My first few weeks within the village reminded me a lot of when I started my cultivation journey back in Jurin Province—working for Master Edrik to earn my first weapon.
A simple woodcutters axe.
Only now I was harvesting lizard scales instead of firewood and the prize was a heck of a lot more than an axe. In the mornings Mal’Kira and I followed painstakingly slow instruction from Master Koh. When he said getting back to the basics, he meant it.
We started with simple footwork. Hours of it each day.
By the third month we still hadn’t even touch the Bo Staff really, just focusing on how to move quickly in and out of situations with the most efficient means possible. A lot of it felt pretty obsolete to me now, considering I could actually fly, but I kept with the program, learning the intricacies that forced me to relearn even how to walk in some instances.
Mal’Kira took it even more seriously than me, staying focused every second, even though it was mundane. By the time we hit the middle of the year and started Bo Staff training I realized what all the foot work preparation was for. As Master Koh taught us the martial forms, they layered on top of the footwork far more intricately than any manual I had read.
“Mastery is like an onion,” Master Koh said, after a particularly grueling day. “Most teach only what you can see on the outside, the outcome. But to appreciate the true construct of a technique, one needs to first develop the deeper foundational layers within.”
Master Koh used that same approach to everything, including our smithing training. Tending to fueling the fire and cleaning tools was our only job for months and then finally we learned the basics of metallurgy before he gave us the reigns to craft something as simple as a nail.
Our first task was to craft 10,000 nails each, but not only that. Each one had to be identical, right down to the most minute of details. It took me hammering out over a thousand of them just to get that part right. By the time I reached the halfway mark, we were months in already and then it was time to learn the basics of a new craft.
Leatherworking.
“Not everyone can handle weapons like yours, with no grip to speak of,” Koh said. “That’s fine for heavy weapons and halberds. But to finesse a dagger or sword takes more than that. Especially if gems are involved.”
“What do you mean gems?” I asked.
Koh merely chuckled. “Relic gems derived from ancient spirit beast cores. I’m not surprised you’ve never seen one. Only the elite of the elite can afford such things, but they can grant a weapon immense power by trapping the soul of the creature within it.”
Koh showed us some examples, including a sword that’s hilt had a cateye-like gem that came from the core of a giant spirit beast from some ancient world. When he demonstrated its use, he was able to perform techniques derived from the Qi within the sword alone.
“We will learn to make something like that too?” Mal’Kira asked.
“Not in six years,” he said, laughing. “Perhaps in six hundred. If you decide to stay long enough, that is.”
To hell with that, I thought. But as I looked at Mal’Kira I saw a strange determination in her gaze. That same look came into her eyes whenever she trained and especially during our crafting instruction. By the close of the first year, she was well ahead of me in that department.
We were equal on the weapons though, and when we sparred, I could definitely say I had learned an incredible amount of nuance from the seemingly simplistic Bo Staff training. Each motion was ingrained into my being. We reached a level of mastery where we sparred blindfolded for hours on end, neither of us able to score a single hit.
It was at that point that master Koh finally declared us competent.
“You’ve now reached a level of mastery that would be considered Diamond Bracket in the outside world. Here it would be considered Iron at best. Still, its good enough for whatever you need to do with it I suppose.”
I felt a bit of elation, despite Master Koh downplaying the outcome. It was a long hard year of nothing but work and toil, but I felt that spark of accomplishment to spur me on nonetheless. Still, it did not come without some sacrifice as well. My cultivation training was near zero the entire time. Even my Flame I sensed had lessened its brilliance a little, as I spent weeks and months focused on only training within the serene confines of the village, instead of facing the true obstacles within my path.
I had to gently remind the demon that the time spent here would be worth it, that we needed these skills to defend the princess, earn my title and eventually true ownership of the Earth. But it was hard to keep that same spiel going week after week, even for me. By the end of the year, I realized this training had another price to pay. I would not be able to progress my Cultivation tier much without real Frenzy generation and any I could muster I would need to devote towards my advancement towards the Lesser Deity Realm.
