At first, Ryuli was controlling herself when Jin placed his palms at her back, but the moment he sent a small amount of chi into her little tiny body, she felt like death had visited her. The horrid screams from her petite stature frightened Jin, but he was aware that breaking the procedure halfway could have dire consequences.
He did not understand why all this felt so real when he was lucid dreaming, but the fact remained that there was no System around and his storage ring and phone were not working indicated that this was unquestionably a dream. He pressed on with his chi transferring and told Ryuli to bear with it a little longer.
The little girl shouted until she was unable to breathe anymore. Ryuli could hear her heart pounding, felt her blood circulating and pulsating through her entire body and yet at the same time felt that her whole body was numb.
The only thing she could see was darkness with a fickle of light from the edge of her vision. The only thing that kept conscious was Jin’s constant yelling that it will be over soon and she held onto that stranger’s lingering voice to as long as she can…until she blacked out.
——-
“You awake?” Jin asked as he saw Ryuli open her eyes while she lied on his knees. To Jin, it felt like it had been an eternity after Ryuli blacked out. By then, he started noticing that the chi circuit within her had begun to flow after the chi transfer was done.
However, instead of leaving it as it was, Jin took the extra mile and regulated the chi within her runty body. He did not understand why, but he could somehow feel the chi pulsating through her body as like it was his very own. All he could do was to make sure the chi flow into every part of the circuit so that there was no blocked or missed points. Or that was how Ming had done for that for mini Jin when he was younger.
Ming had briefly explained that the opening of chi points in a child’s body was the most vital. Should a family member or grandmaster miss a chi point opening during the first circulation of the chi after the transference, it might lower the future potential of the child. Hence, Jin was making sure that it passed through all of the points by ensuring his chi travelled through her whole body.
But even as he tried to do so, Jin could only rely on vague memory to ensure that he covered all the parts. This was because he was using himself as a reference to circulate the chi in Ryuli’s body when he cultivated.
Jin placed her in the same sitting position that he usually was in and aided the circulation of the chi based on his experience. It was easy because the chi that was in Ryuli’s body was his, but he subsequently noticed that Ryuli was also starting to produce the same type of sludge that Jin gave out when he cultivated.
“Ah…?” Jin was equally confused but guessed if it was a dream, it only made sense that there was no sense in the things he saw. Surprisingly, he was able to control her sludge too with his chi as well. So he did just that to prevent the sludge from consuming the nearby candle.
After circulating his chi a few times through her body, he could rest easy that at least a main bulk of her chi points had been opened. Jin understood why this was usually done either by a grandmaster or under the tutelage of a professional. But this was the best he could have done, and it comforted him the chi within her was not rampant but as quiet as a motionless lake.
“Umm…” The little girl woke up realising that mean uncle who had nearly killed her just now, was staring right in front of her face, and she quickly rolled away to her best of her ability.
“You are cute when you sleep you know? You should maintain your cuteness when you fight.” Jin felt an urge to tease her even more as he walked away from her weapons which were placed near the candle. Suddenly, he realised he was starting to imitate Kraft a little too much for his own liking. “Urgh, that sly old fox is such a bad influence.”
Ryuli did not care what that uncle mumbled to himself as she ran to pick up the umbrella and sword to protect herself from that lying uncle. “You said it was painful! You did not say it was death!!!”
“If you think that is death, you have to rethink the sacrifice your Papa went through,” Jin replied as he now had the command of the sludge that came from her body. Jin also called out an Astral Panda to light the place up with his Black Fire so it would be more visible for Jin and Ryuli.
“Right now, you will be fighting with this sludge monster which I am controlling. Defeat it, and then you can fight me.” Jin instructed as he made the sludge into a panda.
Following the orders of Jin, the sludge panda immediately screeched at Ryuli and she was already taken aback by it. “Okay, maybe I should drop the difficulty level to another notch,” Jin noted to himself as he made the Sludge Panda sit lazily at one corner.
