《The Reincarnation of Little Bug: Defying the Divine Fates》 1. Mayfly Lives 1. Mayfly Lives When I dream, I am much more than when I am awake. I do not know how to explain it properly to those of the waking world, and I learned early on that trying to do so earned either amusement or concern, so I stopped when I was very young. It took me some time to realize what I was experiencing, but when I heard of reincarnation I knew. These dreams were memories of my soul. I was remembering my past lives. Not just one or two lives did I dream, but a new one every night. Most were uneventful and dull, and in the light of a child¡¯s eyes they were unimpressive. And so, for all the fact that I remembered that which should have been forgotten in the waters of lethe, I considered myself unimpressive. In one dream, I was a bird. A songbird that fed on worms and insects and made sweet music in the early morning. I began my life squawking with hunger as my parents fed me their own meals. I knew I was much more than a bird, but this was the body I had been born into in that life. Fortunately, the world was dense with spirituality, and although I had not previously known of any cultivation methods for being a bird, I quickly learned to absorb and cycle the Qi of that world. It was a strange thing, to be a spirit beast, but my life did not last very long. An avatar of evil intent appeared before me one day. I recognized it, although in that life and in this one I do not remember where. My body was young and weak, and my cultivation just beginning. The evil avatar killed me with a thought. I awoke from that dream and I was once more the young boy, barely out of swaddling. I did not cry for my mother, as a normal child might have done from a bad dream, but rather went back to bed and dreamed the dream of another mayfly life. In this one, I was a small, rabbit-like animal, drinking the milk of my mother and snuggling with my litter-mates for warmth. This world had little spirituality, but that was okay. I would awaken my spirit in the next life. For now, I would enjoy being this fuzzy little animal until nature took its inevitable course. I did not have long to wait. On the second day after I ventured out of my mother¡¯s burrow, a wave of evil intent swept over me. No avatar appeared, but a hawk was drawn to me and I could not escape the grasp of its talons. It snapped my spine, and I-- I was a fish. The lake I hatched in was dense with spirtual energies, and as soon as I awakened my soul I began to cultivate. I grew quickly, displacing the previous lord of the lake within a season, and still I continued to grow and prosper. Again the evil intent appeared. The villagers who fished in the lake speared me and dragged me into their boats. I promised them that if they let me live another year, I would begin to extend belssings to their village, bringing prosperity and happiness. Instead I was gutted and I-- I lived dozens of mayfly lives. Life, death, rebirth. Some of the worlds I was born into were rich with spirituality. Others were spiritual wastelands. It did not matter. The evil intent would appear and cut my life short. It followed me through space and time, from one reality to the next. Each time I would try to sever my karma with it, but I could not. But each time that I was cursed, each time that I was killed by this powerful entity, a small bit of providence entered me. Until I became the boy who I am now. I was a peasant boy. A mortal, in a mortal family, growing crops to sell to the nearby sect. I played with the other children and I sang the songs that taught us how to speak and the history of our people. But often I would stare off into the stars, or sit next to a tree, or on the edge of the pond, and I would stay there for hours, simply marveling at nature. At being alive. The other children teased me, taunting me for pretending to be a cultivator when I was but a base mortal like them. I ignored them. One day, when I was four years old, I was watching a grasshopper. It was a curious little thing, and I felt a certain kinship to it that I could not put into words. It did not flee from me, and for an hour I held it and simply marveled over its existence. Then, when I set it back down on the ground, my older sister stamped on it, extinguishing its marvelous little life for no reason but childhood malice. ¡°Why did you do that?¡± I demanded, growing angry for the first time in my life. ¡°It¡¯s just a bug!¡± the eight year old said, and she pushed me to the ground. ¡°It¡¯s because of you that my friends tease me! Because you¡¯re weird!¡± ¡°That bug was like me!¡± I said. ¡°You didn¡¯t have to kill it, it was--¡± ¡°Yeah, that bug was like you!¡± she said. ¡°You are a bug! That is your name from now on, little bug!¡± She hit me then, beating me though I did not fight back. I did not cry or try to stop her. When she had satisfied her misplaced anger, she stormed off, leaving me alone in the field. It was not the first time I would bear the brunt of her anger, and it would not be the last. If I was a normal child, I would resent her for it, I knew. But I was not normal. When questioned by my mother over the source of my bruises and my torn and disheveled clothing, I would be mute. The other children in the village were blamed, although nobody faced punishment for my parents could not prove who was responsible. I was considered strange. Touched in the head. Stupid. Not useless, though. Even simpletons have their value, as they often make fine fieldworkers with the proper guidance. And so I was fed and clothed, and I grew older. The spirituality of my village was low, and I was disappointed when I first realized this. Until I understood the reason. We were near the lines of a gathering array of the local sect, and most of the Qi of our lands was siphoned off for their use. There was enough left over to grow crops and raise livestock, but the results were lacking in spirituality. When I was five, I tried tapping into the gathering array for my own use, but I was surprised when instead I was almost swept away, as though caught in the current of a powerful river. I know that the foolish attempt nearly killed me, and I did not try again. When I was six, the sky lit up, and the immortals battled in the heavens. For eight days and nine nights, our overlord battled with an invader who was more than his equal, but a foreign dragon cannot so easily defeat a local snake. Though it exhausted him, our lord stood fast. ¡°Remove yourself from my path and I shall let you live,¡± the foreign demon said, her voice echoing through the minds of those who had the senses to hear it. ¡°Continue to bar my way and I shall destroy your entire kingdom!¡± ¡°I sense your evil intentions and your fel karma. Though you are the empress of the Divine Fates Empire, I know that you have turned from the course of righteousness and embraced demonic arts. You are not welcome here! Begone, demon!¡± our lord challenged back. The battle continued for another fortnight, and finally the invader was driven off. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The others in the village cowered in fear, for even they could sense the evil intention of the invader. I simply watched the clash of cosmic forces in the heavens whenever I could get away from my parents, which was often. At first my mother would rush outside and drag me back into our hovel, but as the battle continued unabated I was eventually ignored. Should our lord have failed to block any of the mighty forces which were directed towards us, then the simple shelter our family lived in would not have saved me anyway. At first, our lord¡¯s steadfastness was seen as a great victory, and there was celebration and revelry when finally the empress of the Divine Fates Empire retreated to lick her wounds. But then the crops began to whither and die, and the livestock could not find enough grass to stay healthy, and the fish in the nearby lake dwindled and would not find their way into our nets. The lord had exhausted his power, and he was forced to reclaim it from the worlds in his domain. His people suffered drought and famine. I could feel the gathering arrays empowered, taking nine-tenths of the land¡¯s spirituality instead of their usual tax. It was three years before the lord had recovered and returned the arrays to their normal levels, and the effect on our livelihood would take decades to recover. Even then it was whispered that the lord had not fully recovered his strength. It was said that he was simply allowing the land to recover for a time before entering a longer period of cultivation. If he had not paused to allow his lands to recover, then we would surely have starved, but the people of the village could not find happiness. They knew that they must work hard in the period they were given before the next famine struck the land. But we were a hearty folk, and we planted our fields and raised our livestock and we prepared for another hardship. In my tenth year, a merchant came to our village. He set up shop on the village green, and he hawked his wares with a booming voice, claiming that he had pills of longevity, seeds of spiritual grain, and many other wonders which would extend and improve our lives. I took one look at the items in his inventory and knew that he was a fraud. There was only one item with any spirituality to it, and he was using it as a paperweight. It was a small crystal, the size of a fist. But it had been charged full of Qi. In a land of prosperity and high spirituality, stones like this would be common, but in our little village it was a rare commodity. I asked him if I could buy it, but he laughed at me. ¡°That is my light stone, little boy,¡± he said. ¡°I could use candles, of course, but it casts a steadier light to read by at night. I would part with it for, oh say, twenty golden coins?¡± I sighed. That was more then one hundred times its worth, and I could not afford it even if he was charging a fair price. However, he grew distracted by his other customers, and did not seem to mind as I continued to hold it while he bartered. I longed to extract the Qi within it. It was just a spiritually dense quartz, but compared to the environment in which I was born it was the greatest source of Qi I had encountered during my short life except for the array lines themselves, and I knew better than to try tapping into them again. As the merchant continued to swindle our villagers, providing them with medicines that were obviously simply mashed herbs mixed with mud and talismans that were obviously nothing more than random markings upon paper, I came to a sudden decision. I drained the stone of its Qi, and I put it back on the merchant¡¯s shelf. It took me but an effort of will, the Qi readily responding to my call and entering my body. I held it in my core as I returned to our hovel, and then I sat, and I cycled it. It was not very much, but it allowed me to begin the process of opening my channels. I lost it bit by bit, unable to hold it within my body forever. But as it passed out of my pores, it took with it many impurities. Smiling beatifically, I continued to cultivate until my mother discovered me. ¡°Oh Little Bug!¡± she exclaimed, for my sister¡¯s nickname for me had spread and nobody called me by my birth name anymore. ¡°What have you rolled in! Have you been bathing in filth? Oh what has gotten into that soft mind of yours! Come, take off those clothes, we must get you clean before your father sees you like this!¡± I tried to protest, for I still had one tenth of the stone¡¯s Qi left to cultivate with, but there was nothing for it as she dragged me out to the stream near the village, stripped my clothes from me, and forced me to bathe until I had washed all of the impurities from my skin. I lost my grasp on the remaining Qi during the process, but I had made my first step into the world of cultivation. Unfortunately, my private celebration did not last long. Night came, and the merchant came to the door with the village elders, his face red with anger. ¡°You!¡± the merchant screamed, pointing his fat finger at me. ¡°You have wrecked my light stone! I saw you playing with it today and now it is damaged! I demand payment! Fifty golden coins, or I shall report you to the authorities! They shall hang you and your entire family!¡± ¡°The stone isn¡¯t damaged. If you put it back where you found it, it will shine again in a year or two,¡± I said innocently. ¡°It just needs to recharge it¡¯s Qi.¡± ¡°Oh!? Are you a little cultivator then? I suppose you mean to say that you needed the stone for your cultivation?¡± he taunted. ¡°Yes,¡± I answered simply. ¡°And you have made twenty times the true price of the stone by cheating and exploiting my neighbors. You are shameless and a cheat. You know this and are unashamed. That stone was the only thing you possessed which contained a flicker of spirituality, everything else was--¡± He struck me, and I fell to the ground, the taste of blood in my mouth. He struck me again where I lay, and again until my father intervened. ¡°We cannot afford even a tenth of the price you demand, but I shall borrow as much coin as I can to repay you for my son¡¯s actions. Please, good sir, will you not be satisfied with that?¡± he said. The merchant spat on my body, then nodded. ¡°I demand every coin you can get your dirty peasant hands upon! Every single penny!¡± So my father went from house to house, hovel to hovel, calling in what few debts we had and taking out loans from whoever could afford to lend. Few of the villagers were willing to invest money into a worthless venture, but the ones that did had the debt carefully documented by the village alderman, one of the few residents who could read and write. In the end my father was able to gather twenty-eight silver coins. Well, it was worth twenty-eight silver when you converted it from copper. It was still more than the stone was worth, but the merchant had actually gotten a fair deal from it. He knew that, but he still insisted I be punished. And so the next day I was flogged. Many of the villagers came out to watch, and the merchant celebrated his petty victory with a sadistic expression. But the schadenfreude of the villagers began to fade, for no matter how hard the alderman struck me, I did not cry out. It was perhaps a bit foolish to display my difference like that, but the physical pain that they inflicted upon me simply washed over me like water over a riverstone. ¡°What is this?¡± the merchant called. ¡°You promised that he would be punished harshly!¡± ¡°He has always been like this,¡± the alderman explained, shaking his head. ¡°I have never seen or heard him cry out in pain. I am not certain that he can feel it. I am sorry, but I am putting an end to this punishment.¡± ¡°But he hasn¡¯t even cried! What sort of child does not cry from a whipping?¡± the merchant insisted. ¡°Here, I will give him a proper punishment, since you are unwilling to!¡± He took the leather switch from the alderman and gave me ten rapid blows. Truly, the alderman had been striking me harder, and I endured with stoicism. The merchant frowned in confusion as the alderman took the switch back from him, and the merchant walked away with a complicated expression on his face. He left the village that same day, and I would never see him again. 2. Recognition 2. Recognition The other villagers began treating me differently after that. My differences had finally become too much to ignore, and they kept their distance. The children did not play with me, the adults did not speak with me. I was a pariah. My father was not so fortunate. He was harassed by his creditors, and he was forced to labor from dawn until after dusk to repay the loans he had taken out for me. I tried to help him, but nobody would give me work. My sister resumed tormenting me after having relented for a few years, saying that my family¡¯s destitution was my fault. She was not wrong. Despite the harvest being a success, my family was forced to give away much of our share of the bounty, and we had yet another lean winter. I could feel the resentment from my father and my sister and my younger brother. Even my mother would not look directly at me. Had I done wrong? In the spring, three robed men came to the village. I met them on the road, having sensed them coming from miles away, for they carried a strong aura of spirituality. These men were cultivators. ¡°Hello, boy,¡± one of them said amiably. ¡°What is your name?¡± ¡°I am called Little Bug,¡± I answered. ¡°Are you here to take me a way?¡± ¡°A merchant passed through this way, six or eight months ago,¡± the cultivator said. ¡°Do you know anything about that?¡± ¡°I know that he is a liar and a cheat,¡± I answered. ¡°Don¡¯t believe anything that he told you, for I¡¯m certain that he¡¯d sell his mother for a silver coin covered in tarnish.¡± The cultivators looked at each other, then the one who had spoken to me looked down at me again. ¡°Little Bug, please take us to your village elders. We have questions. Important questions which need answers.¡± I shrugged, and I brought them to the aldorman¡¯s house. I knocked on the door furiously, knowing that he would still be sleeping. After several minutes, he answered the door without a shirt. ¡°Aldorman, these cultivators are here to talk with you,¡± I informed him. He went pale at my words and shut the door. ¡°Just a minute, just a minute!¡± he called. ¡°I will be with you honorable masters in just a moment!¡± ¡°Run along boy,¡± one of the cultivators said. He tossed me a silver coin. ¡°Thank you for your guidance.¡± I paused for a moment. ¡°The sect takes too much,¡± I said. ¡°The lands would produce more Qi if they were allowed to blossom, but they are strangled by the gathering arrays. You should turn the arrays off for five years and then slowly turn them back on again, taking only one fifth.¡± ¡°Run along boy,¡± the cultivator said sternly. ¡°You should not speak of things you do not understand.¡± I shrugged, and I ran off into the fields to give my father the silver coin. I knew that he needed it far more than I did. Of course that action ensured that I was promptly put to work, and so I could not get back to the alderman¡¯s house to eavesdrop. I tried several times to go and speak with the strangers again, but they were content to stay in the alderman¡¯s house, and my father would not let me leave his sight after hearing that I had bothered them. ¡°What if they demand the coin back, Bug?¡± he asked. ¡°No, no, it is a good thing that you helped them, but please do not bother them again!¡± I sighed in frustration, but I accepted his judgment. I knew that it was only a matter of time before they came to me, after all. And I was soon proven correct. Once again the alderman knocked on our rickety little door at night, and he looked more nervous than I had ever seen him before. ¡°Sana,¡± he said, speaking to my mother, ¡°The strangers, they say that they need to speak with Bug. They¡¯re here to test him, and, if he passes, they want to take him to join the sect.¡± ¡°Little Bug? What nonsense is this?¡± she exclaimed. ¡°I know, Sana, I know. It¡¯s about the merchant. He came to them to get his stone recharged, and from him they somehow got it into their heads that Bug could be a cultivator, so they¡¯re here to test him,¡± the alderman said. ¡°I tried to tell them that they, I mean, I didn¡¯t want to say that they¡¯re clearly mixed up and have wasted their time. But they insist on meeting the boy again to test him. And if the boy passes, they say that they¡¯ll wave our tax for the next five years.¡± ¡°I knew they were here for me,¡± I said, startling the adults who had not seen me, though I stood right beside them. ¡°Mother, thank you for your love. I will try to do my duties as a son even after they take me away.¡± I walked past the stunned alderman and my mother, to where the strangers were standing in our front yard. And I began the test. The cultivator on the left raised a hand, and he formed a symbol in the air made of Qi. ¡°Do you see this?¡± he asked. I knelt down and drew the symbol in the loose dirt. ¡°I do not know what it says because I have not been taught to read,¡± I admitted. ¡°But that is what it looks like.¡± The cultivators exchanged a glance. ¡°It is the symbol for air,¡± the man said, and he allowed the Qi to dissipate. ¡°But I suppose you are right, a peasant would not know that. Most children would have simply said that they saw a glowing light above my hand, it is remarkable that you could actually make out the writing.¡± ¡°Did I pass the test?¡± I asked. ¡°You would have passed if you had simply seen a blob of Qi,¡± the man admitted. ¡°You have certainly passed the first test.¡± The second man stepped forward, and he held out a handful of seeds. ¡°Which of these should be planted, and which should be eaten?¡± I examined the seeds for a moment and picked out one grain. ¡°The others will not grow. This is the only one that has a spark of life. You could eat this one as well, but it is the only seed in your hand that is worth planting.¡± ¡°Remarkable,¡± the cultivator said, and he took a step back, dumping the dead seeds onto the ground. Finally the last man stepped forward. He held out a stone that glowed faintly, like a candle. It was smaller than the spiritual quartz the merchant had carried, but it contained nearly the same density of Qi. ¡°Draw from this as you did the merchant¡¯s stone.¡± ¡°I was punished the last time I did that,¡± I pointed out. ¡°I do not wish to be flogged again.¡± ¡°You will not be punished if you pass this test,¡± the third cultivator promised. ¡°Take the stone and draw out the light from it, if you can.¡± I held out my hand, and the faintly shining stone was placed in my palm. With a sliver of intent, I drained the Qi from it in one go, quick as breathing in. It felt good to have the Qi flowing in my channels again, and I began to cycle it through my body as I had before, eager to resume my path of cultivation until-- ¡°Stop! Release it immediately!¡± the cultivator said. I looked up in confusion. ¡°You said--¡± A wave of Qi, a technique of some kind, slammed into me, and I was rendered unconscious. My iron grip of the Qi that I had taken slackened, and it slipped out of my body in my sleep. ~~~~~~~~ Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I awoke in the bed of the village alderman. I sat up, recalling the events from the night before, and inwardly I seethed. They had tricked me, telling me that I would not be punished and then punishing me when I did as they asked. It was a petty and cruel thing to do to a child, and I was angry. ¡°I am sorry, Little Bug,¡± one of the cultivators said, and I realized that I was not alone. ¡°You drew far more than we were expecting. I feared that you would harm yourself with such a volatile amount of Qi, and so I was forced to act. You are not injured, that is a simple technique to force a mind to sleep.¡± ¡°I lost it,¡± I complained. ¡°That was the idea, yes. You didn¡¯t need to take nearly so much to have impressed us, you already accomplished that with your marvelous spiritual senses. The merchant told us that you held the stone for ten minutes or so. Draining a spiritual stone in ten minutes is already an impressive feat. To do it in a single breath, however, is truly dangerous. Until you have learned to control Qi, and what to do with it inside your body, you put yourself in danger of forever crippling yourself by holding so much at one time.¡± I frowned at him. That little bit of Qi? It was nothing much, I was quite certain of that. Barely enough to sate my voracious appetite. I sighed. It seems that the cultivators did not accept that I simply knew what I was doing, and they would insist upon teaching me their hereditary methods. ¡°Did I pass the test?¡± ¡°Oh yes. Yes, you certainly have. We have given your family a sack of coins to help your father pay his debts, your village will be free from taxation for ten years, and your family will receive twenty silver coins per year so long as you are a disciple in our sect,¡± he informed me. ¡°I would be lying if I did not admit that it has been ten decades since the last time we encountered such a promising student. You must have been born under a very fortunate star. We tested your sister and brother as well, but they show no signs of genius.¡± ¡°They think I¡¯m slow,¡± I said. ¡°They¡¯ve always thought I was touched in the head. They simply don¡¯t see how little any of it really matters. This village, this world, all of it. It is just an illusion, no more real than reflection of the moon on still waters.¡± The cultivator¡¯s posture changed, suddenly going stiff. ¡°Little Bug, be very careful. You are much too young to begin pondering the Dao. That you have already had some insights is amazing, but it is also very dangerous. Thoughts shape reality, Little Bug. They shape your path and change the world. If you believe that the veil of this world is thin, then it is. But should you venture beyond the veil, by accident or exploration, you will find that the harsh currents of the cosmos will sweep your soul away from you.¡± I nodded my understanding of his words, and he helped me out of bed, checking me for any lingering effects of the method that had been used to render me unconscious. I made my way back to the village green, where I met my family and said goodbye. I was given a pack with all of my worldly possessions ¨C it was not a very large pack, just a few clothes and some baubles that were important for reasons only children would understand ¨C and I said my goodbyes to my family. My father said he was proud of me, and he promised that he would spend the coin the Sect gave him wisely. My sister chewed her lip and stared off into space, filled with anger and worry that I would somehow retaliate for her years of mistreatment. My little brother did not seem to understand what was happening, and he said ¡°I¡¯ll see you when you come home, Little Bug,¡± when we parted. But I knew that he would soon forget me as anything other than a distant benefactor who continued to send home coin to ensure the family¡¯s prosperity. And my mother ¡­ my mother was the hardest tie to sever. She loved her children as a mother should, and she was the only adult who was unhappy that I was leaving the village behind. ¡°I always knew,¡± she told me. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to believe it, but I always knew you would be taken from us eventually. Mothers know these things, you know. Do not forget us, Bug. No matter how high you climb or how long you live, do not forget where you come from.¡± I sighed, knowing somehow that to make such a promise would inhibit my path. ¡°I shall never forget you mother. I promise this.¡± She embraced me for what seemed like an eternity, but was only a moment, and then I left my family and my village behind. They were better for having had me born unto them, for the waived taxes and the stipend my family would receive would ensure their prosperity even through the next famine. Without it ¡­ our overlord was a just man, but to protect us he required power. Many people in the worlds under his authority would starve the next time he took his tithe, and many villages would collapse under the strain. I felt responsible, and yet I knew that I was not. Ultimately the responsibility lay with the Empress of the Divine Fates Empire, who attacked our people without warning or provocation. Why then did I feel that it was somehow my fault? And why did I know for certain that as long as I lived the danger to my people would not pass? The Empress may have been defeated, but I knew, somehow, that she would return stronger and more determined than before. If the overlord did not recover his strength and find yet more power for the next clash, then the people of my birth world would fall. Our world was but a subsidiary world of our overlord, but he had weakened himself to defend us. His honor demanded no less, for we had been loyal to him for six hundred years, but he could have sacrificed us at any time to end the invasion. The empress had made known her intentions from the start, and yet he had refused to give in to her demands. For that, we owed him a debt, and I would see it repaid. The journey to the sect took three phases. In the first phase, the cultivators and I walked the dirt road that led to our village. For three days we walked, pausing only when the cultivators insisted that I rest. I would have kept going until my body collapsed, for indeed I was not like a normal child and could push my body beyond the point of exhaustion, but it seems that the cultivators had been told that I would not complain and that they would need to force me to rest. The second phase came after we passed through a more prosperous town than the village of my birth, and the cultivators requisitioned for me a donkey to ride. The donkey was foul tempered and stubborn, and it resented its passenger deeply. But after a bit of cajoling, it kept pace with the cultivators, who increased their pace significantly. It did not appear that we were traveling any faster than before, but we had almost doubled our speed. The third phase passed when we crossed an invisible line, and I immediately sensed the difference. The spirituality of the land had tripled. ¡°The arrays take less from these lands,¡± I commented. ¡°You can tell the difference?¡± One of the cultivators asked, surprised. ¡°Yes. These are the lands where the food for the sect is grown. The surplus food your village grows is used to feed the peasants of these lands, while the food that they grow here is used to feed the sect itself.¡± I had not known this, I had thought that our surplus food went to the sect directly. Even in these lands I could sense that the spirituality was strangled by vast gathering arrays that spread the entire continent. Once we had crossed this invisible threshold, two of the cultivators simply flew off over the horizon, while the third enchanted the donkey to return to its village, then removed from a small sack a very large carpet, which he spread over the ground. When I sat on it as he instructed, the carpet began to float. ¡°You may wish to close your eyes. Do not panic. We will be flying the rest of the way, and it can be a frightening experience for those who have not experienced it before. If you do fall off the carpet, I will catch you. But if you simply sit next to me, you will be safe, and we will arrive at your new home before nightfall.¡± I acknowledged his words, but did not look away as we flew through the air at great speed. We passed over forests and villages in the time it takes to blink. No wind disturbed my clothes despite the speed at which we traveled, and I could sense that the cultivator I was riding with was shielding me with his qi. Or perhaps that was part of the formation inside the carpet that allowed it to fly; I could sense with certainty that the flight was a property of the item and not a technique of the cultivator himself. ¡°Can you fly like the others too?¡± I asked him. ¡°I cultivate Earth Qi,¡± he answered. ¡°That is why I own this carpet. While I am powering it, it is purifying the Earth aspect that I am feeding it out while we fly. Eventually it will fill this stone with concentrated Earth Qi, which is quite valuable. Here, you can examine the crystal, but do not try to absorb the Qi as you did with the Quartz last night.¡± He passed over a stone, which was a small white sphere the size of my hand. I could sense the link between the stone and the carpet, with the stone slowly feeding on Qi of a certain flavor which the carpet seemed to be generating. ¡°So the other two do not cultivate Earth Qi, which allows them to fly?¡± I asked for clarification. ¡°Win Lun has not selected an aspect to align his Qi to yet,¡± the cultivator answered, ¡°And Shi Jin cultivates the wind. Both unaspected Qi and Wind Qi are far speedier than I, but although I require a tool to take to the sky, I am able to carry more than either of them. Which is a good thing, because this journey would take three months instead of two weeks by foot. It is fortunate that you lived so close to the desolate lands, or else we might not have been sent to investigate the merchant¡¯ claims.¡± ¡°My village would not be in the desolate lands if it were not for the gathering wards which steal the land¡¯s energy,¡± I challenged. ¡°It is the Lord of this Realm, and not the Sect, which placed those wards. While the sect benefits them, they are ultimately a part of the method by which the energy of our planet is taxed,¡± he explained. ¡°Although many had forgotten that fact until the war in the heavens, which I am certain you remember from when you were younger. Some of the older cultivators are still reeling from the displays of strength. They had once considered themselves peers with the Lord, only to realize they were a cock before an eagle.¡± I nodded. ¡°Only one man in a realm can stand at the apex. It is good that this land was protected by an honorable and just Lord.¡± The cultivator laughed. ¡°Yes, we are lucky, Little Bug.¡± In an hour, we traveled further than we had by foot or on the donkey over far worse terrain. We reached the mountains, six peaks near each other. Two were taller than the other, possessing ice caps, while the other four were their foothills. ¡°Welcome to the Six Mountain Sect, Little Bug,¡± the cultivator told me. His name was Pi Phon. ¡°You must display your spiritual senses again for the elder, after which we will plan out your education. I hope you learn fast, because you will be far behind your peers.¡± I smiled. ¡°I am not so fearful of that, Elder Brother,¡± I assured him. ¡°I am certain I will catch up to them soon. ? 3. A Recalled Horror 3. A Recalled Horror The elders tried to trick me with the seeds. Instead of only one live seed in a handful of dead ones, I was given a bowl with mixed seeds and I had to separate those with the spark of life from those which were fit only for sustenance. It was a tedious task, but I worked without complaint. Ironically, it took the elders longer to check my work than it took me to complete the task. They verified that my pile of dead seeds had not a spark among them fast enough, but they had to individually sort the living ones, and it turned out that my senses were even sharper than some of theirs. This, it turned out, was a very big deal. According to the path of the Six Mountain Sect, the opening of spiritual senses wasn¡¯t supposed to happen naturally on its own. Not until the third stage of the foundation stage. After a bit of prodding, they figured that I was still mortal. The little bit of cultivation I had managed with the merchant¡¯s stone had not been enough to raise me into the foundation stage, as they saw things. Of course, I had used the energy in the rock to purify my body rather than strengthen my core, and they weren¡¯t checking for that. Eventually it was decided that I would have two hours of personal tutelage from Brother Phon each day to teach me how to cultivate, six hours of classes to learn to read and write, with the rest of the day being my own to do with as I pleased, although it was suggested that if I was wise I would do independent cultivation based on Pi Phon¡¯s teachings for at least another four hours every day. With eight hours set aside for sleeping, that still left me with four hours of leisure time, which was a generous allotment according to my elders. I was housed in a dormitory with eleven other boys my age, given three sets of robes with the sect¡¯s colors of gold and green and symbol on them, and told that my lessons would begin on the morrow. Then I was left alone. The boys weren¡¯t in the dormitory when I¡¯d arrived, so I changed into the robes and spent a few hours cultivating. The Qi was so thick in the air compared to my village that I was able to simply reach out and grab it. Like before, I focused on driving the energy through my natural pathways, picking up the impurities along the way. Except this time, instead of the impurities passively slipping out of my skin as I lost control over the Qi, I actively exuded them. The impurities in a mortal¡¯s body were one of the largest roadblocks to cultivation. They naturally resisted the flow of Qi. They increased the amount of time it took to recover from exercise and injury. They even reduced the mortal¡¯s lifespan. While I was technically supposed to focus on getting to the foundation stage before entering the body strengthening stage, I didn¡¯t need to open my core or meridians to start on this path, and it could only pay dividends later on. There are several reasons to teach the foundation stage first; most notably that the foundation stage focuses on the manipulation of Qi, which you need in order to actually purify your body in the body strengthening stage. But I didn¡¯t need help with that. I wasn¡¯t certain where I fit compared to most of the children my age, but I¡¯d been sensitive to Qi all my life, and I could manipulate it with ease. While I would need to use the much denser Qi that I would obtain after surpassing the foundation realm in order to truly purify my body, I could start the process now. It was like sweeping the floors before scrubbing them down with soap and water. I had a broom now, so I might as well get as much dirt out as I can. ¡°Ew, gross!¡± I blinked, opening my eyes for the first time in hours to realize that I was no longer alone in the dormitory. Five of my peers had entered the room while I had been cultivating. ¡°You stink! Why are you doing that inside?¡± A second boy asked. ¡°And where we sleep? That is not good!¡± ¡°Oh. I apologize. I wasn¡¯t thinking about the smell I would make when I started,¡± I admitted. ¡°I was just so excited to finally be somewhere with dense Qi, so I started cultivating the moment the adults left me alone.¡± ¡°Well go stink up somewhere else, stinky!¡± A third boy taunted. ¡°Now we¡¯re going to have to smell your rot for weeks!¡± ¡°No we won¡¯t. I¡¯ll get Brother Tien to ventilate the rooms for us after we get him cleaned up. Who wants to show him where the bath is?¡± A fourth boy, clearly the leader, said. Nobody volunteered. ¡°Fine then. I¡¯ll do it myself. Come with me, new boy. What¡¯s your name?¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°Everyone calls me Little Bug. I kind of like it,¡± I answered, getting up to follow him. ¡°Well if you don¡¯t watch out they¡¯re going to call you stinky instead. And what do you mean, dense Qi? We¡¯re in the lowest density zone on the mountain!¡± He said. ¡°Is that so?¡± I asked. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t lie about something like that,¡± he pleaded. ¡°By the way, my name is Hien Ro. You can call me Brother Ro. I¡¯m in the body cleansing stage as well, and I know how much better you feel after a good cleanse, but you still shouldn¡¯t do it inside or where other people have to smell the aftermath.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I said stupidly. ¡°I wasn¡¯t thinking. From now on I will make certain to only do this outside.¡± ¡°Yeah, well, by the looks of it you¡¯ll be done with body cleansing before much longer anyway,¡± he said. He leaned closer to me and sniffed, then made a disgusted look and shook his head. ¡°Ugh. How did you get so many impurities out in one session? I¡¯d kill for your technique.¡± I frowned, because what I had been doing had just felt natural. If Ro was working on body cleansing, then he should already have a firm grasp on his own Qi, which made it strange that he would have difficulty cleansing himself. ¡°I guess I¡¯m not sworn to secrecy or anything. But I¡¯m not really sure how to teach you.¡± ¡°Really? That would be great,¡± he said eagerly. ¡°While you¡¯re in the bath, I¡¯m going to get a scroll to take notes, okay?¡± The baths were a large, open room with hot water piped in and heated by a formation that ran on ambient energy. Because of my body being covered in impurities, I was expected to sluice off in a corner to get the worst of the mess, and unfortunately that water wasn¡¯t heated. But afterward I was treated to my first full-body hot water soak while Ro picked my brain about body cleansing. He never really thought it strange that he had been cultivating since he was six years old, while I had literally only just started, yet I was giving him advice. Especially once I let it slip that I was to receive personal tutelage from Pi Phon. He was so excited to try out my insights that he stripped down to a loincloth right there in the baths and began trying to cultivate as well. That was normal, he said, and encouraged me to do the same in my towel. I didn¡¯t want to sluice off again, however, so I decided to call it a night. ~~~~~~~ I looked at my chubby little hand. This body was strange, with four fingers and large eyes. I was neither male nor female, but a gestator, for this species had three sexes. With green skin filled with chloroplasts, I looked like a woodland spirit, but I was born into a large bustling city. ¡°Good morning Sweet One,¡± my mother-gestator said to me. ¡°Did you have a nice sleep?¡± I made sounds of agreement, unable to form words quite yet. I thought that this was going to be a good life. The world was not overripe with spirituality, or at least the lands around my home were not. Perhaps there were places where the energy was denser, places that I could travel when I was older, where I could reach the bronze or silver path. Once that happened, I would perhaps be able to construct an array to allow me to journey to another world, to connect this one to one of the many trade nexuses that lined the cosmos and find my way to a world where I could reach the gold and platinum paths. My mother-gestator lifted me and held me close, singing the songs of learning. She carried me through our small apartment and placed me in the play area with my litter-mates. One of the clumsy females walked over and pushed me, and I playfully pushed her back. We got into a wrestling match as my mother-gestator went to wake my brother. ¡°I don¡¯t trust them,¡± My father told my egg-donor-mother. ¡°They say that they come in peace, but why do they demand our lands? Our sacred ancestral hunting grounds? They travel between stars, and they offer us miracles for the metal in our earth. I do not trust them.¡± ¡°The humans have promised us much good fortune,¡± my mother argued. ¡°Surely they mean us no ill-intent. Besides, it is in the hands of our leaders, not small people like us, to decide the details of our relationships with the human empire.¡± ¡°I do not trust our leaders to make the right decisions,¡± my father argued. ¡°It is out of our hands,¡± my egg-donor mother insisted. ¡°All you are accomplishing is giving yourself heart-ache.¡± ¡°You are right. And I still do not trust them,¡± My father said again. I wrestled with my siblings, and I was happy. This was going to be a good life, I thought. The sirens began out of nowhere. I looked at my parents, who looked out the window in confusion. The massive ship in the sky that had brought the humans to our planet moved, and suddenly a bright light connected heaven and earth as the humans fired their world-ending weapons upon our city. The blastwave obliterated our apartment, and I-- ? 4. A Business Arrangement 4. A Business Arrangement I awoke to someone pulling my foot. I wasn¡¯t too alarmed, being used to my parents awakening me in similar ways at home, but I was immediately aware that I was not back in the village. I opened my eyes to see Pi Phon. He gestured me to be silent, and I realized that he was trying to rouse me without waking the other boys. A bit of consideration for his juniors? I dressed in one of my two remaining clean robes and followed him outside. I noted that it was still predawn, but the sun was just behind the horizon, and the sky was beginning to turn gray. ¡°I¡¯ll be waking you each morning at this time,¡± he informed me. ¡°I expect you to be well rested. I don¡¯t care when you fall asleep or if you nap, as long as it¡¯s not on my time. Am I understood?¡± ¡°Yes, Elder Brother Phon,¡± I answered obediently. He seemed satisfied. ¡°Normally if an eleven year old joined our sect, they would already be in the body strengthening or perhaps the condensation stage,¡± he commented. ¡°You¡¯re a bit of an oddity. Normally the techniques I¡¯m about to teach you are taught in groups and by scroll. You¡¯re too old to learn alongside six year olds, and you can¡¯t read. So you have me.¡± He led me into a room, and it was like walking from water into molasses. The Qi density was simply absurd! I realized that the entire room was the focus point of a formation which was further condensing the already dense Qi in the atmosphere. ¡°You¡¯re allowed two hours in here with me, which is why we¡¯re up at this hour, and four hours throughout the day, although anyone with more seniority than you can kick you out of this formation at any time. You see those mats on the floor? Well, it¡¯s one junior per mat. Once the rest of the sect wakes up there will be an attendant making sure that nobody double dips or stays past their allotment, but aside from that if the mats are full you have to wait for an opening or come back later. There¡¯s about sixty of these lesser condensation buildings throughout the sect, however, so there¡¯s usually enough room for all of our juniors to get their cultivation in.¡± ¡°The Qi is so thick in here,¡± I commented. ¡°Only compared to your village. When I first came here, I could barely sense a difference between this room and outside,¡± Pi Phon admitted. ¡°Anyway, take a mat and I¡¯ll talk you through some breathing exercises.¡± I knelt on one mat near the door, and Phon took a mat nearby. He coached me on the correct rhythm of breath, encouraging me to close my eyes and really focusing on it. ¡°While you¡¯re breathing in, remember that you¡¯re not just inhaling air,¡± he encouraged me. ¡°You¡¯re inhaling Qi. That is how most of the Qi enters our body. It is inhaled, filtered through the heart, and brought to the stomach, where your core is. Your core generates it¡¯s own Qi, but that¡¯s a lesson for another day. As is the Qi from your skin. Focus on breathing. In and out. Feel the Qi in your breath.¡± I could feel nothing else. It was so thick I was choking. While Pi Phon was encouraging me to try to sense the Qi in the air, I was struck by the realization that other cultivators struggled with this. He gave many different metaphors for what I should be feeling in the air, like it could be this thick and not be aware of it. It was not a light scent, it was a choking perfume. It was not a spring dew in the air, but the overwhelming swelter of summer. It was not the taste of the ocean, unless you counted drowning in it. I thought of saying something about this to him, but I kept silent. It was more important to master the breathing technique than to point out my discomfort. And I knew that being in the Qi dense environment was good for me. Even without my direct action, Qi at this level would enter my body and reinforce my system. Mastering the breathing technique would make that improvement several times more effective. I was surprised when my teacher suddenly informed me that our two hours together was up. That passed much faster than I¡¯d expected it to, but that was the way with cultivation sometimes. He gave me directions towards my next lessons. I was to learn to read and write from a scribe, who wasn¡¯t very happy to have been set aside from his normal tasks specifically for the purpose of my education. I continued to focus on my breathing throughout the lesson, and the rest of the day. I found that when I mixed it with my previous method of cleansing my body, which I did during my four hour period in the Qi rich concentration rooms, the efficacy was significantly increased. I mentioned as much to Hien Ro, who continued to pick my brain about body cleansing every chance he got. Aside from cultivating with me, Ro would write down almost everything I said in a scroll which he¡¯d acquired somewhere. He insisted on drawing pictures of men inside and making me draw lines of exactly how I was moving the Qi inside my body. Once again, I didn¡¯t really think much of this matter. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Time passed. Pi Phon was pleased with my breathing technique, but didn¡¯t teach me any new cultivation techniques. Instead, he brought me into a courtyard and forced me to do a kata while maintaining my breathing technique. This was exponentially more difficult than the breathing technique itself, but he insisted that of the two, the breathing technique was most important to maintain. It was better to flub the kata than my breathing. I was diligent in everything I did, but I was left feeling disappointed. I had known that I was different from mortals, but I had thought that once I was among other cultivators, I would find my peers. After spending time with Hien Ro and his friends, however, I quickly realized that I was simply too different. While it was pleasant to coach Ro and some others once they realized that my body purification method truly did work, the others were different. They laughed and made jokes. They talked about girls and spying on the woman¡¯s compounds, including showing off the welts that they got on their bottoms when they were caught doing so. For me, the spark just wasn¡¯t there. Even when they tried to include me, I found myself more focused on maintaining my breathing and exploring my developing Qi channels. Together with my body purification, my Qi channels were truly opening up. I quickly realized that, aside from the breathing technique, Pi Phon¡¯s lessons were worthless. It¡¯s not that he wasn¡¯t trying, but that he was used to explaining things to a child who didn¡¯t have my preternatural spiritual senses. He had been drilling me on breathing techniques for a week before he began instructing me on how to draw the Qi I was inhaling into my core ¨C something which I had done naturally on my second day! On the second week, he gave me a breakdown of the foundation realm, and I realized that my expectations were very different from the expectations others had of me. Mastering the breathing technique was step one. Step two was drawing external Qi into my core. Step three through twelve would involve opening various meridians throughout my body. I would be examined in six months, and I was expected to have two or three of my meridians open. A normal child was expected to make this journey in three or four years. I was fairly confident that I was already in step three of the foundation stage, and could force open any of my meridians whenever I chose. I held back. I wanted to purify my body first. It took me three days to master my purification technique from the time I first learned the breathing technique, developing my own circulation method on the fly which was, I thought, more natural to my anatomy than the one I was taught by Pi Phon. It wasn¡¯t that the method taught to students of the Six Mountain Sect was wrong, but that it was simplified below that which I could manage, so I went with my more complex and difficult circulation method. I even tried to incorporate it into the kata, although I quickly learned that was a little too much. On the third week at the sect, I got into trouble. Hien Ro and I, actually. It turned out that Ro had been making copies of his notes that he¡¯d been taking while we worked on body purification together and selling them to our peers. When we were caught, we were called before the elders, who read the scrolls with interest. My friendship with Hien Ro had been remarked on long before, of course, but the assumption had been that he was teaching me body refinement, not the other way around. A second assumption was that I wouldn¡¯t have the Qi capacity or control to actually manage it. The fact that, after three days in the sect, my impurities were no longer black rancid sludge added to the illusion. I still had impurities, but they barely made me smell worse than a normal boy as I worked them out of my body. ¡°Where did you get this information?¡± Di Ram, one of the elders asked me once it was clear that Hien Ro was a dead end. Hien Ro was honorable, insisting that the information came entirely from me, but it had been his decision to sell it, an act which he had not consulted me on, but he intended to split the profits with me. ¡°I made it up as I went along,¡± I admitted. ¡°I wanted to get my impurities out, and I knew that I could do it with Qi, so I figured out the best way to do it based on what I felt inside.