Mage And Wolf
Chapter 73

Chapter 73: Chapter 73

I spend the next day telling him basic facts about my world, and learning about his. Turns out the initially Lecherous seeming old man has touched on the divine realm, and only remains here to look for a disciple to pass on his learning. His name is Po’En, or as he preferred me to call him, Master Po or Elder Po.

His forbidden technique uses emotions to cultivate. The stronger the better, so he spent most of his life in a dual cultivation sect, but found at the later stages that the desire to live at all costs was more effective, so he joined the Shadowed Blade Sect of assassins. The training is brutal, plus they torture captured prisoners.

Perfect for him. But also prefect for me. Lots of Death Energy to take from others.

What I don’t mention is the Dragon Church. Best he doesn’t know what these robes represent with his world having only humans and non sentient monsters according to his description.

It’s almost a good thing he found me first. Some of the light sects track death energy to eliminate criminals, and I’m practically swimming in it.

The second day, still spent at a light jog, a pace that I can hold all day without issue, he tells me more about the Sects techniques and specialities.

I have some of them already, the scrolls and books in the rings his trainees had are techniques one can learn. One technique hides you from sight, one blasts energy from your fist, but won’t work for physical Cultivators at my level. My personal favorite one makes your sword burn with pale flames.

That sounds fun and easy, relatively. So I start studying it while we run. Within a few hours I think I am ready to try. Elder Po sounds dubious, as any form of external energy is hard to exert before the Condensation Realm for physical cultivators, but I’ve got my claws, this should be similar.

The trick, I soon learn, is not in creating the flames. Intense black flames jump from my hands to the newly acquired sword the moment I manage to activate the technique. The trick is to affix them to the sword and not melt it to slag.

"Look on the bright side, girl. You’ve still got more spare words" Elder Po laughs. "Can’t believe those black flames though, even I felt threatened by them, like they held divine energy"

It takes me all 3 daggers and another sword to finally get it right.

"Ha, I knew I could do it. Now I’ll just have to loot a couple bodies to get more swords."

Elder Po gives me a concerned look. "Maybe you’re too evil for an evil sect girlie? You can just ask at the supply house for another when you need it. Outer Members get 5 grade 1 mana cores a month to buy what they need."

Mana cores? There’s nothing like that in my loot, So I take out a grade 1 mana stone from a monster kill.

"These?" I ask him. "Our worlds use different names for them, but close enough to guess"

"Yes, those are the ones. Worthless in the secular world, but they’re the primary source of energy for almost all cultivators. You, me and the dual cultivators are the exception, though they can use them, it’s just not as much fun."

I check my personal storage rings, noticing how I’ve quickly gotten used to them, despite the increased sensitivity they cause. I’ve got about 250 grade 1 stones I never turned in, and 27 grade 2 stones from clearing the boars before I left. That should do me for a while, since I don’t use them up to cultivate.

"We’re here now. Stay close to me and I’ll lead you in to do your testing. If anyone dares mess with you, maim them but don’t kill. Getting caught while killing someone is 10 years torture by sect rules."

Man, that’s just mean. But as long as it’s clear I’m not trying to kill them, object lessons should be fine. I hope they’re all near the level of those idiots.

"I should mention, most move from acolytes to Outer Disciples when they reach Condensation stage, then to Inner Disciples at Core Formation, so you’re a bit behind, but your lethality is high enough it shouldn’t be a problem."

Drat this evil old man. Everyone here will be half a Realm higher than me at the very minimum.

The energy flowing into me here is intense though. It’s easily fifty times more dense than the mana on Earth, but it has a different flavor. My body is already surging with it, ready to break through again, so I just let it happen.

A breakthrough while simply walking shouldn’t cause too much chaos, right?

"What in the world was that? Walking through the door caused a breakthrough?"

"I was close, and the energy here is so much more dense than at home, it just reached the tipping point."

"We’ve got a Qi gathering formation, the closer to the middle of the sect you get the more intense the energy. But does that mean you can use regular Qi or mana too?"

"As long as I have Death Energy to filter it, I think I can use most anything. I could suck life force straight from the body if I wanted and use that, but I haven’t actually tried."

"Don’t tell the boys. They might want to try it anyhow." We both laugh, but I’m attracting attention from the acolytes gathered in this village around the outer sect walls. There’s very, very few women in sight.

"Don’t mind them, the imbalance helps build strength in their sword arms" a female voice sounds from beside me. she’s wearing the same ornate black and silver martial arts outfit that Elder Po is, and she’s clearly very powerful, so this must be an Elder too.

"Greetings Elder, I am Katrina" I greet her what I hope is politely.

"I like her, where did you find a transfer like this Po?" she asks.

"She killed the trainees I sent after her and took their outer Disciple trial tokens"

The unknown Elder smiles down at me. "Now I like her even more. You’re not going to keep her yourself are you? You know I’m looking for a disciple. "

"This one’s mine Elder Ming. But I’ll let you have lessons with her if you’d like. She cultivates Death Energy and I know of your passion for new alchemy techniques."

"Thank you Po, now I won’t have to kill you. But I should go, there’s entrance exams to oversee."

"Don’t go far. There were only 3 this month, and she killed them all."

Elder Ming pulls me into a hug, her tall and thickly built body dwarfing me.

"This is going to be so much fun"