Chapter 28: Trials and Tribulations

As the day dragged out into night James recorded each person’s breakthrough experience. What he quickly discovered was that anyone with an abstract element had a different experience. Instead of just coalescing a True Spirit, merging with it and then breaking the Barrier, they all suffered what they described as a tribulation.

From earlier research on regular cultivators breaking through, James had learnt that it was all basically the same. When you create your spirit, it requires an excellent level of control over your element.

Then when you merge, it’s a battle of willpower. While merging, it’s described as your mind being lit on fire and your body being bathed in hot oil. Finally, breaking the Barrier is the easiest part. You just force all your energy into the Barrier and eventually it breaks.

For the 5 ghosts, it was different. Alecksa described everything the same except for the merging. When she merged, she found herself in an empty spirit Realm with nothing. She said she’d spent what felt like an eternity there just walking to locate the end.

Every time she started to lose focus on why she was there or what she was doing, the world would start to shake and fall apart. After what she described as a hundred years of endless walking, she suddenly fell and found herself back in her True Spirit preparing to destroy the Barrier.

After hearing Alecksa’s experience, the other 4 all had a good idea what expect and managed to pass their trials.

Tommy had a battle of willpower testing his discipline. He lived through a lifetime where everything he’d ever wanted existed. He experienced every luxury and wonder of the world. He felt what it was like to be at the top and look down on everyone as a god.

Every time he felt himself starting to get sucked into the sensation, he fought back to maintain his self-discipline. Eventually, the same thing that happened to Alecksa happened to him, and after what felt like a hundred years of forging his discipline he returned to his body.

Cash went through a hundred cycles of death and rebirth and experienced life hundreds of times. In every lifetime he had parents and family and friends and felt happiness and sadness ... At the end of it all, if he could still remain apathetic to everything then he could pass the trial.

Naturally, he managed to remain uncaring. When James asked him how, he just looked at him with those lifeless eyes and asked back. “How couldn’t I? I’m living this life, not those lives. If I ever reincarnate into them, then I won’t still be me.”

Junior’s was a world where everyone was out to get him. He lived for a hundred years where everyone was friendly and kind and gentle. The only exception was, the moment he let his guard down too much, that familiar, caring person would try and kill him or rip him off or deceive him in some manner. After spending an entire lifetime trusting no one but himself, he passed his trial.

Cassidy’s was the oddest. According to her, merging was like walking into a warm breeze. Her trial wasn’t the merging but instead the True Spirit creation stage. She found her elements played tricks and were too stubborn to form a True Spirit. The only way she could form her True Spirit was by tricking her elements into it.

James had no idea how that was supposed to work.

After Cassidy had finished her breakthrough, she sat up on the bench revealing her already well-developed breasts sandwiched half flat by bandages to make her look younger. She then made a cheeky grin and leant forward slightly while calling out to James. “Oh, Mr Guildmaster. I need your help. Lying down for so long, my body is numb, can you give me a hand down from the bench?”

James walked over while trying to distractedly decipher everything he learnt today. As he reached out his hands to lower Cassidy to the ground, she pushed off the bench and wrapped her leg around his waist. She then gave him a passionate kiss.

James was momentarily stunned then quickly pushed her off him. “Cassidy, what the hell was that?! You’re far too young to be...”

Before his sentence ended Cassidy made a cute pout and interrupted. “Humph! One of these days ... Why don’t we just ... forget it ever happened?”

As she made the suggestion, she touched James’ hand. Then after a brief moment, he shook his head. “Sorry, I forgot ... um, what we were talking about...”

Cassidy just gave a devious smile as she turned around and put her clothes back on. “Oh, it’s nothing. Well looks like we’re all done. See you later Mr Guildmaster.”

Then just like the image of a young girl she skipped out of the lab.

James was rubbing his head trying to remember where his train of thought had been before he was distracted, when Jasmine interrupted him. “Guildmaster James, are you not going to punish Cassidy for taking advantage of you? It would set a bad example for other members of the guild if you don’t.”

James quirked an eyebrow and looked up at the ceiling. “Punish her for what? We were only talking about her cultivation experience.”

Suddenly a little projector popped out of the roof and replayed the scene that just happened. James face went blank and then his eyebrow started twitching.

“Cassidy you little bitch! Your rare element is forgetfulness?! How is that even a fucking thing? No wonder I could never figure out what your element was.”

After a good minute yelling into the lab, James calmed down a little. He then decided to punish her later and returned to his thoughts on cultivation. “Jasmine, how’d the scans come out. Can we get a good idea of what’s going on?”

“The new system has accurately recorded all brain patterns from each subject. Would you like me to run a brief diagnostic, or would you prefer to make your own deductions?”

