The Tower of Emnu

Aaron walked around Sylus cell and went down the next aisle. Prisoners lined the central aisle on both sides and Aaron stopped at the man standing casually in the next cell. The man was tall and his prison fortified heavily. His dark hair was slicked back and his dark eyes glimmered coldly out of deep sockets. He had a sneer on his lips as he studied Aaron intently.

“Welcome.” the man said in a smooth velvety deep voice and showed him glittering white teeth that strangely reminded Aaron of a crocodiles mouth.

“They call me the Demon and before you ask, no I am no incarnation of evil, but merely an Unorthodox practitioner of Cultivation arts. The only difference between righteous and demonic Cultivators is hypocrisy. While I know what I am and what I have done to get where I am, a righteous cultivator would wear his righteousness as a shield to justify the horrible deeds they have done to get where they are.”

The man stepped closer and Aaron realized he was at least 7 feet tall, well muscled and effortlessly handsome. He leaned down a bit and grinned.

“And yes, I know you did not ask, but it is better to explain my Moniker before you discard me as useless, like most of the prisoners here, or out of sheer distaste.”

Aaron raised his eyebrows and chuckled.“I don’t really judge people by their Monikers, I did not even know people had them. I judge people by their actions.”

“Ah, then you will find me deliciously despicable. I have robbed, stolen, murdered, betrayed and done many more acts that you might find unpleasant to say the least. But in the end that is just the life of a cultivator. A fool tries to take what you have? You kill him and take his stuff. The righteous would proclaim their good deed in punishing an evil doer. But I know that I just murdered the fool and took their stuff. Morality did not factor into it.” The man’s grin broadened.

“It is all a matter of perspective.” he said in an almost hushed voice.

“I can’t really judge, my perspective has always been a little bit different from most people.” Aaron said. It was the truth after all.

“Exactly! You and me, we are alike in that. Some may call us evil for it, but others, like me, understand. Those who leave behind enemies will one day harvest the fruit of their past mistakes. But those who are evil enough to do what it takes they can move on with everyone the better for it.”

“Even those we killed?” Aaron asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Of course!” the man proclaimed with fervent belief. “Killing your enemies is putting them out of their misery. Living with regret and in hate is a terrible thing to the soul. Better to have them move on to the next life where they are not in your way.”

“I see, my name is Aaron and I have come to give you this.” Aaron held up a manastone and the Demon reached out with a hand.“You can just throw it through he shield, they are not that strong for me. Which should be pure disrespect since I am the highest cultivation rank besides the great master of all of us.” Aaron underhand threw the manastone to the man and the glowing bauble passed through the light shield without issue.

“Before you go, I have a little proposition for you.” The demon said after effortlessly catching the manastone.

“Oh?”

“Yes, you see I have listened to your troubles, to being hunted and almost dying many a times. And I think you need more power. The great master won’t let us teach you techniques and to be quite honest I agree with him. At your point in development a Qi art would more hinder than aid you. There are a few things you would benefit from though, but I am sure the great master has already planned for that. No, what you need above everything else is a source of more power, a source of Qi besides your Cultivation Art creating it from mana. Am I right?”

Aaron studied the man calling himself the Demon and he was not sure where he was going. In his time as a hitman he had met quite a few unsavory people and this guy fit the whole profile. Narcissistic, psychopathic and in absolute control over themselves. He reminded Aaron of most of the CEO’s he had murdered or worked for over the years. He knew his type and he suspected that the man was not offering him anything out of the goodness of his heart, even if it benefited him to help Aaron, people like him always looked for another angle to take advantage of people.

“Yes, not having a source of Qi is indeed the biggest hurdle. It takes weeks to just fill up my dantian and often I need to use the Qi to survive, not to rank up.”

“Indeed. So how about I present to you a new source of Qi.”

“Like what?”

“You have enemies in spades have you not? Why not turn them into sustenance. There is this technique called Corpse Alche…” But before he could finish his sentence a voice interrupted him with absolute command.

“No.” Aaron turned his head and looked at the next prison over. A bald man sat there in the center of it, a kind smile on his lips. His face was without wrinkles and his eyes looked at them both. The man’s blue eyes looked old, ancient even, but kind. The entire man looked old, but Aaron had trouble to pinpoint what it was that made him look that way. He wore a long toga like robe in purple. Just looking at the man made Aaron’s heart beat slower and then the old man nodded to him with a smile.

“Do not be fooled young soul, the Demon tries to tempt you with easy ways to power, but does not tell you their price. Corpse Alchemy is not a thing you should pursue, especially not in Qi Refining and you know that very well, old friend.”

