Ancient Being Predecessor of the Primordial Era: An OP Mc LitRpg - Cultivation - Development, page 10
Jun’s face darkened. She bit her lip, looking away to the side. Her pupils shot back and forth within her eyes. Remembering dark times and darker days. What had happened to the Hu Clan and its members. How only the two of them remained.
Shui was much less bothered by it all.
Probably too young to know what happened. What it really meant.
“All the smaller righteous clans formed a governing body. They were quickly corrupted and forced our Hu Clan out. To fend for ourselves. Rooted out from our homes. Killed to the last of us. Only hiding here in the Silver Mountain Gang protected us, but that has more to do with them not knowing who we were exactly. Just another Hu, rather than The Hu Clan.” Jun spat the words out. She trembled, but did her best to hide it from Hu Shui.
The little girl had already begun stuffing her face with the rice again. She took the moment to break out of her meditations to eat some more.
“I’m assuming the evil sects have been killing and looting everything. That was why the guards were so hateful?” Yin Hu said. Speaking for the first time in a while. Just listening to their tale. Letting them speak more and more to get more information.
That didn’t mean he didn’t care. Or it didn’t affect him. They were his wards now and he intended to make nukes out of them. Traumatized nukes that needed therapy were dangerous. Far too dangerous. He needed to focus on their mentals just as much as powering them up.
More work for him to do. Not that he minded.
Jun nodded. “The local hegemon sent a missive a few weeks back. Either the Gang Boss triples the amount of tax paid to fuel their wars and debauchery or die. I’m sure you know who really is going to pay for it. The Gang Boss started to demand more from the poor villagers in the village. They have no one to blame. No one to voice their anger to.”
“They want to fight!” Hu Shui perked up from her food. “Kill all the demons—”
“Shush!” Jun snapped her hands to cover Shui’s mouth. Eyes wide and fearful. “Don’t say stuff like that. They’ll... They’ll—”
“They’ll what? Jun?” Yin Hu was getting angrier with every passing moment.
Not that he could face off with a super sect currently, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t destroy them eventually. Nukes were that overpowered. He did not intend to only have one. No. Thousands. More if he could.
Jun wouldn’t match his gaze. Even with her ancestor here, she looked defeated. Weak and small. Very much unlike how she acted at all times in front of Hu Shui. It was psychologically imprinted into her mind to be fearful. Her past weighed heavy on her.
“It’s impossible to fight the Spider Valley Cult. Suicide.” She leaned over the table to whisper. Looking around as though they were here. “They have two pinnacle Immortals as Elders. Both rising not a decade ago. Even their geniuses are extraordinary. I don’t even want to mention cult’s masters.”
She shivered and trembled like she was cold.
“I see.” Yin said. Studying how Jun reacted to the cult's name.
There was much he needed to think about. How dire everything seemed to be in this cultivation world gone awry. Where they were currently. What his plans should be for most optimal growth. How he should develop the two girls into nukes and set himself up for the future to start his own clan.
A new and improved Hu Clan with super weapons and resources.
Yin Hu looked down at his robes. Black with red ostentatious designs of dragons and swirling petals. He looked like a villain. A demonic cultivator. He would need to start wearing different colors instead of the black he enjoyed. They were always the most fashionable for some reason.
Guess it's part of the whole villainy shtick. Being awesome looking and all. Or utterly hideous. No in between unless you're a mob.
He didn’t want to be a mob. Nor did he want to be a villain that murdered everything with impunity. Yin Hu wasn’t a murder hobo, harem chasing, spiritual animal taming Mc like the Hu clan’s real founding ancestor.
“Tell him, Jun! Tell him about the pyramids they keep building!” Hu Shui said.
Jun’s face darkened even more. She shook her head.
Pyramids? I didn’t see any pyramids on the way here. Or are they tiny ones? Why would that be noteworthy?
“What about pyramids?” Yin Hu asked. Very curious.