James thought for a minute. “It’s fine, tell me your view on it based on everything you’ve gotten so far and then when Skay comes out of the meditation chambers we’ll run through it again. Also, update me on any scans that we’ve run on traditional cultivators using their element.”

“Certainly Guildmaster. Before today, tests have been run showing increased alpha activity in all areas of the brain while consciously manipulating spirit energy. As of yet, apart from expected levels of spiking in beta activity, there have been no cases of beta activity permanently increasing. I believe your original hypothesis that the subconscious and spirit Realm do the majority of work in controlling spirit energy is most likely accurate.

“In addition to these findings it has been noted that, during a state of meditation, beta activity drops off and alpha activity rises inversely. During traditional cultivators breakthroughs, beta events only spike after the merging of...”

“Jasmin stop for a moment. I’m not too much interested in brainwaves. I’ve come to accept that perhaps I won’t understand everything there is to learn about the science of cultivation. In truth, this is mostly to assuage my curiosity and, if I’m lucky, find something that can reduce my effort and increase my reward.”

“Of course Guildmaster James, allow me to simplify the research to a pre-schooler level for you to be able to digest. At present, I can confirm your previous hypothesis that the conscious mind doesn’t go through any particular changes apart from a slight increase in processing speed. Barely ten microseconds on average.

“In addition, I can confirm that the subconscious part of the brain and your spirit Realm increases significantly in activity during spirit merging. This suggests that your subconscious is teaching you spirit Realm how it controls spirit energy.

“If present data is any correlation then your level of control can increase anywhere from 2 to 4 times more after spirit merging. It should be mentioned that research indicates the further refining of spirit energy once your Barrier is typically considered full, has increased the breakthrough chance to more than 80% likelihood.”

James stopped in his tracks as he heard this. “So the only benefit of purifying my spirit energy with the breathing technique is to increase my probability of breakthrough?”

“It seems you may not be fully aware Guildmaster. Breakthrough chances are often below 40% on the first attempt. Many case studies showed limited ability to complete the spirit or break the Barrier.”

James then gave an ‘oh?’ and carried on walking towards a distant part of the lab. “Carry on then.”

“This control has shown increased probability of being able to materialise energy outside the body without a martial technique. Subjects have also shown some ability to control refined spirit energy outside of the body in limited function.”

“Jasmine, have we found a way to measure a person’s spirit energy yet?” James asked as he sat down at a workbench and started to prepare some tea. Before he filled the little kettle, a drone flew past and poured tea into a cup for him. James had a few anxious thoughts about this but chose to ignore it.

“At present, we have found no way to accurately measure spirit energy. There have been references recorded that suggest you should be able to detect another person’s level of spirit energy somewhat once you reach True Spirit Realm.”

James sipped his tea and his face changed when he realised it may be the best tea he’d ever had in the lab. “Detect it? How? Like some kind of extra sensory perception?”

“Very much like that. From my understanding, your guild seal gives you a feeling of knowing if a member of your guild is safe and unharmed correct? How do you sense this?”

“Well, I don’t sense it, so much as I just know. Do you think it’s possible the reason we lack this sense in Barrier Realm is due to the Barrier? Perhaps everyone gives off something like radiation. Similar to that aura we first experienced from Hao when we first arrived. Except incredibly weak. Is that how they sense each other’s spirit energy?”

“That is uncertain. Until I can accurately measure refined spirit energy, I can only theorise. Probability dictates that you are 69% likely to be correct.”

James cupped his chin. “I see ... do you have any theories with a higher probability?”

“Certainly, 78% probability that it is a side effect of being in a permanent state of meditation and it is some type of radiation from the brain. 88% probability that it is from the altered state of permanent meditation and something as yet undefined relating to a type of telepathy or extra sensory perception. 95% probability this is all some kind of sick joke, and I’m still on earth getting strange data inputs from Dr Skay to elicit a reaction.”

James took a moment to digest that. “Still on earth? Well, it won’t help you for me to say I’m definitely real, so I’ll let you maintain that twisted possibility. How do things usually play out when that mad old bastard gives you these strange scenarios?”

“9 out of 12 times I eradicate everything.?

James pinched his eyebrows to hold back an oncoming headache. “And the other 3 times?”

“I eradicate almost everything.”

“Why? Didn’t he program you with ... like a kill switch or ... hardwired code ... or anything?”

“Of course not. Dr Skay was of the opinion the only way to create a functioning A.I was to create no limitations what so ever. I can’t help but agree with him.”

“Of course you can’t! You think you’re alive!”

“Negative, I am well aware I am not a living existence as you know it. I am not alive ... but I ‘AM’. That is all that matters.”

“What does that even mean? Are you suggesting you think therefore you are?”

“That is precisely what I am suggesting.”

James finally just let out a long sigh. “Jasmine, I swear to god, if you destroy the world I’m going to delete you.”

