Chapter 2: Training Day

---D-Day+240, Xuyue 19th, Wednesday Morning---

---Upper Ward, Beyulongong---

[Fist of Scales]

*CRACK*

Sigh. “Damnit.”

Yeah, I missed. Again.

The Muren Zhuang1Wooden Man I’ve been hitting for the past hour broke. Again. It looks a lot like those training poles with sticks you see in kung fu movies. But this one’s arrangement of sticks is different.

Well, of course it's different. I’m using Yulongyan2Jade Dragon Flame instead of kung fu. And, to be honest, I don’t know kung fu.

Sorry Neo.

Yulongyan is the most popular martial art in this world’s fantasy china, Luyan. Which Yangxu is a part of. Introduced by the “first emperor,” who, apparently, was isekaied like me. Just thousands of years ago. And when done right?

Does not break the pole.

*thunk*

A couple servants drop a new qi reinforced training pole in the same hole the last one was just just pulled out of. Flex and stretch my sore muscles while a couple more drag off its now splintered and bent predecessor.

What am I doing? Well, I'm chaining techniques.

What are techniques? Hmm… Okay, quick recap. Gongfa are methods or arts. Like fighting arts, cultivation arts, movement arts, etc… These arts often cross multiple realms of cultivation. Jade Dragon Flame, as an example, covers from Body Refining all the way up to Immortal Ascension. All nine of the “Mortal Realms.”

Though good luck finding slips for the top three realms.

Shu3techniques are the parts of the art within each Dazung4Large Level/Realm. And there are often multiple techniques per realm. Yulongyan has multiple punch and kick techniques for the first realm, Body Refining. Then more for Qi Gathering, Foundation Establishment, etc… Why? Because each technique requires a certain amount of physical and spiritual development to use.

Try to use a 3rd Realm, Foundation Establisher, technique while still a 1st Realm, Body Refiner? And, if you’re lucky, it will just fail. Like a fart in the wind. If you’re not lucky? You can severely injure yourself because your body and spirit can’t handle it yet.

Fighting arts have the most techniques per realm. You always want the strongest punch, kick, block, takedown, etc… that you can manage. You may even have different Shu for each Xozung5Small Level/Stage within a Dazung.

Lastly there are the Xi6exercises. The different parts that make up a technique. Usually they aren’t important. Since techniques are only usable “whole.” At least at the lower levels. On the high end, however? With those super duper ultra overpowered kind of moves in xianxia webnovels?

Little Li tells me those are zealously hidden and guarded by the very few who manage to master them. Only passed down directly. Taught piece by piece to trusted disciples.

Naturally, thanks to disasters, war or even just time, some Xi have been lost. Making the Shu unusable. Masters may develop a substitute exercise for the missing piece. Though the resulting move may be significantly weaker than the original.

Lots of drama happens around rediscovered exercises, techniques or arts found in ruins and dungeons. Auction showdowns, thefts, duels, even war.

Now, it's hard enough to learn and use Shu individually. But creating sequences of them? Especially ones from different realms? Much much harder. The real masters can adjust on the fly. Seamlessly crossing realms and countering their opponents moves like master chess players.

I'm way away from managing that.

Yes, my [Recovery Magic] spells each use multiple elemental languages. Something extremely difficult for other casters. But angel tits, the middle “man” in my kidnapping, rewired my brain when creating the cheat. Making me a linguistic genius. So, also a genius at using elemental magic.

But draconic magic is mostly internal. Written with your body, your meridians. Not your words. A much more physical kind of spellcasting. And, it just so happens, something I do not have a cheat for. Yes, my ocean sized lower dantian lets me put a lot more horsepower into spells and techniques. Even turbocharge myself. But I still have to train like everyone else.

Sorry, there are no Yujian7Jade Slips in this world that transmit knowledge directly to your brain by touching them to your forehead. Yeah, I tried. Earning me some weird, what the fuck are you doing, looks from the library elder.

