Chapter 91: Borrowed Power

"There would be few I would be willing to trust with control like that," Li Feng responded to Paike's suggestion that they find someone to rule in their stead.

"I would agree, but not no one." Paike counted. While either of them might be the prime candidate to rule the outer sect, neither was excited about that. There were advantages that came with being in charge. They would have increased access to cultivation rituals and information. But for most, it was the prestige that they desired. The two of them didn't care for either of those, not at the price in their time and attention that it would cost.

"However, I do think that our criteria are not so particular," Paike continued after a beat. "Simply someone who would keep things stable and not trouble us."

"That would mean they would need enough power to hold the sect without constantly calling on us. I do not know anyone in our year that could do that other than one of us. While that fool was easy to beat, he was not without strength." Li Feng stated.

"Liming is on the cusp of Topaz," Paike offered.

Part of it was a suggestion; part of it was that he wasn't actually sure if Li Feng was aware. Paike hadn't been, and this was his sister. Topaz was the minimum needed to control the outer sect.

There were a couple of reasons that Li Feng might consider her an acceptable choice. Perhaps even a favorable one. First, if she was able to control the outer sect, and if anyone wanted to challenge her, it would be clear that Paike would be her main backer. So anytime she needed to call for help, he would be the first one to step in and enforce order. Letting Li Feng not be bothered. Second, Li Feng had worked with her before and saw that she was competent. With the Kong family's reputation, he should be assured that she could do the job, but also be willing to leave him alone as long as he didn't meddle.

Now it wasn't all upsides. Paike wasn't going to assume that Li Feng didn't see that. If he backed anyone, there would be some amount of responsibility. If he joined Paike and Liming in putting Liming in charge, it could be seen as him joining their Family's alliance, likely a lesser partner. They would have to manage that. Even if he didn't really care about the initial impression, Liming would have to make sure not to lean on the idea as she kept things going if she wanted to stay on his good side.

The final reason that Paike thought that Li Feng would find her acceptable was that there weren't really any alternatives. The others on the top ten list either wouldn't be impartial, or they didn't have the combat ability to maintain control. And it would be someone from that list that would eventually end up in control of the sect.

Paike assumed that most years it would end up with a new year in control. For a while, the older members might keep command, but they would be overtaken by one or more newcomers. But those newcomers would move into the inner sent, starting the power struggle over again. This was by design. In a weak year, maybe the older disciples could maintain control for the whole year, but this was not that year.

Not only were there already two disciples in Paike and Li Feng that they couldn't suppress, but there were also at least another three or four who Paike thought would suppress the leaders halfway through the year.

"I will have to give her my congratulations." Li Feng said after some consideration. "When will she attempt her breakthrough? I would like to get this situation under control sooner rather than later."

"That is something I'm not sure of," Paike said. "I'm certain it will be soon."

"Please give her my best wishes for her successful attempt and encourage her to do so in a timely manner." Li Feng said. "As I said, sooner is better."

"I will pass along your well wishes," Paike responded. And with that, the alliance was secured. Li Feng's one condition was more than reasonable; honestly, it was necessary before their plan was finished. It was the only way to earn everyone's full respect in the outer sect's power structure.

The many older disciples who were at Early Topaz would need to see her as at least an equal, with backing. Anyone who was a loner and not part of the established factions shouldn't cause a problem anyway.

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Paike and Li Feng made a bit more small talk about their cultivation, and Paike passed along the details he had learned about the physical cultivation class. Li Feng was thankful, and they parted on good terms.

***

A few days passed. Paike took Guan Li, Liming, and Yixin to the qi nexus each night for long sessions of cultivation. During that time, he managed to stretch his dantian out several times.

He was able to do it three or four times each night. It took a while to recover, but if he spent a little of his qi in nourishing his spiritual flesh, he found that he could speed the recovery up considerably.

That it was working as expected was a boon, but what was more was that he had underestimated how much he could stretch the size of his dantian using this method. It took seven more attempts until he was reasonably sure that he had reached the size he should have had he not skipped the last stage of Ruby.

However, the gains didn't slow down then. Instead, they seemed to accelerate. And after his twelfth time, he found that he was far beyond the qi capacity of any Early Topaz stage cultivator. He was worried, but could detect no damage, yet he was certain he wasn't stepping along the path to move to Emerald.

After considering, he found no reason not to continue expanding his capacity for as long as he could get away with. Larger qi reserves were almost always a benefit.

It was only because of how quiet the sect had been in the last days that he managed so much uninterrupted cultivation time. There wasn't any fighting, so he hadn't had to use more than a thimbleful of his qi, so there was plenty for other uses.

That might partly be due to the fact that he was away much of the time, but he would take it either way.

While he was recovering from stretching his dantian, he worked on his physical cultivation. He might have been more efficient in doing so had he used more power to push to the next stage. Instead, though, he used the tiniest fraction he could. This was for two reasons. First, he needed to save his qi for stretching. Second, because he didn't want to push it.

He could feel that his body was still in a tenuous state. The cultivation he managed was helping him push his body further. But every once in a while he would need to adjust his structures when his heart and cultivation got a little out of sync. It happened less and less as he fine-tuned it, but it was still not to his satisfaction.

So he kept going over it with a fine-toothed comb.

With alarming regularity, he found issues that he smoothed out. Each time he did, he felt even better. It was unclear when it happened, but he eventually passed a threshold and realized that his physical cultivation method wasn't just powerful but top tier. If he had not made so many mistakes right away, he would have realized its potential earlier. That was the downside of not following an established path. Only that this thing he was making was so potent made his feeble theory implementations able to keep up with the tried-and-true, generic methods.

Now that he was fixing his mistakes, it was shooting past those methods. Not that he would recommend this method to anyone. There were far too many lucky encounters he had to have. Also his unique qi constitution and qi factor would mean that it would probably be less effective for anyone else.

That was starting to become a common theme with his advances. That they were not replicable. He was starting to worry that he wouldn't have much to add to the family knowledge, but all his other progress with Guan Li helped him feel better about that.

He wasn't the only one to make progress during that time. Guan Li quickly reached Peak Ruby as well, and Yixin made it to Later Ruby.

Liming was still struggling to find that ignition point to trigger her advancement to Topaz. She said she kept feeling on the edge but wasn't able to press the qi together with enough force.

Paike wasn't sure what he could do to help. One couldn't force another's advancement. Even trying was considered a crime. It was something of demonic cultivation. The idea was simple. Grasp their cultivation and apply pressure, or some other method of helping. But in doing so, you were pushing them beyond their soul's and spirits' limits. It would inevitably create a monster.

It wasn't always obvious at first. Sometimes a cultivator would be normal for years, but signs always showed. If a breakthrough wasn't achieved on one's own merits, the extra power would start to eat away at the very soul.

The first signs would be a warping of the personality. A lean toward cruelty at a level uncharacteristic for the cultivator. Then there would be the physical signs. Sometimes these could manifest immediately; other times it could take years. Eventually it would leave the cultivator as an unrecognizable human.

It was theorized that it was where some of the more malicious spirits or monsters came from. Cultivators who turned to external powers for a breakthrough and paid the price. They were typically found a put down, but that obviously wasn't always possible.

For some reason that Paike couldn't explain, alchemical aids didn't count this way. Perhaps it was because they still came from within. But there were pills to help sturdy ones should they need advancement, or elixirs to lower the point needed to break through. And so many more. As long as they didn't move past some threshold or borrow external power, they didn't have the same devastating effect. An alchemist would be able to tell him more, Paike assumed.