Chapter 60 - Xueli

Jack wakes up early, starting the morning just like the previous one with another medicinal bath, Mai is annoyed that she didn't get the blood owed to her so Jack bargains but he gets tied up by her as she makes several stabs into his chest and starts sucking his blood from there, he lets her get away with it as he does owe her and breaking these vines hurts her and he sees her like a little sister, this can be considered... normal.

He inwardly laughs at this thought before being dunked in the water, Mai abruptly drops him into the water and leaves with a drop of blood falling into the water, she's incredibly fast leaving the garden area which is suddenly blooming wildly. Jack is left submerged in the tub utilizing the slower cultivation technique due to a lack of phoenix qi.

The hours pass by while he's left to practise in his thoughts, the sound of a flute is heard coming from the tent, a melancholic melody but one that also inspires hope, Jack can feel a throb of a strange thread of phoenix qi enter his body as his mood syncs up with the feeling of the song, an invisible thread that links him to Jessica as their breathing syncs up, Jessica plays the flute while Jack softly breaths with her.

The two are lost in their own separate yet joined together worlds when Mai returns from her morning duties looking rather worn and tired, yawning while she looks at the tub in the garden area with Jack still submerged before entering the tent where Jessica has stopped playing the flute.

Jessica puts the flute down and softly smiles at Mai, "Done for the morning?"

"Yep, this is such a bad place to grow trees, why did you choose to make your village here?"

"Ahh, I don't know... Everyone always told me no one could live on these plains yet there's goblins, ants and now a town with many other smaller villagers" Jessica sighs.

Mai looks at Jessica with a concerned expression, "Why do you feel so strange lately? Do I need to plant some flowers?"

"No it's ok, it's my cultivation��� you probably won't understand but I'm about to reach the next stage and it feels like too much, it's like my mind is splitting into two." She looks out at the garden area through the open flap.

"One part is telling me to give in while the other part is telling me to wait but… what's the use of waiting?"

'The classic dilemma a reborn phoenix will face, you have chosen your mate and given him your first flames so your body is telling you to give in and be happy during this life but deep down you know that it will only be a temporary happiness'

"Who? The white snake?" Jessica asks the air.

'That's what I am now but don't you besmirch the honour of the White Dragon, we are the proudest of all dragons and the true rulers of all beast races and not those damn…. Black Imperial Dragons or whatever they called themselves now'

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that but can you help me control these feelings, I want to return to normal!" Jessica emotionally shouts out, Mai is left standing awkwardly.

'The Holy Dragon Empire of course could solve it but I don't have all my memories yet… but listen to the little chick, she'll guide you through this phase as she did it herself long ago…. Of course she never found a man so she might poison your mind in other way'

Jessica takes the little chick out of her bosom; it's blankly staring at Jessica and tilting its head as though it has no idea what's going on. The two luan birds fly above the tent letting out a rather beautiful song, Jessica can feel a subtle connection between the three birds and herself as the little chick attempts to make noises too but just makes ugly screeching noises.

"How can this little baby help me?"

'I dunno, I'm not a darn bird but just listen, you should feel something if you concentrate on your connection with her'

Jessica holds the spikey chick up to her forehead as they deeply stare into each other eyes, Jessica is entirely serious while the chick is aimlessly bobbing its head around looking at the room but after a few moments their gaze connects, a huge amount of phoenix qi flickers between them.

"I see… I have to find your true cultivation art… It's close?"

'Darn phoenixes, why am I stuck with this body and memory…"

"What's close?" Mai speaks up.

"A special cultivation art… it was buried when the phoenix empire was destroyed but for some reason it's close? I don't know where though…"

"Maybe it's buried under the plains, my elder sister said that there are tunnels going all through the plains, she was here to investigate some group breeding yucky centipedes deep underground using poison but then all the barriers came down and we got stuck"

"Centipedes? Why didn't you tell Jack about that when we fought the centipede?"

"Big brother already killed that centipede plus it wasn't purple, Elder sister said they are yucky big purple centipedes, not the many colours version that are kind of pretty"

Jessica puts the little chick away into her bosom again, her smile has returned back to the light hearted one as though she has finally found a path forward she walks toward the tent flap, Jack is coming outside the tub of water now, his toned half exposed body is shining in the morning sun as his joints crack in relief.

Her face is flushed upon seeing his body but the little chick makes another screech sound, the luan birds make a sound at the same time before flying off, Jack and Jessica's attention is drawn by the birds before making contact with each other.

Jack smiles at her, her eyes dart to the side but upon taking a deep breath, she takes the first step into the garden area, her strawberry blonde hair is lit up by the morning sun, her radiant and unblemished skin and twinkling eyes are almost breathtaking for Jack when she softly smiles to him leaving him dazed.

