Dragon of Rochester
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Story 10 - The Spy Who Rocked Too Hard (Part 8 🎸)
🕑 Added 2023-09-11 07:41:44 +0000 UTCThe courtyard had three separate houses. I took the nearest one and left Little Spring and Gold String to argue about who would stay where.
While inside my room, I set up my defensive formations. The kid could set up his own arrays and, as a rogue cultivator, Gold String, would have some way to defend himself as well. I’d still set up a formation around the courtyard tomorrow for extra protection.
Once all my formations were in place, I slipped into the space’s forge room. With a wave of my arm, I spread out all the spare supplies I had left.
If I was going to introduce the Dao of Rock to this sect, start a band, and mentor two cultivators, I needed more spiritual instruments. As the only person in this world who knew what those looked like and how to craft them, I would have to produce them myself.
The only issue is which instruments I had the time and materials to forge.
I tapped my chin and mentally went over my supplies, while including the ones Little Spring still had.
Hmm. Was it better to make a few more guitars or to hammer out a whole set?
A keyboard was right out with the time I had, but I could create a spiritual bass guitar, electric guitar, and a drum set. And maybe a cowbell for Fear the Reaper?
Oh! We had to have an acoustic guitar. Some songs just worked better on acoustic. I would still have to add enchantments to it, but they’d be different from the ones used on the electric-style spiritual guitar. Mostly, durability and some volume amplification as well.
Considering how fast I’d have to make them, they’d be real pieces of shit, but they’d work for a Foundation Establishment four arts cultivator.
Just imagining putting a band together and getting them to all play the song I want to hear made me happy. These poor unorthodox cultivators had no idea what chaos was about to hit them. Muahahaha!
“Ah, Sister Lin. Are you okay?”
I blinked, then turned to see that Little Spring had shown up while I was contemplating. He looked at me like I’d gone crazy.
What? Had I laughed out loud or something? Whatever. I cleared my throat and straightened my spine. “Of course I am!”
Then I eyed Little Spring. “How would you like to try playing the drums or the flute?”
He frowned. “Maybe the flute?”
Really? I thought for sure the brat would be a drummer. But a simple flute might be easier for a kid to learn. It also wouldn’t be hard to make. “Alright. I’ll add that to the list.”
“... What else is on the list?”
I let him know, then paused. “We shouldn’t think about only forging instruments. No good spy mission is complete without gadgets!”
Sadly, I didn’t have a Q to make them for me.
“Gadgets what?” He looked so confused. Adorable.
“I’m talking about spiritual tools to help us spy and record information. Also, some that will help us sneak around.”
“Like some kind of portable obfuscation array?”
I paused. That would be fun. Sadly, the environment a formation was in could affect it, so a portable array like that couldn’t exist. At least, not with our supplies and cultivation levels.
“Something close to that. Now that we understand the disguise technique better, we should be able to make our presence mostly vanish.”
“Like with the Presence Scattering Obfuscation Dan?”
I shook my head. “That pill works much better than the disguise technique. But, if we combine the technique and maybe an illusion tool on a bracelet of some kind? Yes! That would hide us in a pinch.”
I made a mental list of the tools I could make fairly quickly with the ingredients I had on hand: Spiritual Guitar, Spiritual Bass, Spiritual Drum Set, Spiritual Acoustic Guitar, Spiritual Flute, Secret Recording Tools, and Illusion Bracelets.
I sighed. “We have a problem.”
“What?”
“All the items I need, take time to make. The instruments, I should be able to finish all but the drum set today,” because making a drum set was forging a minimum of five instruments. “But the spy tools will take a week or more to craft.”
“Even if I help?”
I grinned. “With you, I can do it in two-thirds of a week.”
I turned the flames up and pulled out a few pieces of Echoing Aluminum and casually threw them in the crucible.
At this point, I’d made so many spiritual instruments that I could make them with my eyes closed. Back when I was teaching the four arts cultivators about rock, I had to craft them all myself since I was the only one with the knowledge of how they were supposed to look and sound.
Just thinking about how I traveled around and collected all the different sounds needed to make a keyboard on thousands of little recording crystals... It drove me half-mad.
Ah, that reminded me of back when I first introduced rock to the world. I had bribed any zither master willing to try a new musical instrument into playing them, just so I could hear the music from my past-past life. I’d had to make masterwork zithers for each of them, along with expert guitars, drums and basses.