“Okay now attack it,” Jin told Ryuli except she was too scared to do so.
“Perhaps, having a tuition centre might be harder than I thought. I should reconsider the options of getting one…” The dungeon supplier decided to try something else instead.
“What happened to your determination and will that you had previously when you fight against me?” Jin recalled and used Ryuli as the subject of motivation.
“The Panda too cute; I do not want to hurt it. I am afraid it hurts me too.” Ryuli replied so innocently that Jin did not know what to do.
“I… oh my god. Okay, the panda is fake. You saw the ball of sludge, right? I made the panda from it just now. The panda is that sludge. So do not worry, hit with all your strength for now. I promise it will not hurt you.” Jin tried to reason with that kid, and she unwillingly nodded her head.
With a straight forward charge with her umbrella and sword, she attacked the lazy sludge panda at the corner, but it had no effect on him. No matter how she slashed or stab, it did not make a dent because Jin had solidified the sludge to the panda’s form, allowing it to be tough on the exterior.
“That’s it! Keep hitting the Panda! You are not putting enough strength to it. You are a Grade Zero cultivator! How are you going to kill me when I am a higher grade than you?!” Jin encouraged her as he tried to analyse the fighting patterns of the little girl.
Ryuli might not have any tricks or techniques at her disposal, but Jin seemed to have had the feeling that she might have the potential because of her attitude. Usually, kids these days would give up after a short period of time when they realise their efforts could not achieve any results but not her.
She initially tried to attack at different angles to see if it made any difference. There was even once she climbed up onto the Panda’s leg to try and poke her sword into the Panda’s eye, but the sludge panda simply picked her up and put her down.
Yet, Ryuli did not give up.
Instead, the little girl went for the easiest method. Continuously hit something until it had an effect on it. A stab from her kid umbrella, and subsequently a slash from the sword that was left by the crescent moon man. Rinse and repeat. Each blow might be minute, but she was trying her best to make a dent onto the lazing panda.
That was when Jin decided to help her. “Your breathing is too shallow! Concentrate on taking a deep breath before hitting it!” Jin shouted at her and Ryuli followed it to the letter.
“Next, you are not bending your knees enough. Your centre of gravity is not stable! Lower your knees, concentrate on your breathing!” Jin instructed as he showed Ryuli how it was done by demonstrating it onto a nearby wall.
He took a deep breath, concentrating on the energy to put in his punch and lowered his knees. Subsequently, he slammed his palms onto the wall and he could feel the entire Isolation Ward shook momentarily only to notice that he had created a palm indentation on the wall too. “Oh shit, I think I over dramatised it for her.”
Nonetheless, that was what Ryuli needed to see. She took a deep breath in and lowered her knees a little before stabbing the Panda with her kid umbrella. The sludge Panda opened its eyes and looked at her for a while. It before snorted and gone back to sleep. Ryuli was pleasantly surprised that it worked and she began to do the same for the next few rounds until she could feel that something was swelling inside of her.
It was her own chi.
“Yes, continue, do not stop! I can see your own chi appearing right now!” Jin prompted her to continue, and she was also aware of the changes that were taking place in her body. Unknowingly, she was able to stab the Sludge Panda with an infused strike which caused the Panda to open his two eyes lazily. In retaliation, the panda flicked its fat chubby paws at Ryuli and she was knocked back a few metres away.
“Good, now you finally have the attention of the panda! But first rest up a bit! We can continue after a short break.” Jin praised her as he opened the school bag to notice there was no food nor water in it. She had no way of surviving for more than three days of dehydration unless…she cultivated to stay alive.
There were instances where some cultivators had cultivated over decades in Isolation with no food or water, but that was because their cultivation style had allowed them to do so. Most cultivation styles would not be that efficient in reducing the amount of food intake or water intake to zero. He could only imagine how long she could stay in this place before her bodily needs overcame her.
