Invite Players to a Cultivation World

PCliver has been chosen as the one who will test the technique.

This is partly because CoDestiny is out hunting for Beast Cores, and partly because Lily has a good impression of him.

As a show of good faith, PCliver took out the technique book and looked over it. He already has it memorised, but the NPC's will probably prefer he be extra sure.

So he places his hands on Tia's back. The chest would have also worked, but that'd probably get him slapped.

With the Cleanse Other Technique now active, he can feel something within Tia.

It seems to be her soul, but...

There's something horribly wrong with it. Impurities taint every part of it, and even ignoring that there is something missing.

Like her soul was once connected so something, but it was forcibly torn away.

Regardless, he continues. The impurities within Tia are gradually transferred to his own soul. It's still so much that he can't cleanse them all immediately.

While doing this he can sense... something. He tries to get a better look and...

A very young girl. A toddler even.

Since the moment of her birth she had been contracted to a Nature Fae, who had become her best friend.

She had many expectations placed on her, but her Fae friend had assured her that they would be able to fulfil them together.

The situation was much greater than a toddler could fully understand, but she knew enough.

She knew that one day she would become an amazing person who would help people when they're sad.

This all changed on her third birthday.

Bad people appeared, and hurt her family.

The worst part was that they even took her Fae friend.

It hurt, and not just emotionally. Whatever the bad people had done to take her friend had hurt her soul, letting in all the icky stuff she had been told to avoid.

Eventualy she recovered, but her friend was still gone, and there was still the icky stuff inside her soul.

Over the many years that followed, she came to fully understand everything that had happened.

No one ever blamed her for what happened, but she could always see that look of disappointment when people looked at her.

She wanted to prove them wrong, that she could still become a great cultivator and help people in need.

It didn't work though. Despite being given an enormous amount of resourses from her family, she was only able to reach the eighth stage of Qi-Refining.

This only made her feelings of inadequacy worse. Now she's the Calla family liability, unable to do anything but waste the resourses her family worked so hard for.

Again, no one in her family ever said this, but she knew some of them must be thinking it.

Many times she'd fantasise about what she'd do if her problems didn't exist. If Knot Weed hadn't turned that party into a nightmare, or if some miracle would occur that would let her fulfil the expectations placed on her so long ago. Then she would accomplish great things, just like her aunty Lily.

Such a miracle seemed impossible though, until one day her aunty Lily visited her and said...

All these memories and emotions are experienced by PCliver as he looks deep into Tia's soul.

It makes him feel so sad. More so than any other story has made him feel.

He has definitely read books where characters go through worse experiences, but the way this has been conveyed to him feels so much more real.

He can no longer view Tia as just an NPC. At the very least this is an AI advanced enough to be considered her own person.

And right now he is the miracle that will help grant her wish.

But the Cleanse Other Technique is reaching its limit. the impurities transferred to his soul are making it harder to maintain.

He doesn't care though. Tia needs this and he will do what he can to remove as much impurities as he can.

So he pushes himself. When he's reaching his limit he pushes it further.

He keeps going until...

The difficulty has become too much, and he is forced to end the technique.

Looking around, PCliver sees everyone looking at him and Tia.

Rose is holding onto his Cleanse Other Technique book, which she seems to have been reading, Master Stone is contemplating something, and Lily appears to be extremely thankful.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more." PCliver apologises. "I tried to maintain it for as long as I could, but it ended up being too much."

Tia turns to look at him, revealing the tears trailing down her face. "Thank you so much!" She forces him into a hug.

The positioning of this hug is unfortunate depending on how you look at it, as PCliver ends up with his face between Tia's 'assets'.

"You're... you're welcome." PCliver hugs her back, while also shifting it into a more normal hug. It's not that he wasn't happy with the situation, but there are other people watching and he doesn't want them to consider him a pervert. "I was only able to do so much though. About a tenth I'd guess."

"It was a tenth." Master Stone confirms. "And you don't need to worry. Now that we know there aren't any permanent costs on our side, we can repeat the technique as many times as needed."

"What do you mean no permanent cost?" Lily asks. "Is there a temporary one?"

"PCliver's soul currently contains impurities." Master Stone explains. "I was worried that this would make him loose the ability to cleanse impurities, but that isn't the case as he's cleansing them now. They should all be gone in about a week by my estimate."

"So it'll take ten whole weeks to cleanse a single person?" JadeBea asks.

"It shouldn't." Rose answers. "Tia is a special case in that she has a much higher density of impurities in her soul than anyone else. If the rate is proportionate, you should be able to completely cleanse multiple regular people before having to wait a week to do so again."

"It seems you've read that book very thoroughly." Master Stone says to Rose. "I will advise you again that you shouldn't try it yourself, not that it'd be possible in the first place."

"So there were no real problems with the technique?" Lily asks.

"There was one thing, but I can easily make a new version of the technique so it doesn't happen again." Master Stone says, then looks at PCliver. "What did you see?"

"I'm sorry Sect Master." PCliver apologises.

"I don't blame you at all, it's my fault for not taking the possibility into account, now what did you see." Master Stone asks again.

"I saw the story of Tia's life." PCliver admits. "It was only snippets of the most important parts though, and some impressions of her emotions over the years."

"I understand." Master Stone nods. "While an accident, it was a major breach of Tia's privacy, so I'll be changing the technique from now on so you won't be able to do this again."