Chapter 11 Slap Young Masters, Court Jade Beauties!
Tang Ze was no longer back on Earth, and there was no crowd in this new dream.
He was in the middle of a large cavern, and there was an eerie presence around him.
He couldn't put his finger on it, but it was as if he was being watched.
He looked around constantly - now being free to not only move, but to call out, "Is anyone there?"
Only he didn't get a response, and on top of that, he didn't see anyone either.
There was a large lake in the cavern, which was perfectly clear, though there was nothing at the bottom.
As he walked towards it and saw nothing, not even his own reflection, he turned around to see something that hadn't been there before.
There was a large dress made up of patchwork materials - it was sewn together out of various pieces of cloth which did not mesh with each other at all.
Whoever had started making that dress looked like they had no idea what they were doing as it was a mess of clashing colors, textures, and materials. It was like someone had decided to make food in their kitchen by dumping all the ingredients that were in there into a pot - which would've resulted in an inedible mess of course.
Next to it were a pair of scissors, sewing needles, and threads - arranged in a neat workstation that Tang Ze wanted to replicate for himself at some point.
It would be useful to have something like that set up.
Still, the eerie feeling that told him that he was not alone down here remained until he felt someone shaking him.
"Get up! Time to go!"
That abruptly ended the dream.
Breakfast wasn't being served in the mess hall this early, but Zhang Long made something for the whole group.
"This tastes pretty good," Tang Ze said, his rather poor mood at having been roused so early mildly improving as he tasted breakfast.
"Yeah," Yin Tiang said. "He's a great cook - unfortunate that it's kind of a useless skill."
"Useless?"
"Well, eventually useless, right? When he marries Jin Zheng it's not like he's going to cook for the two of them - and later on, they'll have a team of servants to cook for them."
"Uh… right," Zhang Long said, though his face twitched unnaturally when this had been said, as if there was something he wanted to say at this point but didn't.
Come to think of it, as Tang Ze recalled, Jin Zhen hadn't made a single meal back when he had been staying with her family. Her family always dragged her away from the kitchen whenever she tried to enter through some excuse or the other.
Breakfast was finished rather quickly though as they moved on to their job.
Their squad's task was to fill this building's water reservoirs for the day. As it was located high up, and rainfall was not consistent enough to fill them, people were required to carry water up to these reservoirs whenever they were about to run dry.
This task fell to the Initiates - though thankfully, they did not have to travel all the way down to the mountain's foot to get water. There was a stream a ways down from the peak, but it was still quite the climb to take water from there all the way up. It was tedious and back-breaking work.
At least, it would be normally, given the climb and the steepness of the path.
For one like Tang Ze who could fly, the task was completed before the sun could fully crest the horizon. He was wearing only his cape right now, as he didn't want to be scolded for being out of uniform, but that in itself was more than enough to make short work of things.
"Alright, we're done, do you want me to report that we're done-" Tang Ze began to say, before he was interrupted.
"No, don't do that," Chen Yu said. "Let's just stay here by this stream, and we'll tell them that it took us till noon to get this done later on."
"Yeah," Yin Tiang said. "We don't want them thinking we're too good at this, or they'll ask us to do this every single time the water runs low."
The prospect of having to wake up this early stung Tang Ze like a swarm of bees. "Alright - but won't we also get something for a job well done like this?"
"Pfft," Zhang Long said. "They might give us ten percent more rewards for double the work. Trust me, we won't make a name for ourselves by being good at carrying water. It's not like we killed a beast king or anything impressive."
"Alright…" Tang Ze said. He personally felt different, but he had just been here for a day. He wasn't about to go against the group. "So then what do we do?"
"Relax," Chen Yu said, finding a nice spot to lie down. "You were complaining the whole morning about having to get up early- get some shut-eye then?" The reason they had to wake up so early was because the reservoir had to be filled by noon, and it was assumed that they would need a head start to get it done on time. That had not been the case, however, because of Tang Ze's little talent.
"Yeah but…" Tang Ze said, trailing off.
It was true that he hated to be woken up early, but now that he had woken up, gotten ready, and worked on something like this, he didn't feel like he could drift off back to sleep so easily.
The others though, seemed to have a similar idea as to Chen Yu.
Tang Ze was a bit disappointed at their lack of ambition, though he guessed that these people must've known what they were doing.
"You're not going to take a nap?" Chen Yu asked, seeing Tang Ze just standing there.
"Don't you all feel that we should be doing something… I don't know, more productive with our time?" Tang Ze asked.
"Like doing what?"
"I don't know- cultivating, or making pills or… if that feels like work, why not try to go on some kind of adventure? Like, trying to impress jade beauties? Or fighting arrogant young masters?" Tang Ze suggested.
His head was still full of thoughts of the web novels and other such things he had read back home. Even though this was his first day in the sect, he already expected something significant to happen.
Such ideas were highly unrealistic and just showcased his naivety - he knew this deep down, still Tang Ze couldn't help but be swept up by them.
"I already have someone," Zhang Long said. "No interest in courting jade beauties - Jin Zhen and I have promised to be together for seven lifetimes."
This was an expression oftentimes used in this world - when two people really loved each other, they would promise to be together for seven lifetimes.
"Do you really think it works like that?" Yin Tiang asked. "Do you think that relationships can last beyond a lifetime?"
"I mean, doesn't Tang Ze remember some things from his earlier life?" Chen Yu pointed out.
"Well, I don't know if you can really call that reincarnation," Tang Ze admitted. True, he had died back on Earth, but here - he still had his old body from back home. He even had his clothes from the time he died when he had spawned into this world, and to add to that, his shoes as well, though he hadn't been wearing them at the time when he died. "But people do remember their past lives sometimes, right?"
This was only partially true - there were stories of people suddenly reawakening the memories of their past lives, but these stories were so notable precisely because of how infrequently they occurred when it came to ordinary people. Very experienced cultivators could do so by meditating as well, but they were also very few in number.
Take for example, a story that occurred in a village on the other side of the Raswatian Empire. A wealthy couple had lost their daughter at the tender age of six years in an accident, who had been their only heir.
The grieving couple gradually moved on from their loss, only for thirty years later, a woman to walk up to their doorstep. When asked who she was, she replied, "Ah, Mother, Father, do you not recognize your daughter when she finally returns home?"
This was a woman in her twenties, claiming to be their daughter in her previous life, who had just only reawakened her earlier memories one day when she tripped over a rock and hit her head on a tree!
Naturally, the couple were highly skeptical of her claims at first. This woman's 'new' family she had been 'reincarnated' into was poor, and this seemed to be more of a case of a conwoman trying to fleece the two of them out of their wealth more likely than not.
They did not have any other children, so the allure of inheriting their estate must've been quite tempting for people who wanted to worm their way into their good graces.
Initially they assumed that this lady had simply found out a few clues about their daughter from some sources and was using them to masquerade as her, but as the weeks dragged on, and they continued to probe her, they could find no fault in her story.