¡± This caused a wave of consternation throughout the elders. It appeared that the technique that I developed on my own before even stepping into the foundation realm was far more advanced than anything they would ever consider teaching to a child. It was more along the lines of a technique that one of their bronze or silver path sect members would use before beginning a body refinement method. That led to a closer examination of my progress, at which point it was discovered that I had leapt forward. As I had expected, I was in the third stage of the foundation realm. It was only my certainty that I needed to purify my body before proceeding which was holding me back from blowing through the foundation realm and entering the energy gathering realm, and I said as much to the elders. Hien Ro looked at me with a slack jaw when he learned that I had been a mortal when he met me. He had thought that I had been recommended to the sect by a wandering master, who had given me some lessons already. He was on the eighth step of the foundation realm, which with the method taught at the Six Mountains Sect meant he had opened the liver meridian, which was viewed as the ideal time to begin purifying the body. He had assumed that our cultivation levels were equal. ¡°It appears that we have vastly underestimated your genius, Little Bug,¡± Di Ram said after questioning me among several of the notes that had been made on the master scroll confiscated from Hien Ro. ¡°Why did you not ask for Pi Phon to increase the speed of your lessons? You could be receiving lessons alongside your friends in addition to the private tutoring we have arranged for you at this stage.¡± I considered. ¡°I hadn¡¯t realized that. I think I would like that. However, the reason I did not say anything was because I was worried I would miss something important to my foundation. He has said already that I am receiving an accelerated course. To move too fast might mean missing an important detail which could cripple me later in life.¡± ¡°There is wisdom in those words,¡± Di Ram admitted. You will continue to receive the beginner¡¯s courses in the morning, as well as attending me in the evenings for advanced courses. In the mean time, I am purchasing this scroll from the two of you for twenty gold pieces. Fifteen of those belong to Little Bug, the remaining five shall go to Hien Ra for taking these notes.¡± And that¡¯s how it was. ? 5. Mushrooms 5. Mushrooms My first lesson with Di Ram was more of an interrogation. He demanded that I go over every detail of my breathing technique and how it combined with my body purification technique. He then showed me a diagram with meridians drawn on it, with arrows going in different directions. He instructed me to try to cycle my Qi in that pattern. While maintaining my breathing technique, of course. I tried, but quickly ran into several roadblocks. Literally, my pathways did not flow in the directions described in the scroll. However, after a few moments, I came up with a close approximation. ¡°Don¡¯t move,¡± Elder Di Ram said once I managed to get my approximation working. ¡°Incredible. After only a few moments.¡± ¡°The scroll is wrong,¡± I said. ¡°I know. But it¡¯s the best version that we have. It¡¯s a body enhancement technique, but everyone¡¯s channels for the muscles involved are slightly different. It normally takes some experimentation in order to get it right. You mastered it in record speed.¡± ¡°Body enhancement?¡± I asked, my ears perking up. ¡°That¡¯s why I told you not to move. While you¡¯re under that technique, you are much faster and stronger than you¡¯re used to. You¡¯ll have to relearn how to walk, how to run, and how to throw a punch, before you¡¯re ready to use it in combat,¡± he informed me. He passed me a bar of iron, which was about half an inch thick. ¡°Try to bend that.¡± I tried. It resisted. I tried harder, focusing on maintaining the technique. It bent thirty degrees. I focused, and it bent further. ¡°There are many versions of this technique, and it goes by many names. I call it the Iron Monkey¡¯s Strength. You should note that it isn¡¯t an armor technique. You are stronger and faster, but in a fight you¡¯ll take just as much injury. And it¡¯s a full body technique. It has many strengths and weaknesses in a fight.¡± I nodded, barely listening to him as he lectured me on those strengths and weaknesses. Honestly, I could already figure out most of them just from the way that it was affecting my body. I knew that my skin couldn¡¯t stop a blade, that my bones would crack if they were crushed by a mace, just as they were before. But when he suggested that I perform the Kata that Pi Phan had taught me, I immediately rose to the challenge. And failed. Repeatedly. Comically, even. He sent me home and instructed me to practice the Iron Monkey¡¯s Strength while eating. And he cautioned me repeatedly not to poke my eye out when I tried it. He also suggested that I have many chopsticks ready, as I was likely to break a few dozen. ~~~~~~~ One of the duties of junior sect members was to gather mushrooms in the forest. The older children were also expected to gather herbs, but only after they had been thoroughly educated on which herbs to gather and which to ignore, which to mark the location of, and which were being allowed to reach maturity or reproduce. Mushrooms, however, were a free-for-all. Everyone knew what a deathcap looked like, but even that had its purpose. You just had to be careful when handling it. In the sixth week of my stay with the Six Mountains Sect, I was sent with dozens of other children out into the forests surrounding the sect, armed with a basket, a few rations, a gourd filled with water, and a pocket knife. It was a competition, with rewards for the one who brought back the most valuable mushrooms, as judged by the alchemists of the sect. Contribution points would also be awarded for locating any other valuable resources. I didn¡¯t particularly care, but I went through the motions. It was more of a chance to explore the forest than anything else, and I was eager for that opportunity, but my eyes were more focused on the trees and other green fauna than mushrooms. I quickly realized that the various plants had different levels of spirituality to them. I was given eight flags to mark any herbs I thought were valuable. As I wandered deeper into the forest, I used each of them on particularly dense herbs, and once on a tree whose acorns were so laden with Qi that I could smell them from ten meters away. The few mushrooms I did find were lacking any particular spirituality, but I pulled them out of the ground anyway and threw them in my basket. After several hours of solitary exploration, I heard the sound of raised voices. I nervously approached, and I realized that one of the voices was Hien Ro. He was arguing with four other boys. As I approached, the argument devolved into a shoving contest, and Ro was outmatched. ¡°We¡¯re not suppose to fight without an elder watching,¡± I said, coming into the small clearing where the altercation was taking place. The leader of the boys turned to me and sneered. ¡°Oh great, it¡¯s your boyfriend! Perhaps he will pay us the money you owe,¡± the boy, whose name was Li Lee, said derisively. I frowned. They were arguing over money? ¡°Why is he in your debt?¡± I asked. ¡°They¡¯re lying, Bug,¡± Ro said immediately. ¡°They bought our notes on body purification before the sect made copies and gave them to everyone.¡± I considered the problem for a moment. ¡°I still don¡¯t understand. You bought something so valuable that when the sect found out about it they made it part of the curriculum. Why do you think that entitles you to a refund?¡± ¡°Because we paid for a secret technique, not your personal notes!¡± a second boy, Ko Ton, exclaimed. ¡°I never said it was a secret technique, just that it worked,¡± Ro exclaimed. ¡°Anyway, Bug, they¡¯re full of shit. I already asked the elders if I should refund the students who bought the technique and I was ordered not to. I was told that the students got what they paid for and they should be grateful for the opportunity to learn from a genius.¡± ¡°A genius? He¡¯s not even started opening his meridians yet, and he thinks that he can purify his body?¡± Lee exclaimed. ¡°Anyway, I tried your stupid method and it doesn¡¯t work. So I deserve a refund. And if you don¡¯t give me back my five silver, I¡¯m going to beat you and your boyfriend every day.¡± Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°You only paid a single silver for the notes!¡± Ro argued. ¡°And every day I¡¯m not repaid, I¡¯ll be expecting you to pay another silver for the inconvenience!¡± Lee shot back. I considered how to deal with this situation. ¡°If the elders said you are not to be repaid, then that¡¯s the end of the conversation.¡± ¡°The conversation isn¡¯t over until I get my refund!¡± Lee said. ¡°Now hand it over! Twenty five silver, five for each of us!¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t even if I intended to,¡± I said. ¡°All I have is mushrooms.¡± ¡°Well then, we¡¯ll just have to punish you now, and collect thirty silver from you tomorrow!¡± he threatened, and the five boys stepped forward. They entered threatening poses; they were older than us and therefore bigger, and they brought their bulk to bear. Ro fell back until he was beside me, the bullies looming closer. They had herded him towards me and surrounded us during the conversation, and now it was unlikely we¡¯d be able to get away. ¡°What do we do?¡± Ro asked. ¡°Defend ourselves a best we can,¡± I answered. I entered the stance that they had taught us and prepared to fight for real for the first time in my life. This wasn¡¯t my older sister picking on me; if I was alone I probably would have simply accepted a beating then solved the problem by confiding in an elder. Di Ram was very protective of me, and he would have resolved this issue with the wave of a hand. ¡°You really think you have a chance?¡± Lee asked. He didn¡¯t bother entering a stance; he simply spat in disgust, then charged. I would have lost, if it were not for my lessons with Di Ram. I was outnumbered, and the bullies were larger than I was, and I had only been training in the martial arts for a few weeks. I was expecting to lose. Which is why, when I activated the Iron Monkey¡¯s Strength and punched Lee in the chest, I was surprised to feel his sternum break beneath my palm. He cried out and was knocked back, and he did not rise. The others, who had judged Ro to be the bigger threat, stopped charging my friend and turned to me in surprise. ¡°Was that a Technique?¡± Ko Ton asked, his voice almost reverent. ¡°The Iron Monkey¡¯s Strength,¡± I answered. ¡°Elder Di Ram taught me.¡± ¡°Iron Monkey?¡± the bullies¡¯ number two asked, looking nervous for the first time. ¡°We still outnumber him,¡± one of the others said. ¡°I¡¯ll distract him. Put the other boy on the ground, then we¡¯ll gang up on the little one. Even if he has a technique, he doesn¡¯t have the experience to use it well.¡± Unfortunately, that strategy worked. Now that he knew I had such a weapon, Ko Ton wasn¡¯t willing to make the same mistake as Li Lee and charge into my range. He stayed just outside of my reach, kicking and throwing rocks at me to keep me at a distance as the others delivered a beating to Hien Ro. I grew increasingly frustrated with the situation. Once they had beaten him to the point where he wasn¡¯t trying to get up anymore, the four older boys turned on me together. I held the Iron Monkey¡¯s Strength, but I had only two arms, and I couldn¡¯t defend against them as they used their superior numbers and reach against me, striking me with their fists and feet. Finally I caught hold of one of the boys and I pulled with all of my might, dislocating his shoulder. He cried out in pain, and his friend called out his name. Enraged, the boy pulled out his pocket knife, lunged forward, and stabbed me in the belly. ¡°Yon Xian you idiot!¡± Ko Ton exclaimed. ¡°Do you know how much trouble we¡¯ll be in if we kill another disciple!¡± Xian only grew more angry as I held my wound, looking down at the blood soaking into my robes. ¡°We kill them both. The elders won¡¯t be able to prove that we killed them. If we take their stuff and bury it where nobody can find it, they¡¯ll think it was bandits!¡± As though he had been waiting for this, Hien Ro burst from where he had been playing opossum, dashing through the forest and away from the older boys. Three of the boys chased after him. Xian remained behind, his knife in hand. ¡°We don¡¯t have a choice,¡± he said. ¡°When you get to the afterlife, try not to be too resentful. You don¡¯t want it to follow you into the next life, do you?¡± ¡°Follow your own advice,¡± I said, and I threw the rock that I had picked up when Ro¡¯s departure had distracted him. It brained him, and he collapsed to the ground. Unconscious or dead, I did not check to find out. Li Lee was still alive, making sounds like he was struggling to breathe. I left them both behind, heading back towards where I believed the sect to be in order to get treatment for my wound and relay the story to my elders. I very quickly became lost. The wound to my abdomen wasn¡¯t bleeding any longer. It had stopped on its own, but I was worried about infection. I knew, without knowing how I knew, that if it festered there was a fair chance that I would die, and the last twelve years would have been wasted. That was a bit of a strange thought. Not fear of death, exactly. But annoyance that some little shit could have upset something I was planning. Something which I wasn¡¯t even consciously aware of. I wandered the forest, searching for the path which would lead me back to the sect. I didn¡¯t find it. Instead I found a stream. Uncertain, I took off my robes and used the water from the stream to wash away the blood that had gotten on it, and my skin, while avoiding the wound itself. I carried my robes in my arms for a while, continuing to search. Eventually, I realized that searching blindly was an idiotic idea. The spirituality should be thickest the closer I got to the sect proper, right? So I would follow the gradient, moving in the direction of the strongest source of Qi in the area until I found the compound. With my keen senses, I quickly decided on the correct direction and set out. Instead of finding the compound, I found a tree. It was, strangely enough, a peach tree. It was the only one I had seen in the forest, and it stood in a clearing. Several of its branches were low to the ground, and I squeezed one of its fruit to test its ripeness. It was soft to the touch, so I picked it, and when I bit into it the juice ran down my chin. I ate three of the peaches then rest against the back of the tree. I had wasted the last hour in my search. The gradient had been leading me here, not to the compound. I didn¡¯t know why, this peach tree had been drawing vast amounts of Qi to itself. Its fruit was ripe with it, and as it sat in my belly, I began to cultivate, thinking that purifying my body now would reduce the chances of my shallow belly wound festering. I focused on my breathing. I focused on the flow of Qi in my body. I allowed my awareness to expand, and I became aware of the Qi surrounding me, and I pulled that into my breath. I focused on my breathing. I inhaled Qi, but I did not exhale it, forcing it down into my core. I concentrated it there and circulated it, as I was told to do before trying to open my meridians, but instead of attempting that task, I instead used my body purification technique. I focused on my breathing. Inhale. Exhale. The Qi comes in through my nose. It leaves through my skin. I lost myself in cycling. When I finally opened my eyes again, night had come to the forest, and I was still alone. I had not broken through, I had not opened any of my meridians. I was still at step three of the foundation realm. Yet I had succeeded in completely purifying my body. I returned to the stream to wash the impurities from my skin. Once I had bathed, I returned to the peach tree, ate another peach, and fell asleep. My wound barely bothered me at all. ? 6. Peach Blossom Dream 6. Peach Blossom Dream Di Ram was furious. He hadn¡¯t been terribly worried at first. Wandering the forest outside the sect was a tradition for the young disciples, and it wasn¡¯t uncommon at all for them to get lost. They had trackers sewn into their clothing for exactly this reason, although it was also tradition to force the students to spend a night outside if they failed to return to the sect before the gates closed. However, Little Bug was Little Bug, not some random disciple. The boy¡¯s spiritual senses were astonishing. Almost a little frightening. Di Ram had been cultivating for ninety years, and yet his own senses were almost dull in comparison to the boy¡¯s. The test with the seeds had proven that. And his cultivation speed, now that he was in a Qi rich environment rather than the wastelands outside the gathering array, was on par with the most promising of geniuses. Even if he did have the foolish notion that cleansing his body was more important than condensing his Qi and opening his meridians. That was fine. Genius and eccentricity went hand in hand together. The fact remained that Little Bug¡¯s body cleansing technique was a silver level technique, and it had been developed by a child not yet twelve years old. The fact remained that he had mastered the Qi flows of a full body reinforcement technique in moments. The fact remained that, by the time the boy was twenty, he would likely have surpassed most of the elders in the sect, including Di Ram himself. That was okay. Di Ram did not have to be the strongest. He would settle for expanding the influence of his sect, and his influence within the sect. If Little Bug remembered Di Ram as a doting teacher, then the investment of Di Ram¡¯s time and effort in educating the boy would pay dividends once the child became the Sect¡¯s next patriarch. Knowing the current patriarch, there would be little conflict in such an elevation. Di Ram was a patient man, and he was content to play the long game. When the headcount was performed after the gates closed and seven disciples were missing, Di Ram was one of the only elders who showed any concern at all. If one of those disciples had not been Little Bug, he would have simply gone to sleep and allowed the juniors to worry about it in the morning. However, when he realized that his precious disciple was one of the boys who was missing, he immediately roused a search party to go out and track down the boy. However, the tracking tokens sewn into the children¡¯s clothing were not working. Di Ram became increasingly concerned as he dashed through the forest in the treetops, unable to find his quarry, or any quarry at all. With the others searching in other directions, he could only hope that they had better luck. Twenty minutes after the search began, he suddenly sensed a faint signal nearby. He rushed towards it, and interrupted Ko Ton, who was in the middle of cleaning himself after defecating. He cleared his throat, and the humiliated boy stopped what he was doing, pulled his robe back into place, and immediately bowed to the elder. ¡°This disciple apologizes to the elder for the unfortunate sight he has seen,¡± Ko Ton said. ¡°I--¡± ¡°You were performing a natural bodily function. You have not shamed yourself. Were I not in a hurry to find my precious disciple, I would have waited five minutes longer and pretended not to have discovered you in the act,¡± Di Ram said, waving the matter away. ¡°Where is Little Bug?¡± Ko Ton stiffened, and Di Ram had his suspicions confirmed. ¡°This disciple does not know.¡± ¡°What have you done?¡± the elder demanded. ¡°It was not I,¡± Ko Ton said. ¡°We-we were together for a while. There was an altercation, several boys were involved. It got out of hand, and several of us were injured. Li Lee is badly hurt, I think that his chest is broken badly. He is having much trouble breathing. And--¡± ¡°I only care about Little Bug. What happened to him?¡± Ko Ton swallowed, then he said ¡°Yon Xian stabbed him in the belly with his pocket knife. I do not know how bad the injury is, as his friend caused a distraction and Little Bug ran off. We have been searching for him ever since. I knew that the elders would get to the truth and that the only way we might receive mercy was to swear everyone to secrecy and bring everyone to the healers together. But the others, the others think differently. They think--¡± ¡°Where is he?¡± Di Ram asked, furious. ¡°We thought that he had returned to the Sect by now. We were hiding because we feared the repercussions for our actions,¡± Ko Ton admitted. ¡°Not Little Bug. Where is Yon Xian?¡± Ko Ton paused, uncertain. ¡°The others are all in the cave. We were hiding--¡± Di Ram ignored the boy¡¯s further explanations, stepping into the narrow cavern, which opened a bit after the entrance. He saw six boys, one of whom was tied with strips torn from his own robe. Three of the others were already prostrating themselves when he arrived inside, having heard their traitorous companion ratting them out. The only other boy lie in the corner, struggling to breathe. ¡°Yon Xian. Stand.¡± Nervously, the teenager obeyed, although his eyes did not leave the ground. He was silent, although he was quivering with fear. ¡°Do you deny the words of Ko Ton?¡± Di Ram demanded. ¡°We were all in on it,¡± Xian said. ¡°Each of us. We should share the punishment--¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Di Ram¡¯s temper flared, and he slapped the boy, sending him flying into the stone wall of the cave and breaking the child¡¯s jaw. He allowed his aura to flare out at its maximum strength, driving the children even further to the ground as the pressure washed over them. ¡°You will all face punishment, but do not think that a burden shared will be a burden lessened. Little Bug is worth ten thousand of any one of you! If you are lucky, you will only be expelled from the sect! Now leave this cave and return. The other elders and I will decide your fate tomorrow, once the boy has been found.¡± ¡°Li Lee is injured,¡± one of the other boys said, ¡°and so am I. Can we not receive help before--¡± ¡°If Li Lee cannot walk, then you should carry him,¡± Di Ram declared. ¡°I can see your shoulder is dislocated, but the other one is fine. If you say one more word, I will dislocate each of your other limbs and then your friends will have two useless bodies to carry back to the compound.¡± Di Ram paused, noticing the identity of the sixth boy for the first time, the one who was bound. That one was Little Bug¡¯s friend, and the fact that the others were keeping him prisoner was proof that he was not responsible for the prodigy¡¯s disappearance. Di Ram sighed. ¡°Untie Hien Ro. I will bring him back with me directly so that I may rouse a greater search party. I promise you, if Little Bug dies because of this foolishness, you will wish that he had killed you instead.¡± ~~~~~~~~ I awoke in the morning and ate another three peaches. I was collecting the pits in my pocket, and I had promised the tree that I would plant each of them in gratitude for the sustenance. I believed that it answered by dropping another one of its fruit to the ground, one that was juicier and tastier than all of the rest. And the others were already the most delicious fruit I had ever tasted. While each of the pits were alive, the one which the tree had dropped once I had made my pledge was especially dense with Qi. I put it in a pocket by itself, then sat with my back against the tree and began to cultivate once more. With the Qi dense fruit in my stomach and the naturally dense ambient Qi, it was the perfect environment for it, better than even the concentration rooms which the others used at the sect. I¡¯d had a strange dream the night before. I had dreamed of cultivating, and I was trying to recreate the method I had used in the dream. It was a complex cycling method which complimented the breathing technique that I had already learned, but it was several times more complex than the simple cycling method which I was supposed to use. There are nine key meridians. One for the head, each limb, the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. The students of the Six Mountains Sect were taught to cycle to each one in turn, slowly gathering more power in their core and eroding each meridian. The exact order in which they were opened didn¡¯t matter too much, although most children rushed to unlock their limbs because of the increased strength that doing so granted. However, opening each meridian made opening the remaining nodes more difficult. It was a matter of pressure; opening a meridian was like opening a relief valve in a series of pipes. Children were advised very sternly to consider opening their heart, liver, lungs or kidneys first due to the benefits that they gained from cycling to those organs. Some listened, others didn¡¯t. Ultimately it was the child¡¯s decision, their first one of significance in their journey of cultivation. I disregarded both the advice I¡¯d received on the ideal order, and the technique I had been taught to do it. Instead of sequentially imagining a flow through each meridian in turn, I condensed as much of the ambient Qi as I could in my core, focusing it down and down and down. I gasped when I felt a sudden rush enter me from behind me; Qi that tasted of earth and wood. The Peach Tree was granting me some of its strength in thanks for my earlier promise. I was slightly worried that the Qi the tree was granting me would aspect my own Qi, but I quickly realized that the flavor was just a flavor, and the Qi was in fact quite pure. Almost as pure as that of the fruit I had eaten, and I hadn¡¯t even paused to consider not using that energy. Suddenly, I sensed that I had passed a threshold. As hard as I pressed, I could not condense the Qi any further. More importantly, when I let up the pressure, the Qi stayed condensed. Without opening a single meridian, I had condensed my Qi to the point where I had reached the energy gathering realm. I smiled, because this was the first part of what I had done in my dream. It had not been easy; it had been perhaps the most difficult thing I had done in my life, taking all of my willpower to accomplish it. But it was worth it. The second step of my dream cultivation was much simpler. It was a specialized full body cycling technique. Its purpose was twofold; to open my meridians and to expand the channels through which Qi flowed at the same time. If it worked as I dreamed it did, then it would be the technique I would use until it was time to enter the Qi Condensation realm. I could have used this method earlier, but it would have been less effective without condensing my Qi first. I hadn¡¯t harmed my cultivation by skipping the opening of my meridians. Rather, they would open on their own now that I was in the energy gathering realm whether I cultivated or not. However, each opening would have released a wave of toxins and impurities into my body had I not purified myself first, something which it seems I had instinctively understood. I cycled with the Peach Blossom Dream cultivation technique, as I had decided to call the method I had dreamed up, and I sensed each of my meridians snapping open under the new pressure of the method, one after the other. Before the sun had reached its zenith, I was fully in the energy gathering realm. I continued to cycle until my channels were sore from the pressure of my newly dense Qi flowing through them, and then I performed my body cleansing technique one more time. I had thought that I had cleansed my bodies of all of its impurities before, but this session was worse than any of the previous ones. I continued to cleanse myself until I could stand it no longer, then I once again bathed in the stream. I had wisely stripped to my undergarments before performing my body cleansing technique, and I discarded the soiled rags rather than put them back on once I had scrubbed my skin clean. Satisfied, I put my robes back on and walked over to the spiritual peach tree. ¡°Thank you,¡± I said to it. I pressed a hand against its trunk and gifted it back a measure of my Qi. ¡°I will keep my promise and plant each of the seeds I have gathered.¡± I sensed a measure of peace and well-being emanating from the spiritual tree, and a sense of loneliness. It was a peach tree, and yet it was out here in the middle of the forest instead of in an orchard. Its fruit was being wasted rather than enjoyed. ¡°I¡¯ll take as many with me as I can,¡± I promised, ¡°And I¡¯ll show the others where you are. From now on, someone will come every year to harvest you, and when they realize how special you are you will have an entire forest of children.¡± The tree seemed to like that promise. Or at least I sensed that it did, but maybe I was imagining it. I picked as many peaches as I could. I had lost the basket which I was supposed to be carrying for mushrooms, but I had plenty of pockets. Eating one last peach, I left the clearing and went searching for the sect¡¯s main compoound. ? 7. The Little Sage 7. The Little Sage Di Ram was a mile away when he suddenly sensed another tracker appear. He zipped over as quickly as possible. The forest was vast, and filled with formations. Some of those formations had the possibility to interfere with the tracking token that the sect used to keep track of its most junior members. While the idiot children he had found the night before had gotten by with simply hiding in the cave, it had been Ram¡¯s assumption that Little Bug had wandered into one of those formations and fallen asleep. He had returned to the sect for a map with the known formations and spent the night searching each of them sequentially. This one was not on the map. That by itself was not unsurprising; thousands of cultivators had passed through this forest over the years and many of them had set up privacy formations for their private cultivation spots. They were supposed to register them, and to dismantle them once they were no longer being used, but everyone knew that rule wasn¡¯t enforced very strongly. It was possible that the dead zone where Little Bug had been unknowingly hiding was centuries old. Di Ram caught up to the boy in no time at all, dropping to the ground mere feet away and startling the child. Little Bug dropped what he had been carrying, which Ram was surprised to see were a small collection of peaches. ¡°There you are, Little Bug,¡± Di Ram said, the relief in his voice palpable. ¡°I have been so worried.¡± Little Bug shrugged and simply held out one of the peaches that he hadn¡¯t dropped for his elder to take. Di Ram took it from him and, figuring why not, took a bite. His eyes opened in shock as he realized that the fruit contained as much Qi as a refined pill! ¡°Where did you get this?¡± he asked. ¡°No, wait. First of all, let me see your injury.¡± Little Bug shrugged again and pulled up his robe. Di Ram took a look at the stab wound and he exhaled in relief. It was already mostly healed. How though? While he could have healed from such an injury in half the time, the boy was only at the third step of the foundation realm. He was practically a mort-- Di Ram sent his spiritual senses into the boy¡¯s body, and he dropped the half-eaten peach into the dirt. It was impossible. Simply impossible. Yet it was true. The boy was a monster. ~~~~~~~ Several things happened when I returned to the sect. The peaches were taken from me, as were the pits, except for one I insisted on keeping myself. It was the one which the tree had given me after I¡¯d made my promise to plant them, and it was the most spiritually dense of any of the seeds. I was questioned on the events of the day before. Or rather, I was given two versions of the events and asked which one was true. When I chose the version which most closely matched what had really happened, I was thanked and informed that the five boys who had accosted me and Hien Ro were being expelled. Yon Xian, I was told, would face even more severe consequences. After this, I was asked in detail about my breakthrough. I told simply told them the truth, that the method had come to me in a dream. I was happy to demonstrate my Peach Blossom Dream cultivation technique and try to teach them, but I wasn¡¯t certain that it was something which could be taught easily. I was honestly more concerned with keeping my promise to the tree. I breathed a sigh of relief when I was informed that the tree had been located and the formations which had been obscuring it for the last three hundred years were dismantled. It was likely that a deceased cultivator had discovered it in the forest and set up the wards to try to turn the normal tree into a spiritual fruit tree without alerting the sect. The privacy formation, Qi concentration formation, and misdirection formation had kept anyone from finding it until I had blundered into it, following the relatively intense concentration of Qi in the area. When I was asked what I wanted to do with the fruit, I simply shrugged and said I thought everyone in the sect should git a piece. And that each of the seeds should be planted. Another thing that happened was that I was given my own house in the compound. It was a small house, but the space I was given was as big as the dormitory I¡¯d been sharing with the other boys by itself. I was also told that my martial instructions were being expedited, that I would have as much time in the Qi concentration rooms as I desired, and asked if there were any other resources that I would like to have. I knew, at this point, that the most important thing I could learn from this sect was how to fight. I¡¯m not quite certain how I knew this, but I asked to learn as much of their martial art heritage as I was allowed. I had already begun the basic forms taught to outer sect members. The elders vowed that I would receive the best education on the matter possible, with no secrets held back. I also asked if it would be okay for Hien Ro to bunk with me in my new house, and it was swiftly approved. He would become my primary sparing partner, and was therefor also given access to the secrets of the Six Mountain Style, but he was more excited to learn my cycling techniques. There was no reason not to teach him the Peach Blossom Dream technique, so I did my best to teach him, and he did his best to spread the method to the rest of the sect. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. An entire year passed. ~~~~~~ Di Ram entered the supreme Qi concentration room. He was one of the fourteen elders who had been selected to witness this event. Little Bug had announced that he was about to breakthrough into the Condensation Realm, and as he had promised he had alerted others before taking the step forward. Aside from the Elders, Hien Ro was also present. The thirteen year old boy had progressed as well, having managed to follow Little Bug into the Energy Gathering Realm recently using the boy¡¯s ingenious techniques. While Little Bug had reviewed the six condensation cultivation methods that the Six Mountain Sect used, he had ultimately rejected each of them in favor of one which, like the Peach Blossom Dream technique, had come to him in a dream. The as of yet unnamed technique was unproven, which was the only mark against it. Considering that Little Bug had developed it, Di Ram was certain it was superlative. As things stood, the Six Mountains Sect had gotten more from Little Bug than the boy had gotten from them. Or at least that was how Di Ram saw things. The boy only really needed food and Qi in order to progress. Any of the twelve major sects in this world could have given him the same, and if he walked out of the Six Mountain Sect today and appeared on any of their doorstep, he would be welcomed in immediately. His legend had already spread. ¡°It¡¯s a shame that these techniques weren¡¯t around when I was young,¡± Di Ram lamented to himself. ¡°We don¡¯t know for certain that the path that Little Bug is on will lead to a seventh peak,¡± said Ko Ren, one of Little Bug¡¯s harshest critics. ¡°Many paths end with violent dead ends and roadblocks.¡± ¡°You¡¯re blind, Ko Ren,¡± Di Ram said simply. ¡°Blind and envious. The boy will surpass us old men, and we are too old to follow the teachings he is leaving behind. Our current patriarch is of the ninth stage of the golden path. I believe that Little Bug will trod the Golden, or even the Diamond path before he reaches the age of forty.¡± Ko Ren scoffed. ¡°It¡¯s unnatural. There is genius, but genius doesn¡¯t explain it adequately. There is some secret here. I suspect that the boy is possessed. I have spoken with the others, and--¡± The door opened, and Little Bug walked in. Ko Ren cut off what he was saying when the boy was present. Di Ram would interrogate him later about what jealous rumors he had been spreading, but now was the time to focus on the history that was unfolding in front of him. Little Bug knelt on a cushion. He pulled from his robe a scroll, which he handed to Hien Ro, who opened it and began showing it to the assembled elders. The scroll detailed the cultivation method which Little Bug was about to use. Di Ram choked when he saw the complexity; it was far beyond what he had been capable of until he¡¯d been midway through the bronze path. Further, he could see how effective it would be. Indeed, Little Bug knelt on the cushion and began to cultivate, and, with fourteen elders keeping their spiritual senses on him completely, he passed from late Energy Gathering realm, over the threshold into the early Condensation realm. The transition was so fluid and natural that it was almost anticlimactic. However, the boy didn¡¯t stop there. He continued to condense his Qi, pulling more and more and more from the room at a rate which every elder in the room could sense. He passed from early condensation into middle condensation within three hours before he finally opened his eyes. ¡°That is it for now,¡± he announced. ¡°I must consolidate for some time. In a month or two I will have reached peak Condensation Realm, and then I will show you the method I plan to use for purification.¡± It was one of the longest speeches the boy had ever given. Di Ram was so distracted by the impossibility of it all that he completely forgot Ko Ren¡¯s earlier words and never did ask what rumors he had been spreading. ~~~~~~~~~ I could have kept going, but I stopped early. I knew it wasn¡¯t always good to move too fast, which is why I decided to consolidate. If I had skipped to peak condensation realm immediately after entering it and then started purifying my Qi, it would have negatively impacted my body¡¯s development. Speaking of my body¡¯s development, I came to a decision. It was time to grow. Aging slowed down as one entered the later stages of cultivation, and if I didn¡¯t slow down it was possible to step onto the silver path at age thirteen. If I did that, then I would spend hundreds of years in the body of a teenager. Instead, I would stop cultivating at the cusp of bronze and spend several years focusing on techniques and martial styles. I was already proficient in the six weapons and six styles of the Six Mountains Sect. Strictly speaking, if I were to enter the mythril realm, then I wouldn¡¯t need to master the sword, the spear, the axe, the bow, the mace, and the staff. I could simply destroy all opposition with a wave of the hand and manipulations of the world itself. Unless I were to face down another practitioner of the mythril realm, in which case the devastation we left behind would be catastrophic to whatever universe we did battle within. My memories and mind were still muddled, however. Some things came to me in dreams. I knew that I was preparing to do something important. Something which I had dedicated my life to doing, before I had even allowed myself to be born. But I didn¡¯t understand how that was possible. Not until the day I was betrayed by my sect. ? 8. Betrayal 8. Betrayal Six weeks after I had broken through into the condensation realm, I broke through into the purification realm and demonstrated yet another new cultivation technique to the elders. Like the others, it had come to me in a dream, and like the others it was an order of magnitude more difficult and more powerful than the ones they had been using previously. Ko Ren and Ko Si asked me to join them for a celebration, and Ko Si, who was Ko Ren¡¯s younger sister, would not take no for an answer. No matter how many times I said it. Explicitly. Once they had me in their house, Ko Ren left to pour us drinks, instructing Ko Si to keep me entertained. The nature of the entertainment she provided began rather mundane, but as she plied me with temptations which were beyond inappropriate for a child of my age, I began to grow frustrated and annoyed. They continued until I was saved by Ko Ren, who entered and saw the frustration upon his sister¡¯s face that her wiles were having no effect on me. ¡°It¡¯s just as you said,¡± she told him. ¡°He wasn¡¯t even tempted.¡± ¡°Is it because you are interested in boys?¡± Ko Ren inquired, handing me a drink. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, I could help you arrange a discrete relationship with a like minded young man. I¡¯ve heard rumors of several within the sect who would leap at the opportunity.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that either,¡± I answered. I quaffed the offered drink. I stood, and found myself unsteady. I frowned, took a step, and fell. Whatever Ko Ren had mixed in my drink took effect very quickly, and I was unconscious within moments. The dreams that followed were even more vivid than normal, and I finally remembered my life¡¯s purpose. ~~~~~~ I was born into a powerful sect. My father was a cultivator of great power. The golden path he walked. He was eight hundred years old. My mother walked the silver path and was two hundred. I was nurtured from before I could walk in the cultivation method that the sect masters had determined for me. Of the eight methods practiced in our sect, the Path of Silent Grass was deemed the most suitable to my constitution. This was decided for me before I could talk. I never knew anything else, and I accepted it in the way that children accept those things. But my fate was not to walk the golden path like my father, nor the silver path of my mother. I was crippled by another disciple when I was fourteen, my pathways irreparably damaged. I had achieved the third level of the purification realm, but it was irrelevant. I could not cultivate further without harming myself. My parents were devastated. My father challenged the other boy¡¯s father to a duel and killed him. The child and his mother were driven from the sect in shame. I had not wanted this; it was not truly the boy¡¯s fault. But it was outside of my control. The sect tried various methods to repair my pathways, but nothing succeeded. One day, a woman from a faraway place came to us and asked to speak with my parents. She did not offer a way to heal me, but rather a place in her monastery. For she was of the Cult of Reincarnation. My father was furious. He did what he often did when he was furious and challenged her to a duel. And for the first time in two centuries, he lost. To a woman of the bronze path. He had prepared a fearsome attack, conjuring an avatar of a dragon to incinerate her with fire. But she had simply looked at him and spoken one word. Nobody heard what the word was except for my father, and he would not repeat it. He fell to the ground, convulsing, his dao avatar evaporating. The sect treated the woman very differently after that, inviting her into the inner sanctum and offering her the finest of food and drink. She asked for a hot bath and for her robes to be washed, but insisted that she ate nothing that would not be given to a novice. Afterwards, the sect elders interrogated her for hours. Eventually I was brought into the room. ¡° Elisia, I will not lie to you. I cannot give you long life. You will live the normal span of seventy to ninety years that mortals in this world live, and then you will die,¡± she explained. ¡°But I can prepare you for what comes after.¡± ¡° Will I be able to defeat cultivators of the golden path, as you did?¡± I asked. She laughed. ¡°Child, the cosmos are vast and infinite and eternal. The golden path that your sect is so proud of is considered but the first step into true cultivation in many worlds. There are cultivators who can destroy worlds and extinguish stars. Compared to them, your father is little more than a mortal servant. If you come with me, you may be reborn into one of those worlds, into a family which will raise you to the greatest heights possible. But to accomplish this, you must live a life dedicated to the cultivation not of your body, but of your soul.¡± ¡° My pathways are damaged,¡± I informed her. ¡° Your pathways are part of your body, not your soul,¡± she reminded me. ¡°My body is of but the bronze path, as you know. But my soul is of the fifth step. That is how I was able to defeat your father so easily, for he has a soul no greater than that of an average mortal.¡± ¡° He would challenge you all over again if he heard you say that,¡± I pointed out. She laughed. ¡°No, no I do not think that he would. I did not harm him, but I taught him just how small and petty his pride and power truly are.¡± ¡° Will I be able to do that?¡± I persisted. ¡° Eventually,¡± she promised me. ¡°If you achieve the fifth step.¡± ¡° Then I will come with you.¡± And so it was decided. The stranger¡¯s name was Lorishia. She did not talk about her past much. She explained that she was attempting to sever her karma to this world in preparation for her next life. She hoped to achieve the sixth step before she died, which was the pinnacle of what was possible for her first reincarnation. Soul cultivation, she explained, was not intended to give great power during one¡¯s lifetime. It did have that effect, but in a different manner than the cultivation of the body which my parent¡¯s sect practiced. She attempted to explain to me the concept of the cosmos. That there were infinite worlds, with an infinite number of souls inhabiting them. The souls cycled through the cosmos in an eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Cultivation was the only possible escape of this cycle of samsara. However, the cultivation practiced on our world, except for that of the Cult of Reincarnation, was a trap. It was true that achieving the silver or gold or even diamond path would greatly extend one¡¯s lifespan. Many, many times over. But it was not immortality. Even those of the diamond path succumbed to old age eventually. Far more succumbed to violence. And that was the trap. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Possessing power lured the cultivators into using that power, and most lacked the understanding to use it wisely. She had not hurt my father at all during her duel with him, she explained. Rather, she had healed him. She had shown him the damage that he was about to inflict upon his own soul by killing her, and that truth had inflicted actual pain and fear and doubt upon him. Pain from his soul, as it remembered the wounds that other duels had inflicted upon it. Fear from his mind, as an aspect of his being that he had not been aware of before was revealed to him. Doubt in his path, as the echoes of its destination were revealed. I did not understand how that counted as ¡®healing¡¯ him. Lorishia simply laughed and explained. By showing my father a glimpse of the falseness of his path, she had set him onto a path that would allow him to begin to balance his karma. The damage she had done to his cultivation and his body, and the humiliation he had experienced, they were like the pain of setting a broken bone. My father would not thank her for her action until the agony of his defeat had faded. Perhaps not even in this lifetime. But eventually, he would understand just how great of a gift she had given him. I did not understand it. Not then. I pretended that I did, and she simply smiled, seeing through my ignorance but unable to illuminate my path any better than she had already. My father died twenty years later, destitute. He had sold off his vast wealth and distributed it to a number of families. His weapons, his armor, his villa, his cultivation treasures, everything. Then he had demeaned himself further by becoming an instructor to the young outside applicants to the sect. Even in ceasing his cultivation he should have lived for another three or four centuries, but one of his old rivals heard of his madness and challenged him to a duel. When my father refused, the rival had murdered him. My mother reached the golden path, but she did not seek vengeance. Rather, she had cut herself off from my father, calling him a disgrace. I was excluded from her life by extension. I sent her letters until she made her feelings clear; I was disowned. She outlived me by eight centuries, and I pity her for it. As for me? I reached the fourth step of soul cultivation and died at age ninety-four. My life was mostly uneventful, spent as a monk in the Cult of Reincarnation. So we were called, and we did not mind the name. It was an ascetic life, and I did not leave the monastery except for twice, once to follow the threads of karma to a young girl who was starving to death. I gave the last of my worldly wealth to buy her family enough food to last the winter. I stayed with the family for three years, helping them tend their small plot of land, ensuring that they did not go hungry if I was able to prevent it. I did not know why I did such a thing, except that it was part of my ascension from the second to third step. I was not told to do this, only to follow the threads. But when the threads brought me to the girl, I could do nothing else but save her. At the end of my stay with her, I tried to convince the family to allow me to bring her back to the monastery with me, but I was refused to the point where finally I had to flee before the father used violence on me. I could have overpowered him easily, as even with my cultivation crippled I was still significantly stronger than a mortal. That was the impetus that pushed me into the third step. When he was about to attack me, I could see his prarabdha. He was a good man, he had led a good life, and his actions brought forth good into the world. My actions had come close to causing him to do a wrong act, but I fled before that happened. I had thought I had been led to the girl to bring her to the monastery, and that she would inspire my next step when I returned. When I broke through, I realized I was wrong, that I had been in the wrong in trying to separate her from her family that loved her. I immediately returned to seek guidance. The elder monks simply told me to meditate on the teachings and my insights and to begin working on taking the next step. What I had accomplished, aside from keeping one little girl alive, was not something I would likely understand within my lifetime. I did come to understand it, in time. The girl lived. And she loved and she laughed and she learned. She remembered me fondly, but that wasn¡¯t important. What was important was that she had six children, and thirty-three grandchildren, and one hundred fifty-four great-grandchildren. And they were all good people, bringing forth good karma. And most of those children had children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of their own. Not all of them led happy lives, and not all of them died of old age, but they all did more good than bad in their lifetimes. The world was a better place for having them lived in it. The second time I left the monastery was to find my death. I knew that I was not long for the world, but the lines of karma had appeared to me again. I knew that following them would be my final act, but still I set out. The threads brought me to a graveyard outside of a small village not far from my ancestral sect. To one grave in particular. It was the grave of the boy who had crippled me. Or the man he had become, at least. I sat on the grass before the gravestone for two days, contemplating many things. ¡° I hated you once,¡± I told the gravestone. ¡°But we were just foolish children. I provoked you and you took things too far. The consequences shaped both of our lives. I hope you found happiness in life, and that your soul finds peace, and that you are reborn to prosperity.¡± As I took my leave, I found that I had an observer. A young man had been watching my contemplation suspiciously. ¡° How did you know my grandfather?¡± he asked eventually. ¡° We were boys together,¡± I explained. ¡°Friends once.¡± ¡° Was that when he lived with the cultivators? Are you a cultivator too?¡± the man asked. ¡° Yes, to both questions,¡± I answered. He snorted. ¡°Don¡¯t lie. You look too old to be a cultivator. At least one of my grandfather¡¯s generation. Unless you got your ass kicked out at the same time he did. Is that what happened?¡± ¡° In a manner of speaking,¡± I admitted. ¡°I was injured in a foolish boyhood fight. It crippled my ability to cultivate.¡± The man¡¯s expression turned murderous. ¡°You¡¯re Elisia,¡± he accused. ¡° I am.¡± He pulled a knife from a sheath on his belt and attacked me. I raised my hand to show him the consequences of his actions, just as Lorishia had shown my father many years before. The man paused for just a second, but suffered no backlash like the one that had been inflicted upon my father. He stabbed me eighteen times and slit my throat for good measure. My last act on that world was to forgive him. ? 