As good as I got in the ring thanks to my martial training, I would still need to advance to the Lesser Deity Realm to fulfil the requirements to become a Duke, considering I had to conquer an entire planet. Not to mention the power I would need to defeat I’xol’ukz once and for all, to protect Bryce. When I thought like that, it kept my Flame on the boil, tiding it over while I went through the motions of learning in a blissfully, peaceful environment.
“So, we can move onto the spear now?” I asked, when we had finished our Bo Staff trial.
“Yes,” Koh said. “But only when you get back.”
I was confused. “Get back from where?”
He chuckled. “Have you forgotten? You’ve completed your first year. It’s time for your cultivation lesson with Chief Muraboshi now.”
* * *
As I made my way through the village to the Chief’s hut, a spark of excitement filled me. This was something else I used to spur on my Flame, something I had waited an entire year for and now it was finally coming true. As people greeted me casually it was a reminder of the time I’d actually spent here. Real time. No bull crap. I knew these people now as well as I knew everyone back in the square at home.
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There was Master Tenchu who specialized in small blades like daggers and claws. Master Yuso who made armors and shields. Then there were even more specialist masters, like Elder Akemi who honed her craft in weaving to make the finest of robes using Spirit Silk.
The stuff was filled with natural Qi apparently and she kept her own hive of awakened silk moths in one of the temporal fractures that divided the village.
“It takes ten years for them to make a single spool of silk thread,” she’d told me once. “But here, I can harvest as much as I need in only a day.”
It was things like that which still blew my mind.
But I was in for a different kind of mind-blowing experience today.
Today I would learn how to enhance my Inner World.
I bowed before Muraboshi as I entered his dwelling and he gestured for me to rise and sit opposite him on the floor. Even though I had been here a year, this was my first opportunity to actually speak to him face to face, and for what it was worth, I was actually feeling a little intimidated by the guy.
Not in a physical sense, but the thought that everything I was experiencing now, the village, the time portals, all being a product of his cultivation strength was something to behold. And hopefully now he would teach me those secrets as well.
“Master Koh said that you and your companion are doing well,” he said. “You may even earn you’re an apprentice’s headband before you leave here.”
It wasn’t really a question, so I just smiled. “We are both honored for the opportunity, Chief.”
He nodded with a grunt. “Now then. Before we begin, tell me. What exactly is it you seek from me when it comes to the cultivation of your inner world?”
“I struggle to maintain it,” I said. “I’ve actually only been able to project it once and that was for mere seconds. You keep your Inner World projected perpetually and with living things inside. I want to learn how to do that.”
“Why?” he asked.
I shrugged. “It’s on my path. A greater understanding and mastery that will lead me into the next realm.”
“Yes, but what is do you perceive your Inner World to be? Do you think of this as purely a Qi technique or is it something real?”
I honestly never thought of it that deeply before. I couldn’t deny that I was definitely in the real world and not the spirit realm right now, but I couldn’t exactly explain what this place was either.
“To me its more of a technique,” I said truthfully. “A means to win a battle, but I want to understand how you can turn that kind of power into something like this.”
Muraboshi smiled, causing his thick beard to spread widely. “That is what I thought. It is your perception that this world is but an extension of my power. That without me, it will cease to exist, yes?”
I furrowed my brow. “Well…isn’t that true?”
“To an extent,” he said. “But if this world were to disappear, then what would you see instead?”
I shrugged. “The desert outside, right?”
“Yes. And that is what you would call the real world, yes?”
I nodded.
Muraboshi smiled broadly again and then tapped his temple with his forefinger.
“Then it is your perception which must be worked on first,” he said. “The first lesson to learn, is to understand that what you perceive to be the real world is no different than the world I have created.” He waved his arms about himself as if to gesture at the surroundings. “The only difference, is that you’ve had the pleasure of meeting the architect of this world in person. Whereas, for the world that exists outside of it, you may never meet the cultivator who first dreamed of it.”