Of the couple, the wife soon passed away, and the husband only a few months thereafter. As he was lying on his deathbed, however, he called the woman over and said, "Even today I harbor doubts in my heart… yet you have given me no reason to doubt you in all these years. I give you my blessing, and choose to think that you truly are the daughter I lost all those years ago… I wish to embrace her one last time…" He hugged the woman and from that point on only called her by his deceased daughter's name, then made the woman his official heir before passing away three days later.
The woman in question, until her dying day, maintained that she was, as a matter of fact, the couple's reincarnated daughter.
Even now, this story was talked about with people eagerly debating whether she had really been the couple's reincarnated daughter, or was just one of the most successful swindlers in the history of the Raswatian Empire.
There was another famous story - in which there had been a couple who, two years after marrying, had both nearly drowned in a river in a tragic accident. When they recovered, they realized that they had both been brother and sister in their earlier lives!
While they had been extremely passionate lovers earlier, now they could only look at each other, even in their new bodies, as nothing more than siblings!
Both of them recounted the fact that they now had severe mental trauma whenever they thought of the intimate times spent together with each other in their new bodies, and were, for this reason, granted a swift divorce.
Even in this case, there were some who doubted the veracity of their claims and thought that they had simply fallen out of love and wanted an easy excuse to separate without causing any hassles; though this did not seem to be likely.
Nascent Soul and Eternal Soul cultivators were said to have techniques by which they could actually verify such claims, and even plan to take some memories of theirs into their next lives, but such people were rare enough that information on them was limited - at least, for people at the Qi Condensation level it was.
And given all the shenanigans awakening one's prior life's memories could cause, it was probably for the best that people don't remember what happened before they were born.
Tang Ze could imagine several more strange situations that could arise as a consequence of that.
"Well, for what it's worth, I'm fully willing to believe that we may have met each other in a prior life," Chen Yu said. "Like, I think in a prior life, I was a hardworking farmer, and Yin Tiang was one of my donkeys. I could totally see that happening. But moving on, if you want to court jade beauties - it's easy! Just tell them that you have the 'Extreme Yang Physique' and that you're going into 'Yang Crisis' in front of them, and then collapse before saying you need an injection of their Yin energy to survive before pretending to pass out. Taking pity upon you, the jade beauty will 'heal' you by extracting your excess Yang with her Yin vitality. Naturally, she will grow attached to you as well after saving your life, and with that, your love story will begin!"
Chapter 12 Success Probability 0%
In response to Chen Yu's suggestion, Zhang Long could only shake his head.
"It's said that the universe is three thousand celestial cycles old," Zhang Long said. "Each celestial cycle lasts for ten great ages - and each great age lasts for ten thousand eras. Each era lasts for as long as the longest lived person in that era lived for. With that said, in the entire history of the universe that strategy has never worked, and even if the universe lasted for another three hundred thousand celestial cycles, I don't think that strategy would even work once!"
"You genuinely would have better luck," Yin Tiang said, "walking up to a girl and saying, 'I think I crapped my pants, can I slide into yours?'"
"Yeah well," Chen Yu said, "a guy can dream, can't he?"
"And as for arrogant young masters," Yin Tiang said. "We have the 'arrogant young master at home' right here - our very own Chen Yu!" He continued with his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Did you know that his father is one hundred and ninety-fifth in line to inherit the throne? That means that all that needs to happen is for one hundred and ninety-four of his relatives to die all at once, and then Chen Yu will be the next heir to the throne! Well, after his other three brothers, that is!" Yin Tiang then chuckled.
"Well, in case that does happen," Chen Yu said, glaring at Yin Tiang, "Emperors have a habit of keeping eunuchs in high positions, why don't you start right now by castrating yourself, and I'll consider adding you to my council in the future?"
"Uh…" Tang Ze said, turning to look at Zhang Long, who shook his head and gave him a 'those two are always like this' kind of look.
"But, one hundred and ninety-fifth?" Tang Ze asked. He knew that the emperors kept huge harems, but to not only have so many children, but keep track of who was to inherit up to that big of a number - it was actually quite impressive in a way!
"Well, you might not know this," Zhang Long said, realizing that Tang Ze hadn't fully understood what it was that Chen Yu and Yin Tiang were fighting about. "But, the emperor has far more relatives than just that - probably more than you can even imagine. Most of them aren't in line to inherit at all because of one reason or the other - but in all our history, the maximum degree of separation that anyone has actually inherited the throne was the fourth in line, and that was over twenty thousand years ago. Anyone beyond number ten has virtually no real chance of inheriting, and anyone beyond a hundred is just there for record-keeping purposes."
"Indeed," Yin Tiang said, also catching on that Tang Ze might've actually thought he was being serious earlier. "Not to mention if someone in front of him in line dies, they might be replaced by someone else before you can move up. The only way for his father to inherit would be for the Imperial Family and everyone in front of him in the line of succession to die in one fell swoop."
Resources were great in this world, but not limitless. A family like Chen Yu's, while technically in the line of succession, basically got next to nothing in terms of resources given how far removed they were from the throne.
They were worse off than most noble families in some ways, leaving Chen Yu a 'young master' in only name.
"Careful now," Chen Yu said, his face more serious than before and he voice had lost its jovial tone. "There are eyes and ears everywhere - even while joking, you shouldn't speak of the Imperial Family's demise. That could be called treason, and before you know it, all of our heads are on the chopping block."
"That's right," Zhang Long said, yawning. "Better to just take a nap for now."
While the others napped, Tang Ze couldn't fall asleep and instead focused on the one thing that he felt he could improve about himself - his talent in other words.
After some experimenting, he had learned a few intricacies of how it worked.
First off, regarding the fact that the closer his costume was to the original, the closer his powers would also be to the original.
For one, it did not work with religious figures or the such - he would've loved to be omnipotent, whatever a fraction of omnipotence would be, but it turned out that was a limit it could not cross.
Secondly, it was only the costume that mattered, he didn't need to pretend to be like the character.
Thirdly, despite making him more powerful, whatever costume he happened to make was just that - a costume made up of whatever it was made of. This could be an issue regarding durability in the future. He had made a somewhat rough getup for a character he knew about whose power was super speed and who could move many times faster than light at his peak power. The issue was that even when he moved at a fraction of that speed, the air friction would cause what he was wearing to wear down - and the moment that his costume was damaged, the amount it represented the character decreased, and so on until he could not really run much faster than a normal person.
The outfit he had used to pass the entrance test, despite being used only for a few minutes, had minute tears in it from the strain that he had put on it and needed to be repaired. With his costumes, he needed to take care that they didn't rip apart in the middle of battle. That was going to be hard with some of them though given the nature of their powers. It would be very hard to use any character with, say, pyromancer-like abilities for this reason.
Because while getting hit by fire, or acid, or something else that might not harm him because of his powers still meant that part of his costume could dissolve though, weakening him. Also, he couldn't rip his shirt off in the middle of combat no matter how cool that might seem later on when he finally got around to working out and getting a six pack.
Fourthly, it wasn't just appearance, what the costume was made of did matter if it was something that clearly was not made of that material. For example, for a character wearing leather boots, he could make socks that resembled them, but the fact that they would be made of cotton or something of the like meant that its resemblance to the original was less, meaning it would not make him as strong.
