Bonded Summoner

Fhesiah burst through the formation’s weakness, her body covered in her dragon scales–all pretense of hiding her heritage gone at this point. A haze of shimmering barriers blocked her path, an activation of the realm’s owner blocking her escape.

His voice was both questioning and pleading, as it echoed off the walls, the voice coming from everywhere but also nowhere all at once. “Wait! How the hell are you a dragon, anyway? We can work this out. Don’t you want my heritage?”

She sneered in response, as she filled her body with draconic might, and stomped her leg down with enough force to crush a mountain. The stone beneath gave way, shattering and disturbing the energy flow into the important segments of the heavenly energy-powered formations.

The barriers disappeared, and she roared as she breathed a concentrated beam of flames at the cornerstone of the trap. The priceless gem containing vast energies shattered, exploding and sending turbulent energies and shrapnel all over the stone-covered room. The wall was shredded from the explosion, the power of the blast immense.

A piece of rock shrapnel struck her chest, but her body was sturdy from all its tempering and she took it with little more than a grunt.

The trap destroyed, a weight lifted from her, and her aura became unsealed. The perception array revealed the changes to the room she was in, showing the enemy’s true visage in front of her. It now looked like a room covered in black, with golden stars all over like a starry sky.

Using her divine sense, she realized that she was now within a strange area, in a cabin within some kind of home within the realm. It was odd because it felt completely separate from the surrounding cavern, like the cultivator brought it there. Perhaps some kind of…mobile home? It was so… ugly.

A ghostly old man, a remnant nascent soul of a dying cultivator was now in front of her. The man who had sealed her inside this… opportunity. She had been exploring a spatial realm with the Radiant Flame Sect, and she got sucked inside this inheritance.

Fhesiah wasn’t sure how the Framework thought this was fair, or if it was just a risk of this special event. The gain was significant, but the risk was absurd. Anyone other than her would have been trapped and killed.

She began gathering her flames, now that her hated enemy had been revealed. It was an old man, a formation master that offered to teach her his mastery of formations. He claimed he didn’t want anything at all, just to hand off his heritage, his mastery of formations and arrays before he died–and his treasure.

But Fhesiah knew from the beginning, that there was no such thing as a free lunch, and he was up to no good.

After all, this same thing already happened with the damned alchemy master!

He held up his hands, “N-Now, don’t do anything hasty. If it wasn’t for my teachings being so effective and my knowledge so profound, you’d never have been able to escape! You have gained something special here, and if you’ll be patient, there is much more for you to master.”

Fhesiah’s aura continued to rise with every moment that passed, her draconic flames building in her chest. The old ghost of the third Tier was still alive, but with his soul trapped and tied to the very same realm without a body, he was firmly within the range she could deal with.

The man’s words only increased her rage.

“Oh? You mean the teachings you used to lure me into a false sense of security, while you worked to weaken and eventually possess my body? I should just sit down on that enlightenment formation and study after all this?”

“How could you know this? To cultivate is to defy the heavens, you can’t blame me for doing what it takes to defy fate! How about you leave for now, and we call it even? Your mastery of formations has increased thanks to my knowledge and teachings, you’ll receive bad karma for returning such kindness with malice!”

“Hmm, your kindness, you say?” Fhesiah smiled, but her grin went a little too wide, her eyes taking on a manic light. She had been trapped into this temporal space within the battleground’s temporal space, making her live nearly another year without seeing her husband. Worst of all, the first one happened nearly just as Jake must have figured out how to properly meet with her.

“T-That look. I know that one–that was the one you had before you smashed my–”

“You’re absolutely right, I should thank you for your kindness!”

She withdrew her pill furnace from her now unsealed cosmos sack, though the furnace had changed significantly since she left on her battleground adventure. The alchemy master had been ecstatic that a kitsune apprentice would show up within his heritage, him being a rare alchemist that specialized in using yin flames for alchemy. After all, all that was left of him was his spirit flame itself.