Jin then proceeded to teach her his way of cultivating since the Lazy Astral Pandas required almost no food and water if they were stuck in cultivation for a long period of time. It did not take long for her to get the hang of it and went into a trance.
However, this was just a temporary solution.
The only way was to ensure someone would help her get out of this Isolation Ward…wait, no. Was Jin not in a dream? Why was he so concerned about this little girl’s wellbeing when it should be merely a dream? If Jin was in a dream, could he not think of something and go all the way out to create an exit for her? At least, there’s a happy ending if he suddenly faded out from a dream.
Therefore, while Ryuli was deep in her cultivating stance, Jin looked at the Isolation Ward’s only opening at the top which was currently shut tight. If that crescent moon guy had left her to die and the story of the burnt temple was true, he would have to destroy the opening of this isolation ward and bring this little girl out of it himself.
Jin recalled the sludge panda and when it was a sphere of rotating sludge, he threw it to the locked door to see if there was any inscription charms or protective charms that might be used to prevent anyone from unlocking the Isolation Ward.
True enough, the moment he threw the sludge towards it, a sort of protective energy wrapped around the locked door. “If it was that easy, it would not be fun.” Jin murmured to himself as he recalled the sludge. Once again, he condensed it with as much chi as possible.
“So. In my possession is some little kid’s sludge and some ‘magical ‘ powers. I do not know how powerful that charm is and doing this conservatively might in fact backfire.” Jin thought to himself.
“Hmm..maybe change the sludge into a spear, and use the White Panda ice as a coating. Throw the spear with bamboo cyclone or the wind energy I had harnessed. After that, utilise Black Panda Fire to burn the protective energies since its the most destructive force I have at the moment….Should I use Panda Yawning or will that be overkill?” Jin thought to himself how to get it done.
In the meantime, the dungeon supplier called out three astral panda forms out to test his theory out. One harnessing the power of the wind from his Epic Art, Bamboo Cyclone of the Lazy Panda while the other two were gathering as much Black Panda Fire energy and White Panda Ice energy together. It was taxing for Jin, but he seemed to be able to get the hang of it quickly. (It’s a dream after all, right?)
With the sludge now condensed into a spear, Jin asked the pandas to now combined the Black Fire Panda and White Panda Ice energies into the spear.
“And now the finishing touch.” Jin gathered whatever chi he had left and thrown it up with the aid of wind energy which the last Astral Panda had gathered.
The spear boomed from Jin’s hand as it spiralled crazily towards the locked door and clashed against the protective charm. The White Panda Ice gave the spear an extra penetrating power while the wind energy increased the velocity and thus the strength.
While the spear pierces the charm, the Black Panda Fire in it consumed the protective charm wildly. The moment it penetrated through protective charm, the Black Panda Fire ignited the condensed sludge spear instantly when the White Panda Ice coating melted away, causing it to explode and shook the entire Isolation Ward.
Jin realised that upon doing that, random debris was falling down on to the almost forgotten Ryuli. He quickly ran to her side and covered her while using his body to prevent any rocks from hitting Ryuli. The Panda cultivator, however, was not stupid and used whatever remaining chi for Panda Yawning against the smaller rocks but a large part of the ceiling broke and fell onto him.
“There is no way, I am going to let you die after making you suffer to become a cultivator!” Jin said as he withstood the impact of the debris and held it with his bare hands. Slowly but surely, he managed to at least move it away from the cultivating Ryuli.
Sadly, that was also when he began to lose his consciousness when he successfully moved the impacted debris away from the little girl.
Everything in his vision started to fade away, and all he saw was the bright wide opening from above. A silhouette of a man…no a few others were looking at the destruction of the isolation ward from the top.
“The girl still survives!” A voice echoed through the isolation.
“She did all this by herself? She did not possess any demon blood like her father right?” The sounds had also began to get softer but Jin tried his best to listen.
“Doubt so, However its like what you said! Her chi awakened as you said she would. But I think -” Unforunately, all Jin could hear subsequently were just murmurs and everything faded into black.