Fifth, he had to actually intend to cosplay a character for it to work. If you think about it, he was almost constantly cosplaying something or someone even if it was just 0.0000000001% resemblance to the character, but he had to intend to be doing it - or it wouldn't count.
Sixth, he couldn't mix-and-match different outfits to get a piece of multiple character's powers simultaneously, he could only do one at a time.
Seventh, the outfit had to actually be visible for it to work. Tang Ze was secretly wearing a costume underneath his sect uniform, but he couldn't get access to any of its abilities. It was only the fact that he could still wear his cape was what gave him what little powers he had right now.
It didn't matter if no one could see it - say if it was pitch-black in darkness it would still work, but it had to be visible and not covered by something else like a cloak or coat.
Now, coming to the second part of his ability, that was naturally what Tang Ze was more interested in.
The power to keep these abilities permanent and add them to his repertoire even when he wasn't dressed up - that was something that he could mix-and-match to ultimately become undefeatable.
If only it didn't take so long!
The closer his costume was to the actual thing, the faster that he could gain those abilities permanently it seemed, up to the maximum that the costume allowed for.
Sadly, 'faster' was a relative term. Even when considering his full current set, by his approximation, it would take him about two hundred years to fully acclimate to its powers.
Now, its powers were great - no doubt about that. Even if he could only be half as strong as the character in question, it would likely place him around the Hinayana realm or higher in terms of the raw strength it would give him.
The weakest Golden Core cultivator was about sixty times as strong as an ordinary human. That number jumped to three thousand at the Nascent Soul stage.
An Eternal Soul cultivator could approach the strength of over a million times that of a normal person, while a Hinayana realm cultivator could nearly approach the strength of a billion. The Mahayana realm, if it even existed, was over a trillion times one's base strength. Tang Ze had a bit of difficulty believing those numbers at first, but that was just the effect of compounding on top of bigger and bigger numbers cumulatively. Compounded numbers have a way of getting out of hand rather quickly.
That was still relatively about what his costume could provide, and to gain just the physical strength of even a Hinayana realm cultivator in two hundred years was an excellent opportunity that many cultivators would die for.
Still, two hundred years! A normal human lifespan would not last that long, so his only real way out was to extend his lifespan somehow. He would need to cultivate for that, something he was apparently quite bad at given that he was at the Zeroth Realm right now.
No, it wouldn't be right to say that he was necessarily bad at it, rather, he was behind by several years as he didn't belong to this world, and had to literally start at zero.
Maybe there was a way to speed up the process of his talent to make it take less time than two hundred years? That was why resources were so important for cultivation in the first place, after all.
It was unfortunate he couldn't find anything in the meantime to speed up breaking through the Zeroth Realm, but in the future he would be able to use resources like the rest of his squad could.
He tried to sit down on a rock and start meditating - though he didn't get very far and didn't think that he had accomplished much as noon came and the team reported that they had finished the job.
That was not the only job they were given - they were given various other tasks by the sect, either to do as a group, or more rarely - alone. Most of these were very mundane tasks like gathering, throwing out waste, or cleaning. As it turns out, the majority of their time was spent tied up in these tasks.
Two things did happen in the next week that could potentially help Tang Ze when it came to his cultivation, however.
One was that Chen Yu slipped him a bottle of some clear liquid one day. "I got this from my family - it's a bottle of baby oil."
"How many babies did you have to kill to make that?" Yin Tiang asked. While he was working on some kind of concoction, he had evidently been overhearing what they were saying.
Yin Tiang was joking - but Tang Ye knew even with his limited experience in this world that if killing babies could raise your cultivation by even zero point one percent, even the most righteous sects would start researching the most efficient ways to slaughter babies.
Chen Yu ignored the rather bad joke and added, "This is supposed to be good for babies - in that it has small amount of Qi in it and is supposed to seep into one's body through the skin. It's very mild of course, so even babies can wear it without it causing any nasty side effects - maybe if you put it on every night it'll help with your breakthrough to the first minor realm of Qi Condensation?"
"Maybe?" Tang Ze asked, taking the bottle. "You're not sure if it works?"
Chen Yu shrugged. "I mean, if you ask me - it's probably just a marketing ploy to sell it at five times the normal price, which is why my mother used to use it. Didn't really help me that much though, as you can see." Chen Yu and Yin Taing were both at the fourth minor realm of Qi Condensation, while Zhang Long had only recently broken to the sixth minor realm of Qi Condensation. There was only a twenty-one percent difference when it came to two minor realms at Qi Condensation, though as this effect was cumulative, the absolute difference was higher when one went to higher minor realms.
Chapter 13 Supernatural Sam
Basically, Chen Yu was saying that he really didn't believe that it would work, but on the off chance that it could, he was giving it to Tang Ze. "Thanks - what do I owe you for this?"
"Forget about it, this is a fraction of that pill's value you gave me earlier," Chen Yu said.
Before sleeping, Tang Ye would apply the oil, hoping for some kind of benefit. He also slept in modified pajamas he had made himself to sort of look like a costume, so that he could gain the passive benefits even while he slept.
Yin Tiang also found something that might help him.
"So, there was a theater troupe I found, and they had all these old and worn out costumes - I though that maybe you could use them? I got them for cheap," Yin Tiang told him.
The pile of messy clothes, many of which were torn up, would be junk to most people and especially to cultivators.
However, to someone like Tang Ze, these were like hidden gems, covered in dust and needing polishing, yes, but still quite valuable.
They were made of various different materials and not just silk or cotton, and because they were costumes, they were already stylized in different ways that normal clothing wouldn't be. It would be much easier to make alterations to them.
In addition, they came with various other accessories like masks, hair clips, props like swords or magic wands, and even one or two wigs. A lot of the stuff needed to be cleaned up before it could be used, and probably also had to be disinfected for things like lice given the day and age they lived in, not to mention most of it needed to be repaired in some way or the other - but as the saying goes, you cannot make bricks without clay.
Already, as he glanced through what was laid out for him, he could already picture what he could arrange from these.
When asked how much he needed to repay Yin Tiang for this, he gave him the same answer that Chen Yu had - that this barely covered a fraction of the cost of the pill that Tang Ze had given him earlier.
Both of these things - the costumes, and the oil - were not big gestures. One could even say that such things were expected given what Tang Ze had done for them by donating his share of pills.
Still, even if the oil was not useful, or if the costumes were damaged - they showed a degree of thoughtfulness, and as the saying goes 'it's the thought that counts.' His new squad members had thought of him enough to go out of their way to arrange these gifts for him.
Both of these gifts, however small, moved Tang Ze.
He had been thrust into this world all alone. He had no family or friends from beforehand that he could rely on while here.
Reciprocity was the basis for nearly all social interactions - but Tang Ze felt that he couldn't take it for granted. After all, he had read stories of people getting betrayed by their teammates and the like in various stories he'd read. Not to mention this was supposed to be a cultivation dog-eat-dog world.
Giving up the pills had not just been a spur-of-the-moment decision with no intention behind it, but also to see how they reacted to this.
