Molting the Mortal Coil

Sage’s fourth year in the Holy Flame Sect he turned twenty six years old in this second life as Lang Sheng. These four years combined with those on the road had pointed out the importance of Spirit Insect quality. They were just like the Spirit Plants in that no matter what he did to try and modify and mutate them the Spirit Plants power was highly reliant on the quality of their parents and the conditions of their growth. Weak Spirit Insects raised merely with Qi Feeding over a short timespan were of lowest level and quality. Even with the most impressive of modifications and aging they were still much weaker than the most powerful Spirit Insects after it just hatched.

Simply combining Spirit Insects with interesting physical features created useful helpers but their power was immensely limited in comparison to the powerful Spirit Insect breeds that exist in the wilds. With lots of breeding and experimentation, Sage realized the first real weakness of the Insect Immortal Index. Each time he made a major modification to a Spirit Insect using the ‘Mutate’ technique, they would nearly drop a level in strength. He would then have to mature pairs of them to higher ranks and then breed them together to gradually improve their bloodlines.

As such, he focused on raising the basic age and bloodlines of his Silverbees. He had three separate hives going, one in his body, one in his Beast Bag, and one in the Insect Shed. In addition he was raising a variety of spider, starting with the Green Spiders from the Emerald Holly and then adding in any other’s he could find at the Central Plaza.

As the usual assistant of Alchemist Tang, Sage didn’t have to work nearly as much anymore. He only had to work whenever Alchemist Tang wanted to make pills. He would gather all the materials and assist during the construction process. Alchemist Tang would usually work for a week or two non-stop forging pills and then go into seclusion to work on his cultivation for the span of a few months.

During one of these resting times, Sage was purchasing Insect Rearing and taming manuals from the Million Skill Library. At this time he was noticed by a large man wearing leather and furs instead of the Holy Flame Sect Disciple robes. The big male glanced down at the manuals in his hand and questioned gruffly, “Who’s that book for, Kid? You aren’t interested in Bug Taming are you?”

Sage looked up at the hulking beast of a man who did not look like he belonged in the Holy Flame Sect, “It’s for me, Senior. I know it is not popular among the Sect, but it is not outlawed, is it?”

Laughing the big man suddenly smiled and clapped him on the back, “Ahha, good kid! This one is Elder Wan Yuhan, a Beast Tamer! There’s only a few Bug Tamers over at the Taming Hall, but they could use a good assistant, come on over!”

The big man left him soon after and Sage followed up on the offer. Not wanting to betray Alchemist Tang, Sage told them about being an Alchemist’s assistant already but the two current Bug Tamers didn’t mind. As Sage learned about the tasks assigned to him, he was pleased to find it was just like his current activities. The bugs could go for long periods with no supervision whatsoever and they would also benefit from intensive training and care. The same applied to the many other Tamers, Sage was free to work as much as he wanted helping to muck out monster stalls, carting around large amounts of food, and endless amounts of observation.

With no confidence in his own cultivation, Sage focused on his efforts on assisting Alchemist Tang and the many Tamers of the Tamer Hall. Beast Taming was quite interesting but he was far better with Bugs. Beast and Beast Taming Techniques relied largely upon the aura of the Tamer. Many responded differently to killing intent, dominating gazes, or gentle demeanors. Different arts could cultivate and strengthen these auras and drastically change a Tamer’s talent. On the other hand, Bugs were less intelligent and cared more about pheromones and other sorts of ingrained behaviours that created a sort of hivemind. Sage had a far easier time understanding these different sorts of patterns and responses than he did transforming his personality.

After a couple years as an Assistant Alchemist, Sage finally took the exam to become an Apprentice. The exam was basically a test of knowledge on Spirit Plants and other materials used in alchemy. He had to show in-depth knowledge on hundreds of different materials along with showing skill with a number of basic refining processes. The many herbs, minerals and animal parts had to have juices extracted, dried and powdered, skinned and tanned, ground into powder or paste… there was easily dozens of different ways to prepare the ingredients even without starting to use refining flames or qi techniques or formations to form pills.

As an Apprentice Alchemist, Sage no longer had to serve as an assistant to Alchemist Tang and could instead make contribution points using his processing skills. With the points he earned he would attempt to craft the most simple pills and it was then that he learned array formations were very important for not just Alchemists but every production occupation. Cursing his lack of general knowledge, Sage started to spend time in a third hall.

Sage soon took the exam to become an Apprentice Tamer, focusing on Insects, and had a far easier time passing the exam than he did for the Alchemist Exam. At the same time he had nearly given up on basic cultivation and become an Assistant Formation Master. Wondering why he’d even bothered to learn Alchemy, Sage realized he had immense skill with formations. The more he studied, the more he realized the similarities to his old life. Array Formations were created using a library of special symbols that could manipulate energy in different ways. It was like a language of power, and when combined in specific ways an array would be formed. The tricky part was that arrays drew on the power of the world around them and so the specific conditions of a location were very influential on the power and effectiveness of an array.

The temperature, humidity, wind speed, time of day, season of the year, closeness to different land features… there was dozens of different things that a Formation Master had to keep track of to form the most powerful array. All these factors came into play in designing a formation but from Sage’s point of view it reminded him of advanced mathematics. As he researched the many formation manuals he found that a single formation would take up a whole book simply listing the many permutations of the formation required for so many different situations.

It seems nobody has developed or applied high level algebra to formations in this world.

The years flew by, Sage became an Apprentice Formation Master as well as an Apprentice Farmer, Weaver and Blacksmith. Among the teachers that grew to know him, he became somewhat of a sad story. Sage was known for his intelligence and spirit power, but it was truly a shame that his talent for cultivation seemed to only go down over time. As his cultivation seemed to stall out, Sage was not strong enough to pass the tests and become a regular member of any profession. Most of the professions had rank 1 assistants, rank 2 apprentices, and at rank 3 a cultivator could take the test and become a ranked member of the profession.

Sage continued to practice his skills in the professions he’d learned but he was limited by his cultivation rank. He had turned thirty this year and yet he’d actually only rose two more stages. Rank 2, Stage 8. Even after he gained nearly 2 full stages he’d have to accumulate power and break through to rank 3. Breaking through ranks was the most difficult part of cultivation and with the talent he had he’d need to accumulate resources for quite some time in order to help him to breakthrough.

With such dismal prospects, Sage simply learned new professions. He would spend two to three years becoming an Apprentice and then mastering the Apprentice skills of a profession before moving on the next. Surprisingly, he found that with foundational knowledge in formations and different materials each profession was faster to learn than the last. Each profession had a handful of basic techniques he had to learn but much of the basic knowledge and practice materials were actually already contained within his storage ring and was the main reason he could accomplish so much. Others had to work for years to afford the materials to experiment and learn their professions.