Fighting to be Kind in a Cultivation World

The sound of screaming fills my ears.

Tornado winds whipping across my face and enraged enemies all around me.

100 meters.

They draw ever closer, firing attack after attack.

My shield creaks and reforms constantly under the weight of thousands of cultivators of multiple realms. I keep my healing techniques going, healing crowds of people gathered by Gong. Just managing to keep up with the cost.

80 meters.

Nets. Talismans. And crying children.

Things and people meant to restrain me. Prevent me from unleashing my potential.

50 meters.

Cloying and sticky. Holding to my shield and obscuring sight outside of it.

Too bad for them. I don’t need eyes to see.

40 meters.

Even as the tornado screams, I can hear their breath now. Closer and closer. Terrified, yet firm.

The creatures on my back, body, tremble. Salivating. A meal incoming.

30 meters.

A man tries to turn back, only to instantly lose his head.

Three rugged men now stand out among the others. Nets, swords, and talismans in hand.

Low Core Formations. Below average, but enough.

A voice rumbles across the battlefield.

“…Time to capture this guy. We’ve wasted enough resources here.”

The middle one spoke, his voice grating and curt. The two beside him nod.  

All other sounds around me die out, as I focus all my attention on them. This is it.

…

A sword glints in the shifting light of the area, a single droplet of blood still on it.

Moving. Flowing.

Dropping.

…

..

.

Crack.

A core formation sniper shot whizzes toward me, just as powerful and fast as before. Forcing me to dodge.

The three soar toward me.  

I try to dodge, but find the earth has raised and hardened around my shield. Gripping it beyond the limits of the earth. A talisman seal.

I duck as a sword attack breaks through my weakened shield like glass, to shear the tip of my hair off.

It bought me time.

Just enough to get punched in the face by the third. Pain flares across my mind as my face shatters and I feel myself fly over the ground. Channeling healing to reform it, as I try to tuck and roll into another combat stance.

Another fist appears in front of my face. I dodge to the right, avoiding the attack, but there are two others coming. A sword and net swing at me from both sides. The hard ground is the first thing I feel, as my only choice was to throw myself across the field face first into the ground.

Immediately after, as if in a practiced motion, attacks from the surrounding lower realm cultivators rain down on me.

Isolation.

They’ll keep attacking me this way until I mess up or tire. And in this case, getting captured is the worse option.

Forcing my eyes to stay on my enemies, I can still sense the hostages kept both in the open and around the group. Which is preventing me from using my large-scale alchemy attacks.

And any I could still use in this hostage situation… would be quickly dealt with by the core formations.

 But I need more time. Just a bit more.

I keep my healing going on the countless people on the distant perimeter. Feeling the rush of qi from the area and the qi sub-dimension fill me.

The constant attacks hitting my qi shield also fill me up from both sources, the strength of the Tortoise Swallows Dragon technique.

Which is why this dance continues.

A flurry of attacks. I dodge.

Surprise attacks nestled within each other. A fatal blow received and healed.

In their eyes I can see the wish to cut me apart and catch the parts in nets. A way to contain an ever-regenerating foe.

But no one expects a person to run face first into a blade.

With a leap, I dive onto the blade, to avoid a more deadly slash. Moving it in a way that allows me to regenerate without being fully diced. And also, in a way that protects the spirit beasts still hiding on me.

A little more time…

Movement after movement.

Just a bit more.

Pain and more pain.

5 minutes pass.

And that’s when I feel it. The cusp of the border.

I immediately harden my shields and bunker down, focusing on moving the qi through my body in more depth. As if realizing this is a turning point, the many attacks on my body increase by everyone else here three-fold. The spirit beasts hidden on me hunkering down, as well.

Breathe in, Breath out.

With all my energy being directed toward my qi shield, even the strongest attacks are softened. Allowing me to rapidly heal from any that come through.

Breathe in, Breath out.

In through the meridians. Swirling through the dantians. And finally… settling within.

Breathe in.

It’s here.

Rank 5 Qi Condensation.