She reaches the tub, Jack wants to reach out and touch her face, but she passes a towel to him.

"Thanks, uhh you look rather beautiful today, did something happen?��� Jack is struggling to find the words, most of his mind is spending time just trying to capture her beauty and remember it forever.

"Nothing major, I just found some answers" she smiles, "I also found out some interesting information from little Ms Bloodsucker"

"Answers are good… What information did Mai have?"

"She said that there are countless tunnels through the plains and that some people are breeding giant centipedes in some of them"

Jack blinks at her several times in disbelief, this sort of information would have been incredibly useful earlier on.

"The answers I seek are probably underground too…" she adds.

Jack lets out a long sigh, "Alright, you try to wrangle the information from Mai and pass it off to Hilda, I have a few things to do this morning like going to Sacred City but if we can get started on the underground sooner rather than later, that'd be best as we don't need a repeat of that centipede incident"

"Also…." Jack pauses for a moment, he wants to tell her about the loose connection between the village raid yesterday and Apricot Town but there's nothing to really say yet, "You look really beautiful today"

Jessica softly giggles, "I know, you said that already, make sure you look after the little snake… What's her name by the way?"

"Thank her for what and I don't know, she hasn't told me"

'Xueli' a voice resounds in both of their minds, 'You can call me Xueli but… I don't know the rest'

"Xueli huh, little Xueli? Uhh Little Xue? Xue'er? Ms Xueli?" Jessica softly mutters to herself.

"Ok so you're Xueli, well I should really get dressed and head to the system city are you going to help me get dressed or keep muttering to yourself?"

"Oh uh, I'll help because you always mess up someway" Jessica is drawn out of her quiet mutterings as she helps Jack get dressed for the day, armour plating layered underneath while the exterior is a non-descript 'poor person robe' to not draw attention.

Jack thanks Jessica for the assistance, he's still not used to wearing robes and hopes they will hurry up and get some western clothing that he likes. Jessica returns to the tent to get information from Mai while Jack exits the garden area, its still early morning and he's only had a few hours sleep but the village is bustling with activity as people go about their jobs.

Loudly whistling Sleipner comes running up shortly giving Jack a nudge, luckily no lightning has zapped him this time but Jack is still pensive about the unexplained lightning. He rides through the village quickly heading to the temporary prison, he passes by all the new construction including the Star Goddess Temple that is almost finished they're just waiting on someone to become the head priest with the right qi compatibility.

Jack stops by the exterior of the temporary prison, a large stone building built like a sports arena but upon entering it, there's just a courtyard area filled with countless little cells that can be moved around, it feels incredibly depressing and bleak inside.

Jack walks up to Drakon who is handling all matters inside this prison area, Hilda and Tyson have been left to deal with the influx of people and construction matters while Bane is due back later today and will take over most of these duties.

Drakon passes a report to Jack but also speaks his thoughts;

"Lord we have only found vague connections to Apricot Town, it might be related to slaves, but the connection with the player 'Ausgezeichnet' has been confirmed, he had travelled to Horse City for the day but it seems we took over the village heart before he could teleport back while both the blonde hair man and the young man you encountered, they're just visiting representing a 'council' based out of Council Union city, the blonde man saw Ms Lazuli making a scene and followed them here while the other one was wanting to go hunt demons with 'Ausgezeichnet'"

Jack furrows his brows as he reads the report, it's a lot of information to make a decision about; "I'll discuss it with Bane, we might need to deploy to the other system cities while the routes are open, so prepare for that" the discussion is kept brief as the location isn't very secure, many new ears are about and this is only a temporary prison, unable to do anything about someone that cultivates or has a skill.

Jack doesn't stay here more than needed quickly leaving after grabbing some documents from the burnt out village and going to the city heart building, everything in the village is going full speed ahead to accommodate the new villagers and he'd just be in the way right now, the less time he spends here the less likely he's going to be recognised as the person that started the fire too.

At the city heart Jack stops to apply the disguise substance as a precaution, it won't work on serious cultivators but will fool most guards, before wrapping a cloak around him, as an added precaution he has some paperwork the players left in the village from the players guild, just some identity documents.

Selecting the option to travel to Sacred City, he steps through the doorway as he's transported out the other side, he's ready for the exit but this time, a lightning bolt follows him out bringing attention to himself, he's starting to get annoyed at whatever this lightning is but as if triggering a flag, some soldiers are approaching him; "Oi, What did you do? There's no skills or techniques to be used in the city by you players and especially in this plaza, orders of the city lord!"

