Transcending Dreams 2: A LitRPG Cultivation Adventure, page 1
TRANSCENDING DREAMS 2
A LITRPG CULTIVATION ADVENTURE
S.C. KING
SERENDIPITY PUBLISHING LLC
Copyright © 2024 by S.C. King
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. All the names, characters, places, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
First edition
Edited by Queen Stiletto
Cover by Carrlusoe
CONTENTS
1. The Sect Life
2. Karma
3. A Little Detour
4. Zheng Tao
5. Elder From the Inner Court
6. The Inner Court
7. Crimson Lotus Tea
8. A Written Test
9. New Drip
Interlude: Yu Yanhua I
10. Mentor Lan
11. Feeling Rich
12. Visitors From the Capital
13. Qi Refining Room
14. Training
15. Auction Start
16. Back to the Grind
Interlude: Mei Lingxi
17. Ranged Martial Skill
18. Redeeming Himself
19. God of Cooks
20. Separate Ways
Interlude: Yu Yanhua II
21. Wang Xiaoling’s Secret
22. Heaven-Tier Advice
23. Returning
24. Unwanted Gift
25. Strange Egg
26. Too Many Books
Princess Jin I
27. Painful Teachings
28. Kae
29. Petty Exchange
30. Nine Realms Alchemy Abyss
31. Nothing Is Normal
32. A Familiar Face
33. Main Quest
34. Let’s Meet the Avatar
35. Sophia
36. Puppets
37. Reuniting
38. Lonely Game Show
39. Odd Rabbits to Odd Illusions
40. Upgrades
41. Entering the Compound
42. Meat Grinder
43. Fighting Above His Realm
44. Onward
Epilogue: Yu Yanhua III
Final Stats
Also in Series
Afterword
Groups
1
THE SECT LIFE
“Are formations really something you should be focusing on?”
William sighed as his hope of being unnoticed vanished. He hadn’t actually been trying to hide, but a little space from Zheng Tao would have been welcome.
As much as the older disciple was helpful, he was also a nagging mother hen who was in his ear constantly about his studies. It felt like he was back in the earlier days of schooling when being micromanaged was a daily thing.
“Brother Zheng, I told you I was taking a break today.”
“You know this isn’t in my control, Junior Brother,” Zheng Tao sounded as exasperated as William, “Elder Yu will demote me back to being a training disciple if you don’t pass tomorrow!”
William finally looked away from the manual to stare at the bulky disciple. “Elder Yu told you this?”
That didn’t sound like her. In fact, it sounded like the exact opposite.
“Ah, not exactly,” Zheng Tao admitted sheepishly, “It was a punishment I put on myself while Elder Yu was present.”
“You need to stop this, Brother Zheng,” William found that the responsible Zheng Tao had a bad habit of putting pressure on himself in the form of questionable self-punishments.
The few days when they started these tutoring sessions were focused on memorizing the details of the hunting areas within the Tianxia Empire, something essential for the gathering of alchemic materials and combat experience for younger cultivators. Elder Yu had then casually given an approximate timeline of two weeks before William had to turn his focus on other things, mainly the preparation to become an Inner Disciple.
Zheng Tao took that as gospel.
“Impossible,” Zheng Tao said fiercely, “I will not allow you to be punished further, Junior Brother!”
William winced internally at the often-heard reason for the seriousness. He might have let Zheng Tao believe that he was being forced to study due to his recklessness, after which the timeline Elder Yu suggested suddenly became a deadline with harsh repercussions if expectations were not met.
This could be easily rectified if William told Zheng Tao the test was mainly a crash course on what to expect after going to the Inner Court. Not that he would.
He wanted to enjoy the casual way they spoke to each other. That wouldn’t be possible if he revealed that he was already a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator. It wasn’t due to anything nefarious. Rather, it was based on what he observed on the very first day of the tutoring.
Zheng Tao showed that he idolized higher-level cultivators far too much, and Inner Disciples even more so. It wasn’t hard for William to realize that it would be unwise to tell someone who was tutoring him that he was one of the people that was idolized.
That was the reason initially, but William grew rather attached to Zheng Tao, nagging and all. He was the first person who was a peer who didn’t have any odd quirk in personality or hidden agenda.
He supposed it wasn’t hard when the only people who qualified as a peer while also being close to him were Ren Bo and Princess Jin.
Princess Jin wasn’t bad, but she was the definition of a peer with a hidden agenda. Then again, she had somehow lucked into a ridiculous cultivation boost, so she couldn’t exactly be considered a peer anymore... she was now just someone with a hidden agenda, not that it was necessarily harmful to him.
While it was fantastic that she chose to go against her family and Empire by keeping the events in the secret realm, well, a secret, it was hard to believe she did it out of gratitude. William didn’t doubt that played a part, but she must have her reasons.