Chapter 18 - Spider Cult Valley
Jun tried to change the subject but that was quickly shot down by Yin Hu. He needed all the information. Even the gritty horrific stuff best not heard. A well informed decision was far more valuable than a moment of terror, disgust, or fright.
Plus he could dodge them if they were too strong. Can’t do that if he had no clue what they were capable of.
She closed her eyes. Took a deep breath. Shuddered a few times. “They… The Spider Cult Valley…”
Yin Hu stared as Jun started looking sick to the stomach. Pale. Whatever it was that happened seemed to affect her greatly. Even after witnessing horrors already. This was something beyond the simple kill or be killed he expected from a cultivation world.
Wouldn’t be a demonic cultivator unless they did demonic things. How bad could it have been?
“Jun,” he said. Voice stern and demanding. It helped her break out of this spiraling loop. “What happened?”
“The Spider Valley Cult captured an entire convoy of refugees. Dragged them in front of the town. Beheaded each one slowly. Inflicting as much pain as they could with dull blades,” She shuddered. “Their eyes were still moving, leaking blood from their severed faces. Still screaming but voiceless. Being tortured even in death—”
Holy shit. That’s brutal.
“—It was a message. A guard didn’t get out of the way quick enough on their last visit. They murdered hundreds of people, made pyramids out of their heads.”
Yin Hu grit his teeth. The ancient ancestor persona cracking, pulling apart at the seams. Making pyramids out of heads? Still screaming faces? What the hell was this? Berserk? Where the hell did he end up at? He knew from reading that demonic cultivators were evil, but this was beyond just that.
He needed time to think. Consider how it affected his current plans to be surrounded by beauties and be pampered. What should he do if they decided to eliminate the entire town? How much time did they have? Could he and the girls hide in this house? Or would the problems boil over their heads like fate was playing a prank on them?
It would not be wise to just sit here as an army of sadists decide to kill them all.
Images of what it could look like involuntarily appeared in his mind. Heads of little kids, elderly, women, the weak and destitute. Scrawny refugees that had no place to go. It would scar any cold man or woman, much less little children and young adults like Shui and Jun. Both of them should be busy with things appropriate for their age.
Not this. Seeing traumatic things no eye should witness.
“They were still alive!” Hu Shui shouted. Eyes wide and bright. She nodded, affirming her words. “Yep! All of them. Crying and begging for someone to help them—”
“Shui!” Jun said. It came out a hiss. “What did I say about speaking such words? Those dreams aren’t real.”
“Not dreams! I saw them! None of them left until the town cleared and buried the heads! You never believe me! They even said goodbye to me. And said thank you. And said to feed the birdies too.”
Yin Hu stood up. “I’ll be right outside.”
He needed space. Room to breathe. Clean air to fill his burning lungs. The house seemed cramped and without enough oxygen to inhale. Pressing a weight onto his chest. Yin Hu stepped out into the courtyard and even walked outside of the gate.
Making sure to dodge the greedy Qi sucking tree. He could see its leaves reach out for him.
Yin Hu let out a deep breath. Leaned back onto the outside walls of the house. It was getting late in the day. Sunlight turning into a stark orange rather than the soft yellow it usually was. Touches of pink in between.
Bright blue skies still. A single cloud lazily floating away. It reminded him of his solitude.
He shut his eyes. Reminiscing about his time on the floating island. All the memories were blurry. Each one bleeding into the next few or even a dozen. Had he gotten his first reward exercising? Or was it mental strain? Or maybe the moment he woke up? He wasn’t sure any more.
At what point had he figured out the truth?
That he was alone. For eons.
Only the excitement and joy of getting new rewards and weapons kept him sane. A drug that rocketed his dopamine levels out of the world, but even that faded eventually.
Happiness is not fake. The joy I felt was not fake!
Yin Hu refused to let himself think it was not real. That it was all just forcefully induced ecstasy rather than motivational love and excitement that drove him into getting better. Even if they were distant and fleeting memories he struggled to recall perfectly.