The pill furnace had been modified to contain and enhance her kitsune flames, the master showing her how to refine and transform the insides of the furnace while refining pills using her yin flames.

It was an extremely special method, one if he had taught her while asking nothing in return, she’d have thanked her lucky stars for meeting him.

But he was trying to do the same thing at this formation master–though rather than stealing her body, he simply wanted to turn her into a pill to consume and empower himself. She lost nearly a year worth of her sanity from that asshole too. What was with cultivators and trapping people to kill and steal from them?

Her scribe flew out, along with several treasures she’d collected from the Battleground so far. They all flew inside the pill furnace, the formation master looking on in interest, but undisguised worry. “What are you doing? You’re…drawing a formation inside?”

He snorted, his expression taking on a sneer. “What, is that to be my prison? I am the master of formations, your teacher! You might be strong for a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but do you really think you can weaken me enough that–”

“Shut up, I’m busy right now!” Fhesiah continued her work within the pill furnace, but retrieved several talismans from her sack. Like spell scrolls, cultivator talismans required a bit of personal Qi to activate, but contained significant levels of their own from their creator’s investments.

These were talismans at the peak of their Tier. Because of the significant investment, likely requiring a cultivator at the next one just to be able to craft them to such efficiency, these had cost hundreds of thousands of T1 Credits.

White lightning exploded outward, slamming into the ghost’s form and causing him to scream in agony. The man had originally been a Nascent Soul Cultivator, much like herself. However, he had become injured in battle to the point where he lost his body, and escaped to the void and eventually an adjacent realm.

The energy levels were too low to reform his body and escape, not having such a useful method like her own, or was otherwise unwilling to start from scratch once more, like herself. His strength had degraded over the years to the point where he could hardly be comparable to a second Tier cultivator. This was why he was trying to snatch her body so he could leave before it was too late.

Fhesiah learned she was not the first cultivator to arrive in his lair. Unfortunately for them and for the man named Elron, they simply weren’t compatible or strong enough for him to house his soul within. She discovered their fates within a few days of her arrival, but was unable to really accomplish much with what she learned until she was ready to make her escape.

He just didn’t suspect that Fhesiah would also be a dragon, and that she had extra means of empowering herself beyond his understanding–her hearth. Who would?

She continued drawing the formations, and she had to thank Zhuge Liang for his guidance on them. While this master’s knowledge was much deeper than what was contained in Brother Zhuge’s book, he certainly wouldn’t teach her how to both spot and destabilize the nefarious purposes in his own formations, now would he?

And Elron definitely wouldn’t teach her how to utilize a combination of teachings and balancing of energies to create something more natural and capable of trapping a nascent soul. She had managed to trap the first asshole in her pill furnace, but that was because he was nothing more than a dark spirit flame.

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Of course, killing the jerk was easy enough. To trap them both and benefit from it so she didn’t waste her last two years, beyond learning a bunch of good stuff, she would have to be a bit more… inventive.

Elron began gathering his remaining Qi, absolutely pissed about being hit with her talismans and being ignored in favor of building out her formation. She activated a few more with a smile, the man’s face falling when she realized she had more. Thanks to her overprotective husband, there was a lot more where that came from!

Blitzing toward him, she withdrew and activated a few spell scrolls to confuse and weaken him even further. Several runic shackles wrapped around his body, as she covered him in the hexes of the sun and moon. He reeled in shock and rage as he was covered in foreign energies that inhibited and burned him, unable to understand how mana influenced his spirit body so heavily.

She breathed out her draconic flames, the fires of purity slamming into him and shredding his spirit body. He only barely held on, and–whoops, she almost killed him accidentally. Fhesiah took a calming breath, as she weakened her hexes and breathed back her flames.

Just a little more, and she would be back in Jake’s arms within her spiritual temple–hopefully. While it had been another year inside this stupid place, for Jake, it was only a few days. He would hopefully still have whatever method he had planned on reaching her with. If she had to wait another year for any reason, she’d find some way to kill this guy twice!