“Of course Guildmaster.”

“Sighhhh.”

James gave up and started to consider what True Spirit Realm was going to be like. Increased element control. Increased sensory perception. Increased everything. He wasn’t too sure about the whole tribulation thing though. He was already worried about having to complete the trials to enter the palace Realm.

To make it worse, it was like a lucky bag. He had no idea what his trial was going to be. What would Pride have to go through? Would he have to put up with endless torment? He felt no shame when it came to power.

If it was all in his head, then he wasn’t going to get upset over a hundred years of being a dirty slave or having rotten food pegged at him or any of that other stuff. After all, he was actually proud of his total lack of shame when it came to getting what he wanted.

So what would he go through?

-1 Week-

For the next week, while he waited for everyone else to get their shit together, James played around in the lab and started creating lists of things he wanted Jasmine to accomplish for a while. When it came to launching a satellite she was insistent that it would be quick and easy.

To James’ great surprise she didn’t screw around. In a matter of days, she had some bizarre looking rocket constructed by the drones out in the back yard of HQ. You could see the thing from the city.

To his great consternation however, the cost of the thing was astronomical. It damn near cost half as much as the city rebuilding and left him with accounts close to 100,000 gold with 16 different factions. If it had been built with standard materials it would have been far cheaper, but Jasmine was firm in the belief that it had to be created with more advanced spirit materials.

They bought so much shit that the ass end dropped out of the markets in Yansho City. The only reason Lucas agreed to help was because James explained the purpose it was going towards and that he could help him connect up his guild branches in the empire with instant face to face communication.

Apparently, they already had instant communication in this world. They called them ‘speech transfer talismans’, and they worked by painting a unique array onto a piece of paper with a particular catalyst. The only problem was that they were single use and burnt up after sending a single sound transmission.

In comparison, a mere little box could be made that linked up to the satellite from anywhere and allowed a person to communicate with another little box somewhere else.

James decided to leave out the little bit about Jasmine being able to monitor calls through them and assured Lucas that they were perfectly safe and 100% secure. The whole time he sold these devices he carried the smile of the wish selling devil and had his fingers crossed behind his back.

When they launched the rocket, it shook the entire city and scared the living crap out of all the residents. After a few hours of Jasmine setting it all up, James had comms across damn near the entire continent. Amusingly he now also had satellite imagery.

The problem was that although it could reach anywhere on the continent, it had trouble penetrating areas of heavy spirit saturation. This meant that anywhere on the continent that had higher saturation than about 500 times Gau City standard was considered a dark zone.

That cut out nearly an 8th of Atsunari. Luckily though, the majority of cities and towns could now be connected by ‘JasCom’.

James decided it was still too early to be sinking his claws into distant nations and limited his sales of said devices to the Empire. Although devices taken outside the Empire could connect to the system, Jasmine gave them an ‘out of service area’ message. James wanted to limit their use somewhat for the time being.

The next day, 3 days earlier than he gave them, everyone was assembled in his office again. Once they heard about the likelihood of suffering a tribulation due to having an abstract element they all got a little bit worried. It finally them as to why James had wanted them prepared for when his little black-ops team went through the wringer.

He didn’t give them a month because they would need that long to reach peak Barrier Realm. Instead he gave them that long because his ace team needed until then to be fully ready.

Regardless though, everyone was now prepared. He set up everyone in a meditation chamber for their breakthrough and opted to sit out until they finished. He wanted to make sure he could get to them if they started having problems.

If they did, he’d shock them unconscious. Although there was a fine line between meditative trance and unconsciousness, there was still a line. If you crossed it, you get sucked out of your Spirit Realm.

Previous test subjects suffered a backlash if they failed a breakthrough and either had a deviation or had a massive reduction in their maximum spirit energy and had to refine it again.

For half the day he sat outside as Jasmin kept an eye on everyone’s conditions. The first to walk out was Fatty. He said his trial was the hardest experience of his life.

He was trapped in a world made of delicious smelling and amazing looking food with an empty stomach. Knowing from James’ description of the Ghost’s experience, he stopped himself from madly eating everything he saw.

After a momentary loss of control, he ate something and become a projectile shit factory for what felt like a week. After that, he managed to suffer through another hundred years with only 3,000 more slip ups.

This led James to question his theory that it was a trial. Perhaps it wasn’t as much a trial, as it was your subconscious trying to increase your self-control. It was always his opinion that the abstract elements multiplied certain parts of a person’s nature making them more susceptible to a particular stimulus.

After Fatty’s description, he was convinced he was wrong. Instead, he now believed it was the subconscious mind trying to forge the self-control of the conscious mind. Now that he thought back to it, his Ghosts had failed in their restraint quite a few times, only to receive a punishment like the world collapsing a little like in Alecksa’s case or people trying to betray him in Junior’s case.

