A/N: Check out the Flying Transport image below!
The magnificent flying sword was glowing so bright to Ren’s qi senses that it was blinding. He lacked the fine control over his Sky Piercing Divine Sense technique to be able to perceive the details of the working through the overwhelming amount of qi running through it. That didn’t stop him from examining it through watering eyes. So enthralled was he by the sect’s transport treasure that he almost didn’t hear his name being called.
The vice sect leader had joined Lady Jiao Yue near the hilt after her deadly serious threat, where they were powering the enormous sword. Elder Ding was assigning the disciples seats that lined the swords' edges. It was only when assigned his seat that Ren learned what position he had earned through the stairs of ascension.
He stopped examining the arrays embedded in the sword and walked stiffly to claim the 4th seat nearest the elders under the heavy scrutiny of all his fellow disciples. While he was a relatively unknown face, that alone wouldn’t have drawn such attention. It was because except for him, the nine others in the top 10 were all at the peak of the foundation establishment realm! The sole 7th layer foundation realm standing in the 4th place among the top contenders was a stark outlier.
Ren had been so lost in plans to ward off the jealousy that was sure to be directed at him that he failed to notice a familiar face standing right beside him in 3rd place who was throwing dirty looks at him. It wouldn’t be until much later in the day that Ren would finally identify the young man in the seat beside him as his perpetual neighbor, the talented young master, Jian Feng.
They were dismissed to their seats after the excited disciples all thanked the elder as one. Their month-long journey had finally begun!
Ren could never have imagined that life on an enormous flying sword hurtling across the sky at mind-boggling speeds could have gotten boring so quickly. He had certainly underestimated his ability to sit in place for long. The core formation elders aside, were cultivators of the foundation realm really capable of meditating like this for days on end?
The disciples were provided a steady supply of qi directly to their seats through the transport treasure, and while it wasn’t a cultivation paradise like his mountain, it certainly wasn’t lacking. It was only called a seat, but it actually resembled a small private room with the amount of privacy and qi gathering arrays that surrounded his seat. There was even a mild spatial expansion effect that made the tiny spot seem larger.
That first day Ren had spent staring at the arrays all around him, marveling at the sword they rode.
'Just how many treasures like this sword does the sect have?! 3 core formation realm elders are required to power this one transport. The Stairs of Ascension was already a treasure capable of starting a war, but now this? I know Elder Yun said we were supported by the Azure Mountains Sect, but did they really provide these treasures? How many powerful artifacts they must have to be able to give away treasures like this to subordinate branch sects!’ His mind was buzzing with excitement at the deep roots exhibited by his sect.
By nightfall, Ren had already given himself a headache, and he was seeing double from straining his eye technique for so long. He finally started looking around, wondering when they would stop for the night. Cultivators of their sect were given great independence, so he had prepared plenty of rations, but he still preferred a warm meal. He couldn’t even eat with Hua as he was seated a bit further down. It wasn’t like Ren could get up and walk around for a visit on this flying treasure.
He waited and waited, but the sword kept up its speed without even a hint of descending. It was only then that it occurred to Ren that they wouldn’t be stopping for the night. In retrospect it made sense. It must take a great deal of qi to power the sword, and repeated stops would waste resources. So he pulled out some cold rations and ate slowly.
Over the next few days, Ren’s dread grew slowly as the elders never once slowed. He forced his eye technique through the surface-level privacy wards and found the other cultivators eating fasting pills. A type of pill created through alchemy that filled one’s stomach and provided energy. He too kept some for emergencies, but they were purely functional and tasted bad. His neighbors were gulping them down like candy!
Ren’s horror was worsened when he realized that like him, others could penetrate his privacy wards, and those beside him and opposite him were throwing him dirty looks in between meditating whenever they saw him eat his cold, baked fish and spirit beast jerky.
‘Are they jealous or are they disapproving of me eating real food? These people are crazy! I’ve already garnered too much attention, so I’m not going to stop now. Let them watch and drool. Hmph!’ Ren was already starting to see just how little he knew about the daily practices of his fellow cultivators. He had always gone about doing things his own way. Wasn’t that what the sect was trying to encourage with all the freedom they gave the disciples?
But it only got worse after the 1st week. Ren was so used to his busy routines of chores, training, hunting, farming, studying, crafting, and cultivation that simply sitting in one place was mind-numbing. He had already begun studying the body cultivation scroll given to him, the Boundless Space Physique. It was a profound scripture that used a lot of obscure language that made it difficult to comprehend.
From the introduction and the small bits he could make out, Ren came to understand what the scripture could do for him. It would allow him to permanently transform his body to something like a Natal Physique. He hadn’t even known something like that was possible, and only those lucky enough to be born with these special body types would have that unique advantage.
While exciting, it was also extremely dangerous to practice. The initial stages required him to fill his body with vital essence until it was almost bursting out of him. Then he would have to compress it all into one spot in the center of his torso. If he lacked the control to compress it properly, he would burst like an overfilled bag. If he lost control over the compressed essence, he would burst.
If he absorbed more essence than he could control from the start, boom! If he absorbed too little, then the technique was ineffective and the effect lacking. Needless to say, it was extremely dangerous when there were such severe consequences for a single mistake. To practice this technique, one needed a heart filled with courage. Normally Ren wouldn’t dream of practicing something so deadly. But the promised reward…
'A body with an enormous affinity for the Dao of Space! An enormous internal space capable of being filled with all kinds of resources and extremely adaptable to any qi cultivation manuals one followed!'
Like the elder had said, he could make it his own. Such versatility, and it still gave him an extremely rare and powerful space affinity. Such a thing was unbelievable!
