Young Master Xian Sure Has Changed

Tomorrow, I will freak out over what having the power to force my will onto others, limited as it is, means, but for tonight… my sinfully soft bed is calling my name.

“You have a subjugation technique?” Xiuying asks flatly, giving me a steady look.

“Is that what they’re called?” I ask back blankly.

“Yes, Qigang,” Xiuying says. “That is what they’re called.”

“Oh. Um… okay then.”

It’s tomorrow, and while I’m not quite freaking out just yet, the possibility definitely hasn’t been ruled out. Especially since, based on Xiuying and Meng Yi’s reactions, this might be a much bigger deal than I thought.

Honestly, after last night, when she’d simply fed me the last of the noble rank qi pills from my power and then put me to bed, I had thought that Meng Yi either didn’t know, or didn’t care about what I’d done to Ju.

Cut to this morning though, and I am thoroughly disabused of that notion.

In proper Kung Fu master fashion, Xiuying had shown up hours before dawn to get my training started dark and early, and since Meng Yi didn’t want me training on an empty stomach after missing dinner yesterday, she sets us up in one of the (too) many parlours in the house and serves me a pot of peasant rank tea and some biscuits for energy, then, as I ate, she’d oh-so-casually brought up the event with Ju last night.

Now, here I am, faced with the stares of both women.

A little thirsty, and seeking an excuse to calm my thoughts, I take a long sip from my teacup, draining its contents before setting it back down.

Meng Yi refills it, and I roll for the new cupful of tea.

The first had given me a NIL, and I hope that the second will be a luckier roll.

Rolling…

427 (Beast Rank)

Reward: NIL

I hold back from reacting visibly to the disappointing roll. You know, maybe I should roll the tea by the thimbleful instead, really up my chances of getting something good.

It’s too bad that I can’t roll an object more than once though, even if only until I get an actual reward, that would be convenient.

Unfortunately, I only get one roll per serving of tea and there’s nothing I can do about...

The thought peters out as an idea comes to me.

One roll per serving of tea, I muse. So what if I just keep serving the tea?

After all, water can be mixed into tea and it would still be tea, right?

So the question is, at what point does it stop being tea?

Or, I guess in this case, at what point does unrolled tea becomes too diluted by rolled tea to stop counting as unrolled tea?

A little excited to test out my idea, I first reroll for the untouched cup of tea still in my hand.

Failure.

Cannot roll for the same item more than once.

Okay, good, that’s exactly what I expected. Can’t roll twice for that, but now, for the experiment.

I pull the teapot closer and pour the tea in my cup back into it.

Shaking it a bit to ensure it really mixes, I then pour out a new cupful and roll for it.

Failure.

Cannot roll the same item more than once.

I blink at the message, my excitement sinking like the Titanic.

“Oh,” I say, then the realization that I just wasted probably two more cups of tea with my little experiment truly settles in and I sigh.

“God damn it,” I mutter.

I gulp down the cup of tea, trying to wash away my disappointment with the delicious qi-filled beverage and still wanting to carry out the experiment to its end despite its disastrous start.

“Are you sure that celestial plum didn’t damage his brain?” Xiuying asks, drawing my attention back to both women.

Diligently, though with an indecipherable look in her eyes, Meng Yi refills my empty cup, and I roll for this one too, fingers mentally crossed.

Failure.

Cannot roll for the same item more than once.

“God damn it,” I mutter again and gulp down the second cupful of tea.

Holding out the empty cup to her, Meng Yi raises an eyebrow at me and makes no move to refill it.

I sigh. “Fair enough,” I say, and put down the cup.

“Young Master Xian, are you okay?” my trusted Manager asks carefully.

I stare at her. “Have you heard the proverb about the hunter who went digging for a rabbit when he already had an elephant on his head?” I ask, in lieu of an answer.

Meng Yi’s other eyebrow joins the first in reaching for her hairline, and Xiuying makes a face.

“Is the tea alcoholic or something?” she asks Meng Yi, and ever diligent, my manager actually answers: “No, it is not.”

I roll my eyes at both women, then shake off my disappointment.