“Aaron, meet the Monk, my counterpart, my jailer and one of the few cultivators in the tower who came here out of his free will, just to ensure I stay trapped in here. He is the most righteous and so the most hypocritical of Cultivators and he will happily dissuade you from any path besides the one he deems worthy. No matter how valid or how many Transcendants have followed them. But yes, you are right. Corpse Alchemy would have been a terrible fit. But don’t you worry, it is merely my opening bit. I have so much in store for you, so much I could teach you to help you grow.” the man’s smile had an inviting quality to it and he looked on the outside absolutely trustworthy.

But Aaron was not swayed, he merely raised his eyebrows at the odd duo.

“He came to the tower with you to trap you here?”

“Indeed he has. Quite a sacrifice don’t you think?”

“Yeah.” Aaron studied the Monk a bit closer, but the old man just sat there with his tiny smile on his lips. When Aaron was about to look away the Monk started talking.

“I came here to heal the broken bonds of Karma that this tower creates. To ensure that the souls, yanked back from their well deserved rest, don’t repeat the old mistakes of lives gone by. My old friend has the magnificent ability to give people exactly what they want, but not need. I am here to be the good to his evil, the yang to his yin. I can only advise you not to deal with him, but I think you will and you will regret it terribly one day. But when that time comes I will be there to help you, should you want to accept my help then and not now.”

“And here I was thinking that the taiji is the fusion of two things opposite to create something more and not something less, Monk.” the demon said with a sneer.

“Together we are something more, that you think the both of us lessen each other is the reason you can never accept me, old friend.”

“Old friend, this, old friend, that. You see how he preaches, Aaron? A font of wisdom without any idea of the challenges you face in the tower. Did you not come here to get more techniques, to become stronger? I can give you that. If not with Corpse Alchemy there is another part of your enemies that is ripe for picking.” The demon spread his arms and grinned broadly.

“Soul Stealer, my signature technique…”

“No.” The Monk said, his smile unwavering, but another voice cut into the Demons monologue.

“We had an agreement.” Aaron recognized the voice as the one of the old ghost. Aaron looked around and froze as he saw the shadow of the Demon bend unnaturally until it formed into the shadow of the old man he had met just minutes earlier.

“Calm yourself gentlemen. Do I look like I would just give him my most prized technique? No, no, no, what I offer is a similar technique, but one that is specifically targeted at what Aaron faces the most. Vessels.”

He turned to Aaron, his eyes twinkling with mirth. He was clearly enjoying putting on a show.

“You see both the Monk and the old Ghost like to gang up on me, because I am one of the few people who can kill souls, not just send them to the afterlife. Soul Stealer is exactly what it sounds like. I can steal with it the very energy of a Soul, can steal potential, knowledge and oh so much more. But that technique can’t be used before Golden core and its original inception was to help strengthen your soul to reach the Nascent Soul realm for people who were unable to do so. No, the technique I want to offer you can be called Soul Catcher. It is a very weak and modified version of my prized Qi art that will allow you to harvest the Spirits of Vessels and those spirits alone.” The Demon had something theatrical to him as he turned to his own shadow and grinned at the old ghost.

“Your biggest problem is people messing with souls without having the knowledge or strength to do so. But Spirits are not souls, they are proto souls, not alive, not dead, merely parasites, no conscious thought, no reincarnation. They do barely qualify as souls because they are made out of an ascended soul. And the few Spirits that grow in strength until they become real Souls and gain consciousness would prove far to strong for Aaron and my little technique.” he turned to the Monk and continued triumphant.

“Spirits are less alive than animals and on par with summoned coreless monsters. They should not have any karmic bonds either as all karmic bonds should go to their creator not the Spirits themselves, correct?”

The Monk frowned turned his head sideways as if he was thinking, then nodded reluctantly.

“Spirits do not have bonds of karma until around level 30 I believe.”

“Exactly! So with Soul Catcher you would be able to harvest the souls of any Vessel with a single touch.” the Demon said with a smirk.

Aaron blinked from one cultivator to the other and then admitted that he had no idea what they were talking about.

“What exactly would I do with a spirit?”

“Spirits are technically made out of Qi, spiritual Qi to be precise and you would be able to draw in a spirit, cycle it through your Fiend-god art and create pure Qi. The amount of it would be without equal in the tower since there would be no conversion at all.”

Aaron had difficulties in imagining how that would look like. How he could harvest Qi directly from spirits and make it his own. How to even interact with something as intangible as a Spirit. All of this bothered him in so many little ways. Ways he could overlook, but was not sure if it was wise doing so.