And what happened next? The older generations scoffed at the music. They moaned that it hurt their ears or melted something. What nonsense… except for that melted thing. That actually happened.
Those old fuckers yelled that the songs were morally depraved. They claimed — without evidence — that the ancient society where I’d uncovered them was unsophisticated, and that their disciples wouldn’t be able to ascend if they learned it.
Those assholes were lucky I didn’t introduce them to dubstep. The first drop might have literally blown their minds.
Fortunately, a good portion of the younger generations ignored their demonizing and tried it for themselves. And what happened when they did? They loved it. It inspired them to write their own songs.
Though my favorites were the songs from my world, I still picked up the ones inspired by the rock from my world that had interesting effects and some of the original songs that interested me. At the time, I had better ways to accomplish those effects, so I only memorized them because I enjoyed them or because of my curiosity.
If I’d known that they’d be so useful, I would have made a guitar sooner. Then again, the effects required a large amount of spiritual energy, so it wasn’t like I’d have been able to play them before Foundation Establishment, anyway.
I filled up a barrel with spiritual spring water, grabbed several pieces of Three Stars Silvery Iron Wood from Little Spring, and threw them inside to soak. This would become the base of my acoustic guitar, but it needed to get wet and malleable first.
“Sister Lin.”
“What?”
“Before we get started with the forging process, shouldn’t we come up with a plan for our mission?”
I paused. Then teleported some of the sand from the lake into the mold box I’d created when I made my first guitar in this life months ago.
“Well, it’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it?”
“No… It really isn’t.”
Right, the kid was still a kid, even if he was the protagonist of this world.
I sighed and asked him a question to get him thinking. “What is our goal here?”
“You told me on the way over that we need to find evidence of this sect getting involved with the demonic cultivators.”
“What else?”
“That we need to find a dangerous weapon.”
“The Scroll of 10,000 Evil Souls.”
He nodded.
I created several hand seals, formed a bass out of spiritual energy, then pressed it into the sand. After that, I added more sand and flattened it down.
A few months ago, I discovered that the sand by the lake was perfect for making molds like this. It was very fine and tightened together well.
“So, how are we going to go about doing that?”
I briefly glanced at him. His face was filled with worry, and I sighed. “It’s possible that we’ll fail this mission.”
His eyes grew wide.
“I may have been given bad intel. There wasn’t any time to look into it if we wanted to enter the sect as quickly as possible.” The city lord had given me the option of bringing him just the Scroll of 10,000 Evil Souls. But I wasn’t sure I trusted a guy who made sharks with sword Qi shooting noses with a spiritual tool like that.
“Then why choose to do this?”
I grinned and held up my index, middle, and ring fingers. “Because, even if we fail, I will still accomplish three other goals of mine.”
He blinked.
I dropped my hand and shrugged. “If we don’t succeed, we’ll merely need to win spots for the inter-sect tournament in four... or is it five years? Then we just have to reveal our identity to our sect and possibly go home from there.”
He nodded.
“However, this area is unknown to us, making it dangerous. I would rather not wait for a tournament that we don’t even know if we’ll get in.” While I was confident in our skills, I wasn’t sure I could convince a sect to give up two of their slots for disciples who came from outside. We might actually have to win the tournament to pay them back, and that sounded too time-consuming. “I want to prove this sect is working with the demonic cult and return as quickly as possible.” And I would get to take down that stinking snake, Noxious Fangstrike, while I was at it.
I grinned just thinking about it. Then my sleeve jerked. I looked over to see Little Spring’s worried face.
“Then what are your other two goals?”
“In my past life, these demonic sects were wiped out, which meant their inheritance in the poison arts vanished. I want to make a copy of as much of their poisoner’s library as possible. And if we’re only here a month, then I’ll have to do it quickly.”
He frowned. I could tell that he was wondering why I would bother.
“Poisons are more useful than you’d think. As long as they’re used in a moral way, they can be helpful instead of harmful. But to do that, I’ll need a vast knowledge of all poisons. This kind of information can only be collected over millennia.”
“If you find it important, then I trust you.”
Good kid.
“There is a chance that even without me doing anything, this sect will vanish. Though it may take a decade or two.”
“Knowledge from your past life again?”
“Well, that and I never heard of this sect until recently.”
“Could that be because they’re too weak?”
