Maksym Pachesiuk
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Moon Cultivation [Book 2] - Chapter 125: The Final of Three
🕑 Added 2025-08-15 23:36:01 +0000 UTCTariq was expelled. Not for using banned substances.
In fact, only two of the ‘zombies’ were found to have illegal substances in their blood — and they weren’t combat stimulants, but mild recreational drugs. Those unlucky ones were expelled too. However, there was no shortage of stimulants in the cadets’ blood — an ocean of perfectly legal enhancers which were strongly advised never to be mixed. It was precisely this mixing that created the zombification effect.
Every single stimulant had been purchased personally by Tariq — from the school shop with points and from company stalls in the business centre with units. The spree had completely drained both his wallet and his points balance, dumping him to the very bottom of the rankings.
No demons or drug dealers had been involved, of course. This was simply the thick-headed Tariq, who had somehow learned about the miraculous effect of the mixture… or perhaps not. The zombification was purely an accident!
Accidents do happen, don’t they?
That was the official version from the Hall of Order. But an accident didn’t save Tariq from responsibility.
For the brawl he had initiated, Order slapped him with a mountain of fines, plunging his balance into a terrifying minus.
I don’t know the exact figure, but, as with the Marek, a committee convened and decided Tariq was more trouble than he was worth.
Sixteen cadets were pulled from training for anything from three days to two weeks. The full two weeks were given to the poor souls who had broken their spines on those stairs.
No deaths — by some miracle.
As soon as expulsion loomed, Tariq sang like a nightingale. He ratted out a cadet who, he claimed, had suggested the idea of revenge, organised the demonstration, and shared the first stimulants that allowed them to beat up Kim and reclaim control over the gang.
Only the cadet Tariq mentioned had never heard of him. The Hall of Order couldn’t find a single video showing the two of them even in the same place, let alone talking. So his testimony was deemed just another bout of nonsense from a cadet trying to talk his way out of the mess he himself had caused.
Officially, at least.
The entire battered gang was also heavily fined, and on top of that they had to cover their medical bills. It was unlikely any of them would make it to the second year. They were already hopelessly behind the rest.
All except Kim.
He too was slapped with a fine for appearances’ sake, but at the same time he received a pile of points, development materials, and free sessions in the Flow Chambers. The Chambers were suspicious, but he was willing to take the risk — especially with all the breakthroughs happening around.
While the brawl was being investigated, three more people broke through — none of them regular tournament participants.
Thanks to the school’s ‘genius general’ policy, I got fined as well. But it was just a standard ten — barely worth noticing.
I didn’t even bother paying it much attention, focusing instead on cultivation and exploring different types of qi.
I managed to grasp Wood!
Yes, it was ‘growth.’ Only I hadn’t really understood what growth was until I finally caught that feeling. Growth was pain and pleasure in the same bottle. It was the kneading of tight, overworked muscles; it was moving head-on into a storm. It was something that didn’t feel like mine at all.
I could endure pain when I had to, I enjoyed working the tension out of my muscles, but deep down… it simply wasn’t for me.
I caught the sensation, but at the same time I realised that Wood would never become my friend. This qi would never yield without a fight, and I wasn’t about to turn cultivation into hell. So I’d have to abandon any future techniques involving Wood.
Aside from Wood, I also felt Lightning.
I’d taken Kate’s electric bolts so many times that as soon as my root value reached 15, I sensed that wild, prickling energy that never knew rest.
It came so easily and naturally that I even considered abandoning my plans for the Mad Monkey of East and switching from Air to Lightning. After all, I already had a mentor who wielded that element, and my future master apparently knew it too…
Still, I left those thoughts for the future. Kate wouldn’t be my mentor for much longer. Once I broke through, our relationship would officially end, and she wouldn’t have to help me anymore.
I doubted we’d sever ties completely, it wouldn’t be in Novak’s interest, but I could no longer count on so many free training sessions.
So I dedicated all the remaining time to working on sensations.
Kate found me cadets who wielded Fire, Earth, and Blade. The last one was the easiest to find, since Blade was the secondary qi of every swordsman — at least in our school. In Yellow Pine, swordsmen tended to favour Blade over Point. The Fire Qi cadet specialised in Palm, and he honestly gave me the shivers.
The guy could literally cook your internal organs!
In training with him, I pushed myself to the absolute limit and beyond, whereas the Earth cadet was one of the most pleasant people I’d ever met. He specialised in the mace and used Earth solely for defence.
I picked up Fire quickly, Earth took longer, and I spent the most time playing with Blade. Not because it was as uncooperative as Wood, but because telling the difference between piercing sharpness and cutting sharpness wasn’t easy — especially since the swordswoman’s techniques exploited both types of qi at once.
Still, I managed it within the same three weeks, or twenty-four days, to be exact, that it took me to reach 2572 units of qi. That was the pre-dispersion figure straight out of the chamber. And I had one reassessment, which added four minutes of cultivation time to my previous.
