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Cultivating Chaos 5 -ch 10-
🕑 Added 2024-03-07 01:47:09 +0000 UTCRen was recovering in a chair nearby.
She had passed out before the chisel had even completed the first pass though had woken up after he’d connected the carving together.
Not that he could blame her for passing out. It was a gruesome and horrifying experience.
“This is fascinating,” Chunhua murmured, staring at the controls for the airship. It was a complicated creation of artifacts, Qi, and mundane methods. “I think I could replicate some of this but it wouldn’t be worth the effort. We can probably construct these as they are.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Mei agreed and prodded at a device that didn’t make any sense to Ash.
He wasn’t really concerned with how it flew.
“You’re right, we do purchase them. They’re not that expensive but you have to know the right person,” offered Ren, who shifted around in her seat.
The first thing she did was turn off her Dao.
There didn’t seem to be any outward change but she as a person seemed incredibly at ease and relaxed now. As if the weight of hte world had been removed from her shoulders.
“Ren, how many do you have?” Na asked, looking out a window.
“Two dozen? They’re not that expensive but they’re annoying to maintain,” answered Ren sounding somewhat unsure. “Why?”
“Useful to transport troops. We have many that will need to move about swiftly,” explained Na with as niff. “The Brides will need a number of them. We’ll just have them hosted out of the Bridal Fort and perform maintenance there.”
“Sounds like a plan,” pronounced Ash as he leaned back in the recliner. He was feeling rather comfy.
Despite the fact that Tala had shoved herself in next to him and covered them both with a blanket. One of her long ears was draped over his head. The other around his throat.
Along with one leg over his hips and an arm across his chest.
The big bunny was dozing happily against him.
“Do we need to attack those who attacked you?” Hui asked. “I would like to kill people. I’m close to punching through to the Awakened Mortal realm.
“Ashley would reward me for doing such a thing so quickly. I think I’m the first?”
“You’re the first,” confirmed Mei with a chuckle. “And yes, he’d likely reward you. He is most certainly not stingy with his rewards.”
Siu clicked her tongue and began to move away from where she’d been studying a map. Her hips swayed as she sauntered over to Ash.
“I think we should attack them,” she offered, her fan fluttering slowly in front of her face. “It would be good to make sure everyone else realizes Ren wasn’t harmed, nor was she bothered by the attack.”
Ren laughed at that and lifted her hands in a helpless way.
“Then we should attack Si’Sha,” she offered. “I was already after her after Ashley killed her champion. She doesn’t have many lower lands, but we could take some of her resources above and then trade out for Low resources.
“How long will it take for that formation to reverse it all?”
“A week,” Chunhua stated with full conviction. “I timed it myself. Ashley taught me formations as part of my Bridal dowry.
“I’m surprised you took Doll-Making in the end given all he can give us.”
“It sounded really fun,” Ren countered with a laugh. “Though I didn’t realize I could use them to communicate among other things.”
“To be fair, I kind of cheated. I listened to Xingying. I really looked into Doll Making for what I was planning for Ren.
“I realized I could combine it with her abilities, manipulation of others, and channel it to the Dolls. Our Fortune’s Chosen is… chosen.
“I’m going to try to use her to the best of my abilities. Make her walk around the Hall and ask her questions randomly and let her do what she wants.”
“Xiuying?” Ash asked, turning to look at the rather pretty and unassuming woman.
“Mmm? Yes Ashley?” she asked, looking up from the book she was reading. “Hui feels we should attack as does Mei. I tend to agree. Getting any lucky feelings on the when and the how?”
“No,” Xiuying admitted with a warm laugh. “While I’m flattered that you want to consult me, I’m afraid I don’t really work like what you’re thinking.”
“I can’t pick you up, give you a shake, and peer inside?” Ash asked with a chuckle.
“Oh you’re welcome to do all that and I think I’d maybe even find it fun? But I’m not something that you can get a picture of the future from, or which path to take,” Xiuying murmured, looking back to her book with a blush in her cheeks. “My fortune lies more in when things are thrust upon me, rather than figuring out a path.”
