VGC Chapter 98: And if I Die Send my Royalties to Heaven, cuz I'm gonna risk it all. And if you cry at my funeral then leven, cuz you lived long enough to see my Fall! EHEHEHEH

AN: I made a minor error in the last chapter. General Shroud is not in fact dead. Sorry for the confusion. I was going off a plot-point that I discarded. 

Anyway, this is the extra chapter you guys voted on last month. Please stop voting for VGC, it’s killing me, lol

-/-

A lonesome cultivator in a beige robe with his sleeves interlocked in front of him slowly made his way up a winding mountain trail towards the top. A wide tasselled straw hat covered his face from the sun while also serving to hide his features.

His steps were steady, falling on the earth beneath with the sort of rhythm only found in those in tune with the universe.

Gravel, rock, grass, the material underneath did not matter, progress continued at exactly the same pace.

However, all journeys eventually had to come to an end and the lonesome cultivator eventually reached the top of the mountain, where the peach trees were already blooming and a lonely prayer gate stood erected to ward off evil in the region.

Evil, however, always found a way.

A great explosion of flame met him as he stepped up to the gate and a horned bright red figure peeled itself out from behind the shadow of one of its pillars.

The flames traversed the air, scorching the pink peach blossoms which had fallen on the ground into nothingness and turning up the heat from a pleasant summer day to a scorching inferno.

The cultivator seemed unbothered, merely coming to a stop as the flames approached him. 

Then, as if meeting their maker, the flames parted. Silently, unceremoniously, completely. 

They flowed around him like water around a large rock, leaving him unharmed and untouched in all his stoic glory.

The gout of flame eventually dissolved, but not before destroying several dozen peach trees and scorching the entire top of the mountain.

Atop all that blackened ash, the horned figure and the cultivator stared at each other then.

“You’ve gotten stronger,” the red-robed woman eventually hissed.

“And you’ve only become more unstable,” the cultivator replied.

The two figures slowly approached each other after those words were exchanged, cautiously, anticipatingly, like two jaguars yet unfamiliar with each other.

Once only an arms-length of air separated them, they clasped their arms in greeting.

“Long time no see, Xin Erwa,” the man of the two said slowly with a grin barely visible from underneath the shadow thrown by his hat.

“Too long,” Xin Erwa growled. “Jin.”

-/- One Day Earlier

“Do you have everything?” Jin asked his two friends whom he’d severely beaten in this morning’s spar.

Partially to relieve some frustration, partially to assert his continued dominance.

Francis and Hashimi sat on their knees, hands in their laps, as bruises grew like mushrooms on their already swollen faces.

“Fuck you!” “Go die!” The two exclaimed, just like the comedic duo that they were.

Jin nodded at the response, satisfied that they still had this much energy. “I’m leaving for a while, so let’s just go over it again,” he said, clapping his hands, and receiving pained groans in return. He pointed a finger at Hashimi.

“You’re currently cultivating without any alchemical enchantments or spirit stones, but activating the trance-like state of yin-based meditation to progress faster. Luckily you have access to that considering the synergy between yin and mind cultivation. Eighth pillar, close to ninth. Continue painting everyday and eating all your meals. I’ve already told you countless times that it increases your cultivation efficiency by 0.4%. The data doesn’t lie. If you follow the plan you’ll start glimpsing core formation by the time I’m back,” he explained once again.

Hashimi threw him a baleful glare from underneath her swelling purple eyelids. Then she mumbled something.

Jin frowned at her. “I didn’t hear that.”

“Alright, I said!” Hashimi shouted angrily. “You fucking slave driver. I can’t believe I ever trusted you!”

The reincarnator crossed his arms. “You fucking slave driver. I can’t believe I ever trusted you, sir!” he corrected.

“She’s way ahead of me at least, there’s no need to rush her that much, right?” Francis suddenly spoke up in a meek voice.

“It’s exactly because she is ahead of you that she can work harder! It means she has more talent!” Jin exclaimed angrily, clapping his hands together several times in a row.

“You’re getting this opportunity to focus exclusively on your cultivation while living off our royalties! Work hard now before you complain. If the time you wasted is the time you’ll eventually miss when you almost reach the nascent soul stage, who are you going to cry to, huh?!” He pointed an accusing finger at the dark-skinned woman. 

“I own you!” he reminded her. “You wanted to repay me for staying back and investing in your cultivation instead of progressing myself so you even signed a contract! Now do what you’re told!”

Hashimi continued grumbling, but seemed browbeaten enough to follow the plan.

“And when you’re done, start working on the scenario structure I gave you!” Jin ordered.

The woman growled, like a feral chihuahua. “Would you like a foot massage with that?” she asked. “Maybe a golden fountain to put in your yard… sir?”

“No need, just stop dragging your feet. Once in a generation genius my ass. More like once in a generation bum,” Jin said coldly, getting a snort from Francis.

He whirled around, pointing an accusing finger at the old man. “And you!” he shouted, making the older cultivator clam up and run pale in the face.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice that you simply flushed your fire-nature ginseng herbal tea down the toilet instead of drinking it this morning!” Jin screamed. “You’ve barely even hit eighth pillar and you think you can slack off already, huh?!”

“It gives me diarrheia!” Francis screamed back, unable to hold on anymore. “I can’t cultivate if I’m shitting myself all the time!”

“Nobody gives a crap about your crap, no matter which hole it's burning its way out of!” Jin retorted as he paced around his small apartment, fully preparing to go on another tirade. “Countless Spirit Stones, 1000-year old heavenly tree roots, pillar breakthrough pills, mind-calming tonics, yellow river catfish extract… dick-enchancement pills! You have all these impurities in your body and the tea burns it out, if you don’t take it every day, then you’ll have something coming out of your ass that you can worry about!” Jin said loudly, whirling around to put his hands on his hips. 