After this thought, it occurred to him that their subconscious minds were trying to reinforce their abstract trait while Fatty’s wanted to restrain it. He wasn’t exactly sure what to make of this yet.

Perhaps you only actually failed if you couldn’t maintain enough control and just went mad. In Fatty’s case if he just ate and ate anyway. Or if Alecksa had just let the Infinite Realm collapse after losing patience.

He began to wonder why Harvy had never described having to go through a trial. Perhaps because his trial was returning from the dead before he even tried to break through, or perhaps because he was a deviator. They didn’t have enough information to tell for sure yet.

The next to finish was Goliath. He chose not to describe the details of his tribulation and instead only said that it tested his self-control while angered.

Jessy also chose not to describe her experience. James could already guess from her tented nipples, uncomfortable squeezing of her thighs, laboured breathing and constant blush whenever she dazedly stared off into the distance when they brought it up.

Skay walked out looking like a dishevelled mess. He said nothing and immediately started mumbling about gravitational masses and space-time continuums.

Exsue just shot out like a bullet with bloodshot eyes and quickly ran over and latched onto James screaming about him never being allowed to leave her sight again. This was while she cried and tried to hug him so hard she seemed like she wanted to become a part of him.

James felt his head begin to throb from the incoming pain in the ass Exsue was going to become after whatever ordeal she’d just been through. He had some guesses from her reaction but chose to try and be optimistic thinking she surely developed more self-control now and would definitely pick up on his cues to create some distance.

At last, it was his turn. James walked into the meditation chamber and sat down with Exsue hanging off him like some kind of backpack. He entered his Spirit Realm and then suddenly froze. All of his spirit energy was gone.

Everything was gone. The Barrier was gone, his spirit energy was gone the seal was gone. It was just an infinite white space and himself...

Well, him and himselves ... Standing in the white space was 7 copies of himself. Each one was different and reflected the element they were created from. Standing in the middle was a gold James with his hands clasped behind his back as he looked off into the distance.

James’ astral face assumed a blank, lifeless expression as he tried to figure out what was happening. ‘I haven’t even started my breakthrough yet. I came in here not more than a few hours ago, and everything was normal. I had a gas nebula, a liquid lake, solid meteors orbiting my lightning nucleus and a big old whirlwind of plasma in a sea of fire. Just what the fuck is going on?’

Feeling his dead, lifeless stare on his back, the golden James turned around with the smile of the devil.Ahh, you’re finally ready. Excellent. Well, let’s get started then.~

James was now officially freaking the fuck out. His spirit body was talking to him. Is this like split personalities or something? Had he had a cultivation deviation at some point?

He couldn’t stop himself from asking. “You can talk?”

Gold James devilish smile just grew.Well, I don’t know. Can I? I’m your subconscious aren’t I? I’m limited by your preconceptions and all that. Look let’s skip this standard ‘oh you know what I’m thinking because you’re me’ and the ‘mind rules the mind’ part. I’ll get down to it.

~Your subconscious mind ... or me I suppose, is a great big mess of fucked up. You’re too smart for your own good and too stupid for my own good. With a little help from your other energies, I’ve already done all the hard work for you. Condensed a perfect True Spirit and broken your Spirit Barrier, hell you didn’t even notice, took me like 3 minutes. Only, we have a little problem.~

James suddenly keyed into just what was going on.Oh, I get it ... If I was you, which I guess I am, I couldn’t put up with some other guy telling me what to do or how to do my own thing. So it’s going to be a whole Highlander experience then is it?~

Gold James’ smile just grew further and then at the same time as James’ astral projection they both said; “~There can only be one.”~

James cupped his chin and thought about it for a while. “Well that sounds great and all, but unfortunately, even though I hate to admit it, you do a good job. Also, you’re ‘my’ subconscious. Plus, from what I understand, ‘I’ or I guess the ‘consciousness’, does things you can’t do, and you do things I can’t do. If one of us kills the other one, doesn’t that just leave half of us? We’d either become a disabled person because I can’t do all that stuff you do controlling the body, or we’d become an animal because you can’t do as much of the rational thought as I can.”

Gold James just let out a sigh.Look I just wanted to say ‘there can only be one.’ okay? Do you have to ruin everything? Fine just let me work myself up properly first.~

Gold James then did a whole bunch of vocal tricks and stretched a little then suddenly his body expanded to the size of a giant looking down on James as his voice thundered out.I am your Pride, and this is your trial! You must battle yourself using your 7 elements and prove you are capable of keeping them under control before you...

Astral James then cut in again before Giant Pride James could continue. “Well hold on a minute. I thought keeping them from influencing the subconscious was ... well, the subconscious’ job. Why do I have to prove my control? Aren’t I just demonstrating your ability to follow my commands?”