Chapter 343
World Awakens (II)
Fire roared in vermillion colors, raging in sixteen concentric circles on top of an ashen-cast platform. At its highest, it rose up to nearly forty feet, like a towering blanket of death, yet it never seemed to leave the rather strict confinement of the broad shape.
At the very center of it all, within the smallest circle that was just barely large enough to fit a person within, was a young, wholly naked man, sweat trickling down his quite muscular body. His expression was one of slight discomfort, though not much else.
With each breath he took--as infrequent as they were--a bundle of flames would separate from the circles and get sucked up his nostrils. For a moment, his chest would blare in deep glow before settling down, whereupon his expression of discomfort would lessen ever so slightly.
Hours ticked on by; with each one, the roaring flames lessened slightly in intensity while his discomfort all but disappeared.
By the sixth hour, he exhaled, visible patters of smoke scattering, and slowly stood up, opening his eyes. They were deeply ablaze, as though someone had taken burning garnets and put them in his sockets.
A flutter of Qi flew out from every inch of him, drying the coalesced sweat. A flash of light later, he donned rather flamboyant phoenix-adorned robes and slowly tied up his dark hair into a ponytail, just in time for all fire to cease billowing.
He looked to his left, where an old man was waiting patiently, his eyes covered with horrific scars.
"Young Master, congratulations on achieving the Sixth Rebirth," he said as the young man stepped down from the platform, gracefully landing on the ground below it.
"Hm," he nodded dismissively, taking the parchment the man was holding; it was mostly just a list of 'notable events' that transpired the last year he had spent on the platform. "Hmm? What is this Moon Lake City?"
"Young Master may not know, as it's not that important of a place. It's a small city on the southern outskirts of the Moon Lake. The reason we've included it is that, upon investigation, we discovered traces of the True God Qi."
"The city was destroyed by a True God?" the young man arched his brows in surprise.
"Unlikely. It was probably merely a collateral of a True God's training."
"Hm," he read through the rest of the events. None of them really caught his eye--no, perhaps just one did. "Quite a few Elders of the Holy Lands... died?"
"Were killed, to be precise," the old man explained. "Nine in the past year alone."
"And this is odd why...?" Cultivators died by the thousands every year. Even if they were Elders, the position of an Elder wasn't all that, especially in the lesser Holy Lands.
"Because, based on our research, they were all killed by the same person--an unknown swordsman."
"... hooh. Somebody is targeting the Holy Lands?"
"It is possible."
"Ha ha," the young man laughed gingerly for a moment before setting the parchment on fire. "Good thing I'm not an Elder, then." His grin revealed the depths of his sarcasm. "Take me to Master. I might finally be able to sever that Song bastard in half."
Zhan Qiu had finally reached the peak of the Void Transformation Realm after years of bitter struggle. In the Phoenix Realm, he was determined to sweep it, bringing to their knees his entire generation of cultivators and ascending as their head.
**
Tan Hai felt the rumble of Void Qi rampage through his meridians; if he were any lesser, the sheer quantity of Qi would have ruptured not just his meridians but also his dantian. Even for him, however, it was a dance between life and death, but one he had to endure if he had any hope of catching up to those two monsters at the top.
Though he was ranked third among the Holy Lands' prodigies, there truly were two lists; on one were those first two monsters, standing alone at the summit.
Then there was the second list, a list of 'geniuses' that he topped, but it felt more like a pity list. As though the world were saying, 'None of you will ever amount to much, especially compared to those two; have this pity list'.
But... he didn't want pity.
There was nothing wrong with his cultivation method--it was no worse than that bastard Zhan's--and there was nothing wrong with his talent, either. He didn't believe for a second that his was any worse than those two's.
He exhaled slowly and opened his eyes; twilight hues of the nearby torches lit up the somber walls of the Void Hall. It was cold, more so than in the winter, yet the air was so dry it was barely possible to breathe.
He stood up, the array beneath him disintegrating into the marble floor; he just spent 100,000 high-grade Spirit Stones, but... it wasn't enough. He was still at the peak of the Revolving Core Realm. Though he'd achieved 6 cycles and it was roaring without his input, the cornerstone of the next realm eluded him still: the Law of Space.
Though he was frustrated, there was nothing to be done; this was likely as good as he was going to become for the next few years. What was left was to optimize his state and gather as many tools and artifacts he could before the Realm's opening.
No matter what, he had to find the Divine Void Fruit in that place, which would allow him to immediately break into the Void Transformation Realm. He'd be nobody's second--that was a promise he could not break.
**
A figure encased in white sat atop a boulder looming over a massive cliff. Before it, a grand canyon stretched, the abyss below dark and rumbling, with the colors of sunset washing over the slightly hazy landscape.
The figure held a wooden lyre gently in their hands, fingers strumming the strings in a perfect symphony. The sound was gentle yet wild, contained yet unruly; with each note, Qi seemed to stir around them, as though woken from slumber.
The song ended a few moments later, the last of the notes vanishing into the silence of the fading sun.
"Grand Envoy, may I approach?" a voice spoke from the back as a cloaked figure emerged from the shadows.
"You may." The voice that replied was vague--neither masculine nor feminine, yet also both. "Why are you here?"
"An invitation token arrived for you this morning," the figure cloaked in black said, summoning a strange token from seemingly nowhere and floating it toward the figure sitting atop the boulder. The latter extended their arm and caught the token lithely, giving it a once-over before tossing it back. "Will you not be attending?"
"I will," the figure said. "Do you not hear it?"
"Hear... what?"
"Dao. It is singing."
"... Dao... is singing?"
"Tell them I will be there," the figure said as their edges began to flicker and fade. "For I must see who wrote the notes of such a beautiful song. Amitābha, the light's brilliance is measureless."
Chapter 344
Changes (I)
The journey along the lake's shores has been... dull, to say the least. Every day felt the same--so much so that I've been going a bit mad, to be honest.
It wasn't just the days that felt the same--it was the landscape, too. It never changed.
To our right extended the lake; to our front, just dirt and sand and mud; and to our left were mostly hills and then the trees beyond them. No matter how much distance we crossed, it felt like we were standing in the same place.
For a little while there, I thought we got caught in some entrapment array or something. But, considering that none of the folk who are far wiser than me in these matters ever mentioned anything, that's unlikely to be the case.
... which must mean that this is just one of those places in the world that goes on forever without changing. Kind of like driving through the Midwest, in a way; just an endless road through a song of nothing, lonelier than, I dunno, a teenage boy with a face full of freshly-brewed acne?
We stayed on foot for most of the day, as the temperatures were rather pleasant. Except at night, when they tended to actually drop near or even below zero.
Two days passed like that before I decided to deal out the rewards, as I'd finally finished 'sorting' them.
"Oh, you do it like that!" As we ate dinner, the kids all discussed Martial Arts, as they often did, with Long Tao occasionally throwing out a piece of advice or two toward Xi Zhao. "Thank you, Senior Brother!"
"Humph. Forget that, Zhao. When are you going to break through?" Dai Xiu teased. "Aren't you embarrassed?"
"He he, I am, Senior Sister..." He certainly didn't look embarrassed; he looked more annoyed that she kept asking him that every meal.
"Alright, before you lot start again," I interrupted as I knew if I didn't, they'd be at it all night long. "Master has some rewards to give."
"Oooh!!"
"What kind of rewards?!"
"I can't wait!"
"Whatever Master gives, I will cherish it with my life!"
"..." yeah, for however much they've changed since the start... the core of who they were as kids is still loosely the same. "Khm. Quiet." They finally did quiet down. "First, Rayce."
"Y-yes, Master?"
"Here," I procured the 'Circle of Light', which was simply a pin-sized piece of metal arrayed with a faint, golden hue. "It's called Circle of Light. It allows you to form an independent magic circle."
"...!!!" while others merely exclaimed softly, three people in particular had their jaws hanging immediately: Rayce, Long Tao, and Lao Shun.
They all whipped their heads toward me and looked at me as though I were of an alien species. Having practiced for that very moment, I merely took a sip of the tea, as though it were the most common thing in the world.
"Lao Shun," I took out the Infernal Cauldron--luckily, it came in two sizes: its actual one (which I've yet to test) and the miniature one, sort of like the chariot.
"What's that?"
"A cauldron."
"A cauldron?" he shot me a rather snide look. "Like I'd need a caul--HOLY SPIRIT OF DAO, WHAT IN GOD'S NAME IS THIS?!!!" His tune changed as soon as the little fire-spun thing landed on his palms.
He shot up to his feet like a bullet, his expression in an utter upheaval as his hands trembled as though there were a world-ending earthquake.
"T-t-t-t-his..." I've never heard a grown man stutter that much, and that includes me trying to ask Ashley out back in high school.
"Xi Zhao," I said, taking out Single Severance. Now that he's unlocked the Endless Draws trait, this godforsaken thing can actually be useful without becoming a major handicap. "This is an art that my Father once talked about at length. While extremely powerful, it also settles you into a singular Dao. Before you commit to it, read through the art, look within yourself, and come and talk with me once you've made your decision."
"Y-yes, Master!!" Xi Zhao took it with trembling fingers and immediately opened it up, ignoring everything else.