9. Ascension 9. Ascension ¡° I¡¯m sorry for my grandson,¡± a voice said. I looked around. I found myself in a forest. I looked over, and an old man was sitting on a fallen log. ¡° Thank you for not cursing him,¡± the man continued. I laughed. ¡°Koras? Is that you?¡± ¡° It¡¯s been a long time. I¡¯ve been waiting for you. Had a thousand things I wanted to say to you. Mostly yelling at you for the way our little tift derailed my life. But then I started thinking about things. In the end I realized that it was more my fault than yours, the way things turned out. So then I was waiting to apologize to you instead. But then you went and got yourself killed by my grandson, and honestly now I don¡¯t know what to say.¡± I sat down next to him. He was dressed as a peasant, and it was hard to imagine him as the hot-headed youth I used to practice-duel with all those years ago. ¡°I wish he hadn¡¯t done that.¡± ¡° Me too,¡± Koras agreed. ¡°He¡¯s going to get away with it, you know. He had a friend of his help hide the body. He¡¯s going to--¡± ¡° I don¡¯t care,¡± I said. ¡°Whether he faces earthly justice or not, he will not escape heavenly law. He has stained his own soul with his actions, and I pity him for it, but there is nothing I can do about it from this side of the veil.¡± Koras eyed me suspiciously. ¡°You really went all into the whole cult of death thing, didn¡¯t you?¡± I shrugged. ¡°It was my only available path to power. Soul cultivation is real, Koras. If I had another five, twenty years, I could have made it to the fifth step and constructed my wards to keep my memories through the rivers of lethe. But even so, the --¡± ¡° Twenty years? You¡¯ll get that,¡± Koras told me, laughing. ¡°I¡¯ve been wandering this forest for centuries, Elisia. Or at least it feels that way. Hard to tell when there¡¯s no day or night. No stars in the sky, no sun, no clouds. Plenty of light to see despite the sky being black. And the forest, the endless forest.¡± ¡° Koras, you said you were waiting for me. Was there anyone else you were waiting for?¡± I asked. ¡° Sure. There was my wife, but we met ten years ago. And my daughter ¨C wanted to apologize for a few things to her, but--¡± ¡° Let it go, Koras. That¡¯s why you haven¡¯t been able to move on. You¡¯re dead. Accept it. This forest, it¡¯s the place for you to come to terms with your life, and your death. Let go of your life and move on into the cycle with me.¡± Koras looked at me. And he sighed. ¡°You¡¯re right. You always were the smart one. Come on, I think I know the way out of here.¡± And so I followed him deeper into the forest, until we came to a river. It wasn¡¯t very wide, possible to swim across, but I stopped cold. ¡° Do you know which river this is?¡± I asked. ¡° We already crossed styx. We¡¯re dead, aren¡¯t we? This must be lethe,¡± he said. ¡°Here, I¡¯ve built a raft.¡± The raft was a poor little thing, barely large enough for one of us, let alone two. But it was a narrow river, and it should get us across. We sat, nervously, on the rickety little thing, and Koras poled us across. The raft fell apart halfway across, and we both fell in the water. Kicking and spluttering, we swam to the other side. Koras laughed. ¡° So much for that,¡± he said. ¡°Should have known we couldn¡¯t cheat.¡± ¡° I¡¯m sure we¡¯re not the first to have that idea,¡± I agreed. ¡°Well Koras, if we are bound to forget everything soon, then I wish you prosperity in the next life, and should we meet again, I hope that it is not as enemies, but as friends.¡± ¡° Yes. To the next life then,¡± Koras agreed, and we walked arm in arm deeper into the forest. And as we walked, we began to forget. ~~~~~~~ I was born again, and to my surprise my memories of my life as Elisia began to return to me. My name in this life was Johan, and I was a peasant. As I searched my memories of my past life, I quickly regained the ability to see the threads of karma and prarabdha. However, as I grew, I quickly became dismayed. This world was not a world of cultivation. The spirituality was adequate, but the people did not know how to make use of it except in crude and superstitious ways. If I were to cultivate in this world, I would have to do so without the support or help of others. I was but a poor peasant, and did not have the resources to form a brand new way of life for these people. As I struggled to find a path forward, my path was decided for me by the world I lived in. I was fifteen. I had spurned the advances of the village girls, for I did not want the karmic ties of parenthood. But it would not have mattered, for the savages came to our lands and conquered us in the name of their dread god. They swept across the nation of my birth, putting down all armies that stood before them. They slaughtered all those who resisted them, and of those who did not, one tenth were sacrificed. The rest were enslaved. Our village was close to the sea, and it was one of the first to be swept up in the unending tide of violence and blood. We surrendered, and the tithe was made. I volunteered. I was dragged back across the ocean to the land of their origin. Beaten and starved with the others who wept and lamented their fate. I was silent. I remembered the exercises I had learned during my life as Elisia. I gained many strange looks from my captors and fellow captives as I cultivated my soul, breaking through to the fifth and then the sixth step despite my environment. We sailed up a river to a massive lake, and in the center of the lake was the city with the temple where their god was said to reside. A pyramid, with a bonfire burning at the top that was never extinguished. Into that fire the still beating hearts of the sacrifice victims were thrown. I did not fight or resist. I was a willing sacrifice, something which my captors could not understand. They simply thought that I was touched in the head, uncomprehending of my situation and my fate. But I understood perfectly well. I had been through the cycle of death and rebirth before, and I was willing to make the journey once again. I had felt the same pull of fate towards my decision to volunteer as I had felt to make the journey to be murdered by Koras¡¯s grandson. I would embrace it, knowing that I had taken the place of a stranger upon the altar. We were beaten and starved as we waited for the holy day. Then one thousand of us were dragged before the temple on the solstice, and from dawn until dusk the high priest carved out the hearts of man, woman, and child in an unending orgy of blood. It was terrible to behold, but far more terrible to my eyes than most. I could see prarabdha. I could see the bulk of negative karma which the priests, the guards, and the feverish adherents of the faith were accumulating. They were killing us, but in doing so, they were harming themselves even more so. The sacrifices began at dawn, and at noon, it was my turn. I was dragged, naked but unashamed, atop the pyramid and held down on the sacrificial altar. I did not resist, even as the priest cracked open my chest, pulled out my heart, and showed it to me. My last vision of that life was of gore, and the last sound I heard was the chanting and raving of madmen. ~~~~~~ I did not find myself in the forest, but a vast plain of lamentation. All around me were the screaming souls of previous sacrifices, still bearing the wounds that had been inflicted upon them at the end of their life. ¡° My daughter, my daughter! Where is my daughter!¡± a man screamed endlessly. ¡° I can¡¯t. This isn¡¯t real. This is all a nightmare. I can¡¯t be dead!¡± another said. ¡° Oh merciful goddess, please, release me from this torment,¡± called another. I frowned. This was not what I had been expecting. I looked down and saw the wound in my chest. When I thought about it, I could still feel the agony. And I could feel something else. Something hungry, something evil. It invaded me through my wound, filling me with thoughts and emotions that were not my own. I pushed away the invasion with a slight effort of will, but I did not let go of it. Rather, I followed the invasion as it led me deeper and deeper into the fel plain of suffering. Now that I had noticed it, I could see the agony and fear and resentment being infected in the other sufferers, and I could see it being harvested by the whatever force had tried infecting me. Eventually, my journey brought me to an awful effigy, and I understood. This was the dread god, in all of its terrible glory. It was a siphon. It infected the innocent souls of the sacrifice victims and allowed them to incubate the evil emotions. We were like the soil in a field where misery was the crop that was grown. This was the source of their prowess in battle. This was the truth behind their god. They victimized innocent souls to generate bad karma, then inflicted that karma upon their enemies. I found it disgusting. I turned to leave, and saw behind me a river. And I understood. I was not bound here, I never had been. I could leave any time I wished simply by crossing the river. I began to approach it, but I stopped. Could I leave behind all of these innocents? I walked over to a child, screaming for her mother. She did not see me until I took her hand. ¡° Please don¡¯t hurt me!¡± she said, but she clung to my hand all the tighter. ¡° Nobody is going to hurt you anymore. Nobody can hurt you here. This is a place of memories only, not pain,¡± I told the girl. ¡°Let go of the pain, and it will go away.¡± She looked at me as though I were mad, but as I spoke the wound in her chest healed. ¡° How did you do that?¡± she asked me. ¡° I haven¡¯t done anything but show you the truth,¡± I answered. I turned and pointed toward the river. ¡°Do you see that river?¡± She looked in the indicated direction, frowned, and then jumped in surprise as though something had come into focus. ¡°Was that always there?¡± The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡° Yes. Always. If you cross that river, then all of the pain and suffering from this life will be washed away.¡± ¡° I can¡¯t leave without my sister,¡± she said. ¡°She was before me, I had to watch. I can¡¯t leave without her.¡± I nodded. ¡°Search for a while. If you cannot find her on this plain of suffering, however, then perhaps she has already moved on to the other side of the river. Perhaps you will find her there.¡± ¡° Okay. Thank you mister, I will start looking for my sister now.¡± The girl ran off, dodging between the other sufferers on her quest. I looked around, realizing what I must do. An unpleasant task, and I do not know why it fell to my shoulders, but I could not leave these people here. I tapped the shoulder of a man screaming for his mother. With kind words, I told him that he was dead, and I told him how to move on. Once he saw the river, he made a mad dash for it, stripping off his shirt and diving into the water. I made my way through the crowded masses. There were so many. So many victims of the dread god. Not all of those I attempted to show the path would see it. Many chose their suffering over the waters of rebirth. But I persisted. For every soul I saved, five more would take its place. It seemed to be a Sisyphean task. But only at first. Some of the souls that I awoke from their damnation joined me, as the girl had. Some to search for their own loved ones. Others began to act as I was, spreading through the crowded plains and awakening the sufferers, showing them the way to liberation. Slowly, the momentum built. Then, it became exponential. The influx of new victims did not slow, but the plains were emptying too quickly for it to matter. The power siphoned off through the effigy began to wane. A sudden change took place when the victims were of the dread god¡¯s own people. The number of victims increased to a staggering degree, and the resentment that they generated was far beyond what the innocent victims had created. However, it did not flow into the effigy, but rather built upon their own souls endlessly. Many of those who had helped me ignored these new visitors to the plains of suffering, but I and several others tried to show some of them the river. Most could not see it, and the ones who could would drown when they attempted to cross it, for it was far wider and deeper for them, and they would forget how to swim before they got very far. It was not only that their priests had begun to sacrifice their own people. Soon, the priests and the dread god¡¯s holy warriors and even the feverish adherents who had watched the sacrifices with joy began to appear in those plains. They were not sacrifices, but rather they showed other signs of violence. From those coherent enough to explain, I learned what had happened in the world of the living. The power of their dread god had waned, and then it had turned against them. Where once they were unbeatable in battle, able to inflict terror and misfortune with their fel magicks, they suddenly found that the well of their power had run dry. The tide reversed as they ran into an enemy they could not sweep aside. Worse, the enemy banded together with those who had not fallen and the survivors of those lands which had. They pushed back the invasion all the way to the sea, and then they crossed the ocean and purged the dread god¡¯s holy lands. The faithful of the dread god found themselves in his plains of misery upon their death. And all of the pain and misery that the dread god had accumulated during his reign was slowly visited upon them. The others who had freed the innocent victims with me began to disappear, one by one crossing the river. I lingered for a while, sometimes attempting to show the dread god¡¯s new victims the river, but mostly simply watching in pity as they paid the price for their worship. It was dreadful the things that they had done, but more dreadful to watch their suffering in the afterlife. Time passes differently when you¡¯re dead. I lingered for centuries, and I left after a day. Stars were born and died in the time that I spent in that god¡¯s lands, and it was no more than a heartbeat. Soon, of the innocent victims, I was the only sane soul left in those lands, and I could convince nobody to join me on the other side of the river. Just as I resolved to leave once and for all, the effigy of the dread god cracked and shattered releasing a torrent of fel energy which struck his former worshipers all at once. But not me. I pitied them, but in the end, I turned to the river and began my journey. To my surprise, when I got to its bank, it was little more than a narrow brook. I waded through it effortlessly. There was a woman waiting for me on the other side. ¡° Curious. Why did you do that, little godslayer?¡± she asked me. ¡° Godslayer?¡± I said, confused. ¡° You have slain a god. You were the rock which he choked to death upon. Had you not given yourself as a willing sacrifice, that world would have entered a two thousand year long dark age, filled with only wicked souls and those who wished to repent for their crimes in previous lives,¡± she explained. ¡°Instead it will become ¡­ not a paradise. But not the land of darkness that it might have been. You have shifted the fate of an entire world. Of billions of lives. This is no small feat.¡± ¡° Who are you?¡± I asked. ¡° Just another traveler of the cosmos, like you, Elisia.¡± ¡° You know that name? Did I meet you in my first life? I¡¯m afraid I cannot recall you if I had.¡± ¡° Your first life?¡± she asked, and then she laughed. ¡°Oh, little godslayer, Elisia was not your first life. Would that it were, but alas, you are as old as I am. The infinite cosmos has infinite souls within it, and those souls live an infinite number of lives. Millions of times you and I have waded through this river, and swam through it, and drowned in it only to be swept downstream and come out the other side confused and naked and afraid.¡± ¡° Is that so?¡± I asked. ¡°Well, Elisia is the first life I remember. I awoke those memories in my life as Johan, and sought to continue the cultivation of my soul.¡± ¡° Oh? I see. Well, in that case, perhaps I can make your journey a little bit easier from here on.¡± We sat by the river, and she began to explain things to me about the lands of the dead. As we talked, others emerged from the river, looking around in confusion, before stumbling forward, wandering blindly and lost. As we spoke, my heart began to sink. My companion was like me, a soul cultivator who had reached the eight step. But she had failed to reach the ninth. She had come upon the final tribulation, and she had failed. The heavens had stolen the providence she had accumulated. She could not influence the circumstances of her birth with what she had left, and she doubted that she could maintain the wards on her soul through successive lives until she found a body and heritage which would be able to recognize and nurture her to become a true immortal. Instead, she planned to simply shatter the protections she had made and reenter the samsara. But she had lingered for a while in the land of the dead, as I had in the plains of the dread god¡¯s sufferers, and from there she had seen my actions. ¡° It is a shame that I could not have found a similar opportunity during my soul cultivation,¡± she said, eyeing me jealously. ¡°Had I had your karma, I would have walked through the final tribulation effortlessly. The greedy heavens would have choked upon my offering and I would have been born into one of the eternal heritages in the cosmos. I would have been an eternal queen, ruling over a galaxy for a million years or more.¡± ¡° What?¡± I asked. ¡° You mean you do not know?¡± she asked, eyes opening wide in surprise. ¡°Oh you blessed fool! You are like a star! Your benevolence on the plains of that false idol have created such an overabundance of providence that you cannot help but live ten thousand blessed lives! Even should you turn to wickedness and indolence, it will be a thousand rebirths before your actions in this past incarnation have run dry. And that is only if you do not pursue your soul cultivation to its completion. That is how I noticed you in the first place.¡± ¡° Is that so?¡± I asked. Then I bowed to her. ¡°If you wish to share in my providence, I would accept your teachings, elder. I have reached the sixth step in soul cultivation. If you would guide me to the eight, and prepare me for the final tribulation, I would repay the favor.¡± She hesitated. ¡°This was not my intention in speaking with you. But if you do pass the tribulations, perhaps you would indeed be able to give me enough providence to influence the circumstances of my birth in my next life. Very well. I shall accept you as my disciple.¡± Like me, my teacher had many names. And only one. We spent an eternity in the afterlife. And it was but a heartbeat. I reached the seventh, and finally the eighth step under her guidance while we inhabited the land of the dead. I felt the karmic link form between our two souls, something I had not known was possible in the afterlife, and I was happy as I felt it growing stronger and stronger. The harder it was to sever, the more of my good karma it would channel when I went through my final tribulation. At long last, and all too soon, it was time. I embraced my master for one last time, and I willed the heavens to begin the final tribulation of my soul. I was whisked away into the samsara. My preparations were insufficient. I saw, then, my past lives. All of them. There were so, so, so many. And I had been so foolish in many of them. I could forgive my past selves for the foolishness, but I was filled with shame at how wicked I had been as well. I had thought that the priests of the dread god were unforgivable, but compared to me, their accumulated sins were but a feather. I felt the heavens demand payment for each of my transgressions. I felt, also, the providence that I had accumulated. It was like an ocean! But the heavens drank from it greedily. Every crime, every wound I had inflicted, every act of cruelty my soul had ever committed had a price, and the heavens had finally come to collect. The pain was excruciating. For I felt then the pain that I had inflicted in my past lives. All of it, and the only way to ease my pain was to repay my debt. The ocean began to shrink. It had seemed endless, vast and eternal as the sun. But it dwindled and dried, leaving behind a vast emptiness in my soul. The agony the heavens inflicted upon me seemed without end. But nothing is truly without end. Finally, the cruel banker was satisfied that the debt had been paid, and I had endured. I understood why my teacher had failed. It was perhaps a unique opportunity that I¡¯d had, putting an end to the dread god, but normal souls could not accumulate nearly so much providence during a single lifetime. It would take a thousand reincarnations to pass the tribulation the normal way, and my teacher had prepared for but three lifetimes. In that time, after my tribulation, I could see the link between my souls and those I had wronged. I could see all of the karmic links I had formed during my millions and millions of lives. I spent a short while examining them. There were several types. There were mutual links. Blood ties, friendships, love. But those had been scorched away by the tribulation. There were the debts I was owed. It was through these channels which I gained providence from others for the wrongs done to me in past lives. Those who had cheated me, abused me, wounded me. Those who had raped and murdered and tortured me. From them, I gained providence, just providence had been stripped from me by the heavens for my past lives¡¯ transgressions. I found, to my surprise, that I could sever those ties with the slightest bit of will. And so I did. Even after the tribulations I had enough providence to last a hundred lifetimes, and I had a hundred lifetimes to begin generating more. I did not need to collect my past lives¡¯ debts to ensure my future happiness. And then there were the debts which I had incurred. So, so many of them. These were the channels through which the ocean of providence had been reduced to a small sea. If I focused on any one link, I would see the action or decision which had created the link to the soul on the other side of the channel, and each time I did so I would find myself filled with shame. The heavens had extracted its judgment. But it was not enough. One thread was a woman my past life had done wrong by. Another was a child I had bullied and abused. There was a woman whose husband I had murdered, an act which had eventually caused her own suicide. And there was the husband himself. So many lives I had been wicked. Those souls that I had wounded would find themselves with a sudden influx of providence thanks to my tribulation. But was that compensation? Did that make up for my past selves¡¯ crimes? Could anything erase my shame? No. No, it was not enough. The heavens were wrong, I could not be forgiven for so small a payment. With an effort of will, the sea began to empty again, the providence flowing through the channels once more to the people I had wronged. I was surprised when the first thread snapped. And then another, and then another. And then thousands at a time. The heavens would not let me complete my mission, it would not let me make proper restitution for my crime. In defiance of the heavens, I continued to empty my ocean of providence, determined to keep not a single drop for myself. And then, suddenly, the lake that was once an ocean was snatched away from me. I blinked in confusion. What had happened? None of the teachings had suggested anything like this was possible. I could see the providence that had been stolen away from me moving through the cosmos, five of the links shining brightly. The rest of my debts had gone dark. And I realized something truly amazing. Whoever had stolen my providence, they had also stolen my debts. My own soul was free. I had no karmic ties at all. I began to laugh. I was still willing to repay my debts, to make amends, to wash away my sins, but the heavens had prevented me from doing so! The irony was too much, and I filled the emptiness around me with my laughter. ? 10. The Divine Fates 10. The Divine Fates I should have been angry that whoever had stolen my providence had not left any for me, but I could not find it in myself. I had forgiven those who had tortured and murdered me, why should I not forgive this latest wrong? Still, I was curious as to what had happened, so with a will, I shot off through the cosmos, following the brightly glowing providence. I entered a universe of cultivation. A large planet, with many, many cultivators of the golden, diamond, and platinum paths. I followed the lake as it wove past world after world. Some of the worlds reached out, trying to drink from the massive reservoir as it passed, and some few managed to do so, but in doing so they created yet another debt. If I had still been in control, I might have been able to forgive it for them, but as a naked soul I could not. Finally, I reached the world of the thieves. From the sky, I could see the ritual that had been enacted. It took a thousand years, but slowly I understood. And it also came to me in a flash of inspiration all at once. After all, I was still dead, and what is time to the dead? They had constructed a city to form a vast array. Throughout the city were cultivators of the bronze and silver paths sitting at various nodes, channeling power into the array, which gathered their power in the center of the city. In the epicenter were cultivators of the golden path, and in the very center were five children. Five souls which I had wronged. At first I thought that they were human sacrifices and I was outraged, but as I understood what was happening, I did not know how to feel. For they were victims, but not in the way I had thought. They were my victims. Each of them I had slain or worse in one of my previous incarnations. They had received a burst of providence during my tribulations, and when the stream had restarted they had been ensconced in this ritual to drain as much as possible from me. But the array was somehow reinforcing their connection to my stolen providence. They drank and drank and drank, but still the thread did not break. Instead, the liquid fortune was drained from them and stored in crystals, which shone brightly with good fortune. More was siphoned off from the children into the array, and from the array into the cultivators spread throughout the city. I understood what they were doing. They were increasing their luck, their fortunes, their providence, by stealing from me. I should have been angry, but I was not. However, as I watched, the threads from the reservoir, my lingering debts, began to multiply and spread, growing thicker and thicker as they attached to each and every one of the thieves. Heaven¡¯s judgment. They could have their providence, for now. But sooner or later it would be taken from them. I went down into the epicenter with the intention to warn them of the consequences of their actions, but uncertain whether I could even interact with them due to my present incorporeal nature. I needn¡¯t have worried. As soon as I entered the building where the children were being used as conduits, one of the ritualists looked up. ¡° The guardian spirit is here!¡± he called. ¡°Prepare the wards! The battle begins!¡± A thousand new arrays were activated, and I was surprised to find energies attaching themselves to my soul, giving it form. ¡° What do you think you are doing?¡± I asked, sounding more menacing than I intended. ¡° We are sorry, grand elder,¡± one of the ritualists said. ¡°It must have taken you centuries to build up this massive reservoir of good fortune. But it belongs to us now. If you wish to reclaim it, you must do battle with us. Even if you are of the divine path, we will fight you for this.¡± ¡° You fools,¡± I said. ¡°You truly do not understand! You think you can steal providence from me? I was giving it away, but you have taken more than was offered. The heavens will demand repayment for your actions today, and it will not be me who collects. I pity your soul, for you shall never pass the final tribulation.¡± The cultivators began to launch attacks at my form, hovering above the ritual. They could not harm me, and succeeded only in breaking the arrays which had given my soul form for a time. I retreated. I had given them my warning, and that was as much as I could do. Instead, I sat on the cusp of their world, waiting on the bridge between life or death, and I watched the events unfold. For a time, it truly appeared that they had benefited from their crime against me. Every cultivator who had taken part in the fate-stealing ritual made great strides in their cultivation. The bronze cultivators broke through to silver and gold in droves. The silvers broke through to gold, and then to diamond. The gold cultivators reached diamond, platinum, and mythril. But no further. They tried the fate-stealing ritual again, many times. But they could not find a reservoir like mine. Their cultivators spread out through their universe, looking for fated children like the five they had used as siphons, but they could never find more than one or two linked to the same star. Their method of changing their fates would not work twice. One by one, the thousands of ritualists began to die. I met them on the bridge between life and death, and I explained to them the price of their crimes. ¡° For all eternity, you will pay back the debt which you have taken from me,¡± I informed them. ¡°Your providence will go to people you have never known. Your fate will be forever altered by your greed in this lifetime. It is worse than if you had committed a thousand murders, a thousand rapes, a thousand child sacrifices. You will forever be born the peasant, the serf, the slave. And whatever happiness you do find in your life will be snatched away from you. For all eternity.¡± Some of the recently deceased ritualists screamed defiance at me. Others begged forgiveness. Some attempted violence. It was all the same to me. They could not hurt me, not in the land of the dead, and they did not have the mastery of their souls to wander those lands freely as I could. They were swept away, deeper into the land of remembrance, where they would make their peace with this life before crossing the river and losing their memories. I do not know how the living noticed my lingering presence. Three hundred years after their ritual ¨C a blink of the eye and an epoch to my perception ¨C the first living mortal came to confront me. They had built a new city, formed a new ritual. This one allowed them to project their soul to the bridge between the living and the dead. They sent a warrior. Proud he was, with a curved sword in one hand and in the other a swordbreaker. ¡° I am [shsruehserh], and I challenge you, spirit!¡± he declared. ¡° Why?¡± I asked. ¡° You have obscured the heavens from us! You block our cultivation, our elevation to divinity! You are he whom we took the fate stones from three hundred years ago. You could not stop us then, and you shall not take back that which is now ours. I shall defeat you and clear the path for the others to ascend.¡± I laughed. ¡°Child, the heavens themselves are the ones who will extract payment for the crime that you committed with that demonic ritual. I have not taken any action against your people at all. I am simply lingering nearby to watch the show.¡± ¡° Liar! I shall defeat you and unseal the heavens! Prepare yourself, spirit!¡± He launched himself at me, but the moment he took one step onto the bridge all of his power left him. His sword, his mastery, the energy he had gathered in preparation for the conflict, his understanding of his dao and his path, all of it was meaningless in the land of the dead. The connections which the others had placed upon his soul snapped. And after he took one step onto the bridge, he knew it. ¡° How?¡± he asked. ¡°How did you do this?¡± ¡° I haven¡¯t done anything,¡± I told him simply. And the winds of the afterlife swept him away. They came at me, again and again. One by one at first, and then in twos and threes as they build more arrays to tether their souls. ¡° If you take one step onto that bridge, you will die,¡± I would warn them. And if they were foolish enough to ignore me, then they would. Others believed me, and they launched their attacks from the other side. The energies passed over and through and around me without harming me, the bridge, or the land of the dead. They attacked in ever more vigor and desperation as their efforts proved fruitless. Finally, they would either admit defeat and return to the world of the living, for a while, or they would make the mistake of stepping onto the bridge and leaving their lives behind. To my surprise, these encounters benefited me. Each of the warriors were cultivators of great renown and power, many of them of the diamond or platinum path. As they revealed their attacks to me, I learned. I understood . I soaked up the meaning behind their techniques, the methods that they had trained in their entire lives. Their heritage, their mastery. I was their student, and they were my teachers. It was ironic, but I learned more during that time about cultivation than I had in any of my previous reincarnations. No karmic links were formed, because although I was learning from them, they intended me harm, and their ill intent prevented them from benefiting from my gratitude for their teachings. I was surprised again when someone with no links to the stolen reservoir of fate arrived to challenge me. He was an old man from another world. He was of the mythril path, and when he arrived he studied me for a moment, stroking his beard. ¡° The Divine Fate Sect has offered me three of their subsidiary worlds if I remove you from their paths,¡± he informed me. ¡°Tell me, great elder, why do you haunt them?¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡° Do you know of their fate stealing ritual?¡± I inquired. ¡° Fate stealing?¡± he asked. ¡°I know that they have several powerful artifacts which alter the course of one¡¯s life, giving good fortune and providence, and shielding against bad karma.¡± I snorted. ¡°Is that what they have told you? All of their elders and most of their juniors were involved in a ritual three hundred and fifty years ago in which they gathered five children to form a link to a soul cultivator who was experiencing the tribulation of reaching the ninth step of soul cultivation. They intentionally stole his reservoir of providence to use for themselves. I am here to observe the consequences for my own curiosity. I bear them no malice or ill will.¡± ¡° Is that so?¡± the mythril path cultivator said, rubbing his chin. ¡°Are you the soul cultivator who was robbed?¡± ¡° I am,¡± I admitted. ¡°But in a way, I have greatly benefited from their actions. They have severed all of my karmic ties. When I reenter the samsara, I shall be as though I were a brand new soul living life for the first time, unbound by the actions of my past life, yet retaining the wisdom and knowledge I have accumulated through all of my reincarnations.¡± ¡° Oh? Now that is interesting!¡± the old cultivator admitted. ¡°While I have sought to avoid any overly evil acts in my life, I have not truly planned for my future lives. I have heard of soul cultivation, but the general consensus is that it takes far too many lives in order to pass the final tribulation. I have never met a cultivator who has truly succeeded in severing their accumulated karmic ties. The risk of the final tribulation is considered too high, many give it up in their third or fourth lives.¡± I shrugged. ¡°I got lucky. I do not know if it was providence which provided me the opportunity or not, but my actions in one life changed the fate of a world for the better. It was that providence which was stolen from me, but not before I passed the tribulation. I shall not be able to control the circumstances of my birth, but I shall be able to awaken my soul in every reincarnation I endure, and I will likely be able to influence the choices of my body even during early childhood. Hopefully I shall be able to avoid forming too many negative karmic ties, and I do not think it will take me many incarnations to build up enough providence to find a body with high potential for cultivation. When that happens, I believe it shall be quite easy for me to reach the mythril path, or even higher.¡± ¡° Yes, yes I see,¡± the old cultivator agreed. ¡°Tell me. The truth is, part of the reason I have avoided cultivating my soul is that the methods are not well known in this part of the cosmos. I cannot help but see this as a fortuitous encounter. Would you be willing to impart your teachings unto this poor student?¡± I considered for a moment, then shrugged. ¡°I do not wish to form karmic ties at this point in my existence. However, a neutral trade of information would be acceptable. If you are willing to share the secrets of your cultivation with me, I would be happy to teach you how to cultivate your soul.¡± We spoke for a few moments, and we spoke for a thousand years. I imparted to him my method of soul cultivation that I had learned during my life as Elisia, and in exchange he taught me several of the heritages which he had access to. In fact, I received far, far more information than I gave, and before long he began to grow suspicious. ¡° I understand that the knowledge you have imparted is dear, but surely I have settled the debt by now?¡± he inquired. ¡° Go cultivate your soul until you have reached the third step, and then you will be able to see for yourself. The heavens have determined that you owe me a karmic debt, not I. If I were still undergoing tribulation I could forgive that debt, but that window has passed. In this life or the next, you must repay the gift I have given you.¡± ¡° Very well. I shall return in twenty years.¡± His spirit washed away to the sound of my uproarious laughter. The Fatestealer Sect continued to send their challengers, which served to amuse me, but they offered few new insights. Other unrelated cultivators had noticed me and began to come to the bridge of life and death to speak, and also to exchange information. I had accumulated a vast understanding of a myriad of daos, techniques, and paths, after all. And I was more than happy to exchange what I knew for new secrets and insights which I had not encountered yet. One hundred and fifty years later, the mythril path elder returned, and he looked ashamed. ¡°I am sorry for holding back during our earlier exchange. I have come to settle the debt I owe you for the lessons you have given me. I will give you everything I know, all of the secrets of my clan and my sect and my masters, if you would teach me how to reach the final step and endure the tribulation.¡± I considered the offer, then again shrugged. ¡°Very well.¡± And so I listened as he settled the rest of his debt for the secrets of the Cult of Reincarnation, and once that debt was clear, I began to teach him the lessons of the other soul cultivator I had met in the land of the dead, and of the insights I had developed myself. In exchange, he gave me the methods he had used to reach the mythril path, and his insights into divinity that he and his peers had glimpsed. In the end, there was still a debt between us, in which I was the creditor, but I decided that I would not mind being linked to this man. When he was exhausted for knowledge, he reluctantly looked at the karmic link between us and said ¡°I will repay you, eventually. Even if it takes until I achieve my tribulation.¡± I shrugged. ¡°In this life or the next, it makes no difference to me.¡± And so he returned to his world, and that was the last time I saw him during his lifetime. ~~~~~~~~~ During this time, the Fatestealers had not been inactive. They had noticed the strands of karmic debt which linked the surviving ritualists and the artifacts which retained the remaining providence which had been stolen from me. To my curiosity, they developed a method of attempting to deal with it. They developed yet another array to reach out into the cosmos and snatch the errant souls on their way to rebirth. At first they placed these souls into artifacts, weapons and amulets and other regalia, and they siphoned off the providence from their remaining reservoir until the link was severed. They made some several dozen of these items, sapient weapons filled with providence, before realizing that all they were doing was draining their remaining providence. The item did not provide them with any great insights. When used in battle, it would invariably change hands dozens of times until it arrived in one which the item-soul found suitable, and that was seldom someone related to the Fatestealers. Other times, the weapon would simply break soon after being created, releasing the captive soul back into samsara, except with a windfall of providence for their next life. When that did not work, they tried placing the souls they captured into children. I laughed and laughed as they siphoned the providence away into the very souls which I had intended it to go to in the first place! Furthermore, these children were considered ¡®blessed¡¯ as they could draw from the fate-changing artifacts seemingly without any ill effects. Many of them quickly proved to be geniuses of the highest order, taking to cultivation and having few roadblocks in their path to power. Finally, the reservoir that had been stolen from me was emptied. And then it was as I had been expecting. Those who had drank from that poisoned chalice began to have their surplus providence siphoned back through the objects. Many of the original ritualists had died at this point, and so to the observers it appeared that the objects were refilling themselves from the heavens. At first they rejoiced, believing that the objects would provide good fortune indefinitely, but the surviving ritualists noticed that they were being drained as well and finally outlawed the use of the ¡®sacred artifacts.¡¯ Finally, even the ritualists who had achieved the mythril path began to reach the end of their lifespans. There was a final burst of challenges. ¡° Tell us how to sever our ties to the artifacts,¡± they would say. ¡°How do we keep our providence from being robbed by those cursed objects?¡± ¡° You¡¯re asking me? You created the damn things. I tried to tell you that it was a bad idea,¡± I responded with amusement. ¡° What did you do to them?¡± they would persist. ¡° Nothing. I have done nothing but watch from the gate to the underworld as your sect rose and fell. It was pathetic. You attempted to change your fate through theft, and in the end you simply delayed the inevitable and made it worse for yourselves. You shall pay for your actions for all eternity, for you cannot sever the links you have created between yourself and the objects. Not even death will absolve you of that crime. For all of your future reincarnations you will have a steady stream of providence stolen from you. Eternal bad luck, as it were.¡± ¡° You are a demon!¡± they would say, and I would laugh. ¡° Demonic cultivators calling me a demon? Oh that is funny.¡± Eventually, they shattered the vast crystals which made up the fate-changing artifacts they had created in their ritual and spread them out through the world, but that only created thousands of smaller crystals through which their providence was siphoned. One by one by one, the ritualists died. The ritual they had used to steal my providence was forgotten. But the objects they had created were not. The empire they had created continued to use soul-catching arrays to gather together the souls of those who were linked to the crystal remnants, and those children were often given shards of the broken artifacts. ¡®For luck.¡¯ In a strange way, the souls that I had harmed would benefit more from the fatestealers than they would have had I simply given them a burst of providence. The children gathered by the soul-catching arrays led blessed lives for no other reason than they were linked to objects which nobody understood for reasons that nobody except I knew. They and they alone were able to draw providence from the remnants of the providence gems, which were perpetually refilled by the heavens. The providence that those gems acquired was truly endless, for everyone who had stolen from the reservoir was obliged to pay back their debts in their next lives with interest. The ritualists had succeeded in creating what they had intended at the cost of their eternal misfortune. Geniuses among the fated children began to emerge. They were gifted with crystal after crystal as they grew in personal power. Some of them used their power wisely, becoming champions of justice or at least upstanding figures in their society. Others abused their opportunity with their selfish desires and wrong-actions. The fallen empire of the fate-stealers began to rise again, and it spread out further than ever before. Led by the fated children, the empire warred, traded, explored, and conquered, filling their entire native galaxy. They were neither good, nor particularly wicked. They were an empire which valued power and good fortune. The circumstances of one''s birth were considered paramount, and thousands of royal families were established, dynasties of the fated children which tamed their empire. A thousand years passed in the blink of an eye. Then another thousand, and the empire had spread even further, learning to poke at the membranes of reality and spread to other dimensions. I continued to watch with curiosity, until the five children came to confront me. ? 11. Purpose 11. Purpose They were the siphons used to latch on to my reservoir, the focal points which had been used to create the five massive crystals that had been the focus of the fate-changing relics, the shards of which were even now changing hands as successive generations of fated children inherited them from their elders. They had each reached the mythril path, but were now facing the end of their natural lifespan. They came to me together. Three of them bristled with power, as though they had been preparing for a final confrontation their entire lives and were bringing everything they had to bear upon their mortal foe. One sat in silence. The final one bowed reverently to me, a supplicant to a sacred deity. ¡° Oh great ancestor. We have come to apologize and make amends for the wrong that was done to you two thousand years ago. Please, spare us your wrath and forgive us for our unknowing role in the wicked ritual which prevented your ascension,¡± the ancient woman said. I snorted in amusement. ¡°Is that what you think I am? Your ancestor? Child, I murdered you in a past life. You were a boy in a village, and I was a soldier. I found you hiding in your home, and I crushed your head in with my ax. I needn¡¯t have done that, I would have faced no consequence had I allowed you to escape. It was wantonly cruel of me. But my people were at war with yours, and it seemed the proper thing to do at the time. That is the link between your soul and mine. Or it was, until the debt I owed you was stolen from me and placed in those fel objects.¡± I turned to one of the men. ¡°You were my wife, once. We were ill matched and I drove you to commit suicide. And you, you were my child, which I drowned in a ditch because I did not want the responsibility of motherhood. I am no sainted ancestor. I am but a mortal spirit who has awakened to his past lives. And in many of those lives I was not particularly righteous or kind. I came into an abundance of providence, and I was using it to make amends for the sins of my past lives. When that providence was stolen from me, so too were my debts. I have tried to explain this for centuries to your predecessors, but my words fell on deaf ears.¡± The woman who had spoken was crestfallen. ¡°Then, the fated children, who can draw from the objects without consequence? What are they?¡± ¡° They are the souls of those I wronged,¡± I explained. ¡°They face no consequence for taking from the well that you have helped build because they are the rightful creditors of the debt which was taken from me. You, and the fools which performed that demonic fate-stealing ritual, have become the reservoir from which the well draws. In each of your following reincarnations you will face ill fate and bad luck as the providence which might have seen you happy is siphoned away into the objects. It shall continue to do so, with interest, until your debt is paid in full.¡± ¡° Is there nothing we can do to be spared this fate?¡± she insisted. ¡° Do good deeds,¡± I said, shrugging. ¡°Cultivate your soul and face the final tribulation with an abundance of providence. Perhaps then you will be able to clear your debt. But the heavens are a jealous banker, and they will not release you until restitution has been made.¡± ¡° Liar,¡± one of the warriors shouted. ¡°You are a demon, you have admitted as much already! Release us from this curse you have inflicted upon us, or face the consequences.¡± I sighed. I owed them nothing, but I examined the link between them and the cursed stones for a moment. ¡°The link you have with the objects are different from those of the other ritualists. I do not believe you incurred nearly so much debt as they, since some of what was stolen was intended for you to begin with. Linked you still are, and shadows of the ritual remain clutched upon your souls, increasing your debt for every moment you are alive. The sooner you pass over through the veil of death, the easier your debt shall be to repay.¡± ¡° You see! Even now he whispers his lies to us! Face me demon!¡± He and the other two warriors began their assault. It lasted for six days, and it was marvelous. They sprayed the realm of death with endless energies. With deep comprehension of mysteries. With powerful dao and fearsome techniques. But everything that was flung at me passed into the realm of death, and it died in doing so. In the end, they were withered and exhausted, having spent the last of their energies in fighting a ghost. One by one, the three warriors were drawn into the land of the dead and swept further and further away from the bridge to the land of the living, screaming obscenities at me as they were taken away by forces beyond their comprehension. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡° I believe you, elder,¡± the silent one said finally. ¡°I shall return to the land of the living to spread my wealth to the unfortunate, to change the fates of the downtrodden. Then, when I have nothing left to give, I will willingly enter the samsara and face the consequences of this life in my future reincarnations.¡± The previously silent one returned to the world, leaving me only with the one who had spoke first. ¡° I do not believe you,¡± she said finally. ¡°You are truly a demon, I see that now. You wish to devour my soul to strengthen yourself! Well you will not have it! I shall never cross over this threshold, I shall use my power to live forever and for all eternity you shall go hungry! I shall--¡± She continued on like this for some time, but I had heard it all before. ¡° I believe I shall enter Samsara,¡± I told her. ¡°My curiosity of the effects of that little ritual you were involved in has been sated. I have no more reason to linger here.¡± I turned, and I walked into the land of the dead, leaving her cursing at the vanishing shadow of a ghost. My journey through the land of the dead was brief, for there was little to delay me along the way as I journeyed to the shores of rebirth. It was as though a vast ocean, with gentle waves lapping against a peaceful shore. I stripped off my robes, leaving them behind, and I stepped into the waters, and I-- I lived the mayfly lives. When it came to the life of the gestator child, the one who had lived in the city that had been destroyed by the alien energies lacking of spirituality or mercy, I recoiled. I paused in the land of the dead, terrified at the horror that had ended my previous life. Such wanton destruction! Not since the dread god had I imagined such evil. A weapon of indiscriminate slaughter such as only a mythril path cultivator could unleash, and yet it had not an ounce of spirituality behind it. It made my ghost shudder, and although I mourned the loss of life I had witnessed, I was also grateful to have escaped that reality. Out of curiosity, and to take my mind from the destruction I had witnessed, I returned to the empire of the fate thieves and peaked out to see what had changed. Perhaps fifty years had passed while I had been in the samsara, and the empire had not changed for the better. Although it clung to calling itself by the same name, it had fallen and broken into dozens of kingdoms, each spanning many worlds or even entire sections of galaxies in the five realities in which it had spread during its height. The empire was in the middle of a civil war. In the center, the empress, the final siphon, was spreading out, killing the fated children and confiscating the shards of the fate-changing artifacts for herself. Worse yet, she had turned to demonic methods to extend her own lifespan beyond its natural limits. She had accused me of being a demon, but she was the one who had anchored her spirit unnaturally and was now possessing the body of an innocent victim. She must have been waiting for me, for mere moments after I returned my attention to that corner of the cosmos, she appeared before me again at the link between life and death. ¡° Take that you monster,¡± she taunted me. ¡°I know what you are doing. You have seen that you cannot simply wait until--¡± ¡° Goodbye, Nadia,¡± I said, and I turned to walk away. ¡° I shall not let you live! You shall not grow to adulthood, I shall not let you come into power, no matter how many worlds I must destroy in order to prevent it.