The Sow's Battle Cry Manual

I tried recalling the internal cultivation ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠methods from the games I'd played.

There was one you could only use if you'd picked a female character.

The limits of my martial path are the limits of my world.

The method was long and profound, so memorizing it had taken quite a while. Why had I bothered? Because in the game, you had to type the whole thing out every single time you wanted to use it. I'd kept it in a notepad and looked at it so often that, at some point, I'd just learned the entire thing by heart.

Martial arts are the framework through which we perceive and understand the world, and the scope of the martial arts I practice is the scope of the world I can recognize.

I recited the game's cultivation method slowly, carefully. A ticklish sensation stirred in my lower belly.

Wait. Is this… a period?

I flinched at the unfamiliar feeling for a second, then shoved the thought aside.

Stray thoughts. Get rid of the stray thoughts.

Letting your mind wander while reciting a cultivation method could lead to qi deviation. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Even the old martial arts novels said so. I refocused and concentrated on the formula.

The moment I finished reciting every last line, something shifted inside my body. Just below my navel, I could feel a current of energy that was unmistakably mine — and yet completely foreign.

Is this a dantian?

When I willed the energy to move, it moved exactly as I wanted. I glanced at the chat.

The chat was exploding. When I tried shifting the energy from my dantian into my hand, it flowed there as naturally as breathing.

Alright, then…

I pressed my hand to the Constellation True Name Identifier.

Pour the energy into this paper.

The energy moved into the sheet exactly as I willed it. And then—

Fwoooosh—!

The paper blazed with blue light, flooding the entire studio apartment.

"…That's the correct answer."

Donation messages poured in like a flood.

Even I Pulled Out a Mountain — Xiang Yu, whose true name I'd just correctly identified — was donating in open amazement.

"Thank you for the donations. I'll do all the reactions in one go before I end the stream. But is this really that big a deal?"

"I mean…"

Even so, it still didn't feel real. Because all I'd done was use a cultivation method straight out of a game.

And it was an adult game, at that.

The game this method came from was an eroge. Fail to cast the cultivation method mid-combat and you got an instant lewd scene. That kind of adult game.

Not like I can say that out loud.

I hadn't created the method. I'd just used one from a game. It wasn't like I had some innate martial genius. …And even if I told them, nobody would believe me.

"Well, I got lucky."

I checked the clip Merciless Dumpling Slayer had posted.

"Holy crap."

It hadn't even been up that long and it already had this many views? I watched the video. There I was, sitting with my eyes closed. A few seconds of stillness — then my body began to glow with a soft light. No wonder everyone had known instantly that I'd created a cultivation method.

So that's what it looked like.

The light grew stronger, pouring out from behind me like a radiant halo. Before long it faded, I opened my eyes, and the video ended. I'd never seen any of that myself, so watching it was actually kind of fun. I scrolled through the comments.

Pretty much every other comment was some variation of pure shock. Before I knew it, the Constellation viewer count had jumped from fifty to a hundred.

Newbie Constellations, judging by the polite speech.

"Why do you keep bringing up whether I'm a virgin. Get out, you bastard."

There. That ought to drop the viewer count a bit.

I could feel mana steadily gathering in my dantian. At first I'd thought it was period cramps, but no — it was the sensation of a newly formed dantian, created the moment I completed the cultivation method.

Come to think of it, when does this body even get its period?

I was in a woman's body now, so it was going to happen eventually.

Not right now, so whatever.

Periods were a later problem. No point worrying about them now. For the moment, I needed to focus on the stream.

Ah. The name.

Let me say this again: I saw this cultivation method in an adult game. An adult game. I'm saying it twice because it matters. And because it came from an eroge, the name was… not normal.

It was called the Sow's Battle Cry Cultivation Method, if I remember right.

There was a scene where the protagonist told an enemy the name and shouted, "Ah, the Sow's Battle Cry Cultivation Method! It's the Sow's Battle Cry Cultivation Method!"

…I really did not want to use that name as-is. I at least wanted something I could say out loud in public without dying inside. I couldn't exactly yell that in real life.

Then again, nothing suitable was coming to mind either.

Wait. Hold on. This is a cash grab waiting to happen.

A brilliant idea struck me.

"Alright! Opportunities like this don't come every day! A chance to name the cultivation method! Whichever Constellation donates the most gets to recommend the name, and that's what we'll go with!"

Crowdfunding the name of my cultivation method.

"Come on, come on. Five-minute auction starts now! We'll go with whatever name the top donor picks!"

"Ah! The very moment I speak — My Mom Looks Like a Woman has donated a hundred coins!"

And just like that, the auction for the cultivation method's name began.

"Three, two, one! Auction closed!"

Exactly five minutes later, I wrapped it up. Part of me wanted to drag it out and milk more donations, but if I did that the Constellations watching right now might get bored and leave. I didn't need that many Coins anyway. This was more than enough.

I currently had 21,250 Coins. Between what I'd vacuumed up — no, earned — from the auction and the donations from creating the cultivation method, I'd crossed the twenty-thousand mark.

The Constellation who got to name the method was Primate GOAT, who'd dropped a massive donation at the last second to snatch first place.

WhyTheHometown, who'd come in second, seemed disappointed but not particularly upset about it. I'd been fretting over what to do if someone rage-quit, but that worry turned out to be pointless.

"Of course. Name it whatever you want."

Other Constellations chimed in with suggestions, but Primate GOAT wasn't taking any of them.

"Sure. The core idea is that the limits of your martial path are the limits of your world. To explain a bit more carefully…"

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠summarized the cultivation method for him.

"A maniac? I'll have you know I'm a perfectly gentle and refined person at all times."

I ignored the roasting chat and checked Primate GOAT's messages.

It meant that martial arts were the very phenomena of one's world.

Is this Constellation from China?

Earlier the others had been snickering about Yin-Yang Dual Cultivation and Giant Breast Divine Art, but this one was taking the naming completely seriously.

Well, works for me.

If something like Giant Breast Divine Art had actually won, I would've been devastated. It still would have beaten the original Sow's Battle Cry Cultivation Method, but only barely.

With the name settled, what remained was my original goal — negotiating with I Pulled Out a Mountain.

"We got sidetracked into creating an internal cultivation method while talking about true names, but the fact remains that I know I Pulled Out a Mountain's true name, right?"

"Ugh, stop with that old-man speech pattern already."

That bit was committed as hell.

"Anyway, asking for money on a regular schedule would be awkward for both of us, right? So I brought this feature."

I was going to use this to build a subscription system.