Fighting to be Kind in a Cultivation World

As soon as I open my eyes, I circulate the Tortoise Swallows Dragon method to test it out.

Repeating the same motion that I saw in the slip, a shimmering barrier arises around my body, starting from my feet and going all the way to my head. An observation that is obvious, but also not, is that it doesn’t seem to be affected by my sitting position or the movement of the carriage.

From my knowledge of the technique, I can tell that if I wanted, I could have it be static or fluid.

One by one, I go through the various motions that he displayed and mimicked it.

From changing the position of it around me to a more solid, but smaller one before me, to having the filtering aspect change.

While in the process of testing things, there is something that captures my thoughts. I find it quite interesting that the Boundless Healing method does not allow the filtering ability to remove air. To clarify, I have the ability to filter air out of the barrier, but only if I do not intend to harm anyone.

I wonder…

Opening the carriage door, I decide to test a few things, even though I could likely find out through my scan.

As we move on the road, there are plenty of other people and groups traveling alongside and past us. Our lane, even while being a higher priority level one than others, still has quite a few people moving on it. But that’s not where I direct my attention.

Even here, on this road, there are tiny creatures scurrying about. Bugs and critters.

In this case, with my keen eyes, I find a little beetle up ahead and try to use my new barrier method in another way than intended.

I try to grab it, using the barrier as if I had telekinesis.

A barrier forms underneath it, lifting it up while shaping into a bubble in my hands. Enclosing it within.

While from the outside, it may seem like a simple action, we are moving at extremely high speeds in the carriage and since the method doesn’t allow me to harm things with it, intentionally or unintentionally, I had to safeguard the beetle at every step.

Hmm… it seems that if I meant to use it to harm the beetle, it wouldn’t let me and would dissipate. At the same time, it’s helping me to soften and eliminate the rapid acceleration automatically. As if it relies on a combination of intentional and unintentional action.

As long as I try to reduce the harm on the creature a bit, the method helps me to fill in the gap. In many ways, making this a guided ability.

But this certainly comes at an enormous cost.

Not only is this interaction not meant for this level of Qi Condensation, but the way I’m using it has an enormous cost. It’s syphoning large amounts of qi from me to do this, even at this size of barrier.

Of course, this would only be considered a large amount of qi for a normal or even genius cultivator in Foundation Establishment, using the method.

Standing at 20,736 units of qi, I currently have an amount of qi just above that of an average Rank 1 Nascent Soul cultivator.

Though because of the fundamental difference in realms, my qi can’t even be compared to theirs. Like comparing the difference in hardness between air and steel.

Even with that… it’s still more than enough to handle this level of changes to the method.

I’ll definitely come up with a lot of ways to mess around with this in the future. Just because I can’t use it offensively, doesn’t mean it’s useless. In fact, it only motivates me to use it even more!

Feeling happy with this new technique of mine, I perform a few more tests on the beetle, from trying to remove elements from air, filtering poisons, and testing the limits of the ‘guided’ aspect of offensive restriction. I find that I will automatically know when something will fail because of harmful actions and am given the choice to dissipate the barrier, or change it to make it safe.

In situations where I was previously protecting something, I can’t expend qi to selectively expose it to harm, like opening a hole in the barrier. The healing method’s restriction runs off intention, so tricks like that won’t work. I would truly have to be unable to maintain aspects or adjust the coverage to not cover. Basically, have good intentions while using it and take proper safeguards.

The restrictions from my Boundless Healing method feel weird.

It’s similar to contracts in how it isn’t relying on subjective aspects of life, but some kind of underlying truth of the world. Reading past and future.

… wait a second.

While I was only playing around a bit earlier, I can’t help but to think about the ramifications of this. And how I can use it to my advantage.

If I can put myself in a situation where my abilities could tell if a situation would be dangerous enough to unintentionally cause ‘harm’, then that would be another way outside the scan to sort out danger.

The question becomes… is using the methods in that way considered harmful?

…

…

Yes, and no.

It looks like that is a something that depends on the situation.

Unreliable.

Still a potential, but I can tell it’s a dangerous road to travel, as the method is not meant to be used in such a way.

I’ll table this for another time.

Slowly lowering my unwilling test subject back to the ground and closing the carriage door, I finally go into my scan to figure out even more ways to push the bounds of barriers, with my special circumstances. Closing my eyes, while circulating both methods and cultivating as I do so.

Like I’ve noticed a few times before, the time passing doesn’t feel that long, making it seem like only a short period before I can tell we’ve reached the edge of the outer city. Our line of carriages passing through the gate.

Which is exactly when my danger scan acts up.

Specifically, the vague extreme danger scan, meant for letting me know when a decision I’m making has potentially lethal consequences.

My eyes shoot open, finding myself looking both physically and mentally outside to see what caused it. Unfortunately, I sense nothing worrisome in our local area.

I immediately use the ping for the scan, to expand the distance that I can check. With how often I’ve been using it, its range and detection ability has increased by an absurd amount.

Which is why I can see it, even as they are more than a thousand kilometers away.

Three core formation experts.

Clearly watching my position. And they are NOT friendly.