¡± I paused and turned back to her in horror. ¡°That was you? How?¡± ¡° I possessed the captain of the human ship,¡± she said proudly, madness gleaming in her eye. ¡°I drove him mad, and he fired that wonderful weapon for me with the slightest of provocation. He was executed for it, but what matter is that to me?¡± I closed my eyes and nodded. ¡°I was content to allow you to kill me as many times as you wished, Nadia, but for that crime I cannot abide any longer. For your own sake, I shall drag you back into the samsara. I shall see you in my next life, child. I am sorry for what madness has possessed you.¡± She cursed and screamed at my back, but soon I was too far from the world of life to hear her. Once again I came to the ocean of rebirth, and once again I-- ? 12. Consequences 12. Consequences Ko Ren and six other men chanted the ritual, standing in a circle around the unconscious child. They were certain in their conviction. Nobody remembers who it was that had suggested the boy¡¯s success was due to demonic possession, but these elders had it in their heads now and could not be convinced otherwise. It had taken months to find a ritual to serve their purpose. They could have performed a simple exorcism weeks ago, but their goal was much, much more than that. The ritual continued. The chanting continued. The candles burned. The crystals shined. One was dull. But then, that too began to shine. Ko Ren had been convinced that it would take a dark hue, perhaps the color of blood. Instead it was a bright white. ¡°Who are you. What have you done to me?¡± the voice of the demon asked. The others froze. This was proof that Ko Ren had been right. That they had all been right. They had drawn out the demon¡¯s soul and entrapped it within the crystal. ¡°We have captured you, demon,¡± Sho Keh, one of the more zealous adherents of this little cult, declared. ¡°We have pulled you out of the body you took over and freed the child you have enslaved to your wicked purpose! No longer will you--¡± ¡°This body is mine. I am no demon. I am an awakened soul,¡± the demon said, sounding annoyed. ¡°There is no other occupant of Little Bug¡¯s body for you to free.¡± ¡°Liar,¡± Sho Keh said. ¡°Prove your words! Let us speak with the boy!¡± ¡°All this ritual does is pull the soul out of the body,¡± the demon said. ¡°If there were a second soul in this body, then it would have been pulled out with me and there is nothing I could do to prevent it from using one of these crystals to communicate. But that¡¯s not happening. Do you know why? Because it is my body! I entered it through samsara! I am Little Bug, and Little Bug is me! ¡± ¡°There is no reasoning with it,¡± Ko Ren declared. ¡°We must entrap it within the crystal.¡± The demon scoffed. ¡°You think that this thing can hold me? Perhaps if I were a demon. But I am not. However, I will not seek retribution. Not yet. I can understand that you may only have been concerned for my health when you performed this foolish ritual, and if I were being possessed by a demon I would likely appreciate being freed.¡± The others began chanting the sealing ritual, and the crystal continued to glow. The body of the boy, which had grown still as his breath had stopped for a moment, once again grew warm and resumed breathing in a soft, steady pattern, no longer in any danger of death from having its soul pulled out. ~~~~~~~~ I awoke. And I remembered. The ritual that Ko ren and Sho Keh and the others had performed on me had shattered the wards that I had constructed in the land of the dead to keep my mind partitioned. If that was all that they had done I would have been content to sit back and wait to see what happened next, having marked the elders responsible for my botched exorcism as questionably enemies. However, many of the wards which they had so casually destroyed were to obscure my presence and location and reduce the impact of any karmic ties. I had been uncertain how it was that Nadia of the Divine Fates was following me, so I had thrown every method I could think of into the wards to protect my identity. The result had been the long battle in the sky between the lord of this realm and the empress. She had been attempting to slay an entire world to snuff me out, but with my location revealed, she could use more subtle approaches. I swiftly rebuilt the wards which had hidden me with the energy of my soul and reinforced it with Qi. But I knew it would be too little, too late. If Nadia had been searching for me, and I had little doubt that she had been, then she would have located the sect. She would begin to send assassins. It was annoying, as I had been enjoying my life as Little Bug, even though he had been ¡­ off. It had been enjoyable to cultivate simply for cultivation¡¯s sake. To learn martial arts without the intention of using them. To enjoy my brotherhood with Hien Ro, who had embraced my differences. And to appreciate the attempts of tutelage that Pi Phon and Di Ram had provided. I sighed. I was back at home; one of the cultists must have carried me back after their foolish attempt of an exorcism. If that¡¯s what they had been doing, at least. I had my suspicion that it was more than that, and I had left behind a trap in the crystal in which they had attempted to trap me. Fortunately, the bond between my body and my soul was far too great for their sealing ritual to have any hold. I sat up. It was dark out, after midnight. I went into Hien Ro¡¯s room and shook him awake. He jerked, then sat up and looked at me in confusion. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Little Bug?¡± he asked. ¡°I remember who I am,¡± I answered. He frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°I was born to kill the empress of the Divine Gates Empire. That is my goal in life,¡± I informed him. ¡°Ooookay,¡± he said. ¡°That¡¯s a little lofty, but I suppose at the rate you¡¯re going you might have a chance in a century or two.¡± I shook my head. ¡°I don¡¯t have that much time. She was defeated by the lord of this realm, but they are both licking their wounds. She will come back, and if I know her she will bring others with her. Nobody as strong as her, because she wouldn¡¯t trust them not to betray her, but it might be enough to tip the scales in her favor this time. I can¡¯t afford to wait. I need to leave the sect.¡± ¡°You¡¯re acting really strange, Little Bug,¡± he informed me. ¡°You¡¯re talking way too much.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been my best friend, Brother Ro,¡± I said. ¡°I wanted to say goodbye to you before I left.¡± He frowned, then shoved back his covers and stood up. He had been undressed for sleep, and he quickly began pulling his clothes on. ¡°If you¡¯re going somewhere, I¡¯m coming with.¡± I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, you¡¯ll just get in the way.¡± ¡°I need to record your cultivation secrets,¡± he argued. ¡°You must leave behind a legacy.¡± That actually gave me pause. The Sect had given me so much. I had taken, taken, and taken. I needed to give them something back in order to settle the debts between us, or there would be lingering karmic ties which would be difficult to sever. ¡°Very well. I must go speak with Di Ram. We will leave at noon tomorrow, so begin packing,¡± I instructed. He was already going about his room and throwing things into a pile. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. I left the house and sprinted to Di Ram¡¯s villa. I knocked on the door until one of the servants answered. They frowned, but recognized me, and showed me to the waiting area before promising to wake the master. Within ten minutes, the Elder came down to greet me. ¡°Elder Di Ram,¡± I said, putting one fist in my other palm and bowing over it, giving him the respect he was due for perhaps the first time. ¡°I thank you for taking care of me until now. I believe you have several questions, the answers to which I am prepared to share.¡± ¡°I am listening,¡± Di Ram said. ¡°I am an awakened soul,¡± I said. He drew in a sharp intake of breath. ¡°The techniques I developed were the combination of hundreds of different heritages and styles, adapted for the unique heritage of the people of this world. I developed them in my dreams because that was the place where I was most awake, until now. Something has changed, however, and it is time for me to leave the sect. I am taking Brother Ro with me, and I will continue to teach him my cultivation secrets. Before I leave this world, I will send him back to the sect to share what he has learned.¡± Di Ram was silent for a long moment, then he nodded. ¡°You have my permission to leave the sect, as does Hien Ro. I expect you to keep your vow. It would be nice to add a seventh peak to the Six Mountains Sect, one higher than any of the others.¡± I nodded. ¡°I leave you now, Elder.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re truly an awakened soul, then should I not be calling you elder and you be calling me junior?¡± he challenged. I smiled, and backed out of the room. ~~~~~~ The Necromancer hissed as he sensed the prey getting away. He had sensed its location for but a moment, a brief window in which the soul¡¯s wards had lowered or failed before they were rebuilt. This was the first time this had happened, and he had narrowed down the soul¡¯s location. The target was still on the world that he had previously tracked it to. More importantly, he now knew which sect the soul had been born into in this life. Unfortunately, just as he was about to pierce the veil and claim the soul, entrapping it for his mistress, the wards flared up once more, stronger than ever. He completely lost trace of the soul, although there was little doubt it had gone far. It was still a failure to act in time. Once again that blasted unbound soul had eluded his grasp. Once again he would have to report news of his failure to his mistress. He shuddered in fear at the thought of the mistress. He had no illusion that she would not kill him, were his skills not so in demand. He was one of the few who could track the soul, unbound as it was, as it traveled through the multiverse. Even this was only because he had spent centuries studying it as it had stood at the gates of death, defying everything he had thought he understood about the processes of soul decay. In his youth, he had tried to exorcise the unbound soul for the Divine Fates Empire, before it had fallen into ruin and been reconquered by its present empress. He had been confident in his ability to entrap the soul into an illusion of its personal hell, just as he had for thousands of others, but the soul had simply laughed at him. The soul had invited him to take the last step, to truly cross over the line between life and death so that he would truly understand. The soul had taunted his study, calling him a demon! He was not a demon, he was a sainted researcher! Unfortunately, his knowledge came at great personal risk. Necromancy was illegal in most places, after all. Carrying around the souls he had bound and the corpse army he had created could only be done in places where the powers that be were too weak to suppress him. He had carved out a small niche in a small stage 4 world, effectively culling the population until only his research subjects were left alive. He had built his power and gathered his army, ready for the day where he would invade a stage 5 world and claim it as his own. Then the mistress had come. She had come for his knowledge, flattering him and giving him research materials and funding. Entire worlds! All for the price of his knowledge. For she was dying, and she needed his knowledge to bind herself to a new body. A simple task. He had happily obliged. Then she had asked him to track the unbound soul, which had finally left its vigil at the gate of death. A more complicated task, but not impossible. The Necromancer¡¯s previous encounter and his burning resentment had created a tenuous link. Barely noticeable, and tracking it required the faintest of touches. But he could track it. And he had. Time after time he had tracked the soul. Rebirth after rebirth he had helped the mistress kill the soul in its infancy. The empress had showered riches on him, and he had rejoiced. She had promised him a stage 11 world for his own should he find a way to trap the soul as he could any other, and he had been in the midst of his research into the matter when the soul had simply disappeared. With the soul vanished the mistress¡¯s favor. She had taken back nearly all that she had given him and threatened him with utter annihilation, but he had bought his life with the fact that she required him for the ritual she used to switch bodies. But only just. No longer was he allowed to pursue his own projects, to conduct his research on matters not related to finding and trapping the unbound soul. If he did not turn all of his focus onto the matter, Empress Nadia had threatened to destroy him and take her chances with a lesser necromancer. He had narrowed the soul¡¯s location down to a specific patch in a medium quality universe. Then he had narrowed it down to a stage 3 world. The world would have been stage 7 but for the formations that were choking it in order to feed a larger array that enhanced the local Lord¡¯s home planet from a stage 8 to a stage 11. He scoffed when he discovered that. Such artificial world enhancements were ultimately shortsighted. It was better to cultivate the world¡¯s own core than it was to flush it with siphoned off Qi from another. Cultivating a world was expensive, but no more so than siphoning off a vassal world. The Lord had apparently planned for the short term boost rather than a long term goal, a sign of poor leadership. He had gleefully reported his findings to the mistress. He believed it would be a simple matter to displace the foolish lord, conquer the world where the unbound soul resided, and then entrap the soul. His mistress had agreed, and she had gone to war. She had been humiliated. And she had blamed him. He coughed up blood. The injury she had caused him, the tainting of his core, turning his own Qi against him, still lingered. He seethed inside that he must serve her, but without her patronage, he would not be able to obtain the pills he required to survive that taint. He had taught her how to do that, and she had used it against him. He had responded by weakening the array which kept her soul anchored. She had nearly disconnected from her present host, finding a new descendant to possess just in time. Now the two were locked into a game of mutually assured destruction. He must serve her, but she needed him. Wiping the blood off his chin and rechecking the results of his tracking array, he walked into the communication room, where the crystal which allowed him to communicate with the mistress across worlds was located. His version of the crystal was twice the size of his head, suspended in a field of Qi that was carefully attuned and paired with the mistresses crystal. Her crystal was in an earing. One of eight, for he wasn¡¯t her only advisor whom might need to contact her at a second¡¯s notice. ¡°Mistress, I have found the soul, and lost it once more,¡± he said to the crystal. A moment passed, but he knew that she would answer. Indeed, after another moment, he sensed her attention on him, and an eye appeared inside the crystal. ¡°He has left the world? Is he still inside that damn snake¡¯s domain?¡± she demanded. ¡°He remains on the world of his birth. But I have narrowed down his position considerably. He resides within a well known sect. The strongest of his protectors would not be past the golden path. Where force did not succeed, perhaps guile will prevail?¡± Silence for a moment, then the eye spoke again. ¡°I cannot infiltrate that territory, the local snake has set too many traps for me. But they are keyed to me. Many of my agents remain unknown.¡± The Necromancer smiled. He had brought her valuable news, and was about to be rewarded. Perhaps, once the child was dead and his soul finally entrapped she would consider removing the tainted Qi from his core and-- ¡°What better agent to send than the one who can track him directly?¡± she asked, interrupting his thoughts. The Necromancer startled. ¡°Me? You would send me?¡± he asked. ¡°My present host will last at least five years. I shall alleviate your symptoms for the same amount of time. If you fail in your task, then you will die, and I shall move to a new host without your help. If you succeed in killing the boy, then I shall cure you, and if you trap his soul then I shall give you back all I have taken from you, and all that I have ever promised you, and much, much more.¡± The Necromancer¡¯s greed began to grow with every word his mistress spoke. He bowed to the eye within the crystal. ¡°I shall serve as you wish,¡± he vowed. When he looked up once more, the eye was gone. ? 13. Attunement 13. Attunement Hien Ro and I raided the contribution stores before we left. I purchased the highest quality short sword that the shop possessed, while brother Ro purchased as many pills as he could. We were given food for the journey for free, and I insisted that we both pack up as much as we could carry, which for me was six bags of rice and for him was four. He was slightly older, but I was two stages ahead of him in cultivation now, and only the bulk prevented me from carrying even more. Aside from those items, we had basic camping supplies, a change of clothes, and a small pup-tent that we¡¯d be sharing. Were we not cultivators, we¡¯d be quite heavily loaded down. Instead, we dashed away from the lands of the Six Mountain Sect at a sprint, journeying for the entire day without ever getting winded. Ro asked where we were going, and I informed him that we were heading to the jungles of Ker¡¯tath, to the south. Like the lands surrounding the sect, the jungle was the center of a vast energy gathering array which siphoned off large amounts of Qi and shipped it off-world. Unlike the array claimed by the Six Mountain Sect, Ker¡¯tath was unclaimed by a single sect. Instead, there were dozens of smaller sects which were constantly warring with each other, as well as hundreds of rogue cultivators who were seeking to dominate their rivals. ¡°Why do we have to go to such a violent and unfriendly place?¡± he asked me, sounding unhappy with his decision to follow me for the first time. ¡°Because the Six Mountain Sect is a greenhouse, and true cultivation doesn¡¯t take place in a greenhouse. The Jungles of Ker¡¯tath are the true wilds. We¡¯ll need to avoid any silver path cultivators, and fortunately all gold path cultivators move off-world in this part of the cosmos. But I need to challenge as many bronze path cultivators as I can after I finish tempering my body,¡± I explained. He frowned at me. ¡°Wait, you¡¯re going there not just to cultivate, but to fight? ¡± ¡°Of course. If it was just cultivation I was after I would have stayed in the sect. I need to challenge myself against opponents who are stronger than myself if I hope to grow into the god-killer that I need to be,¡± I explained. ¡°If you want to turn back, I understand. Otherwise, I promise I¡¯ll do my best to protect you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m staying with you,¡± Brother Ro insisted. ¡°Where you go, I go.¡± With that decided, we sprinted across the continent. As we traveled, our packs grew lighter. We hunted during the day for small game to supplement the rice we were carrying, and we stopped to buy beans at one village. Then, when we were out of rice and low on beans, we bought oats from another. And then rice again from a third. Ro watched in horror at my voracious appetite, eating twice as much as he was. There was a very simple reason for it: I needed to grow up as fast as I could. While before I had fully awaken I had been content to allow my body to grow to it¡¯s full size naturally, now that I realized I was on the clock before the return of the Nadia, Empress of the Divine Fates Empire, I knew that I needed to rush nature along. I gained mass. I forced my body to grow in height, and I put on both muscle and fat. I grew nine inches in the six weeks that it took us to pass through the null zone between the Six Mountain Sect¡¯s territory and the isthmus which would lead us to the jungles of Ker¡¯tath. Once we passed into the zone of Qi concentration, I was 5¡¯9¡±, and I decided that it was time to progress my cultivation again. Finding an isolated cavern in the hills which would turn into mountains the further south we went, I explained the cultivation technique I was planning to use to Hien Ro in more detail than I ever had before. He filled an entire scroll, front and back, with notes. The entire time, he looked at me like I was mad. Qi Purification was the final step of the common path and marked the ascendance to the bronze path. It was the first step in which external control of Qi, controlling the energy outside of the body, was required. Depending on the method used for cultivation, it was also the step in which many cultivators developed their aspect. The simplest method to purify Qi was to filter it. If you push your Qi through a block of wood or earth or water to purify it, it would come out purer, but it would change the nature of the Qi. Air and fire also worked, although they were both much more difficult. I wasn¡¯t planning on aspecting my Qi to any of those elements. I was planning on aspecting to all of them. Plus several others. The only aspect which I was not planning on taking into myself was blood. As for Hien Ro, he was in the energy gathering realm. He was using the Peach Blossom Dream technique, which I had taught him, supplementing the pills that he had purchased for the lack of Qi condensation chambers and his generally lower level of control compared to myself. The method was still a vast improvement over what he would have learned at the sect before I arrived. He would eventually build up a resistance to the pills, but it was unlikely that they would harm him. Most cultivators in the Six Mountains Sect used them in addition to the concentration rooms, but that was prior to the introduction of my techniques. I had avoided pills during the year I¡¯d spent in the energy gathering realm. At the time, I¡¯d simply found them uncomfortable, but now I knew that the avoidance was due to the toxicity that later high density spiritual pills would cause. The low level ones that Ro were made of common herbs and infusion methods and had low toxicity, but low wasn¡¯t zero. Now that I was fully awake, I viewed pills as a crutch, to be avoided unless I found myself at a bottleneck that I couldn¡¯t surpass without them. Having breezed through the foundation realm and energy gathering realm, I was confident that I wouldn¡¯t need them. I began by aligning my spirit to the earth. This was a rather simple process, as I simply needed to cycle my Qi through a series of rocks to filter it. The trouble was finding the correct rocks to use, and we spent six days searching for the ones that I required. Quartz. Flint. Iron ore. A dozen different minerals which I could identify based on my previous lives. Hien Ro dutifully wrote down every one that I selected and described it the best that he could. Once I had all of the rocks that I required, I began to cycle. I didn¡¯t just filter through the rock. The cycle was a full body whirlwind, traveling counterclockwise through my entire body, concentrating in my right hand before filtering through the rock and into my left, then into my body again. More than that, I was spinning the energy in my core and in each of my meridians, allowing the alignment to settle in and take hold. I continued in this manner until each rock turned to dust. Wood was next. This was trickier. Although it was relatively easy to have an earth/wood alignment, as the two natures are closely intertwined, the process requires living plants for optimal results. The process also kills the plants in question unless great care is taken, resulting in less than optimal results. Using the cave we had been staying in as a base, we traveled through the jungle and I cycled using the same technique I had with the rocks until I found a species of tree which seemed to accept my Qi without much issue. I continued to align my spirit to this tree until the alignment was equal to my earth alignment. Water was next, and this was easy. There was a small stream nearby. I simply stripped down and sat in the water, cycling. The technique I used was different, however. Rather than spinning it through my body, I ejected my Qi into the water and cycled it in a whirl externally. The result was that I sat in the middle of a whirlpool, exuding and reabsorbing the Qi once it was properly aligned. The tri-aspected Qi snapped into place and developed a homeostasis from which it would resist additional elements, but I wasn¡¯t finished yet. Using my new earth and water alignments to seal up the entrance to the cave with rock and mud ¨C both were like putty in my hands now ¨C I spent two weeks cycling in darkness. This closed door cultivation method aligned me to shadow and darkness, which wasn¡¯t actually the goal. That process was simply necessary for what came next. On the night of the full moon, I broke out of my isolation with Hien Ro¡¯s help and spent the night pondering on the moonlight. Then I did the same with the sun. For an entire lunar cycle I contemplated the moon and the stars at night and the sun during the day, sleeping little, until my spirit once more accepted a new alignment. I had, at this point, attuned myself to Earth, wood, water, shadow and light. This was the extent of what I could accomplish in the foothills. I needed ice, which, this far south, meant that I needed mountains. Unfortunately, that meant traveling through two hundred miles of jungle. We had completely exhausted out stores of grain at this point in our journey as well, and when we stopped to trade for more we learned that the locals on this side of the wastes spoke a different language than they did in the north. That was also when I received my first challenge. It was the fires of the village which lured us in. We walked in openly, but we were not met with a welcome. Rather, the children ran indoors, the women stood and watched as the men rushed to collect spears. Frustrated, we raised our hands in a gesture of peace, but the men continued to threaten us with their bone and stone weapons. However, none of them was particularly strong; I don¡¯t think any of them were beyond foundation stage four or five. Simply by exuding my aura I was able to push them back. Until the chieftain arrived. He carried with him a macuahuitl and a shield, and his face was covered with a mask. When I washed him with my presence, he answered back with is own. He was on the bronze path. I couldn¡¯t intimidate him into backing down like I could with the others, this was going to be a fight. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I drew my short sword, and he charged at me. He swung his weapon at my head, trying to either brain me or cut my head off with the macuahuitl, but I didn¡¯t stand still to allow him to simply have his way. Using a movement technique, I retreated twenty feet in a single step. ¡°Brother Ro, get out of here. You¡¯ll just be in the way,¡± I said, uncaring how the older boy would take my words. The village champion rushed forward again, clumsily compared to my Silent Wind movement technique, but while he lacked refinement, he was still a stage above me in cultivation, which made him very fast. Unable to see if Ro followed my advice or not, I slashed at the champion, only to have him catch my steel blade on his shield while he returned my blow with a swing of his own weapon. Once again I retreated, and once again he charged. This time, he caught my sword on the wooden haft of his macuahuitl and slammed into me with his shield, knocking me aside, but I had recovered and once again vanished backwards with Silent Wind. This time, I also left behind an illusion, and he wasted a second first trying to block and then slashing through an after-image of me thrusting my short sword at his throat. I couldn¡¯t see his expression due to the mask he wore, but he approached more cautiously after that, knowing that his eyes might not be as reliable as he was accustomed to. I pulled on the shadow and light aspects of my spirit, bending the light around me to make myself appear three feet to my left and a second copy six inches to my right. My illusions charged the man, while I continued to retreat. He slashed at each of them just to make sure that neither of them were real, costing him another few seconds before he could charge after the real me again. We had, at this point, left the village proper and were in the jungle outside. Theoretically this would have given him the advantage, having grown up in this forest and limiting my options to move with my Silent Wind movement technique. However, this was the very gambit I was counting on to survive the encounter. When he charged me again, vines from the tree above dropped down and wrapped around him. Roots from beneath the ground emerged and pulled him down into the earth, which opened to accept him down to the waist as though it were quicksand. Which, for a moment, it had been. I hadn¡¯t been certain how much control I would actually have over the forest, but the actions of controlling the flora had been far easier than anticipated. I¡¯d spent more energy on the illusions! While the village champion continued to scream at me, I began to turn my attention away, trying to figure out who else was in charge. This was a mistake, because as soon as I looked away the village champion whipped his arm back and threw the macuahuitl at me. I had only a second to react, but the champion had made a mistake as well. His weapon was made of earth and wood, and my aura resonated with it. It would have remained a deadly implement while it was in his control, but having thrown it, I was able to influence it the same as I could influence light and the plants around me. I raised a hand and willed the weapon to stop. It slowed, but still slammed into my palm. However, rather than severing my hand, the sharp obsidian blades only scratched my skin, which I had been reinforcing with Qi. The macuahuitl clattered to the ground. Unwilling to simply accept defeat, the champion picked up a nearby stone and threw that at me as well. The stone met the same fate as the macuahuitl; I used my Qi to slow it until I could block it without harming myself. I flared my Qi further, and he was pulled deeper into the dirt until only his neck was above ground. I picked up the Macuahuitl and examined it. It was a curious weapon. It resonated with my Qi. The wood was long dead, the dead wood still accepted the Qi that I ran through it as though it were alive, and as I willed it the chips in the obsidian blade faded, the uneven surfaces becoming smooth and clear. It felt heavy in my hand, but not much more than my short sword. The champion continued to scream at me from where he was helpless, but I ignored him. ¡°That was incredible!¡± Hien Ro exclaimed, rushing over from where he had been hiding behind a tree. ¡°You have truly mastered so many valuable techniques!¡± ¡°I only used three. The Silent Wind movement technique, the Wrath of Gaia, and the Aegis of Ang¡¯makor,¡± I countered. ¡°And I had to lure him out of the village in order to use Wrath on him. If I had truly mastered it, I would have been able to summon the roots the moment he began challenging us.¡± I passed him my short sword. ¡°Here. This is yours now. I like his weapon better; it suits my path better than a lump of metal.¡± Ro hesitated, looking at me and then the sword. ¡°Are you certain? You paid a lot of contribution points for it.¡± ¡°Just take it,¡± I said. I returned to the village clearing, just in time to chase off the curious villagers who were emerging from their houses to begin rummaging through the pack that I had slipped off of my shoulders when the champion had appeared. The champion, who, now that his defeat was undeniable, began shouting obscenities in whatever language it was that these people spoke. I sighed as the village men lowered their spears, and I got ready for a charge. ¡°Stop!¡± a voice called, and then words were spoken by that same voice in the other language. The voice belonged to an old, hunched woman, who rushed through the woods into the clearing from the opposite side as Ro and I. She made good time despite the faint limp. ¡°I apologize, honored warriors. The others have confused you with raiders from a distant village. Have you lost your guide? Why have you not followed the road, and why did you not come in through the front gate?¡± the old woman demanded, her accent thick and musky. In the other language she said something just as long as I formulated a response. ¡°We are wandering cultivators from the north,¡± I answered. ¡°We have no guide. We saw no road. We saw no gate.¡± ¡°The road is a league that way. The gate is on the path from the road to the village,¡± she explained. ¡°All peaceful visitors and traders are expected to make an offering at the shrine at the gate before they are welcome at the village. That you did not pass through it was seen as an insult to the gods and a challenge to our warriors.¡± ¡°We did not know of these customs,¡± I admitted. ¡°I apologize for the offense I have caused.¡± Truthfully I didn¡¯t give a damn, but the apology cost me nothing, even as I made signs of contrition. The woman began speaking rapid-fire in the villager¡¯s language, and finally the others began to relax. The men began to return their spears to their resting places, and the women stepped outside. The children, however, remained indoors. ¡°I am Belqee,¡± the woman introduced herself. Hien Ro and I responded in kind, and she shook her head. ¡°It has been ten years since I spoke this language. Not since my husband died. He came here fleeing from the Six Mountain Sect. If you have come after his bounty, then you have made the journey through the wastes in vain.¡± ¡°We have come to strengthen ourselves, not to collect a decades old bounty,¡± I said. ¡°I do not even know your husband¡¯s name. I would ask the name of the fool that I buried, however.¡± ¡°That is Coatl. He was not born in this village, but married the chief¡¯s daughter five years ago and slew her father on their wedding night. Unfortunately we need his strength in order to protect the village, and despite the violence with which he claimed his position he has been a fair chieftain. I would ask that you do not kill him when you leave,¡± Belqee said. ¡°I¡¯ll leave him as he is,¡± I promised. ¡°Your village can vote whether to dig him out or leave him as he is for yourselves.¡± ¡°Thank you. Now tell me what I can do to make you leave,¡± she said sternly. I glanced at Ro, then at my pack on the ground, which was much lighter than it should be. ¡°We require food. As much as can be spared. We are willing to trade. We have silver or gold coins, as well as a large number of spiritual herbs which we have gathered in the jungle forests, and three spiritual salamanders wrapped in wet cloth.¡± ¡°Your coins are worthless here,¡± she informed me. ¡°If you are not planning to make a return journey to the north you had might as well throw them away. I will examine your spiritual treasures to see if they are worth anything to us.¡± I nodded, and pulled several pouches out of my pack. Unrolling them, I presented the herbs I had gathered, as well as the wet bag which I had sealed the salamanders inside. Her eyes went wide when she saw my bounty. ¡°I will trade the lot of it for as much Quinoa, salted venison and fish as you can carry,¡± she informed me. I shook my head. ¡°I am interested in trading for those amounts of those items, but that is not a fair trade. You may pick one of the pouches I have collected for the Quinoa, venison and fish. Because I am feeling generous and I do not wish to keep them, I will throw in the salamanders. Otherwise, each pouch counts separately.¡± ¡°Eight items,¡± she bartered. ¡°Four.¡± We settled on giving her a small pouch filled with a combination of our bounty, but only if she was allowed to mix and match. I had been sorting them all by species, and she quickly filled one of my empty pouches with her selections, which gave me insights into which of the local spiritual herbs were most valuable. I had the feeling that she took some measure to cheat me and disguise some of the true values of the items I had gathered, but I was confident I saw through her. She also took the salamanders, which surprised me not at all. Satisfied with the exchange, she began barking orders in the native language, and the other villagers began pulling out barrels and sack bags. Once Brother Ro and I were once again laden down as thoroughly as we could manage, we set off towards the gate, vowing to make an offering to the shrine on our way out to make up for our failure to do so on the way in. When we reached it, I tossed in one of the ¡®worthless¡¯ silver coins I had been carrying, then we followed the path the rest of the way to the road. The road was twelve feet wide, and it was well built. Impressive, actually, considering what I had thought I¡¯d known about the state of the lands to the south. It was centuries old, but the massive paving stones would have taken dozens of men to quarry, transport, and place. And that was excluding all of the effort that had been put into cutting a path through the rain forest. The villagers had promised us that the road led south all the way to the mountains, and that if we followed it long enough it would raise us above the clouds, to the snow-capped peaks of the Re¡¯tath mountains. With the goal set in mind, we headed out at the pace of two young cultivators, barely feeling our burdens as we sprinted over the ancient road. ? 14. Vampire 14. Vampire Ko Ren studied the glowing crystal in which he and his other conspirators had ensnared the demon which had been possessing Little Bug. It glowed a faint blue color, proving that it was occupied with a spirit. However, it was not the dark red color that the ritual manual had said a demon would exude. He sensed no evil from the crystal. He sensed ¡­ not nothing. A faint energy. Not Qi, but something else. He did not know what it was. Little Bug could have told him that it was the remains of the wards that had been concealing his location from scrying, as well as a few parting gifts. But Little Bug had vanished. Ko Ren saw it as just more proof that his possession theory was correct; the boy had been a willing host, and once the demon was exorcised he had fled the sect to avoid the punishment handed out to all demonic cultivators. Except he sensed no demonic energy. Perhaps the boy had not been cursed by a demon, but blessed by a sacred ancestor. That might have explained everything, and it would not violate the laws of the sect or the greater laws handed down by the immortal lord of the heavens. It did not matter. Ko Ren was not reflecting on the crystal because of self-doubt. Rather, he was eyeing it with greed. Whatever the nature of the spirit within, the knowledge that it possessed was invaluable. In the hands of a child it had revolutionized the foundation and energy gathering stage of the Six Mountains Sect. Ko Ren was on the silver path. If he could convince the spirit to help him as it had once helped the boy, he could break through not only the bottleneck that would allow him to ascend from this lowly world, but perhaps challenge and supplant the lord of the heavens himself! But first he must negotiate a bargain with the entity. He must speak with the spirit, be it devil or saint, and plead his case. Given how their last communication had gone, he wasn¡¯t hopeful that the spirit would be pleased with him. Ko Ren was the spirit¡¯s only hope of freedom, however, and with the knowledge that he had the upper hand, he began the ritual. Unlike the exorcism, the only other ritualist this time was his sister Ko Si. She shared his heart on the matter. He had not spoken of his plans with the others, too much of a risk that they would feign righteous indignation. Chanting the magic and powering the formation which would allow the spirit to speak, as well as the wards which would keep it trapped inside, Ko Ren enacted the ritual. It took three hours to complete, and he smiled to himself as the color of the crystal changed the further along he went. When at last he had empowered the crystal to speak, it had become a dark red, proving that it truly was a demon inside. ¡°To the entity trapped within, if you desire freedom, it will not come without cost! I demand--¡± ¡°I am not trapped, just visiting. It was quite surprising to find necromancy being performed so nearby. I simply had to check it out, so I popped in for a look-see,¡± A sonorous voice said. ¡°Such low level wards could not stop me. In fact, they¡¯re somewhat pathetic. Were you truly entrusting your life to them? I¡¯ve seen imps which could tear through them and rip your throat out within a second of being summoned!¡± Ko Ren¡¯s heart clamored. The demon spoke! It blustered and threatened. ¡°I am not afraid of you, Demon,¡± he said. ¡°If you desire freedom, it must come with a price. I propose a pact. You will give me knowledge, and I will give you freedom. I demand that you give me the insights required to break through into the golden realm.¡± ¡°I agree. First lesson. You have made another foolish mistake,¡± the demon-crystal chided. ¡°And a fatal one. For the contract is complete and there is nothing to keep me from slaughtering you in a painful and creative manner.¡± Ko Ren balked. ¡°I am not so easily--¡± The wards erupted as a wave of energy crashed out through the crystal. An eye appeared within it, and the demon¡¯s voice became stronger. ¡°You may relax. I am simply being a good teacher. If I intended to kill you, you would be dead already. As I said, your protections are pathetic. You¡¯re lucky that this crystal contained nothing but a trace of my target. Were I not following in the unbound soul¡¯s footsteps, you might have attracted a true demon with that ritual of yours.¡± Ko Ren felt his face go pale. His knees went out. He had been so confident, but to have had the wards destroyed so easily, he had little doubt that the demon spoke the truth. Then he registered what the demon had said. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°You are tracking Little Bug?¡± he asked. ¡°You should have killed him before you tried entrapping his soul. The ritual you used is truly pathetic, but it would never work on a living subject anyway. But it¡¯s impossible that a couple Silvers would succeed where I have failed. However, if you bring the unbound soul to me, I promise you great rewards. You wish to trod the golden path? I shall bring you to the diamond. I simply require that boy¡¯s soul as payment.¡± Ko Ren swallowed. ¡°Is that a promise that you can truly deliver?¡± The crystal was silent for a moment. Then a light flashed out, enveloping Ko Ren in a red malaise. He groaned in agony, and his sister called out. She rushed forward, but a wave of force shot from the crystal and knocked her into the wall. Despite the fact that she too walked the silver path, she was rendered unconscious. After a moment, the light faded. But the enlightenment that the light had imparted in Ko Ren remained. ¡°I have given you the knowledge that will take you to the golden path,¡± the demon-crystal said. ¡°I am already looking for him with my own methods; however, you might have more success given that you know him in his present life and have established karmic ties. Give me the boy, and I shall give you the knowledge to enter the realm beyond gold.¡± ¡°I-he is gone from the sect,¡± Ko Ren objected. ¡°If it were in my power I swear I--¡± ¡°Find him. If you find him before I do, then capture him and signal me. You now know how¡± ¡°Yes. Yes, Master,¡± Ko Ren said. The crystal eye considered him for another moment, then it went dun and fell to the floor. Across the room, Ko Si groaned in pain as she sat up. The bolt of force that had struck her would have shattered the ribs of a non-cultivator, perhaps even killing them outright. It had simply knocked the wind out of her. Ko Ren went over to his sister and knelt next to her. ¡°I know how to break through,¡± he told her. ¡°It wasn¡¯t an attack, the demon was imparting knowledge. So much knowledge.¡± Ko Si looked up at him and smiled. ¡°We succeeded then? Will the method work for both of us?¡± Ko Ren nodded. ¡°Yes, it could work for both of us.¡± He smiled down at his sister and cupped her cheek in his hand. ¡°But it will only work for one of us, sister. It¡¯s you or me.¡± Before she had time to register what he had said, the Qi inside her body ignited. She tried to quell it, to bring it back under control, but for the first time since she was in the energy gathering realm the Qi in her body refused to obey her commands. Too late she realized that this was an attack, that her brother was using a technique on her. She tried to fight, but found herself paralyzed, falling back to the floor. Ko Ren put a hand to her belly, right above her core, and he began to siphon out her cultivation. She had not even known such a thing was possible, but she understood what was happening to her. This was not just the expenditure of Qi. That was like the flexing of a muscle; Qi replaced itself with time and meditation. This was vampirism. He was stealing much more than Qi. He was stealing insights that had taken her decades to develop. He was stealing her Dao, and leaving her with nothing. Then he stopped. Not because he had taken his fill, but because she was empty. Her meridians were closed, her channels were empty. Her core was weak and cracked and leaking. She was back in the foundation realm once more. Ko Ren sat next to his crippled sister in the lotus position. The paralyzation technique he had used faded, and she wanted to stand and beat him, to strike him and punish him for taking what he had taken. But she was a mortal woman now, and to strike a cultivator of his level would be to court death. Ko Si began to sob helplessly just as Ko Ren broke through and began to walk the golden path. ? 15. Hien Ro 15. Hien Ro I stood on the top of the highest tree upon the highest hill, the wind whirling around me. It had already ripped leaves from the trees, and their edges were sharp enough to cut flesh, but I remained unsatisfied. After attuning myself to the earth, reaching a true attunement with the air would be difficult. Not impossible, despite common perception. Just very difficult. Technically speaking, I could walk onto the bronze path at any time. If I were an average cultivator, I would have been content with my earth attunement and begun the process of refinement which marked the majority of the bronze path. I was complicating things by aligning myself to the other elements, and it would make my cultivation much more difficult. More difficult, and more rewarding. An average cultivator aligns one element, and that is typically enough to bring them to the silver or golden path unless they are untalented. However, few cultivators are able to reach diamond with a single element. They must realign their elemental affinity by picking up a second, or perhaps a third before they can surpass that bottleneck. Much debate exists on which elemental combinations are ideal and compatible, but they¡¯re ultimately all wrong. A neutral spirit is the best. Neutrality is a state of balance. It is a state of flexibility, allowing the most change and versatility. Most spirits begin in a neutral state and it is the state which they generate passively. Even once an alignment occurs, if the practitioner does not continue to draw in Qi of their alignment their spirit will eventually return to a neutral state, but they will feel weakened. This is why I was previously reluctant to align myself. However, I don¡¯t have the time to continue cultivating without being able to draw from the elements. So in order to retain my spirit in a neutral state, I must balance the elements with each other. The result will be that I should be able to draw from any source of Qi and use it for cultivation. Doing so will be hard on my body, however, which means I will have to reform and temper it to withstand the process of purifying even fire and lightning Qi. At present, I had passable control over the air, but not a true alignment. I could control it, but I doubted that I could use it as a weapon. Sighing, I pulled the Qi that I had been using to generate the whirlwind back into my body and leapt down from the tree. ¡°That is incredible, Little Bug,¡± Hien Ro exclaimed. ¡°Despite your alignment to earth, you were able to achieve an air alignment in only a few hours!¡± My eyebrow twitched slightly at the false praise. ¡°I have been working on air alignment all along, Brother Ro,¡± I corrected him. ¡°And I have far to go before I will be satisfied. My control over the air is laughable at the moment. I can generate a swift breeze, but I will not be satisfied until I can use it to strike a cutting blow from thirty yards away.¡± ¡°I am certain that it will be just a matter of time before you achieve your goal,¡± Hein Ro insisted. ¡°I am not,¡± I admitted to him. ¡°And if you knew what my goal was, the very scope of it, you would not be either.¡± ¡°Okay then, what is your goal?¡± he questioned. ¡°To kill the Empress of the Divine Fates Empire.¡± He blinked. ¡°But she is the one who fought with the lord of the heavens! They fought to a stalemate! You cannot hope to ¡­ oh.¡± I nodded. ¡°There are worlds beyond this, entire universes, where the level of cultivation is much higher. The lord of this realm is in the late Diamond path. The Empress of the Divine Fates Empire is in the late stages of the Mythril path. They are not equally matched, it is only because he fought her in his own realm that he was able to eke out a victory. If he had faced her in hers, he would have been utterly destroyed. But I must kill Empress Nadia all the same.¡± Hien Ro was quiet for a moment, looking at the ground. Then he looked up at me. ¡°I still believe you can do it. It might take you a few years, but she doesn¡¯t stand a chance against the little sage!¡± ¡°Little sage?¡± I asked ¡°You didn¡¯t know? Everyone calls you that behind your back. Ever since you started coming up with brand new cultivation techniques which were better than any of the manuals they had in the Six Mountains Sect, everyone figured that you¡¯d end up being a sage at the very least. So we started calling you the Little Sage instead of Little Bug when you weren¡¯t around.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I want them to call me that.¡± ¡°Well, what do you want them to call you?¡± he asked. ¡°Little Bug,¡± I insisted. He laughed. ¡°You are so strange. What is your real name, anyway?¡± ¡°I forgot.¡± ¡°You forgot?¡± ¡°I remember so many, but I forgot the one I was born with this time. But I am Little Bug now.¡± Hien Ro looked surprise, then he nodded. ¡°Oh. That explains it. I should have realized you remembered your past lives.¡± Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°What about you, Brother Ro? What are your goals for this life? Why do you cultivate?¡± I asked. ¡°I started because my parents wanted me to,¡± he explained. ¡°I know that¡¯s not a very good reason, but they had me tested and the cultivators said that I had a passable talent, so they¡¯d take me if my parents paid thirty silver coins. That was almost all of their savings, so I worked hard to make sure it was worth it.¡± It was my turn to be surprised. When the cultivators had taken me to the sect, they hadn¡¯t asked for any coins. They had given my family a significant sum instead. Come to think of it, it was strange that they had traveled so far to test me in the first place. ¡°What sort of test did they give you?