Tang Ze had already seen Zhang Long vouch for him during the entrance exam, so he already knew that Zhang Long was not the kind to repay honey with vinegar - or to take kindness as weakness.
It looked like Chen Yu and Yin Tiang were also in the same camp.
Tang Ze had thought that was to be expected given that they were all in a sect. A sect, unlike a clan, took members from different families and asked them to work together in tightly knit groups. It would make sense that different members would want to be cordial to each other.
But, at the same time Tang Ze felt that he couldn't take such a thing for granted without testing it out.
And it seemed to be true enough!
His heart was somewhat more relaxed than it had initially been, so he didn't have nightmares about that incident back on Earth as frequently as before.
What he did dream of nearly every single night was that same underground cavern, where he always felt that there was someone else there with him, even if he couldn't see who that person was.
He noticed over time that it was as if the Qi in this cavern was denser than even on the top of the mountain. Could you absorb Qi in a dream? Was this place even real? It looked the same to him every single time he dreamed of it, with the tools for making clothes next to a patchwork dress always being there in the same spot. The dress, also, no matter how many times he had the dream, always seemed to be the same with the same patches in the same location.
Later, one afternoon, they were tasked with cleaning up some antiques in a storage room.
It was here that Tang Ze's unnatural strength and speed were more of a bane than a boon.
After all, if he couldn't control himself, some of these items might end up becoming damaged.
To avoid this, he was asked to contribute relatively little to this task. The rest of the slack was picked up by the other three members - this was not entirely fair, but Tang Ze had contributed far above his weight with other things, so the others did not grumble about this.
Still, accidents were bound to happen at some point or the other.
CRASH!
The sound of something fragile smashing against the floor rang across the room, as they saw that Yin Tiang was standing over the remains of a shattered vase.
Zhang Long sighed. Oh well, the cost of that would be deducted from the squad's resource distribution at the end of the month, but it was no big-
-these thoughts died in his mind as he realized which vase it had been that Yin Tiang had broken.
"Is that…?" Zhang Long began.
"...a Yuo Ping General Vase?" Chen Yu finished, his face becoming pale.
"Can you guys see something I can't?" Tang Ze asked. The three other members were looking at the vase as if there was some secret inside, but to Tang Ze, it looked no different different than half a dozen other vases in the room.
"There's Qi around the shards," Zhang Long said. Right, Tang Ze's ability to see and sense Qi was still very rudimentary given that he was at the Zeroth Realm. "About two thousand years ago, the then emperor'' brother Yuo Ping staged an attempted military coup - long story short he was killed, and as punishment, many of his generals were turned into ghosts and trapped in vases like this. I didn't think one would be here, but… if word gets out that a ghost escaped, we'll be in much worse shape than if we simply had broken a normal vase."
"What do we do?" Yin Tiang asked.
"We have to catch that ghost somehow before someone finds it," Zhang Long said.
The issue was- how?
None of them had any skills that could detect or restrain ghosts. The higher-ups would though, and once they found that a ghost was on the loose, they would be cooked!
At least, none of them that they knew of had a way to detect or catch a ghost.
"Tang Ze, do you have anything in your wardrobe that can help us?" Zhang Long asked.
Tang Ze closed his eyes and went through his memories.
There was one character that he knew which could easily hunt ghosts down, but trying to cosplay them was extremely difficult given their design. He would need a way to make a spectral tail, and also some body paint - two things that he did not have at the moment.
But wait!
He suddenly remembered someone else - a character he seldom thought of, but who might be able to do the job.
And it wouldn't require that much work for him to create either.
"Wait right here, I think I do have someone," Tang Ze said as he rushed back to their living quarters.
Back in the 1980s there was a western cartoon called 'The Stories of Supernatural Sam.' It was basically about the titular 'Supernatural Sam.'
It was a very campy and corny show, even for its time. The only reason Tang Ze knew about it was because there was one episode that a friend of his liked to watch.
The usual episode formula went that there was something like a ghost or curse that needed to be resolved, and Sam would be called in to investigate. He had a magic watch from somewhere wherein he could trap spirits, and would often use it - though in that particular episode he didn't end up chasing the ghost out.
He had been called to an old house where it was rumored there was paranormal activity occurring inside by the neighbors - though for some reason the owner of the house didn't seem to even want Sam there for some reason. The owner treated him more like a pest than anything else, and was very reluctant to even let Sam step in to his house.
After some investigating, Sam was able to determine that the cause of the supernatural disturbance was a haunted doll. You see, about a hundred years before the start of the episode, a girl who lived in that house had passed away from tuberculosis. But, her spirit had remained, and was able to live inside a porcelain doll within that house.
Every night, she would come to life as she possessed that doll, and would return to a lifeless doll by the morning.
Sam was ready to capture her, but it turned out that the owner of the house had fallen in love with her, and as such, Sam left the two alone.
Looking back - it had been quite the bizarre episode. It was the only one in which Tang Ze remembered that Sam had left the ghost or paranormal entity alone at the end.
Then again, that was why he remembered it so well in the first place.
The other episodes were far more cliché and generic and didn't have that kind of 'twist', so Tang Ze didn't watch more than a few - but he still remembered how Sam used to dress up like.
It would be easy to make a costume like that if Tang Ze were back on Earth, but some of his clothes were hard to replicate in a world like this.
He wore a Hawaiian floral shirt, khaki pants, sandals, and a fishing hat most of the time. Oh, and there was the famous watch in question - Tang Ze thankfully still remembered the design.
He didn't have much time to get to work, but he also didn't need for it to be perfect. The clothes were easy enough to either make, or to make something that at least was close to them visually.
As for the watch - Tang Ze had to take a piece of parchment, cut it into a circle, draw on it, and then strap it to his wrist with leather.
A poor substitute, but it was all apparently forty-five percent good enough!
He just hoped that would be sufficient as he ran back.
Normally, you couldn't wander outside out of your uniform, but in this case, Tang Ze was more worried about what would happen if that ghost escaped or was found out by a prefect.
"Will this work?" Yin Tiang asked, seeing Tang Ze's getup.
Tang Ze scanned the area, and could see glowing green footsteps. "Looks like it!" That was one of Supernatural Sam's powers, to be able to not only see ghosts, but track them down based on where they had been.
"Alright, let me come with you," Yin Tiang said. The others remained behind, after all, we still had to clean the room.
The two followed the spectral footsteps that only Tang Ze could see, while Yin Tiang tried to calm down anyone who saw them.
"Ah, just passing through - Brother Tang Ze here is trying out for this month's play, that's all!" he would yell out whenever someone gave the two of them an inquisitive look.
Tang Ze stopped in his tracks as he found the culprit.
The ghost looked hideous - barely resembling a human. It was like a light green figurine of a person which had melted after it had been put outside in the sun for too long.
And it was in the open, in a courtyard.
Tang Ze didn't know if it could tell that he could see it, but it began to move faster nonetheless. Sadly, for it, 'faster' was only relative as Tang Ze went to pounce on it.
Would Sam's watch work like it did in the show?
