Seph returned to his cultivation tomb and trained in his martial art for the second day in a row.

  Before he went to sleep, he checked the contents of the spatial sack he got the other day.

  He found some cultivation pills for the Qi path, a breathing manual and some other pills and items all used by a Qi path cultivator.

  He thought, these would be perfect for Sun. I hope you are safe, Sun, and that I’ll see you again someday soon. These items will surely help you cultivate and reach the first stage of cultivation finally.

  Seph felt sad remembering his friend but ended up sleeping to do more bounties the next day.

  He had totally forgotten the weird dreams, but they hadn’t forgotten him.

  His dreams this time alternated between two fights; the fight with the sect bullies and the fight with the cultivators of the three sects, and once more the fights went strikingly differently than the first time.

  Sadly, against the bullies he got stabbed every time, and it hurt like hell every time.

  This time around though, there was no confusion; he just let loose against those bullies.

  The first time he just killed Xin Feng, he unleashed multiple palm strikes to his head. Xin tried to fight back and slashed Seph’s palms twice, but it was to no avail.

  Bleeding or not, his ghostly overreaching palms traveled the rest of the way to Xin’s head and murdered him.

  Qian was so mad seeing his follower die he went absolutely crazy on Seph; he changed to his tiger mask and hit Seph with his tiger claws repeatedly and made him into a bloody corpse.

  Seph’s friends couldn’t even save him in time as he died, and the worst thing he could feel those hits like if they were real.

  The next fight to replay was the fight with the cultivators of the three sects.

  In the actual fight, Seph and his friends got the jump on the cultivators.

  In the first dream fight, as Divinity got out of hiding to hit Light Ren, the light cultivator noticed her at the last second and held back, which made Divinity miss big time, as her little body followed her big hammer.

  Light Ren took the opportunity and landed her charged light ball on Divinity, who was out of position and falling over.

  The ball exploded in Divinity’s tiny chest and blew a hole right through her.

  Seph’s eyes went wide with disbelief as he saw his friend, who was out here just to help him search for Sun, the one who warned him that Sun had left in the first place, and he couldn’t contain his anger.

  He ran straight for the earth cultivator, completely forgetting what he could do, and got stopped by an earth column that hit him straight in the stomach followed by an earth boulder that hit him in the head, ending his life immediately.

  His eyes were closing as he saw an angry Lilith fighting the cultivators who had killed them, and he was just glad that he didn’t end up seeing her death as well before he blacked out.

  What he noticed in those dream sequences was that the cultivators didn’t use new skills that Seph hadn’t already seen them use.

  So, Qian could have more skills or masks than his tiger mask, and the other cultivators could have more varied skills than the ones they kept using over and over.

  The fights kept repeating with a different outcome each time, and by the time Seph woke up, he found himself exhausted. He got up and splashed his face with some water, but he still felt tired.

  In the end, he resolved to take a yin cultivation pill to replenish his energy, which did the job as he got dressed and left, after he told Lilith via the diary that he intended to train in the courtyard.

  When Lilith saw him, she thought it was weird how energetic he looked; she asked him, “Did you not sleep? Why do you look so full of energy?“

  Seph rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he answered, “Nothing, I am just pumped up for the third day of training my martial art in a row; I can already feel a mysterious power growing within me.” He didn’t want to tell her about the pill he had taken because then he would have to explain his weird dreams, which would worry her needlessly.

  Lilith smiled and hooked her arm into his as she led him towards the courtyard.

  Once they reached the courtyard, they saw a fidgeting Kafka from afar; they thought to ask what’s up with him, so that maybe they could help him, and repay the favor they owe him.

  But before they could speak, Kafka talked to them. “I have been waiting for you guys! I made a little something for you, Seph; I hope it helps.”

  He got out a painting of Sun from his spatial ring that he had made; it was a perfect resemblance of Sun, and promised a thousand spirit stones for anyone who could find Sun.

