Sixth Jump Snippet: Battle Through The Heavens Part 1

Jump 6: Battle Through The Heavens

Origin: Clan Member
Location:
Perks:
- Cultivator [000]
- Peerless Beauty [000]
- Clan Genius [100]
- Receptarier [200]
- Flame Mantra [600]
Items:
- Cultivator Clothes [000]
- Special Technique [000]
- Heavenly Flame [500] (2nd Rank)
Companions:
- Import [200]
Drawbacks:
- Happier Stay [+000]
- Higher Realms [+000]
- Longer Stay [+100]
- Wanted [+200]
- Mister Protagonist [+300]

Sunny
Origin: Magical Beast
Perks:
- Cultivator [000]
- Pass It On [000]
- Heavenly Element [300] (Fire)
Items:
- Beast Flame [000]
- Pool of Cultivators [100]

Sacred Pixie
Origin: Artisan
Perks:
- Cultivator [000]
- Grand Aurora [000]
- Receptarier [100]
Items:
- Calm Cauldron [000]
- Garden of Deadly Eden [300]

Pandora
Origin: Demi Human
Perks:
- Cultivator [000]
- Beast Soul [000]
- Glutton [200]
Items:
- Beast Transformation Pill [000]
- Homunculus Body [200]

Palutena
Origin: Clan member
Perks:
- Cultivator [000]
- Peerless Beauty [000]
- Clan Genius [100]
- Integration [200]
Items:
- Secret Technique [000]
- Ocean Heart's Armour [100]