Chapter 14 Ghosts of the Past
The moment Tang Ze thought of this question, the watch - even though it was just a piece of paper and a strap of leather, began to glow.
The ghost had a horrified expression on its face - even more than its usual one, as it was sucked into the watch.
After that, Tang Ze could feel it in the watch.
He was aware of its consciousness inside. It was quite the eerie feeling.
"Right, I caught it," Tang Ze said. "What do I do now?"
Yin Tiang shrugged. He hadn't thought of what they would do once they had it, only that they needed to catch it.
The two of them returned back to the room, to tell them that they were successful.
"But what do we do about the ghost?" Tang Ze asked. "I can't leave it like this on my wrist forever!"
"Hmm…" Zhang Long said. "I have an idea…"
He brought out another vase, nearly identical to the one they had broken, and opened its lid. "Earth jars like this can be used to capture spirits if you know the right technique even from a distance - but if you put a spirit inside it, that also means that it shouldn't be able to walk out. Drop your bracelet into this, and then I'll seal the lid."
"Will that work?" Tang Ze asked.
Zhang Long shrugged. "I don't have a better idea."
Not feeling particularly confident, Tang Ze put his hand into the jar, and then removed the watch. He saw a green light fill it just as he withdrew his arm and Zhang Long slammed the lid on the jar.
Now, his cosplay was only judged at forty percent, but it was still good enough to see that the ghost was sealed for good, it seemed.
Only then did Tang Ze relax.
"Alright," Chen Yu said.
They put this new vase in place of the old one, and hid the old one's shards away.
Very few people came into this room, so what happened would likely never be discovered.
And if it was, more likely than not it would happen in a few years's time, after which the group would have a lot of plausible deniability.
All of them let out a great sigh of relief now, though Zhang Long warned them that they were not out of the fire yet.
"Tang Ze, you should change out now," Zhang Long said.
"Right," Tang Ze said, leaving to change back into his sect uniform.
His pace was slowed down because of how out of breath he'd gotten after chasing the ghost. He wiped the sweat that coated his brow.
He first washed his face in a water basin. He had requested a spot to set up a little workstation to work on outfits and the like. There were a few spots in the shared space that could be used for this, and his squad members understood why he wanted a space like this, so he had been granted the request.
He wanted to change into a washed set of sect robes instead of his old ones, and there was a washed set in his room, but when he opened the door he yelled out and drew back.
Tang Ze was still wearing the Supernatural Sam costume, and so he still had its abilities.
But he had not been expecting to see a second ghost that day!
This ghost was not deformed, but had the pale, bluish form of a man about Tang Ze's age, and who was wearing a translucent Rising Phoenix sect uniform.
"Can you see me?" the specter asked.
Tang Ze found his words soon enough.
Right, he had seen a ghost - but in this world, that wasn't too shocking.
Most people could not, not unless they had some inborn talent to see spirits, were at Qi Refinement stage and had specialized in such, or were at Golden Core stage.
It was said though, that if you were able to see a ghost in the periphery of your vision, you should ignore it.
Apparently, ghosts had the ability to tell when people could see them, and if it were a sinister spirit with evil intentions, they would then attack you if they could tell that you had spotted them.
Evidently, this was true, as the pale aura around this boy flared as Tang Ze took note of him.
It had been different back with the vase - with the ghost of the general having been stored there for so many years, the small amount of Qi they saw was a defense mechanism designed into the vase to let them know the ghost had escaped, which is how the others had noticed it.
With a ghost like this though, it appeared that no one in Tang Ze's group had noticed its presence till now.
"W-Who are you?" Tang Ze asked.
Even though he knew that most ghosts in this world were weak and therefore couldn't hurt him, and that this outfit likely gave him some protection against it, his voice couldn't help but tremble before this ghost.
"My name is Xu Feng," the ghost said. "And you're in my room!"
"Xu Feng… why is that name familiar… oh!" Tang Ze exclaimed as he realized where it was that he had heard that name.
That was the name of the person who had earlier been a member of Zhang Long's squad - the one who had died after drinking an Elixir of Tribulation since he couldn't handle the pain.
"Right, I know who you are," Tang Ze said. "But why are you still here? We all would've thought that your soul would've passed into the next life already by this time."
Xu Feng shook his ghostly head. "It is not so. Unfortunately, I still have a deep regret within my heart, Brother Tang Ze. I cannot leave this mortal plane until I resolve it. I have been watching you and the rest of my friends for some time, hearing your voices, but unable to say anything."
As Xu Feng said this, Tang Ze couldn't help but feel like he had heard of something like this.
Right!
This was like literally every single episode of Supernatural Sam that involved a ghost!
Sam would find a ghost, find out that they were in the mortal realm because of some regret they had from their human lives, and then he would either try to resolve it and the ghost would pass on into the next life - or if the ghost was really dangerous, capture it in his watch.
Tang Ze chuckled lightly, but then his smile dropped as he thought of Xu Feng's condition.
The guy had overstepped by drinking that Elixir of Tribulation, yes, but maybe he had just been overly optimistic? He should've listened to other peoples' cautionary tales, but Tang Ze didn't feel like he should've died for that kind of folly.
And now, his heart was filled with regrets - so Xu Feng was stuck here, in the mortal realm, unable to cross over to the other side. Worse still, he had seen Tang Ze take his place within the squad, and his former friends gradually forget about him over time.
Realizing this, Tang Ze's heart was filled with sympathy for Xu Feng, even though the two of them had never met before.
His heart filled with resolve, Tang Ze slammed a fist to his chest, in a form of gesture often done in this world when making vows. "Alright, Brother Xu Feng, I'm sorry to hear that - but worry not, for I, Tang Ze, promise to help you with whatever lingering issues you have in this world!"
He felt it was the least he owed to this spirit of a former squad member, even if they hadn't been in the squad back when Tang Ze had first joined.
"Is that so?" Xu Feng asked, surprised.
"Yes, what is that troubles you?"
"Brother Tang Ze, there is a girl by the name of Tang Ru. During life, I had been too scared to tell her of my feelings towards her, but I need to let them out," Xu Feng said. "But for some reason, I cannot wander far from this room, else I feel like I'll disappear completely."
Tang Ze nodded. "No worries - I can take you to her with the help of my watch - wait, it's back there in that vase. No problem, I can make another one soon enough."
"If you really want to help me," Xu Feng said, "I know where and when we can find her. Every morning, before sunrise, she tends to a garden of Yellow Apricot Flowers."
"So you know where she'll be huh?" Tang Ze said, but then he paused. "Oh, in that case, I change my mind. You're on your own if you want to confess to her."
There was a simple reason for Tang Ze to say this.
Well, it was against the rules to go to the women's side, but he wasn't too miffed about that.
No, what he was against was waking up so early in the morning.
He had never liked doing so back on Earth, and here in this world it was only slightly better.
Slightly better in the sense that a lack of things like smartphones, tablets, television, or a computer made it easier to go to bed on time.
It still annoyed him greatly to have to wake up early though!
