Chapter 10 – The spirit realm may be pretty but it’s pretty boring

 “I’ll put you six feet under.” - Tiankong Wiliams
“Six feet under, more like six feet Dunder.” - Dunder Lu

Vera appeared on the top of a grassy hill. It wasn’t steep, far from it. If she couldn’t see for miles around, to the places where the hill actually ended, she might have thought it was a completely straight stretch of land. Next to her was a Spirit-Sakura tree, from which like veins, troves of flowers sprouted, until they came to a stop. Cherry blossoms were constantly blowing in the calm breeze, filling the space with a sweet fragrance. If she hadn’t been chased and almost killed just moments earlier, she would probably become one with the serenity of the place. Well that is, except for another small detail.

There was an elder dragon snaking and coiling itself around the tree, around her, around the whole hill. Golden scales glinting in the sun, its shade exuding as much light as the sun high in the sky.

The dragons body was serene enough, moving slowly in a circular almost hypnotizing motion. Vera didn’t mind that part, It’s head however was at the top of the tree, looking straight at Vera. Unmoving. Unblinking.

‘This is a predicament.’ Vera thought, her hand unconsciously moving towards the bottom of her chin.

“It truly is a predicament.” The dragon smiled and a sweet sound like someone playing a violin emanated from his mouth.

Calmness like a truck rammed into her, almost instantly making her woozy, not caring there was a dragon there. She almost ignored the fact it just read her mind like that ‘It’s not very polite to read people’s minds where I come from.’ Vera though while slowly becoming unnerved at how calm she was in this whole situation.

“You’ll have to excuse my manners then, it’s not like I can do you the courtesy of not reading your thoughts. You don’t have to be scared by the way, since you are but a cultivator at the stage of Qi building, I will not be giving you the trial to become a Dragon-Emperor.”

Vera was stunned for a moment “Not to be rude, but according to the new disposition I’d be at least Soul-wielding or half-step to Nascent.” Vera said with as much flare as she could muster, immediately thinking ‘that was insolent’ ‘oh no he can hear my thoughts.’

A sound not too dissimilar to a chime made it clear that the dragon was chuckling at that exchange.

“The first female cultivator to come and she has as much sass as I heard she would.” he continued “So what can I do for you child? I haven’t interacted with your kind in 70 years.”

Vera wanted to answer ‘I’m not a child’ but instead “I would like to hide here for a while.” she stopped herself “a-and information.”

“24 is still a child in terms of dragons, you may hide here as long as you want, and what kind of information?” He smiled “I think I will need to hide you better, as it seems someone has followed you.”

Vera froze, ‘How could they find her here? Didn’t the dragon say there was no one here for 70 years?’ ‘Where can I hide around...’

She was stopped by the dragon saying “It seems to be your destined lover.” And the chimes chuckled even louder than before. A metallic zing, which started from the head, went down the body, creating a sparkle in every color along with a distinct panging sound that got higher and louder the further down it got.

“Oh thank god, it’s Sweetheart.” Vera said as a sparkle appeared next to the Spirit-Sakura tree.

This was followed by a barreling laughter which sounded like someone hitting a gong repeatedly.

“And her fated lover is a bacteria, this just keeps on getting funnier.” The whole snaking body started shaking, as if from the laughter.

Vera looked at the dragon in a rude manner. ‘You have no delicacy for a young maiden’s heart.’

The dragon was still chuckling but the two long whiskers from the side of its mouth untangled themselves and got closer to Vera.

Vera had this powerful feeling of needing to touch them. As soon as her hand connected with one of them, her mind went into overdrive, going through her entire life at a high speed. At the end, nothing in the glade had changed, but she was unaware how much time had been spent. If it was a hundred times faster, that still meant two-three months had passed.

“No worries, it’s over a thousand times faster than your life. However it was less than 3 hours of time in your world, as time passes here in a different way.”

Vera sat down, she was drenched with sweat, she didn’t know that was possible in the Spirit Realm. She was breathing heavily, the feeling of her body being destroyed in its entirety by the orange beam burned to her recent consciousness.

“Yes, child, you did die.” The dragon paused for that information to hit Vera like a battering ram “But, a quick Soul Transference moved your Soul into the spirit realm. For all intents and purposes, you are now a spirit.”

“Is there a way to become human? Can I contact my human friends through mirror talk? I still want to save people by curing the parasite.” Vera steeled herself, if she was to work from behind, she might as well take advantage of the fact no one could hurt her here.

“I don’t think I could protect you, should a Jade Emperor or Emperor of the Four Elements attempt the trial.” Emperor of the Four Elements was the highest Combined Realm Rank one could achieve before the trial, it was what most of the original followers of the God-Emperor had achieved, the trials of the Dragon, the Demi-God and God were mostly untouched by his retinue for some reason.

“The way to become human is quite weird and wrought with problems. As a spirit, you took physical memories you had from the real world, with you into the spirit world. If you however obtained a body once again, the memories would stay locked in the spirit plane, you would have to master cultivation, to the point of Dimension Hopping, at which point you could hop to whichever dimension you allow your Spirit to reside in and fuse with it, to not only obtain its information but any skills attached to the Soul Realm it has.

“Mirror talk should be possible, while holding my whisker, you would use it as a receptacle, and I believe you could work on the parasite stuff, although according to certain rules, I can’t help you by solving the problem for you. Only by supplying Soulforce for any experiments you have.”

‘I should probably start by mirror-talking with Jill.’ The moment she thought that, a whisker made its way to her. “I still can’t get used to that, when you read my mind.”