“Attack it is then,” Mei stated and looked to Ren.
“Qi-Lord’s square should be our destination,” mused Ren aloud. “Si’Sha will be there to try and hide amongst the others. The upper Qi-Lord’s don’t go there often.
“Most of the middle realm Qi-Lord’s stay there and they number in the hundreds
“More aking to small gangs, really.”
Really?
Hm.
So in other words, there isn’t any Qi-Lord’s in the lower areas. The middle realms are more like gangs. Those in the upper realm are more like CEOs or business owners.
“We can challenge her repeatedly if she’s there,” Ren declared, shifting around in her seat again.
“The itching fades with time,” offered Chunhua. “As your body better aligns with the carving, that is. The itching just stops. I don’t even remember it’s there anymore.”
“I always feel mine,” Hui declared and held her hands up. Immediately she began to channel Qi freely to and from herself. “I am the living weapon Hui, though… I’m glad to be me, and not a weapon at the same time.”
Ash lifted his hand and gestured at Hui to come over. He wanted to desperately reward her for her words just now.
Hui came over quickly and Ash reached up and pulled her down to a seated position next to himself. He stuck his hand atop her head and began petting her while rubbing his hand back and forth, as well.
“My beautiful Hui that is exactly the attitude you should have. My strategist. My Bride. My Hui. You must be all those things, and a weapon last,” Ash whispered, holding her eyes with his own. “I have many weapons, but only one Hui. Don’t I?”
She never looked away but only nodded at him, a smile flashing across her face.
“One Hui,” she whispered and then closed her eyes. “Yes.”
For whatever reason, she truly did enjoy him petting her head and rewarding her verbally. Personally he felt it was condscending, but if it made her happy, he would gladly do it.
Her upbringing had most certainly broken her in many ways.
***
“I think this is the first time I’ll be here without my Dao causing problems,” Ren murmured, watching the landing zone through a window.
The other ships that’d come with her had all left to go defend her territories.
Ash had brought on board a squad of Knights of Sheng just to see how they’d do.
“Is it that problematic? I didn’t want to pry,” Ash tried, glancing over at the beautiful woman.
“My Dao is to be the most beautiful, the most desirable, that no one can resist me,” she mumbled with a small shake of her head. “It was originally so no one could hurt me. Little good that did since it just drew men in to try and capture me or kill whomever I was with.”
Ren hunched her shoulders briefly and then huffed.
“Not today though. I don’t even need body guards,” she whispered and then pulled out a mask and fit it to her face. He had no idea where she’d gotten it, but he got the impression it wasn’t too abnormal. “You should all wear those veiled-hats given… well… given how you lovely you are.
“Ashley can just be himself. He’s very attractive for a man I must admit, at least to me, but he isn’t what people here would consider conventionally handsome.”
As one all the Brides around them pulled their hats over their head and adjusted their veils.
The Knights, led by a young man that was friends with Tan, were all wearing black hoods and clothes to cover themselves from head to toe. They were all working to keep their powers unused so that they didn’t panic the cultivators.
Ash had outfitted them all with the enhanced weapons that tended to give cultivators a bad time.
“Ahh, I suddenly have a greater appreciation for how he tells me he loves my figure,” Mei mused.
Tala moved in closer to Ash’s side and casually put an arm around his shoulders. Then leaned her head to the side, her ears flopping over the top of his head.
He found it rather cute.
“Your Bunny-Wife thanks you for letting her Elegant-Self sleep on you,” she whispered, her veiled hat held in her left hand. “Thanks. I’m… really happy. Happier than I ever was previously, Ashley. Thank you for bringing me into your life.”
Tala squeezed him against herself then moved a step away and pulled her hat down over her head.
Smirking, Ash glanced to his side just as Tala’s head turned partially toward him.
“Love you too, my Bunny-Wife. Though most rabbits tend to overbreed when happy and cared for, you know,” he teased as the air-ship settled into place with a heavy thump.