"Long Tao," I turned toward the old monster, who, actually, winced.
"Y-yes?" and even stuttered! Holy shit!
"You've been at the peak of the Spirit Manifestation Realm for a long time now. It's time you broke through."
"No, I--"
"Trust your Master," I said. "And simply break through. That is my reward to you."
"..."
That left Wan Lan, Dai Xiu, Xing Feng, and Light.
Actually... I didn't have anything specific for them. I could give them random shit from my inventory, but that would be pointless. In more ways than one. What I can give them, though, is whatever martial arts they want.
"M-Master, w-what about me...?" Dai Xiu asked, suddenly acting completely differently to the girl she was when facing Xi Zhao.
"I don't have specific items for you four, but I will hear your wishes," I said. "What Martial Art do you desire? Whatever it is, Master will search the ends of the world to find it for you. In just a few days, at that." I could basically hear them rolling their eyes, even though none of them actuallyrolled them. How is that even freakin' possible?
"In that case," Dai Xiu said. "I want a better movement art!"
"Oh?"
"D-don't get me wrong, Master! Shadow Steps is really amazing, but... I, I feel it doesn't suit me that well."
"What kind of movement art do you want, then?"
"One that would allow me to surprise others! I want to be so fast that they can't follow me with their eyes!" ... yeah, that's not vague at all.
"Very well. Master will see what he can do. Wan Lan?"
"Hmm," she mulled over it for a moment before replying. "An offensive art. Any, really. While we were fighting against those cloaked toads, I realized that, even if I can endure fighting for a long time, I really struggle to defeat them."
"Hm. Good point. Master will--"
"--I want an art that makes me fly!" oi, Light.
"... what?"
"I want an art that makes me fly."
"If, if you keep cultivating diligently, eventually you'll be able to fly without an art."
"No! That will take too long! I want to be able to fly now." She stared at me with those beady eyes, though I knew that behind that stubbornness was likely some insecurity.
"... fine," can I make a flying art? Honestly, I never thought so. I mean, that's something cultivators can do naturally at some point, so why would I? But... heh, the prospect of already being able to fly? "But that's not an Art exclusive to you. What do you want?"
"... uh, I don't know," she said, appearing a bit confused for a moment. "Can I think about it first?"
"Yes, of course. That leaves you, Feng'er." I turned toward the young boy who was quietly nibbling away at some fruit, seeming rather confused by it all. "What do you want?"
"... I can have a reward, too? But... I didn't do anything..."
"That's not true," I said. "You were very brave. Even in the face of those monsters, you were brave. That alone deserves a reward."
"A-ah," he shyly looked down, his cheeks flushing a bit. "I... I don't know what I want..."
"Hmm. How about Master finds something for you, then?"
"R-really?! Okay! I will trust Master!"
"Ho ho ho, it's good to trust your Master," I said. "Alright, alright. Everyone's free to go and test their--" I couldn't even fit in a sentence before they all bolted out. Well, not everyone--Xing Feng stayed. I have a feeling he and I will become best friends rather quickly...
... just how depressing is that, actually?
Chapter 345
Changes (II)
Lao Shun left the tent and made some distance between himself and it before pouring a touch of Qi into the small, toy-sized thing in his hands.
It abruptly flew out and became suspended midair, about ten feet up, spinning in place as a golden halo of light emerged from behind it, shooting out jets of amber-colored flames that washed over the cauldron.
Within yet another flash of light, it grew massively in size and fell, shaking the ground underneath it for a moment. Its surface was glistening with golden, flaming threads, an embossed motif of fire running across the silver-obsidian metal. It had six legs stretching out underneath it, curved along the body and flattened at the heel, and a massive maw as an opening, large enough to turn into a bath for several grown men.
The centerpiece was the infernal sigil from which the flaming threads spun out like spiderwebs; it ran from top to bottom, glimmering and pulsating like a living, beating heart.
Lao Shun's trembling fingers ran gently across the surface, the rough and warm metal accepting his touch; though he didn't know precisely what cauldron it was, who made it, or when, what he knew was that it was likely of higher grade than even the Tower Master's cauldron, the legendary Seven-Songs Cauldron that allowed the Tower Master to become a World-Gathering Alchemist, the highest order one can reach outside the Heavenly Court.
He opened the top and peeked inside; there were several hundreds of arrays carved into its surface, all designed with such meticulous care that they left his head spinning for a moment as he tried to make sense of them.
... but he couldn't.
He suspected that if he truly wanted to see the depths of what this cauldron was capable of, he'd likely have to lock himself up in the Tower's Library for a decade, at least, studying without break.
How did Lu Qi get possession of it?
His eyes inadvertently wandered over toward the tent, his breath caught in his throat. Just how many surprises will that man pull? And though he could find recourse for quite a few, something on the level of this cauldron... wasn't of this realm. This was a so-called 'Heavenly Artifact', something that only a few people in the entire world could get their hands on.
Lao Shun certainly wasn't one of those people--he could have lived a thousand lifetimes, and he still wouldn't have become someone of enough importance to gain a Heavenly Artifact. At least, not if he didn't go to that basement on that fated day.
Now...
He took a deep breath and condensed the massive cauldron back into its miniature form. This gift... went well beyond anything he expected to gain from this journey. No, rather, he merely wanted to have some fun--and yet, in addition to that, he had now gained two priceless things; no, it was actually three, including the cultivation method.
With any one of them, he could return to the Tower and immediately gain the title of an Honorary Master, and spend the remainder of his days in luxury that he couldn't even imagine.
Naturally, none of that intrigued him. If he cared at all about rising through the Tower's ranks, he would not have left it for dozens of years at the time, all so to get away from the stuffy old men who'd sooner burn the world than let anyone usurp them.
Besides, for the past few months that he's been with Lu Qi, he'd already experienced more than in two hundred years before that.
And now, it sounded like they were already headed for another fun little thing. Putting away the cauldron, he smiled, his expectations growing even further.
**
Rayce stared at the golden pin in his hand, his mind in a tailspin; ever since he joined Master's group, it was one surprise after another. He hadn't even gotten around to properly mastering Master's latest gift when another one arrived.
The decision made out of pure insecurity and fear has turned out to be the greatest one he ever could make.
He heard whispers, mostly, about the so-called 'Secondary Circle'. Nobody he knew had one, not even those old Elders, and he mostly considered it wishful thinking. And yet, a chance for it now resided in the palm of his hand.
He trusted Master, perhaps more so than he ever trusted anyone, and if his Master said that this little pin would grant him an independent circle, then that was precisely what it was going to do.
Not delaying any further, he took a deep breath, calmed his existing circles, and pressed the pin against his chest.
There was no 'one correct' place to build circles--most people built them around their hearts, some spread them across their bodies, and some even built them inside their skulls. Rayce opted into the ordinary route--or, well, was talked into it by the Blood Fiend. As such, all his circles were around his heart, but he didn't press the pin there--he put it on the opposite end.
Energy so pure he felt like a newborn exploded out from the pin and swarmed him, swelling through his skin and melding into his bones. It was so pure, in fact, that he felt more energized than ever before in his life. But he knew he couldn't lose himself to this feeling.
Calming down, he guided the loose energy sternly toward the rightmost side of his chest, slowly writing a circle. Letter by letter, rune by rune, the sapped energy from the pin began to coalesce into something beautiful--a Circle of Light, one of the most elusive circles ever. In fact, there was only one Shaman that Rayce knew of that even had it.
... no, now there were two.
It took him about four hours to coalesce and stabilize the circle. Looking inwardly, it slowly spun unto itself, radiating a breathtaking glow. On its own, it could hold twice as much mana as his other four circles combined, but that mana could only be used for Words of Light.
Opening his eyes, there was a sheen of amber within them; a smile spun against his lips, and joy and calm overcame him. From being a puppet meant to be sacrificed, to having no future, to now this... If he told the story to somebody, they'd call it made up. His desire that would never truly happen.
And yet, it was all true.
He was reborn, within and without. All thanks to the grace of a cultivator--cultivator who could procure martial arts, wild treasures, cultivation methods, pill recipes, alchemy cauldrons, shamanic arts, and now entire Circles.
Was there another person alive who could do all that? No, was there ever somebody who could do all that?
Perhaps, Rayce mused, during some of the golden ages of humanity. Today, however, he very much doubted that there was one besides Master.
A grand tomorrow awaited and even grander years to come. He'd become a God-King, he swore, no matter what, and write a Word never written before to repay his Master. He was given a life, and he'd do all in his power to give at least half of that back.
Chapter 346
Changes (III)
Darkness swelled around him as he stepped out onto the lake, his feet glancing against the unmoving water as he made his stride away from the shore.
The moon above was crescent, fading in and out against the carpet of ashen clouds, as he came to a stop about a hundred yards or so away from the shore.
Long Tao could have broken through into the Revolving Core Realm months ago. No, he was fairly confident he could have done even before that if he didn't care at all about the quality of the breakthrough.
But... this was the first true crossroads.
While Foundation Establishment and Spirit Manifestation were impressively important in building the solid core, the Revolving Core Realm was the first grand decider of the final step one could take.