Elron’s face turned pleading, his spiritual body barely being held together. “H-How are you so strong, and what is this energy? Just what are you? No–wait, it doesn’t matter. Let me go, and I’ll give you–”

Fhesiah snorted, and covered the wall behind him with glowing runes of her yin flames, targeting the weaknesses of the formations. They ate away at the protective arrays as they took on the consuming and transformative natures of her path, shredding and destabilizing the various flavors of heavenly energies that traversed the arrays.

The door began to crumble, and she smashed it with her draconic fist. Several cosmos sacks floated out of the room right away, her long-since having planned her heist.

“You don’t have anything left to give me, I’m afraid.”

“What the–you could sense the room with the perception array? You planned this? For how long?”

Fhesiah gave a tired sigh, even though she was proud of her powerful Divine Sense beyond her Tier. “Way too long. Anyway, off you go inside.” She mock bowed at him with a sneer, holding her hands together.

“Thank you, master, for teaching me what you know about the formations of the heavens. I’ll make sure to use all I learned this past year under your tutelage–you can consider your legacy to have been passed on. Both what you wanted me to learn, but also what you didn’t. Maybe in your next life you will learn not to interrupt a girl’s booty call.”

The ghost cultivator frowned in confusion. “Booty call? What the hell is–”

She wrapped actual physical shackles around him from her cosmos sack, then lifted and threw him into the furnace, the man shouting in both anger and pain.

The man now gone, she realized the strange construction, the room filled with stars was actually some kind of…flying device, a shuttle. Just why? She took ownership of it, but it was unable to fly where it was currently, anyway. Hopefully, it was just a restriction or nature of this realm.

She was able to stow it away in her cosmos sack, and realized it would actually be quite useful, as ugly as it was.

Fhesiah began her trek to the portal, knowing she would be out and with her husband shortly. If the stupid inheritance place tried to suck her into another one, she’d tear the whole damn place down.

***

Elron looked around at the insides of the pill furnace with awe. It was almost its own spatial realm, a priceless treasure that a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator should not possess. This was inside her sack the whole time? The formations and treasures contained within were surprising as well.

It was a powerful sealing formation, and he could see it was based on heaven and earth reversal. Heavenly energy would enter the formation’s pathways, and the energy would be transformed by several natural treasures.

Earthly pillars held up, but also restricted the heavens. The starry sky blanketed the pillars, limiting the earth and enhancing it with its majesty. Within the center was a strange array, which would take the transformed energy from the heaven and earth formations, and…do something with it, which he was unsure of at the moment.

It was one of the many methods she’d learned under his tutelage. There were various treasures of different origins, ones of immense value.

Each and every single one was a rarity and quality that was well within what a Core cultivator would covet, and the various special energies were balanced across the runes of the formation. In truth, Elron was kind of pissed. He probably could have escaped using all this nonsense from the beginning! But how could he know she was so rich? He had sealed all spatial devices within his realm, to prevent escape.

But he thought it was strange. He cultivated the dao of order, and yet the seal had opposing–

“Who are you?”

A male’s voice rang out, and Elron was shocked he hadn’t spotted it until it spoke–he was simply too busy observing the dozens of other treasures in the room. It was a flame placed within the center of the opposing formation, a dark spirit flame which caused Elron to frown. It was clearly a Nascent Soul cultivator’s flame.

“I’m Elron, a master of formations.”

“A formation master?” the flame snorted. “That girl beat you too? So what do you think, is there a way out of this place?”

Elron inwardly sneered as he observed the formations once more, with new eyes. Of course there was a way out, there was always a weakness to any formation. Their opponent was young and hadn’t even formed her core yet. Her energy wasn’t limitless.

All it would take would be for her to allow the pill furnace to run out of energy, or a moment of weakness and the protections would be lowered. It was then that he could target this… living alchemy flame to destabilize both formations, and make his escape.

