Master of the System

Azalea stood beside Grandpa Vremya. He was cultivating underneath a large tree. After bringing his flock of inner disciples to an abundant pasture, he told them to graze and promptly stopped caring about them. “You’re not going to explore?” Azalea asked. “What if there are beasts as strong as golden-core cultivators out here?”

Grandpa Vremya grunted. “Killing sows bad karma.”

Azalea pursed her lips. “Even killing beasts?”

“Even killing plants and insects,” Grandpa Vremya said. “If you ignore microbes, I’ve never killed anything.”

“Microbes?”

Grandpa Vreyma opened his eyes. “They’re tiny creatures unseeable with the human eye.”

Azalea scratched her head. “Then how do you know they’re there?”

Grandpa Vremya rolled his eyes. “The same way you know ghosts exist even though you can’t see them. Why does your bread go moldy? Microbes. Why does leaving food out for so long cause people to get sick after eating it? Microbes. Why do people get sick? Ghosts. Everything in the world has a reasonable explanation.”

Azalea furrowed her brow. Grandpa Vremya was a lot of things, including not quite right in the head. She wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or if he just believed he was telling the truth. Instead of pursuing a conversation about tiny invisible beings, she chose to take a seat across from him and closed her eyes.

“Shouldn’t you be exploring?” Grandpa Vremya asked. “Don’t tell me you came to a pocket realm just to cultivate.”

Question marks filled the air above Azalea’s head. Wasn’t that exactly what Grandpa Vremya was doing? Did he lack the self-awareness to realize the hypocrisy in his question? “Shouldn’t you be exploring?”

“Weren’t you listening?” Grandpa Vremya shook his head. “Killing sows bad karma. Stealing too. It’s likely all the rare spiritual fruits are guarded by beasts. If I explore, I’ll pick up one or two herbs, but that’s about it.”

Azalea tilted her head. “So, you really came to the pocket realm just to cultivate? Couldn’t you do that in the sect?”

Grandpa Vremya shook his head. “You’re still inexperienced. To fully exploit a pocket realm, you have to identify its unique point. This pocket realm contains miniature titans that only appear at night. Compared to the value of the miniature titans, everything else is meaningless.”

Inexperienced? “You’re just as inexperienced as I am!” Azalea pouted. She was sure he had never entered a pocket realm before, and she was sure he didn’t read the description of the mission she had chosen either. If anything, she was more experienced than him! Also, what was with Grandpa Vremya’s naming sense? “Why do you call those things miniature titans? That’s like saying … a tall shorty.”

Before Grandpa Vremya could come up with a response, an inner disciple shouted, “Senior Brother Vremya, save me!”

Grandpa Vremya and Azalea looked off to the side. An inner disciple was charging towards them, her face red and her body sweaty. Her clothes had tiny holes in them as if she had run through a thorny bush. Behind her, a tiger with wings was chasing her; one of its wings was covered in a layer of ice. In the inner disciple’s hands, there was a baby tiger. The mama-tiger seemed to have understood the inner disciple’s words, and it glanced at Grandpa Vremya with a wary expression.

Grandpa Vremya sighed and waved his hand. His Frostwind Armor Golem appeared by his side; however, it no longer looked graceful. It was covered with black lines, dried titan blood, and it had six pulsating masses attached to its back in a hexagonal formation. The tiger stopped in its tracks and roared at the golem, slapping its front legs against the ground, hoping to intimidate its new opponent.

The inner disciple exhaled upon realizing the mama-tiger was no longer chasing her. She slowed down and turned around to see what was happening. The mama-tiger was circling the golem with its hackles and tail raised. The black lines on the golem flashed, and it ran towards the inner disciple. The mama-tiger stared blankly as its opponent ran the other way, and the inner disciple froze like a deer in headlights upon seeing the armored monstrosity charging at her. It took less than a second for the golem to appear in front of her. It grabbed the baby tiger out of her arms and gently lobbed it towards the stunned mama-tiger. The baby nearly fell onto the ground, but the mama-tiger snapped out of its daze and caught it just in time with its unfrozen wing.