And tomorrow was one of the very few days in which he didn't have to wake up before the crack of dawn as there were no early-morning chores planned for his squad - he wasn't about to give up a day of sleeping in for this!
"If the only way to claim immortality is to get up early in the morning," Tang Ze said, "I'm happy just being mortal and content to keep on dreaming."
After all, he barely even knew this Xu Feng guy. And while he was willing to do a lot for his friends, he just wasn't willing to do that.
It was a good thing that he hadn't spawned into this world with some sort of system that rewarded him the more he woke up early in the morning - had that been the case he would have basically gotten zero benefits from that kind of system in the first place.
Xu Feng's ghost got rather agitated at Tang Ze's sudden one-eighty on his stance. "Brother Tang Ze? What are you saying - right now you just gave a heartfelt declaration that you would do whatever it took to help me? How can you turn back on your word so fast and shamelessly? Do you have no regard for your Senior Brother's plight?"
"Eh, that was before I knew that I'd have to wake up early," Tang Ze said. He was already yawning just thinking about having to get up that early. "You'll have to find some other way."
However, Xu Feng's ghost was not going to relent so easily. "If you don't help me, you'll have to live with the consequences of always seeing me and knowing that you let me down!"
"I'll just take this costume off and then I won't be able to see or hear you any more," Tang Ze said smugly, proud that he had found a workaround for all of this.
"But then you'll have to live with the knowledge that I'll always be watching you, and you let me down!" Xu Feng said. "I'll put a curse on you!"
"Yeah, if you could actually do something, you'd have done so in the week I was already here," Tang Ze said to him. The fact that neither Tang Ze nor the other squad members even got a hint that something was amiss until now spoke volumes about how little this ghost could do.
Eventually, after some pleading, and crying, and more pleading, and even more crying, Tang Ze finally agreed to do it. But he told Xu Feng that he would complain all the while while doing so.
Chapter 15 Confessing My Feelings
"Thank you Brother Tang Ze, I won't let your kindness be in vain," Xu Feng said once Tang Ze had finally begrudgingly once again agreed to do what he had said he would do in the first place before learning it involved waking up early. "As a matter of fact - there was a little secret that I never ended up telling anyone - but I'll let you know before I pass onto the next life. I think this secret will help you greatly!"
"Whatever," Tang Ze said. "Now turn around - I need to change back into my uniform!"
Had Xu Feng's ghost been watching him all this time when he had been in here? Because Tang Ze had changed many times while in this room...
Whatever, at this point it was too awkward a point to even ask about.
"What took you so long?" Yin Tiang asked when Tang Ze finally came back to see that they were almost done cleaning. Yin Tiang had thought initially that Tang Ze had used the opportunity to goof off somewhere, but a look at Tang Ze's facial expression said there was something else going on.
"What happened?" Zhang Long asked. "You look like you've... seen a ghost!" He then laughed at his own joke before adding, "No, seriously, what's going on? Are we done for? Did you get caught?"
"No, I just ah, saw something really weird," Tang Ze said. He then cleared his throat. "Um, I wanted to actually know something - how was Xu Feng? I mean, what kind of person was he?"
"Xu Feng? Why are you asking of him all of a sudden?"
This was a rather weird and abrupt change of topic- to the other squad members it was quite odd that Tang Ze was now asking about their deceased friend.
Tang Ze hadn't asked anything about the guy before now, and given the fact that Xu Feng was dead, there was little point in pursuing that line of questioning, now then was there?
"No reason, just curious," Tang Ze said.
He didn't get much on Xu Feng, only that he had really wanted to advance in cultivation when he had been alive - more badly than anyone else for whatever reason. That was what led to his downfall in the end.
The others probably knew far more than that about Xu Feng, it's just that they likely didn't see how any of it was relevant to Tang Ze so they didn't actually tell him that much.
Tang Ze later went to sleep still wearing most of his Supernatural Sam costume while he did so, and something very odd happened - even before Xu Feng tried to wake him up.
He had the same dream where he was in the same cavern.
While he was still in that cavern; the exact same one where he felt there was a lot of Qi (and there must have been quite a considerable amount if even someone like him could tell this), and he still could feel like someone else was there. But, he could actually see someone else besides him here this time!
There was what looked like to be the ghost of a woman sitting near the lake in the center. She hadn't noticed Tang Ze's presence yet - but this was the first time that Tang Ze had seen her despite having this same dream many times before.
Before he could step any closer to the woman to investigate, he heard someone almost yelling into his ear.
"Brother Tang Ze wake up!"
The dream ended and he flicked his eyes open to see Xu Feng's ghost standing over him. Or hovering, really.
Whatever.
"Alright, let's head out," Tang Ze said. He had made another replica 'watch' which he absorbed Xu Feng into, after which he could still 'hear' him.
Tang Ze gently opened the door. The others would still be asleep, and he, as stealthily as possible, exited their common area.
He didn't really need to hide as he walked out, mainly because there were a good number of other Initiates already up. Some of them gave him and his clothes an odd look, but by now many were aware of his reputation and that he tended to parade around in costumes sometimes, so no one stopped him as he neared the outer wall of this building.
The chilly morning air made him shudder before he took a good look at where he was going to go.
The men's and women's divisions were separate, on separate mountains.
Naturally, there were many on the men's side who wanted to visit the other mountain - since the rules forbade such, and given what lay on that side was a tantalizing dream for many of them, it had the allure of forbidden fruit. A sacred spring to which none were allowed entry, but which nonetheless many dreamed of!
The normal entrance was of course, well-guarded because of this.
"How do you intend to get in?" Xu Feng asked.
Tang Ze could 'hear' Xu Feng through the watch, but no one else could. However, if Tang Ze wanted Xu Feng to hear him, he had to speak out.
"It doesn't matter if there are guards at the front gate, we'll just enter in through the back door!"
"...I don't know if that's some kind of innuendo, Brother Tang Ze but..."
"No! I mean, the front gate is guarded, but no one is watching the other side of the wall too closely!" Tang Ze said.
Of course, no one really needed to watch that side. They were atop a mountain of course- so how were people going to get over it?
By flying? Anyone with that technique had better things to do than sneak into the women's side. And in case someone that powerful did manage to sneak in, a few measly guards wouldn't have done anything! Not to mention such a person would likely have stealth-type techniques like invisibility as well.
But that was exactly what Tang Ze planned to do!
He couldn't fly nearly as fast as he could otherwise if he was actually wearing his superhero costume, during which he could easily out speed a jet fighter, but he could still float along at a somewhat leisurely pace.
And even if he was wearing another costume, the 'permanent' effects still remained!
So, if Tang Ze lived long enough, there was the possibility of stacking various power sets on top of each other. He might become unrivaled not just in the Raswatian Empire, but in the entire world as well!
Still, that would likely take millennia to accomplish, and right now, Tang Ze was still very much the person he was from back on Earth.
In other words, someone who thought that the two minutes you had to wait to cook instant noodles was too long a time to wait for!
He still did not have a lot of patience for many things.
And so, Tang Ze slowly drifted along, under the cover of darkness, away from where he knew the watch would usually be.
He did however, complain the whole way through.