¡± I asked. ¡°The first man held up a finger and asked me if I saw anything. I didn¡¯t, at first, except for his finger sticking up. But then he said to keep looking, and eventually I saw a light,¡± he explained. ¡°Then they had me look at a bunch of seeds, but I just said that you should eat all of them because I was kind of hungry and don¡¯t know anything about farming anyway. Then they gave me a rock to hold and told me how to use it to cultivate. I don¡¯t know if I was doing it right, but they said that I passed, so I guess I did?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the same test they gave me.¡± I didn¡¯t tell him about the symbol made of Qi, nor the fact that only one of the seeds was alive. As for the rock ¡­ he could obviously cultivate. It¡¯s not uncommon for children to not realize at first when they¡¯re actually touching their Qi. However, it was depressing. In my life as Elisia, I had taken a similar test at age four and scored significantly better than Hien Ro, but I had received the same grade. A passable talent. I had a feeling that in Elisia¡¯s sect, Brother Ro wouldn¡¯t have been welcome. Not for thirty coins at least. The cultivation level of the world Elisia had lived in was considered low because the spirituality was too low to ascend past gold. Only the richest and most talented golds were allowed to travel to a more spiritual world. Compared to that, my present world was even lower, with few cultivators ascending to gold. When they did, they were expected to put their affairs in order and ascend to the heavens in order to continue their cultivation as part of the heavenly lord¡¯s army. I knew that the local lord of the heavens was mismanaging his realm. Not only was he removing from this world the exact cultivators he should be encouraging to found their own clans and have large families, but he was draining this world of far too much Qi. While a tax was to be expected for his protection, it was better taken in the form of treasures than siphoned Qi itself. I brought myself back to the conversation. ¡°So that¡¯s why you started cultivating. Why do you continue? Why are you following me?¡± Hien Ro frowned as he considered the question very seriously. It took him several minutes to come up with an answer. ¡°I want to see how far I can go. I wouldn¡¯t be satisfied with myself if I gave up. My parents paid their life savings to give me this opportunity, and I won¡¯t go home for good unless I can look them in the eye and tell them it was worth it.¡± He paused. ¡°You know, that¡¯s why we¡¯re friends.¡± ¡°How¡¯s that?¡± I questioned. ¡°I was trash when we met,¡± he admitted. ¡°I knew I wasn¡¯t going to be able to open all of my meridians and enter the energy gathering realm. That¡¯s why I started purifying my body early. I figured if I could tell them that their coin guaranteed me a long life, maybe that would be worth it. But then I had the little sage teaching me, and suddenly things were easier. And more importantly, you didn¡¯t mind me selling all of your lessons to the Sect, and because of that they gave me all sorts of pills and spiritual stones and stuff to help me advance as well. I never would have gotten this far without you, Bug.¡± I considered his explanation. He was nervous; I realized he might have thought that he was taking advantage of me, but I didn¡¯t see it that way at all. ¡°You¡¯re not trash, Ro. You just needed the right teacher. And it was a lot easier to explain things to you to spread my methods to the rest of the sect than it would have been to teach everyone myself. I¡¯m satisfied with how things worked out.¡± Hien Ro exhaled in relief. ¡°I¡¯m glad you think so.¡± ¡°You should know, Brother Ro, that the path you¡¯re walking right now might not be the path to a long life,¡± I warned him. ¡°As an Energy Gathering cultivator you could live one hundred years more than a mortal, even if you never spent another moment in meditation. But if you keep following me, there¡¯s a chance we¡¯ll face a threat that I can¡¯t protect you from. I¡¯ll do my best, but I¡¯m not strong enough yet to assure both of us survive. I might not even be strong enough to protect myself.¡± ¡°You took care of that bronze path cultivator fast enough,¡± He reminded me. ¡°Only because I lured him into an environment where I had an advantage and then trapped him,¡± I pointed out. ¡°In a fight of martial arts I believe he would have easily overpowered me. He was midway through the bronze path and had the bodily strength to back up his Qi. My Qi is dense and pure, and I know a thousand and one things that I can do with it. But when it comes to raw power, I¡¯m still in the purification realm, and in the body of a twelve year old.¡± ¡°Yeah, but a big one,¡± he pointed out. ¡°You¡¯ve grown a lot.¡± I nodded. ¡°Back to the question. Why are you following me despite the danger, Hien Ro?¡± ¡°You said cultivators don¡¯t grow in greenhouses,¡± he reminded me. ¡°Well, I want to be a cultivator. Cultivators seize opportunities when they¡¯re presented with them. That¡¯s what this is to me. An opportunity to follow the little sage and learn from him and face the same trials. I know it¡¯s dangerous, and I¡¯ll be facing danger that I¡¯d never face back in the sect. But maybe I¡¯ll grow faster if I have to grow faster .¡± I sighed. He had to come up with a good answer, didn¡¯t he? ¡°Are you sure that¡¯s what you want? Forced growth?¡± He swallowed, sensing danger in my question. He was right. ¡°I was stalling out again when you changed. I guess you, um, woke up? Or something. Didn¡¯t you?¡± I didn¡¯t feel the need to explain what had happened to me at the exorcism. ¡°How many of those low grade Qi replenishment pills do you have left?¡± I questioned. ¡°Huh? Oh, well, to be honest I¡¯m out,¡± he admitted. I looked at him sternly. ¡°Didn¡¯t you buy one hundred of them before we left?¡± ¡°The trip through the spiritual wasteland took a full month! How was I supposed to replenish my Qi without them?¡± he demanded. I covered my face with a hand. ¡°Very well. I was going to tell you to take one and then spar. Instead we¡¯ll spar until you¡¯ve exhausted your Qi, and I¡¯ll teach you how to replenish it with meditation.¡± ? 16. Patriarch 16. Patriarch My duels with Brother Ro were more productive than one would think, considering the martial difference between us. While in an earnest fight I would have won within moments, being at a higher realm of cultivation and having a miriad of techniques from my past lives to call upon, we instead fought using only martial arts. Well, I gave Ro permission to use whatever techniques he was working on a try, unconcerned that they would actually work or hurt me if they did. But while we were fighting, I was in fact only engaging a single technique, and the purpose of that technique was to cause Qi blockages in my meridians which would restrict my power down to that of the energy gathering realm. This had the double effect of making our fights ¡®fair¡¯ and also as productive for my own cultivation as it was for Brother Ro. He saw it as me taking it ¡®easy on him,¡¯ and no amount of my explanation that I was truly trying my hardest, albeit with a self-imposed handicap, would change his opinion on the matter. He was a skilled martial artist, limited only by his level of cultivation, and our bouts were doing wonders to advance that quickly as I tought him various methods of recovering both his spiritual and physical strength once we had exhausted ourselves. He seemed frustrated, but was in truth progressing rapidly as we traveled south and entered the mountain range. I was seeking a mountain to claim as my own, which required several things. Primarily it required a snow-cap. It also had to be isolated from the local powers enough that I could do as I pleased there without interferance. Which necessitated learning of the local powers enough to find a suitable location. Fortunately, the road we were following brought us to a bustling city where we were able to get the lay of the land. Ro found a map which showed the claimed territories of every major and minor sect of the Ker¡¯tath region. While the majority of the southern continent was claimed, there was a conveniently located region in the largest mountain range which was not beholden to anyone. According to the map, at least. We hired a local guide, a mortal who was happy to show us the way into this no-man¡¯s land in exchange for ¡®master cultivators¡¯ teaching his daughter how to cultivate herself. So we picked up two more to our party, the father and daughter duo. The man was a widower named Adan, and his daughter was a fourteen year old named Yara. To begin with, I of course administered the same test to Yara which had been administered to me years before. She incorrectly stated that all of the seeds in my hand were duds, which is actually a very astute observation given that but a single kernal bore the spark of life. She saw ¡®a green light¡¯ above my finger when I held it up, but when pressed she admitted that it was fuzzy and couldn¡¯t make out the figure. And when given a spiritual stone, she was able to draw a small amount within herself. She was, in summary, a richly promising student whom the local sects would regret missing in their screenings of the local mortals. I don¡¯t think Adan truly believed that he was getting a worthy deal out of the trade, but rather I believe that he was fleeing the city due to gambling debts. Mostly because we were accosted on our way out of the city by a gang of thugs who seemed to know him, although I didn¡¯t understand their banter due to the language barrier. They were only mortals, however, and I was able to put them down without significant trouble, leaving them without injury to anything but their pride. Adan was in high spirits when he realized that Hien Ro was not exaggerating when he had described my prowess, and he actively encouraged Yara to learn both our techniques and our language. Adan himself only spoke our language in broken bits, and his daughter not at all, but with the diagrams that Hien Ro carried of the Peach Blossom Dream technique, she was able to ignite her dantian and begin the journey of opening her meridians, beginning the path of cultivation at its earliest stages. Some would say that she was eight years too late, but I would argue that it was never too late to take the first step towards one¡¯s true path. We left the city with three donkeys loaded down with supplies and traveled for two months through the twisting paths of the jungle and the mountains. We resupplied regularly in the little villages. Adan traded cheerfully with them using the spiritual herbs and animals that I found along the way with no more effort than simply looking for them now and then. The village chiefs and merchants would be skeptical of our goods until their healers and shamans saw our merchandise, at which point they were more than happy to make a deal. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! This was barely noticed by me, however, as I focused on attaining my attunement to the air. It continued to elude me, my attunement to the earth standing in stubborn opposition. I could only struggle to overcome it, but still I struggled rather than simply advancing to the bronze path, as would be so simple to do. The temptation was there. It would be so easy, I simply needed to gather the energy from the world, which was bountiful this far south. The earth Qi and wood Qi were bountiful in the jungles we passed through, tantalizing. It was far more tempting to drink in that energy than any other temptation I¡¯d experienced during my life as Little Bug, requiring a constant effort of will to keep myself from advancing. That effort of willpower was itself rewarding, however. It would pay dividends later in this life. Eventually, I would reach the point in cultivation where I would become a world unto myself, with a core to match that of the planet upon which I was born. While I was now an active part of the spiritual ecosystem, taking and giving to the world in an everpresent part of its equilibrium, eventually I would have the power to break that equilibrium and cause irreperable damage. So I held myself back. For many reasons, and ultimately for one. I needed to become strong tomorrow, and so I must establish a base strong enough to support my future groath. Even if it meant remaining weak today. ~~~~~~~ Di Ram knelt before the patriarch of the Six Mountains Sect, giving him all the fillial peity that he would give an honored ancestor. The patriarch was, after all, Di Ram¡¯s own father. The old man, truly old having reached his sixth century of life, was of the golden path, but had never progressed beyond that. If he wished to continue the journey of cultivation, he would have to journey to the stars. But Di Phon had too many worldly attachments to do so, and so he had stalled out, playing elder for several centuries as the sixth patriarch of his sect, fathering many children with many mortals, of whom Di Ram was honored to have been recognized as one. ¡°My son. Soon, I shall die,¡± Di Phon said. Di Ram¡¯s head shot up. ¡°What? But you have several centuries of life left. You will outlive us all. Surely¡ª¡± ¡°I grow weary of watching my children and my lovers die of old age. I have seen mine end and will embrace it as it comes. Already mine enemy is gathering his strength and shall confront me with all the might that he can bring to bear, which is considerable. He undermines the foundations of the six mountains, and there is little to be done against this corruption but stand and face it. But I have seen the black hound. I know that it shall be in vane. So I ask you, my son, to take the children and the uncorrupted to safety. All those who practice the Peach Blossom Dream are pure. Trust nobody else, especially not those who lend their ear to Ko Ren, for it his his venomous words which will be my downfall. Bear them to the south, and as you flee, take with you the villagers of the birthplace of the Little Sage, for he shall be the pillar upon which the Seven Mountains Sect is reborn.¡± Di Ram¡¯s mouth gaped at the pronouncement. ¡°I would stand and face this enemy beside you.¡± ¡°No. I will see my children to safety, even as I guard their escape. It is too late to stop this travesty, but while today¡¯s dusk has set, tomorrow¡¯s dawn shall be brighter than any this world has ever seen. My only lament is that the green of this spring is one that I shall never see.¡± Di Ram¡¯s emotions warred within him. Then he bowed his head. ¡°How long do I have to act?¡± ¡°You must away immediately. Ko Ren has reached the golden path, and the others who lust for power will soon fall in behind him. Take with you this ring, which possesses the secrets of the six peaks. And bear it to the Little Sage with all haste, that he might rise us up from the ashes.¡± ¡°As you wish. Father.¡± Di Ram kowtowed to his patriarch one last time, then took the ring from the proffered hand and left his father to his death. He acted secretly and in haste, gathering his most trusted followers, who in turn woke the sleepy disciples, who were confused but trusting as they were told that they would be going on an experiential journey to develop their skills. One hundred-thirty eight fled the Six Mountain Sect in the night. They alone escaped the corruption that followed. ? 17. Tunrida 17. Tunrida Adan abruptly pulled the donkeys to a halt as he spotted the sign. Once he had seen one marking, he quickly spotted others, creating a line throughout the trees marking off the border between human land and that of the divine beasts. He cursed, and turned to the exalted cultivators to explain the problem. ¡°I am sorry, my lords, but it seems that there is a reason that this land has not been claimed by any of the local sects. These ribbons in the trees are markers that designate the land belongs to a Tunrida. It draws to itself sources of great power, which in turn attract lesser spiritual beasts. The entire land is extremely dangerous and I would not advise going any further,¡± Adan explained, bowing humbly as he hoped that he was properly communicating the level of danger. The quiet one scratched his chin for a moment. Then he nodded. ¡°Make camp here. Hien Ro, protect the mortals and continue to guide Yara on her path. I will go and speak with the lord of this realm and negotiate passage through the territory,¡± the little sage said. ¡°If I do not return within a week, then you are to return to the city without me. If I do not return to the city within a year, then you are to move on with your life.¡± The other boy, whom Adan knew was less advanced than the younger but taller one, began to argue, his words coming out too fast and clipped for Adan to understand, but the little sage simply took his weapon and a small bag of rations and leapt off into the distance, jumping from tree-top to tree-top until he was too far to hear the other northerner¡¯s protests. Adan sighed and began making camp. The cultivator sulked, but eventually began helping him as well, and they soon had a set of tents erected and a small fire going, upon which they began cooking the evening meal of beans and rice. ~~~~~~ Adan¡¯s warning of multiple spiritual beasts in the region was well founded, and from the tree tops I spotted several of them quickly. Beasts who walked the bronze or even the silver path, turning the energy of their environment into siphons to draw nature¡¯s energy into themselves and their lairs. I stopped to fight a jaguar of the late bronze path, for I sensed malevolence from it. The beast was surprised and outraged at the ambush, for I caused the vines in the tree on which it was resting to wrap around it and bind it as I burst through the air and swung my macuahuitl, attempting to behead it in one swoop. I missed and scored a severe blow to its front shoulder instead, cutting deep into the muscles. The beast roared, and I was pushed back with the power of the roar which contained a significant presence or intent. I roared back at it, empowering my own voice with intent in the same way that it had its own, causing the beast to whimper. The vines from the tree grew into its wounds and began seeking its heart, and suddenly I felt a shift in the beast¡¯s emotions. ¡°Little human, little human,¡± the beast spoke, using Qi and intent to communicate. ¡°I have done you no wrong, why do you attack me? Might we not come to an armistice still?¡± I paused, because the spirit beast was right, I had attacked it unprovoked. ¡°I sensed malevolence from you. The will to kill the helpless and play with your prey as it died.¡± ¡°I am a great cat. Would you expect any less of one like me? But I am more than a cat and can rise above my baser instincts. I recognize you as more than you appear to be, might I not be the same.¡± ¡°A soul oath. If you swear to protect my friends and never slay a human except in self defense, I shall heal your wound and put up my attacks against you,¡± I offered. ¡°In exchange, you must swear not to slay me or mine,¡± the great cat said. ¡°I will not attack any of yours who have made the same oath as you,¡± I offered. ¡°I too retain the right of self defense.¡± The cat chuckled as I closed the loophole it had been hoping to leave open, allowing its brethren to slay me while I was prevented from fighting back. ¡°So be it,¡± the jaguar spirit-beast said, and I felt a twisting presence press against me. It was a little thing to one like me, and the spirit beast did not realize until too late how vulnerable it was making itself to me as I reached out gently with my soul and completed the contract. It whimpered as my awakened soul showed the surface of its depths, and in doing showed a reflection of the jaguar¡¯s own soul. ¡°Master,¡± it whimpered. ¡°Our bond does not¡ª¡± ¡°I would call you master and be your apprentice. What would you have of one such as I?¡± the jaguar questioned. ¡°I need to negotiate with the lord of this realm for a mountain.¡± ¡°You seek the Tunrida? I shall be your guide,¡± the jaguar said. ¡°If you would just take care of my wound, so that I might be able to keep up.¡± So I used one of the many healing techniques recalled from past lives to close the wound on the jaguar¡¯s shoulder, and we set out into the distance to negotiate passage.¡± Having touched the spirit-beast¡¯s soul, I knew that I had made the correct decisions. If I had left the jaguar alone, then it would have preyed upon Adan or Yara, and perhaps even taken its chances against Hien Ro. It was intelligent, yes, but cruel and cunning. It turned its belly to me because it must, and I recognized from the scars of its souls that it had employed this tactic before only to break its word. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Breaking a spiritual oath is a serious matter, one with the potential to cripple one¡¯s cultivation. That the jaguar had survived the oaths in the past was a testimony to several facts. One, that neither participant in the oath had seriously expected the other to keep its word, weakening the pact to begin with. And two, the Jaguar had significant untapped potential. It was a shame that the scars on its soul would prevent it from reaching the heights that it might have otherwise, as it would have made a formidable guardian. Perhaps if, now that it knew who it was dealing with, it proved loyal, I would show it several methods of healing the damage its duality had caused it in the past. It took several hours of moving at a pace which only a cultivator or a spiritual beast could move, but finally we reached a tree taller than any others. The jaguar, who had named itself Xol, stopped at the edge of the clearing at the tree¡¯s base. ¡°The Tunrida lives at the top of the highest branch of the tallest tree. I have led you to the tallest tree, you must make the rest of the journey on your own,¡± Xol informed me. I sensed a maliciousness in his words. ¡°You expect me to die,¡± I said. ¡°Yes, and therefor I expect to be free of the oath between us,¡± the jaguar admitted. ¡°The Tunrida does not play court to its lessors, and it walks the golden path. It is truly the lord of this jungle, and you humans who are foolish enough to try to stake claims in its territory soon find out why.¡± ¡°I shall see you once the Tunrida and I have made a pact, Xol. Or not. I have not bound you to my service, after all, you may leave so long as you keep the oath not to attack humans except in self-defense.¡± ¡°I shall watch this play out,¡± Xol promised. Shrugging, I began to climb the tree. As I climbed, I began to notice that I was not alone. On almost every branch, on every limb, a nest resided filled with eggs. The parents of those eggs were chattering at me, squawking in outrage that I would invade their sanctuary. The higher I climbed, the louder the cacophony grew, until I reached the highest branch where a nest the size of a house resided. It was empty. It did not remain that way for very long, as I heard thunder on the distance. Tunrida approached. ~~~~~~ Loneliness. That is what it was to be a thunderbird. Endless loneliness. To have awakened, to have known the secrets of the world and gathered power into itself, doing so set it apart from its kith and kin. Though it gathered those songbirds who were like itself in shape and coloration in the branches of its tree, though it tried to nurturer a mate every spring when the eggs hatched and the chances of another awakening were the highest, it remained the only one of its kind. It heard over the sound of its own wings the songs of its kindred squawking at an intruder, and it felt a confusing mix of emotions. Outrage that its sanctuary would be invaded, but also curiosity at who would dare. It¡¯s kith and kin were in danger, so it sped home, but although the songs of outrage continued, no songs of mourning or death were song, so the invader had not slain any of the residents of the goliath tree upon which the Tunrida nested. It spotted the invader from a mile away, a little human thing standing upon the highest branch of the goliath tree. The Tunrida, lighter than its massive size would indicate, landed on the tree nearby and cocked its head at the invader. ¡°Who are you?¡± The Tunrida demanded. Instead of a verbal answer, a spiritual one. The boy, for it was a boy, extended its own soul in greeting, exposing itself to the deepest of scrutinies. In doing, it awoke something within the Tunrida, who realized that it shared a kinship to this boy. It, too, possessed an awakened soul. ¡°Ah.¡± The Tunrida said. ¡°So that is why I dream of being things other than a bird.¡± ¡°I thought we might be the same,¡± the boy said. ¡°I wish you well on the path of many lives, oh junior disciple.¡± ¡°Why have you come?¡± the Tunrida demanded. ¡°I want that mountain,¡± the boy said, pointing at one of the snow-capped peaks nearby. ¡°May I have it?¡± ¡°What will you do with it?¡± ¡°For a season, either this year or the next, I will erect an array which will change the weather to create a storm upon its peaks. I cannot say how long it will last, but I admit that it will cause flooding in the rivers nearby. I am prepared to trade for the permission to do this in your realm, simply name your price.¡± ¡°I wish for a mate,¡± the Tunrida admitted. ¡°If you can give me a mate, then I shall give you whatever it is that you wish.¡± The boy blushed and scratched his nose. ¡°You were born a common songbird, were you not? I might be able to raise a common bird to be your equal, but I cannot make any promises. Will you accept my honest and earnest efforts in payment?¡± ¡°I shall.¡± ¡°Then I shall require the eggs of a number of your species. You are male, but I should be able to pick out only the females even while they remain in the egg. I will do my best to create a true spiritual bird from this hatchery. But you are great and powerful, and I do not know that I can create one which is truly your equal.¡± ¡°You repeat yourself. I have felt who and what you are and know that I am getting the better end of this bargain. I shall tell the mothers of the tree to let you take no more than one egg from any one of their nests. After that, I ask that you leave. You may have your mountain, but you frighten the lesser of my kith and kin and I cannot calm them until you have gone.¡± ¡°I understand. It shall be as you ask,¡± the boy said. He took a few moments to collect the eggs from the various nests, and then he was gone, followed by a great cat off into the distance. The Tunrida watched the boy go. It smiled, for it truly had gotten the better part of the bargain. Even if the boy failed to raise for the Tunrida a mate, which he seemed to be expecting to, the Tunrida still understood its nature now. It had been human, once. A woman of great power. Slowly, the memories began to return. ? 18. Foundations 18. Foundations Three days passed while I was making my journey to and from the goliath tree which the Tunrida called its home. Most of that was on the return journey, for I had gathered delicate cargo in the form of a dozen eggs which showed a sliver of spirituality and femininity. I truly did not know whether I¡¯d be able to keep my promise to the Tunrida in any capacity except to do my best. I returned to find Hien Ro arguing with Adan. Ro was arguing that they should be doing more than waiting around for me to return, while Adan was insisting that ¡®the little sage¡¯ knew what he was doing and that disobeying my orders would only cause me trouble in the long run. I plopped down next to the fire and listened to them argue for a few minutes as Yara served me a bowl of stew. They continued their argument until Yara¡¯s giggling made them look at the fire, and they realized that I had returned without their awareness. ¡°You both make excellent points,¡± I said, blowing on my stew to cool it. ¡°But I¡¯ve already negotiated payment for the mountain that I want. It will take us two weeks to reach our destination, and we have picked up another guardian as well. Xol the jaguar stalks our perimeter and will keep the lesser spirit beasts away.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, did you say there¡¯s a jaguar out there?¡± Hien Ro asked, his voice raising an octave for some reason. ¡°Yes. He¡¯s a formidable warrior and has promised to guard us from the other spiritual beasts of this region,¡± I explained, my mouth full of the rice and beans, spiced so hot that they had made my eyes water the first time I had tried them. It was delicious now that I¡¯d grown accustomed to the heat. ¡°A jaguar? A spiritual jaguar?¡± Hien Ro asked, his voice still that high-pitched timbre. ¡°Yes. Maybe you¡¯ll meet him later.¡± ¡°Or maybe he¡¯ll meat us,¡± Ro muttered, and he stared out into the edge of the clearing where we had made camp. I shrugged, but the others seemed nervous as well. I wondered why they seemed more on edge now than they had before they¡¯d realized I¡¯d returned, but decided to let them figure it out for themselves. After I finished eating, I crawled into the tent that they¡¯d left set up for my use and went to sleep. In the morning, we began making our way towards the mountain I¡¯d purchased. I evicted one of the mortals from their donkey and sat atop it, carefully nurturing the small cache of eggs that I carried with me, giving it my whole mind as I trusted the others to convey me to the destination. I swiftly identified two duds in the two dozen or so that I¡¯d gathered on my way down the goliath tree. They would birth live birds which would grow into fine specimens, but they lacked any potential to reach the heights that they¡¯d have to reach if they were to become the mate of the Tunrida. Still, I left them in with the others as I nurtured them with my Qi rather than throwing them out. And, in the center of the basket where I kept the egg, a single plum pit. ~~~~~~ ¡°W hat do you think he¡¯s doing?¡± Yara asked the elder cultivator, watching as the little sage meditated on a small package that he¡¯d brought with him back from his negotiations. ¡°How should I know?¡± Hien Ro asked. ¡°You¡¯ve known him much longer than any of us,¡± she stated simply. ¡°Yes, but that doesn¡¯t mean that I really know him,¡± Ro said. He winced as he realized that he was probably in earshot of the topic of conversation. ¡°I mean, he¡¯s a friend, but he¡¯s so far ahead of me and everyone else I know that he had might as well be an ancient master. His motives are opaque to me, Yara. Knowing him, he¡¯s probably negotiated for some ancient treasure from the Tunrida in addition to the mountain.¡± ¡°Huh,¡± she said, and she went back to trying to cultivate using the Peach Blossom Dream. ~~~~~~ ¡°Ko Ren¡¯s followers are growing every day, Lord Patriarch,¡± the supplicant stated. ¡°If you do not crush this insubordination before long, then you will find yourself alone and without allies.¡± You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°And how shall I crush it, Ti Lan?¡± Di Phon asked, his nose in a very old book. ¡°Ko Ren is following the precepts. He¡¯s done nothing by which I can denounce him except for ascending to the next stage of cultivation, which is an act to commend and not condemn. I do wonder where his sister has vanished to.¡± Ti Lan swallowed. ¡°You say he is following the precepts? So then, you intend to meet him in combat? That is what is demanded if you wish to retain your position as patriarch.¡± ¡°I could also ascend,¡± Di Phon said. ¡°Is that what you are hinting at, Ti Lan? That I ascend to the halls of the lord of this realm and leave the sect in the hands of Ko Ren?¡± ¡°I was simply pointing out that those are the only two options available to you,¡± Ti Lan said, kowtowing. ¡°I am your humble servant, and I would follow you in¡ª¡± ¡°I know, Ti Lan. Where has your brother vanished off to these past three days?¡± Di Phon asked. ¡°Was it worth it? Does your ascendance to the silver path not taste bitter, flavored as it is by betrayal?¡± Ti Lan cursed and skittered back, prepared for an attack from the elder cultivator, but Di Phon simply took a sip from his tea. ¡°There shall be a reckoning, Ti Lan. You can be assured of that. But I have no proof, and it is not the elder¡¯s place to investigate the affairs of his juniors. Had you resisted temptation before this meeting, I would have given you the task of rooting out this evil. But I sensed the corruption within you the moment you entered my hall.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t¡ªI only did what anyone would do,¡± Ti Lan protested. ¡°I have made a right mess for myself. You all live so fast, it is hard to keep up with you juniors, and so I isolated myself. But now, when I face a challenge that I cannot overcome by myself, I find myself isolated. The few that I trusted cowardly flee into the night rather than stand and face the looming threat, and those whom upon I built the foundation of my response prove two-faced. Is this arsenic I taste in my tea, Ti Lan? You didn¡¯t think that would work, did you?¡± Ti Lan swallowed nervously. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡ª¡± ¡°Tell your master that as he follows the precepts, so shall I. I accept his formal challenge for the leadership of the Six Mountain Sect. We shall meet upon the summit of the northern peak. He shall prove his martial prowess and whether he has the right to supplant me upon those snows, and may heaven smile upon the victor of our duel.¡± Ti Lan swallowed once more. ¡°I shall relay your words.¡± ¡°And Ti Lan?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°If I see you between now and then, your life is forfeit.¡± The flare of murderous intent sent the formerly loyal retainer crashing through the thin walls of the patriarch¡¯s compound in a desperate quest to be away. Di Phon sighed as he looked at the devastation left in the man¡¯s wake. ¡°He could have at least opened the door before he used it,¡± he muttered, then went to fix the damage. Despite the heights he had climbed to, he had once been a carpenter¡¯s son, and he smiled as he pulled out a set of ancient tools from a cabinet. He ran his hand carefully over the simple iron and wooden hammer, a hammer which his father had once held so very, very long ago. Repaired by Qi, the tools were now retained a spiritual essence to them, but they were not weapons. ¡°Would you be proud of me, papa?¡± he asked the hammer. ¡°You gave me this when they took me away, telling me that if I could, I should use the skills that I¡¯d learned following you around to earn an extra coin or two. I never did, not until I built this palace for myself. I started the project in the winter and sent a messenger to bring you to me in the spring, so that we could finish it together.¡± He smiled sadly. ¡°Instead I was told that you were thirty years dead. I had forgotten how young mortals die. Why did you and mama never send word that you had grown old and infirm? I wish I could have come to see you one last time before the end.¡± He sighed, and began to fix the palace. Then, once he had repaired the doors and the walls, he began to tweak the hidden formations that governed the Qi flow within the compound. He might not be able to retain possession of the palace that he¡¯d built for himself all those years ago. The precepts were clear on the matter. He would have to win a duel with the challenger, and he had felt the corrupt power of Ko Ren. He was not confident in the outcome. But he would make certain that no corrupt vampire would ever rest comfortably upon the throne of the Di Clan. ~~~~~~~ ¡°Little Sage, we¡¯re here. You can get off the donkey,¡± Yara said to me, pulling me out of my meditations. I looked up to see that she was correct, we were at the base of the ice-capped mountain that I had selected to be my home for the next year or so. I nodded. ¡°Thank you Yara. Have the others set up camp, and then when I am finished with my meditations I will start to lay the foundations for dwellings better than the tents we have used for traveling.¡± ? 19. The Bell鈥檚 Final Toll 19. The Bell¡¯s Final Toll With my earth elemental attunement, it was a relatively simple matter to put up a small complex, with sleeping quarters, a common area, and a courtyard. Adan proved to be a handy thatcher, and he took care of the roofing of the simple stone buildings, all the while watching me with profound respect after my display. My next step would be to ascend the mountain and cultivate in the ice of the snow-capped peak, attuning myself to that element as well as continuing to work on my attunement to air in the low-pressure environment. However, I would wait until my eggs had all hatched and were weened. Which proved to be a relatively short wait, as I could feel the spark of life growing stronger and stronger within the delicate cargo. While waiting for them to hatch, I set up an array to see to their spiritual growth, while at the same time instructing Yara in the care of young avians so that she could take care of them in my absence. I would not keep them in a cage, but rather they would be allowed to come and go as they pleased. I knew that this meant that some of them would leave and never return, but that was the way of raising spiritual beasts. You could not force something to grow, only help it along its own journey. Xol proved to be a fine example of this, as he continued to fight against the spiritual oath that he¡¯d made with me. I could feel its tension as he struggled against it, but my soul easily overpowered his, and the earnestness with which I had made my oath out-shown the deceit that he¡¯d placed upon his end of the bargain. I came to him one day on the edge of twilight. ¡°I know that you are trying to be free. So I will change the terms of our oath. No longer must you guard us. Simply avoid humans for the rest of your life and you may go as you please,¡± I offered. Xol bristled, his hair standing on end as he turned to face me, for he had not sensed me come. ¡°And what makes you think that I would take such a bargain? That I would allow you to trick me twice when¡ª¡± ¡°There is no trick. Stay or go, it is your decision. I simply require your consent to modify the terms of our agreement.¡± ¡°You do not have it,¡± the jaguar said, and it leapt off into the distance. I sighed and went back to the compound, where I instructed Yara and Hien Ro for two hours before retiring to my room and spending time with the eggs, which were coming ever closer to hatching. Soon, the first would break through its shell and say hello to the world. And if the soul-catching array had worked, then at least a few of them would possess powerful souls wich may allow them to ascend to the heights I had been asked to help them reach. ~~~~~~~~ Sana was toiling in the fields. One would think that suddenly becoming the wealthiest family in the village would mean that she could stop performing such tasks, but even after her husband had paid off their debts, purchased them new clothes, and bought her new cooking utensils, the fact remained that they were still a farming village and that meant that everyone took their turns in the fields. Still, it was honest and rewarding work, and Sana had always enjoyed watching a crop grow from seed. She paused to look up at the sun beaming down at her for just a moment, then her hand went to her necklace, where a locket contained a small lock of hair. The hair of Little Bug. She smiled. It was funny how the name had stuck. She didn¡¯t know where it had come from, but it somehow fit the boy perfectly when he was little. And its phonetics were close to his true name anyway, so it was difficult to quash. She had tried to continue to call him his real name for a while, but the diminutive nick-name truly hadn¡¯t seemed to bother the boy, so eventually even she gave in. Perhaps she shouldn¡¯t have, being his mother. And with everything else that had been wrong about the boy¡¯s youth, it had been one battle she hadn¡¯t wanted to fight. ¡°Your boy is strange. The other children don¡¯t like him,¡± she recalled the village women saying. ¡°He doesn¡¯t speak like a child should. It¡¯s spooky. You should take him to a priest for an exorcism, because it¡¯s clear that an evil spirit rests in his heart.¡± Sana shook her head and pushed the thoughts away. It wasn¡¯t true, it had never been true. She¡¯d never believed that anything had been wrong with her second child. He hadn¡¯t been slow, he¡¯d been so quick at some things that it had startled her. But the village never saw how one day he had simply stood up and walked around, skipping the crawling stage entirely. The village never saw how he had smiled and called her mother the first time. Not ¡®mama¡¯ or ¡®mommy.¡¯ Mother. When he had started speaking, and it had been so early! When he had started speaking it had been in whole sentences. Slow and careful, like he was putting together unfamiliar sounds, which is why everyone thought that he was slow. Never mind that he was speaking like a child two years older than he was. But then had come the quiet years, where the boy had spoken less and less. And then the incident with the merchant, and then the cultivators had come and taken him away. She felt the tears roll down her cheeks and she just went back to work. She would wipe her face once they had stopped, but any mother who sold her beloved child for a bit of silver ought to cry over not knowing his fate, should she not? Abruptly a shadow passed over her, and she looked up to see an old man in fine robes standing over her. He had a young face, but she could tell just by looking at him that he was older than her own mother had been. ¡°Hello. I am Di Ram. I am looking for a woman named Po Sana.¡± She swallowed. ¡°I am Po Sana,¡± she admitted, praying that this cultivator¡ªand there was no doubt in her mind that it was a cultivator who stood before her¡ªbrought her news of her son and not the wrath of some enemy he might have made. ¡°I thought you might be. Your son has your face, and your eyes.¡± ¡°You know Little Bug?¡± She asked. ¡°I am one of his benefactors. Or at least I was, before he left the sect. I was hoping that he might have sent word as to where he was heading,¡± Di Ram said. ¡°No. We¡¯ve had no word since the three cultivators tested him and took him away. Is he doing well?¡± ¡°He was exceeding all expectations when I last saw him,¡± Di Ram said. ¡°Come, will you not show me your home? Your village elders are calling for a day of rest and celebration since my contingent arrived, so do not feel that you need to keep working in the field.¡± ¡°Oh-okay,¡± Sana said, knowing better than to refuse the instructions of a master cultivator whether or not the village elders had anything to say about it. ¡°My home is very humble, but I invite you into it. We do have some cheap rice wine, but I fear that the taste if terrible and¡ª¡± Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°I am more interested in having you cook something for me, to be honest,¡± Di Ram said. ¡°I would love to taste the food that the mother of Little Bug prepares.¡± And so she called to her two other children, her eldest daughter who was approaching marriageable age and her second son, who was nearly as old as Little Bug had been when he left, and they retired to the small home where she had given birth to four children. The youngest was still in swaddling cloth. Di Ram asked so many questions about Little Bug. Her second son was eager to answer most of them with tales of watching his big brother acting so strange that others thought he was stupid at the time, but now that he was a cultivator everyone had an air of respect for him so they told the stories in a completely different way. Di Ram laughed, and he ate the rice and dumplings that she prepared for him, and he asked question after question after question about the boy. Sana¡¯s husband came home in the middle of the meal and sat nervously at the table in Little Bug¡¯s old spot, his own place at the head of the table having been supplanted by the cultivator. He joined in the conversation but seldom. Then, as the children were preparing for bed, the screams began. Di Ram sobered up immediately and stuck his head out the door. He returned a moment later. ¡°The dead from your cemetery are rising. Gather the children, I shall go and deal with this corruption. My apprentices will see you to safety until this curse upon your lands has been put down.¡± Sana simply nodded, gathering her youngest daughter in her arms and following her husband, who held their son¡¯s hand as they fled in the opposite direction from the graveyard. They began to hear the screams and sounds of battles as fel energies clashed against those of the cultivator and his followers. The fled into the night, guarded by six unseen cultivators of the bronze realm. The corpses of the graveyard were each their equal, but the impassible wall of Di Ram stood between them and their targets. Six dimensions away, the Necromancer cursed at the turn of fate. His trap had been sprung too early, and the prey was escaping. ~~~~~~~ Di Phon meditated in the chambers of the northernmost containment array. He felt the moment that his opponent entered the southern containment array, and as one by one the other containment arrays were filled with the silver-path cultivators who would keep them charged. He nodded. All was going according to the precepts. Except that normally Di Phon would have a replacement for once he had provided his portion of energy into the array, attuning it to his attacks in order to prevent collateral damage outside the northern peak. He charged the array and sensed his opponent charging the array in equal measures. Perfectly equal, no more and no less, until the array clicked into place and beacons of lights shot into the air from each of the formation centers where the witnesses would reside during the battle. It was time to begin. He could sense his opponent as Ko Ren flew to the summit of the mountain. Di Phon stepped forward, and he followed the trail which would bring him to the peak, walking at a leisurely pace. ¡°Where are you, old man? I know you are here, but why do you hide?¡± Di Phon did not respond, even as the opponent began mocking and insulting him in a voice that boomed throughout the sect. He was called a coward, who would hide rather than confront his foes. But Di Phon was climbing a mountain for what might be the last time, and he was in no hurry for the journey to come to an end. He smiled as he watched the snow fall from a branch, and he spotted a deer which was chewing on a bit of bark. He spooked the deer, hoping that the bit of intent he sent at it would keep it running until it was safely on the other side of the wards. He reached the summit two hours later. Ko Ren continued to shout about his cowardice and impotence for any who would listen. Di Phon sighed. This was one reason why he never traded pointers with his juniors, they were always so loud! ¡°I am right here, Ko Ren. Let us begin,¡± Di Phon said, and although he spoke in a normal voice, his words echoed through the valley just as Ko Ren¡¯s booming voice had a moment before. Ko Ren turned and with a snarl unleashed a torrential amount of energy at Di Phon. And in that act was confession, for Di Phon recognized the taint within that energy. It was filled with betrayal and the sense of being betrayed in equal measures. Two halves put together not to form a sum greater than the halves, but each lesser than they had been before. In time, the friction between the two would wear each other down. In time, the poisonous forbidden technique would be Ko Ren¡¯s own downfall. But that would take years, and in the mean time, Di Phon had a battle to win. Against an opponent who was stronger than him. He dodged the blast rather than facing it head on, and he conjured for himself a dao avatar. A six-armed Asura appeared in the air above him, and in it¡¯s top left hand the Asura held a spear. The Asura threw the spear at Ko Ren, and the spear became a torrential amount of cutting energy as it was backed by every thrust that Di Phon had ever made in the entirety of his life. Every single time he had held a spear in his hand and practiced as an apprentice. Every foe which had met its end on Di Phon¡¯s spear-tip could attest to his mastery of the weapon, and there were hundreds to make such testimony from the other side of the river Styx. Ko Ren pulled up a shield of crimson energy to block the attack and-- The shield shattered when the spear energy impacted against it. The tip of the energy continued threw, and it caught Ko Ren in the belly. Ko Ren gasped and spat blood as he suffered what would, to a non-cultivator, be a mortal wound. He began the process of healing himself, all while conjuring a new shield to face the next attack of the Asura. In the Asura¡¯s top right hand, it held a blade. It swung that blade, and from the tip came a line of energy which cut the mountain itself in two, impacting against the wards and disipating. Ko Ren screamed as his left hand fell to the ground beneath him. In the Asura¡¯s middle left hand there was a kunai. This weapon was thrown, and it split into a thousand. But Ko Ren raised his hand and uttered a denial. ¡°NO!¡± he said, and a flicker of a half-formed Dao avatar of a skull appeared around him. Most of the kunai were deflected away, while three of them impacted their target anyway. He spat blood once more, pulling the weapons out of his body and screaming. In the Asura¡¯s middle right hand was a gourd. The Asura took a drink from the gourd and then breathed fire at its foe. The skull-avatar grew more intense and held the flames at bay. In the Asura¡¯s lower left hand was a whip. It flickered at Ko Ren and wrapped around the skull. This did no damage but to hold the target in place for just a second, while the Asura unleashed its final attack. In it¡¯s lower right hand was a staff with a bell atop it. The Asura rang the bell. Ko Ren screamed as he had not for any of the previous attacks at the purifying power of that sound. Throughout the sect, through the shields, seventeen disciples of the Six Mountain Sect fell dead, each of them loyal followers of Ko Ren. Then the Asura flickered and vanished, it¡¯s power spent. It would take Di Phon years of meditation to build up something like that once more. All that was left to him was the might of a golden path cultivator who hadn¡¯t truly advanced in centuries, having lost the will to do so when he had been delivered a set of carpenter tools. His final inheritance from his parents. Ko Ren continued to scream even after the echoes of the bell faded, falling to the ground and holding his head. He screamed as blood ran from his nose and eyes. But after the screaming faded, Ko Ren looked at Di Phon, madness in his eyes, and Di Phon knew the truth. He had already lost. ? 20. When the Stars Come Out. 20. When the Stars Come Out. I stood atop the summit of my mountain looking north. I had heard something an hour ago, something which had changed everything. I had just happened to be looking at Hien Ro and Yara when it had happened. And I had watched as the threads of fate had changed before my eyes. This was a happy change, at least in the case of Hien Ro and Yara, as the bonds between them had strengthened to be the ones you expect to see between man and wife while they are young and have not yet discovered their feelings for each other. But then I looked at Adan and despaired, as not all of the changes were for the better. Adan was presently doomed to die within a few years. This was a dramatic change from what I had seen when I first looked at him, as he¡¯d had a long life in front of him at that point. He was only in his mid thirties, after all. And the death that I foresaw for him was not a natural one, but a violent end which I would not wish upon the man. I had immediately ascended to the peak of the mountain, and now I looked. I looked , willing away the many leagues and defying nature itself to show me the truth of what was occurring in the direction from which the sound had come. That sound which had changed so much. Few things can change the direction of fate so much that I would notice. That¡¯s because fate is fickle, and constantly changing her mind. Especially around me. Whatever was happening back at the Six Mountain Sect, for I felt that was where the sound originated from, I knew that it was something which both didn¡¯t involve me, and yet was a direct outcome of my actions. I struggled to bear witness to the earthshaking events as they unfolded, but got no more than a small imprint of what was happening. Of a sole, ancient warrior standing against a massive corruption. He stood because he thought that he must, that he was the last line of defense against the millions who stood behind him. He was not. I closed my eyes and whispered, and the wind took my words away from me. Whether they reached their destination, I would never know. ~~~~~~~~ Di Ram spat blood, but he stood fast. Twelve of the undead abominations stood against him, each of them at the cusp of entering the silver path. These were not some errant zombie raised by an imbalance of yin. These were true monstrosities, raised by the loving hand of a master of crafting dark arts. His father had warned him against corruption, but he had no idea that Ko Ren would have seeped so far into evil, into corruption, into darkness as to practice the crafting of these monsters. They were not the slow zombies that he could trust to his disciples. Already he had lost two promising students who had gotten over their heads. He had lamented the necessity, but he had disposed of their bodies in purifying flames to prevent them from rising again and fighting for the enemy. If the enemy could raise such monsters from the bodies of commoners and peasants, then Di Ram shivered to think what they could do with the bodies of an actual cultivator. Perhaps, he thought with a chill, he would yet find out. They moved like marionettes, coordinating with each other according to a will above and greater than their own. Three came at him head on, three to the left and the right, and another three in reserve. Di Ram was firmly upon the silver path. Far upon the path. He had hoped to join his father upon the golden within a few decades, and perhaps even ascending past his father, who remained on this stunted world out of choice. But twelve foes at the peak of the bronze path was a step beyond anything he had faced in his life. Even in his youth, when he had faced down a spirit rhino of the silver path while he was still on the bronze, he had only faced one opponent, and he had only needed to survive until his elders arrived to slay the beast. Now, he was the elder. He held his conjured longsword in his left hand, in his right a spiritual spear that his father had given him. When it was not in use, it was another ring upon his hand, but at its core was the power of a loving father of peerless strength willing protection ot a beloved son. He threw the spear, and it wiped out the three charging to the left in a flash of light. The spear returned to his hand, but he could not use it that way again for hours. Now, it was little stronger than the sword in his left hand. But the display caused the charging enemies to rear back as they reconsidered their tactics. ¡°Elder Di Ram! Elder Di Ram!