It isn’t the end of the world, plus I’ve learnt an important lesson today; my rolling power, whatever it is, is a petty ass.

“I’m not drunk. I’m just...” the words fail to come. “Don’t worry about it,” I settle on finally.

In an attempt to change topics, I say; “I am a little worried about this subjugation technique though. From Xiuying’s reaction, it sounds like it’s a big deal.”

I mean, I’d always thought that the ability to impose your will on someone else was a big deal, from a consent and violation of autonomy standpoint, but the idea that it might be yet another unique, or rare, or weird thing about me hadn’t even registered.

“For a noble rank cultivator? Yeah, you bet it’s a big fucking deal,” Xiuying says, apparently accepting my change of topic since it got her back on what she really wanted to discuss. “In fact,” the woman adds, “you might say it’s an impossible fucking deal. In that it’s impossible.

“Only divine rank methods get subjugation techniques, Qigang.”

“No, not quite,” Meng Yi says. “I did some reading on it last night after I put you to bed, and apparently, there are two known noble rank methods with subjugation techniques.”

“Well, that book needs an update cause there’s three now,” Xiuying says gesturing at me.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” I say. “They’re all noble rank. Why do some get such a powerful ability and the others don’t?”

And why did it have to be the one that I’m cultivating?

“Just because they’re the same rank doesn’t mean they’re the same,” Xiuying says. “The Path of the Rabbit and the Path of the Fox are both beast rank, but that doesn’t stop one from being clearly better.”

“Do all cultivation methods have names that start with ‘Path’?” I ask.

Path of the Rabbit, Path of the Fox, Path of The Sun Emperor.

Xiuying’s own method is called Path of the Ascending Tiger, and Qigang’s former method before I upgraded is called Path of the Glowing Noon.

What’s up with all the paths?

“Yeah, they do,” Xiuying says, and it takes me a moment to realize that she’s answering my (I’d assumed) rhetorical question.

“Cultivation is the journey towards Heaven,” Meng Yi says.

“And your method is the path you take,” Xiuying continues. “And let me tell you, that path matters.”

I digest that for a moment.

What does it mean then that I’m on the path of the emperor of the sun? A being with the power to overwrite the wills of others with his?

“You know,” Xiuying muses, “I would have thought that you’d know all about cultivation and stuff, since you’ve undergone enlightenment.”

There is nothing in her tone, or expression, that suggests that the comment is anything but a casual observation, but the words still make my heart skip a beat.

I shrug. “Well, enlightenment also made me forget where the kitchen is in my own home, so...”

Xiuying shoots me an amused glance. “Like you ever knew where the kitchen was,” she teases.

I smile. “Fair enough.”

Looking to Meng Yi, I get the conversation back on track. “What are the parameters of this power?” I ask. “What are its limitations? It must have some, right?

“I already know that it comes with a great qi cost, but are there any others you know about?”

Meng Yi nods. “Subjugation techniques can only be used on people whose cultivation is at least two ranks lower than yours,” she says. “And only if they’re within the same phase of cultivation as you or lower.”

“So, everyone of beast and peasant rank within the Weaving phase is at risk... as well as, I’m guessing, mortals?” I ask, though it isn’t really a question.

Meng Yi nods an affirmative all the same. “Yes.”

No wonder Ju hadn’t stood a chance. As a beast rank in the second layer of the Weaving phase, my cultivation surpasses hers so immensely it isn’t even comparable.

“So, since there’s no one with cultivation higher than peasant rank except you, that’s about... nine in ten of the cultivators in Silver Springs,” Xiuying says, running some quick mental math.

“About, yes,” Meng Yi agrees.

I stare at them in surprise. “It can’t be that many,” I say, refusing to believe it. “There has to be hundreds of cultivators in Silver Springs; you’re telling me only ten percent of them are past the Weaving phase?”

Xiuying shrugs. “Silver Springs isn’t exactly overflowing with opportunities,” she says. “Those who have the talent and ambition to advance past the Weaving phase usually move for greener pastures.”

Ah. Of course. The curse of small towns.

