Cultivation Nerd-Chapter 327 - Things Not Seen

The mouse jerked violently as my consciousness seeped into it, its tiny body rolling across the forest floor in erratic spurts. It bounded left, then right, nearly smashing itself against tree roots, tumbling through dead leaves and snapping twigs as if trying to shake me off.

Since I hadn’t fully taken control, it was aware. The little creature could feel my presence in its mind, like an intruder slithering through its nerves, pulling its limbs like strings on a puppet. And it hated it.

As I looked through its frantic eyes, the world lurched and blurred, the ground tilting and twisting.

I felt sorry for the little guy as it tried to hurt itself, so I tightened my grip on its mind, steadying its emotions just enough to keep it from destroying itself. However, I could still sense the raw, instinctive resistance trembling beneath the surface. It knew I was there. And it wanted me gone.

It was fascinating to watch a body instinctively resist foreign control.

The process reminded me of injecting Qi into another person’s body; it was a similar rejection. Very interesting.

But with a simple mental command, the mouse stopped frantically running about and acted as a mouse should, cautious of everything and looking around cluelessly.

This little creature had only ever been a test subject, part of my attempt to push the boundaries of storing living beings inside a storage ring. He was never meant for scouting, and I quickly realized just how poor a mouse’s vision truly was.

Perhaps I had grown too used to the clarity granted by cultivation-enhanced eyesight, but everything looked blurry and oddly distorted. Even the lighting felt weird.

This technique proved to be less comfortable than I'd initially thought it was going to be. Monstrous beasts, by comparison, usually possessed far superior senses and many even better than humans.

I planned to study this further. If I could one day take over a lot of beasts’ bodies, developing techniques that allowed humans to sense the world as they did, sounded interesting.

For now, though, the gap between humans and beasts in raw power was only bridged by the big sects, who relied on countless earth-grade techniques. Without those, most clans were helpless, as beasts were on average stronger than humans.

Even then, earth-grade techniques were often hoarded by clan leaders, locked to their bloodline to give their descendants a better chance of inheriting the position.

It was human nature.

Clans like the Liu Clan were relatively new, still clinging to that sense of tight-knit community and family.

As I drifted into such thoughts of the future, the mouse finally reached its destination, and Jiang Yeming approached the castle.

I pulled my senses tighter, keeping my distance, but watching her closely.

She arrived looking disheveled, wiping a coat of sweat from her forehead. Yet her Qi reserves were still nearly full. That meant she had conserved her strength by avoiding movement techniques altogether.

Yet the way she moved was… striking. Graceful, like a cat. Elegant in a way that would put most movement earth-grade movement techniques to shame. Most cultivators never went beyond basic usage, rarely exploring deeper applications of techniques. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that she would put the users of these techniques to shame.

Hmmm… interesting. Perhaps I should try to develop my own movement method. Not a martial art, but a way of moving, like Jiang Yeming did.

I had never seen anything quite like it.

When she traveled, her body seemed to flow seamlessly, as though every step carried its own rhythm.

Was this simply the product of countless years of experience? Perhaps it wasn’t something that could be directly copied. But I would never know unless I tried.

Jiang Yeming finally reached the castle, vaulted over the wall, then crouched and pressed two fingers to the ground, closing her eyes.

I levitated above the tree I had been standing on, waiting until she lifted her hand.

She stood, straightened her wrinkled clothes, and glanced around with curious eyes. But unlike me, she ignored her surroundings and walked straight toward the main hall.

This was a bit odd; it seemed like she already knew what she was doing. Perhaps this was a place she had been to in the future.

Reckless. Normally, I wouldn’t care if someone else acted that way, but she was my disciple. It was my job to correct her behavior, despite the sketchy shit she was pulling here. If she kept depending on her future knowledge too much, it might end badly for her.

The mouse trailed her at a careful distance, its tiny claws scratching faintly against the stone floor as it followed her shadow into the main hall. The vast hall was drowned in an unnatural stillness, broken only when Jiang Yeming’s gaze lifted and fell upon the rows of cylindrical glass cases that lined the walls. Within them, human figures hung suspended. Her brow furrowed, the faintest trace of revulsion darkening her features.

