Jin decided to take the rest of the night to cultivate in the Emerald Mountains Hot Spring Service Instance since he was in the shop. As usual, the sludge from his body was ever expanding, yet the penguins and Mr Muddles performed better with each time Jin came in.
Mr Muddles even managed to hold more sludge than before, becoming larger in size than when it first appearing in the Emerald Mountains. Also, because the hot springs instance was something the System created, it had endorsed Mr Patsu and the penguins with more cleaning equipment and better, more potent herbal solutions for Jin to soak in.
Of course, Jin had to pay for the herbal solutions, but he still felt it was a worthwhile cost especially since each grade’s hurdle of advancement would only get higher. However, this time around, when Jin started to cultivate his Nineteen Lazy Astral Pandas cultivation, he felt something different. He felt a calling from within him. A particular screech which he had heard before.
As Jin tried to focus on that screeching, he felt even more absorbed into cultivation than ever before. What he did not know was that, as he was focusing on that screeching, the sludge he produced got even thicker and blacker as if it was being removed forcibly by Jin himself.
When Jin was finally able to hear the screeching properly, he felt a sense of bonding with it and soon, he was teleported into a higher plane where he could finally touch, see, and listen to the things around him rather than just listening to his Dantian churning out his chi.
In this particular higher plane, there was nothing but bamboo shoots all around him and a panda that looked like Xin in front of him lazing around until it finally noticed Jin. Jin took his fighting stance because he knew that Xin loved to fight, but the panda in front of him just paced himself slowly towards Jin.
Jin thought it was a ruse, but eventually Xin did not even make any move against Jin and instead wanted Jin to pat his head. It was at that moment Jin felt he was being pat on his head too. The feeling was warm and fuzzy as Jin enjoyed this particular moment in life. However, when he opened his eyes, he could not believe what he was seeing.
“Hello, Jin.” A familiar voice appeared and Jin could not help but cry in front of him.
“Grandpa.” Jin did not move a single inch as Ming continued to pat him on his head. “I am sorry I left without warning. This is the only way I can communicate to you and probably the only way I can impart my knowledge of what I got to know to you.” Ming in his old army uniform asked Jin to accompany him through the Bamboo forest.
“The Nineteen Lazy Astral Panda cultivation manual has many techniques that would definitely be useful to you but it would be hard to learn them all on short notice and I believe you need strong skills in the near future to not only protect yourself but your monsters, your customers and ultimately your hard work and blood, the store.”
“Hence, I had purposely placed this half written cultivation manual in the hands of the System despite knowing how despicable it could be, so that hopefully you will get to interact with my spirit.” Ming said.
“You mean that you did not really die, but hid yourself in me?” Jin asked if his grandfather was that noble. All he could do was to shake his head and laughed.
“I am not that grand, this is just the remaining part of my soul before I lost the battle to cancer. I decided to impart you with my own knowledge so that you will perform even better and not be too shaken with the strict teachings I obviously made you suffer through. Let’s just say this is the ultimate reward for all the strict lessons you attended under me and probably my way of saying sorry for negligence.” Ming said as they enjoyed each other’s company in the bamboo forest.
“Also, I am not sure if you could even attain this in the first place. I mean, you needed to have a spiritual union with your cultivation animal before even meeting me.” Ming admitted.
“You mean that there was a chance in life that I would not chance on to this encounter?” Jin questioned Ming and he nodded his head.
“I assumed that with the System and you, there was a decent chance that you would achieve spiritual union with a panda to attain stronger powers. It’s just a matter of when. And here I thought I might come in and save the day for you. How could I have predicted that you would be able to achieve this during peaceful times?” Ming laughed at Jin’s luck with the System and Jin could only sigh at Ming’s usual sarcastic remarks.
“In any case, I will teach you more about spiritual union in the days to come since the cultivation manual techniques are harder to learn even though its basics are useful. But because you kind of like bonded with more than just one panda, not to mention one of them happened to have a partial bloodline of a lost breed of pandas. The skills that you going to learn from me and the pandas will be better than the ones you can cultivate from the book.” Ming said confidently.
“Didn’t the System say it’s flawless?” Jin retorted at Ming as part of a bad habit.
“Blah! If it was flawless, the System would not have given it to you just because I asked it to give you. It would have given it to a guy or girl that has better affinity in cultivation than you, who just wants to build a shop.” Ming scoffed at the System.
“You seem to know a lot about the System.” Jin replied and Ming felt like complaining before he stopped and spoke seriously to Jin. “That discussion is also for another day. In any case, do you remember the Black Fire and White Ice skill that you have unleashed unconsciously? That is part of your skill repertoire from your spiritual union.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured once I started to remember the details. Since there is no way, I have unlocked such powerful magic.” Jin said.
“Oh, could you at least be excited or something, rather than saying things so calmly?” Ming used his walking stick to hit Jin even though he did not even need a walking stick to walk. Apparently, Ming once said that having a walking stick around was to prepare for the eventuality that might happen and it too made a handy good weapon to have.
“Aren’t you the one who taught me to be calm! Now I finally understand how Yun got her chic attitude.” Jin snapped back at Ming and that was how the grandson and grandfather interacted with each other as they grew up.
Bickering towards each other.
“Then why don’t you snap back at her? Is it because she is part of the System that you are scared of her?” Ming nipped Jin’s weakness and Jin could not reply back in time, allowing Ming to savour his short lived victory.
“Anyways, as much as I hate to say this. If you find the System worthy to cooperate with, do it. Yes, it is ultimately there to serve its own cause which I still had problems identifying what is it. But do know that, the world is really bigger than you know. Does not hurt to have an almighty network that you can utilise.” Ming said as they reached near the end of the bamboo forest.
“Network?” Jin furrowed his brows at that word but Ming did not explain much.
“Another time, Grandson. Looks like your penguins are calling you.” Ming pushed Jin a little with his walking stick and Jin suddenly felt like he was falling off from a cliff.
“UWAHHH!!” Jin forced himself out of the hot spring ‘waters’ and later realised he was covered in a lot of sludge. A bit later, he most probably would have suffocated in his own sludge.
“Boss! We thought we had lost you in that pool of sludge! We are sorry we were unable to get everything out in time.” Mr Patsu cried in happiness to see that his Boss was still alive “We will get more improved equipment to serve you better the next time!” Mr Patsu said as he gave a towel to Jin.
“It’s alright Mr Patsu. I am glad I am still alive too.” Jin said as he pulled himself out of the sludge and had a fairly long shower. He figured he should keep Ming a secret for now as much as he could from Yun and the System even though he know that they could read his thoughts.
“Oh… Now I understand why Yang Ling’s partnership reward is adaptable immunity. If it’s full immunity, Yun and the System would probably not be able to communicate with me.” Jin laughed at that thought as he prepared himself to start the new day.
