Chapter 0049

“I’d like to thank you.” Jean had finally gathered up her courage to approach the unusual red mage.

“For what?” Tempest’s voice was a bit gruff as she pulled back her senses. She didn’t want to speak to anyone as she felt she was very close to merging her senses to those of the spirits. Just a little bit more and she’d be able to do it, or so she believed. In actuality, she’s far from being able to accomplish a true merging. It is better to say she’s borrowing the senses of the spirits to search the surrounding area. Even then she’d manage to sense 50 meters around her.

“During the fight with the Iron Clawed Wolf Pack, I know you went crazy because you were trying to protect me from the assassin.” Jean clarified. The aloof princess was hesitant in her interaction with the red mage. On one hand, the girl did save her, while on the other hand, she is insane.

Dealing with the insane is best done with caution. Dealing with an insane powerful red mage who has massive mana reserve surpassing even the royal mages back home require the finesse of a seasoned diplomat.

“You think too highly of yourself. I despised betrayers, and the assassin happens to put herself in that category. If she attempted to kill you in a different manner, then I wouldn’t be bothered to help.” Tempest spoke the words from the heart. It may seem callous but before joining the mercenary group the two were strangers.

Tempest learned it was never worth the ensuing aggravation to go out of her way to help a stranger. If their interest coincides, then it is a different story.

“Nonetheless, I benefited from your crazy act, therefore I’d like to express my gratitude.” Jean smiled gently. Perhaps her impression of the little charm seller was wrong. She isn’t crazy. Just prickly.

“Keep your gratitude. I’d rather take your silvers.” Tempest did save Jean, although it was due to her intense hatred of betrayers, the fact that she killed the woman while she was attempting to kill Jean is a fact she isn’t going to refute. She might as well profit from it.

Tempest stretched out her hand, awaiting payment.

Jean was about to reach into her purse and pay the greedy little mage, but a memory stopped her. It was merely a snippet of a memory, yet its emergence at this time was no coincidence.

“When the impossible occurs, destroy all the bad karma and keep a good karma line with everyone at the scene.” Even death can’t erase the impact the sentence had on her. Soul Liners had the most convoluted minds among the different types of Soul Practitioner out there but none could deny they almost always come out on top.

Jean knew the sentence indirectly benefited her many times in her previous life. Who knew how many times she was saved because of it. Her previous self lost count on how many times she was saved due to good karma.

A battle with a pack of level 2 magical beast in a forest is not impossible. In fact, it is quite probable.

A chance encounter with a friend from her previous life leading to memory awakening without the previous life identity trying to take over her body and with said friend’s soul mate in the area is so close to zero it can be said to be impossible.

“It seems I underestimated my expenses for this jaunt. A certain charm seller decided to gouge us at the most inopportune time, emptying my wallet quite a bit.”

“Just say you are broke. No need to place blame.” Tempest humph. No way was she going to admit to price gouging. The price was 10 silvers before the fight and it was 10 silvers during the fight. If she wanted to, she could have doubled it and still have buyers.

“I’m broke.”

“Ugh.” Tempest didn’t expect a direct answer like that. Where was her pride as a princess? Isn’t royalty supposed to put pride and dignity before themselves? Something like they rather die than disgrace their country/title/position?

Jean smiled, finally feeling like she got the upper hand. The little girl before her was easy to handle. “I’m broke, but I can give you something else in place of the silver.”

“What?” Tempest was curious. She’d been in this world for over six months but most of it was spent by herself training. She had some understanding of the monetary system in this world, but what is worth more than money?

Money is the end all be all wealthy people vigorously pursue. What could be worth more than money?

Jean leaned in and whispered, “Moon Soul Mantra.”

Ah yes. Tempest forgot. Knowledge is power. It can be worth more than money. Look at Bill Gates. Microsoft is a series of code used to operate a computer. It isn’t really a tangible product, yet it generated billions of dollars for its owner.

Still, the first reaction Tempest had was the same as Aria had when the Moon Soul Mantra was mentioned, “I don’t want karma lines among the four of you!”

Jean immediately stiffens. She was sure no one was listening in on their conversation, yet the red mage before her said the same thing Aria Se Jivock said. “How did you know?”

A disgruntled charm seller told the spirits to create a silence field around them so no one can spy on them then grumbled, “There are many ways to listen into a conversation. Just because you have some anti-spying abilities doesn’t mean it is completely foolproof. Determined people have their own methods.”

Jean changed her mind. The little girl before wasn't prickly. She’s too powerful it’s borderline insanity.

Jean finally understands why Aria Se Jivock and Tempest can get along so well. They are powerful in their own right, it warped their way of thinking. It is the thought process of those with talent.

For a true immortal standing at the top, they might view the petty struggles of the weak at the bottom as meaningless and stupid, while the weak view those at the top as deities or gods. As the weak grows stronger, they gain experience and insights to the law of the world. Slowly the thoughts of the weaklings are washed away as they conformed to the views of the strong.

Aria Se Jivock and Tempest are the strong.

Jean is the weakling.

Someday, Jean’s own way of thinking might be aligned with theirs.

The aloof princess shivered. The day she thought the same way as the two crazies is the day she herself is crazy… the thought needs to be driven out of her head immediately. She definitely needs to get away from these two bastards.

Sadly, it was already too late. Amber had already lumped her with the likes of Aria Se Jivock.

Jean shook her head to erase the thought then went back to the conversation, “Then what do you want in exchange?”