  Seph’s eyes watered as he looked at the painting, and he said, “Thank you very much for making this; I hope someone finds Sun because of it.”

  Kafka got out a bag of spirit stones and said, “These are 1000 spirit stones, for the reward.”

  Seph waved his hand in dismissal as he said, “No, I can’t take this from you. Don’t worry, I have a lot of spirit stones to pay whoever leads me to Sun. Where should we put this painting?”

  Kafka said, “On the bounty board of course, we are authorized to hang our own missions if the reward is good enough, and this reward is better than most bounties hung by the sect.”

  Kafka then took the painting from Seph and hung it on the board.

  Seph bowed deeply to thank him.

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  At the same moment, the group heard the call for the courtyard training, and they all went to stand in the rows.

  The training went as usual, and Lilith was chosen once again for the private training session group.

  Seph used the time to train in his martial art, but Kafka sat down near him as he played with his cats, watching to see if the bully group tried to do anything, but they didn’t.

  ***

  Seph went through a lot in the last few days. I just can’t leave him in good conscience; when those bullies might come back and his girlfriend is busy in private training.

  At the very least, I’ll just have to stay until she finishes her training.

  He is a nice guy; he deserves everything good that happens to him, but is she even his girlfriend?

  I didn’t see any signs of romantic affection between them, not even a peck on the lips. They sure give this vibe though.

  They are good people anyway; I wish them the best.

  Also, it’s not like I am not doing anything: to an outsider eye, I am a teenager playing with his cats; but to me and only me since I didn’t share this secret with anyone, I am actually cultivating my cat summoning skill.

  Caring for the cat souls that follow me is as important as fighting with them; they need the care, and I need a stronger connection with them.

  Cultivation really is the most varied activity humans have ever known; there is no uniform way to cultivate. There are myriad ways depending on the purpose of your cultivation.

  I cultivate with the yin energy same as everyone else, but I cultivate my cat summoning skills by using them in battle, and caring for cats and giving them the attention that they deserve, also by being kind to them and letting them know I am their haven.

  My cats are my friends, but they are also my weapons. They are my family, but also my army.

  I heard that cultivators who choose to farm, cultivate through cultivating their plants, carpenters cultivate through creating new woodwork all the time, chefs cultivate through making new foods, and trying their best to reach the best version of each meal they make.

  You don’t need to be a fighter to cultivate; you can cultivate as a writer, as a housewife, as a construction worker, as an employee; you just need to do your job diligently until you achieve the highest level of skill.

  Some say that cultivating mundane jobs is actually harder than just normal cultivation, but we heard stories of ascendants who never raised a finger against anybody, who ascended through diligently cultivating their skills.

  We also heard of ascendant kings, who didn’t fight, who ruled in peace, and they did it by just ruling between their subjects, with justice and keeping their subjects’ best interest in mind and always first.

  Hmm, I see Lilith has finished her private training; I guess I’ll leave her to watch over Seph, and go about my business.

  Kafka got up off the ground, and his cats followed him as they meowed and pranced between his legs while looking at him in adoration.

  ***

  Seph finished his training three hours after Lilith got done with hers.

  Once he was done, a cultivator approached them and said, “Senior brother Seph, there is a visitor for you in the visitation room. The elder says you should meet with them posthaste.”

  Seph raised an eyebrow as he looked at Lilith. “A visitor? In a yin cultivation sect? Where nobody even should know where we are?”

  Lilith was surprised too and said, “Yeah, that’s awfully strange, but since the elder himself is aware of this visit, then it must be something familiar to him and not a danger to the sect, let’s go to see what’s happening.”

  Seph nodded to her, and they both headed to the visitation room.

  At the door they found an outer sect disciple, who silently opened the door for them, so Seph thought that even Lilith going in with him wouldn’t be a problem at all.

  Inside the room, Seph saw a familiar face, but once he got closer, he noticed that this wasn’t a familiar face after all; this was someone new. He used his Eye of the Veteran on the sitting individual.