In his past life, Long Tao ended up with a Heavenly Core--immensely rare, especially for these parts of the world, but not perfect. He did make up for the shortcomings later on, but this one kept haunting him until the day he died.
The 'imperfect' core meant that he was bound by the Heavenly Laws, even if he could resist them. It meant that the pricks of the Heavenly Court would mandate Dao, and he couldn't remove himself from that influence.
That was why, in this life, he knew that it was either Eternal Core... or it was death. He spent the past few months preparing, trying to ascertain without a shadow of a doubt that he'd be capable of forging the Eternal Core, but there was no certainty there.
He was going to break through before they were to enter the Phoenix Realm, but with his Master's unusual insistence... he decided to trust the man. He all but laughed at the naivete of his mind but didn't decide against it, ultimately.
Settling down, he took a deep breath and curled his legs into a lotus position, hovering a few inches above water.
Core was precisely that--the core of one's entire existence. Even reaching the Imperial Realm would not change that, as it would still remain a solitary star within the dantian that all other things orbited.
He first began the cycle of the universe; unlike most other cultivation methods, the one he was using--Eternal Voidfiend Sutra--did not have a particular pattern. What it did, however, was reforge all meridians in the body to be a 'single pathway'--it did so by reconstructing not just the meridians, but also the bones, the flesh, the muscles... whatever was in the way of it.
It was grueling, in more ways than one, yet this tattered thing that he found haphazardly tossed aside in one of the ancient tombs was by far the most complex and brilliant method he'd ever encountered in his countless years of living. More than that, however, there was nothing else like it.
It broke away from all principles of cultivation, shunning the notions of 'union' and 'unity'; it did not seek to forge the so-called 'Tri-Body Union of Mind, Heart, and Soul', but to make of them independent centers of creation so that destroying one would do no harm to the other two.
To create a core, he had to coalesce every single bit of Qi that he had in his dantian and flood his meridians with it--flood until there was no more room. At that precise moment, he then had to slam it all directly into his dantian, shattering it and remaking it dozens, if not hundreds of times, using the remnants of the pain as the foundational blocks of the core.
Qi began to swell around him into a whirlpool of visible energy, surging in a spiral before gushing into him. As the floodgates began to open and Qi began to burst through, he felt his entire body ache--it started with dull, numbing pain, but, before long, it was deeply acute. His meridians began to stretch beyond their ordinary capabilities, holding far more Qi than they were capable of, but he had to endure it forcibly until he'd drained his dantian of every last bit of Qi.
Long Tao's expression turned grave, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead as his entire body reddened; he held his breath as he watched the last few bits of Qi pour into his meridians. They'd swelled to nearly twice their original size, cracks visibly appearing along their walls, but they didn't break.
He held steady for a moment longer before accelerating them like a tsunami, shattering his dantian with an immense output of Qi. The shards, like glass, began to scatter, but he quickly coalesced them, reforming the dantian and using the surplus to start condensing his core.
Again!
He shouted in his mind, enduring the pain. It was deeply blinding, but compared to so many other things in his life... it wasn't much.
As there was less Qi remaining, having used some of it to start coalescing the core, the sheer pressure on his meridians lessened somewhat. However, if he didn't decrease it further, they'd still crack and shatter.
With another cycle, the dantian shattered and was remade in the span of just a few seconds, with Long Tao not allowing a single iota of Qi to leak out. With the second cycle, his core grew ever so slightly, the faint sheen of star-like colors slowly beginning to scatter through its glimmering surface.
Cycle after cycle, pain and pressure began to slowly fade away. There was still bruising bleeding onto his skin, with dozens, if not hundreds, of blood vessels having ruptured as they were pressed into by the meridians.
As the pain subsided, coalescing the core became both easier and harder--he could take it a bit more slowly, but he also had to be all that much more careful and deliberate. Any mistake could become a flaw that he would never be able to undo.
His anxiety, however much he wanted to pretend wasn't there at all, quickly began to fade when he saw the sculpted form of the Core--it definitelywasn't a Heavenly Core. There wasn't Dao hanging above it like a warden in a prison. It was alone, suffused with the imagery of the cosmos, ever-changing and moving, full of Qi.
His lips began to curl into a faint smile before suddenly freezing; something was wrong. Though all Qi he had was spent in forming the core, there was something distinctly not hisbubbling within his dantian.
Fear began to seep in that the Heavens had discovered him, and though he desperately tried to reject the strange energy, it was to no avail. Just as he thought he'd have to run away as far as possible, the utterly insane thing happened: a second core appeared, practically identical to the first, from literal nowhere, sitting next to the original like a twin that came into the story through a twist nobody saw coming.
Chapter 347
Changes (IV)
Long Tao was more flabbergasted at the moment than he had ever been before in his life. He poked and prodded the extra core with all his might, thinking that it was Heaven's doing, but there was no trace of Dao. No trace of any arrays.
No trace of, well, anything besides what he expected to find in a core.
For all intents and purposes, it was as though someone had taken his original core and made the perfect replica--
"Master!!" he audibly shouted, shooting up to his feet... but in the process forgetting that he wasn't on land and instead falling into the lake, splashing about.
Not even taking a few mouthfuls of lake water against his will could dull the sheer horror that swept through him.
His eyes widened as they veered over toward the tent--the man knew this would happen. Not only that he'd achieve the Eternal Core, but that he'd also get the second one. How did he get the second one?
It certainly wasn't of Long Tao's make. For however many miracles he could perform, this went beyond a simple 'miracle' and into the realm of just outright impossible. Eternal Core, on its own, was already breaking the notion of Heavenly Laws and tearing free of them, but a secondary core? Of any kind?
There literally was never another--Long Tao would swear on his soul that even among those mythological figures that battled dragons and gods, there never was one with dual cores. The concept itself was antithetical to the realm--the point was to coalesce all Qi into the most durable and high-grade core possible.
Even he, somebody who had spent almost every waking hour of his rebirth, with eons of knowledge, had just barely managed to ensure that he'd create the Eternal Core. But there was no path further than this--there was no 'excess Qi' that could be used to form another.
... and yet, another resided within him.
He remained floating for a long while, his head spinning like the night sky. Even the cold, almost freezing water of the lake couldn't wake him from the terror.
Though his Master had pulled off quite a few feats that would be considered heaven-defying, even the most heaven-defying of them were still things that Long Tao deemed possible, at the very least, however unlikely they may have been. Be it the strange cultivation methods or arts he'd seemed to summon out of thin air that just so happened to be perfect for that particular situation, or the litany of weird trinkets and items, or the ability to 'have' things for both Shamans and Cultivators...
While it all pointed toward an abnormality that was an anomaly among anomalies, at the very least it was all theoretically possible. Long Tao himself, given a year or two to search for his stashes, could replicate a good chunk of his Master's capabilities. He, too, had literal tens of thousands of martial arts and cultivation methods stored in his mind--very, very few of which could be utilized immediately, like Master's, but he could at least mimic the man.
Secondary core?
Even the mere mutter of it would have gotten him laughed out of every hall in existence.
That was precisely why he was no longer merely curious or defensive of the Master and why he was now a bit horrified. Not of the Master, per se, but more so of the source of the Master's powers.
Whatever, or whoever, bannered the strangely kind man... didn't the secondary core imply that they, or it, were equal to Dao? The mere thought caused palpitations and shudders; he involuntarily wanted to punish himself for even thinking that.
Though he loathed the Heavenly Laws and the Heavenly Court, he revered Dao as every other cultivator in pursuit of Immortality--whoever they were, they had to conform to Dao, even if they rejected the Heavens.
Dao was now and tomorrow; it was time and it was place; it was the everything and it was the nothing.
Any doubt was akin to inviting demons into one's heart and ensuring that you would suffer a Qi Deviation during a breakthrough.
... but how could he not doubt? In the face of such overwhelming otherness, was he not to doubt?
He swam out of the lake and to the shore, looking up at the moon that had just come out from between the clouds. There were countless things in the world that could not be explained--that stele standing suspended above the Divine Mountain, with lips and a finger over them carved into the stone. It stemmed from the very first era of existence, the Epoch of Silence, where, supposedly, there was no Dao, let alone any lifeforms.
Then there were so-called Cosmic Voids, spans of the heavens above that seem inordinately bereft of stars. Huge swaths of existence with nothingwithin them.
Beyond all, there were those things: the otherworldly, misshapen amalgamations with no form or meaning.
But, perhaps, he mused with a smile, to combat those, he needed an inexplicable thing of his own. In a way, the second core was even more of an anomaly than those things.
He drew out his sword and struck backwards.
Seemingly nothing happened, but his lips stretched out into a wide smile; it wasn't just the matter of having twice as much Qi as somebody of his realm would have. At the moment of attack, he felt something--the two cores stirred, as they both tried to move unto themselves but also in opposition toward the other.
He had a feeling that, once he'd reached the peak of the Revolving Core Realm, something even more absurd might come out of this. It was already absurd enough, but if his suspicions were to be confirmed... he might never be allowed to utter to another soul the truth of his dantian.
Putting the sword away, he headed back toward the tent.