“I’m well aware we do. Good thing for Rou and Lightning-Vine,” Tala answered in a pleasant tone. “Do remember that while were traveling you’ll need to start taking that again.”
Wait, really?
“Insanely so. She is a damn Rabbit indeed. Rou has just about gotten sick of it. So have I for that matter. Hate you. Hate them. My husband. Mine. Mine alone.”
Think we’re way past that.
The door opened and everyone began filing out. The knights exited first and made a double column just outside.
Ash and the rest exited and looked around.
“This is a private dock. We can leave from here and just enter the area,” Ren advised. Most people here will be just like us just in different ways. So don’t look too out of place, do your best to feel normal. Otherwise you’ll stand out.”
The interior of the area they were in looked quite normal. It was just a wooden pier that extended out and formed the ships landing point.
The place it went into was a boring interior that looked as if it doubled as a garage.
Entering the hall it was attached to Ren led them down several more and then out into an open area after a long set of stairs.
They were now on the top of whatever structure they stood on. Whether it be a building, or something floating all on it’s own, Ash didn’t know
All he knew is he could see out a considerable ways, as well as part way down given the angle.
The entire top of the building was filled with people eating, drinking, fighting, trading, and anything else you could think of. Ash could see that there were several people having sex in the open in fact.
There was verandas, benches, tables, green-areas, tiled-squares, and even a few buildings spread throughout.
A general meeting place that was clearly manufactured for people to come and go as they pleased.
“Oh me, oh my,” whispered Siu with a laugh. Her fan was closed but Ash could tell she wanted to unfurl it.
Additionally, she contracted her pink-sphere down to it just being around herself. She wanted nothing to do with anyone here it seemed.
“Ahhh! I see!” squeaked Xiuying, moving in closer to Ash’s right side. “Oooh… maybe I’m not-not as-as ahahaha… ready… as I thought.
“Oh! That looks painful. It sounds like… like meat slapping. How does she even like that?!”
Ash couldn’t quite answer that given none of his relations involved anything that rough. Locke was the closest that came to it, but that had only been once and she’d quickly stayed away from it since then.
If not the cuddliest of them all.
“Now we just need to find Si’Sha,” Ren said her head turning one way, then the other.
Locke, dear, beautiful wife of mine.
Any chance you can scan, find Si’Sha and give me an arrow?
“Of course! We already know what her Qi is like since we met her and… there. She’s here.”
Thanks, honey-bunches. You’re the best, you know that?
“Why thank you. I really appreciate it. I’ve really been enjoying shifting to a Housewife like existence. Everyone has also been responding really positively to it as well.
“Especially Mei and Jia. They seemed to think it was the best thing ever.
“Oh, and everything’s fine over here, by the way. We’re just taking territory as the formation expands slowly. No losses, though one was a near thing. Rou handled it.”
A green arrow appeared in front of Ash.
“Follow me,” he said and looked around to his group.
“How lovely, I do like watching your rear end,” Chunhua offered, her veiled head tilting to one side.
“Ahhh, yes. He’s been putting on even more muscle lately, hasn’t he?” Tala mused. “It’s because we’re at the point where we don’t really eat anymore, isn’t it?”
“How… how old are you all?” Ren asked suddenly.
“Eighteen,” Ash murmured, to which everyone else said the exact same thing. He didn’t think that was the truth, but he knew ages were a strange thing to cultivators. Often skipping their entire youth and being forced to grow rapidly
“Twenty,” offered Siu.
“My age doesn’t convert to the same thing here,” Tala answered. “Roughly, I’m a bit younger but still a fully mature woman in charge of her Elegant Self.”-
Ash was leading everyone through the area now. Walking through the space while following the direction of the arrow.
“I knew I was older but I didn’t understand the gap,” Ren grumbled.
Ash glanced at her as she said that and then went back to his hunt.
He wouldn’t have put her at older than mid twenties. A woman in her prime.
“I mean, technically I’m like… three years old or something. Because I’m not LBA.”