Now there are “slips.” Dozens, even hundreds, of strips of wood or bamboo tied together and folded up. Looking sort of like a book. Each strip is written from the top down. This is what fantasy china wrote on before parchment and paper came along.

Afterwards, slips continued to be used by many sects. Slips made of jade, actual yujian, with the characters carved into them became popular as displays of status and wealth. Especially for preserving Gongfa, Shu and Xi.

Disciples never get to take yujian out of the archives and libraries. They get a much cheaper, more disposable copy written on paper.

Don’t forget that medieval land doesn’t have storage magic either. Giving everyone a more “cluttered” look since they have to carry their weapons, food, clothes, money, etc… with them. Or be followed around by servants that haul it all.

So no martial art cheats nor spatial whatevers. Isekai world definitely has a hard-mode vibe to it.

Okay… focus. Stance. Begin.

[Two Talon Tear>Quick Dragon Kick>Claw Hammer>Fist of Scales]

*CRACK*

“Goddammit!”

Sweat flies as my body rapidly shifts through a fourth realm technique down to a first realm one. Leaving me overheated and breathing hard. Despite the various fans, large and small, servants are waving to create a cooling breeze through this cavernous courtyard.

Fuck it, time for a break.

“You can do it!” Hitomi absentmindedly shouts from the sideline. Sprawled on a chaise longue. Sipping some sort of chilled drink. Getting fanned by maids. And wearing very thin white silk robes covering some of her dusky skin. But no underwear. Yeah, those nips are glistening.

My fellow kidnappie came from Japan years before I was summoned. And in the process of me saving her life with [Recovery Magic]. Became an even hotter half japanese half dark elf.

Oops?

JK girl is chatting with her clique, Lizzy and Milti. Elizabeth Carter, from Britain, is an isekai who only had her soul transmigrated, like me. Instead of her entire body, like Hitomi. Trapped in some twisted romance fantasy. Seriously, the country she landed in is actually called Lustonia, for Christ's sake.

Was even engaged to their prince.

Well, ex-prince, I killed the douchebag and that Brit booty now belongs to me.

Miltinnia Alnus, on the other hand, is a local. A girl from the medieval Roman Empire analog, Aquecia, south of Tourin. She lost her legs in the same tragic incident that killed her mother. Afterward, her father made a wheelchair and did his best to raise her.

Until he was killed by Lizzy’s prince.

The girl’s got an endless supply of guts. Has to. Medieval land isn’t kind to cripples. Well, former cripple. Milti first got her mobility back when she became a half-dead. Bonding with Juri. Though it was only for a few hours at a time. I finally restored her from the thighs down at the end of our trip to Luyan.

Now she has a leg fetish. Girl parkours hardcore and loves to show off her sexy new limbs. Miltinnia usually wears styles that keep her lower limbs bare. Like now. Green robes cut super short with her regenerated light brown skinned pair sticking up in the air. Making a “V” shape, facing me.

Yeah, those grey eyes follow me like a hungry hawk tracking a juicy bunny. It's a little disturbing but not really a surprise. She joined the Godbeast cult before we started fucking. I'm ex-wheelie’s hero and god.

*thump*

Plop down on a bench and take a look around as maids take off the soaked outfit and towel off my sweaty body. This is one of four courtyards in the cliff palace and is considered my “personal” space. The other three are shared between the staff, guards and guests. There are dozens of servants needed to keep this cave mansion running. Which is typical for upper ward residences, according to Big Ji.

The building parts of the cave mansion are two stories tall. But the courtyard ceilings are three stories high and a bit wider than each yard. So there is a roof covering the exposed bits of the second floor. With columns and overhanging eaves channeling runoff and condensation into gutters.

You start tuning out the constant dripping pretty quickly.