"I don't get why I have to wake up so early in the morning. Humans are diurnal animals, aren't they? So why make us wake up when we're not even fully awake? There aren't even things like coffee or energy drinks to wake you up here and by the time I'm done with my chores I can't even feel like I can take a nap or something..."
"I have never heard someone complain so much about having to wake up so early," Xu Feng said.
Honestly, even for a ghost who had nothing better to do, it was quite tiring to hear.
That said, complaining aside, they had no problems leaping over the wall.
Right - the women's side! A paradise that normally they could not reach, unless one had specific work, and that too only during the day during certain restricted hours! Not to mention even during those fixed times, one could only enter certain areas and could not roam freely into spots like the hot springs.
During the night - forget about even entering!
Unless you were someone like Tang Ze.
"So, do you happen to know where it is that we're supposed to be looking for?" Tang Ze asked.
"Right over there, I think that's where the flowers are," Xu Feng said.
Tang Ze didn't encounter many people - although there were some out and about, being that they had early duties, the sun hadn't even come up yet. And those people weren't going through the bushes like he was, they were headed towards where they had work.
The sky had barely begun to lighten as they reached their destination - and though there had been some close calls, they were able to move without being discovered.
Tang Ze's lack of cultivation actually helped here - given that no one could sense his Zeroth Realm level of cultivation, meaning that it wasn't easy to find him. Otherwise he would've needed to master some kind of stealth technique to hide his Qi, else he'd be found out in about five minutes.
"There she is!" Xu Feng said.
Tang Ze honestly didn't understand how it was that Xu Feng could 'see' given he was still in the watch, but he didn't let that bother him.
Tang Ru was extremely beautiful - with flawless skin and long eyelashes.
She was taking care of the Yellow Apricot Flowers, treating them each with a tenderness that evoked a picture of a mother gently stroking her newborn's cheek.
She looked ethereal in the early morning light, like a fairy twirling through a celestial garden!
Tang Ze could understand how it was that Xu Feng had fallen for someone like her.
Of note, she was not wearing an Initate's uniform, but that of a regular member. She didn't look old enough to have served for thirty years, so that meant that she was probably at the Qi Refinement stage. Which likely meant that she came from a wealthy family or had great talent.
"Alright, how do you want to tell her how you feel?"
"Can you let me use your mouth? It'll be easier than relaying words through you. That way, it's really coming from my own heart, you know," Xu Feng said.
"What do you mean 'let me use your'-" Tang Ze was about to ask when he felt a spectral essence grab onto his tongue. Naturally - his body fought to get rid of this invading presence and expelled it.
"Stop resisting!" Xu Feng complained.
If it was so easy for ghosts to possess people, there would be far more possessions in this world! But if it was just a normal spirit like that of Xu Feng, even one of the weakest people could easily resist a spectral assault.
It was the spirits of people who had been Nascent Soul or Eternal Soul cultivators that one really needed to watch out for - such as by using talismans to ward off possession by such people.
There were also several demons and evil spirits that might attempt to take hold of a living person's body, though once again, the ones strong enough to do so were thankfully very rare.
As it was, it was highly likely that Tang Ze's Supernatural Sam getup also provided some protection from spirits.
"Alright," Tang Ze said, and let Xu Feng command his tongue for now, as he jumped off the ledge he was standing upon and landed in front of Tang Ru.
Naturally, Tang Ru gasped when she saw someone just leap out of the shadows like that. "Please don't be alarmed, Senior Sister Tang Ru!" Tang Ze said. "I just had something I wanted to say to you - and to only you! These are the feeling from the bottom of my heart! Please here them out!"
For now, that was actually Tang Ze talking.
This whole plan would go up in flames if Tang Ru screamed for help, but while she was shocked by his presence, she didn't.
"How - how did you get here?" she asked. Tang Ze had to note that she had a pretty cute voice too - no wonder that Xu Feng had fallen head over heels so badly for her. A shame that they couldn't get together, given Xu Feng would pass away to the next life soon.
"That's not important right now," Tang Ze said. "What is important is why I came over here."
Tang Ru had half a mind to scream for help - but on the other hand, she had heard of a new Initiate by the name of Tang Ze joining who had some odd powers, and was vaguely curious as to what this was about.
Also, why was he dressed so weirdly?
And now, Xu Feng began to speak through Tang Ze.
"Tang Ru," Xu Feng said. "I wasn't able to say this before back when I was alive, because I was too scared. But... before I passed on, I wanted to make sure you knew… just how much of a bitch I always thought you were!"
Chapter 16 Collective Punishment
Tang Ze's eyes widened- he was not sure why Xu Feng was saying stuff like this!
Tang Ze had assumed that Xu Feng wanted to confess his love to Tang Ru- but no, it sounded like when Xu Feng said 'confess his feelings' he had meant that in the negative sense!
"I always thought that your tiny nose made you look like a pig! Out of all the women I've met in my life - I had the lowest opinion of you!" Xu Feng continued.
Tang Ru's eyes flared, her tranquil expression gone and her eyebrows now knitted in fury.
"I still remember how on the day we first met, you ended up spilling what you were drinking on top of me - and that was after I had just washed my sect uniform! And rather than apologizing, you made it out to be my fault instead, well guess what-" Xu Feng then let out a stream of expletives that would make a sailor blush, in addition to several sentences that implied that Tang Ru and her family by extension had intimate relationships with a wide assortment of animals.
Was this why Xu Feng couldn't pass on to the next life?
Because he just had to tell this girl how much he hated her?
No - that wasn't it!
"Well, that's all I wanted to say, good luck Brother Tang Ze," Xu Feng said to Tang Ze telepathically before laughing wholeheartedly.
It was only then that Tang Ze realized that he had been played.
Unfortunately, there was very little that Tang Ze could do to fix the situation before Tang Ru raised her fist and then started to furiously pummel him without mercy.
Tang Ze was stronger than he had been before, but not as strong as a Qi Refinement cultivator like Tang Ru yet, not without wearing his actual costume.
This Supernatural Sam getup didn't give anything in the way of physical defense. He had not yet absorbed enough of the earlier costume's power to make much of a difference in this kind of fight, and so, this was less of a 'fight' and more of a one-sided beating.
"Help! Guards! Save me!" Tang Ze shouted out.
Why was he the one who had to call for the guards in this situation?!
"Ahahahaha, that's what you get for trying to replace me you idiot!" Xu Feng said to him telepathically. "You are far too naive, Junior Brother Tang Ze. But, I will still fulfill my end of the bargain. There is a secret place where you can…"
Tang Ze didn't fully catch what he was going to say next as he was too busy trying to avoid Tang Ru's fists.
Later that morning, Tang Ze nursed his numerous bruises with a sorry expression on his face.
After Tang Ze had been caught by the guards, and after they had dragged Tang Ru off of him, Tang Ze was in big trouble.
Not just him though, his entire squad had been punished for what he had done by being forced to clean up one of the biggest courtyards all by themselves. Tang Ze was still a probationary Initiate and as such, it was expected that the rest of his squad would show him the ropes and keep him in line. If he committed a huge mistake like this, the others would also be punished.