At the moment, my roots looked like this:
Spiritual Roots:
• Fire: 15
• Water: 16
• Lightning: 15
• Air: 15
• Earth: 16
• Wood: 15
Martial Roots:
• Blade: 15
• Mace: 15
• Point: 16
• Fist: 50
• Palm: 15
• Finger: 15
Celestial Roots:
• Gravity: 3
• Vacuum: 1
I could sense almost the entire known spectrum of qi, except for Water, Finger, and the mysterious Celestial Roots. Although… Space probably counted as Celestial too. I could feel that qi, but the root didn’t appear in my interface.
Preparing for the breakthrough, I went over what I had several times.
The Pill of Seven Poisons and Nine Plagues raised no questions — it boosted my resistance to poisons and diseases. I’d never seen a cultivator fall ill, but I’d read about it. The things described were enough to make anyone pray for mercy, so better to have it than not.
The Qi Purification Elixir, however, did raise some doubts. By now, I had enough arena combat experience to know that I had never once drained my energy reserves completely. The elixir was designed to boost my total reserves by ten per cent. Red quality supposedly guaranteed at least ten per cent. But… did I actually need that extra ten per cent?
Every fight in the arena ended in a matter of minutes, if not seconds, and my déjà vu kept insisting that real battles were the same, unless both sides were hiding behind thick walls. In that case, déjà vu told me, you’d better pray you had enough ammunition.
Still, I decided to take it.
Choosing the third breakthrough material wasn’t easy.
The first thing I did was ask Kate for advice. Whatever Novak said about the need for personal development, I needed a starting point, and Kate gave me one.
“You’ve had more than one fight already. What annoys you the most?”
“Point Cultivators,” I replied.
I hadn’t yet faced Gunter, so things could still change, but right now the ones who annoyed me most were two: Dubois and Cinar. They were poking holes in me…
“Be specific,” Kate pressed.
I grimaced and looked down at my long-suffering left side.
Kate rolled her eyes and delivered a sarcastic,
“So you don’t like that they hurt you?”
“I don’t like the holes.”
“Then work from there. Think about what you can do about it.”
“That’s the problem — I don’t know what I can do about it. It’s more a matter of formations than the body. To fix it, I should be talking to Alan, not you.”
Kate opened her mouth to fire back with another sarcastic remark, but I stopped her with a gesture. I didn’t want to look like an idiot if I was missing something obvious.
“Are there materials that boost regeneration?”
“Plenty!” Kate clapped her hands. “But regeneration isn’t fast, and it won’t save you from getting new holes.”
“Body reinforcement?”
“Shield, Jake! Shield!”
That was where I lost patience.
“Point cultivators punch through shields like they’re made of glass.”
“Then you need a stronger shield!” Kate snapped.
“And that’ll save me from Dubois’ attack?” I asked sceptically.
If the shield material worked on the same principle as the elixir, ten per cent added to durability, then it was useless. To stop Dubois’ stiletto, I’d need a lot more than ten per cent.
“That depends on what kind of attack we’re talking about,” Kate said. “Against a rapier thrust, you need one modification; against a flurry of needles in the same spot, you need another.
“What bothers you more?”
I thought for a moment.
“Neither, to be honest. What I care about most is the ability to deflect a strike in close combat.” I still remembered Cinar’s last blow all too well.
“Not at second stage,” Kate shook her head. “If we’re talking about defence against Point, you’re limited to two options: shield layering or reactive armour.
“They exist in different variations, with nuances depending on the material and quality, but the general principle is the same. Layering is for multiple strikes in quick succession; reactive armour is for a single powerful blow.
“As a bonus, they improve protection against Palm or Mace depending on your choice. The drawback is reduced defence against the other.”
“What do you mean?”
“Layered shields improve defence against Palm but reduce it against Mace, while reactive shields do the opposite. Plus, you have to think about how it’ll affect your movement techniques. Your shield will change, and your techniques will respond differently.
“In theory, a reactive shield would boost your mobility in Mad Monkey mode.”
“And it would increase the impact of Iron Forehead,” I added.
“What about the recoil?” Kate asked.
“I need to talk to Adam,” I decided.
“First study the market. See what you like, what you can buy for points, and what you can get for units. Then talk to Adam, and by the time you speak with Novak, you should have at least three options.”
Browsing the shops didn’t bring much success.
Not that there was a shortage of materials — there was plenty. The difference lay in quality. I found two dozen ampoules of Black Dragon’s Blood in both private and corporate shops, and only one of them was red quality. That one cost six hundred and fifty thousand units. In the school shop, the same red-quality Blood cost 3,500 points.
The difference was obvious, almost double the official point-to-unit exchange rate. The only problem was, I had units, and barely a third of the points I needed.
To be fair, Black Dragon’s Blood was the most expensive breakthrough material with a shield effect. Perhaps that was exactly why I wanted it so badly.
Comments
Jonathan Griffith
Tyftc!