Scenarios:
- Make Xiao Great Again
- Fiery Flaming Fusion

  For the first time in a long while, Valki started a jump without any companions with him. He awoke as Xiao Valki, heir of the Xiao clan. He immediately contacted his companions to find out where they were and was surprised by the results. Sacred Pixie was working as an apprentice receptarier in the Pill Tower. Sunny, while technically a Heavenly Flame, had taken on the form of the Seven Colored Sky-Swallowing Serpent after being adopted by a family of them. She was calling herself the Queen Fairy Flame. Pandora was part of a small snakeman tribe. That would be interesting to deal with later. Palutena was the most surprising. She had inserted in as Yan Ran, from the Na Lan clan. This unfortunately meant that they were soon to be engaged unless they could find some excuse to break it off, hopefully one that didn't involve a three-year-later fight. Leo and Birdy had appeared just slightly out of town. All of them were given young bodies, and all of them were finding excuses to make their way to Valki as soon as possible. Birdy and Leo arrived pretty quickly, only being across town. Valki introduced them to his family as some friends of her who had lost their family, and asked if they could stay there. His then father happily agreed. His mother made a comment about already getting the ladies but Valki studiously ignored that, as well as the snickers from Birdy at the light blush dusting his cheeks.
  The next to arrive was Sunny, who had little reason to hide her travel from anyone. She was outside waiting for Valki by the end of the next day. The other three informed them that they would be there soon, but it would still take a while. Once they were there, Valki felt safe enough to ingest the Heavenly Flame into the Flame Mantra. Given the strength of the flame, being the strongest known natural Heavenly Flame, the Flame Mantra immediately improved leaps and bounds. It leapt all the way to a low Di level Dou Qi method. Thing got slightly weird when Sunny realised that the flame didn't actually disappear, but merely became connected to the cultivators souls at a very base level. She immediately volunteered to enter the Flame Mantra too, given she was technically a sapient Heavenly Flame. While hesitant, knowing that even in the unlikely event she did die she would come back later, he agreed to give it a try. It worked out quite well in fact. She integrated with the Void Devouring Flame inside him and was able to transmit a reasonable portion of her power to him. The Mantra once again evolved to reach the pinnacle of Di tier from the power of the Fairy Flame, and Valki gained a permanent resident in his soul. At least it meant they didn't have to explain yet another girl who needed a home.
  Speaking of girls, not a week after they arrived in this world a familiar face finally showed themselves. Xun Er had arrived to stay at the Xiao clan for the foreseeable future. She had a rather dull look in her eyes that Valki could not stand, so he resolved to add some life to them. The first way he thought about doing it was by alleviating some of the pressure she would be feeling from her clan by helping with her cultivation. Since he was significantly better at stealth than his canon counterpart, she was always definitely asleep when he visited her to strengthen her body, even if he had to put her to sleep to do it one or two times. What he would do was swap into her body and cultivate in her place. Sadly his senses were much worse in her body and he didn't want to interrupt the cultivation so he had to scout around before starting to make sure they were would not be disturbed. This pattern carried on for a few months, with Xun Er visibly confused as to how her cultivation was improving so well, before things went wrong.
  One night Valki forgot to cast the sleep magic, having grown slightly lax, and Xun Er woke up in his body. With all the advantages Valki's body had over hers, she was much faster to become aware of the situation than Valki. This was also admittedly partly due to the fact that Valki was deep in cultivation and not really paying his surroundings any mind. He refused to admit to giving off a quiet shriek when he opened her eyes to find his staring back at her brimming with curiosity. When she asked for an explanation, he came up with a small excuse on the fly about having come across a technique that let the cultivators souls switch. He admitted to wanting to help her cultivate and so had used it on her. Valki could physically see the cogs click into place in her mind as she realised he was the one who had been causing her cultivation to progress so quickly.
  She promised not to tell anyone else about the incident, as long as he promised to not do anything bad with her body. Valki took note that she didn't tell him to stop doing it though. After that, Xun Er quickly found herself integrating into the group of three. She seemed especially close to Valki, who immediately recognised the situation for what it was. He didn't give it much thought considering the ages of everyone involved currently, deciding it was something to deal with later.
  A week later they received a visit from Pandora, who had given up on trying to convince her family to let her come and snuck out on her own. Once she learnt what Sunny had done (who had made herself rather comfortable inside Valki's soul) she became intrigued and, not one to be outdone, decided to try it too. She quickly reverted back in the flaming ball of will and soul that Valki had known when they met and flowed into his cultivation. Once inside his soul, she claimed her own little corner of it and quickly figured out a way for her to leave and enter when she wished. Valki allowed it, not wanting to trap her. He was simply happy that the Flame Mantra had reached the Tian level without him really having to do anything.
  Of course, having a chaotic goddess of illusions inside your soul was just asking for trouble and Valki was dismayed to discover one day that his body had changed into that of a girl. He, or rather, she looked like a younger version of Pandora. Pandora had placed an illusion over his soul itself to trick his body into thinking that the soul inside it looked like her. In true Battle Through The Heavens fashion, his body had then changed to fit the 'soul'. This ordinarily could have been handled fairly easily but his father had been the one to wake her up that morning so was well aware of the issue. He called in all the experts he could about it, but all of them were equally stumped. All that they could tell him was that Valki's body was flooded with Yin energy somehow. Eventually one of them took note of a flame inside his cultivation which was giving off Yin energy and falsely assumed it was the cause. When he/she was questioned on it she was forced to offer the information that she had found a peaceful flame in the forest and taken it in, letting some of Sunny's rainbow flame curl around her finger.