“Do you think it will change things too much?” Meng Yi asks Xiuying. “When word gets out that Young Master Xian has a subjugation technique.”

Right. That will happen eventually, won’t it?

I used this power on Wei Ju yesterday. It’s incredibly unlikely that she’s not going to mention it to anyone.

Xiuying deliberates on the question for a bit.

“I don’t think it will change much for most people,” she says finally. “Even before he became the favoured child of Heaven, no one was going to mess with him. This will just be more of that.

“His family will be a different story though.”

My lips press into a thin line at Xiuying’s words.

Yes, my family.

They may have been content to keep me out of sight and out of mind when I was just an obnoxious and talentless waste of space, but now? Enlightened, noble rank cultivation, a subjugation technique, causing forced advancement left and right... and all that without even accounting for the potential exposure of my most powerful gift...

How much longer until they decide to bring me back into the fold?

Power speaks. It did in my old world, and it practically screams in this one.

Sure, from what Meng Yi has told me, my family is powerful enough that this might not be enough for my mother, or whoever is in charge, to be willing to bring me back, especially if whatever atrocities Qigang committed that got him kicked out in the first place are significant enough. But, at the rate I’m going, with the main character energy that seems to be following me around, how much longer will that take?

How many more strange, or unique, or extraordinary things will I stumble ass over teakettle into before I receive a summons back home and I’m ensnared in cultivator politics and a whole lot of (potentially deadly) drama?

My thoughts must be evident from the expression on my face, because Meng Yi takes my hand?

She says nothing, but she doesn’t need to, the look of support she gives me is enough.

I smile at her gratefully, then say; “Guess we’ll worry about that bridge when we get to it. For now I’ll just obsess over the fact that I can mind control ninety-something percent of the population.”

“Resistance can be built up over time with repeated exposure to a subjugation technique,” Meng Yi says, no doubt trying to make me feel better.

“So, basically, the only way to not be able to mind control someone is to mind control them a bunch of times?”

Meng Yi makes a face. “It doesn’t sound as good when put that way,” she says, and her words draw a smile out of me.

“You know, old you would have killed to have this power,” Xiuying says.

“Yeah,” I agree. “But old me was also a piece of shit that the world is better off without.”

Xiuying blinks, a tad stunned by the harshness of my words. Then she laughs. “Won’t argue with you on that one,” she says.

No, I didn’t think she would.

Xiuying rises. “Come on,” she says. “Subjugation technique or not, you still have training to do.”

I don’t move. Instead, I watch Xiuying for a moment.

“Is there something on my face?” she asks.

I shake my head. “Just wondering how you feel about me having this power,” I say.

Something flits through Xiuying’s eyes almost too fast to see, then she scoffs dismissively.

“What do I care? It won’t work on me; I’m in the Sprouting phase,” she says.

“Not even you believe that you’ll always be a phase in cultivation ahead of him,” Meng Yi says.

Xiuying shoots her a sharp look, but after a moment, it softens, and she sinks back into her seat.

“Xiuying, I understand if it’s too much for you,” I say.

I mean, if I found out that someone, especially someone with Qigang’s history had power like the subjugation technique gives, I don’t know how safe I’d feel around them.

“If you don’t want to come around anymore, I understand. It’s fully within your right to—”

“Stop,” she says. “I...” her words peter out, but after a moment, she starts again.

“I always thought that my thoughts were my own. That my mind is my own. I thought I saw through the lies and the bullshit of the world. I took pride in it.”

Her gaze meets mine, her eyes aswirl with a whirlpool of emotion.

“You tore that pride to pieces with a chopstick and a soup bowl,” she says.

“You’ve had power over my mind once, Qigang, and you left it better than you found it. I will trust you.”

Pan Cai remained kneeling even after she finished her report, waiting for the Xian matriarch to decide on what Pan Cai should do.

“Well,” the divine ranked Domain Realm cultivator said, “looks like my wayward son has found some good fortune after all.”

Her eyes settled on Pan Cai.

“Go to Silver Springs,” she said. “Make your presence known to no one. Observe and report to me in a month.”

Pan Cai’s head pressed to the ground. “As you command,” she said.