As for Ren Bo, the less said about him, the better. The boy needed to get out of his continued perversity phase before it killed him. He had also run in the opposite direction whenever he saw William, so they didn’t interact much in the recent weeks.
Thankfully.
So yes, there was a reason he appreciated Zheng Tao’s company. He would enjoy the last moments of normal interaction before Elder Yu arrived. Besides, it was time to reveal what would happen tomorrow so Zheng Tao wouldn’t be blindsided in front of Elder Yu.
“I still don’t agree, but how about we head outside the sect? I’m hoping some mortals can act as a type of review.” He ignored the words of protest and gently closed the manual before returning it to the shelf where it belonged.
Zheng Tao still looked mutinous when he turned around. “Junior Brother, this shouldn’t be a negotiation! It’s just one more day! This stubbornness is ridiculous!”
“Yes, it is,” William agreed. “But you aren’t going to change my mind.”
He had to stop the chuckle from escaping when Zheng Tao looked like he was about to have an aneurysm.
“Fine,” Zheng Tao sounded defeated as he followed William out of the library, “I’ll take what I can get.”
They walked leisurely to the Outer Court’s exit. Well, William did; Zheng Tao was still grumbling under his breath the whole time.
He let the older disciple be; letting him release his frustration without interruption. Instead, he took one of his last looks around the Outer Court.
He enjoyed the peace here, but he found that he could never truly fit in. The problem wasn’t that his strength was much higher than the disciples. He didn’t care much about that. It was a combination of his lack of knowledge of life before joining the sect, along with the inexperience of the disciples in the Outer Court.
The former couldn’t be helped since he didn’t grow up in this world, but it could be rectified if effort was put into it. As for the latter, that wasn’t something he could fix.
William honestly didn’t care about the rankings the disciples were involved in, nor did he feel the urge to compete with them when a few taunted him about being at the bottom of the list. If his soul was as young as his physical body appeared, he would have been less secure within himself. Besides, it was an obvious placement considering he hadn’t spent any time in the Outer Court and taken the exams, nor any missions to raise it.
He shuddered slightly. It was far too similar to school. It bored him, but he appreciated the Jade Healing Sect for creating a slightly safer system to push the juniors. Everyone here was too young for anything more serious.
“Junior Brother, your attendant is here.”
William was brought out of his bittersweet feelings about the Outer Court. He looked to where Zheng Tao was pointing to see Mei Lingxi walking toward them with a smile.
[Name: Mei Lingxi | Level: 186]
“So she is,” William replied, rolling his eyes when he saw her smile turn wicked. Zheng Tao audibly gulped next to him. Mei Lingxi might have stopped acting like a temptress once she became his attendant, but that didn’t suddenly make her unattractive.
She enjoyed how Zheng Tao tried to run away whenever he saw her.
“Young Master!” Mei Lingxi said brightly, “Are you leaving the sect?”
“Yes, but we’re staying close by.”
“How convenient! I was tired of staying in your dwelling,” She ignored Zheng Tao choking on air, “So I was planning to step out too. May I accompany you?”
“Really?” William doubted that. Since Mei Lingxi was still on a probationary period, she was required to stay within the sect unless he permitted her. It wasn’t like he would deny that request, but she never asked. There had to be another reason she happened to ask right when they were about to leave.
Still, there was no reason she couldn’t come with them. He sighed. He was far from an expert about understanding women, even in his old world. “Sure, why not. Are you alright with it, Brother Zheng?”
Zheng Tao stammered some incomprehensible words, and William took that as approval. This would likely help ease the older boy into the knowledge that he had been a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator the entire time.
“He doesn’t mind, Sister Lingxi.” William said, trying to hide his smile from Zheng.
Mei Lingxi laughed lightly when she saw his smirk, bowing slightly in Zheng Tao’s direction. “Thank you, Disciple Zheng.”
Zheng Tao gave her a jerky nod.
William felt a little sorry for him. The disciple wasn’t one that chased after a pretty face. He had seen the proof daily when Zheng Tao had been unaffected by rather beautiful cultivators in the Outer Court. However, it seemed Mei Lingxi was his weakness.
Understandable.
They gave the unfamiliar guards posted at the archway nods of acknowledgment as they passed through to see a depressing sight as far as William’s earth sensibilities were concerned. Scores of mortals were kneeling for the meager healing passively provided by the archway—along with some waiting in carriages—hoping to be accepted into the sect.
“Junior Brother,” Zheng Tao finally found his voice, “Let me decide who to help this time. You will only aid the young ones, not those with challenging problems.”
William looked at the stubborn expression on his face before nodding, letting him have this win. “As you say, Brother Zheng.”