¡± called his juniors, and Di Ram spared a moment to look in the direction of the voices. More of his juniors were fighting a running retreat. They were limited by the fact that they were defending hundreds of mortals. But he had his own charges to protect. ¡°Stand and fight!¡± he called to them rather than rush to their aid. ¡°I shall come and relieve you when I have finished here!¡± The juniors reacted in shock at their instructions, but after just a moment they nodded. Dozens of bronze path cultivators turned and set their feet, pulling their weapons to the ready as they stood between undeath and the lives of the innocent.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Di Ram decided that he had given the nine remaining undead that he faced enough time to consider their tactics, and he charged forward. Spear in his right hand and blade in his left, he dove into the center of the bronze path corpses. Blow after blow he struck, but the unnatural vitality of the enemies was great, and it took many strikes to put them down. Meanwhile, they fought back with preternatural speed and strength, utilizing the hoes and axes and pitchforks that they had used to proper purposes during their lives. He heard the screams of his juniors, which only drove him to fight harder. There would be losses, he realized. He did not want to think about it, but already he began prioritizing those who would receive his immediate attentions in the aftermath. He hoped that Pi Phon and the other advanced cultivators whom he trusted would not take injury, but after that, he began ranking his disciples in terms of potential. He was still thinking of these matters when he took a pitchfork to the belly. He looked down at the implement, then continued fighting on as though uninjured. It was barely a flesh-wound. Suddenly, a bell tolled. The animated corpses abruptly fell as though they were puppets whose strings were cut. They began to burn in a purifying white flame, and within moments they were gone. Di Ram fell to one knee, breathing hard as he closed his eyes. He looked to the north. ¡°Father,¡± he said, knowing what that bell meant. He had fought through the night and halfway through the day, only to be saved by his father once again. But if the final bell tolled, then there were only two options. Either his father had won the fight against Ko Ren, and soon it would be safe to return ¡­ Or ¡­ He squashed his self-pity and got to his feet. He rushed to see to the wounded. His healing abilities, while meager compared to many, would save lives in the next few moments, but only if he hurried. For not even the best healer could heal death. The twisted mockeries he had just faced were what you got when one tried. ~~~~~~~~ The fist connected with Di Phon¡¯s face. Squelch. It pulled back. It was empowered. It thrust forward, and connected once more with Di Phon¡¯s face. Squelch. Di Phon laughed, and he coughed in the face of his attacker, spitting blood on his foe¡¯s already bloody face. A single spray got in the man¡¯s eye, and Ko Ren blinked the stinging droplet away. ¡°Just give in, old man. It¡¯s over,¡± Ko Ren said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t have to be your end. Just let me in.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of death,¡± Di Phon said. ¡°I always thought I would be, in the moment, but now that I see him standing before me I see the face of an old friend.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. We¡¯re friends, you and I,¡± Ko Ren said. ¡°Let me in. Let me in, old man.¡± ¡°Not you. He stand behind you, and he will go where you go, but he shall never be your friend. You upset the order, and it will be his duty to correct it,¡± Di Phon said. He closed his eyes. ¡°If you are going to kill me, then simply get it over with. But I shall never admit defeat. And I shall never let you feed on me.¡± ¡°Let me in! Let me in!¡± the madman shouted, unaware of how far his voice carried. His fist went back. It was empowered. Squelch. The battle was not over, for all that the younger man had the older pinned to the ground and was beating him relentlessly. It was not over for all that the older man was all out of attacks. For still the golden core of his defenses held fast, and it was against this unassailable fortress that was Di Phon¡¯s cultivation. And it was treasure which Ko Ren coveted. He knew, some small part of his mind that was screaming in disgust even now, that if he managed to claim it it would rip him apart and turn him into something truly monstrous. Ko Ren and Ko Si were more or less aligned in all things. That was why the technique to feed upon her had been so successful. The vampire technique required not only betrayal, but betrayal of a loved one, of an ally, in order to work properly. Ko Ren knew this, it was why he was carefully selecting who he taught it to and who they fed upon. But in this moment he was just. So. Hungry. He. Wanted. More! If. Squelch. The. Squelch. Stupid. Squelch. Old. Squelch. Man. Squelch. Would. Squelch. Just. Squelch. ¡°Let me in!¡± he shouted. Another tooth broke, and Di Phon laughed. ¡°I will never¡ª¡± ¡°You do not stand alone. The world stands behind you. Take your rest, and others will take up your cause. Your star shall never fade for the soul never dies. Even should the land be plunged into darkness for a time, the dawn shall come, and it is in the darkness that the stars come out. This I swear to you.¡± The words no more than a whisper, and Di Phon had never heard the voice. But it carried with it a power that Di Phon had only met once. When he had been invited to the court of the Lord of this Realm. He laughed. Squelch squelch squelch squelch squelch. He still laughed. ¡°Whoever you are, I suppose you¡¯re right. I am being arrogant, thinking that the world rests on my shoulders. That no path remains to me, when there is one left aside from death. One that I forsook long ago. One left¡­¡± He closed his eyes. The squelching stopped as his body became ephemeral. In the midst of battle Di Phon ascended. Ko Ren screamed as his treasure escaped his grasp. ? 21. A Whisper 21. A Whisper I stood vigil at the summit for six hours, but eventually I got the sense that whatever was happening in the north, whatever was in flux, had firmly cemented itself. Whatever decision had been lacking, whatever outcome the future hinged upon, the battle was over. I wished that I knew whether it was for the better or the worse, but although I sometimes see things beyond the ken of mortals, I am not omniscient. I took my time climbing down the mountain, reflecting that it was the first time in this life that I¡¯d actually climbed one and wishing that I¡¯d taken the time to enjoy the journey up. After all, a man can only climb so many mountains during his lifetime, and he ought to savor every one. But still, I had eggs to tend, so I did not doddle too much. I spoke nothing of my visions either before I left or after I returned, but nobody questioned me on my absence. When I returned to my chamber, I heard the little cheep cheep cheeps of new life. ~~~~~~~ Di Ram held court in the fields between villages. Although he counted Pi Phon among his loyalists, the young earth cultivator couldn¡¯t remember for certain which village Little Bug had come from, so Di Ram had sent out disciples to every one in the general region that the merchant had first described when the prodigy had come to the attention of the sect. One by one they returned, only to describe devastation. For one hundred miles, the only peasants left alive were those who had been shielded by Di Ram¡¯s disciples, or those who had managed to flee until the resounding of the final bell. Now, in the aftermath, they came out and were counted. Two thousand. Di Ram did not want to know how many there had been before. After some consideration, he ordered that the bodies which could be recovered easily be burned, but the primary effort was to be in gathering whatever the commoners needed to make a journey to the south. He split his forces in two, with one guarding the victims of the attack southward, and the other spreading out further to collect those in the surrounding area. While the undead attack had been localized, these things had a way of spreading like locusts. Or the plague. ~~~~~~ Ko Ren screamed once more as the healing energies rattled through his wounds. Part of him rejected their energies, which was what caused him pain, but enough of the healer¡¯s influence and skill was able to do its job to undo the worst of the damage that the battle with the old man had done to him. He grinned, the half of his face which had been blasted away making the grin even more terrible than normal. For some reason the healer was rather concerned with that. Still, the old man had been worse off. Even as he had escaped into ¡­ somewhere that Ko Ren could not follow, the man had been a beaten and broken thing. It was entirely possible that he had expired on the journey, Ko Ren told himself. It wasn¡¯t likely that he¡¯d ever see Di Phon again. And he had already sent out assassins after the Di clan, so it wouldn¡¯t be too long until that entire family was nothing more than a bad memory. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Patriarch, but it¡¯s time once more,¡± the healer said, having gathered sufficient energy to use his abilities once more. ¡°Just get it over with.¡± The healer unleashed his healing energy on Ko Ren¡¯s body, and once more the patriarch of the Six Mountain Sect screamed in agony. He grinned as the pain faded away. The healer looked at him apologetically. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Patriarch. But I have exhausted myself. I cannot continue your healing any further today,¡± the healer said. ¡°Go rest,¡± Ko Ren said magnanimously. ¡°I will not have you work on my body while you are not at your best. Take all the time you need to recover to your peak state and we shall try again. I did not expect you to undo the corruption that the evil old monster did to me in one session, it will take time for the festering wounds he inflicted to heal. I am simply happy that I shielded as much of the sect from his corruption as I managed to.¡± ¡°Of course, Patriarch,¡± the healer said, bowing and retreating from the room.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°They¡¯ll see through you eventually,¡± Ko Si said, stepping out of the shadow. Ko Ren turned to his sister¡¯s ghost. He¡¯d had no choice but to silence her forever when she had been recognized by one of her maids. But that had not stopped her from second guessing him and driving doubt into his mind. ¡°They¡¯ll see what I let them see. They¡¯ll believe what I tell them to believe. I rule the Six Mountain ¨C No, that was the old name. I rule the Sovereign Summit Sect,¡± Ko Ren stated. ¡°Even now, those loyal to the old ways flee. They will rally behind banners other than yours, and they will gather against you. You do not inspire loyalty, brother. You never have. That is why you used me the way you used me, even against children. That is why you¡ª¡± ¡°Enough!¡± Ko Ren shouted, and he sent a burst of energy at the apparition. It did nothing, for she was not really there. She was burried in the cellar of his old mansion. Still, a servant foolishly stuck his head into the room to investigate the noise, and the apparition vanished. ¡°Is there something wrong, Patriarch?¡± the young woman asked. ¡°Yes. No. I¡¯m sorry, my wounds. I am still fighting the battle of the summit,¡± Ko Ren said. ¡°I apologize,¡± she said. ¡°I shall leave you.¡± The moment she turned to leave, Ko Si returned. ¡°Wait,¡± Ko Ren said. The servant turned. ¡°Patriarch?¡± ¡°I would have your company.¡± The young woman paled. But she stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. That would prove to be one mistake too far. ~~~~~~ The bells at the palace of new arrivals toned, and the mortal servants began to hustle and bustle to make way for the Lord of the Realm¡¯s new vassal. Few upon the worlds of the ascendants were ascendants themselves. Outside the cities and high-palaces of the immortals peasants and commoners lived common lives, the same as everywhere else throughout the realm. Even then, there were a multitude of races. The indigenous race, the Welpak, and those who were descended from the ascended. The Descendants. While the former outnumbered the latter many times over, the power rested in the Descendants. While it was possible for the Welpak to ascend themselves, that was far more common in the Descedants. Still, the majority of the world walked at least the bronze path, for with the richness of spiritual energy that flowed through the air itself it was easy to cultivate. As he coalesced from the ether, Di Phon immediately felt the difference. He emerged in the center of a large formation. He studied the visible parts of it for a moment, then shrugged. He knew it¡¯s purpose already. It was to serve as a beacon for new arrivals like him. Those who did not have other beacons attached to them to send them elsewhere. He was nude, but that was solved quickly as three mortals appeared with lavish robes and dressed him. His injuries from battle were healed by his ascension, and he appeared fifty years younger than he had before. A man in his thirties instead of his eighties. More than that, he felt centuries younger. Ascension sat well with him. He did not understand the words of the servants as they spoke with him, but the gestures of ¡®follow me¡¯ and ¡®this way¡¯ were easy enough to understand. So he was shown to a hall with a lavish banquet, where he was urged to sit at the head of the table and served a bite from every dish. He allowed himself to enjoy the attention until he¡¯d supped his full and indicated as much to the servants. When they were carrying the dishes away, a young Descendant appeared and bowed. ¡°Great Ascended One. I am Johnavon. I have the great honor of being twice descended from the Lord of the Realm. I believe we speak the same language?¡± ¡°Yes, I understand you,¡± Di Phon said. ¡°We were very surprised to have you ascend at this time. Might I ask your name?¡± ¡°I am Di Phon. Of the Six Mountains Sect of the world of Atla.¡± Johnavon grinned. ¡°I have won a bet. I thought it might be you. Might I inquire what finally triggered your ascension?¡± ¡°A whisper on the wind,¡± Di Phon said. ¡°When do I meet the Lord?¡± ¡°In two years. You must understand, his time is very valuable and every word he speaks and promise he makes is even more valuable. We must take your measure before then,¡± Johnavon explained. ¡°In the mean time, you shall cultivate and see how much farther along your path you can walk in the time between now and then.¡± Di Phon closed his eyes. ¡°A night that shall last two years. I hope that the stars do not burn out while my face is turned away.¡± ? 22. The Road Forward 22. The Road Forward The necromancer sighed as all of his work fell apart at the seems like dolls with poor stitching. He shook his head. That final attack of the resident gold path cultivator had been truly something, he reflected, and he was glad that he was far removed from it. It would have destroyed so many precious projects if it had taken effect anywhere on one of his core worlds. Fortunately the vampire he¡¯d created was only half dead. It had been a foolish mistake on the part of the idiot he¡¯d imbued with the forbidden technique to kill the target. Half of his spirit was dead, and as time passed that half would continue to rot and decay. Not that it was really any of the necromancer¡¯s business, even if it was his fault. He hadn¡¯t shared that little tidbit of information; that the power remained linked to the victim even after it was siphoned out. And vice versa, the victim retained links to the power on a profound level. Slaying the vampire would cause a rapid recovery in the victim, while slaying the victim would result in a rapid deterioration of the vampire. So he wasn¡¯t particularly surprised when the connection that he¡¯d established with the fool on planet Atla buzzed in his ears for three days straight after everything had fallen apart. He kept expecting the buzzing to stop, but instead it grew stronger, and so finally he answered it out of annoyance. ¡°What is it?¡± he asked through the dimensions. ¡°Your ability corrupted me. I am rotting,¡± Ko Ren complained. ¡°I¡¯m not the one who killed my sister,¡± the necromancer said. ¡°I mean, that¡¯s not a moral condemnation or anything. I would have certainly traded my sister for power if that were an option for me, but I¡¯m an only child. However, it is that particular sin for which you are presently suffering.¡± ¡°Fix it.¡± ¡°Why should I?¡± the necromancer demanded. ¡°Hear me demon, I have conjured you and¡ª¡± ¡°Oh not this again. Look, I don¡¯t care. If you want to stop rotting when half of you is dead, then you¡¯ll have to turn that half un-dead. I hope you still have your sister¡¯s corpse stashed in a shallow grave or something. Here¡¯s a basic ritual that will reanimate her,¡± the necromancer said, imbuing the fool with the knowledge. He then abruptly cut off the connection and went back to searching for the unbound soul¡¯s blood ties. He would be free of the damned empress eventually. He just had to present her with the right soul to harvest. ~~~~~~ Di Ram led the refugee train south. Not everyone who he had come across had heeded his warnings of undead, but many had. What had started as hundred and thirty-eight disciples became thousands and thousands of hungry and homeless peasants who followed him. Followed him. On the promise that they would be safe in the south. A promise that he didn¡¯t know was true. It might be, he thought. Whatever energies were causing the dead to wake, whatever forces were empowering and controlling them, it was possible that it wouldn¡¯t be able to cross the great Qi desert between the northern territories and the jungles of the south. But it was a gamble, and one that Di Ram didn¡¯t know would pay off. But he had no other cards to play. He was under no illusions that Ko Ren would stop at his father¡¯s death, news of which had reached him long since. That Ko Ren had been gravely injured was only a small reprieve. The duel for leadership of the sect wasn¡¯t supposed to go so far. It was supposed to only determine who was stronger, who had the mightier dao and who had walked furthest down their path. Had it been another elder who had ascended to the golden path, it might not have even been necessary, as so many ascended Ascended , leaving this world for the next, where they might pursue their cultivation to yet higher peaks.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Di Ram had seen Ko Ren twice since he had reached the golden path, and he had seen his father hundreds of time. While the pressure that Ko Ren gave off was the same as those few times that Di Phon had revealed his hidden might to his students, the power was shallow and carried a false weight to it. Di Ram was fairly confident that Ko Ren couldn¡¯t ascend if he wanted to. Which wasn¡¯t the greatest for the rest of the world, as if Ko Ren ascended then he would become a problem for the courts of the Lord of the Realm, rather than remaining a problem for everyone on Atla. Still, Di Ram could only play the part that had been thrust upon him. He ran his fingers over his rings as the disciples and the mortals who had stepped into leadership positions reported the state of the refugee train, and he looked calm and in control. In truth, he had no idea what he was doing, but looking like he was in control as the mortals told him what they wanted to do, and then repeating their suggestions back to them in the form of an order, seemed to be doing the trick so far. Once the meeting adjourned, he retired to his private tent and screamed into a pillow. ~~~~~~ The cheeping of the little thunderbirds filled my room, and filled my heart with laughter as they walked all over me, six of the little songbirds perched on each shoulder as I walked through the compound at the base of my mountain. While the mountain was snow capped, the base was tropical, and the rain forest around us was lush as I gave the little birds their first view of the world outside the room where they¡¯d hatched. They were stupid little things yet, as every infant of every species is. Now and then one would jump off my shoulder and I¡¯d have to catch it and put it back, but such was to be expected. The others looked at me with wide eyes as I made the rounds. I had revised my opinion of the two that I had thought were duds once they had hatched. Whether it was having spent more time in the energy gathering array, or they had simply been late bloomers, they all possessed a burgeoning spirituality which set them apart from common fowl. Whether or not this would be enough to fulfill my promise with the Tunrida I didn¡¯t know, but I felt that my end of the bargain was off to a good start. ¡°So, I have to carry them around like that when you¡¯re gone?¡± Yara asked me. ¡°You can if you want,¡± I told her. ¡°But they¡¯ll be flying before long. Some of them might never return.¡± ¡°If you love it let it go,¡± she said, and I blinked. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that saying extended to this world. But yes. Except that I don¡¯t own these birds, even if they come back to me. They might just recognize that the gathering array I¡¯ve set up for them is particularly suited to them and see the wisdom of nesting in our compound,¡± I explained. ¡°But regardless, I will not cage them.¡± ¡°Can I hold one?¡± she asked. ¡°If it lets you,¡± I said. She held a hand out to my shoulder, and one of the little birds jumped off and into her palm. I didn¡¯t tell her that it had been about to jump off regardless of whether she¡¯d been there or not; that one was Jumper. I had seen the bonds between Yara and Hien Ro growing even closer over the last few days, just as I had seen the fate of Adan enter a state of flux at a set of three actions from me. I had given him an amulet of protection. I had tattooed a similar blessing of protection on his back, a process which he had been surprised by and then surprisingly honored when I¡¯d suggested. And he had also received a warning at the same time. ¡°I have seen that there is a high chance that you will die two years from now. A violent death, not illness. If nature takes its course you will die an old man. I tell you this so that you may see your death coming. If you wish to live, then learn to fight and defend yourself,¡± I had advised him. And in this way, I had gained yet another student as Adan had begun listening in to the lectures that I and Hien Ro gave his daughter. I saw him trying to cultivate in the shadows and other places where he thought that we would not look for him, but I could only smile. ¡°It was truly never too late to take the first step down your true path,¡± I told him one night when I thought I found him cultivating. He was relieving himself instead, leading to a moment of mutual embarrassment instead. But the wisdom of my words seemed to have gotten through, as he began cultivating in the open after that. Once the little birds¡¯ feathering came in, I decided that it was time. I told the others that I would be journeying to the top of my mountain, and that I would not return until I had achieved my goal of attuning my Qi to ice. ? 23. Cold 23. Cold Shirtless I stood atop the mountain, shivering and shaking from the cold as I calmly circulated the Qi through my body in ever increasingly complex patterns. It spread through my body like hoarfrost. The cold was unpleasant, but ultimately posed little threat to me. Even as my body entered hypothermia, I simply rejuvenated myself with Qi and warmed it back to health. Miserable, but necessary. Days passed as I stood, exposed to the elements, the wind blowing small flurries around me as I stirred it with Qi. I did not eat. I did not sleep. I pushed forward, determined. Days passed. I drew energy from the sun. From the moon. From the stars. From the mountain. From the snows, and eventually from the air itself. I grinned as two new elements clicked into place in my core. I was the master of Ice and Wind. I collapsed into unconsciousness, unaware of the world as it continued on without me. I am uncertain how long I remain like that before waking up in my bed. I blinked, wondering how I had gotten there. I sat up and saw a nervous looking Yara staring at me. I blushed. ¡°It was worth it,¡± I told her. ¡°You almost died.¡± ¡°I was in no danger of freezing to death.¡± ¡°No? You¡¯re still ice cold!¡± she scolded. ¡°That¡¯s to be expected. That was the goal,¡± I explained. ¡°If you go for an ice attunment yourself you¡¯ll understand, it¡¯s¡ª¡± ¡°You cannot be so reckless! You¡¯ve made promises, you have responsibilities! Your my master, you owe me an education,¡± she scolded. I blinked, looking at her again. She was right. I did owe her. I sighed as I glanced at the bonds between me and others in this life. So much for remaining unattached. There was little that I could do about it without sacrificing the providence that I needed to carry me forward, and although I theoretically could push myself into another tribulation, was that really what I wanted at this point in time? No, I would live this life to the end, and then I would consider what my future reincarnations would look like after I had delivered grace to Nadia and put rest to the last of the fatestealers. ¡°Some flowers do not grow in a greenhouse,¡± I told Yara. ¡°What the hells is a greenhouse?¡± she asked. ¡°And what does that have to do with¡ª¡± ¡°You would have died if I hadn¡¯t brought you from the city. Your father¡¯s creditors would have taken you from him and it would have driven you to kill yourself. That is the reason I took you as a student,¡± I told her abruptly. ¡°And because Hien Ro thought you were pretty and he asked me to.¡± She blushed. ¡°Don¡¯t think you¡¯ve heard the end of this lecture,¡± she said, standing and leaving the room. But she didn¡¯t scold me again after that after all. I kind of wish she had. I think maybe, I needed to hear it. Even if I could have predicted every word she said, actually having someone tell me the things she thought would have done me good. There¡¯s a difference between knowing something and hearing someone say it. ~~~~~~ Weeks had passed, and the undead attacks had come once more, driving the peasants south in ever increasing numbers. Crossing the great Qi desert seemed to weaken the horde, and so that is where they went. Di Ram sent his followers and the others who joined him along the way in sorties to find the weakened undead and slay them, to find the lost peasants and guide them to safety, and in general to keep busy. But they couldn¡¯t save everyone. Not almost, or even close. As the graves empties in the countryside, the dead soon outnumbered the living in the villages and the fields where the rice and the grains were grown. And the dead were lonely, eager to make company for themselves by adding to their number by delivering the final breath to their living kin. Eventually, Di Ram realized that there was nothing left to do in the north. He turned his refugee camp, which now numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and he headed towards the jungles of Ker¡¯tath.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ~~~~~~ ¡°You know that that abomination isn¡¯t me,¡± the ghost said. ¡°It may have my face, but it is an abomination that wears my body like a puppet. You have raised it to the silver path, but its power is shallow and useless. If you still walked a true path, you could crush it like paper mache.¡± Ko Ren did not rise to the ghost¡¯s provocation as he smiled at his other sister. She was even more pale than the ghost, who bore the color that his sister had in life, but the corpse that he¡¯d risen was growing rapidly in awareness and strength. Di Phon had truly given him a gift when he had rung that damn bell. Although it had injured all of his most loyal followers, those he had shared the secrets of vampirism with, most had risen again. And those who had were more committed to him than ever before. That was the story he spread explaining Ko Si¡¯s temporary absence, and her presence silence. But anyone could sense the power in her spirit as the ritual that the demon had given him rose her to the former heights of her cultivation. ¡°Dear sister. To what do I owe the pleasure?¡± he asked the undead woman. ¡°The master wants results,¡± she said. ¡°He cannot pass the divide. You must break the divide.¡± ¡°I assure you that I have no idea what you¡¯re saying, dear sister,¡± Ko Ren responded. ¡°Why don¡¯t you go and meditate until you can make yourself understood once more.¡± Ko Si¡¯s corpse considered the problem for a moment, then realized that her body¡¯s brother was correct. It returned to the other room, and it meditated on the words that echoed through its being from beyond the veil. Ko Ren sighed and scratched at the healing patch of skin where half his face had once been burned away. He turned to his followers, who returned his helpless grin with a helpless one of their own. More than half of them had a similar problem with their own followers who had proven ¡®inconvenient¡¯ but were now proving more obedient and dutiful than ever before. For it was not only the vampirism ritual which he had spread to his followers. ¡°I am waiting patiently to watch you face divine justice for your actions, brother,¡± the ghost said. ¡°I shall greet you on the other side of the river styx, and I shall kick you in the nuts when you cross just like I did when we were children.¡± ¡°So tell me how we solve the problem,¡± Ko Ren said. The other ¡®elders¡¯ in the room exchanged another round of looks, then shrugged. Li Toh, whose son had recently been readmitted to the sect, explained the problem. ¡°Until we know why the dead are rising in the countryside, we can¡¯t exactly get the problem under control, and until we get it under control we can¡¯t convince the mortals to return to the countryside. Those who haven¡¯t fled south to the son of the traitor Di Phon are hiding behind the walls of the cities and forts of the empire.¡± ¡°And if we don¡¯t solve the problem for the mortals?¡± Ko Ren asked. ¡°Then the peasants die, and with them the people who grow our food,¡± Li Toh explained. Ko Ren sighed. ¡°Leave me,¡± he said, for all that he knew that he would only be forced to deal with the ghost¡¯s abuse once more when he was alone. They filed out of his chambers, and he sighed. He would have liked to take over the former patriarch¡¯s quarters, but the man had somehow turned the very Qi of the building against him and his followers. It was seen as yet more proof of the former patriarch¡¯s corruption to those who weren¡¯t in the know, but anyone with a bit of corruption in their cultivation would feel it burning should they enter that desolate place. So he was building a new one, to be even grander than the former estate. But it would take months yet for the new building to be finished, forcing him to remain in his former rooms until then. ¡°This is your fault. This is our fault,¡± the ghost said. ¡°If we hadn¡¯t played with forces beyond our ken, none of this would be happening, Thousands are dead, and their blood is on your hands.¡± Arguing with the ghost only made him look insane, so he simply ignored it as he pulled out the crystal and performed the ritual once more to connect to the demon. ¡°What is it now?¡± the demon snapped as the conjuring snapped into place. ¡°What was your messenger attempting to convey?¡± he asked the demon. ¡°What? Oh. I have tracked the blood of the unbound soul to the south. But the enchantments that keep my corpses walking fall apart when they cross the ley lines of the Qi desert. I need you to be my hound once more. Go forth and find me the family of the one you call Little Bug, and I shall reward you beyond your dreams,¡± the demon said. ¡°What do I get out of it?¡± Ko Ren demanded. ¡°I just told you, rewards beyond your dreams.¡± ¡°I want to advance. Tell me how to unlock the spiritual siphoning technique¡ª¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t work that way. The first technique I told you becomes unstable the more souls that it binds together. You¡¯re only remaining the dominant soul by a sliver as things are. If that should slip for even a second, you¡¯ll ¡­ huh, I can¡¯t actually predict the results. I don¡¯t know your sister well enough to know how she¡¯d react to suddenly awakening from death in your body.¡± ¡°She¡¯d probably stab us both in the heart,¡± Ko Ren muttered. ¡°Oh? Possibly. Want to bet?¡± Ko Ren sighed. ¡°I want an answer. If I hunt Little Bug for you, what do I get out of it?¡± A violet flame burst into existence before him, and a slip of paper. ¡°You may pick any of those rituals as your reward,¡± the demon promised. ¡°Now shut up and stop bugging me, I¡¯m busy.¡± ? 24. Bargain 24. Bargain I had two elements left to attune to reach my goals, and they were ironically widely considered to be the easiest, and then the most difficult to master. The first was fire, the antithesis of the cold that I had mastered atop my mountain. That would be easy. Then there was lightning. That would be difficult. I knew some ways of generating lightning Qi without generating lightning itself, but I didn¡¯t have a lodestone near powerful enough nor a bunch of copper wire, so that wasn¡¯t going to happen in this life. Ironically, it would be easier to use my new mastery over the elements to generate lightning through a perpetual storm, which is what I set about doing. I created the key points of the formation on the mountain itself, while the others spread out through the surrounding jungle to the points where I directed to plant flags which would last for a year or two before breaking down. There were a hundred points of the formation, and it took weeks to come to fruition. But soon, the entire mountaintop was enveloped with an ever-present thundercloud. That my formation would affect the ley lines and weather for hundreds of miles was an outcome that I could have predicted, but I hadn¡¯t thought of the effects my actions would have on others of the southern provinces. Instead, I sat atop my mountain and endured lightning strike after lightning strike in a physical tribulation that put my previous one to shame. ~~~~~~~ The thunder pealed, and Hien Ro flinched. He knew what was happening atop the mountain and he didn¡¯t exactly like to think of it. The lengths that Little Bug would go through were astounding, he had already proven that, but each time he heard thunder strike he feared that would be the strike that proved one to many. Little Bug had promised that he could disrupt the storm at any point, and that he would as soon as he¡¯d reached his goal. Hien Ro somehow doubted that it would be so simple, and while he had seen the younger boy work miracles, he had also seen the lengths to which the Little Sage would push himself. It had been Yara¡¯s insistence that he had climbed the mountain to check on their master, and he had found Little Bug unconscious and seemingly dead. He had mourned his friend for the hour that it had taken to carry him down the mountain, and only then did the signs of life return to his friend¡¯s body. He had mourned for Little Bug, and he didn¡¯t want to do that again. Yet who was he to tell the boy to stop? He wasn¡¯t a prodigy, or an awakened soul, or the destined rock upon which the grand empress of the Divine Fates Empire would choke. He was just ¡­ he was just Hien Ro, forever less than Little Bug. He sensed the battle when it began. For ten minutes, off in the distance, Xol the jaguar fought with something formidable. Hien Ro sighed and took a bite of jerky. The spiritual cat had been getting restless lately, but the oath that Little Bug had extracted continued to hold the spirit beast in place. He didn¡¯t envy whatever it was that had caught Xol¡¯s attention. But as time passed and the Hien Ro¡¯s awareness of the battle continued, Hien Ro grew concerned. He found the others and sent them to shelter in the depths of the compound that Little Bug had carved out for them, then sat patiently on the roof while he waited for the victor to approach. A limping Xol appeared in the clearing. ¡°This one is yours,¡± the creature said, and it vanished into the cover of the forest further up the mountain. Three young people chased after it, stopping when they entered the clearing and saw the compound that Little Bug had created. Hien Ro studied the cultivators ¨C if they had survived a fight with Xol then they could be no less ¨C for a moment. There were two young men and a young woman, each with the tan skin and facial features of the local peoples. He didn¡¯t know enough to be certain, but he thought that they came from different regions. They were dressed differently, with the young woman in a scarlet sarong, while the man to the left wore yellow and green and the other young man wore blue and silver. They studied Hien Ro for just a moment before flaring their cultivation, revealing that the woman stood at the cusp of the bronze path, while the two young men were just a half step behind her. Hien Ro scoffed. ¡°The three of you bested Xol?¡± he asked, amused at the teasing that he¡¯d give the overgrown house cat later. The woman said something in one of the local languages and took a step forward. Hien Ro responded by flaring his own cultivation, revealing that he was her equal, having recently stepped onto the purification realm himself. While their realm was the same, however, it was clear at a glance that his foundation was broader and sturdier thanks to the insights he¡¯d been receiving from Little Bug.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. The others stopped, then took a step back. They bowed, and each spoke a sentence. He shook his head. They each spoke a different language, but he didn¡¯t understand any of them. Still, if they were willing to talk, the it was worth trying to talk back. ¡°Adan, come out here,¡± he called, and the man appeared a moment later. With his daughter in tow. Not because he¡¯d brought her, but because he couldn¡¯t stop her. ¡°What is it, young master?¡± Adan inquired. ¡°Do you speak any of their languages?¡± Ro asked. Adan turned, then began speaking. One of the boys responded in turn, and they had a brief conversation. Once they had finished, Adan turned back to Hien Ro. ¡°They ask if we are also sent to investigate the change in the winds and the flows of Qi which have stretched out from this center. They say that if we are, they wish to exchange notes with us. They promise equal exchange in insights, whatever that means. I honestly don¡¯t know what to tell them.¡± Hien Ro groaned. Of course there would be a complication. ~~~~~ I sat beneath the peak of the mountain, sheltering in an alcove as the storm blew all around me. I was exhausted and needed the reprieve. I was perhaps fifty percent of the way towards achieving my goal, yet the toll that it was taking on my body was more than I had anticipated. Perhaps I would need to return to the base to recover for a few days. A week at most. I shook as I raised my hand and conjured a spray of sparks. I grinned. Fifty percent or not, I was making progress, and soon I would be a storm unto myself . ¡°Little Bug! Little Bug, where are you?¡± Came Brother Ro¡¯s call. I cursed. What did he want now? ¡°Here I am,¡± I called out, and I flared my Qi so that he could find me. I knew that sometimes his senses weren¡¯t the greatest, so I continued to flare them until he showed up in my little alcove. I was surprised, however, when he was not alone, but in the presence of Yara and three young people I¡¯d never met. ¡°What brings you to this part of my mountain?¡± I asked, cocking my head in curiosity at the strangers. Yara blinked. ¡°Should I translate that?¡± she asked. ¡°No, it¡¯ll be faster if I explain. Little Bug, this array of yours is causing problems all through the peninsula. The rain has stopped, and the winds are changing out in the sea, and they say that even the Qi in the dragon veins is flowing differently.¡± ¡°I know,¡± I said. ¡°You know?¡± ¡°Yes. That¡¯s how I¡¯m powering the storm,¡± I said. ¡°Oh,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°Well, it¡¯s causing problems. And people are wondering what¡¯s causing it, so they¡¯re coming to find out. These three came to investigate for their seniors. I didn¡¯t tell them that we¡¯re causing it, I just said that my master was on the peak and that he might know more.¡± ¡°You did well, Brother Ro,¡± I said. I sighed. I didn¡¯t really want to get involved in politics, but the truth is that the others had a right to be upset at my actions. My array was widespread and the effects were more widespread. Nature would return to its natural course soon enough once I had dispersed the array, but in the mean time it seemed a lot like I was claiming resources that didn¡¯t belong to me. Because I sort of was. ¡°Will you translate my words for me Yara?¡± I asked. ¡°Of course,¡± she said. ¡°Tell them that I apologize for my presumption in commandeering the weather and the dragon veins in this area, but that I do not need them for very much longer. Two months at the longest, and then I shall return the flows to their natural banks. In the mean time, I offer them the Peach Blossom Dream for them to turn a blind eye to my actions.¡± ¡°What?¡± Hien Ro said, his eyes going wide. Yara began speaking in a language which I couldn¡¯t understand, but I could only take it on faith that she was conveying my words. ¡°Little Bug, what you offer them is¡ª¡± ¡°I know, Brother Ro, but I cannot continue on this path without the consent of my neighbors. Begin making copies, and tell them that each sect which finds this mountain will be presented with one copy of the technique,¡± I instructed. ¡°But they must agree to the condition; I must be left in isolation for two months to complete my attunement.¡± The three strangers listened to Yara¡¯s translation, then spoke with each other for a moment. They turned back and the young man in blue and silver spoke for a moment. ¡°He says that they need to return to their elder to strike the bargain, but they must see what is being offered to know whether it is worth it.¡± ¡°Show them,¡± I instructed, and Hien Ro reluctantly pulled a scroll from his pack containing part of his insights into the techniques I was imparting into Yara. ¡°Yara, display your cultivation,¡± I instructed her. The young girl flared her cultivation, which had reached the mid stage of the Energy Gathering Realm. ¡°Tell them how long you have been cultivating,¡± I instructed, and she spoke once more in the language. The three spoke together once more, then nodded. The young man in blue and silver spoke to Yara once more, and then the departed, dashing down the mountain at the speeds that young cultivators are capable of. ? 25. Translation 25. Translation Sixty miles away from the grandmaster¡¯s base camp, the three who had been sent to the center of the strange phenomena came to the camp of the scholars who were investigating the Qi shadow which had drawn the attention of sixteen different sects. Having this much attention focused in the Tunrida¡¯s province was not the best for anyone involved, which is why each sect had agreed to the terms. Only one elder per sect, and no more than three disciples. Then, in the spirit of joint cooperation, the elders had divided them further into teams of three, creating sixteen teams. It was only by chance that Lahri, Farun and Arjun had been sent into the heart of the phenomena, where they had encountered the mountain with the impossible storm and the impossible boy who resided there. They had felt but a fraction of his power, they were certain, but there was a depth to the boy¡¯s strength which was simply unfathomable. While the elders could send them to their knees with the pressure of their Qi, this boy seemed to have the power to do the same with the whisper of his voice. The team¡¯s return was noticed, and while they would report to their elder in private later, as was natural, first they would report to the entire conclave, which was an hour in forming as the elders and their mortal servants dithered a bit. Arjun, knowing that the delay was inevitable, took the opportunity to bathe and change from his blue and silver traveling clothes into a cultivator¡¯s robe of the same colors. Lahri took the opportunity to eat, while Farun scribbled a note to be carried off by one of the mortal servants. It was that note that ensured that the delay was only an hour, as the conclave was swift in forming after that. It never reached its intended destination, but it wasn¡¯t meant to. It was waylayed, and then waylayed again, and each time it changed hands it was read until the entire camp knew that this team had found something which they couldn¡¯t discuss openly, but Farun No-Far had seen fit to pre-purchase a half dozen flying swords with the contribution points he expected to earn from his discovery. Farun¡¯s machinations interrupted a comfortable bath from one of his companions, and Arjun¡¯s hair was still wet when they stepped inside the tent to join the sixteen elders already there. ¡®Elder¡¯ in the south generally meant one who walked the silver path, but there were six bronze path elders present as not every sect had the numbers to send their silver path elders. Still, the room was filled with venerable and powerful cultivators, who were examining the young squad with a measure of curiosity and contempt. The most powerful cultivator in the room was Tonilla, and she was the one who took control by speaking first. ¡°Well? What exactly did you bet our wrath upon, Farun?¡± she asked. ¡°Why are you asking him?¡± Arjun demanded. ¡°Because he did something behind our back to make it look like it was his discovery, of course,¡± Lahri said. ¡°It was Arjun who negotiated the deal and it was I who decided to chase the beast to their camp after it had confronted us. The three of us together share in the spoils, just as¡ª¡± ¡°Yes yes, it was a team effort. Very good. What did the three of you find?¡± Tonilla demanded impatiently. And so they explained. How they had seen a mountain with a storm that never moved, and when they had investigated they were ambushed by a jaguar of the bronze path. Working together, they had driven it off, and even given chase. The elders scoffed at their foolishness there, each believing that the children were overstating the danger they¡¯d been in. None of those present knew that Xol had been in an untenable condition; his soul oath preventing him from finishing the battle that he started in the most satisfactory way and forcing his retreat.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Regardless, the tale moved on to the discovery of the compound at the base of the mountain worthy of being an outpost to any of the fine sects of the alliance, and the young cultivator within who had greeted them. How they had gone to speak with his superior, a boy younger than him yet with a cultivation so profound that it was difficult for the three juniors to describe it properly. Each tried, but came up only with metaphors like ¡°It tasted like the scent of peaches on the wind mixed with the overwhelming force of a typhoon,¡± ¡°He burns brightly in the cold darkness,¡± or ¡°He may only walk the bronze path, but I would wager on him over anyone in this room,¡± This boy, apparently, spoke for the true master, and was authorized to extend the bargain. In exchange for exclusive rights to the region for two months, the master would grant the alliance access to an advanced beginner¡¯s technique which would greatly elevate their raising of young disciples. The true master was not studying the phenomena, however, but rather had invoked it. This gave the elders of the coalition a moment of pause. For two reasons. First, the scope of it! And second, this was the realm of the Tunrida, a spiritual beast upon the golden path. That the Tunrida had not flown forth to put an end to these machinations implied that the hidden master was himself of the golden path. The three juniors were sent away, and three hours passed before a decision was reached. Little Bug would have his peace, and the coalition would have the Peach Blossom Dream. They began scouring their camp for the best translator, eventually agreeing that there wasn¡¯t one, but six, as while they all spoke a common pidgin, their individual dialects were far more nuanced and they needed to ensure that the information from the practitioners of this art was recorded in as much detail as possible. Fortunately, they had two months to secure the deal, so the team of six followed the three who had found the opportunity. And Farun carried at his belt six flying swords. He regretted his purchase, because it was a waste of contribution points, and the swords were heavy and kept pulling his pants down. ~~~~~~ Six weeks passed, and Hien Ro was at the end of his rope as he dealt with all of the guests of the compound. There hadn¡¯t been room for all of them, and so only the direct followers of Little Bug were allowed admittance into the compound which the young master had formed with his techniques, but a semi-permanent tent fort had been built in the clearing where the nine original guests and the six additional ones who had turned up since the initial bargain had been struck were sleeping. But the work was being done inside the main compound. Hien Ro, Yara, and even Adan were questioned relentlessly about the Peach Blossom Dream, which Hien Ro thought was going well beyond the original intent of what Little Bug had intended when he¡¯d struck the deal, but it wasn¡¯t worth the trouble in climbing the mountain to disturb him again. Another crack of thunder, which caused him to wince as he wondered, as he always did, whether that was one which had struck his friend. ¡°No, no no no,¡± he said. ¡°No?¡± the translator said. ¡°This part is wrong,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°But got from mistress Yara,¡± the translator objected. ¡°Well, okay, so for her it might be right,¡± Hien ro admitted. ¡°I mean, I know that the Peach Blossom Dream is different for men and women because I heard our master comment to her not to listen to me and ¡­ and I never told you that. Oh crap, you¡¯ve all been listening to both of us and didn¡¯t realize that there¡¯s a male and female version.¡± The translator let out a low moan that was a signal of his despair. Hien Ro patted him on the shoulder. ¡°Cheer up. At least you figured it out while there¡¯s time to fix your notes. By my count you still have two weeks left. Abruptly thunder rang through the compound. Then again, and again and again, and then a string of thunder that would not end. ¡°Or maybe not,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°I¡¯m going to go check on him.¡± He set out despite the protests of the gathered coalition, but none of them dared break their part of the deal by setting foot on the mountain. Hien Ro raced up the face, finding the rock close to the summit where Little Bug rested. A look of beatific triumph was on the boy¡¯s face. He opened his eyes when Hien Ro approached. ¡°I did it,¡± were his only words before collapsing. ? 