I shook my head. “Generally, unorthodox sects are stronger than righteous ones of the same level, or they’d be wiped out. No. The reason this sect is doomed is because their Poison Master insulted Immortal Zhenren at the alchemy convention. Once our seniors hear about this,” likely in two years once Peak Master Enduring Flame gets home, “they’ll reach out to their contacts on this continent. Because the distance is so far, it will take them time, but they’ll eventually come to an agreement and destroy the Irrepressible Beast Blood sect.”
His eyes widened.
I grinned. That was right, you did not fuck with the Indomitable Will Sect. Even if it took a while, we wouldn’t allow anyone to insult our seniors. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of my juniors heard about what Violet did to us from those three Golden Core girls and started attacking Violet’s businesses for me.
“And your last goal?”
I used spiritual energy to grab the crucible. Carefully, I poured half of the aluminum into the mold, then I threw it back into the furnace. While I waited for it to cool some, I grinned at Little Spring. “Putting a band together to heal Ghosty.”
The kid blinked rapidly, then nodded.
While the aluminum was still malleable, I grabbed a tool and swiftly carved a complex series of enchantments into the metal’s surface and spread a coat of Black Enhancement Gold along the lines. Next, I crumbled two mid tier spirit stones and used a hand seal to fuse their dust and energy along the path I’d carved. Before it had cooled too much, I poured the rest of the aluminum into the mold and allowed it to rest.
“As part of making a band, I’m going to spread the Dao of Rock to every one of these demonic musicians willing to learn.”
He opened his mouth. “But you just said that this sect is doomed. Won’t that mean what you’re doing now will be in vain?”
I frowned. “You think when a sect disappears, all its disciples get slaughtered or something?”
“They don’t?”
I scowled. “Do the Indomitable Will sect’s disciples ever leave?”
He opened his mouth, as he probably remembered that they go on missions often. It would be impossible to kill everyone off because there was no telling where they were.
“The only time I’d heard of whole sects getting wiped out to the last cultivator was when they were small and had called all of their disciples back to wage war. When a sect gets destroyed, the reason it can’t be put back together is mostly because the leaders and teachers of the sect died. The enemies would also either steal or destroy all of their secret manuals. But, sometimes the enemy sects will not only plunder manuals and treasures, but they’ll abduct disciples too. If I teach the Dao of Rock to as many demonic musicians as I can, then they can bring it with them when they go to other sects. This way, there will be a greater chance of it sticking around and spreading... like a cold virus.”
Muahahaha!
I used spiritual energy to throw the nearly complete instrument into the forge. “Now, help me control the fire while I hammer the shittiness out of this five-string bass.”
“The what?”
Ah, I should probably teach the kid some English words. It might be useful as a code.
“Never mind that for now. I need you to focus. We have far too many things to forge tonight. Because tomorrow, we’ll steal from the Scripture Pavillion!”
Author’s Note: Thank you all for reading! You are the best readers a writer could ask for!
This part is a few days late because I had Bapper, my awesome content editor, take a look at what I wrote so far and suggest edits to this and my overall plot outline. I am so grateful to work with such a wonderful content editor and I can pay him what he deserves thanks to wonderful patrons like you!
I’m going to try to post next week’s chapter on Friday but if it doesn’t go up then I’ll definitely have it out around the same time next week that this chapter is going up. Thank you all for your patience while I work to catch up.
So, I know that not too much happens in this part but I felt it was important to establish Lin’s Goals and how she plans on achieving them — while showing a bit of crafting. I could spend several parts just on crafting stuff, but some of you might want to metaphorically strangle me if I did. It would also, sadly, kill the momentum of the story.
Anyway, this is the calm before the rocking storm.
Comments
conkerer
Maybe if we start the next chapter with a short excerpt from Little Spring's Alchemy study notes and remarks on what new things he is learning and observations he finds notable?
Diego Rossi
Thanks, beautiful.
conkerer
I don't know if it is applicable to this story, but I recently read a really ingenious way to condense a lot of crafting into a short bit, by just writing the research notes and remarks, and implying the rest. Specifically I'm thinking of Quill and Still Chapter 54. Very self contained and dense, but easily skimmed and doesn't really interrupt narrative flow just because of how different it is.
![[Image Link]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/996145339650293891/1150696822612959285/SPOILER_Five_String_Bass_copy.jpg){kind=link}