As his figure faded from the shore, a thin line appeared against it, moving further into the lake's depths and extending across its massive surface, connecting to the other shore on the opposite side.
The water stirred, kicking up a tiny splotch on the outside, while within, a wall spanning to the very depths of the lake appeared, dividing the two sides for a moment.
All life ran and hid, panicked and horrified, as though the world itself were ending.
It lasted for a singular moment, passing by as quickly as it appeared, leaving behind no trace of ever having existed--as though it were a dream.
The world fell silent once again as the ashen clouds covered up the light of the moon, turning the night starkly dark yet again.
Chapter 348
Changes (V)
"Can, can the queen move like this?" While everyone dispersed to do whatever it is that they wanted to, I chose to teach Xing Feng how to play chess.
"Yes, she can," I said. "But why shouldn't you have put her there?"
"Uhm..."
"Just look at the board. Look at what other pieces can also move to that square."
"... a-ah! Master's bishop!"
"Ha ha, good job!" I tousled his hair gently. "That's right. My bishop can now take your queen. What would have been a better move?"
"Hmm..." he fell into deep thought, hanging his head just a few feet above the board. He actually kind of reminded me of myself when I was first starting out, except the board I was using to learn was about 450 years old and so worn out that figures were slipping between my fingers with how smooth they were. "Ah! Maybe put her here?"
"Oh, nice move. Yes. You see how the queen is now pointing at my king, and there are no other figures between? What do we call that?"
"Check!"
"That's right! And what should I do now?"
"Uhm, move the king?"
"I could," I said. "But I can also put another figure between your queen and king. Like this knight."
"Then I'll take your knight, he he~"
"And then my pawn takes your queen."
"A-ah! I, I didn't see!"
"Ha ha, that's alright. But, as I said, you have to think about your moves. As much as you can."
"Hm. I will, Master."
"Okay, so--" I was interrupted by a small flood of the status windows; the first one informed me of their source, which was that Long Tao had broken through into the Revolving Core Realm.
"Is everything okay, Master?"
"Hm? Ah, yes. But it's fairly late; you should go rest for tonight. We'll play more tomorrow."
"Yes, Master! Thank you for teaching me!"
I smiled faintly as he left, with my focus shifting onto the numerous windows.
[--congratulations Host. Your Disciple, Long Tao, has successfully broken through into the Revolving Core Realm. Extra rewards generated]
[Long Tao has successfully formed an Eternal Core]
[...]
[Reward triggered: Disciple Long Tao was rewarded a secondary core, becoming the second-ever to do so. Due to the near-unprecedented feat, extra rewards have been generated]
[...]
[Disciple Long Tao's state has undergone evolution]
[Sword Embryo (Epic) --> Eternal Sword (???)]
[Eternal Sword (???) -- the very essence of the Sword permeates the Eternal Core, granting each strike an inherent Sword QI property. Sword Arts become 500% more efficient and easier to learn]
[Disciple Long Tao has unlocked a new trait: Fiend (???)]
[Fiend (???) -- a broad term for an anomaly that has stepped past the confines of Dao, however thinly]
[Disciple Long Tao has obtained a unique physique: Eternal Duality (???)]
[Eternal Duality Physique (???) -- an evolved form of a divine body, capable of containing two Eternal Cores. Though most of its effects remain locked for a moment, beyond containing two Eternal Cores, it also doubles the density and speed of cultivating, as well as Qi capacity. It allows for mixing any unique Qi energies together, even the contradicting ones]
[...]
[Disciple Long Tao's innate talent evolves further]
[Jade(+) --> peak-Myth(+)]
[...]
[Rewards have been generated]
[...]
[Reward 1: Host's talent evolves; low-Sky --> low-Heaven]
[Reward 2: Creator's Mind is unlocked]
[Creator's Mind (1/1 uses) -- a secondary part of the system-integrated body; allows for deciphering of any art, array, formation, recipe, or direct translation of any document regardless of discrepancies. However, the greater the difference, the longer it will take. 1 charge is gained every 365 days]
[Reward 3: Unsealed Meridians Imbuement (Imperial)]
[Unsealed Meridians Imbuement (Imperial) -- grants the targeted disciple the Unsealed Meridians Physical Attribute]
[Unsealed Meridians -- fashioned in shadows and darkness during the late Imperial Era, its mortal form, once bound by nature's narrow veins, is reshaped into a labyrinth of awakened channels. Qi flows unrestrained--ravenous and undiminished--gnawing at the shell that dares contain it. Many who bore this alteration endured the ravaging shattering of soul, their form undying. Can contain any manner of Qi and reshape it into an image of desire, unconquerable and eternal]
[Reward 4: Heart-Stitching Art evolves; Heart-Stitching Art (mid-Sky) --> Harmonized Heart Sutra (low-Myth)]
[Harmonized Heart Sutra (low-Myth) -- a higher variant of Heart-Stitching Art, allowing for complete immunity to all Heart Curses and Poisons under '???' grade and partial immunity to ALL Heart Curses and Poisons. Gain slight intuition toward recognizing innate hostile intent aimed at you. Gain great resistance towards heart-form illusions]
[Reward 5: Soul-Tempting Lyre (Legendary)]
[Soul-Tempting Lyre (Legendary) -- crafted from the bark of the ancient Woodwrye Tree and containing remnant traces of Soul Spirit. When played by those skilled at the Dao of Music, it can allow for temporary Soul Possession or, in a lesser way, Soul Entrapment. Do note, however, if unskilled musicians try to play it, their own souls might be consumed by the lyre]
[Reward 6: Cycle-Stabilizing Pill (x1) (Host-Bound)]
[Cycle-Stabilizing Pill (peak-Jade) -- increase number of cycles during the Revolving Core realm by 1 and immediately stabilizes the realm. Only useable by Host]
... huh.
Alright, there's a lot to unpack here. Setting aside Long Tao's kind of stupid evolution, I whipped out the Cycle-Stabilizing Pill from the spatial ring. It was fingernail-sized, coated in thick twilight sheen, and seemed rather... squishy to touch. Almost like a piece of jelly candy.
Without any reservations, I popped it in and... holy shit, it's strawberry candy! Seriously, just straight-up strawberry candy!
It quickly melted in my mouth and started to cool my throat on the way down, almost like mentos, before settling somewhere in my depths. Just as I thought the system scammed me, I felt a 'pop' in my dantian and a status window congratulating me on reaching the fifth cycle, just one shy of the peak.
... just like that. No fanfare of any magnitude. Ever since I got the strange bloodline, Depthless, I've been looking forward to exploiting it, but none of the pills that Lao Shun was concocting for the kids were even Jade-tier, let alone above. They were great pills, but just of lower tier, as the kids themselves were of a lower cultivation realm.
Having the ability to just pop any pill and never worry about long-term consequences, even with the restriction of being able to only consume individual pill types only 3 times in a lifetime... kind of a blessed existence.
But forget the pill. For however amazing it is, it's, honestly, kind of... the worst of the rewards? My talent got upped an entire freakin' realm and is now roughly at the level of kids', which is just... ah. I could weep.
Then there's Creator's Mind. My heart paused for a moment at this--though the restrictions were kind of annoying, they just spoke volumes of the fact that this thing was fucking broken. Well, had the potential to be broken depending on how I used it. For now, it will stay unused, wallowing.
The first thing I want to check out is the lyre.
Why?
Because every other reward kind of makes sense. In one way or another, they empower either me or the kids or our potential.
Lyre?
It just feels so... random? Unless, well, unless Long Tao was hiding some musical talent in the depths of his soul, this thing would really just be a prop in my spatial ring.
... or is the system saying that, soon enough, I'll pick up another random kid from the seeming nowhere-fast, and they will have extreme talent in musical arts?
"What do you think?" I mumbled out loud as I took out the lyre. Who was I talking to when there was nobody there?
That tumble of literal weed in the corner. That decided to follow us. The thing that has been crawling into my nightmares ever since we left the city.
I looked over at the corner, but the tumble just shook before 'wind' blew it forward toward me, whereupon it turned into a... cricket and hopped onto my shoulder. Which was where it fell asleep.
"Right. Of course."
Chapter 349
Changes (VI)
The new day started explosively--literally.
I rushed out of the tent as quickly as I could, thinking we were being attacked, only to be met by a sky-high plume of smoke, a charred face, and seared hair.
Lao Shun's state was in equal measure pathetic as it was comedic--he started to cough, yet, despite that, the look in his eyes was one of excitement rather than despondence.
"THIS THING IS BRILLIANT!!" he shouted, his voice hoarse, just as the kids streamed out of the tent too.
"More brilliant than you, since you blew it up." Long Tao tossed a comment before going back in. Hmm? When the hell did he get back to the tent last night?
"Are you alright?" I asked as the kids started their morning exercises--which was just them walking a few yards away and beating the shit out of each other for a while.
"Alright?! I'm the best I've ever been!" Lao Shun said. "This thing... tell me, you're a reincarnation of Dao, aren't you? You saw that I had amazing talent that this mortal plane could never properly utilize, so you descended to forge a path for me to realize my greatness?!"