What the hell do I do now? No. We. What do we do now?
It took a long time to think of anything worthwhile. Mostly empty thoughts and a struggle to formulate anything substantial or worth the time it took, but when he did, he focused on it fully. It wouldn’t be wise to stick here for too long. Find a real city. A place without the constant threat of maniac, sadistic, demonic cultivators and being at their mercy.
The more prosperous the better. Richer economy meant he could leverage his super ability of vast riches better. Develop his own disciples in peace rather than them dying left and right to a thousand and one attacks that constantly bombarded them. From what Jun was hinting at, the only reason this place existed was because the Gang Boss was sufficiently strong enough to ward off attacks.
Or maybe enough to cause too much damage to take out hastily.
What would happen when he fell? Or keeled over and died to a stiff breeze by mistake?
Would the spider people group finally come to burn this little broken and raggedy town to the ground? Yin Hu understood he was strong, but fight Pinnacle Immortal level cultivators strong? He doubted that. Mostly because he had no clue what that meant, just that it sounded very strong. Much less the thought of fighting an entire army of them led by two of these supposedly genius Pinnacle Immortal realm guys.
In other words, they had no chance of surviving as they were. Sitting on a ticking time bomb that was destined to explode.
He nodded to himself. Ignoring the odd looks the rare person gave him. The path forward was clear. Laid out for him, even if it wasn’t in great detail as he hoped. That was better than nothing. Reach a rich city.
Become the ultimate baller.
Start the Hu Clan and recruit talent.
Begin a super business to fund all the nukes… disciples development.
And lastly, bribe anyone that needed bribing to keep their relative safety at hand. He had more than enough wealth to pay off an entire city of millions in their weight of gold. Much less bronze, silver, or gems of any kind. He could say much about the system. Of them, he could reliably say it was not stingy. The exact opposite.
He could already imagine it. Mansa Musa-ing an entire economy just by passing by. Flooding entire cities with his wealth. Yin Hu could really see it, established properly. He would then find him cute, buxom wives! They would pamper him! Love him!
And then…
Yin Hu laughed to himself. Freaking out the few passersby that happened to cross the alleyway they were stationed in.
Chapter 19 - Cultivation Manuals
It had been a few days of nothing but thinking and figuring out what to do and how to do it. The rudiments of a plan he made leaning on the wall were good, but not good enough. Just barely more than nascent thoughts. Applying them in a way that actually helped them remained an issue.
Yin Hu sat with his legs crossed on the front porch of the house. Low and without any stairs. Just a small step from the ground itself. A soft cushion from his inventory under him to help his meditative thoughts.
It helped him relax and almost fall asleep.
His rice bag sat in his lap. Yin Hu was going through it again. It was finally time to bring action to his many thoughts and ideas. He allowed his senses to enter the spatial pocket. The most cultivator thing he could accomplish so far in his current existence.
For the first time in what felt like a hundred millennia, it probably was, he went through all the manuscripts and cultivation techniques. Thousands upon thousands of elite scrolls that were sitting there. Unused and untouched.
It didn’t matter how many he had learned. He got nothing from them other than a notification that it had been assimilated into the system. It had been painful to remember them before. Now they were worth it. He didn’t need to throw the fire tornado, but rather teach someone to throw fire tornados with impunity.
He prodded the first low level cultivation manual he found. A vision appeared in his mind. Vivid and concise. Every bit of information he would need to excel at the forms and abilities provided in such a low level manual. He could speed up and slow down the vision. Repeat and track back as many times as he wanted. Zoom in and out.
A perfect course that made it impossible to mess up. Unless you were an elite dunce.
Yin Hu received the dreaded system notification. It hurt his chest just to see it. Like someone was sitting on his lungs. Making it hard to breathe.
Do you wish to assimilate ‘Fire Snake Cultivation’?