Tempest went into a daze, as if her mind wasn’t in the conversation anymore.

Jean speculated that her stunned look was due to her powers. She has memories of Soul Liners going into such state when they peek into the karma lines.

Jean’s speculation was close to the mark, but Tempest had no intention of confirming or denying it.

Take both Moon Soul Mantra and the Star Soul Mantra. Ventus urgently conveyed to Tempest.

“Huh?” Tempest asked through their strange method of communication.

The girl knows both the Moon Soul Mantra and the Star Soul Mantra. She also has a connection to the Sun Soul Mantra. Get both the Moon Soul Mantra and the Star Soul Mantra. We can come back and get the Sun Soul Mantra later. Maybe.

“Why do I need a soul cultivation method when I am cultivating the heart as my immortal potential?” Tempest had always assumed a cultivator needed only focus on the best immortal potential they have instead of cultivating all immortal potential.

It is one of the sensibilities of this world Tempest agreed with.

The goal of cultivating is to get stronger, live forever and to kill anyone she feels like killing because she can. The last one is Tempest own interpretation of the cultivating world and not actually a goal of a cultivator though getting stronger and killing anyone because they can do go hand in hand.

In order to become an immortal faster, it is best to focus on an immortal potential that allows a cultivator to become an immortal in the shortest amount of time possible. Why should she cultivate her soul as an immortal potential when it might take centuries to become an immortal when she can cultivate the heart and become an immortal in half the time?

Tempest doesn’t want to look like a prune forever. Seriously, who would? Tempest would rather be a young, beautiful immortal rather than an old ugly immortal.

Every woman would agree with it. If they don’t, then Tempest curse them to have their man stolen by a young nubile woman! See if they don't change their minds then. She might be stabbed in the back because of her curse, but she’d still do it and laugh all the way to hell while she’s at it too. She’s not going down there alone.

Therefore Tempest plans to cultivate the heart as fast as she can.

Due to your special circumstance, you will need to cultivate the soul as well as the heart. Ventus gently explained.

“What circumstances might those be?” Tempest asked to be sure. As a transmigrator, it makes sense she needs to cultivate the soul to anchor herself in this body. However, assumptions have been making a fool of her recently, so, yeah, it is better to ask for a confirmation rather than work off false information.

Your soul can’t handle our powers.

Those gosh darn assumptions!

“I thought I had been handling the powers well enough.”

Now. As your power grows, you need to strengthen the power of your soul or you will be overwhelmed by us. There are many instances when a cultivator can’t handle the power of the spirits. The cultivators either die or get possessed by the spirit.

“Are you telling me you can possess my body like a ghost?” Now Tempest is really scared.

Her fear of ghosts and possessions goes back to the time when she was in the psych… ahem, hospital. No, the hospital didn’t instill the nightmare into her. She was insane, not stupid.

It was those late night scary movie marathons those idiots insist on watching to build relations that put the fear of ghosts into her.

Samara is scary. Samara is the name of the girl from the well in the American version of The Ring. Sadoko was the Japanese name.

Then the spirits got it into their head to mimic Samara with the television.

“Astrapi, I will get you for that!” Tempest vowed silently in her heart.

There is a possibility of it happening, but we won’t do it. It is hard enough to get three people with different personalities to agree on one thing. Getting 299 spirits to obey that one spirit who has control over the body is impossible. However, you need to eventually strengthen your soul. Those who cultivate the heart don’t realize it until later that they need a strong sense of self, and the soul is the core of that ‘self’.

Most cultivators of the heart liken the cultivation process as a marriage. They must constantly strengthen the love between them and their partners, in this case it is us the spirits. A good marriage is a marriage of equals where both sides contribute. You’ve seen marriages where one side always takes the other always give. If the person is naturally submissive and the other side doesn’t take too much advantage of it then the marriage is doable for a time. Over time, the sides that always give will grow resentful of the other, then boom, divorce.

From our perspective, the cultivator is our spouse until the relationship turns sour, then the cultivators is our savings we will be withdrawing out of.

“What do the spirits get out of the union between cultivators and spirits?” Tempest can understand a relationship turning bad. She watches it on TV all the time.

To become perfect. We need the help of the cultivator to become perfect.

Tempest doesn’t understand, and she isn’t even going to try to understand the motives of a different species. The spirits' way of thinking is too different from a human for mutual understanding to be possible. Mutual benefits can be gained. Just not understanding.

“Okaaaay.” Tempest stretched the A, telling the spirits their explanation went completely over her head, “Let’s go back. Why do I need to strengthen my soul again?”

You need the strength of your soul to control the power we pour into you when you get stronger. Right now, you are not really cultivating the heart. We acknowledge you as our cultivator but we didn’t open the channels between you and us because you can’t handle it. You fainted when we tried to give the information you requested at Twin Tower City. What you experience then was but a trickle of our power.

“Okaaaay. That doesn’t jive with all the other information you told me. I’ll put aside for now. The main point is I’ll eventually need to strengthen my soul, so I might as well get the 2 mantras from Jean right now and get the third one from the idiot at a later date.”

Of sorts. The Sun Soul Mantra doesn’t compliment your situation as well as the Star Soul Mantra and the Moon Soul Mantra. If we don’t have any other choice, we will go back for it.

“I’d have to involve myself in their complicated love situation.”

You already are. Involved that is.

“Ugh. Don’t tell me right now. TMI. I’ll get the mantra from Jean.”