"... looks like the explosion blew out what few cohesive thoughts you had left in that open space between your ears."
"Heh, deny it all you want. There's no other explanation for how someone like you could be in possession of this... this beauty!" He fell to his knees and hugged the still smoldering cauldron. "The way it burns, the way it holds the materials in perfect equilibrium, the way it manifests yang as though a Divine Vein... aah! She's the most beautiful thing in the world!"
"..." Yeah. This guy has lost it.
I mean, he's never really had it, but he's now officially gone insane.
"What were you doing to cause such a massive explosion, anyway?"
"Trying to concoct a batch of myth-tier pills," he said. "It was something that I tried a few times back in the Tower but couldn't really even remotely do. But now... I was so close. Just a momentary lapse of judgment toward the end. If that hadn't happened... I would have concocted at least three Soul Pagoda Pills."
"Right."
"Heh. It's clear you don't know what kind of a pill that is; otherwise, you would be hugging this thing with me."
"Even if you told me the pills can resurrect the dead, I still wouldn't hug it with you."
"Pretty close! Well, conceptually, at least," he said, finally standing up and miniaturizing the cauldron. There was a not-so-small of a crater left behind beneath it. "Do you know how Holy Lands maintain their status?"
"That's a random question."
"It's not," he said. "The truth is that, every once in a while, a few minor sects would band together to try and oust the Holy Lands from their throne. On the surface level, they would have comparable strengths--but, well, they never do succeed. The reason? Ancestors."
"Wooow. You're telling me that Sects rely on their oldest, strongest cultivators to survive? Wooow. How unexpected!"
"You really can be a sarcastic bastard from time to time," he scoffed but quickly continued before I could get a quip in. "I'm not talking about some random old man that's a few thousand years old, no. I'm talking about figures that are tens of thousands of years old. It is rumored, in fact, that the Eternal Mountain's Ancestor returned from the upper realms and sealed himself as the last bastion of security within the mountain, and that he's a Quasi-Emperor!"
"Ah. I'm guessing those pills you mentioned would be like elixirs of life to them?"
"Hah. Hardly," he scoffed. "Soul Energy is one of the most elusive things in the universe. What Soul Pagoda Pills do is exactly as their name goes--they entrench the remnant soul force, temporarily, into a pagoda. Depending on the quality of the pill, the length can range anywhere from a few months to a few centuries. It doesn't restore Soul Energy, but it puts it in a suspended state where it's not being expended; that way, even if one's lifetime is 'merely' a few thousand years, they end up technically living for ten times as long."
"Hm. Fascinating. Is there some Ancestor of yours that needs it?"
"What? No, of course not."
"Then why are you making it?"
"Why? Hah! Because if I do make it, I can finally--"
"--why are you making it when the pills you've promised me haven't been concocted yet?"
"Uhm. It--it's all your fault!"
"Huh? How is it my fault?"
"I told you that I'd have to buy more materials at the Moon Market, but you went ahead and had your disciples blow up the entire city!"
"Ah, yes. We arrived at Moonlake City... and then immediately destroyed it! We weren't there for a week or two, not doing any destroying."
"Ugh. Fine. I'll have them made before we get to the mountains."
"... aren't you missing ingredients? Or... wait. Is there some overlap between the Soul Pagoda Pill and Flawless Foundation Pill?"
"..."
Ah, whatever.
We had a rather speedy breakfast--or, well, we were about to have a speedy breakfast before Long Tao proclaimed he would make us something.
While others were chattering about how bad it would be, I actually had some expectations toward it. That old woman told me that he badgered her to learn, so, maybe, just maybe, he picked up a thing or two...
As he was stoking the flames and chopping the ingredients, other kids set up a table, chairs, and plates. The scent soon began to linger, mellow and light. I watched as he tossed in chopped pieces of vegetable and the skinned pieces of a rabbit that he'd caught earlier.
It looked like he was making a stew, a strange little thing to have for breakfast, but, hey, I've never been the type of man to complain about food! Not since Yas blew her top off at me when I complained about her chicken and rice that she made after coming home from a murderous day of exams while I slept through most of it. That was also the day I decided to learn how to cook at least a few basic things.
... but the smell, though? Wow. It's actually tantalizing. The proof of it was that the kids had stopped their chattering and instead started drooling a bit.
Look at him, though, standing by the fire, twirling the wooden spoon and stirring the stew. So devoted to the craft. Yeah, right. He was just pissy that there was something others had to make fun of him.
Are all 'super duper strong' people so damn petty?
... did I really just think that?! Wow, I've grown. There was a time when I was terrified of even thinking neutral things about him since I thought he could read my mind. To think I've grown so much... it's beautiful.
"It's ready," Long Tao announced, whipping out sets of bowls for us and making the kids' cheeks redden since they prepared plates instead. "I hope you don't choke on how delicious it is!"
... wow. If his Emperor peers could hear him say that, what would their reactions be? Funny, I bet. Real funny.
Chapter 350
Changes (VII)
It looked like a stew, smelled like a stew, and tasted like a stew.
It was... beautiful.
Oh my God.
We have a cook! We have a proper, middle-of-the-road, nothing-special-but-very-edible sort of a cook! The meat is a bit chewy, sure, and veggies are a bit undercooked, okay, but the combo is... beautiful. Spoonful after spoonful, I... I can't stop until I've finished.
I was apparently the last to do so, as the kids started asking for the seconds immediately, prompting that stupid-ass sneer to show up on his face.
"What about you, Master?" he looked at me. "Would you like seconds too?"
"I'm alright," I said. "The meat was a bit chewy, and some of the vegetables were a bit undercooked. You've also added a bit too much salt to compensate for the lower-quality ingredients."
"... I--I will try harder next time..." he tried to contain it, but a bit of anger leaked. It's my job to keep the arrogance--ah, who am I kidding? I'm also a petty-ass bitch.
But, honestly... I'm just happy that I won't be eating unseasoned food when on the road.
As the kids began to slowly pack and clean up, I went for a quick swim in the lake. Now that I think about it, my habit of morning showers has been completely obliterated in this world. To be fair, I don't ever stink, and even if I do, I can just use Qi to quickly clean myself, but still... I've forgotten how nice a casual swim can feel.
"Zhao, let's see who can swim faster!!" Dai Xiu leapt in a beautiful arch, splashed into the lake... and then never surfaced.
--wait, what?!!
"DAI XIU!!" I rushed over and dived down, only for her to immediately plop back up and start laughing, with everyone else joining her right after.
... wow. Did I really just fall for that?!
"Heh, silly Master. Even if I couldn't swim, can't I just use Qi to block my airways? He he~"
"..." I could only smile helplessly as everyone else jumped into the lake for a bit of frolicking.
It made me once again realize that, in some part of me, I still saw them as just kids. I mean, by now, it's kind of moronic, to be honest. But I couldn't help it. Even if they can pretty much raze an entire building by themselves, I also catch glimpses of who they are beyond their battle prowess. And within those glimpses... there's just a whole lot of humanity.
Insecurities, flaws, pettiness, desires, obsessions... it's not that 'adults' don't have those things (God, I wish there was this magic point in life when you just 'grew up' and those things disappeared), but there are differences when the kids are experiencing them for the first time versus some bitter, jaded old ass who's been living with them his entire life.
... anyway.
There was one thing I wanted to do as soon as I saw the Heart-Stitching Art evolve--apply the 'Growth' freebie I got a while back. I've deliberated for a while but wasn't sure due to its relatively low tier, plus it being the most ancient art I've made.
Even so, I was still fairly certain I'd do it, as it was the art that has helped me the most. For starters, I'm pretty sure the only reason I'm still even remotely sane is entirely due to it, and the reason Long Tao decided to follow me at the very least started with it.
Now that it has evolved, there was no further deliberation needed.
Nothing major changed in its description beyond the simple addendum:
[Growth-type art: its effects and complexity passively increase with one's understanding of it. Maximum tier it can reach: Divine]
It was just vague enough for me not to be sure precisely what it meant; does it mean that only my understanding of it would affect its tier? Or does it mean that every person who's contemplating it would have their own little variants?
... I guess we'll find out.
The night fell, and we pitched the tent again, soon after eating the leftover stew from the morning. Just as the kids were about to disperse and cultivate on their own, I stopped them.
"Wait a moment, everyone." It was kind of funny how everyone--even Lao Shun--spun in place and sat back down, expectant looks on their faces. Do... do they just see me like some kind of a treasure chest by now? "Your Master had a small epiphany recently and contemplated a slightly higher variant of the Heart-Stitching Art. You all know well enough how indispensable the art has been to all of us, so I hope you'll study this variant deeply, too."
As I handed over the tomes, I realized I'd actually stopped even bothering trying to make them look 'aged'. And, since nobody, in turn, bothered pointing it out... eh. I mean, they all know, one way or another. But the game of pretending is still fun.
"... you... had an epiphany?" Lao Shun questioned.
"Yes. Why? What is wrong with me having an epiphany?"
"Nothing, nothing," he said. "It's just, when normal people have epiphanies, they understand, maybe, how to just barely cover up a single flaw for the art, not restructure it from the ground up into a vastly better version."