Yes -
No -
This was the crux of his issues.
He frowned, trying to hide his tense jaws. Luckily, he had such a massive beard to cover up his face. The system forcefully assimilated them as soon as he started studying them with intent. Anything more than a cursory glance was taken in and absorbed by it.
It made sense. If the system was unlocked, it would have been a large cheat to learn complex manuals in mere days that would have taken decades or centuries. Said system was an issue as long as he did not have access. Preventing him from calling upon the action and sequences of the techniques.
Even if he knew everything to know about it.
Yin Hu was not sure why he couldn’t do anything with it. He guessed it had something to do with how the system itself was designed to work. Making its life purpose to disappoint him.
Not that he had ever attempted to learn or practice the Fire Snake Cultivation manual. He recalled it had arrived right after he gave up on learning any of them properly. At the very start of his kung fu days. Creating his own techniques and style had been mortifying, but necessity demanded it.
He let out a deep breath.
This was a test to make sure his current understanding of the system was accurate. Everything hinged on this moment. At least his current plans did.
No access to use it myself, but I have all the knowledge about it. Perfect to teach the girls with. And hopefully a few thousand more nukes.
Yin Hu mentally pressed ‘yes’. He grit his teeth expecting the pain that came with assimilation. A headache appeared all over his head then vanished a few seconds later. Unexpectedly. He was caught off guard with how easy it arrived and went. Not the torture it had been. His memory had made this out to be one of the worst experiences he faced during his time on the island.
He let out a relieved laugh. Just as he expected. Information flooded his mind. Everything that had been written and hinted at within the Fire Snake Cultivation appeared where it had not been before. A deep understanding beyond just learning it. As though he had created the manual and cultivation technique himself.
By all means, he was a master at it now. If only he could use it.
Jun perked up. She had been sweeping at one corner of the garden. He had no clue why she was cleaning the patch of dirt there, but if it made her happy then who was he to ask. She put in effort to make sure the place looked presentable. Good even.
Some of those things ended up being very weird. Like wiping down the outer walls facing out towards the streets and alleyways. All days of the week. Not that it helped such a beaten down place. If anything, it made the stark contrast of holes and rickety walls that much more obvious.
Hu Jun does look like the type to cultivate a snake made of fire manual.
It didn’t surprise him that there were manuals that focused entirely on animals as their central core. Or that a snake made of flames existed. Somewhere out in the wilds. In an applicable habitat. Or that a lot of the scrolls he carried were element focused.
Fire, wind, water, earth, and a lot more esoteric or distantly related elements and objects.
Oceans. Volcanos. Clouds. Swords.
Yin Hu put it away. He had far better options available to him in every possible metric. It would only limit him and his subordinates. Best he shot for the moon. Target options that would provide them with better results in less time.
Unlike many of the other cultivation manuals Fire Snake Cultivation ended with its current rank. There were no advancements. Once you perfected it, you would reach a bottle cap and would be required to forge a brand new path. Yin Hu couldn’t cultivate. Not like the girls would have to. That type of struggle would be beyond his understanding, forcing him to only speak what he knew in detail.
If he couldn’t advance them properly through multiple stages up to the top in a set path, then they were destined to be doomed. Bullshitting didn’t usually end up working.
Lucky once or twice before catastrophe hit them.
It also meant he had to begin understanding the girls better. Get their personalities. Their most applicable attributes and the rank of their spiritual roots. Many items had given him explicit detail. Clear on what requirements were required to use them. Some were impossible. Others anyone could use.
Again Fire Snake Cultivation was a low leveled manual. The majority of fire aligned spiritual roots could safely cultivate it without much issue. Good for beginner sects. Not nuke creating sects like his Hu Clan.
Once he understood where they stood he could improve them sufficiently. Spiritual Root Cleansers, Spiritual Root Advancement, Qi Core Purification, and a hundred other pills, salves, medicine baths, and washes.