“Uh….” It took a while for the inner disciple to digest what had just happened. “Senior Brother Vremya? I, uh, think you’re helping the wrong side.”

Grandpa Vremya snorted. “You think I’ll help you kidnap a baby? What in the world is wrong with you?”

“Huh?” A baffled expression appeared on the disciple’s face. What in the world was wrong with her? Wasn’t she just trying to capture a strong beast? It wasn’t uncommon for cultivators to raise beasts as mounts, and everyone knew it was easier to tame baby beasts. Grandpa Vremya asking her what was wrong with her was like asking why she got wet while walking in the rain. She didn’t even know where to start her rebuttal. All she could do was give Azalea a helpless glance. “Sister Azalea?”

Azalea turned to stare at Grandpa Vremya. She thought she knew what he was going to say if she asked him why he did that. “Stealing baby beasts sows bad karma?”

“Obviously,” Grandpa Vremya said. “Even children know it’s bad to steal.”

The inner disciple was dumbfounded. If she knew this was going to be the end result, she wouldn’t have wasted so much energy on capturing the baby tiger in the first place! Everyone else got a guide who gave proper instructions and knew how to fly a boat, but she got the guide that returned her spoils to the enemy. Why were the heavens so unfair! “Senior Brother Vremya, isn’t this a bit … too much? Have I done anything to offend you?”

“You tried to make me an accomplice to kidnapping. You also didn’t even apologize for the attempt,” Grandpa Vremya said. He glanced at the mama-tiger which was warily watching and listening in on the conversation. “Do you want to bite her a few times? As long as you don’t kill her, I won’t interfere.”

The inner disciple paled and dropped to her knees. She bowed towards the mama-tiger. “Please, don’t hurt me! I’m sorry for trying to steal your baby!” She rummaged through her robes. “Have, um, here! Take this. It’s medicine. If you get injured, you can smear it on yourself, and within two days, your injury will be gone.”

Azalea didn’t know whether or not to step in. It was extremely strange for her to see a woman apologizing to a beast while offering it medicine. It was even stranger for her to see the beast take the medicine and walk away. The mama-tiger growled at Grandpa Vremya and nodded. He grunted in return. Then, the mama-tiger picked its cub up with its mouth and sprinted away.

Before anyone could say anything, there was a frantic cry. “Senior Brother Vremya, save me!”

An inner disciple ran into the clearing from the woods while holding a jar of wine. A gorilla with wings was howling while galloping after her. Like the tiger, one of the gorilla’s wings was frozen. “Wine. Return. Me!”

Grandpa Vremya let out a sigh, and Azalea suddenly felt bad for the inner disciple. The Frostwind Armor Golem snatched the wine out of the inner disciple’s hands and held it out towards the gorilla. The gorilla slowed its gait and eyed the ferocious-looking golem. “You. Give. Me?”

The Frostwind Armor Golem placed the jar of wine on the ground before backing away. The gorilla shuffled forward and reached out with its arm. When it saw the golem wasn’t intending on stopping it, it grabbed the jar and sprinted away, running back where it came from.

The second inner disciple was baffled. What the hell? “Senior Brother Vremya, what are you thinking!?”

Grandpa Vremya let out a hum and rubbed his chin. “Where do you think that gorilla learned how to speak?”

“Huh?” The inner disciple tilted her head. Was there a hidden meaning within Grandpa Vremya’s words? Did he mean that since the gorilla could speak, someone must’ve taught it, and that someone was its owner, and stealing the wine from the gorilla was the same as stealing wine from that fearsome person?

“Don’t think too deeply about it, Sister,” the first inner disciple said and placed her hand on her fellow disciple’s shoulder. “Just count it as your bad luck for having such a rotten guide.”

The second inner disciple was even more confused, but no one bothered to enlighten her.