I paused a moment. “You mean to say, the real world is the Inner World projection of some ancient cultivator?”
“You would consider such to be a god, yes?”
“I suppose. Even you are sort of like a god to me.”
Muraboshi chuckled. “So it is that the universe is but projections within projections, not simply a technique but its true purpose is to create new worlds. This is the power of one’s Inner World. Within the Celestial Realm, many minor deities battle to impose their dominance, all for the purpose of exerting their influence in order to manifest their Inner World upon the material plane. They leave behind the worlds they ascended from to create their own versions of perfection and reality. There, an entire universe is as but a single planet—a single domain dreamed up by the Deity Tier Cultivator who created it. Such is the truth of all existence and why the battles within the Celestial Realm are perpetual. They battle not just for dominance over one another, but the right to define what is.”
Shit, I thought. This was going beyond what I was planning to learn today. Minor gods battling to impose their version of reality? Was there a reality where the Hell Worlds didn’t exist? And if so, what the hell was I even fighting for?
“So…tell me,” Muraboshi said. “Now that you know all this, does this make the place you are sitting within more real or more fake?”
“I think it makes the entire universe seem fake,” I said, my mind still spinning.
Muraboshi laughed. “A good answer, but not the correct one. You must think of Inner World manifestation as no different than your crafting lessons. You are crafting not an image but forging reality with the strength of your will to create something new. Something unique. Something divine.”
I was blown away again. The analogy made me realize that Chief Muraboshi was not simply a crafter of weapons but of entire worlds.
“So what about the Hell Worlds?” I asked. “Who created all that? Or the planes of hell and heaven themselves. Do they truly exist? Or did someone just dream them up too?”
“You still see the world as real and unreal,” he said. “The truth is…it is all real.”
As he said the words, something opened up inside of me and my Flame flared, stoked by a new hidden truth revealed.
“Whether created by a fledgling cultivator like yourself, or some dark god from beyond the stars, the fact that it exists, is proof that something created it. And for that reason, it is imperative for you to consider your Inner World to one day become just as real. As you curate it, you must do so with the intent of making it, one day, its very own existence. A place where beings, endemic and introduced, may one day thrive. That is the secret to creating a sustainable and lasting Inner World. A world that one day will cease to be inner and simply…be.”
I was stunned into silence by what he’d said.
I truly never considered my Inner World as something like this.
To me it was simply another form of violent attack.
But by trying to recreate the Hell Worlds, was I simply perpetuating something I was already fighting against?
Chief Muraboshi then went on to explain the details of what it took to make it all happen. From the meridian sequences of the techniques he used to regrow a monster core into a living being, to how artifacts, like living weapons could be curated into the world, revitalizing the souls of the beings within, and giving them a second life.
It made me wonder what would happen if I took Venja or Xam into my Inner World. Could they become true living beings? And would I be like a god to them, the sustainer of their existence? The whole idea filled me with a sense of responsibility and unease that I didn’t want. I wasn’t in this to become some god of my own world, setting myself up at the center of the known universe like Lunalah did with her own.
It was just a means to an end for me.
Another step on my path to power.
Power I would use to defend my people and to carry out the wishes of the Flame.
But clearly, it was a heck of a lot more than that.
“I have taught you the basics,” Muraboshi said. “Go now and practice these techniques, and in a year’s time I will teach you further how to hone and elevate the quality of your Inner World.”
I left my first lesson feeling more confused than ever, but I thanked Chief Muraboshi nonetheless. Whether I fully understood the implications or not, I’d just been given insight into a powerful technique that was perhaps the cornerstone of all existence itself.
It made me wonder what was yet to come.
And how far it was, I wanted to take my own Inner World into true existence.
For the first time, the words Lesser Deity took on new meaning for me.
Before it was simply the title of the next realm to achieve.
But now I realized that those words were literal in every sense.
I was not just becoming a being with god-like powers but a mortal transcended—a true god with the power to manifest and create worlds of my own. I walked away humbled, yet terrified of the power I would soon wield.
And fearful of what it was that I would one day become.