  One of the experts, a prospective receptarier, grew extremely excited at the sight of what looked to be a new or undiscovered flame. When they left Valki took note of a gleam in his eyes that bode ill. The transformation lasted for two days before Valki's Divine Soul finished destroying the illusion and he reverted to normal. Sadly that whole incident became a subject of teasing from other members of the clan, mainly those who were jealous of Valki's great speed at cultivating. It was the taunting of children though, so Valki easily ignored it.
  Things settled down and were peaceful again for almost a full week, before a group of snakemen found their way into the area, looking for a lost blue haired child. While there, they happened to hear word about a local clan heir briefly turning into a young girl whose appearance almost perfectly matched that of their child. Naturally they went to investigate and sure enough found traces of her energy in the area which were even now fading. They sent word for some people to be stationed there to keep an eye of the heir, while they went to follow the trail which had carried on out of the town again. What they didn't know was that Pandora had purposely lead them away because she couldn't be bothered to deal with them, having sensed their arrival immediately.
  The next of their group to arrive in the town was Palutena, who was brought to visit by her father. While there, Valki and Palutena's parents kept trying to push them together, not that much pushing was needed. From the outside perspective Palutena, or Yan Ran, immediately clicked with Xiao Valki's group. When Xun Er learnt about the engagement she was put out slightly, but merely doubled down on spending time with Valki. Part of her mind whispered that if she wanted, she could use her clan to put a stop to the marriage, or delay it at the very least.
  Palutena was forced to leave when her family started to head back, though promised that when she was old to act independently (in her families eyes) they could meet back up. A few nights after that happened, a few bodies turned up dead in the middle of the Xiao courtyard. Dressed head to toe in black cloth, it was obvious they were assassins but the elders were mystified as to how they were killed. For all intents and purposes they appeared to have been struck by some heavenly lightning. Despite this, the fact that assassins came to the compound was enough to cause an uproar within the clan and security measures were increased threefold. What had actually happened was that they had encountered the security measures that Valki and Sunny had set up, designed to respond accordingly to threats. They ramped up to fatal, so the assassins would have had to suffer through several warning traps before it got to the level it did.
  While his father was investigating who could have sent the assassins, Valki was spending time with Leo, who had been feeling slightly neglected in recent times. They had taken some time off to retreat to the forest just outside of the clan for some alone time, leaving a note to say they would be back soon for anyone who came looking for them. They spent a peaceful evening together, watching the sun set behind the mountains, before they finally headed back.
  Eventually they managed to connect the assassins to the apprentice receptarier from earlier. The assassins had been sent to kidnap or kill Valki in order to obtain his special flame. The apprentice was confronted about the incident and was chased out of town, with the warning that if he returned, he would be put down. Valki knew it was probably a mistake not to kill him given the world they were currently in, but refused to head down that path. They sent word to Pixie about the guy, and she said she would be on the look out for any machinations he set in motion. She also informed them that the Pill tower would not be letting her go any time soon. She had shown a prodigal level of skill at being a receptarier and was being given special attention by some of the higher ups.
  After that, the only interesting to happen for another year or so was a small group of snakemen moving into the town, disguised as normal humans. Regrettably for them Pandora was a literal god of illusions, and being inside Valki had given him a modicum of her ability. He was able to see through their weak disguises immediately. They didn't seem to there to cause any trouble though, so he respected their privacy. For all he knew, this was a standard part of canon.
  The next year or so passed quickly, with Valki progressing swiftly in his cultivation while also learning receptarier stuff from Pixie as she herself learnt it. With the help of Valki, both Xun Er and Valki were able to reach the level of Dou Zhe by the age of seven. This news naturally spread across the land like wildfire. It was years younger than anyone else in living memory, possibly even ever. This brought with it its own trouble. A familiar receptarier, who had reacted 1st Stage receptarier, was spreading rumours that they had managed to do so because of a special beast flame that one of them had found. This was piquing the interest of various sects all over that would pay huge amounts for access to something that could help their younger members so much. It suddenly became a not uncommon sight for a clan beauty to 'pass by' and decide to visit the Xiao clan to meet him. They were all chased off pretty quickly by Leo and Xun Er. Leo lacked the advantages Valki had so her cultivation, while fast, wasn't quite at their level. Not that that mattered much since she could rely on her other abilities to more than make up the difference. The constant harassment was calmed down when Pixie made an appearance and all but claimed him for the Pill Tower when he grew older. The local clans were nowhere near strong enough to contest with such a power organisation so backed off.
  Well, all but one. The 'secret' snakemen had visited at one point and Valki had been unable to hide his interest in visiting the desert at some point when it was brought up in casual conversation. They invited Valki to come visit their hometown at some point and he tentatively acccepted. To be honest the snakemen were getting slightly desperate. They had still not been able to locate Pandora and Valki consistently seemed to have a trace of snake like energy near him (from both Pandora and Sunny).
  With his brothers to act as a guide, he would be able to visit the desert in half a years time, on the condition that he was able to raise his cultivation to 3 star Dou Zhe before then. This wouldn't be too much of a problem for him though. With the Tian rank Qi method combined with his powerful soul force his cultivation would continue to swiftly grow. In fact, he managed to reach 4th star a few days before the deadline. It was at this point that Valki decided it was better to start hiding his cultivation once he got back from the desert. Act like it had bottle-necked. While fast growth would get him attention and fame, too much would quickly attract the unwanted kind of attention. With that decided, Valki headed off to the desert.