Ash blinked as he realized that he had truly found Si’Sha and laid eyes on her.
She was a fierce-looking woman with black hair, brown eyes, and a great deal of scars.
Scars that crisscrossed her face, shoulders, down her arms, and her exposed stomach. The clothes she wore were not much more than a sports bra and a pair of shorts, really.
While she wasn’t unfortunate looking, the scars didn’t exactly add to what little beauty she had. Though Ash couldn’t help but admire the extremely muscled and toned figure on display.
She was currently sparring with another man in open hand combat. They were actually doing so with martial arts, rather than just abilities being thrown at one another.
For the first time, in a long time, Ash felt a modicum of respect for a cultivator.
Outside of the Sheng Alliance and how they fought others, this was the first time he’d seen someone actually trying to raise their martial arts directly. Almost everyone relied on abilities alone.
Wait… didn’t the guards use martial arts alone as well?
They didn’t really use much in the way of abilities.
Why is that?
That’s actually noteworthy but I didn’t even realize it.
“Neither did I. Inform Hui of it and see if she was aware of it. Blind spots are blind spots for a reason.”
“Hui,” Ash whispered and turned, pulling his group off to an empty side of the square Si’Sha was in.
Before he had finished moving the woman had pushed up to stand beside him.
“Yes, Ashley?”
“Did you notice that the guards we killed didn’t use abilities? They relied on their martial arts completely. Just like the man who you fought originally did. No abilities at all,” Ash remarked.
Hui stood up straight as the group came to a stop. Every bit of her was rigid and unmoving.
“I didn’t… that… they all simply fought. None of them tries to use Qi, but they held Qi. Their bodies were absolutely infused with it and it empowered them,” Hui muttered. “But none of them used any abilities at all. That’s not normal.”
“Okay, think on that,” Ash requested and patted Hui on the shoulder, then turned to look at the masked Ren.
She was gazing at Si’Sha.
“Okay, so… now what, Ren?” he asked. “We just challenge her? And for what?”
“To start, we’ll challenge her for all her lower realms, with one of my upper realms on the line. My most lucrative one,” said Ren with a chuckle. “I already tried to purchase them outright at far over their price, she wouldn’t have it. So… now I must take it
“As to how to challenge her, I’d like to push a fight to the death for two combatants. Do you have any concerns with that? Even if it was their champion or hands?”
“No. Not really. We have people who could handle it I believe,” Ash admitted.
Chunhua was more than likely able to kill nearly anyone here if he let her run loose with an unlimited amount of Qi.
Ash then looked to the Knights. This would be a good opportunity for them to watch a cultivator fight to the end.
Up to this point, they’d been running around in the wild lands hunting animals and beasts with the Brides.
That or sparring with them.
While they were learning quickly, along with Templar teaching them first hand, they still needed more experience.
“I would like to fight,” stated Yix, the squad-leader of the Knights. “I want to fight. To the death, I want to fight. Put me in against an enemy of the Sheng.”
There was a tremble that ran through the man from head to toe as he spoke.
“That sounds like it’d be fun,” Xiuying chirped.
“So be it,” Ash decided immediately after hearing her.
While she had said to not use her as a fortune telling device for the future, he was still going to lean her way.
Ren hesitated, then laughed.
“This is the first time I get to surprise people. Given my Dao, everyone always knows I’m here as soon as I show up. Anywhere I go. Thank you for the control, Ashley Sheng,” Ren said in a quiet voice, then squared her shoulders.
“Si’Sha!” Ren shouted, stepping out of their group and towards the scarred woman. Reaching up Ren pulled down her mask. “I challenge you! My Cloud Meadows realm for all your Low realms! A fight to the death! I won’t even use my champion or any of my hands, yet you may do so!”
Si’Sha and her entire group all stared at Ren in shock of her being there.
“Surprise,” Ren said with a warm and bubbly laugh that woke Ash’s libido up and flung it to great heights.
Ren had apparently turned her Dao back on in that moment and everyone nearby could tell.
Siu thankfully was there in a flash to drain him.