  Name: Assistant 13

  Class: Emissary of the Underworld

  Cultivation stage: Core creation (I)

  The emissary stood and said, “The blessings of Lord Yama be upon you, young cultivator.”

  Seph replied, “Thanks! Who is Lord Yama?”

  The emissary got a surprised look on his face as he said, “Why! The king of the underworld of course, one among ten, but the most prominent one.”

  Seph said, “Excuse me for my ignorance then; where is Assistant 11?”

  The emissary said, “Seeing as how his last meeting with you wasn’t as cordial as we would have liked, we removed him from your service. Unless of course you would like him back?”

  Seph thought, Good riddance, then said, “Nah, that won’t be necessary. To what do I owe this visit by one of the underworld’s emissaries?”

  Assistant 13 said, “Well, first, we would like to apologize for the trouble caused to you by assistant 11.”

  Seph said, “Don’t worry, water under the bridge, especially since you made a move to remove him. Not that I could have done anything about it anyway, but this is for the best.”

  Assistant 13 nodded and said, “And second, because you qualified for another of our merit badges, after you did something extraordinary two days ago.”

  Seph got annoyed immediately, and said, “Don’t tell me you are going to reward me for losing my friend.”

  Assistant 13 waved his hands in dismissal and said, “Oh, no, nothing so sinister; we are not sadistic, you know?”

  Lilith said, “Then what is it you want to reward him for this time?”

  Assistant 13 pulled out a merit badge that was the same as the first one, red with black tassels hanging under it and presented it to Seph solemnly, “You got revenge by killing your killer, that’s a very rare badge, as only yin cultivators and a few others who have the potential of waking up after death and even then it’s not guaranteed that they would grow strong enough to kill their killers, but you did it and in short time too.”

  Seph thought back to his fight against the earth inheritors sect cultivator, since that was the only person he had killed recently.

  Assistant 13 said, “Of course, he was weak to begin with, and it’s very rare for ordinary people to get killed by a core formation cultivator, which made your job easier, but a feat is a feat. Please accept this badge with our congratulations on getting your revenge.”

  Seph took the badge from him and bowed slightly to show respect, and then Assistant 13 said, “With that, our business is concluded; I’ll be the one to visit you from now on, unless you would like someone new?”

  Seph said, “No, you are good; I am looking forward to the next time we meet, as long as it’s not after a catastrophe or a massacre that I had caused.”

  Assistant 13 smiled and said, “Yeah, hopefully it doesn’t come to that. I bid thee farewell, Seph.” He bowed, and then looked at Lilith and said, “Lilith.” Then bowed to her too, before he left the room only to vanish right outside its door.

  Seph immediately used the Eye of the Appraiser on the new badge.

  Appraising…

  Name: Underworld’s badge #10

  Type: Merit

  Quality: Rare

  Description: Congratulations on killing your murderer

  Revenge is a dish best served cold, or as I say, revenge is a dish best served.

  Hot or cold, it doesn’t matter, just kill the motherfucker.

  But do you feel that?… Nothing, nothing changed; the anger is still within you, the prejudice, you would love nothing more than to raise him up from the dead and kill him again, and again, and again!

  Effect: +1 in each attribute, including Luck (permanent)

  How to achieve: Kill who killed you, no matter how many they are; you will still get one badge only.

  Seph then projected his energy into the badge, and it dissolved in his hands, and then checked his status screen with the Eye of the Veteran.

  Name: Seph ???

  Class: Undead Buddhist lvl6

  Cultivation Stage: Body Dismantling (IV)

  Lifespan: 18/45 years

  Strength: 58

  Dexterity: 29

  Intelligence: 36

  Wisdom: 21

  Constitution: 34

  Perception: 46

  Luck: 16

  He nodded in satisfaction, and then grinned at Lilith and said, “Shall we return to our lodgings?”

  She smiled back. “Let’s go.”