“If this is such a great technique, then why would the great master not offer it to me?”

“Even the great master is not omniscient. He simply does not know that this weaker version of Soul Stealer exists and besides he would probably disapprove. That old transcendant likes people to suffer. He believes it makes them grow. No matter how they feel about it.”

“I was indeed not aware of the technique and I would not recommend you to even consider it before I saw it used. Disturbing the harmony of your cultivation techniques would not only weaken you for the long term, but also the short term, making any gains you could potentially get meaningless.” the voice of the great master drifted over and Aaron cleared his throat.

“I do need new techniques though, great master. That is part of why I returned. I can’t continue like this. There have been too many close shaves with death. If I don’t improve significantly and get new tools to defend myself, or conceal myself then I don’t think its likely that I will ever return here again.”

There was a moment of silence, before the great master answered.

“I will explain myself after you have done the rounds. But simply put the amount of techniques available to you because of the tower and your low cultivation level is very low and there are even fewer that will harmonize with what you already know. But I will humor you. Demon, go ahead and demonstrate the technique for me.”

The tall man straightened and smirked, but soon turned serious and got into a stance that vaguely reminded Aaron of the heavenly kata, but not really. It was all wrong and full of openings. The Demon paused for a long moment then he reached out with one hand, and snatched the empty air. Aaron did not feel a thing. He did not sense or perceive anything happening at all. It felt more like he had just snatched after an invisible thing or tried to shoo away a fly.

“Hmm, fascinating. I was not aware that your technique can be used that way. But that is not the full extent of it. Without an anchor someone on Aaron’s level would not be able to retain or move any Spirit captured.”

“That is sadly true, there are a few ways to solve this issue though. Opening a spirit Meridian would certainly allow a spirit to be held there, for example.”

“But that means it requires opening two Meridians and Aaron already had to open two for his movement technique.”

“Yes, that is a problem. Even I am weary of opening more Meridians at this stage. The old ground rule of one Meridian per lower rank is a good guide line. But of course there are other methods, starting from items…” The voice of the old ghost interrupted the demon and the great masters discussion about things Aaron only had an inkling of.

“A primal soul on the level of a low level Spirit will naturally settle at the solar plexus if done right. It would mean only one Spirit can be absorbed, held and triggering the technique again would free the spirit. The only downside is that if used incorrectly on anything else besides non sentient spirits it will trigger a contest of wills and risks the soul as a whole. Possession is a real possibility. It is a very crude technique.”

“It is a Golden Core technique adapted to Qi Refining, of course it is crude. But the Spirits would naturally settle if drawn in? How?”

“They are attached to Vessels the same way, as expected of people who do not understand Souls. The spirit itself will hold on as is their parasitic nature. They will react the same way if transferred from one Vessel to another. Simply put they try to leech onto the spiritual connection of body and soul, without being able to do anything but hang on. Absorbing such spirits is the real issue I have no experience with and find deeply unsettling.” the old ghosts voice said.

“That is the easy part, old ghost. Aaron here would be incompatible with a spirit yes? So he would be able to sense the Spirit and use the Soul Catcher technique again to drag it into his dantian.”

“Using techniques internally is not a skill that is easy to learn or execute for Neophytes.”

“I will include it in the technique when I inscribe it on a suitable beast core. If he does not absorb the Spirit it has another interesting implication. The spirit would mask Aaron’s true nature for all who use skills or magic to identify him. They would just detect the upper layer of the spirit, so it would act as a stealth art as well as an alternative source of Qi.”

“Wait, so they would identify me and see that I am whatever class I took the spirit from?”

“Yes, exactly. Spirits give Vessels their power, so obviously any skill they use on you will just show the Spirits power, not yours. Doesn’t that make my offer more appealing to you?”

“It certainly does.” Aaron thought about it for only 10 seconds and he could see a monstrous amount of utility from that technique. Another source of Qi and a way to get back into the Tower’s society without exposing what he really was. He was tired not eating proper food and the prospect of getting access to some good grub was more than a little tempting.

“I will consider it and while I do not believe the technique would clash with your current build it does pull it in a different direction I am not certain I like.” the great master said thoughtfully.

“Continue your round, tell Mortag to make 7 beastcores ready to inscribe if you are at it. Having a full set of your cultivation arts ready in the form of memory cores will help you deepen your foundation and understanding of said techniques. I am very pleased you have access to that many cores. It will help you considerably.”

Aaron had no real attachment to the beast cores, he had not even tried cultivating with them, so he was fine with using them to become whatever memory cores were. It was not really a loss to him and besides he was kind of curious to meet the rest of the cultivators.