"Heh, dummy alchemist," Light said. "That's because others aren't Master!"
"Exactly! Master could take one look at an ordinary piece of common trash art, and he would immediately turn it into a heaven-tier house heirloom!" Thank you, Dai Xiu, but could you please not?
"Calm down, everyone," ah, Wan Lan. Voice of reason--no, wait, what's with that look-- "And Dai Xiu, how can you disrespect Master like that?"
"H-huh?"
"You think our Master's greatness can only produce a Heaven-tier item?! No! A single thought of our Master can transform an ordinary pamphlet into divine-level art that even the Emperors would covet!"
"Oooh!"
"Master really is great!"
... look at Lao Shun and Long Tao, those bastards. Just look at them eyeing me. Even Rayce--no, he's look at me with pity. Pity... yeah, pity I can take.
"Pipe down, everyone," I said, and everyone indeed did. "Study this one from now on. If you have any questions... right, ask your Senior Brother Tao. He'll guide you properly." His eyelids twitched, but he didn't outright reject it... thankfully.
"Okay. Let's pack and get ready to leave."
Days were... peaceful. Honestly, too peaceful. Serene, even. Tranquil, some would say. Easygoing, to be--
They were boring.
Oh my God, they were so boring. I know I shouldn't complain, 'cause it will undoubtedly turn out the same way it did back on Earth whenever I'd bitch and moan about hot summers. Soon enough, winter would roll around, and I would be begging for those scorching summer days.
I'm pretty sure it'd play out the exact same way here. The moment days like these are gone, I'd want them back.
... even if they are boring.
One good did come from it, however: I've been reaping a few points with the kids understanding the Harmonized Heart Sutra and the Enduring Eternity even.
But, considering I've now got over ten thousand points... it's time to splurge a bit. I still have some rewards to doll out, after all.
Chapter 351
Changes (VIII)
My first focus was on the movement art that Dai Xiu asked for.
I've watched her fight quite a few times now (quite a few times), and I can kind of understand what she means when she says Shadows Steps aren't suitable for her. For me, the art was practically indispensable, even before it evolved. It's kind of like an 'Undo' button, where I can quickly reposition because I made a mistake (or two).
It also allows me to actually fight to some degree, as, even without too strong of an attack, I can 'teleport' into their blind spots and attack from there.
Dai Xiu, however, doesn't fight like that; she's far more adept at melee combat than me, with the ability to bob and weave between attacks with ease and almost animal-like instincts to dodge attacks she can't see entirely.
Shadow Steps, for her, might even be a weakness, as they do essentially kill off all momentum. Even if I'm moving at a great speed and executing an attack, I can't use the steps--not even in the evolved form--to teleport myself in the act of movement. The landing is static, as it sort of 'refreshes' the state.
As such, for Dai Xiu, who is a quintessential example of a momentum-based fighter, Shadow Steps as a movement art really wasn't suitable.
... which begged the question, what precisely would be suitable?
The first thing my mind wandered off to was the boxers back on Earth and their 'movement techniques'. Though Dai Xiu didn't fight whollylike one, she's approximating a lot of the same philosophies. A lot of twitch, precise movements within a limited position to create just enough space to dodge and counterattack.
There was one big issue: I... have not a fucking clue how boxers moved. I've watched, what? Maybe three boxing matches in my entire life? And all of them before I even turned twenty. I never had any training in any kind of martial art, so me trying to use boxing principles to create a movement art would sort of be like asking a college student who just took an intro class to physics to build a nuclear bomb.
But maybe I can just imbue the general philosophy and hope that the system can make something of it?
Ugh, whatever. I have almost 13,000 points. If I can't splurge a bit now, then when can I?
I pulled up the creator's window and got to work.
Choosing Movement Art as a type, I paused a bit on the core structure; my instinct was in collision with my general understanding of Dai Xiu. That understanding was telling me to go for just two or three stances, but my instinct was telling me to go for 7 or 8. I'm not even sure why; maybe due to the sheer variance of possibilities when it comes to melee combat? I don't know, but I decided to trust it and see what comes of it.
With that, 55 points were already off the deck.
I opted for the 'Standard' logical connection as I wanted to save some points, though I also knew that this could be where the entire thing gets choked up.
I could also save some points on Energy Type as I actually opted for it being purely physical. This would essentially make the art only useable by Dai Xiu, even if there'd be no outright restrictions. The reason was simple: it was her special constitution. Even when she's just moving and walking, she is using Qi as it's stored in every inch of her body. As such, she can supplement the lack of energy type through the fact that she naturally has Qi in her legs, something that nobody without either hers or a similar constitution could replicate.
I added a minor infusion of Wind and a minor infusion of Sound, totaling up to 110 points.
Finally arriving at the Specific Effects & Characteristics portion, I knew that this would likely be the bulk of the cost. There were a lot of options specifically for Movement Arts--dozens, in fact, with dozens more that were still grayed out--but I couldn't just add them willy-nilly.
Two, however, I added off the bat and without thinking too much--Burst Speed, which cost 30 points, and Agility/Flexibility Enhancement, which cost 20.
I scrolled a bit past the more extreme options, such as teleportation, short flight, and even stealth, and came upon a rather interesting one: Stop-and-Go. It cost a whopping 100 points, more than Short Flight, even, which cost 'just' 90.
And, as with most things in the system, its description was remarkably vague.
Lightly suspends the natural body resistances when stopping and moving instantaneously.
What the hell did that mean? I have no idea. I mean, I do have an idea--it likely just means that her ligaments won't be torn off when she accelerates and decelerates aggressively, but to what degree? No clue.
Regardless, I added it, totaling to 260 points.
After scrolling a bit more through the options, I frowned; there were a few more candidates, but all of them were simply too expensive. The cheapest one was 130 points, which would put me just shy of my maximum budget, but before committing to it, I wanted to see if I could add anything better somewhere down the line.
Pinning it to the back of my head, I moved down to Modifiers.
The one that I immediately added without a second thought was 'Reduced Learning Curve', which cost 50 points. I love Dai Xiu, and I think she's no less talented than any of the other kids, but I've gotten plenty of proof by now that her comprehension abilities are likely the worst out of everyone... and that includes me. She makes up for it by having probably the sharpest combat instincts out of everyone short of Long Tao, but... yeah. Any way I can lower the difficulty for her, I have to take it.
With that, I was up to 310 points, but there was nothing else in Modifiers that I wanted. Well, that's not true; I wanted a lot of things, but they all cost an insane amount of points. There was a particular concept that I think would suit her perfectly called 'Wind Perception'; she already seemed to have some innate connection to Wind, and with this concept, she'd be able to discern even the most minute movements through air currents within some radius around her.
The issue?
It cost a whopping 800 points. Plus, I don't think it would be particularly suitable for a movementart.
One day, when I redo her cultivation method to upgrade it to a higher tier, I'll probably have to add this to it.
My one bet to increasing the art's quality further is to find a way to shave off 40 points and add the characteristic I pinned in the back of my head--Perfect Stabilization. This one, at least, was far more direct than most, acknowledging that it did as its name indicated: regardless of her body's momentum and acceleration, she would be able to immediately stabilize her center of gravity. This, in combination with Stop-and-Go, would make for a mean combo in close-quarter fighting.
... and I found a perfect way to add it.
Under flaws, there's a particular one that I wouldn't add to any of the other kids, but it might be doable if it was Dai Xiu: Qi Consumption is increased by X amount. That X amount was a variable I could modify (up to 2x right now for a whopping 600 points), but I don't think even Dai Xiu would be able to sustain double consumption. I increased it just enough to shave off 40 points, which worked out to be about a 30% increase.
Alright.
I'm finally done.
... no, gotta name it first. And I have a perfect name for it in mind--
Chapter 352
Changes (IX)
[Congratulations, Host, on creating the 'Heavenly Speed Steps' Movement Art]
... hmm.
Why does it sound kind of weird now that I'm reading it back? Are my naming sensibilities out of whack?
... nah. I'm overthinking it.
[...]
[Heavenly Speed Steps]
[Type: Movement Art]
[Rank: peak-Heaven]
[Host Comprehension: Initial]
[...]
[An extremely weary art meant only for those with bodies capable of enduring wear and tear that would have most others crippled. Sharpened to a point, it focuses on minute movements within a very small stretch of space, making it virtually useless outside of direct, melee combat. If correctly supported by an accommodating constitution, however, it would allow the martial artist to move in the most unnatural and body-aching ways without strain, over and over, so long as the body itself can endure it. Regardless of the momentum, it allows the martial artist to quickly stabilize; dispersing momentum, however, comes at a cost, consuming a rather large amount of Qi, further requiring even more specialized constitution. It was an art that most Sects would consider far too specialized and would treat as a failure, but for those perfectly capable of executing it, its rank would shoot well beyond its current one]
[Creation Points Value: 400/400]
[Comprehension Difficulty: Difficult --> Lowered to Intermediate]
[...]
[!!!]
[Tinkerer (Epic) trait has been triggered! A new effect has been added]
[New Effect: Momentum Storing (Legendary)]
[Momentum Storing: Instead of momentum gathered through stopping and going being dispersed, it is temporarily stored. Martial artists can use the stored momentum for an acceleration of either a movement or offensive art, proportionally increasing its strength]
[!!!]