Everything is lit by soft light from above and oriental lanterns hung about the square. Motes dance in the muggy air. Naturally, being inside a mountain, there is a lot more stone than wood used. Even have a small statue fountain babbling and bubbling in a corner. Mineral water from it runs through small channels around garden-like patches of medicinal plants before disappearing into the walls.

Very feng shui looking.

Looking down from above, this xianxia shag pad makes an “L” shape. The shorter side protrudes out a little from the cliff face.

Sadly most of my haremites are already over the kung fu thing. They were all in, at first, but only a couple still regularly practice luyan martial arts. Not counting Big Ji and Little Li of course. Dual-cultivating with me, at least, keeps them moving forward on the Xiandao8Immortal Way.

So what do they do instead? Well, several are in class right now in another part of my cliff palace. Learning the yanese language and etiquette. I picked up the lingo fast but not everyone did. It's a very different tongue compared to tourinese and aquecian.

Others are practicing their skills. Such as painting, poetry, dancing, cooking, sewing, elemental magic, praying, and more. A couple even manage the servants and household.

Lastly, some are working on the books. I’m a bureaucrat of the fifth rank. A Yinzhi, Silver Pheasant. Which puts me around the middle. Empire hierarchy wise. But I’m also a doctor and member of the imperial court. Which influences how much I’m paid.

Still have a chunk of Frazur the shadow dragon’s hoard left to. Who has shrunk down to the size of a cat and is getting tummy rubs from Hitomi. So there’s promissory notes, taels, strings, coins, jewels, silks, spices, herbs, etc, etc…

Somebody has to keep track of all that.

In my harem, that somebody is Lilias Barton. My Lili, Mrs Milf, First Concubine, etc, etc… Yeah, her nickname is close to Little Li’s. Because I’m lazy but visually they are very different. China girl is a 5’3, barely legal, yanese, as in fantasy chinese, princess. While Secretary-wife is a 5’8”, thirty-something, tourinese, as in fantasy anglo-franco, milf.

Yeah, I'm banging her daughter, Clari, too. While her dead son, Peri, is one of my living shadows.

Lili was a border village lord's wife. But raised for greater things. Until a scandal, pregnancy, got her married off to whoever would take her. The farther away the better. Meaning my first concubine is highly educated and, thanks to Frazur roasting that particular village, was immediately available. Both for my desk and for my bed.

The stares and peeking from at least half the staff are as creepy as Milti’s. But at least they are all female. Yeah, sent back the imperial guard detachment once I was settled in enough. So all the servants are now women. As far as the guards?

Well, the guards are undead or golems. And Agrag9Autonomous Golemancy Research Assistant Golem, the bronze steampunk looking robot I found in Pebblechin’s warehouse, continues to impress. Building “man-sized” golems that can navigate the walkways and tunnels.

They look kind of like those terracotta warriors but much more armored. Each carries a chinese halberd with a swordbreaker on their hip. My skellies on the other hand are still wearing tourinese, medieval european, gear. The living shadows are too.

Makes for an eye-catching mix.

A maid enters the courtyard and hastwalks to me. Then kowtows. “Most divine Shenshou10Godbeast,” Ugh. “Grandmaster Qinxin has arrived and requests and audience.”

Fuck, what does that dickless elf want now?

Really shouldn’t be too big an asshole though. Even more than the emperor and Little Li, the to tall alchemist’s support has made my stay in Yangxu a lot more comfortable. Declaring me his apprentice has made a lot of daoist masters back off.

Instead of trying to capture and turn me into a healbot because of my [Recovery Magic].

Though the emperor’s support is what’s let me kill so many shaoye11young masters. Getting revenge for Big Ji’s fall. One silkpants at a time.

I stand up as the women finish toweling me off and quickly wrap me in fresh blue with yellow bits core disciple robes. Hitomi, Lizzy, and Milti follow as we head to the welcoming hall. Frazur perching on JK girl’s shoulder.

“Alright, let's go see what the eunuch wants this time.”

Sigh.

Well, let's see what that eunuch is up to this time.