But the expression was fleeting. She steadied herself with a slow, measured breath, letting the ripple of unease vanish as quickly as it had come. Step by step, she approached one of the cases, her reflection warping across the glass until it merged with the pale figure inside. She stood there, silent, her eyes narrowing, as if she was trying to read the truth hidden beneath the surface of the body preserved within.

Her brows knit again, as though struggling to control her emotions. She clenched her fist and struck the glass. Spiderweb cracks spread instantly, then burst open. Blue liquid splashed outward as the body inside slumped forward.

Jiang Yeming was drenched by the unknown substance as she caught the person before they hit the floor.

Another mistake. Carelessness. What if that liquid had been poisonous? It didn’t seem like it, but still, it was reckless.

She laid the body gently on the ground, away from the liquid and shards, then placed two fingers on their neck. Relief flickered across her face when she felt a heartbeat.

So she was glad the man was alive.

That confirmed she lacked a proper mental technique. Otherwise, she would have known that while these people lived, their minds were gone.

Maybe she had one but hadn’t mastered it yet. If so, as a regressor, that was disappointing.

Still, it was a dangerous weakness. If she ran into someone who casually enjoyed reading minds, it would cost her dearly.

She then pressed two fingers to the man’s forehead, and I sensed a faint mental pulse.

Her relief vanished. Her expression sank as she realized the man she thought she had saved was already braindead.

Jiang Yeming looked at the other living corpses in their glass prisons and winced.

Still, I was more concerned with just how big of a weakness her likely Earth Grade mental technique was. Having to place two fingers on the target made the technique useless in most cases.

Perhaps she didn’t have the Qi to support it properly, but I hoped she would refine it in the future.

Techniques often scaled with cultivation, or perhaps she was simply trying to conserve Qi. Even so, I could probably design something better from scratch.

Sure, I had a Sky Grade mental technique as a crutch. But as a regressor, she should have been much better.

As Jiang Yeming looked like she was never going to shake off her bad mood, her gaze suddenly sharpened, and her head snapped toward the mouse hiding in the corner.

She immediately reacted.

For a second, I thought she might have seen through me.

But I had tested this before. When I took over a beast’s body, the shift could be sensed through mental waves. More accurately, there was a subtle change in the creature’s mental fluctuations. But unless someone was familiar with them beforehand, they wouldn’t notice, as the waves appeared normal.

For small rodents, though, with their limited mental presence, it was different. Still, since I was only looking through its eyes, there was no way to detect it through normal means.

“A rodent?” Jiang Yeming murmured, almost to herself, a faint smile tugging at her lips. “You must have had quite the difficult time surviving here, little guy.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Before the mouse could react, she moved with startling speed, scooping it up in one hand.

She patted its head, produced a strip of dried meat, and offered it to the little creature.

Was she really this careless? This stupid? Was the future so comfortable she could afford to act like this?

But then, as I was already forming training plans to hammer such reckless habits out of her, I felt a gentle mental probe sweep across the mouse.

Oh... So she was trying to read its memories? These were the skills I was looking for in someone like her.

As for whether she could sense my presence in the mouse’s mind? Sure, she had the advantage of proximity, yes, but that was all. My technique was Sky Grade, and I was already in the little guy’s head.

I pulled back slightly, channeling false memories into its mind: the tunnels it had scurried through, the scraps it had eaten, the ordinary routines of a rodent’s day. Crafting memories vague enough that she wouldn’t notice they didn’t belong to this region. So memories of the mouse being out on daytime were shelfed deep.

Surprisingly, Jiang Yeming was thorough. She probed deeper than I expected, her brow furrowed in concentration. After several minutes, she finally let out a faint sigh, releasing the mouse. She rubbed her forehead, clearly drained mentally. Her technique worked, yes, but not without drawbacks.

Compared to the extremes I had once pushed myself to, her restraint was commendable. She didn’t force it until her thoughts dissolved into static and she didn’t push herself into nosebleeds or migraines that made her brain feel like mush. She stayed within her limits and was careful with it.

