apparently, he's only willing to acknowledge one thing at a time, lest he go insane.

"Hey, Shun," I called the old man over. "She's wondering how none of us are tired. Want to share a secret with her?"

"Hm," he stared daggers at me for a moment. "It's simple: become that bastard's Disciple."

"What? Wait--are, are you saying you, Lone Alchemist, are a Disciple of, of... no, never mind. I don't want to know. Pretend I never asked. From now until we leave this place, I will not ask any more questions. If I do, I might just go truly mad."

As she sauntered away, the old alchemist approached me, having finished stripping his side of the wall of stones. The kids were still busy fighting a monster--a strange abomination that was one part ghoulish eagle and ten parts a python--and since the battles have been getting longer and chambers smaller, we usually finished well before they killed the spirit.

"She wouldn't make a bad Dao Companion, you know."

"..." did, did he really just say that? "Isn't, isn't she almost a thousand years older than me?"

"So?" he shrugged. "My first Dao Companion was over four thousand years old." Wow. Just... just wow. "Age doesn't matter for cultivators, merely the mindset and potential. Honestly, I'm fairly certain that most of those old monsters would bury their current Dao Companions to become yours, so it's not as though you don't have any options. I am merely saying she wouldn't be a bad one."

And, with that nugget of wisdom, he walked away.

... wow. Just, wow.

Shaking my head in a desperate attempt to rock out the very notion of it, I turned toward the kids and saw that the battle was coming to a close since Long Tao had stepped up to defeat the beast.

A Dao Companion? Honestly, I haven't thought about it--in the least. Not that I had the luxury of thinking about it to begin with, but even if I did... eh. Never say never, especially since I'm likely to live for centuries, if not thousands of years (maybe even more? Who knows?), but, for now... it wasn't happening. Not with Shuren, not with anyone else.

I just hope that Lao Shun's thoughts are his own and don't infest the kids' mindset. Can you imagine, ha ha? Every kid bringing home a woman 'perfect for me'? Ha ha ha... ha ha... ha...

... fuck. That's exactly what's gonna happen, isn't it?!