2
KARMA
He watched Zheng Tao search for a suitable target among the hopeful mortals with distaste. It was more than a little stomach-turning when he saw the heart-wrenching depression that fell on the mortals’ faces when the older disciple walked past them.
William first left the Outer Court several days ago to get out of the university-like atmosphere and had been met with similar expressions. Since he had ventured out on his own and knew zero healing techniques, he had been entirely useless in being of any help with any of the severe illnesses.
However, he was very useful when it involved force. And among mortals, he might as well be a god. If he wished for something to happen, it would.
While the mortals begging to be healed were all pitiful from William’s point of view, he quickly learned that there was a hierarchy in place. One that was based on a combination of wealth and social standing. It was a natural progression over time; especially when the mortals were left to their own devices by the sect, provided there was no rioting.
In a real sense, cultivators in the sect cared very little for the mortals. The generosity of providing access to the archway was enough in the sect’s mind, and anything else was a burden. At least, that was what William understood it as. He also suspected due to cultivator longevity, it was easier to disassociate themselves from the turmoil of mortals.
That understanding was reinforced when Zheng Tao, the most dutiful disciple in the Outer Court, looked at the mortals like they were annoyances when they moved too close to him. He supposed that any cultivator, even decent ones, had been separated from mortals for long enough that they started to look at them as lesser beings.
William wasn’t able to do the same. At the bottom of this makeshift hierarchy were the lone children. Ones that, for some reason or another, had no support in this mass of pitiful beings. The day he left the Outer Court to get some air was the best day for a few of these children.
The archway no longer affected him since his cultivation was too high, but for mortals, it had a heavenly impact. It could bring them back from the edge of death to full health. That was most evident with the younger children.
They would visibly get healthier by the hour, which made sense since the system showed they only had three points overall at most in their Health. The archway added one point every day they were in range.
William thought it was unfortunate that only thirty or so people could be healed at once. However, he couldn’t change that. What he could change was who received the healing.
With liberal use of Observe, he was able to find the ones that were most in need and use his strength to get them in range of the archway. Unfortunately, he could only use Observe a little over a hundred times before his Spiritual Energy was depleted, so he couldn’t keep it up for long.
He had plenty of unused stat points to dump into his Spirit attribute, but he didn’t dare use them haphazardly before picking his heaven-tier martial skill. Not even for the children who stared at him with hope, no matter how much it hurt him to do so. He couldn’t compromise his future.
It made him understand why the sect didn’t care much about the mortals. There were too many.
He could see himself falling into the same indifference from being overwhelmed. It didn’t matter that he saved the forty or so children that day. There were still scores more in need, just in the crowd. And that number increased exponentially when considering the masses that arrived each day.
One person couldn’t make enough of a difference, so what was the point in trying? William shuddered when that thought appeared in his mind just as a boy stared at him pleadingly while supporting an older woman, likely the mother, to stay on her feet.
“You have a bleeding heart, Young Master.”
He didn’t look at Mei Lingxi as he replied, “You feel nothing when you see all this misery?”
The silence that followed was an answer in itself. It wasn’t surprising.
“Mortals have their own lives, with their own worries. It is not our place to interfere with their fates.”
This time, William looked at her. “That’s a strange thing to say when our sect had clinics in mortal cities. Not to mention all this.” He motioned at the crowd of mortals, “They are being saved from death, are they not?”
“Both of those have a cost,” Mei Lingxi pointed out, “Very few mortals can afford to pay for the services in the clinics. As for this, they have to survive the trip here, and after they arrive, they have to get lucky enough to be one of the few to get healed.”
“And the rest deserve to die?” William asked a little heatedly.
“I didn’t say that,” Mei Lingxi replied calmly, “Their fates were altered when you interfered, Young Master. There is a reason we do not solve all the problems that mortals have. The karma that forms between you and a mortal you save will be minuscule, but once there are enough ties, it will affect you.”
“Karma?” William stared at Mei Lingxi blankly, “Why have I never heard of this before?”
“It is usually nothing to worry about before the Nascent Soul Realm. It wouldn’t be something you would be aware of until you gained a Master.”
“How do you know this?” His frown grew as he came to a realization, “Is this why you wanted to accompany me?”
“Yes,” Mei Lingxi admitted freely, “Elder Yu wished for me to do so. Please avoid a repeat of your last time here, Young Master.”
William clenched his teeth in frustration before deciding to find out precisely what this karma was and why the cost of accumulating it was so dangerous that cultivators didn’t dare risk it. He had thought that it had both a positive and negative side, but Mei Lingxi made it sound like there were no positives at all.
“Fine, as you say, Sister Lingxi,” William said reluctantly, ignoring the eyes that were still on him.
“I apologize, Young Master,” Mei Lingxi sounded sincere, “There are better ways to help the mortals without having to be involved personally. Those will be open to you in the future when you gain more influence.”
