Pandora Unchained - a Cultivation Progression Fantasy

With a 140,000-gold bill from Mr. Sanderson looming over his head and only 40,000 gold to spare after current expenses, Sorin had no choice but to dive back into concocting tinctures for the Kepler Clan. Elder Calvin was only too happy to help him in this regard, as he was currently the only apothecary in Delphi who could concoct ruby-grade unsealing tinctures with a decent chance of success.

"They're a bloody nightmare," said Elder Calvin. "And what's worse, either the entire batch succeeds or the entire batch fails. Sure, I can make ten doses at a time, but what good is that when I only succeed one time out of ten?"

Given his current cultivation level, Sorin's concoction abilities were now lacking. Economically, making ruby unsealing tinctures made the most sense, so he took a calculated risk and burned through 200,000 gold in poisonous ingredients on credit over the next month.

The expenditure proved worth it as soon as he was able to concoct C-tier poisons without any issue and could also concoct a few B-tier poisons without any issue—the Ruby Unsealing and Sealing Tinctures included.

The first thing Sorin did was naturally concoct a few doses of sealing tincture just in case the bone rot acted up again. It was currently well-behaved thanks to the corruption guarding his body, but there was no telling when either one would go out of control. Moreover, his need to release pent-up Violence and Madness was increasing steadily. After only a month, he was in moderate need of an outlet.

Thanks to the Ten Thousand Poison Canon, Sorin's odds of concocting a Ruby-Grade tincture were greater than 50%. By going all out, he was able to earn 20,000 gold per day. In ten days, he paid off his debt for training ingredients, and after five more days, he finally cleared his debt with Mr. Sanderson.

Uncomfortable with being penniless once again, Sorin spent two more weeks shoring up his monetary reserves while simultaneously practicing his spell-breaking abilities. He also spent time in the Kepler Clan's hospitals analyzing different bone structures and used Ophiuchan Simulation to devise a theoretical basis for unsealing those structures. Soon, he had a good idea of how to proceed and sought out the elder to begin the next phase of his training.

"So, you're ready to practice for bone unsealing, huh?" said Elder Calvin. "A little ahead of planned, but that's Hope's blessing for you. It's an accelerant, one without any clear downsides. It works just as good for professions as it does for cultivation."

"You say the word 'clear' as though there are hidden intentions behind Lord Hope's actions," said Sorin. "Though let me be the first to say that I would never suspect such a thing."

"Often, the fox's gifts are capricious and up to luck," said Elder Calvin cautiously. "But the higher your cultivation, the more you'll realize that the Evils play a game beyond our understanding. The looming threat from beneath the catacombs and the near-constant turmoil our family faces… there's simply too much happenstance to chalk it up to mere coincidence."

The elder's words confirmed many of Sorin's suspicions and brought his awareness to another part of the big picture. Thus far, he'd only been considering the matter of his family. But now, three God Seeds were involved, as was the Medical Association. Who was to say provincial and national politics weren't involved? Who was to say the evils themselves weren't involved?

That same day, Elder Calvin found Sorin, his first training subject, a man who'd reached the Bone-Forging Realm with fully sealed bones. He was from a moderately wealthy family that had decided to invest in his future, and it fell to the Kepler Clan to administer his treatment.

A physician was present in the room, and the young man was currently unconscious. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't the physician who was to perform the unsealing but Elder Calvin. "Technically speaking, physicians are just as good as apothecaries at performing the treatment. It's just that apothecaries don't often treat bones, and physicians, who often need to treat them, have an easier time learning the necessary spell-breaking arts."

The first thing Elder Calvin did was use his spiritual sense and mana to highlight the man's bone structure. Fully sealed bones had simple and repetitive structures, and Sorin was immediately able to determine the correct application method.

Elder Calvin carefully manipulated the Emerald Unsealing Tincture and injected it into the man's acupoints. He then guided it into various points of his bones, making sure to keep it isolated from the bones as he formed the requisite spell-breaking pattern. He then simultaneously activated the tincture and controlled its erosion rate. Minutes passed as the mana-infused outer crust eventually flaked off, revealing emerald bones that were twice as the original.

"There," said Elder Calvin. "Easy as pie. How confident are you in doing this yourself?"

Sorin shrugged. "Ninety-five percent. I'm only concerned about patient-specific conditions and outlying runic structures."

"Ninety-five percent, huh?" muttered Elder Calvin. "Then let's get a few of these cases under our belt before moving on to Saphire Unsealing."

Bone-unsealing services were one of the clan's biggest money-makers. According to Elder Nolan, the clan's hospitals operated at marginal profits to preserve the clan's image. It fell to meridian opening and bone unsealing physicians to make up the difference. Sorin saw all sorts of issues with such a system, but he didn't comment on it, as countless hours of thought had likely gone into devising this specific strategy.

Sapphire bone unsealing proved much more difficult than emerald bone unsealing. It took Sorin a full two weeks to master the art. Yet when it came to Ruby Bone Unsealing, Sorin encountered a hurdle he couldn't get past no matter how hard he tried.

Sorin's issue lay not with the application of the tincture but with devising an appropriate spell-breaking matrix. Though Ophiuchan Simulation was helpful in this regard, after two weeks of practice, he still couldn't crack a single case.

"It takes time to Master," reassured Elder Calvin. "My suggestion is to study specific sealed structures and see if you can solve those puzzles. I'll help you when you have problems and guide you through the process.

Less than a month remained until the Shrine Descent. Sorin continued meeting with his teammates every month and with Gareth for a weekly checkup. Information trickled in from both Gareth and Lawrence, leaving Sorin very confused about his clan's situation.

It turns out his clan was quite popular. Most people preferred to go to the Kepler Clan for treatment. The Kepler Clan had few instances of malpractice, its prices were more reasonable, its wait times were lower, and its treatment quality was higher than anywhere else in the city.

Simultaneously, the Kepler Clan was badmouthed by just about everyone. They were on the tip of everyone's tongue, be it the common people and rogue cultivators or larger clans and organizations. Both groups labeled them as greedy, even though this wasn't the case on paper, and their behavior often actively undermined the Kepler Clan's influence.

Sorin's first thought was that Melinoë's influence was more terrifying than he'd realized. He went out of his way to inspect various cultivators and mortals to confirm her influence. Fortunately, this proved to be a false alarm. Clinically speaking, the average condition was normal and not indicative of outside manipulation.

Eventually, Sorin's violence became too much for him to handle. He sought out Gareth for help finding demons outside the city to let loose and discovered that this was a common coping mechanism for Night Hawks suffering from invasive corruption.

Unfortunately, Madness wasn't so easily dealt with. "Satisfying Madness involves abandoning reason and embracing change," said Gareth to Sorin over drinks. "Doing so is risky because it tends to permanently alter one's state of mind. The more one 'lets loose,' the quicker one's condition deteriorates."

"I still can't think of what something crazy would look like," said Sorin.

"Simply speaking, it means doing something that breaks the mold," Gareth answered. "Doing something that muddies the waters and makes things more chaotic. Can you think of any dangerous and completely unreasonable sports you'd never want to try? That's low-hanging fruit."

Sorin raised an eyebrow. "I've always wanted to try base jumping."

"Then we'll start with that," said Gareth. "But only after you've intentionally sealed your cultivation."