However, there was another set of formations and runes, that he didn’t quite understand even with his vast knowledge. The heaven and earth formation of opposing energies was meant to seal and drain them, to both weaken them and empower the seal itself–this, he was familiar with.

The second set was made from some runes that seemed to echo the truths of the demon’s path, the draconic and kitsune flames that she had used. There were even more than that, runes that held meaning he couldn’t discern, that almost looked like tribal paintings or drawings.

He was just about to ask the other to introduce himself, when suddenly, a third being joined them.

It was a creature of pure fire, about the size of a child. Eyes and lips floated on its fiery face, a smile of pure joy as it began to flit about and spin as it flew through the innards of the pill furnace. It looked over all the treasures with excitement, but it was most interested in one thing. Of course, it was interested in the dark spirit flame, observing it with interest as it even drank some of its flames.

The spirit flame whimpered and raged against the creature shouting incoherently at it, but the childlike flame just laughed and continued its flittering about the furnace.

Elron and the dark flame were sealed and couldn’t do anything to the creature, but it flew around unimpeded, its bright golden eyes shining with curiosity.

The runes from the second formation lit up, of both blackish purple flames on his side, and flames of red and gold on the dark spirit flame’s side. Powerful energies that Elron knew were not Qi at all joined, ones that he had never encountered.

The heaven and earth formation lit up, and the weight and drain on Elron and the dark flame increased, feeding the flaming runes. Elron was already heavily injured, and didn’t have a whole to give. He only barely held onto his own consciousness, using his strength of will.

A fire ignited directly in the center from the array, a swirling flame matching the woman’s dual paths.

A voice echoed out from their captor, “You two both taught me valuable lessons. Thankfully, it wasn’t that old guys trapped in a spatial realm wanting to hand over their heritage have bad intentions. No! It was that stealing a body, or turning someone into a pill is totallyokay on the path of immortality.”

Elron grimaced, his fear and anxiety increasing–if he had his body, his skin would be filled with goosebumps and his hairs raised. Now that he had a moment to think, he realized something else. This wasn’t just a place or room that he would be sealed in. It was a pill furnace, which meant…

“Now, the problem is… you’re both trash and little more than ghosts. But my friend here, why, she’s just so nice and cute, isn’t she? I’d really like to help her out, and you both taught me interesting methods. It’ll take some experiments, but I think I’ve already learned enough to turn you into nourishment for my friend!”

Elron roared, “This is unorthodox. The heavens will strike you down!”

Fhesiah snorted. “Oh really? Just where were these heavens when you tried to take over my body, or that guy tried to turn me into a pill to do the same thing? Anyway, this is an eye for an eye, and my friend here is without sin. I’m just going to turn you guys into some juicy flames, slowly. They just so happen to be what she loves to eat. The heavens have no problems with that.”

The dark flame spirit spoke up, “Wait! Have mercy, and I will teach you–”

“I’ve learned all that I need from someone like you, thank you very much. Just how many had entered your realm that you killed or consumed before me? Oh, and one more thing, Elron. This pill furnace is stocked with enough energy to power the formation for a few years. Also, I’m a member of the Framework–I cannot die of anything but old age. Now, I got a hot date with my husband, and I gotta go for now. Toodles!”

Elron was filled with despair from her words–it was clear there was nearly no path for escape, only the possibility of someone stealing the furnace now. But if someone managed to steal such a treasure from her–would Elron be any better off?

The flames in the pill furnace increased in their intensity, and the energy within began to distort the light in the chamber. More energy was drained from Elron, the fires painful as they broke down his nascent spirit and fueled the flames building in the center of the furnace.

The once happy and joyful fire spirit’s smile turned ominous to Elron, as she absorbed the pure flames gathering in the center of the pill furnace. Agony rippled through his spirit body as it was torn apart, to fuel the arrays somewhat of his own design.

This time, he was unable to hold on to his consciousness.