26. Echoes 26. Echoes The little bird sat on my finger. It was one of six which remained when I returned, and it wasn¡¯t so little anymore. The size of a grape fruit, the growing bird was the largest of its siblings, but not by very much. And it was one of the ones that I had initially labeled a dud. I smiled. So much for me knowing everything. ¡°Sing me a song, songbird,¡± I said. Instead, Jumper bit my nose and jumped off my finger and onto my shoulder, then it bit my earlobe. I simply smiled and allowed the little bird her antics, but the third time she tried to bite me I swatted her away. She flew off and landed near the box where it and its siblings had hatched. I stepped over to it and looked at the peach pit which still lay within. I touched it and felt within that pit the spark of a life so rich and profound that it was difficult to describe. I¡¯d have to plant this seed somewhere particularly puissant in order to make certain it reached its full potential. Even now, I sensed a low level intellect from the plant, questing out. ¡°Grow?¡± It asked. ¡°Time to grow?¡± ¡°Not yet, little one,¡± I whispered to it, patting it gently and washing it with Qi. ¡°When it is time for you to grow, I will tell you,¡± I promised. I stepped out of my room, and was immediately confronted by one of the ¡®guests¡¯ from the coalition which had been sent to investigate the storm I¡¯d created for my cultivation. Farun, I think his name was. ¡°Young Lord,¡± he said in the language of the north, although his accent was atrocious. ¡°This one inquires to health. Wishes good health to Young Lord. Wishes to extend invitation to Old Lord.¡± I blinked, trying to piece together his meaning. Then it came to me. These people didn¡¯t actually believe that I could create an array on the scale of the one which I had just disassembled after it had completed its purpose. They thought someone had made it for me. ¡°The Old Lord is not accepting invitations at this time. He thanks you for your hospitality, however,¡± I told him. ¡°So sad. Then extend invitation to Young Lord? We have many pretty girls at Fiery Tiger Sect!¡± he said, nudging me with an elbow. I shrugged. ¡°We have many pretty boys too,¡± he said at my unfeigned disinterest. ¡°Why does everyone immediately make that jump when I don¡¯t spring at the¡ªnever mind. No thank you Farun,¡± I said. ¡°Much to discuss though. Peach Blossom Dream for everyone, very generous. Elders wish to know secrets that are not for everyone.¡± ¡°Talk to Hien Ro,¡± I said dismissively. ¡°If you want something from Old Lord, talk to Hien Ro and barter for it. If Old Lord wants something from the sects, then I will come to you and barter for it. Make sense?¡± ¡°Yes! Yes understand!¡± Farun said. ¡°Sorry for disturbing Young Lord. Will go see Hien Ro now.¡± And so he left me to my peace, and I stepped outside to watch the last of the thunderclouds disappear from around my mountain. Jumper appeared and flew up onto my shoulder. I swatted her away when he pecked my earlobe. ~~~~~~ Despite my dismissal of the sects, there were a few matters which required my attention. Specifically I had to clear up the little misunderstanding they¡¯d made about the female version of the Peach Blossom Dream, which required instructing the translators personally. It didn¡¯t take me too long, as the differences were fairly obvious once they were pointed out, revolving around the obvious physical differences between males and females.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Any cultivation technique which did not account for the presence or absence of a womb in its practitioner was not a fully developed technique. Still, I spent some time going over their notes. While I could not understand what they had written in their various languages, I could readily spot the versions which mish-mashed the two versions together based on the diagrams included in the cultivation manuals, which allowed me to remove them from circulation before they reached any of the students who might have been confused by them. While they were technically bothering me within the time frame which they were supposed to leave me alone, I was feeling magnanimous after my success on the mountaintop. Within a few days of the pronouncement, Hien Ro came to me with a nervous expression. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked as he approached me during a moment of meditation. ¡°They want to buy it all,¡± he said. ¡°What all?¡± ¡°My notes. Everything you¡¯ve taught me that I¡¯ve recorded. But they want a female version as well. They¡¯re rather insistent on it, but it¡¯s not something that I can give them. I mean, I guess I can try to remember the lessons you¡¯ve been giving Yara, but¡ª¡± ¡°A poorly remembered lesson intended for someone else is sometimes worse than an incomplete one intended for you,¡± I said, shaking my head. I sighed, thinking the situation through for several moments. ¡°The truth is, that there is something I want from them as well,¡± I admitted. ¡°Oh, what is that?¡± ¡°Experience,¡± I said. ¡°It is the reason why we came south in the first place, to test our mettle against other cultivators and the challenges of the Ker¡¯tath jungle, but I wasn¡¯t counting on gathering quite as much attention as we have. We¡¯re not ready to cause outrage among this many sects at once, and while they believe we have a powerful backer, the truth is that it¡¯s just us, and one of their golden path seniors could crush us.¡± ¡°Okay. So what do we do? We could probably get away if we run,¡± Hien Ro said. I shook my head. I saw something here, an opportunity that my mind was grasping the edges of. I turned to my friend and smiled. ¡°Would you call together a gathering of the elders of the assembled sects?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± He agreed, and he set out to begin to do just that. I returned to meditation, leaving the minutiae to my trusted friend. ~~~~~~ Di Ram sat alone in the tent next to the river, the scent of freshwater and sewage drifting in to annoy him. He sighed as he went over the notes and the figures that his retainers and scouts had given him. While most of his force was limited to the speed a mortal could walk in a day, slowly his refugees were heading south. In a year, they might reach the edges of Ker¡¯tath, and once there they could found a city and begin their new way of life. His gambit seemed to have worked at least. After passing an invisible line, the undead attacks had simply stopped. Unfortunately that line also demarked the beginning of the vast wastes, and it would take the mortals months to reach the other side. The mortals were still dying, but not to undead attacks. Rather, they were succumbing to hunger, thirst, and dysentery. The rate at which they were dying had more or less leveled off, but every night was lit by a pyre. Still, that was to be somewhat expected in a camp hundreds of thousands strong. He was assured by the mortals who knew anything about logistics that the death rate was really rather low considering the circumstance, going so far as to thank him for his leadership and wisdom. His wisdom. His eyebrow twitched. He¡¯d done nothing but look stern at his followers and repeat their words back to them. Even the man who had praised his leadership knew this, yet he continued to sing Di Ram¡¯s praises. He understood. The illusion of leadership was, in this case, what the masses needed. While Di Ram¡¯s lieutenants were doing the actual work, having the orders come from Di Ram gave them an air of legitimacy and gravity which none of the mortals would have achieved on their own. At the same time, Di Ram had occasionally weeded his garden of advisors as reports of graft and corruption had reached him. Or, occasionally, based on an instinct which had proven prescient. He sighed, recalling one instance which he wished he could forget. He did not like ordering executions, but in that one case it was more than justified, and-- ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± he asked, the missive in his hand pulling his attention away from the recent past and fully into the moment. He reread the document from the beginning. Some sort of weather phenomena in the south had generated a vast amount of interest among the local sects. While the effects were said to mostly be a curiosity for those investigating, Di Ram did not like the timing of this coincidence. With a scribbled note, he sent Pi Phon off at all speed to investigate the matter. ? 27. Tournament 27. Tournament Tonilla sat in the council as they discussed the acquisition of ¡°Toh Foram Siel,¡± loosely translated as the dreaming peach, the secret technique of these northern cultivators. After the coalition had thoroughly examined the final notes approved by Po Guah, the representative of the grand master who set up the far reaching formation which had gained their attention in the first place, the practice had been deemed safe for all levels of cultivation, and the first wave of disciples from each sect were beginning to adopt the practice. She was uncertain how she felt about it replacing the more traditional models of opening one¡¯s meridians, but she had to admit that it was a more thorough and holistic approach. And the old methods still had their place. This was a relatively advanced technique, and she thought that it might be easier for a disciple to have mastered one of the traditional methods before moving on to Toh Foram Siel. She had, herself, tried the method to see how it felt, and she was a little surprised at how comfortable it was to cultivate. It was several steps beneath where she was at in her own cultivation, but compared to her own old methods it was like slipping into a comfortable set of robes she¡¯d never worn before. Unfamiliar, yet custom tailored just for her. She sighed. If the technique worked as promised, allowing their students to advance half so quickly as the student of Po Guah, one ¡®Yara,¡¯ reportedly had, then they were in the boy¡¯s debt, and the debt of his master, and not the other way around. She didn¡¯t like that. The others stroking their beards and their robes and discussing the futures of their sect with this acquisition. But Tonilla was waiting for the other shoe to drop. When the hidden master who commanded the elements so thoroughly to appear and demand the true price for the technique. But she knew she was probably just being overly suspicious. It was a character flaw, but one that helped her in her position. Her hackles were up when Po Guah himself asked for an audience. The boy, obviously the child of a grand master of peerless ability who had been carefully crafted into a weapon of unmatched potential, was introduced. He bowed to the assembled elders of the coalition in the northern tradition, then sat back on his heels. He spoke in the northern tongue, which Philliam, the elder from the Silver Monkey Sect, translated into pidgin after a moment. Tonilla was annoyed to be relying on the Silver Monkey Sect for translations, but she didn¡¯t have anyone in her camp who spoke the northern tongue. ¡°Po Guah greets the venerable elders of the south. Po Guah¡¯s master is grateful for the observation of the agreement between us and wishes that you find good use of the Toh Foram Siel. He was in the process of spreading it through the north when Po Guah made his journey to the south, and wishes it to spread to the four corners of the world.¡± Tonilla raised her eyebrows. ¡°This isn¡¯t an exclusive gift, then? Soon everyone will have access to this technique?¡± she asked, and waited for the translation. Po Guah laughed and spoke. ¡°No, it is not exclusive. It is Po Guah¡¯s heritage and he wishes for it to spread far and wide, so that even commoners may practice it. Po Guah hopes that we are not upset at this revelation, but he assures us that our trade would still be advantageous to us as it puts us into a position to exploit the technique before it becomes well known, allowing us to present ourselves as masters and teachers once it begins to spread.¡± Tonilla considered the boy¡¯s translated words and realized that he spoke wisely. It was just a beginner¡¯s technique after all, so spreading it widely would do nothing more than create a common base from which others would adapt their traditional techniques to layer upon. One of the present issues that sects faced in integrating was the incompatibility of their foundational techniques, but so far nobody had reported being unable to use Toh Foram Siel, or that doing so had been detrimental to them when they tried. ¡°Our view of the deal to ignore the storm phenomena would have changed if we had known that we were¡ª¡± ¡°Never mind him, he¡¯s an idiot,¡± Tonilla said, cutting off one of the other elders. ¡°We understand the value in being an early adopter, Po Guah. Thank you for your gift. I must ask, however, if there is any chance that we could gain further insights from your master? We are very curious as to how he established the storm atop the mountain, and how he negotiated the truce with the Tunrida, and many other details. We know nothing about him, and yet his power is undeniable.¡± Po Guah scratched his nose, then spoke, his words translated after a moment. ¡°The one who made the storm came from the far north. He was part of the Six Mountain Sect for a time, but has moved on beyond their teachings and uses the wisdom of many lives and many places. Po Guah will not sell the secrets of the storm array to us because he does not know us well enough to ensure that it would not be abused, but proposes another trade.¡±The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Tonilla leaned forward, interest shining in her eyes. The fact that Po Guah¡¯s master intended to spread the technique anyway had allayed much of her suspicion of the previous transaction, and she was eager to seek further advantage. ¡°What sort of trade?¡± Po Guah spoke, and once more his words were translated. ¡°Po Guah and his companions need experiential opportunities. Many battles in a short amount of time, but they do not wish to create enmity or to challenge those who wish to live peacefully. If this were another realm, Po Guah said, then they would enter a tournament. But as there is no tournament on Atla of the scope which they wish to enter, they propose the foundation of one.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Tonilla cocked her head to the side. ¡°A tournament for our juniors? I wouldn¡¯t say that I¡¯m opposed to the idea. I¡¯ve long thought that the relative peace between our sects has allowed our juniors to grow soft and fat.¡± The others in the room snickered, knowing that she was the most competitive among them, though she preferred to strike in silence and behind the scenes tactics. While it was uncommon for it to lead to death, inter-sect violence remained very prevalent throughout the southern peninsula. Po Guah listened as her words were translated and smiled. ¡°The same mind that created the Toh Foram Siel is willing to place instruction in an advanced technique to the winner of the tournament as one of the grand prizes. If each sect is willing to put forward their own collateral for the prize, then we may attract wide participation. Po Guah is hoping to draw thousands to this event, both watchers and participants, and to have a tournament which lasts for weeks. He has a grand vision of how it will be and is eager to discuss it with wise minds who would understand him.¡± Tonilla leaned back, then took a sip of her wine. She considered the prospect. ¡°Does Po Guah know any of the advanced techniques which might be offered as the grand prize?¡± she inquired. The boy¡¯s response needed no translation, as it was a firm affirmation. ¡°Then let him demonstrate it to measure his master¡¯s commitment to this endeavor. If I deem it worthy, then the Raging River Sect pledges to back this tournament in an equal measure.¡± The words were translated, and the boy smiled. He nodded, got to his feet, and stepped outside. The elders followed him to the nearby clearing, where the boy closed his eyes. And for the first time in ages, Tonilla witnessed something which shocked her. ~~~~~~ I displayed three techniques before I ran out of Qi, and assured my audience that there were many more on the table for the winner of the tourney to choose from, tailored to their own attunement and nature. That the techniques in question didn¡¯t exist in a concrete form yet, and wouldn¡¯t until a winner was crowned and I got to know them, was a fact that I did not raise. The longer they believed that I had a distant benefactor the better. Once the interest for the tournament was confirmed from all parties, we began discussing specifics. The location was settled as the city that Brother Ro and I had passed through on our journey south, the one where we had picked up Yara and Adan. While there wasn¡¯t presently a suitable venue for a tournament of the scale which I wished to host, several sects were willing to put forth their earth cultivator¡¯s abilities to build a coliseum as their contribution towards the tournament. After that was the discussion of money, which Tonilla effectively solved by promising to bankroll the entire project with the funds of her sect in exchange for a share of the admission tickets and the enrollment fees. The remaining sects grumbled at her preempting them on the matter, but I had the sense that their grumbling was largely due to the fact that they couldn¡¯t have afforded such a tactic in the first place. As the craters from my demonstration cooled down and stopped smoking, the topic turned to the format of the tournament itself. The others suggested a simple elimination set up, with a clear champion. I scratched my head at that and suggested an alternative. The others considered my suggestion for a while, talking rapid-fire in their common language, before finally returning to after a long discussion. ¡°We must discuss this with our own sects, but your idea has merit. As you are providing the grand prize, then we must take your wishes into account, and besides which the people will love to witness a long and protracted fight between many cultivators. As time passes and the front-runners become more obvious, it should draw much attention.¡± I simply shrugged. Even if they went with a more traditional format, I¡¯d be content just to fight a few bouts. Having said my piece, I excused myself and returned to the base of my mountain. The coalition broke up several days later, sending me a final message of the preliminary date for the tournament and the agreement to all of my terms. ? 28. Debt 28. Debt Pi Phon dashed along the road, wondering for the fifth time who had built such a thing this far south. Wide enough for five carts to pass by each other, the stone passage was ancient and worn, yet the formations in the stone continued to push the edges of the rain forest back and prevent nature from overtaking it. The history of the distant south was lost to time, he knew, but such a working required significant expenditure of resources. Even if cultivators did the brunt of the grunt work, with earth cultivators quarrying the stone and such, the road spanned hundreds of miles. Pi Phon couldn¡¯t imagine so many cultivators cooperating on a single project for so long for anything less than an emperor. He frowned, reflecting on his current situation. Okay, so perhaps a dire need could have driven them to build. Even as he left, more and more had been consistently drawn to the banner of Di Ram and the southern hegira. Thousands of mortals, and dozens of cultivators. The baggage train was miles long when he had left, which had not been so long ago. He couldn¡¯t fly over the wastes. The same desolation which prevented the rise of undead, or so they believed, also prevented the cultivators from properly resupplying their reserves when engaged in such actions. But he could run almost as fast as he could fly, which was why he had been selected for this measure. As an Earth cultivator of the late bronze path, he could appreciate the road on a deeper level than most, sensing its deep foundation and the wards that ran its length. But as he began to see the signs of the city, he turned his thoughts to the task at hand. He stepped over a hill and came upon a sight which defied his comprehension. He scratched his head, watching as dozens of earth cultivators and thousands of mortals worked together on a construction project the size of which boggled his mind. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t just walk up and ask what was going on, since while he had many important and impressive talents, speaking the southern tongue was not one of them. So he began looking around for a guide. And that was how Tonilla¡¯s spies found him, having been paid good coin to find anyone who spoke the northern tongue and bring them forward as soon as possible. ~~~~~~~ Pi Phon sighed in the bath. His mysterious host had yet to show themselves except through mortal servants who spoke the northern tongue in broken bits, but they had insisted on making him comfortable, and after two weeks on the road he was eager to wash the dust of the wastes off his skin. The mortal servant appeared with bathing supplies including scented soaps and washrags, politely asked if he required any further assistance, then vanished to allow the cultivator to luxuriate in the hot water. Pi Phon was content to simply soak for twenty minutes, but after he had relaxed a while he knew that he had to get to business. He had a duty to those still in the north to gather intelligence and secure supplies. Whoever his host was, they had been extremely interested in him when he¡¯d said that he was from the Six Mountain Sect, so at least the prestige and honor of his Sect proceeded him. Pi Phon frowned. The word of Ko Ren¡¯s re-branding of those who had remained behind as the ¡°Sovereign Summit Sect¡± was troubling, but at the same time it allowed those who remained true to the past to maintain their ties to the way things had been when Di Phon had been patriarch. Before the troubling rumors of corruption and worse had begun making their way south on the lips of survivors and victims. He finished bathing and dressed himself, allowing his long hair time to dry. He would tie it back into a ponytail eventually, but although this look made him look like a woman, he preferred to let his hair dry naturally than to use Qi to speed the process. He knocked on the door and instructed the mortal servants to take away the tub now that he had finished with it, then sat at the desk and began writing in his journal. He had been occupied so for perhaps ten minutes when another knock at the door came, and two women entered. One was older than the other, but looked younger due to cultivation. The mortal spoke. ¡°Welcome esteemed cultivator of the Six Mountain Sect. This one is the honored servant of the Raging River Sect. I am but a mortal and serve as a translator, but I have the esteemed honor introducing the venerable elder of the Raging River Sect, Lady Tonilla,¡± the mortal woman said. Pi Phon rose and gave a polite bow, the depth one would expect to give to an elder of an outside sect in the north. ¡°Thank you for your hospitality, Lady Tonilla,¡± he said. ¡°Although I am uncertain what it was that earned it. The bath and the time to reflect on my journey has been most welcome.¡± The words were translated, and the local elder spoke. ¡°We have extended you courtesy because we wish to be courteous with the Six Mountain Sect,¡± the mortal servant translated. ¡°We have recently come into the acquaintance with another member of your sect, one Po Guah, and he has been most kind in his dealings with us. Extending courtesy to one of his brothers from the north is the least we can do.¡± ¡°You know Little Bug?¡± Pi Phon said, his eyebrows rising in surprise. ¡°He¡¯s alive? Is he doing well? Di Ram will be eager to hear anything you have to say on the matter, the entire reason we left the sect in the first place was to track him down.¡± ¡°Track him down? Is there a bounty upon him?¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°No, no, nothing like that. Little Bug left quite honorably and gave us more than he took. Before his death, or his ascension, depending on which version of the story you believe, Di Phon, the former patriarch of my sect, had a vision that Little Bug would lead a revival of our sect. Things have taken a turn for the worst since then and we haven¡¯t had much chance to look for him since the undead began rising in the north.¡± There was a hitch in the translation at the end of his words, and Tonilla¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°Perhaps it is best if we exchange news about what is going on in our respective lands before we proceed any further. Tell me, have you heard of the tournament?¡± ~~~~~ I stood in the center of the bonfires, the light and the heat washing over me. It was uncomfortably hot, and were I not a cultivator I would have been cooking myself. But just as I had attuned myself to ice by standing in frigid temperatures, so to must I expose myself to the fire element in order to attune my Qi to that element. Once I had completed that, I would have managed to attain all of the common elements. Only esoteric ones remained, ones which I could not realistically hope to attain in this lifetime. I would eventually master the techniques employed elements even without an attunement, but my mastery over space and time would forever lack the potency as if I had achieved an attunement to it before the bronze path. I stuck my hand into the roaring fire before me and felt the flame swirling around it. I exerted a bit of control and felt it bend to my will. Just as I¡¯d expected, attuning fire was easy. My Qi seemed eager to have this last piece snap into place, and compared to the agony I¡¯d gone through attuning ice and lightning, I made rapid progress. Still it was six days of standing in the center of bonfires as the others fed them ever higher. Hien Ro joined me, having ascended into the purification realm and having chosen fire as his primary element. The first attunement is easy to obtain, however, and he achieved his in only a few hours. He then began working on achieving an earth element, which would be his final attunement. He was out searching for the proper rocks to proceed with when I felt that final completion snap into place and knew that I had finished. With an effort of will, I extinguished the bonfires. Dressing quickly, for while I was immune to fire my clothes were not, I returned to the compound to let the others know that I had finished. We sat around the table discussing my success, Yara, Adan and I. The topic of the future came up, and when I informed them that we would be heading back to the city where we had met, the father and daughter turned solemn. ¡°You know, there are some things that I never told you about before,¡± he admitted nervously. ¡°I was always curious as to the nature of your debts,¡± I said. ¡°But it¡¯s not my business to ask. I shall help you settle them of course. How much do you owe?¡± He blinked. ¡°That¡¯s it? You¡¯ll just buy my debt like that? I mean, I¡¯m happy to serve you instead of the family of gangsters that I owe, but¡ª¡± ¡°If you wish to continue journeying with me, it will not be because of a debt. I am resolving your issues because you and Yara are my friends and that¡¯s what friends do to help each other,¡± I said. ¡°Besides, I doubt that anyone would allow a fellow like you to borrow too much in principle.¡± ¡°Yes, well, do you understand the term ¡®compound interest?¡¯¡± Adan asked. ¡°Just tell me. What do you owe?¡± He nervously worked up his courage to tell me, and I should not have been drinking when he did, as my drink ended up all across the wall. ~~~~~~ Jumper sat on my shoulder as I climbed the goliath tree where the Tunrida resided. I did not reach the summit before the beautiful divine beast appeared on the horizon, responding to the calls of its kin at the intruder to their home. I sat on the branch I¡¯d reached and waited patiently for the majesting red and green bird to arrive. It perched on a nearby branch, and the entire goliath tree shifted under its weight. ¡°You have returned so soon,¡± he said. ¡°I have, majestic one,¡± I admitted. ¡°I wished to display the status of my efforts. I no longer require the mountain that I bargained for, but I will continue to raise this one, whom I call Jumper, for as long as she continues to follow me. In time, she will seek out a mate of her own, and if she grows like I am expecting her to then she will swiftly face the same problem that you are presently faced with. There shall be only one in the world worthy of her, and that shall be you.¡± ¡°You needn¡¯t have come. The birds near your home have kept watch over you for me. I know that you have kept the faith,¡± the Tunrida said. ¡°Even so,¡± I said. ¡°I wished to thank you for your forbearance. I sort of used the bargain we made as leverage against several human cultivators to get what I wanted. They assumed that since I had your permission¡ª¡± ¡°I care not. You have attained the elements of fire, wind and thunder since we spoke last. I would share with you, and with Jumper, my insights on the matter,¡± the Tunrida said. And the sky lit up with lights as the Divine Beast displayed a magical light show, conjuring a storm of fire, lightning and wind that lasted for six hours. I watched with rapt attention, as did Jumper. She was so engrossed in the display that she forgot to nip at my earlobe the entire time. ? 29. Settlement 29. Settlement Pi Phon was shown into the command tent immediately, where his lord and elder was reviewing reports on ¨C sewage, Pi Phon realized, getting a glance at the back of the page. He averted his eyes, although Di Ram seemed not concerned at all. ¡°It¡¯s not a secret that we¡¯ve got a problem with people shitting in the streets. I¡¯d love to delegate this report to someone else and never actually have to deal with it, but I¡¯ve learned that some unpleasant truths are best to simply face and get over with,¡± Di Ram said. ¡°So out with it. You¡¯ve returned empty handed, but before you were set to be recalled. Is this a good or bad sign?¡± ¡°I have a great amount of news of the south, although I admit that it all comes from the Raging River Sect,¡± Pi Phon said. ¡°Never heard of them,¡± Di Ram said, turning the page of his report. ¡°They¡¯ve always been a local power, according to them, but they¡¯ve been making a number of power plays lately which have them very excited. Through them I¡¯ve spoken with a number of their allies who have all pledged support. I am pleased to say that they are sending thousands of bushels of corn and wheat north to us as we speak. I have the documents right here,¡± Pi Phon said, pulling the agreement from his belt and handing them over. Di Ram set aside the sewage report and broke the seal on the scroll. He studied the document for a moment, not letting his excitement show, because when a deal was too good to be true it usually was. ¡°It demands in payment ¡®services of disciples of the Six Mountain Sect.¡¯ What have you signed us up for?¡± he asked his subordinate. ¡°They¡¯re holding a tournament. They need twenty impartial judges. Aside from which, they want instruction for some of their junior members on the use of the Peach Blossom Dream and the other techniques that Little Bug left behind. They¡¯re willing to negotiate the exact number of hours of instructions that we¡¯re committed to, but they¡¯re very adamant that we be the ones to judge their tourney.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Di Ram said. He did the math. Not on what it would cost him, but on how many lives this would save. It was worth the cost at one, but the number he came up with was so much higher than that. ¡°I¡¯m sending you back to negotiate for me, along with the judges they requested. The judges can begin instruction in the techniques that the Raging River Sect requested instructions on immediately, and we¡¯ll come up with some way of tracking their progress, but I want the agreement to show that nobody is a slave or subordinate in this relationship. The instructors are free to leave at any time, even should the debt remain.¡± ¡°Of course, Lady Tonilla said she would agree to as much herself. She expressed an interest of holding us as guests, not as hostages. She insists that the supplies for the mortals are being sent out of humanitarian concerns and not as a way of seeking advantage,¡± Pi Phon said. Di Ram huffed. ¡°I somewhat doubt that, but for now I have no choice but to take her word for it. Still, this is a significant windfall and I can see why you¡¯ve decided to return rather than proceed with your original mission of investigating the weather. Is there anything else?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Pi Phon said. ¡°Little Bug will be participating in the tournament.¡± ~~~~~~ For all my talk of buying Adan¡¯s debt, the truth is that I was broke. So if I was to fulfill my promise, I needed some way of actually making money. Fortunately, I was a relatively powerful earth cultivator. I had yet to step on the bronze path, because it was not time yet to make the ascension. I cannot explain how I knew this, except to say that it had to do with my ability to see the strings of fate. I had formed attachments in the north despite my best efforts, and some of them were coming south. I didn¡¯t understand the meaning of that yet, but I got the firm sense from my foresight that I would regret advancing my cultivation before the tournament, so I did not. Besides which, the tournament had been set up with a cut-off point such that bronze path cultivators were excluded, so unless I wanted to skip participating in the tournament that I had set up for myself, then I would have to delay stepping onto that path. With the construction of the coliseum, I was able to present myself as a member of their quarry team, and over the next few weeks I spent a significant amount of time pulling rocks out of the earth. However, the entire issue with Adan¡¯s debt resolved itself while I was occupied. ~~~~~~ Hien Ro blushed as Yara took his hand and pointed at the street performers, not that he needed her help to see them as they danced through the center of the street. In one corner a young girl played a tune on a complicated instrument that Hien Ro hadn¡¯t seen coming south, while her father danced with a large monkey in the street, performing various acrobatics as part of the routine. ¡°They¡¯re very good,¡± he said. ¡°They¡¯re atrocious,¡± Yara said. ¡°No, the word for when something is¡ª¡± ¡°I know what atrocious means northerner,¡± she scoffed. ¡°Don¡¯t think that just because I¡¯m still learning your language doesn¡¯t mean that I don¡¯t know when something is atrocious. Your breath, for example¡ª¡± ¡°Hey!¡± he protested, but they both broke into giggles as they walked further down the street. Hien Ro¡¯s heart was fluttering a bit as she continued to hold his hand. Were they, did she, was he her boyfriend, or was she completely oblivious to how he felt about her. Did he just ask, or should he ¡­ why were these things so complicated? ¡°Do you think Little Bug will win the tournament?¡± she asked. ¡°If he wants to win then he¡¯ll win, but he might not care if he wins or not,¡± Hien Ro admitted. ¡°He wants a challenge more than any of the rewards. Besides, he¡¯s the one who put up the grand prize himself, so it might be better if he comes in second.¡± ¡°Oh, didn¡¯t you hear? There isn¡¯t a grand prize. Not really. There are five prizes and the winners get to choose from them in order of the rank that they took. So the winner picks first, and second place picks second, and so forth. It would be funny if Little Bug¡¯s prize was picked last,¡± Yara commented. ¡°Why would that be funny.¡± ¡°Because it would show that all of our peers are idiots,¡± she explained. ¡°Come on, I want to show you where I used to live.¡± They spent the rest of the afternoon together, and as the shadows stretched and the evening approached, he sensed a growing sense of unease come from her. Maybe this was a date, Hien Ro thought to himself, and maybe she was nervous that he would try to do the sort of things that boys and girls do after dates with her. He decided to put her mind at ease, because while, if she wanted to, he would, he wasn¡¯t going to¡ª ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she said. ¡°It was a mistake to go home. I¡¯m sorry to drag you into my problems Hien Ro,¡± she said suddenly.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°What are you talking about?¡± he asked, but two burly men blocked their path at that moment. At the same time, three men blocked the street behind them. ¡°Yara Pocef,¡± said one of the men. ¡°We have come to collect your father¡¯s debt.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have any money on me,¡± she protested. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but¡ª¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I misspoke. We¡¯ve come to collect you to settle your father¡¯s debt,¡± the man repeated. ¡°If you come quietly, then I promise we¡¯ll put you in one of the nice brothels instead of¡ª¡± Hien Ro¡¯s heart burst as he realized what was going on and his heart burst. ¡°Shall I kill them all, or do you want to?¡± he asked his companion. ¡°I don¡¯t want to involve you in my family¡¯s problems,¡± she said. ¡°Leave it to me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m involved at this point whether you want me to be or not,¡± he said. ¡°But I¡¯ll let you show off a bit. It¡¯s fun watching you fight in that dress.¡± She shot an incredulous look at him, one that said ¡®you say that now?¡¯ But as the thugs closed in, she abruptly flared her cultivation. Invoking the Iron Monkey¡¯s Strength technique which she had perfected through long and careful practice, she began to fight. Hien Ro watched his maybe-girlfriend dance among the five thugs, breaking arms and crushing noses as she beat down men who were more than twice her age and outmassed her by at least double. To Yara, the battle lasted for an eternity. For Hien Ro, it lasted twice that as he debated each moment whether or not to get involve. To the innocent bystanders who ran once the violence broke out, it was over in seconds. Still they fled rather than be labeled a witness. Once all of the assailants were on the ground, Yara relaxed, her cultivation returning to its passive state. Hien Ro stepped over to the leader. ¡°Listen to me you big thug. I don¡¯t really care how much the Pocef family owes. I know how this scheme works. What is the actual amount of money that they borrowed. I don¡¯t care about interest or fees or whatever else you tacked on to make it what you call it today. What did it start out as?¡± ¡°T-two hundred,¡± the thug said, gasping with tears in his eyes. ¡°That¡¯s it? Good. Now, I have a question. How much is your leg worth?¡± Hien Ro inquired. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Your leg. I¡¯m taking it from you, but I¡¯ll give you this one chance to buy it from me before I detach it. How much is your leg worth to you? Or shall I add it to my collection?¡± Hien Ro asked. The thug sputtered and cried, but there was nobody around to help him as Hien Ro negotiated the end of the Pocef family¡¯s debt problem. ~~~~~~~ Even after the situation with Adan¡¯s debts were resolved, and I never did find out exactly how that happened but didn¡¯t question the matter too much, I continued going to the quarry right up to the day when the foreman said that my efforts weren¡¯t required anymore, as the coliseum was nearly complete. The work lasted for months, and while the pay wasn¡¯t particularly great after I had given away most of it to those less fortunate than I, it was enough to pay for a room and three meals a day for me and my companions. It would have paid for considerably more than that, as the rocks that I pulled out of the earth built half of the eastern quarter of the coliseum, but I wasn¡¯t greedy and aside from bribing our landlord to not kick us out once the tournament started I had no reason to save money. Not mortal coinage, at least, as most of the things which could actually help me reach my goals belonged to the local sects and I¡¯d have to negotiate like for like if I were to attain them. At least, if I were to attain them without joining their sect myself and going through their contribution system. But when the most valuable resource in the world is knowledge, I was perhaps the richest boy alive. Once I was sent home from the quarry, I began working on a hobby of mine. The idea for the plates came from several of my many past lives, and with my earth manipulation it was fairly simple to create the originals. Once I had the notes transcribed, I tested out the press, and when they worked, I purchased the paper and ink. And that¡¯s how the printing press was introduced to Atla, with the first document being an instruction manual for the Peach Blossom Dream, as well as my other entry level techniques that I had developed while I had been living with the Six Mountain Sect. With my pamphlet complete, I hired a bunch of children to hand them out to the cultivators who were coming and going from the registration office at the coliseum. Which was one of my destinations as well, of course. Hien Ro and Yara were also both participating, since the rules made it clear that seriously injuring your opponent was detrimental to your overall performance. While Adan had managed to open a few meridians, he wasn¡¯t far enough advanced to take part in the tournament, and felt no particular incentive to push the matter anyway. He assured us that he¡¯d be content with cheering from the stands. It was with a week to go before the tournament that I received a surprising visitor from my past. A knock at my door, and I opened to find Pi Phon standing there, looking the same as I¡¯d last seen him years ago when he had still been my tutor. I blinked in surprise, and then allowed myself to be enveloped in a hug. ¡°Your mother and your family is well, Little Bug,¡± he told me. ¡°Oh it is good that you¡¯re alive. I just got back into the city. Since I¡¯m a judge at the tournament I have access to the registration records, and it took me hours to go through the list to find where you were staying, but I¡¯m glad that I did.¡± ¡°It is good to see you, Pi Phon,¡± I said. ¡°But I¡¯m quite surprised. Why are you here?¡± He pulled back to look at me. ¡°Your strangeness? Is it ¡­ has it lessened over time?¡± ¡°Yes and no,¡± I said. ¡°But I¡¯m able to make myself better understood than before. What did you say about my family?¡± He hesitated, then asked to come inside and tell me all that had happened in the north. My nails bit into the palm of my hand, nearly drawing blood as I suppressed my anger over the lengths that Nadia and her followers would go to chase after me. At the innocent blood that they would spill to end my life. But I turned that anger into resolve. ¡°I am sorry about Di Phon. I never met him, but he seemed an honorable patriarch,¡± I said. ¡°I will convey your words to Di Ram,¡± Pi Phon said. ¡°Little Bug, I will not ask you not to take part in the tournament, as I think that it is actually a wonderful thing for someone your age to do. But after it is over, will you come back north with us? It is time for you to return home.¡± ¡°I do not know. I shall think the matter over,¡± I promised. ¡°Please do,¡± he said. He paused, and pulled a ring from his hand and put it in mine. ¡°Elder Di Ram bid me to give this to you, Little Bug. I don¡¯t know any more than that, other than he made me swear that I would not lose it and that I would wear it until either I placed it on your hand or, if I could not find you, I returned it to Di Ram.¡± ¡°Thank you, Pi Phon,¡± I said, looking at the ring with a shocked expression. The conversation fell to silence as I studied the gift. He shifted nervously. ¡°Well, I have a lot of things to do in preparing for the tournament,¡± he admitted. ¡°I will let you be now.¡± He rose and left, leaving me alone. When he was gone, I closed my eyes as I felt fate shifting into a state of flux once more. Things were no longer so certain as they had been, and I knew that this was because of the multitude of options which had just been granted to me. I channeled my Qi into the ring and entered into the space within the artifact, vanishing from the room. The ring clattered to the floor behind me, and would remain there until Hien Ro picked it up and put it on his hand. ~~~~~~~ ? 30. Opening 30. Opening ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he¡¯ll be here,¡± Yara said, but it was impossible for Hien Ro not to worry. They hadn¡¯t seen Little Bug for almost a week, and it was the day of the tournament. They were expected to gather at the eastern gates with all of the other participants, and Hien Ro was hopeful that they¡¯d see their master there, but so far he hadn¡¯t-- ¡°Oh, good. I didn¡¯t miss it,¡± Little bug said from behind Hien Ro, causing the teenager to jump six feet in the air. ¡°What the hell, Little Bug?¡± he demanded, rounding on the boy for scaring him. ¡°Sorry,¡± he said. ¡°That¡¯s a nice ring, Hien Ro.¡± ¡°What? Oh, yeah. I found it in our room. Is it yours?¡± ¡°Yes, but I want you to keep it. It¡¯s easier if you wear it at all times. I¡¯ll explain after the tournament,¡± Little Bug promised, and they stepped forward to register. They gave their names and drew their lots along with nearly a thousand other applicants. Less than a quarter of that number would proceed to the first round, however, as they failed to light up the ink in the stone that they selected. This was a tournament for cultivators, of course, so a simple method of screening out mortals was required. Once they presented their illuminated chit to the attendants, they were shown into the waiting area deep beneath the coliseum floor. Once their room was filled, representatives from the tournament came and explained the procedure and the rules. ¡°This is your battlegroup for day one,¡± the announcer explained. ¡°You will be facing off against every person in this room. Except for the staff, of course. How you spend your time between now and your first battle is up to you, but any violence except for on the tournament floor will see you expelled from the tournament. ¡°The first day is one of elimination. Those of you who fail to score fifty points will be barred from participating in the rest of the tournament, while those who score three hundred points or more will move on to the next round immediately. We expect to weed out three quarters of you before nightfall. ¡°The rules are as follows. One: Killing your opponent is an automatic ejection from the tournament. Two: seriously wounding your opponent, to include maiming and crippling, will result in automatic ejection at the judge¡¯s discretion. Three: No weapons allowed. Techniques are allowed, but you may not bring crafted weapons onto the tournament floor. Four: Each bout will last ten minutes. Your objective is to score as many points as you can within that time frame. The methods of scoring points will remain the same throughout the tournament, but will not carry over from today into the tournament itself. Five: The methods of scoring points are as follows: Ring out: five points. Submission: Ten points. Incapacitation: Ten points. Solid blow as determined by the judge: One to six points. Are there any questions at this point?¡± I yawned, already being familiar with the rules, and tuned the lecture out. Instead I evaluated the participants in my room. There were three dozen of us, although it was clear that many of them didn¡¯t really belong. Aside from Yara, Hien Ro, and myself, I sensed only three of the participants had any real advancement. The others had barely enough spirituality to make the ink of the stone light up. Still, we had to go through the motions in order to qualify for the rest of the tournament, so we waited in one corner, playing with a set of dice that Hien Ro had brought with him. One of the fighters whom I¡¯d noticed earlier came over and plopped down beside us. He began speaking, but when it was clear that only Yara understood him he seemed to lose interest and wandered away. A few hours passed, with the room filled with nervous energy, before we were called to fight. The entire coliseum was ours, with a dozen familiar judges standing in the rings. They called out numbers, and when I heard mine I jogged over to fight against a girl who was little more than a mortal. I pinned her to the ground and scored ten points by incapacitation, triggering the end of the match. She screamed at me with a red face as I was pronounced the winner, but I simply smiled stoically as I waited for my number to be called again. It was easy to reach the minimum to qualify, and while I could have proceeded to the next round by scoring points, instead I chose to begin holding back, allowing my opponents to showcase their skills as I employed the meridian slowing technique which brought me down to their level rather than simply overpowering them effortlessly. Hien Ro didn¡¯t follow my tactics, however, and he moved on from the elimination round after his fifth win, having scored sixty points per match with the inclusion of solid blows. Yara was having a harder time, and I think Hien Ro tried to stay to cheer her on, but he was asked to leave once he¡¯d qualified. Finally it was time to fight against the fighter who had approached us earlier, and he smiled at me as we got in the ring together. ¡°I score point against you,¡± He said, and I blinked. He must have asked someone how to say that phrase in the northern tongue since he sat down with us earlier. Then the bell rang and the battle began. He dashed forward, and I immediately saw that he focused on speed. I hadn¡¯t had a chance to evaluate his cultivation quite yet, so when I moved to counter I was too fast, punching him in the nose. I felt a ¡®crunch¡¯ beneath my fist and cursed as blood gushed forth. He pulled back and grabbed his face.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Solid blow, four points,¡± the judge announced. ¡°That puts you over, Po Guah. You move on to the next round.¡± I cursed. I had actually been looking forward to fighting this boy. I had little doubt that he would make it to the tournament proper, but there was a chance that he would drop out before we were matched together again. ¡°Sorry,¡± I said, patting him on the shoulder as I made my way off the coliseum floor. ¡°Good fight.¡± ¡°Good fight,¡± he said, his nasal voice calling out behind me. ~~~~~ ¡°So you qualified,¡± Arjun said. ¡°Of course I qualified. Half of these applicants were barely above mortals. I think that the ink that the tournament is using for the chits is far to sensitive, it¡¯s not weeding out nearly enough of them,¡± Farun said. ¡°Please, boys, it¡¯s not like qualification was ever in question for the three of us,¡± Lahri said. ¡°The question I have to ask is whether or not you allowed your opponents to score any points off of you?¡± Arjun smiled, while Farun looked somewhat ashamed. ¡°One of my opponents was a step away from the bronze path,¡± he objected. ¡°So that¡¯s a ¡®yes I did,¡¯¡± Arjun said. ¡°Pathetic.¡± The three continued to banter as they reunited, as planned, after qualifying for the tournament. They weren¡¯t expecting to win, but they were expected to put in a good show for their respective sects, and they were determined to prove themselves in combat against their peers. ¡°I¡¯m serious, I think that the woman who scored against me was holding back for years to enter this tournament,¡± Farun was protesting as they stopped at a confections vendor to pick up something to snack on as they watched the rest of the eliminations. ¡°The tournament has only been announced for a few months. Nobody was planning it before we met Po Guah,¡± Lahri reminded the boys. ¡°Yes, well, she must have been prescient. That would explain how she scored the points,¡± Farun said. ¡°Points? Plural? You allowed more than one?¡± Arjun inquired. ¡°Shut up. You¡¯ll see when you face her in the tournament,¡± Farun said defensively. ¡°If she doesn¡¯t drop out before it comes to that,¡± Arjun said. ¡°If you don¡¯t drop out before it comes to that,¡± Farun taunted. ¡°I¡¯m in it to win it,¡± Arjun countered. The three continued to banter as they looked for a good spot to sit. As they made themselves comfortable, they were surprised to see Po Guah¡¯s battle group take the stage. Their banter fell aside as they watched eagerly, excited to see the young prodigy in action. They continued to watch through the boy¡¯s first three match. Then they began exchanging looks of confusion. ¡°Well this is disappointing,¡± Farun admitted as Po Guah¡¯s companion succeeded in qualifying before he did. ¡°He¡¯s obviously holding back,¡± Lahri said. ¡°Obviously. The question is why?