“Your potential, Francis,” he said softly. “You’re not living up to your potential.” He tutted. Shaking his head. “What if that tea is the difference between becoming and not becoming a nascent soul cultivator in the future? Will I have wasted my investment in you?” 

Francis looked down with a red face.

“You said you wouldn’t tell anyone about the pills,” he muttered quietly, sullenly, like a child.

Jin squatted down, extended a hand to lift his friend’s head so their eyes could meet. Then he opened his mouth and screamed in his face. “Maybe if you got a move on and reached core formation your dick would work you fucking geriatric sloth!” 

Silence descended back on the apartment after the two cultivators still struggling their way out of the foundation establishment stage were properly chastised.

Jin righted himself, patted himself down, coughed into a fist. “Anyway, if Hashimi isn’t edging the end of ninth pillar and you still haven’t reached it by the time I’m back, I’m going to supervise your secluded cultivation again. A full month this time.”

Hashimi gasped.

“You don’t have the time!” Francis exclaimed.

Jin’s eyes glinted angrily. Supervised secluded cultivation, a time when no other activities were allowed, generally meant staying with the cultivators in question to verify that there was absolutely no slacking. 

It sounded all nice and fancy to say that you’d lock yourself in a cave with all your needed cultivation aids for the whole month until you actually went and got bored after a week, only to start reading that novel that you’d snuck in with you.

A supervisor in those times would let the nine-lashed reed in their hand crack, delivering the pain of justice and progress.

It was a wildly impolite teaching strategy, usually reserved for high-ranking children who hadn’t yet figured out how to sit perfectly still for months on end. It was reserved for the influential because the supervisor had to have a certain understanding of cultivation themselves to properly identify slacking, while being strong enough to punish the lack of effort. They also couldn’t do much else during this time, which meant they couldn’t progress their own cultivation while supervising.

“A month of concentration for you, a month of lost progress for me,” Jin threatened. “What if that month is the month that’s missing from me reaching nascent soul? Will you ever forgive yourselves then?”

Hashimi and Francis threw him looks that indicated that their thoughts were way past forgiveness and had circled straight back to physical assault, but they were too afraid to say them out loud and could thus only swallow them.

“Remember,” Jin said one last time, first pointing at Hashimi. “Late ninth pillar stage.” Then he pointed at Francis. “Early ninth pillar stage. The method doesn’t work for eighth pillar.” Then, with that warning, he swished around and made to leave.

“Jin,” Francis suddenly shouted after him as the afore-mentioned man made to open the door and leave on his mission.

Jin looked back.

“Take care of yourself!” Francis said.

Jin nodded, at which point Hashimi also added her two cents.

“I’ll be a core formation cultivator by the time you come back!” she exclaimed angrily. “So tell me now, what do you want me to name our new project in the sect database, considering I’m going to switch my focus to that when I ascend!”

“What to call it?” Jin asked rhetorically, shaking his head.

“It’s about hunting monsters… Just call it Monster Hunter or something.” Then he exited the apartment and slammed the door shut behind him.

He had places to be.

-/-

“I’m surprised you reached out to me in particular,” Xin Erwa said on that blackened mountain top. “Wasn’t there anyone in your sect you could have asked for help? I heard you’re the direct disciple of the vice Elder. Doesn’t that count for anything?” she asked, sitting unceremoniously on the ground while holding a steaming tea cup.

Jin sipped his own, observing the beautiful young woman, whose golden hair was spiked up in the form of two aggressively curved horns.

“When going against the wishes of one’s master, one often cannot ask for help,” Jin answered, feeling the talisman hung around his neck which would call for aid in the case of an emergency. If it were ever to be activated, he would advance to being a core disciple, no questions asked.

That was the deal he’d struck to make this mission possible.

“I’m surprised they even let you out,” Xin Erwa commented. “Your fame after that latest project. Skyrim… It’s maybe even gotten a bit out of hand.”

“Unfortunately the material I need cannot be acquired without venturing out on one’s lonesome,” Jin replied. “After all, anybody who could lay their hands on what we’re looking for would swallow it themselves, consequences be damned.”

“The Heart of a Phoenix,” Xin Erwa muttered, excitement clearly visible in her eyes. “The Great Burning Plains of Khatar. The hunt of a lifetime.” 

“Capable of breaking any bottleneck below the nascent soul stage,” Jin said with a nod. “I get the heart, you get the rest. You’re being shunned by your sect, I’m working against the will of mine. What do you say?” he asked, extending a hand. “Partners?”

Xin Erwa narrowed her eyes at him. “A full out fight after the mission is over,” she demanded. “I can feel your strength, you’ve reached core formation already. The quality… is not low.”

“Deal,” Jin said readily, but the woman opposite him did not yet take his hand.

“Why me?” she asked again.

“I needed someone I can trust,” Jin replied simply. “And you’re the only person I know who’d rather spit in the face of your sect in front of the whole world and face years of solitary confinement rather than budge on your principles.”

Xin Erwa took his hand and they shook on it while the woman smiled dementedly. 

“I’ll enjoy hearing you scream,” she whispered.

Jin returned the smile cooly.

He wasn’t Scumbag Jin anymore, needing to rely on tricks to win a fight.

He was stronger now. Stronger than he’d ever thought possible.

“I could crush you like a bug,” he replied softly. “The only reason I’m not doing it is because you’re still useful.”

-/- Excerpts from the book of the great prophet:

When two souls meet, life blooms. However, be wary of depravity, for if two souls of equal vileness ever make contact, the only thing being birthed into the world then will be complete chaos…

Page 89/182, paragraph 5

Humanity is in big trouble!

Page 182/182, Last Paragraph.