Jack darts his eyes around and can see there's at least 40 city guards stationed here with probably many more hidden somewhere close by, it seems something big is going on, quietly hoping that it's not related to him Jack announces while trying to change his voice into a German accent, "I don't know I just came here to visit your fine city today and got shocked, is that meant to happen?"

"No, do you have a guild identification? We're trying to catch a criminal wanted for murdering an official"

"No no, I lost it while fighting some of those damn demons last night but I do have this paperwork"

Jack passes the prepared paperwork, the guard looks over it before looking up at the Victory Point board, Jack also looks up there and can see that his name is prominently displayed in the number 1 position at 1327 points but there's only 9 other names in the list, he has cold sweat down his back at this situation as his lie is probably caught out.

"So your name is Axel Hansen?"

"Yes it is Axel Hansen"

Jack is feeling stressed at this situation, the guard is looking at him suspiciously but he feels a pat on his back followed by his arms being grabbed by two people, he struggles for a moment but looks at who it is and relaxes.

"Ah my good friend Axel Hansen, you must have got so drunk last night you forgot your homeland of Denmark and dreamt about fighting demons on the Rhine or something" a friendly laugh comes from his side, it's one of the Danish guys he met previously, Jan.

"Now you must remember Axel Hansen grew up in Germany and had grandparents that experienced the great war who also raised him"

"Ah that's true, Teun perhaps the demons were on the Volkhov..."

The duo then starts to argue about world war 2 and various bits of European history which Jack tries to follow but can't, the guard gets annoyed by this eventually pulling down Jacks cloak revealing the blemished face before passing back the paperwork to Jack telling him to move on.

The trio walk shoulder to shoulder some distance away before parting, Jack is looking at the two with squinted suspicious eyes before reaching forward with his hand for a shake, "Thank you for the assistance"

Jan reaches forward to shake his hand, "No problem we were just curious about the name you spouted with the shitty German accent, where'd you hear it?"

"I found some of his paperwork yesterday"

"So that means he'd be in the region, Interesting"

"Truly interesting to hear about him in this region, thank you friend Jack for this information, you should get some German lessons or something because your accent is shit"

Jack receives a signal from a bunny man, Tahel who is hidden in the distance by a carriage, Jack thanks to two men for the help after telling them about the circles from last night they say they'll be travelling to the merchant alliance city soon and hand Jack a flier, it's for an auction happening in a few days before parting ways.

"Lord, we need to meet in a secure location as I'm sure you can see the increased security around here"

"What's going on?"

"Bane will fill you in, this carriage will take you there, I am currently unable to escort you as some people in Blue robes were able to see through my stealth and we've decided it'd be better to not associate openly"

"Blue robes? Blue robes with strange animal masks?"

"Yes Lord, do you know them?"

"Somewhat, there's one hanging around the village but they don't seem hostile and seem to know Leah, uhh Sovereign Leah so if you see them again try to organise a meeting"

"Understood Lord, I'll meet you at the location"

Tahel disappears when Jack mounts the carriage and leaves the plaza area crawling with guards, a system city will have guards that are at least Cultivation stage 3 which is a step above Jack so he might be able to take one or two, but over 40 guards is impossible at this point and that's not including their special skills.

The carriage proceeds along the road while 'Xueli' the little white snake speaks in his mind, 'Ugh, this city is so smelly and dirty, how can this be a sacred city when the only pure energy is being emitted by the Demon Suppression Palace on the hill'

"What do you mean?"

'Can't you sense it? You should be able to sense the Demon Suppression energy coming from the palace being tainted by the city'

"I can't sense anything…"

'UGH, Do you sense that golden twirl around your bones? That's the energy coming from the Palace' Xueli is getting annoyed.

"Uhh, I have a golden twirl around my bones?"

'Do you seriously not bother to investigate the changes to your body? Your divine sense… how did you get that by the way? Anyway divine sense lets you look inside your body, your veins and nearly everything, try it'

Jack does as Xueli suggest, he can indeed see a thin strip of a golden twirl around his bones like a candy stripe but that doesn't explain anything nor does it let him call upon that energy.

"Some old guy that wanted to be my Master gave me divine sense, but what can I do with the energy now that I'm aware of it?"

Xueli lets out a sigh in his mind, 'Go ask at the Demon Suppression Palace, don't ask me jeez I'm tired stop asking me stupid questions'

Jack is left to himself as the ride continues, experimenting with looking inside his body, it's fascinating as he watches the energy in his dantian rotate around, the phoenix qi that looks like a ball of white flame and the dragon qi that is halfway between bright orange and black.