[Creator of Myths (Legendary) trait has been triggered! A new effect has been added]
[New Effect: Minor Imbuement of Sound Dao (???)]
[Minor Imbuement of Sound Dao (???) -- movement becomes deathly silent, no matter the amount of Qi unleashed]
[...]
[Creation Bonus: New 'Innate Art', Phantasmal Devourment (One of a Kind); Sage (???) Trait has evolved; Host's cultivation realm advances]
[Phantasmal Devourment (One of a Kind) -- can devour ongoing Heart Demons of any Martial Artist (even if they are not your Disciple). May require expenditure of Creation Points if the Heart Demon's particularly strong]
[Sage (???) Trait Evolution: now allows for Comprehension Transference once a month; you may transfer your comprehension of the art onto one of your Disciples OR may inherit one of your Disciples' comprehension of the art. In the latter scenario, you must first acquire your Disciple's consent]
[Host's Cultivation Realm Advances, Fifth Cycle of Revolving Core Realm --> Sixth Cycle of Revolving Core Realm]
[...]
[Congratulations, Host, on reaching the peak of the Revolving Core Realm! In order to advance into the Void Transformation Realm, you must comprehend a trace of the Dao of Space]
[Note: There are 4 distinct paths to the Void Transformation Realm, vastly differing in quality]
[First Path: the path most taken; it only requires you to recognize the existence of the Law of Space. It severely limits future accomplishments and makes it almost impossible to escape the Space-Locking of anyone. Most commonly referred to as the Path of the Blind]
[Second Path: comprehending a trace of the Law of Space to a degree of infusion; becoming capable of infusing the domain of Space externally into objects indicates capacity of basic spatial manipulation. Most commonly referred to as the Path of the Weak]
[Third Path: internalizing a trace of the Dao of Space. By capturing a loose essence of the Dao of Space and internalizing it within either your Dantian or, more commonly, your Core, it indicates capacity for 'Tunneling', an extremely Qi-intensive ability of Void Transformation Realm martial artists, allowing for the connection of two points of space and traversal between them. Most commonly referred to as: Path of the Great]
[Fourth Path: Contemporarily considered impossible, it is referred to as the 'Path of the Ancients'. Per the records, the way to achieve it was the simplest of all others: being acknowledged by Dao of Space directly. Due to the existential state of Dao, there have only been 2 martial artists in the past 100,000,000 years who have achieved this path]
[...]
[System strongly recommends host pursue the Fourth Path. The easiest way to achieve it is to locate a point in the world where the Laws of Spacetime are unfolding; by submerging yourself in the Chaos Storm and surviving, Host will be acknowledged]
[...]
[Searching...]
[Two locations that fit the parameters have been found: Center of the Nirvana Frontier Island and the tallest peak of the Phoenix's Rest Mountains]
[--note that Chaos Storms are extremely deadly. The system recommends that the Host exercise extreme preparations before submerging himself]
[Recommendations: Void-Nullifying Pills (???) x5; Eternal Regeneration Pills (???) x2; Enduring Qi Pill (???) x1; Secondary Physique, Immortal Tortoise Physique (Imperial)]
[...]
[All pill recipes have been freely deposited in the Host's spatial ring. In consideration of the host's circumstances, all pills can be concocted with contemporary materials]
[In order for Host to obtain the Immortal Tortoise Physique (Imperial), you must ingest the Heart of a Tortoise. Guardian of the derelict False Phoenix Realm is an Immortal Tortoise; it is suggested that the Host meet the Guardian and seek its help]
[...]
[Good luck, Host!]
Goddamn, that took freakin' forever!
Just as I thought I was done, more kept popping up.
Alright. Take a deep breath, Jake.
First take the good: Dai Xiu's art turned out to be even more brutally insane than I thought. After a speedy experiment, I realized that if I tried to move using it, I'd literally break my legs. So, that was amazing.
I'm honestly not even sure how well Dai Xiu could utilize it; though her body is sturdy, it's not like she has Wan Lan's constitution. I'll probably have to ask Lao Shun or Long Tao for some medicinal baths that can make her body stronger...
More of the good: Sage trait evolving is honestly kind of... amazing? Does that mean I don't even need to freakin' study 'cause I can just inherit kids' effort?
I am well aware of how lame that made me sound, but considering our comprehension abilities... unless I take in some truly stupid kids, the only one I'll ever be able to teach is Dai Xiu.
Even Xing Feng, depressingly, had almost caught up to my comprehension of Heart-Stitching Art before it evolved.
Then there was the Phantasmal thingamabob; such a cool name for an art I probably won't even use that frequently. None of the kids will ever need it since, with the choices I've made, they can't ever even develop Heart Demons, so this is exclusively something I have the potential to make money with.
If I ever run into some big shot who has a kid undergoing a Heart Demon, I can just offer my services for the right price...
Anyway. That's it with the good.
Now the bad.
I should be happy that I've reached the peak of the Revolving Core Realm--per its name, it's now rotating on its own, passively gathering and restoring Qi without me needing to do anything. It's sort of like... breathing? If I don't think about it, it's automatic.
But I'm not really that happy.
Why?
Because of the implications. Namely, this is the first time the system has outright told me to do something without framing it as a quest. Even though it's a 'suggestion', it's really not; it's telling me to keep up with the 'perfect breakthroughs', and that can only mean one thing: there's something in the future that I'm being groomed for, and I can't half-ass my cultivation, even if I am just a Master of a bunch of monsters.
Chapter 353
Changes (X)
All else aside, I'm a bit worried about achieving the 'perfect path'.
Though the system made it sound simple--prep these few innocent things, go to this totally normal-sounding place, and soak in a nice, warm bath... I have the sensibilities of a cynic, and those sensibilities are currently screaming at me.
Even if the system mentioned that, in consideration of my circumstances, it had prepared 'simpler' pills, I still couldn't see their grade. Forgetting for a moment ingredients and the fact that, even if technically possible, they'll probably be a pain in the ass to gather, can Lao Shun even... concoct them?
I'm already not that well-versed in the art of alchemy, so now that the '???' recipes started popping up... the hell do I know?
Plus, I'm fairly certain that even if I somehow amallowed to just go up to the random tortoise in the secret realm, it wouldn't just give mewhatever I need.
... haaah.
Forget it, forget it.
I'll share one of the recipes with Lao Shun, see his reaction, and calculate then and there just how many decades it will take me to achieve this 'perfect path'. In addition, I'm pretty sure that even Long Tao is aiming for it, so just getting onebatch isn't enough. But... where the hell are we going to find the second turtle heart?
No, I already said to forget it. This is a future me problem.
Good luck, future me. Don't hate me too much.
Okay, now that Dai Xiu's art is done with... time to move to the last three.
Xing Feng can wait for a while longer, as I'm not really sure what to even make for him.
The other two requests... Light's easier, no?
I mean, at least conceptually. All she wants to do is fly. Why? I don't know. Maybe because she's seven? I, too, wanted to do many dumb things (including fly) when I was seven. I guess she's just impatient.
The question is... can it even be done? And will the system tell me I'm a moron for even trying?
As for Wan Lan, though it's harder to come up with an art for her, all she wants is an offensive one. I already have a broad idea for it, to utilize her near-indestructible meridians (and body going that direction, too), but no specifics in mind just yet.
... so, let's see if we can make a seven-year-old girl fly... but not too much.
Alright.
So, that was kind of... easy?
All I had to do was tinker a bit with the type of Qi, energy, and a small modification to add a trace of Wind. Ended up costing just shy of 300 points.
Am I some sort of a genius at stitching things together?
Hah!
... dammit, I forgot to name the goddamn thing yet again!!
[Congratulations, Host, on creating the 'Windborne Steps' Movement Art]
[...]
[Windborne Steps]
[Type: Movement Art]
[Rank: low-Sky]
[Host Comprehension: Intermediate]
[...]
[A rather simple, if redundant, art that allows even those of lower realms to step through the air itself. Due to its simplicity and limited purpose, it is difficult to utilize in actual combat and is better suited for entertaining children]
[Creation Points Value: 285/400]
[Comprehension Difficulty: Easy]
[...]
[Creation Bonus: None]
... what?
None?
That can actually happen?!
... alright. So, maybe the system really wasextremely generous thus far. I figured that, even if I just make something pointless, I'd still get, I don't know, a few points back, maybe? But yeah. I guess that if the art is underwhelming, the reward would be, too. Or nonexistent in this case.
Oh well.
I stepped outside the tent, making sure not to disturb anyone as it was late at night, and tried using it. For a few moments, I literally could step on air--but it wasn't really flying. Each consecutive step consumed more and more Qi, and I kind of understood why the system said it was best suited for entertaining children.
It required a lot of focus to continue stepping on air, and standing still was as difficult as balancing yourself on a fork-sized wooden beam. I only managed to get up about fifteen feet before I lost my footing and fell, though I landed solidly on my feet, looking up with a frown.