The tornado ceases and I rise to my feet.

…

Crack.

Another sniper shot fires off toward me, yet again.

This time, I have a response.

An aura of qi erupts from my body, and I punch toward the sniper shot. The raw qi I hold rocketing towards the attack.

Making it ricochet right back at the sender, leading to them desperately dodging and then running away.

If I was at 20,736 qi before… now I’m at 38,416. Almost double.

Considering that the average core formation at the first rank has just above 8000… their team of four won’t be able to hold me down anymore. Even with their higher quality qi.

As I think this, the swordsman leader makes hand signs to instantly appear in front of me, momentarily matching the speeds of upper core formations I’ve seen in the past.

His sword descends towards me… only to stop. Partially lodged within the shield.  

Their strongest attack now unable to pierce my shield fully.

I can see the fear in the core formation swordsman’s eyes as I move faster than I ever have before. With my enormous hand now piercing his chest.

But what I grabbed was not just his heart… but also his cultivator core. Something that normally wouldn’t be able to be grasped as easily as now.

Kssshhhh

I crush it and his heart simultaneously.

He collapses to the ground lifelessly.

The silence after that resonates, reflects the disbelief in everyone’s hearts. It is for this reason, hadn’t shown the full extent of my physical strength.

Regeneration. Protection. Alchemy. Talismans. And a body cultivator’s strength. Just one of these is a threat.

Together?

…

Instantly, one of the core formations breaks into a run. With crowds of the lower realms following.

You all won’t be getting away that easily.

A hunt begins.

Leaping into the air, I jump into the middle of the 2000+ group that originally surrounded me. I commit to a brief scan of those around me.

Scum.

With a punch, the raw qi aura around me stretches in that direction, taking the heads of all around me for 30 meters. Bodies fall, now headless.

Another leap, landing in the middle of another group. Scan.

A more selective execution, a flurry of punches and the unleashing of the spirit beasts I held at bay.

A plant tendril shoots out, infecting a man with its controlling abilities. Causing him to strike the man next to him.

The jaws of a turtle become large and swallows a man’s head.

A frog tongue lashes out, knocking out a man instantly.

With many other attacks coming out from my body, like a chimera pot of destruction.

One man holding a hostage aims a knife at the woman in his arms. Unfortunately for him, this increase in cultivation has helped me correct another of my weaknesses.

A shimmer covers her body, as well as many of the hostages scattered around the battlefield. Tortoise Swallows Dragon shields.

No one will hurt them now.

…

The ensuing rampage ends up being surprisingly straightforward.

No one could breakthrough the barrier or stop my attacks. And without the previous restrictions, I could use my scan to target the most dangerous and evil people in the groups. While flinging spreading poisons that paralyzed and incapacitated large portions of enemies.

The hostages, of course, are still protected by my shield and healing if necessary.

Soon enough, the only people left were those whose previous actions didn’t warrant death and wouldn’t come after me later.

And what of the other core formations that got away?

They aren’t really criminals, just greedy rogue cultivators following a bounty request. A gray zone. I can see from my scan that this experience will help them stay away from contracts with groups like the Vermillion Stripes and other criminal organizations in the future.

… it might be a bit overly forgiving to leave so many people still alive. But I’m reluctant to kill people just because they were planning to do the same to me, if they will stop future attempts.

At least, not if I’m able to handle it without doing so. Only those who I can’t reform and will hurt those close to me will be considered for that.

I spend the rest of my time gathering up the remaining unconscious enemies in a central area on the battlefield.

Setting things up for the first stage of a new plan in the city.

A reformation project.

I've known that I typically have a tendency to help and forgive women, children, and the elderly. But if I want to honestly change the culture and minds of others here, I have to extend that to everyone. Even if I have a bias towards those other groups.

Giving people on the wrong path a way to move forward… I think this could be a step in the right direction.

And I have jus…

My scan catches movement in the sky that completely steals my attention. Someone floating on a sword, leisurely heading to my location.

The very person who all of this was for.

Big Sis Crane.