As she touched it, it pulled her towards the golden scales on the dragon’s neck. They were beautifully reflective from this close.

‘I’m partially transparent!’ Which elicited another chuckle out of the dragon “I told you, you have become a spirit.”

Vera tried to calm down, realizing that the calming aura of the place had already calmed her down as she was thinking it. ‘That part is even creepier.’ She though as she touched a golden scale, making the runes with her fingers. She realized she was now sitting on the dragon’s whisker.

Jill’s face came up clearly on the scale. “Vera what’s going on?” She looked concerned and shocked “Why am I seeing your Soul rather than you, are you okay?”

Vera smiled, even though Jill couldn't see that “I’m almost okay, although I was killed earlier today.” Jill’s face went from shock to horror.

“What the hell happened!?” She shouted.

“Someone attacked me with Soulcraft and to escape I used Soul Transference to get away. I ended up on this nice Spirit Dimension, with a helpful grandpa dragon.” And she went on to explain how she ended up being a spirit.

At some point after ‘It’s really nice here, the dragon is friendly.’ Jill stopped her “What should I do here? Chao Li is still here, meditating on the ground.”

Vera closed her eyes and felt time slow down around her. ‘So that’s how that works.’ She mused.

“Grandpa Dragon, really?” The dragon asked, more entertained by the fact than insulted.

“I see you have come to a conundrum. Whether or not to trust him. He attempted my trial 107 years ago.” He didn’t have to finish, for Vera to know that he had failed the trial.

‘Even though it doesn’t make sense for him to be the attacker, I still don’t trust him.’ Vera didn’t know why but she felt something was off about Chao. “Well, there’s your answer then.” The dragon chuckled again.

Vera opened her eyes and felt time become normal once again “I still don’t trust him. I feel its too much of a coincidence. Him wanting to meet me and me getting attacked the same day.”

Jill made a scared face “So what do I tell him? Or do I just allow him to stay here indefinitely?”

“I don’t know, frankly I don’t know if telling him anything will help in this case. He’s either friendly and will listen to any story you tell him, or he’s hostile and will snap at you at anything you say. Can’t you go to one of your friend’s frat houses? Maybe you will be safer there anyways, as whoever attacked me, might come for you next.”

“I-I” Jill stammered, she didn’t know what to say. This was all too unbelievable for her. ‘My friend got killed and I might be next.’ ‘One of the most powerful men is here waiting for her as well.’

Jill steeled herself “Yes, I will. She started frantically picking up things.” “Thank you and goodbye.” She said as she ended the transmission.

Vera sighed. ‘Now for the hardest part, curing the damn parasite.’

Vera started thinking, she was thinking hard. But that damn calming aura made it impossible to stay focused. It was SO HARD. Vera lay down and hoped that all her worries were gone by the time she woke up.

Cause falling asleep in a place where time goes at a weird pace is the smartest thing to do in most scenarios.

********

Vera woke up with a start ‘I had the strangest dream, I died and became a spirit.’ But as she heard a chime noise like someone chuckling and realized she was still on the grassy hill, her eyes went wide “That WASN’T a dream.”

“No it certainly wasn’t.” The dragon seemed to be chuckling again.

“How long was I asleep for?” Vera dreaded the answer.

“Two of your days.” The answer wasn’t as bad as she had expected.

‘Okay, now to really get serious. I’ll need a parasite sample, a microscope or a good enough replacement and some Koi Koshi bacteria.’ Vera slapped her cheeks and became determined again.

“Or you could just use your ‘Sweethearts’” he snickered as he said that “ability to control the bacteria to add the property of hunting things with the parasites Spirit Mask.” Vera backpedaled in her mind for a moment ‘Wasn’t he supposed to not help me?’

“You already had this information in you, you just haven’t considered using your ‘Sweethearts’ as anything other than a pet.”

“But how do I learn how to use that ability myself?” Vera had a creeping suspicion she knew.

“You do already know, you have to...” the to sounded more like a bass than a violin making it clear he intended the word to bear more weight, but before Vera could think of that, he was chuckling again “Resume Double cultivation.” The dragon started laughing heartily again. Gong’s, shaking of the scales, the whole shebang.

‘Huh. Go figure.’

Vera ventured into her Soul Realm, feeling the link between herself and the ‘Sweethearts’ who were happily nibbling on one of the Koshi mushrooms under the Sakura tree.

The tentacles were tactfully catching pieces of Soulforce, which Vera noted, were much more plentiful and rich in this place.

“At least its Soulforce gathering has been increased massively.”

Through the link between them she tried to send the Qi that was normally flowing through her body, but came up blank. ‘Of course, I’m dead.’ How could she have forgotten that detail.

From out of the Soul Realm she called to the dragon “Could you like… infuse me with some Qi so I can send it to my Sweethearts?” Vera put on a pleading face.

“Of course” He said as a whisker came up to her, she touched it and could feel a power she felt she knew but also didn’t. A sense of Qi deja vu. ‘Urgg, this is going to be so annoying, now that it feels alien to me.’

Nonetheless, she used her Soulforce to draw upon a small portion of that Qi and let it pass through the link.

She was pushing out power through the link for a good deal of time, she would say even hours. But it didn’t register in the bacteria. Becoming frustrated and tired from the usage of her own Soulforce, she stopped the funneling.

Unexpectedly, the Soul of the bacteria reacted. A clear shaking in discontent, at the sudden change.

“Who knew forcing cultivation down someone’s throat could make them progress faster.” Vera mused.

The fact that the bacteria could feel Qi meant it got to at least the first of the three ranks of the Qi building phase.