Will Light be satisfied with this? It's kind of fun, I suppose, but... nah, she needs to be. Let her play around with it and learn to fly with the rest of the cultivation world.
Forget it.
"Master, what are you doing out?" I turned around and saw Wan Lan crawl out of the tent.
"Just testing something," I said. "What about you?"
"Haah, I can't cultivate," she said. "Xiu is spattering about what kind of an art you will reward her with."
"Ha ha. And you're not?"
"I know that, whatever you give me, it will be precisely what I need."
"... that's an awful lot of faith to put into me." She merely smiled as she stepped up and stopped beside me. We continued traveling along the lake's shoreline, though the other end of the landscape did change a bit; it went from a forested area to open plains.
"None of us have anything short of that," she said.
"Wonderful," I chuckled. "Have you gotten used to your new realm?"
"Mostly," she nodded, extending her right arm as a twine of twilight-colored energy tangled up around her fingers. "I feel like my body's become even sturdier than before. And just as I thought I could finally endure a round or two against Senior Brother Tao... he breaks through. It's frustrating."
"..."
"Not in a bad way, though," she quickly added as the energy faded. "At least, I do finally understand why Madame was so insistent on me leaving that place."
"Yes?"
"I'd have never known the world beyond it," she said. "And would have never realized just how difficult it will be to achieve my dream. And, perhaps most of all, I never would achieve it. With you, and Senior Brother, and even the other little rats," her lips stretched into a smile. "I... find myself believing. Believing that, in spite of my lacking talents, one day... I will remake the Cult and clear its name."
"... when I was your age," I said. "I was an utter mess."
"Master?"
"Forget working toward my dream... I didn't even have one to begin with. All I had in me was anger. Anger at the world, at my parents, at others. Never, not in a million years, would I think that one day I'd be standing here, traveling with a bunch of kids, each of whom has the talent even the Heavens envy."
"Master...!" I chuckled at her reddened cheeks.
"Ha ha, it's nothing to be embarrassed about; every day I find myself more and more astonished that, somehow, little old me got saddled with such amazing Disciples. That's why, just like you, I have to work hard. Alright. It's late; you should go back inside."
"But Dai Xiu--"
"--give her this." I procured the tome for the Heavenly Speed Steps (I'm beginning to regret the name a bit) and handed it over. "It ought to keep her quiet until dawn, no."
"Yes, Master." She smiled and bowed. "Thank you."
She sprinted off back to the tent as I sighed; they really are just kids, at the end of the day. Yes, kids that were armies unto themselves, sure, but kids nonetheless. I can't--no, I won't forget that.
Ever.
Chapter 354
Changes (XI)
There's something I've been curious about ever since I learned of the existence of 'Demonic Qi'. As I recall Elder Qin explaining it, it almost sounded like antimatter to matter, anti-Qi to Qi. Not evil, just reversed.
Which made me further curious about their relationship. I've seen Wan Lan fight quite a few times, and even when she's not actively concealing Demonic Qi (pretty much only when 'sparring' with Long Tao), it doesn't look like two antithetical energies having a proper clash.
So, in that sense, they aren't like matter and antimatter--they can coexist and occupy the same space. The question is... to what degree, then?
Honestly, I feel like if I shared my idea with anyone, even Long Tao, they'd look at me like I'm crazy (even more than they already do on occasion). Some things get so deeply embedded as 'common knowledge' that, even when they are unequivocally proven as wrong, they just sort of... stay?
Like, I believed well into my twenties that carrots, indeed, did make your eyesight better. Or that having wet hair would always give you a cold. Or a million (well, not a million; I wasn't that stupid, at least) other little things that, while not necessarily life-altering, do invoke a certain image of a common human conscience.
I imagine that the idea of Qi and Demonic Qi rings that way here, too; they are opposites, invariably destined to always clash, to always seek the other's destruction. But I watched Wan Lan attack with Demonic Qi and I watched Long Tao respond with 'ordinary' Qi, and all I got to see was... well, him winning, because he was stronger.
But... was he strong enough to prevent the reaction similar to matter and antimatter clashing? Yeah, I don't think so.
That's why I had myself entertain the idea for a little while, and now it was the perfect time to test it. Wan Lan had a sturdy body and even sturdier meridians; if anyone was able to contain two types of Qi that were supposedly antithetical to one another, it was her. And if she couldn't? Then mine was the dream of pipes, or however that expression goes.
Pulling up the creator's window yet again, I took a deep breath and got down to the experiment.
Selecting the type as Martial Art, I pondered for a moment on the number of forms, electing to go for something mid-tier, choosing 4. It's easy enough to change, but as this was supposed to be a relatively simple offensive art, I didn't want to make it too convoluted. I did make the internal logic cohesion Profound, however, and I expected I might even have to push it up to Law-Integrated if I wanted the art to have the capacity to handle both Qi and Demonic Qi.
Even with profound, however, I was already out 100 points, so I had to conserve anywhere I could.
The next step was crucial: Energy Type. This part has always confused me, as other cultivators didn't consider 'Fire Qi', for instance, differentfrom Qi, just its extension, while the system categorized it separately.
I added Standard Qi and spun for a while to find Demonic Qi, but when I tried to add it... I got an 'error' screen for the first time since coming to this world.
[--error. Two types of energies are incompatible. Searching...]
[System has found a fix for the compatibility issue. Spend 300 CP to learn it?]
[Y/N]
... was I going to stop now? Of course not! Spend 300 points!
[--300 points spent]
[To allow for coexistence of Standard Qi and Demonic Qi, a third type is necessary to act as a bridge. Recommended types of energy: Dharma Qi (7,000 CP), Pure Spirit Qi (120,000 CP), Primordial Qi (???), ???... As the host cannot afford any of the unlocked energy types, a secondary option is offered: add Enduring Temperance (200 CP), a moderate Conceptual Imbuement. This will allow for temporary coalescence of Qi and Demonic Qi. Note, however, that of the host's current disciples, only Wan Lan and Xing Feng will be able to endure the backlash. It is recommended that the Host not teach the art to any of the other Disciples]
... back up, back up, back up.
What do you mean, Xing Feng? Is the system implying that the boy has just as strong of a body as Wan Lan? Is... is Martial Body thatoverpowered a technique? Huh. Turns out that me using Enlightenment solely on him to help him catch up with the rest might not even have been that terrible of an idea...
Anyway, I did want to see how the experiment would turn out, so I used the system's suggestion, adding Enduring Temperance and shooting up to 300 points. With the remaining 100, I went back to the specific effects and added a few.
I added 'Explosive' for 50 points, which will immediately shoot out the mix of Qi and Demonic Qi, and I actually added 'Recoil' for 40 points. The discharged momentum of the attack will push back the attacker the equivalent distance.
... sounds kinda stupid, I guess, but safety first. If it turns out to be worthless, I can always just remake the art without it.
With nothing else to add, I checked through it all one last time and pressed confirm. Not before naming it, of course.
[Congratulations, Host, on creating the 'Equilibrium Strike' Martial Art]
[...]
[Equilibrium Strike]
[Type: Martial Art]
[Rank: low-Myth]
[Host Comprehension: Minor (it is recommended that the Host not attempt to use this art before achieving Path of the Ancients)]
[...]
[A moderately successful attempt to fuse the opposites, though far from the first and even far from the most successful, it touches upon the deepest principles of Dao. Though Qi and Demonic Qi stand on opposite ends of the spectrum, they diverged from the same source. Under Dao, all energy is One. This art attempts to mimic the true nature of energy, though in a rather barbaric way, as attempting to use it will wreak havoc through one's meridians and body. However, unlike most other arts of this nature that turned toward softening the berserk nature of Demonic Qi, and gently coiling it with Qi, this art does not shy away from the nature of Demonic Qi, allowing its berserk and explosive output to remain. Though still not the first to attempt it, it stands as the most successful iteration across eons of time. Note that the art consumes an exuberant amount of Qi and will make the martial artist temporarily paralyzed after the fact if used at full output]
[...]
[Creation Points Value: 390/400]
[Comprehension Difficulty: Prodigious]
[...]
[Tinkerer (Epic) has triggered! A new effect has been added]
[Dispersion (???) -- the art naturally disperses energy barriers of all types, including Imperial-tier ones. However, the higher the tier, the greater the Qi consumption. Can be supplemented from secondary sources during use]
[...]
[Creation Bonus: Blood-Devouring Robe (Legendary), Meridian-Tempering Array (???) + x3 sets of materials]
[...]
[Blood-Devouring Robe (Legendary) -- robe of Ancient Sage Wu, said to have been worn by him during the Heavenspan Massacre. Having soaked in the blood of countless writhing souls, it was sealed away in the depths of the mausoleum, never to be worn again. The cultivator wearing the robe will passively consume blood around them to restore their wounds and Qi; however, the more blood is consumed, the greater the risk of a Heart Demon developing and the person going berserk, which is why the robe was sealed away]
[...]
[Meridian-Tempering Array (???) -- a one-person array that draws concepts from the depthless Dao, bathing the body with harmony and discord, using the repelling forces to temper meridians. Note: Experience is excruciating, especially for cultivators who have never undergone any type of meridian strengthening]