Jump 353: Generic Xianxia

Jump #353: Generic Xianxia
>Five of Cups (Disappointment), reversed: Dissatisfaction gives way to a new hope and understanding.
>Age: Thousands Of Years
Wait, really?
>Location: Free Choice
>Identity: Ancient Mentor
>Scenario: Brew the Elixir of Transcendence
I like the sound of this elixir. I'll be highly interested in seeing whether it can be brewed more than once, for that matter. Or maybe just keep it stored and make
>Drawbacks: (+1500) A Longer Stay: 80 Years, Animal Aggravation, Enemy Assassin Clan, Bandits, Demon Attacks, The Broken Wheel
Well, if I'm "thousands of years" old, another ninety in this jump before moving on won't be the end of everything, will it now? Though wild animals will definitely take issue with me. And bandits. And assassins. And demons. And the cycle of reincarnation being broken. Huh, that last one sounds like something I need to fix. Actually a lot of these sound like things I should fix.
>Teach Me, Master (1900)
If I am to mentor others, then I must be willing to learn that which I do not already know. Being the Xianxia Protagonist was tempting, but this won out.
>The Basics (Free, Mentor)
Well, if I'm a master, I'd certainly HOPE I have the basics down by now.
>You Do Your Master Proud (1600, Mentor)
Now, this is important. I can teach all kinds of skills. First thing I need to pass down to any students is how to learn. Then how to teach. Everything else after that is just the icing on the cake.
>Living Saint (1200, Mentor)
This is one with promise - the more I experience and the more I grow as a person, the more my power grows. Now, I'm not going to be silly and stay here for millions of years to be able to master this power, but I am most definitely going to keep this.
>Martial Arts (Free)
Again, if I can teach, by now I know martial arts sufficiently well.
>Cultivator (Free)
TRAIN my SOUL? ...whoa, I'm getting deja vu here.
>Pharmacist (1000)
Well if I'm going to brew the Elixir, I certainly need to know how.
>Reading Glasses (Free, Mentor)
I should find a mana-efficient way to reproduce these. Being able to read a book almost as fast as pages are turned is very handy.
>Old Reliable (850, Mentor)
Another upgrade to the Black Blade. A straight-up upgrade to the weapon, and the more I use it, the more powerful it will get. Never mind that it already does that slowly... now it's just not so slow.
>Haunted Printing Press (550, Mentor)
Now this, this is just freaking neat. I'm going to write manuscripts for people to learn what I know, I'm going to put them in the printing press with the supplies to make a thousand copies, and I'm going to distribute them. And they'll be as effective as me teaching someone directly. For two years. Including teaching perks. Which I have a lot of. Fuck the hell YES.
>A Faithful Blade (500)
Another upgrade to the Black Blade. If I throw it, it'll reappear in my hand at will. Handy, especially if fighting against the sort of enemies it was forged to fight.
>Alchemist’s Refining Equipment (Free, Pharmacist)
Obviously if I'm going to make things, I'm going to need the hardware.
>Band of Brothers (0)
500 points for eight companions. They'll have plenty of time to enjoy the local sights.

On my first morning in this world, I stretched, got out of bed, enjoyed a simple breakfast, and set forth to collect the essence of the Moon Lily, which grows in one place once a decade. While on the road to leading to the peak of the mountain upon which the Moon Lily grows, I was waylaid. Now, this wouldn't normally be an issue, but it was an assassin demon bear bandit.

I looked skyward and shouted, "You really wanted me to suffer, didn't you?!"

Hollow laughter rang in the distance.

I deal with it, and the eight other demon bears, before doing what I set out to do. The remaining issues I ran across on the road were more mundane (normal assassins, not demonic bear bandits) but... well, the point was made. Something had to be done.

Now, I won't bore you with the details. My entry into this world was at a most fortuitous time, and despite facing a particularly large number of problems, I was at last able to obtain all of the ingredients I needed to make the elixir. Things like the dawn's first light, the giggle of a newborn child (oddly harder to find than I expected), the sigh of a mother seeing her son off to war, the morning dew from the furthest mountain. I got every bit of it, fighting tooth and nail practically every time I went out. And WITH jumper-level cheating to make sure I was able to do it, it STILL took me ten years.

Ten. Years. Of bandits. Wild animals. Assassins. Demons. Ghosts.

Legend has it that the Elixir of Infinitely Ascending Dragon Wave Particle Spiritual
Transcendence (or, more simply, the Elixir of Transcendence) takes a century to be properly prepared. As it turns out this isn't entirely accurate, it's only ninety years, but usually such a task would be trusted to a guild of alchemists and would fetch a king's ransom if it were able to be made.

After the initial preparations were made, I was free to attend to other responsibilities, however. For example, I'd neglected that my presence had disrupted the reincarnation cycle, and the effects of that imbalance... I'd only paid attention to my task until now. Now that I was free to wander and see the world around me, I noticed the winds were absent of a particular noise.

No young children. Anywhere.

This is the sort of thing that sounds a brown note.

The following five years were spent running around like crazy, petitioning the celestial courts, trying to do work on the ground, and basically smooth things over so that humans could get pregnant again. The flow of souls WAS eventually restored, but for the remaining eighty-five years, I was tasked with constantly finding the restless dead and bringing them back to the wheel of karma so they could be reborn.

Fortunately, part of this coincided with the constant incursions of demons, and while it took time, I liberated the souls they'd stolen, sealed the breach between their home and the mortal realm, and that made things much easier.

With the demons dealt with, my attention was turned to the constant stream of bandits and assassins. It took twenty years of concerted effort, and putting my printing press to work to ensure that literacy became a thing, so that the economy of the country was brought up to a better standard and food became more plentiful. Remove the base reasons, and most violent offenders will be happy to live a normal life. Not all, but most. The assassins... well, I ended up forming a counter-assassin group. Very secretive and hush-hush but they were dedicated to protecting those in power and dealing with such threats however they had to.

Animals still hated me, but such is the way of things.

I trained a large number of students. Many directly, but most indirectly - training others to go out, serving as teacher-philosophers. If I had a shorter period of time to work with it might not have gone as well as it did, but it did go surprisingly well. A little too well. I think I accidentally kickstarted an industrial revolution.

Uh. Whoops. Oh look I finally finished brewing my potion, looks like that's my cue, I'm out of here!

(I assumed the celestial courts were kind enough to at least spare humanity the trauma of having nothing but stillbirths. That would be horrifying beyond belief, and if the reincarnation cycle got restarted everyone would just be getting abortions to spare themselves the trauma, if anything at all.)