If I were in her place, I would’ve pushed myself harder. But as her teacher, I didn’t want her to destroy herself. Because learning things like that was often stupidly dangerous, it was used by people who would be willing to destroy themselves for any sign of learning something new.

"Huh, you really survived this long alone here?" Jiang Yeming sighed, straightening her back. "I guess rodents can live even in the worst conditions. Where did you even get your food from?"

She continued patting the mouse gently as she approached the man she'd laid on the ground, and put the little rodent down. Kneeling, she pried open the person’s slack jaw.

"Who the hell puts a secret space here?" she muttered.

The words had barely left her lips when the world shifted.

The limp, empty body twitched. Its mouth stretched wider, far wider than it should, jaw cracking with a sickening pop as the corners tore back toward its ears. An invisible pull surged outward, a vortex born from its throat.

Jiang Yeming had only a heartbeat to widen her eyes before her body twisted violently, sucked forward as though gravity itself had turned against her. Her limbs bent at impossible angles as she was yanked into that gaping maw, vanishing past its teeth in a blur of flesh and cloth.

Then, silence.

The man's mouth closed. His face slackened again. He lay as lifeless as before, as if nothing had happened at all.

Well, that was creepy. Hopefully she wasn’t hurt by that.

I didn't have enough control over my own Sky Grade spatial technique to sense space with any precision. But it seemed even Jiang Yeming, who could, didn't think she would suddenly be dragged away like that.

I looked at the other bodies through the eyes of the mouse, then I opened my own eyes. It was a bit disorienting adjusting to suddenly having such sharp vision again.

But after a brief rest, I sighed, dusted my clothes and moved the Qi within me in a familiar pattern.

The world swirled around me with a sharp crack as space itself trembled. A moment later, I stepped into the rupture and emerged in the room where Jiang Yeming had vanished.

This was a false world; I had no idea if it would repair itself like reality did. But no time better than the present to test this out.

I glanced back at the tear I'd left behind. It didn't close. Instead, it spread like shattered glass across a windowpane.

Before it could widen further, I pinched the edges between two fingers. I dragged them down, manually sealing the crack shut. It closed easily, and I felt nothing when doing this, but it couldn’t close naturally.

I checked among the trees where I spied from, and the other end had closed as well.

Still, when I looked at the downed figure, I couldn't sense the spatial energy the way Jiang Yeming had.

How could anyone sense something like that? Space was intangible, untwistable. Gravity could bend space, but I wasn't using that when I forced open holes in reality itself.

So perhaps it had to be approached in a metaphysical sense. After all, science didn’t mix well with this world when it came to cultivation.

The only sense I could rely on to observe space was sight. So, I shut my eyes, straining to feel it as she had.

Nothing.

In the end, I couldn't manage it and pushed the problem aside for later.

I had the mouse approach the man Jiang Yeming had laid on the ground, and the little vermin sniffed its way forward.

But as it neared the man’s head, his mouth yawned wide, and the mouse was sucked in by a spatial twist, vanishing into the darkness of his throat.

That was… surprising. It seemed the trigger Jiang Yeming had used earlier was no longer needed, and the teleportation now activated automatically.

It cost me a little more Qi to maintain the link, but for a Foundation Establishment cultivator, it was a trivial drain.

And it wasn’t a trap. The mouse was still alive. What it saw next, though, was unexpected.

An empty gray chamber stretched around the mouse, with the walls having intricate carvings. At the center of the room stood a platform, upon which pulsed a bright blue cube, radiating strange energy. Sadly, the mouse couldn’t perceive Qi, and my attempts to enhance its senses yielded few results. Still, the cube glowed brightly enough to illuminate the space and reveal someone else in here.

Jiang Yeming. She was already there. But through the mouse’s dull senses, I couldn’t make out her muttering as she approached the cube.

The moment her hand touched it, a hologram flared into existence. It wasn’t truly blurry, but that was how it appeared through the mouse’s limited vision.

I guided the mouse to approach, not caring if Jiang Yeming noticed.

The image settled into a middle-aged man with snake-like eyes and a single horn jutting from his forehead like a unicorn.