Additionally, despite being banned by the Geneva Convention back on Earth, collective punishment was common not only in the sects, but in the Raswatian Empire as a whole. As a more extreme example, the worst offenders against the State would have nine generations of their family executed, whether the others were also guilty or not did not matter.
In a world where relations, both familial and otherwise, were extremely important it was a very effective way of keeping people in line.
"I'm so sorry guys," Tang Ze finally said after fifteen minutes of awkward silence. He had done all that work last afternoon so that they wouldn't get into trouble for the escaped ghost - and they hadn't, not for the vase.
However, they were all getting punished now for something that was entirely Tang Ze's fault.
The other squad members had all thrown him angry looks while the prefect was shouting at them. Zhang Long, as Squad Leader, ended up taking most of the heat during this time, furiously apologizing for 'their' actions to the prefect, even though there was only Tang Ze to blame.
To their credit, Tang Ze recalled, the others had not thrown him under the bus by trying to emphasize that it was all his doing and they had no involvement with what had gone on - even though that was the truth. They all just bowed their heads, apologized, and accepted their punishment.
Which made Tang Ze feel all the more guilty about it all.
Tang Ze knew they were furious at him, he just hadn't known where and how to start apologizing.
Yin Tiang shot him a look and said, "What I don't get is why - why didn't you invite us with you?"
"Eh?" Tang Ze asked.
"Yin Tiang and I have been planning a way to break in for months, but those were all dumb plans," Chen Yu said. "And then you went ahead and broke into that place without us? What gives, man?"
Most of the Initiates were in their early or late twenties, and being busy with sect duties and the like didn't leave much time or money for trying to meet up with women. Few of them were like Zhang Long who already had someone outside the sect. Although one would think that they would be above such things as trying to break into the women's side, but they were at the Qi Condensation stage after all.
No matter how much their teachers told them that they had to give up on their worldly desires to find enlightenment, it wasn't as if such teachings were going to trump basic human biology for most of the Initiates.
Especially at their level when they had just started out on their cultivation journeys.
It would be a different matter entirely if they were at a higher level, like Golden Core, and had had several decades to hone their minds and senses - but as they were right now, they were little better than hormonally-fueled college frat kids.
"Ah, no guys, you don't get it - it isn't like that," Tang Ze tried to explain. "I wasn't going over there for any... lecherous reasons, it was all for a noble cause believe me-"
Tang Ze tried to explain what had happened, but none of them believed him.
"You're telling me that you wanted to help Xu Feng confess to Tang Ru?" Yin Tiang snorted. "He hated Tang Ru. Just goes to show you that you clearly didn't meet him since you don't know the first thing about him. And hey, if you liked Tang Ru and wanted to confess your feelings to her, you can just say that - we won't judge you for it. And I get it, Tang Ru rejected you and humiliated you, and that must hurt, but that doesn't mean you need to make some story up how it was the ghost of Xu Feng compelling you all along to cover that up."
"Xu Feng always used to cuss out Tang Ru when he was with us," Chen Yu said. "Never could say any of that to her face though."
"Yeah! Well why didn't you guys tell me that earlier?" Tang Ze asked. If he had known that it hadn't been a love confession and something else entirely, he never would have agreed to go on this whole excursion in the first place.
Xu Feng had technically not lied to Tang Ze - but he had tricked him nonetheless by omitting crucial information. Xu Feng clearly resented Tang Ze's presence in the group, and so had come up with this plan.
By doing so, Xu Feng had killed two birds with one stone. He had gotten to tell Tang Ru just how much he hated her, and had left Tang Ze to face the consequences!
"Why would that matter? He's dead," Zhang Long said.
Tang Ze sighed. Xu Feng's spirit had moved on, meaning Tang Ze had no evidence anymore. And even if he wanted revenge against Xu Feng, there was nothing more that Tang Ze could do to him because of the same.
No one in his squad believe him no matter how much he insisted that was all the truth.
All throughout while the four kept cleaning, people were watching them from the shadows, muttering to each other. They didn't approach the group for a while, until finally, one of the other Initiates approached them.
"Is it true that you all... went over and broke into the women's side?" he asked.
There were about twenty people in total looking at the four of them - some of them had haughty expressions while others looked angry, but all of them seemed to want to know what happened.
"Not really, well, to start off with things, it wasn't their fault-" Tang Ze began to speak, trying to explain that this was all his fault and that the others hadn't been involved at all; but Yin Tiang put a finger to his lips before he could finish.
"Let me answer - indeed, you are all correct! We snuck into the women's side - all four of us!" Yin Tiang said proudly.
Eh?
Why was he trying to take the blame for Tang Ze's actions? Tang Ze couldn't wrap his head around it at all.
"Of course," Chen Yu continued, "however, while we all broke in, it was all my plan!"
"Don't flatter yourself, it was I who thought of it!" Yin Tiang countered.
The two of them were fighting - not for taking up the blame for the incident, Tang Ze realized, but for taking credit for it instead!
After all, many of the male Initiates wanted to do what Tang Ze had done.
The women's section was kind of like a 'forbidden sacred realm' for the males - the others just didn't have the courage or means to replicate Tang Ze's infiltration!
"Heh," Chen Yu said. "All of you, I know - were planning on going to the women's side, weren't you? Or at least, you all dreamed of it. But none of you had the stones to do it!"
"Indeed," Yin Tiang said proudly. "We're the only real men here since we were the only ones who had the courage to walk into the lioness's den! Y'all are nothing more bunch of eunuchs!"
"This Yin Tiang - calling us a bunch of eunuchs, he's going too far!"
"But it's true that I wanted to see what was there though..."
"Yeah, but we would get beaten to a pulp if we were caught..." Thinking this, none of them had tried - and yet these four were apparently brave enough to do so regardless of the consequences?
"And to think we were making fun of Brother Tang Ze for being unable to cultivate - he does have guts though!"
'Wait- the others were making fun of me for that?'- Tang Ze thought. Maybe they did it behind his back - because no one had ever said something like that to his face.
Perhaps they feared falling victim to [Monkey Stealing Peaches] that much?
There was grumbling from the other Initiates, but most had awe and wonder in their eyes.
"But... what did you guys see when you were over there?" one of them asked.
"Did you happen to sneak into the women's bathhouse?"
'What kind of degenerates do these guys take us for?'- that was what Tang Ze was thinking at the moment.
"Ah, we would love to tell you all the... juicy details...," Zhang Long interjected, "but we have a courtyard to clean up, and it's going to take up so much time on our own..."
Before the sentence had even left his mouth, the other Initiates had already started helping them clean up.
With so many people working - this task that would've kept the four of them busy till midnight was done in a matter of a few hours!
As for what they told the other Initiates regarding what the four of them had apparently seen that was so tantalizing - well, the answer was easy- they just made it all up!
It wasn't like the others could discredit or disprove what they were saying.
The only person who could do that was Tang Ze, and he wasn't about to open up his mouth!
It seemed that in a strange way, their reputation had increased among the male Initiates rather than decreasing!