Even the resources it required wouldn’t be a significant problem. In the early stages it didn’t need any special materials or specific natural treasures, only vital essence, which could be found in spirit beast meat. Not having to hunt for treasures of a specific affinity was an immense boon. Elder Yun had said it had changed his fate, and it wasn’t difficult to imagine why.
Despite his eagerness to study it more and test it, he couldn’t practice it on the sword, which wasn’t safe. Nor was Ren used to endlessly studying. He interspersed his studies with activities that let his idle mind ruminate on what he had learned. He would often find inspiration in his other hobbies and professions to interpret another subject in his own way.
Which was why after 2 weeks, Ren was starting to get a little itchy with boredom. He had already re-read his books on karma and those 3 books on breaking through to the core formation he had earned through teaching. It had already helped him fully assimilate his epiphany and even understand his own instinctual choices a little. There was still a lot he didn’t understand, but he made sure to memorize it all so he could slowly decipher it over time.
The problem was that karma was a very difficult topic to study and required long periods of contemplation to absorb the lessons. Reading the same book again would often lead to new understanding through a small change in perspective. Many times, Ren would come back to a section he thought he had understood only to backtrack and change his mind on its meaning. But now, forced into this static and boring lifestyle, Ren had no choice but to study.
He could hardly pull out a cauldron or cook. Though he had resolved to ignore the disciples constantly frowning at him, Ren couldn’t ignore Elder Ding’s frown when he pulled out a barrel of willow resin and attempted to craft array flags. He owed the elder that much for taking care of Yu Ran during this journey. The elder had silently accepted the request the morning of their departure when Ren brought up Elder Yun’s name. He had even looked oddly pale.
Even now the little snake was ensconced in the elder’s earth elemental spirit, which resembled a small mountain, hovering behind him. Ren couldn’t even sightsee because it was all sky and blurry land. Not a single flying beast dared approach the sword. There were a few lightning storms but none that could breach the transport’s wards. But their increasing frequency was an ominous portent to the disaster that was approaching.
Lacking options, Ren forced himself to continue his studies. Combined with the information Elder Yun had given him about the importance of the qi constructs, Ren had spent much of the journey trying to examine their working. He ultimately failed, because the qi constructs appeared extremely ordinary. Just simple works of qi that even a new foundation realm cultivator with the slightest understanding could make.
However, in his examination, Ren found another avenue he could pursue. He began examining the ever-present cloud of half-formed gossamer strands around his Fire of Life as well as the reinforced strands that emerged from it. He spent so long just looking at them that he started to notice things he hadn’t before. All it took was a week of forced inactivity for Ren to study his main cultivation manual some more! Ren felt mildly ashamed.
Because his cultivation worked on increasing the density of the Fire of Life, which pulled in qi without any prompt from him, Ren was content to trust the manual he had pieced together during his second epiphany. Still, he never slacked off on examining the karmic strands for signs of merit or sin he might have absorbed from his connections. So preoccupied was he with not becoming corrupted by a heart demon, he had neglected to study the other information that could be gleaned from the strands.
The reinforced karmic strands also told Ren the depth of the perceived connections. Those he basically forced karma with were the slightest bit thinner and paler. On the other hand, Ren saw a few he suspected to be his closest friends, which gleamed brighter than others. The depth of their relationship even affected how much merit or sin he absorbed from them. He would have to wait until his next breakthrough to confirm if there was a commensurate increase in the quantity of refined merit being returned to them.
One of the strands Ren had identified was the one connecting him to his senior, Chun Wei, whom he had visited before this journey. One of his earliest reinforced strands, it too was stronger than the others. That let Ren form the theory that repeated and genuine interactions continued to improve the qi construct. While that was the most obvious answer, Ren couldn’t help but wonder if his perceived debt to the senior who had guided his first steps in the sect didn’t also play a part. After all, intent and perception influenced karma to an extent.
Halfway through the 4th week, Ren was thoroughly sick of what was essentially imprisonment. Bound by society’s requirements, Ren could only sit in place when it became obvious that the treasure sword would only stop upon reaching the destination. The only reason he hadn’t gone mad that final week was the tortoise that he would secretly bring out in rotation. He threw out more illusion arrays, which he made sure to power himself so the elders couldn’t disapprove of, before bringing out the tortoises and playing with them.
He still kept them under his billowing robes, but in this way, he reduced the burden on the beast pouch while simultaneously erasing his stress. Many didn’t really mind either way, but the wind-affinity tortoise would repeatedly insist on staying outside and watching the scenery blur past behind him. Its cute antics wiped away much of his agitation.
By then he had stopped studying or even writing more of his books. Their enormous impact was good motivation, but Ren just couldn’t bring himself to write a 3rd book on this journey. His neighbors were maniacs who never stopped cultivating for most of the journey. Only Jian Feng beside him would occasionally practice calligraphy. While Ren couldn’t understand them and could certainly never do as they did, he had to respect their ability to focus so completely on their cultivation.
Still, when the elders announced their imminent arrival at the Golden Light Monastery, Ren was all but ready to hurl himself from that miserable flying sword and kiss the ground in relief!
A/N: I wanted to highlight here just how much of an oddball Ren is. To be fair, the others also don't need to sit and meditate for so long but they choose to. Ren is usually not concerned with how others do things but he's finally noticing the difference. I hope that came across?
Picture the disciples here all sitting facing inward. The 3 core formation elders powering it are in the middle near the hilt. My artistic skills are lacking so I am forced to rely on ai only for images but its a good approximation of what I had in mind.