Jiang Yeming looked down, spotted the mouse, and picked it up, giving me a closer view and a better chance to hear what the hologram was saying.

“This is a pre-played message,” the hologram declared. “If you’re hearing this, it means I am likely dead. This is the inheritance I left behind, and it will likely be the only sign I was ever alive. That I ever existed.”

An inheritance ground? Huh. He had me fooled. I’d thought this was just a lab. If it truly was an inheritance, he hadn’t gone to much effort to dress it up as one.

“My life story is unimportant. What you need to know is that I was born a monstrous beast, as humans call us, and I spent five centuries seeking a way to break through and become an Immortal,” the hologram continued calmly. “I have been at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm for nearly a millennium now, and… I see no path forward.”

He looked downward, staring at the ground when he was recording this. He didn't look like he had much hope of succeeding.

I had suspected as much. The process of becoming an Immortal was unnatural to the world’s order. The heavens themselves were like the immune system of the world and struck down any being that dared to cross that boundary.

But breaking through that boundary itself was no doubt extremely difficult. Though it was a bit weird seeing someone who had reached the peak of power looking so depressed about it.

“As a monstrous beast, I didn’t have human inheritance or anything to guide me in this next step,” said the hologram. “But I’ve learned that to become an Immortal, one must create their own immortal technique. I’m aiming for a technique that blurs the lines between species, not just between humans and beasts, but between beasts themselves. After all, the difference between some beast species is as vast as the gap between humans and beasts. In and of itself, humans are just another type of monstrous beast...”

As Jiang Yeming listened to the hologram’s long tangent, she scratched her cheek uncomfortably. Still, she remained until the projection ended, and she was forcefully expelled from the space, reappearing in the middle of the hallway.

She stood staring at the ground, absentminded, not even noticing me at first. This was a flaw I’d make sure she worked on in the future.

When her senses returned, she looked up, wide-eyed.

“Ah, teacher, you’re here,” she said awkwardly. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

“I got worried when I saw you were gone,” I told her. “Be more careful next time.”

She smiled, set the little mouse down, and bowed her head. “Yes, sorry, teacher.”

I shrugged, glancing around as if this were my first time seeing the place.

Uncomfortable with the silence, Jiang Yeming spoke up. “I was just investigating a wall when I was suddenly pulled here.”

“Just try to be more careful,” I repeated, not pressing her further.

I didn’t believe her explanation, but I didn’t blame her either. If this were some inheritance she recognized from the future... Well, I would have done the same in her place.

“Ah, also, teacher,” she said again. “I found an inheritance–”

“Keep it to yourself,” I advised, though I already knew what it was. “Don’t tell anyone else. Others might let greed take over. As your teacher, it’s my role to nurture you, not steal your chances. But many others won’t think the same.”

Jiang Yeming laughed awkwardly and looked away.

“The thing is, some inheritances aren’t meant for people like me,” she admitted. “Anyway, I’ll tell you what the projection said.”

She then recited word for word what she had heard, even explaining how to enter the strange room.

Huh. So she wasn’t hiding it?

From this little trip, I’d learned a lot about how she delayed her technique’s activation, how she sensed spatial fluctuations. So it wasn’t as a waste of time for me as it seemed to be for her.

How far could I push and develop those things? It was exciting.

We walked on, exploring further. We even examined the place where the sky-grade technique had once been engraved.

"Uh, this place might have been guarded by some trigger array and designed to destroy itself if the correct password or conditions weren’t met," Jiang Yeming reasoned, looking down, and she seemed guilty.

I didn't challenge her proclamation.

With my protection, we managed to investigate the grounds thoroughly.

In the end, Jiang Yeming lingered in the castle’s garden, looking a little downcast.

“Perhaps some inheritances are best left to those meant to find them. Otherwise, they’ll be useless,” she said.

Her tone felt more like an apology than a statement.

I didn’t agree, but she was likely older than me. By how many years, who could say? Strange to think about. But she was likely not the kind of person who had made it to become an immortal during her first run.

Still, at the end of the day, even as my disciple, Jiang Yeming was her own person, and I wanted her to live her best life.