¡± Arjun said. ¡°Gambling, perhaps?¡± Farun said. ¡°You¡¯re allowed to bet on yourself, and the bookies are watching the qualifying rounds.¡± ¡°How disappointing,¡± Arjun said. They sighed and leaned back, eating their confections as they watched the eliminations proceed. ~~~~~~~ ¡°Hein Ro!¡± Little Bug called out, causing the teenager to turn around. Ro had just been coming from the privy, and was still lacing up his britches when the younger boy found him. ¡°Oh, so you finally qualified?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes. It¡¯s time for me to go back until tomorrow,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°Go back?¡± Hien Ro asked. ¡°Give me your hand,¡± Little Bug said, and Hien Ro, confused but obedient, obeyed. ¡°No, the other one.¡± Little Bug took the teenager¡¯s hand in his and he-- Little bug vanished, popping out of existence like he¡¯d never been there in the first place. Hien Ro jumped and cracked his head on the ceiling. ¡°Ah tah tah tah tah,¡± He winced and muttered as he recovered. He looked down at his hand and saw the ring that he¡¯d been instructed to wear. ¡°Oh,¡± he said, wondering where his master had gotten a spatial artifact. He shrugged. At least now he knew where Little Bug had been this past week. Then he reflected that he was wearing a ring which could buy a medium sized kingdom and began freaking out a little bit. ? 31. Invitation 31. Invitation Pi Phon stood in the observation box with the other elites. Not that he really considered himself an elite, but although he didn¡¯t have the highest cultivation of the judges who had been sent to the south for the tournament, he remained their leader through the edicts of Di Ram, who commanded respect above all. Or so the story went. Mostly he was here because Tonilla had invited him and it was impossible to say no to the woman who was feeding and clothing nearly a hundred thousand men, women and children. He wondered if she read the report and hadn¡¯t misplaced a decimal or two in her understanding of the situation, but as long as she was willing to keep going with the situation, he was obligated to do everything he could to keep her happy. Which wasn¡¯t so onerous, really. She was an attractive woman, despite being something like eighty years older than him, and he¡¯d been rather flattered when she¡¯d invited him into her bed the first time. The fifty second time wore on his patience a little bit, but he wasn¡¯t certain how to turn her down at this point. After all, he¡¯d only been back in the city for nine days. The other elites in the room were commenting on the elimination rounds they¡¯d witnessed the day before, but honestly there hadn¡¯t been a fight worth watching. There had been enough chaff mixed in that the real competitors had swiftly passed the qualification, leaving only those who struggled to reach the minimum scores behind. ¡°Tell me, do you know why the young lord was holding back so much yesterday?¡± Tonilla asked, wrapping an arm around his elbow and leaning into him. ¡°The young lord?¡± he asked. ¡°You know, Po Guah,¡± she said, pronouncing ¡®little bug¡¯ in the accent of the south which indicated she didn¡¯t understand that it was a nickname rather than a real one. ¡°Oh. Yes, I did watch his matches. I can¡¯t say why he chose not to display his full strength, but it¡¯s pretty obvious that he was enjoying himself. Perhaps that¡¯s all there was to it; he was enjoying fighting his opponents at their level rather than crushing them,¡± Pi Phon said, taking a sip of his wine. ¡°The truth is that although I was the one to bring him to the sect and although I was his first mentor, I don¡¯t really know him very well. I am very happy to see him doing so well, however.¡± ¡°Oh? Is that so? You simply must tell me more about him,¡± Tonilla said. Pi Phon thought about the matter, then shrugged. So he told the tale of the merchant coming to the sect to recharge a spiritual stone, which he had apparently been using as a lantern, and telling the tale of a boy who had ¡®broken it.¡¯ How this had triggered the search, as the stone had the residue of having contained a significant charge and anyone who could channel that much energy untrained deserved an examination. He spent more time talking about his journey with his three fellow disciples, one of whom was in the coliseum right now judging the matches, while the other was far to the north, subject to the ongoing corruption that was eating away at the heart of the Sovereign Summit Sect. Tonilla listened with feigned interest as she waited for him to get to the part she actually cared about, the discovery of Po Guah. When she learned that he was born to a common family, but yet passed the spiritual awareness tests with perfect scores not once, but twice, outperforming even some of the elders, she was only slightly surprised. She had seen the demonstration in which he had shown off a silver-path level technique with the cultivation that remained only in the purification realm. ¡°And once it was discovered that the notes were coming from Po Guah, Di Ram intervened. I¡¯m not really sure why he decided to take over Po Guah¡¯s education, but at the time I was actually slightly relieved to have more time to my personal studies, so I didn¡¯t press the matter when his care was taken out of my hands,¡± Pi Phon admitted. ¡°And Di Ram is the son of Di Phon?¡± ¡°Yes. I was named for Di Phon, actually, in the hopes that I would ascend to the same heights, but it was somewhat presumptuous of my parents, considering that we are not related, don¡¯t you think?¡± he asked. ¡°Depending upon which version of the battle at the northern summit you believe, Di Phon ascended to the next realm, after all.¡± Tonilla nodded, making connections in her mind that she did not speak. If Di Phon was Po Guah¡¯s backer, and he retained the ability to communicate with the ascended one in the next realm somehow, then everything would click into place nicely. As for what that meant for the Raging River Sect, she would simply have to continue to string things along. Eventually she would see an opening. Her backing in the sect wasn¡¯t quite as monolithic as she presented to the young man beside her, but she retained enough political capital to fulfill her current promises of food and clothing to the wretches in the north. She would have to be careful going forward, lest she overextend herself.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. As the time for the matches to begin approached, the judges began taking their positions in the rings. There were eight of them on the coliseum floor, allowing for eight duels to be fought concurrently, with each ring fifty meters in diameter. As the tournament proceeded, the under-performers were expected to drop out, allowing the rings to be consolidated and giving the combatants more space to move during their fights. But for now, the seven judges-- Tonilla frowned. Where was the eighth judge? She was just about to ask Pi Phon, but she noticed his own confusion on his face. Before they could consider the matter too much, however, an overwhelming presence appeared above the coliseum, and boisterous laughter with an overwhelming amount of Qi behind it pressed the audience into their seats. ¡°Dammit,¡± Tonilla muttered. ¡°Why did it have to be him?¡± ¡°What is¡ª¡± ¡°I am Tornolai!¡± the figure floating in the sky shouted. ¡°And I am here to be a judge in this tournament! I assume that my invitation has gotten lost in the mail!¡± ~~~~~~ The matches began as the tournament organizers formed and emergency meeting to deal with the missing judge. One of the alternate judges took the place of the one who was missing until the matter of Tornolai could be sorted out. The golden path cultivator was somewhat pouty when he realized that there were alternate judges, and when pressed he suggested that something might be found in the closet of the second subbasement, which is where the found the missing judge, peacefully sleeping off a profound technique. ¡°You didn¡¯t honestly think that this would work, did you Tornolai?¡± ¡°Tonilla! Our names sound so much alike, you must take my side. Let me judge these fights!¡± Tornolai pleaded. ¡°No.¡± ¡°Then I shall tear the tournament grounds down and destroy the coliseum entirely!¡± he roared, and his voice boomed through the stadium. Tonilla hesitated, because she knew that he could do it. Whether he would do it or not was in question, but it was a coin flip either way as to whether he was serious. ¡°Okay. Maybe you can judge a few matches, if you explain why you want to in the first place.¡± ¡°Because I want to!¡± the cultivator declared. ¡°Yes, but why do you want to?¡± ¡°Because I do.¡± She sighed. She hated dealing with beings like Tornolai. She was about to move the conversation along, when he said ¡°I wish to witness the fires of youth! I wish to fan the flames of passion! I wish to stoke the blazing glory of the victors! Also if you let me I will pay ten thousand golden coins to do it again in five years.¡± Her eyebrows rose. ¡°Are you being serious right now, Tornolai?¡± ¡°As death itself. I only heard of the rules of this event yesterday or I would have insisted upon being a part of it from the start! This is exactly the sort of competition I have been dreaming of for decades, but could not find the words to describe nor the allies to build! I must shake the hand of the one who made my dream a reality!¡± Tornolai said. ¡°Although I don¡¯t see the focus on being so ¡­ pacifistic.¡± ¡°The Sects don¡¯t wish to sacrifice their precious disciples on the altar of a tournament,¡± she explained. ¡°But if you do not face an enemy with the intent to kill them, then what is the point?¡± he argued. ¡°The point is to win,¡± Tonilla explained. ¡°Killing the opponent means losing in these rules, and so the point is to win without doing that. Is that not more difficult than to win through sheer ruthlessness and violence?¡± Tornolai frowned as he considered her words, then shrugged. ¡°I withhold judgment on the matter, but I do see your points. I swear that if I am allowed to judge, I shall do my best to judge in accordance to the rules as posted. The next tournament, we will revisit the issue, yes?¡± Tonilla sighed. She turned helplessly to Pi Phon, who shook his head indicating that he didn¡¯t have anything to add. ¡°You¡¯ll ¡®guest judge¡¯ today, watching the matches from the floor under the eyes of one of the judges from the Six Mountain Sect until we¡¯re confident that your judgment matches the goals of this tournament,¡± she pronounced. ¡°Then you may start judging matches tomorrow.¡± ¡°And no more kidnapping people and stowing them in closets!¡± ? 32. Day One 32. Day One With the forced growth spurt that I had undergone some months ago, many of the organizers assumed that I was older than the minimum age, but the truth is that I had requested the minimum age be set to twelve for a reason. I wished to compete openly and didn¡¯t wish for any concerns about disqualifications. There was no maximum age, but there was a maximum level of cultivation, specifically that of having reached the bronze path. There was talk of hosting another tournament for those with more advancement once this one had concluded, and I might be more interested in the details of such an event in the near future, once I had met my goals inside the spatial artifact that had been given to me by Pi Phon. Effectively, these two factors combined to ensure that the room was filled with young people between the ages ten (who were lying about their ages to compete) and thirty. And ironically, it was the younger members of the waiting fighters who were most likely to win, considering that those who had reached their mid twenties without ascending to the bronze path were unlikely to ever do so. That doesn¡¯t mean that they were to be underestimated, and so when my first match of the day was called and I journeyed out into the south-center ring to find myself matched against a thirty year old man, I was on my guard immediately. I watched carefully as he took his stance and we waited for the bell to chime. He dashed forward immediately once the match began, and his fists collided with my palm with all the strength that a cultivator in the energy gathering realm could muster. Realizing that I wasn¡¯t facing anyone with any particular strength or talents, I swiftly enacted my handicap, slowing the flow of Qi in my meridians to bring me down into his realm, matching his cultivation. Considering that I was a teenager fighting a man, this put me at a further handicap, but my countless sparring matches with Hien Ro swiftly proved to have been worth every moment as I spotted weakness after weakness and flaw after flaw in the man¡¯s defense. I scored several dozen Solid Blows, although each was awarded only a single point. With one minute left, the man collapsed from exhaustion, and I was awarded a further ten points for having incapacitated my opponent. Without really intending to, I moved into sixth place with the score from my first match. I listened as the crowd cheered and jeered from the stands. I tried to help the man up once he had recovered his breath, but he cursed and pulled away, walking away without shaking my hand. I shrugged and returned to the waiting room. I was alone today, with Hien Ro and Yara being assigned different waiting areas from me. I brought with me a notebook and was planning on making observations on the techniques that I witnessed. Not that I had witnessed anything from my first match, but that was to be expected. I sat in silence and scribbled a drawing of an alien landscape, taken from one of my many dreams of the mayfly lives. ~~~~~ Hien Ro spat on the ground, turning back to face the girl he was dueling after having taken a surprising blow. That had earned her a point, but that was fine. He was up five points already. He sighed. ¡°I guess I can¡¯t do it,¡± He said, releasing the technique which had lowered his power to that of the energy gathering stage. He¡¯d been trying to emulate his teacher, matching the cultivation of his opponent while fighting them. But while he could match his opponents cultivation, he couldn¡¯t do so while fighting them , a key distinction which he was only just now appreciating as he tried it. The girl said something in one of the languages of the south, having noticed his sudden flux of Qi. ¡°Yes. I¡¯m sorry for holding back before,¡± he said, and he dashed forward. He scored five solid blows in five breaths. Two were worth two points, while the other three were worth one. To end the match, he drove a fist into her stomach hard enough to knock her gasping to the ground long enough for the judge to declare her incapacitated. He was pronounced the winner with twenty-two points to one point. Not that it really mattered if he won or lost. It was the final point tally between all of your matches which determined the champion. He was curious where he was in the hierarchy, but it wouldn¡¯t be until the end of the first round that he would find out. ~~~~~~~~ The cards displaying the outcome of round one were displayed even as round two was midway in progress. The others in my waiting room were eager to see how they had performed, while I simply glanced at my name and returned to my musing. I knew how I had done, and while I wasn¡¯t ashamed, I was looking forward to facing more challenging opponents. After the others had cleared out, I returned to the card to see how my companions had done. Hien had won his match handily, I noticed, while Yara had also won, but her score was only seven to three. That was fine, the truth was that I expected her to drop out before the end anyway. I was called to face my second opponent moments afterward, and I tucked my notebook into my pocket as I jogged out into the stadium. I immediately sensed that this opponent was different. She was of the late purification realm, and I could sense the water attunement in her Qi. She spoke as we waited for the bell to ring, and then as soon as the match began she raised both hands and-- For a second nothing happened. I frowned, but waited patiently as I sensed the flowing Qi. I wanted to see this technique.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. She gasped and a blob of water began to form, hovering in the air near her hand. She gasped and then it sprayed towards me at high pressure. I raised my hand and caught it. ¡°How old are you?¡± I asked. She blinked in surprise that I had defeated her technique, but it wasn¡¯t exactly difficult. She didn¡¯t have the skill to retain control over her conjured water after launching it. ¡°Oh, right, you can¡¯t understand me. Well, try to fight more like this,¡± I suggested, and I used the water she conjured as a club, zipping it around and smashing it into her from different angles. I retained control of it even after it had impacted her, causing it to immediately regather into its orb and zip off at another angle, and the impacts were enough to stagger her. People think that water is soft. That water magic is weak. They¡¯ve never met a skilled water mage. I beat her into submission with her own conjured water, and she collapsed. Unfortunately few of my blows were considered solid blows, and I only scored another ten points from the match, falling considerably behind in the rankings. Oh well, I wasn¡¯t in this fight to win it. ~~~~~~~ Farun gasped as the pain in his groin threatened to overwhelm him. He leaped back, but the cowardly opponent who had no issues with targeting him there dashed forward to follow up the devastating attack with a blow to the back of his head. His face impacted the sand, and his vision fluttered on the verge of black and gray. He wondered why he had sand in his mouth for a moment, and then there were men there carrying him away. They gave him something to drink and he spat the sand out. They gave him another drink and announced that he¡¯d be fine, but that the were moving his next match to the end of the sixth round. He just nodded. He realized that he had lost, and lost pretty badly this time. Once he was allowed to leave the medic¡¯s hall and return to his waiting area, he went over to look at the latest score card. He hadn¡¯t managed to score any points against his last opponent, but he still had sixteen total. Unfortunately the front runners were already in the triple digits. He looked for the name of the opponent that he¡¯d just fought and despaired. She¡¯d only scored sixty two over the first two rounds. He knew that he shouldn¡¯t be discouraged, but he began to question what he was doing. Why he was here, why he was fighting, what he was fighting for. As his self-doubt began creeping in, the time before his next match was swiftly fading, and he¡¯d have to go out into the ring once more and face ¨C he looked up the name of his next opponent and paled. One hundred and twelve points. Ranked number three so far, Thaseus was his next opponent. He could go out and hope for a quick loss, but he knew that you didn¡¯t score one hundred and twelve points by beating your opponent swiftly. He quietly walked up to the officials and requested to withdraw from the tournament. His name was crossed out, and he was informed that he could continue to watch for that day from the stands in honor of his participation, after which he would have to pay for admittance just like everyone else. In the next round, he watched Thaseus thoroughly destroy a purification realm cultivator and swallowed. While the opponent was being carried off to the medic¡¯s hall, alive but unlikely able to continue in time for her next fight, he could only sigh in relief that he¡¯d had the foresight to withdraw. ~~~~~~ We sat in the booth outside the restaurant. I salivated over the steamed buns that the waitress had just delivered, while the others were lost in their own little worlds. I knew that they had momentous things on their minds by their expressions, but I did not urge them to speak, knowing that they might value the destination their thoughts took them more if they arrived there on my own, and that if they needed my guidance, they would seek it. It was the end of the first day of the tournament. The final day was unknown, as the fights would continue until all the current participants had faced those who remained. The organizers were prepared for this event to take months, but I expected it would be over within weeks. I had seen the fates of many of the participants changing as the outcomes of their duels drove home their limitations and shortcomings, and I knew that they would withdraw soon. Leaving only the elite. Both of those outcomes were represented across the table from me, and I watched the threads of fate slide into place as they each came to their decisions. ¡°I¡¯m withdrawing tomorrow,¡± Yara said finally. ¡°Are you ashamed?¡± I asked her. She shook her head. ¡°No. I thought I would be, and that¡¯s what kept me going through the last two fights, fear of disappointing the two of you. But at this point I can see that I¡¯m not going to learn anything here. I¡¯m not going to place anywhere near the top. More likely I¡¯m just feeding points to those who belong in this tournament. I¡¯m not ready for it.¡± I nodded. ¡°There is no shame in recognizing and accepting your limitations. I am proud of you, Yara, for entering in the first place and traveling as far along the path as you have. Consolidate your gains tonight and over the following days, reflecting on the lessons you learned in combat. If you haven¡¯t reached the bronze path by the next time they hold this tournament, then perhaps you can enter next time.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± she said, nodding. ¡°I¡¯ve only been cultivating for a few months. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I scored fifty-two points today and I¡¯m damn proud of it,¡± she said, her back stiffening. ¡°You should be,¡± Hien Ro agreed, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. He seemed surprised when she leaned into him. ¡°I¡¯m proud of you too.¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to keep going, though. Both of you,¡± she said. ¡°Of course. Until I have faced everyone who will face me,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t know about that, but I¡¯m in the top quarter by rank,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°If I can finish in the top ten, then there¡¯s a hefty financial reward. Even if I can only get the medal from the top twenty, that¡¯s bragging rights for the rest of my life.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll do spectacularly,¡± she said, and she bit into her steamed bun. I chewed my own, watching as the bonds between them strengthened further than ever before. I knew what would happen the next time they were alone together, and I was happy for them. After we had finished eating, I pulled Hien Ro into the corner so that nobody would see me vanish into the spatial ring. ? 33. Restraint 33. Restraint Thaseus sighed as the servant rubbed the knots out of his back. He lay face down, his muscular form mostly exposed as the masseuse did her work. He was so tense from holding back all day, but the bleeding hearts who had organized the tournament were so strict and serious. While he could cause his opponents to miss their next fight or two due to the injuries that he inflicted, anything serious or permanent would cause him to be ejected from the tournament. And he wouldn¡¯t allow that to happen. There was too much on the line. The door opened, and his sister, his uncle, and his parents came in. He moaned and closed his eyes as the massage continued, but he knew that the time for relaxation was over. ¡°You performed well today, Thaseus,¡± his father said. ¡°The family is proud of you. It was the correct decision to hold you back from ascending to bronze to broaden your foundation, although I know that you have long chaffed at the restriction. The timing of this tournament was fortuitous for our family, that we should have you in such a perfect state to bring home the grand prize.¡± ¡°Get to the but,¡± he said. The masseuse moved her hands, and that wasn¡¯t what he meant, but he didn¡¯t correct her. ¡°But there is always room for improvement,¡± his uncle said. ¡°I crushed everyone I faced today,¡± he objected. ¡°They were weak. You are only ranked number three.¡± ¡°When I face numbers one and two I will crush them too,¡± he predicted. ¡°Perhaps,¡± his uncle agreed, rubbing his left mustache. ¡°But every brute can be overcome by tactics. The only way to surpass a tactic designed to defeat you is to know it, and to counter it with a tactic of your own. You must own this tournament as we own the Red River Valley. You must know every opponent of note, and you must know the judges, and you must know the strategies which will lead to your victory and your enemies defeat.¡± Thaseus sighed in frustration. ¡°I take it that this lecture is going somewhere?¡± he asked. ¡°We have a dossier on the judges. We have studied their biases and their preferences for scoring their matches,¡± his mother said. Thaseus looked at her and frowned, but he had to admit that knowing how to impress the judges would help him score more points. ¡°Very well. I¡¯ll listen to that report,¡± he admitted. ¡°And we have another dossier on your chief competition,¡± his sister informed him. ¡°I don¡¯t care,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯ll listen to that one as well,¡± his father said sternly. ¡°I don¡¯t care. I¡¯ll learn their tactics and overcome them in battle,¡± Thaseus stated. ¡°Yes, but you¡¯ll go into battle with a plan,¡± his mother said. ¡°Thaseus, don¡¯t be a blockhead. Use every advantage you can get.¡± Thaseus sighed, but he knew that he wouldn¡¯t be allowed to sleep until he agreed to cooperate, so he turned, wrapping the towel around him, stood. ¡°Fine,¡± he said. ¡°The sooner we begin the sooner this farce will end.¡± They waited for him to dress, as unconcerned with his modesty as he was. Then the lessons began with the dossier on the judges. He knew them by sight already, and he cared nothing for their names except in sorting the information in his head to better understand their biases. One judge overcalled blows to the head as solid blows, while another would count anything that surpassed a certain amount of force. A third was hard to please, but awarded high points when you landed a truly telling strike. The list went on, and Thaseus soon had it memorized. There was no need for his sister to repeat the information. Then the lessons on his opponents. The number one ranked contestant was Lamren Sii, and she was a wind cultivator. She was as swift as she was strong, and while she lacked his strength, she overpowered her enemies with rapid blows. Next was Lukal Lukal, an earth cultivator who hadn¡¯t displayed any elemental techniques but who had proven to be a devastating combatant. Thaseus himself occupied the third slot, and one by one the family went down the top twenty-five contestants, listing their observed strengths and weaknesses. ¡°¡ªPo Guah, from the north. Nobody knows much about him except that he might be favored by the judges since they speak the same language, but our watchers saw no signs of favoritism in today¡¯s matches. It¡¯s something to be on the lookout for, however. He has a strong water affinity, which he displayed today by overcoming another water elemental cultivator with her own conjured attack. He seems to enjoy playing with his opponents, but it¡¯s likely that we¡¯ll see him turn serious later in the tournament. Next is Koras Tona, who specializes in¡ª¡± Thaseus sighed, but listened with half of his attention as he plucked at a bunch of grapes. It was nothing that he wouldn¡¯t learn in the opening moments of a match, except for the names of the top rankers, but those flowed in one ear and out the other. Honestly, unless they impressed him, he was unlikely to remember any of these fools. And if they impressed him, then he¡¯d reward them. By crushing them. ~~~~~~~ Alone I walked through the halls of the most extensive library I¡¯d ever seen in this short life. I stopped and picked up one of the books, leafing through it. The secrets of the Six Mountains Sect, as were all the other books. I studied the technique described in the manual for a moment before putting it back where I found it. It was shallow, I thought. It called for vast amounts of energy to make an explosion of air which would result in devastation without flame. It was deadly and devastating, a way to destroy or debilitate an entire fortress. And I saw three dozen ways in which it could be improved simply with a greater understanding of the principles involved. But I hadn¡¯t really expected depth from the Six Mountain Sect, even when I¡¯d been a member as a child, before I remembered myself. They were what I¡¯d had available to me then, and I¡¯d been eager to take what they were offering. But now? I sat down in front of the bookshelf and began to jot down the improved version of the technique in my notebook while the thoughts were fresh in my mind. Perhaps this is how I would repay them for their generosity towards me. But such thoughts only required half my attention. The rest was focused on cultivation, as I worked on attuning myself to the spatial energies which fluctuated rapidly within the library inside the ring that Pi Phon had given me. Once I had completed this final step, I would be satisfied with my foundation. One I had acquired a spacial affinity, I would step onto the bronze path, and I would take my cultivation forward at a sprint. ~~~~~~ The second day of the tournament began with announcements. With two thirds of the contestants having dropped out the night before, or not showing up at the final ringing of the gong, the format was changing. A swift redecoration, and the eight rings were replaced by two. Each fight would now last twice as long except in cases of a clear victor, and the overall number of matches per day was severely reduced due to the smaller number of participants. But the excitement grew as everyone realized that this meant that the tournament had entered a new phase. I yawned as the official repeated the same information that was being announced in the stands to the audience. I wasn¡¯t surprised. The other participants in the room, all fourteen of them, did seem to be. It was frustrating that I was roomed separately from Hien Ro, I would have liked to have had someone to talk with. I noticed a boy and a girl, the boy looking like one of those who was lying about his age and the girl just shy of adulthood, playing dice in the corner. I approached and, after a pantomime conversation, managed to convince them to let me join. The rules to the game we played were the same I was familiar with from playing with Yara and Adan, and while I swiftly lost my buy-in, I won my coin back before very long. We played until the boy was called to fight. He didn¡¯t come back.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. When I inquired, I was directed towards the medic¡¯s hall. That wasn¡¯t particularly surprising, but I was disheartened by the broken lad I found when I arrived. His body would recover, but his spirit had been beaten down. I inquired with one of the healers what had happened, and the northern traveler answered honestly. His opponent had played with him, making him believe he had a chance by allowing him to strike minor blows in exchange for serious ones which had driven up their points. The boy had fought the full duration, believing that if he tried just a little bit harder he could win the match. The crowd had cheered him on, right up until the moment he had been knocked unconscious in the final thirty seconds of the fight. I wished I could give him some encouragement, some balm to the wound that he had just suffered, but we didn¡¯t speak the same language. I patted his shoulder and passed him one page of my notebook instead. Hopefully the diagrams inside the folded paper would make some sense to him. I asked for and received the name of the opponent who had done this to the boy. Thaseus. I would remember the name. My turn to fight came later than I was initially expecting due to the modified format of the tournament, and I decided that, perhaps, it was time to stop fighting at my opponent¡¯s level and start fighting at my own. ~~~~~~ ¡°Hello. Yara, right?¡± Yara turned to the familiar trio who were standing behind her in the stands. ¡°You are the three who came to the mountain.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± said the boy in blue and silver. ¡°I¡¯m Farun, and this is Arjun and Lahri.¡± ¡°You dropped out,¡± she said. ¡°Yes. We all did, at all about the same time,¡± Farun admitted. Arjun stiffened but said nothing at his friend¡¯s words. ¡°Master Po Guah said that it¡¯s wise to respect your limits. Earlier, there was a boy who was pushed beyond them. It was so sad to watch, but the crowd kept cheering him on and he kept finding the strength to stand back up long after he should have lain down and given in,¡± she said, shaking her head in sorrow. ¡°Yes. We were watching,¡± Lahri said. ¡°We just happened to see you over here. We were sitting over there before, and when we spotted you we thought we could come and cheer on Master Po Guah together.¡± ¡°I think he¡¯d like that,¡± Yara agreed. The four teenagers sat together, drinking from bottles that they¡¯d brought with them. That Arjun¡¯s smelled of something stronger than juice nobody commented on. Little Bug¡¯s name was called, along with one of the remaining contestants towards the bottom of the ranking. Their friend¡¯s opponent was an older teen, and he had a determined expression that was easy to make out even from the stands. The crowd cheered as their names were announced, but not nearly so loud as they¡¯d cheered when Thaseus¡¯s name had been called earlier. They perked up with interest when Tornolai was announced as the judge. Despite the excitement that he¡¯d caused when he¡¯d arrived and declared himself one of the judges, the golden path cultivator had only judged two matches so far. While the other judges were all known quantities, Tornolai remained unknown and unknowable. His voice filled the coliseum as he called the battle to begin before the bell actually rang. ~~~~~~ Pi Phon perked up as he usually did whenever Little Bug was in the ring, but he wasn¡¯t expecting too much from the battle. The opponent was low ranked, and although Little Bug had a habit of fighting to his opponent¡¯s ability and putting on a good show, such displays weren¡¯t going to win him the tournament. He didn¡¯t think that the boy even cared about that. ¡°Would you like to place a bet with me?¡± Tonilla asked. ¡°Why? We both know that Po Guah will win,¡± he said. ¡°Yes, but by how much?¡± she inquired. ¡°I predict he will win by less than twenty points. If he wins by more than twenty, then I shall allow you a night to actually rest tonight.¡± Pi Phon looked at her in surprise. ¡°How generous. I accept.¡± ~~~~~~ Polkluk swallowed as he faced off against the higher ranked boy. While the boy was the same height as him, he looked younger. Po Guah was his name, and he¡¯d been consistently in the top ten on every report card that Polkluk had seen. The boy took his position in the other side of the ring. He bowed to Polkluk, a northern tradition, but a polite one, and one that Polkluk found himself returning awkwardly. It wasn¡¯t anything personal, after all. Polkluk didn¡¯t expect to win, but if he could place, then he could leverage the prestige later, once he had ascended to the bronze path. It was the same hope that all of the other middle-of-the-pack runners were holding. So Polkluk didn¡¯t mind that he was probably about to lose, he just wanted to score a few points. At least he didn¡¯t have to worry too much about taking an injury; he had asked around and even though Po Guah was ranked highly he¡¯d never hurt any of his opponents. Even the duels he¡¯d fought to incapacitation had resulted in the opponent limping away after spending a moment to recover. Then the loud mouthed judge shouted ¡°Begin!¡± and the opponent vanished. ¡°Three points!¡± the judge announced immediately, and Polkluk blinked in surprise. What? He turned to look at the judge to try to understand what had just happened, and was surprised to see a fist an inch away from his face when he turned his head. ¡°Oh,¡± he said. ¡°Fight me with everything,¡± the boy said. ¡°I fight everything too.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Polkluk agreed, and he turned, and he began an offensive. His fists flashed, his elbows struck, his knees and kicks were like lightning. But his opponent met every attack with a block, and every opening was exploited. In their furious exchange, Polkluk lost himself. This was a good fight, he thought. His opponent was stronger than him, but if he could just get in one lucky-- The other boy split in two, one version of himself going left and the other going right. An illusion? Was that possible in the foundation realm? Polkluk knew that one of the boys must be fake, and he chose to block the left one¡¯s attack. He grinned as the fist connected against his palm. He¡¯d picked the right one, and the-- He was on the ground, stunned. What had happened? He replayed it in his mind, and he saw how the illusion had struck him from the side. ¡°Five points!¡± the judge called. ¡°You stand?¡± his opponent asked. Polkluk groaned and forced himself to his feet. He¡¯d picked the wrong illusion. In a real fight, he¡¯d be dead, but this was just a tourney, so he could afford to make mistakes like this. It didn¡¯t really cost him anything but a rung bell, since it didn¡¯t really matter if he fed points to the higher ranked boy. ¡°I¡¯m okay, I can continue,¡± he told the judge. ¡°I know,¡± the judge said. ¡°They¡¯re both real. Don¡¯t try to pick.¡± Polkluk frowned at the nonsensical words, and his opponent split in two again. The illusion on the left came at Polkluk first, and it was real. Polkluk blinked in surprise and fought it, ignoring the second illusion completely until-- He was on the ground again. He replayed what had just happened. He hadn¡¯t been struck by the version of Po Guah he¡¯d been fighting. He¡¯d been struck by the illusion. But that was-- ¡°Two times more,¡± the boy said, and he split from two illusions into eight. ¡°Fight. I go slow. We fight hard.¡± Polkluk stood. He tried to figure out which of the illusions was real, and he realized that he couldn¡¯t take the risk that any of them were fake. He had to treat them all like they were real, so he did. And so, outnumbered in a one on one match, Polkluk fought against eight Little Bugs and held his own. For thirty seconds. The blow connected to his sternum, sending him flying back towards the edge of the ring. He spent a moment on the sand gathering his wits. ¡°They¡¯re all real,¡± he whispered. ¡°How?¡± ¡°Stand and fight,¡± Po Guah said. ¡°More to test.¡± Polkluk stood. At least he wasn¡¯t seriously hurt, he reflected. And it didn¡¯t really matter if he fed his opponent points, since there was no way he¡¯d be winning the tournament anyway. He grinned. ¡°Fighting you is like fighting my own shadow,¡± he said. ¡°But that¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t plan to win, I just want to score one point. If I score one point, I¡¯ll declare myself a victor even if the world calls me a loser.¡± ¡°Yes. But not go easy,¡± Little bug said in the pidgin language of the south. He suddenly split once more, and Polkluk found himself fighting against sixteen opponents in a one on one duel. He never did score the point. But he acquitted himself well, and in the end, he told himself, that was all that truly mattered. ? 34. Withdrawal 34. Withdrawal Thaseus¡¯s eyes went wide as he stared at the ranking card. He¡¯d moved into fourth place. Number one and number two had swapped, with number two pulling ahead of number one. But everyone had been moved down a rank when a new challenger had appeared, pulling from number eight all the way into first in the space of a single duel. He regretted being trapped down in the waiting area. He wanted to see that fight! He knew it couldn¡¯t have been fair, that something must have happened to upset the balance of the tournament like this. He sighed and put it out of his mind. It was his family¡¯s responsibility to appeal things like that. He was certain they would. But at the moment, all that he could do was wait for his final match of the day. He crushed it and went home. He was preparing to bathe and receive another massage when his sister barged in. ¡°You must Crush Po Guah if you want to win,¡± she informed him. ¡°Cripple him so that he cannot continue. If he is taken out of the routine, if he misses any fights at all, then we still have a chance. But for every fight he wins, he will pull further and further ahead. Thaseus blinked. ¡°What are you saying? Have you figured out how he¡¯s cheating?¡± ¡°That is the thing. All of the elders insist that he isn¡¯t. If you ask any silver ranker who witnessed the fight, they will say that, if anything, Tornolai was undercalling his points,¡± she said. She spent several moments discussing the impossible match, but Thaseus remained unconcerned. ¡°So we got it wrong and he¡¯s an illusion master. It¡¯s not so strange that one of them could¡ª¡± ¡°His illusions aren¡¯t illusions. They¡¯re Dao Avatars,¡± she said. Thaseus paused. ¡°That¡¯s not possible.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s true. When he began splitting himself in the fight, all of the elders stood up and took notice. We took notice of those who took notice, and they all say the same thing.¡± ¡°Then he¡¯s a cheater,¡± Thaseus said. ¡°You must walk the silver path for decades before¡ª¡± ¡°The elders say that it has nothing to do with raw power. There¡¯s no reason that a child can¡¯t summon an avatar except that it takes decades, sometimes centuries, of experience,¡± his sister explained. ¡°They say that is what he is doing, and with all of the elders saying the same thing, who are we to gainsay them?¡± Thaseus went silent, then he finished stripping and slipped into the water. ¡°Then I¡¯ll crush him and his avatars.¡± ~~~~~~ Hien Ro moaned in agony as Yara massaged the pain ointment into his bruised and beaten muscles. While he could heal quite fast as a mortal, the last match had exhausted him spiritually as well as physically, and he¡¯d have to recover his Qi before he could work on recovering his body. He won, but it had cost him. If the tournament¡¯s format hadn¡¯t changed, then he would have submitted early in the fight, but knowing that it was his last fight for the day he had pushed himself to overcome the high ranker. He had taken as much of a beating as he¡¯d delivered, but he¡¯d narrowly eked out a victory on points. And now he got to feel Yara¡¯s hands on his bare back, he reflected, even as her massage caused him pain. Worth it. ¡°Master showed his depths today,¡± she informed him. ¡°I know,¡± he said. ¡°Who told you?¡± ¡°I sensed it from the waiting area.¡± ¡°You could sense what he was doing?¡±Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°I think so. When we spar, sometimes I get a feeling like that. I always thought that he was going easy on us, but it wasn¡¯t until I tried maintaining a Qi technique like the one he uses to lower his cultivation and fight at the same time I realized how much effort he must be putting into our spars. The feeling where I¡¯m pushing him, or where he goes all the way down to the energy gathering realm instead of fighting me in the purification realm, that¡¯s what I felt.¡± ¡°What¡¯s it feel like?¡± she asked. ¡°Utter calm and determination,¡± he said. ¡°But I know it¡¯s not mine, because I¡¯m not calm, and while I¡¯m determined about some things, I¡¯m not determined about everything. ¡± ¡°Huh,¡± Yara said, and she finished her massage. He sighed, knowing that the fun part was over as the rest of the parts he could reach himself. He began to reach for the medicine and-- She touched his chest. He looked at her. They smiled awkwardly. ~~~~~~~ I strolled through the library. I picked up a book, studied it for a moment. I made a few notes in his notebook, then put the book back and continued walking. I wondered what my friends were up to, but I had seen enough to know not to look too closely at the bonds of fate between them any longer. Some things should be private. Still, I knew what I knew, and I was happy for them. ~~~~~~~ Tonilla stood before the tournament heads, those who had come forward to match her own funds after she had put up her own clan and sect¡¯s collateral for the creation of the coliseum and the inauguration of the tournament. And then there was Tornalai, who looked almost sheepish for a change. ¡°Why did you assign him so many points?¡± she asked him at last. ¡°He deserved them. By the rules of the tournament, a killing blow, held back at the last moment, is worth five or six points. It says so right in the instructions,¡± the golden path cultivator said. ¡°Each of his blows would have been fatal to the boy he was fighting if he had not pulled them at the final moment. I was simply counting how many times he killed his opponent in pantomime.¡± She sighed, but, having walked halfway down the silver path, she knew the truth of his words. Po Guah did not truly belong in this tournament. She had known that for the start, but she had thought that the boy would show some restraint. Instead she had to clean up this mess. Most of the mortal audience did not truly understand what they had witnessed the day before. Even when the words ¡°Dao Avatar¡± began to spread to replace the word ¡°Illusion,¡± the mortals did not understand how extraordinary that was. They had allowed children younger than twelve to skate by if their cultivation otherwise qualified them for participation, but they had magical means of verifying such things and had employed them throughout the screening process. It likewise showed when someone was older than their claimed age. Po Guah was twelve years old, that much was certain. Nearly a century too young for a Dao avatar, let alone fifteen of them. ¡°You could have miscounted,¡± she suggested. ¡°I did not. I was taking my role very, very seriously,¡± Tornolai answered. She slumped. ¡°This entire tournament was his idea.¡± ¡°Then I very much want to shake his hand,¡± Tornolai said. ¡°it is the most fun I¡¯ve had in decades.¡± ¡°I thought he was planning on ¨C it doesn¡¯t matter. I knew he was extraordinary and hid it from many of you. For this I apologize,¡± she said, deciding that sunlight would be the best cleaner for this mess. ¡°However, it is also his promised reward for which my sect, and many of yours compete. A ¡®personalized technique from the same mind as the Toh Foram Siel,¡¯ that is the reward many of our juniors were instructed to select if they won the tournament. And that is what Po Guah offered if we built this tournament from the ground up for him.¡± ¡°Why are you telling us this now?¡± one of the persons who hadn¡¯t known asked. ¡°Because. I think that it is time to renegotiate the deal,¡± she said. ~~~~~~~ I emerged from the library for breakfast with my friends. They both had stupid grins on their faces, but I noticed that Hien Ro at least did not seem to be as sore from his injuries as he had been when I¡¯d left them to roam the library that he wore on his finger. I played as oblivious as I could, but still there was so much blushing from them. After we had eaten, we journeyed to the coliseum together, splitting apart at the gates. However, a servant caught me before I could register my presence for the day, and I was brought into the box office which overlooked the ring. Tonilla was there, with all of the sect leaders and several merchants. She smiled at me, but her words left me utterly disappointed. ¡°Master Po Guah,¡± she said. ¡°I humbly request that you withdraw from the tournament.¡± ? 35. Rising Star 35. Rising Star I sat as they explained their position to me. I was not accused of any malfeasance, of course, for I had done nothing wrong. My presence, they said, created an unfair environment which was destabilizing the rest of the participants and causing unrest in the mortal audience. I volunteered to forsake my claim on the victory prizes, but such a promise was not enough. In order for the tournament to appear legitimate for the rest of the participants, my participation and advantages would need to be explained, and even then it would cause unrest among those I fought. I listened patiently, and in the end I agreed with them. But with conditions of my own. Thirty minutes later, I found myself stepping one more time onto the coliseum floor. The crowd roared at seeing me emerge, and they booed, and they jeered and they cheered and they threw fruit and some of the women bared their breasts. ¡°I ask for silence while I explain what happened yesterday,¡± I said, and my quiet voice echoed through the entire structure. ¡°My name is Little Bug, and I am an awakened soul. I recall my past lives, and it is with that wisdom that I bring my cultivation techniques to this world. I am the mind which created the Peach Blossom Dream and I am the one who printed the pamphlets of the body purification techniques which have been circulating through the participants of the tournament.¡± I paused for a second. The room was silent. I was speaking in the common pidgin, so presumably the majority of the room understood me. ¡°Despite this, I truly am simply in the purification realm. I have not broken any of the rules of the tournament. However, my participation in the tournament is now seen as a destabilizing force, and I wish only to bring harmony. As such, effective immediately, I am withdrawing my participation,¡± I said. The crowd erupted into boos and cries. ¡°In exchange, the tournament organizers have agreed to several conditions of my own,¡± I explained over the din, confident that those who wanted to listen would hear. ¡°First of all, any of the remaining participants may challenge me, and I may accept. Any points that they score against me in the resulting fight shall count towards their final score. Additionally, all participants, including those who have withdrawn, will receive a copy of the Peach Blossom Dream and the body purification manual. ¡°The prizes remain the same, except that I have tripled my own reward. Instead of only gifting one technique, three of the ranking finalists may choose the privilege of having a personalized technique designed by me.¡± I paused as the news was allowed to sink in. ¡°This means that there are effectively seven grand prizes in addition to the monetary rewards for placing in the top ten. And for those who do not think that having a technique designed by a twelve year old is worth anything, I show you this. I call it ¡®Rising Star.¡¯¡± I raised my hand and my Qi roiled as I called it forth. It was a rather simple technique. Fire and lightning Qi were called forth and accelerated around each other in concentric and opposite directions. This created a friction, and the entire system was then compressed in on itself until it was ready to explode. Then a pinprick, and the energy was released, causing a streak of energy hot enough to melt sand to glass, leaving a hole in the sands of the arena five feet wide. That hole is still there. The crowd roared as I stepped off of the sands, but not for the last time. I would fight in the coliseum yet again. ~~~~~~ ¡°Awakened soul, huh?¡± Farun said, munching on the kernels of the flavored corn that he was sharing with Lahri. ¡°That¡¯s neat. Did you know?¡± ¡°Not exactly,¡± Yara said, chewing on the gourd seeds she¡¯d purchased for herself. ¡°But I¡¯m not exactly surprised. It makes sense, he must have come from a world where they are far more advanced than us to know the secrets that he knows.¡± ¡°Perhaps the Peach Blossom Dream is taught to commoners there, and that is why he values it so little,¡± Farun commented. ¡°Perhaps,¡± Arjun said. Then the tournament officials came and announced that any ¡®challenge fights¡¯ would take place at the end of the day, after the regular bouts, and then they began announcing the order of the fights to follow. Cheers erupted as favorites were called out, and Yara yelled as loud as anyone when Hien Ro¡¯s name was called. ~~~~~~ I realized, perhaps too late, that I was surrounded by vipers. Sitting in the box seat between Pi Phon and Tonilla, I watched the proceedings as the tournament got underway. But we were far from alone. While the immediate space around us was rather roomy, that was only in comparison to the elders and tournament organizers attempting to cram into every cubic centimeter of the rest of the box. I sighed. Perhaps it was not too late to change my name and vanish. ¡°So,¡± Pi Phon said eventually, coughing nervously at the audience to our conversation. ¡°When did you know who you really were, Little Bug? Or should we call you by another name?¡± ¡°Little Bug is fine,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ve always had dreams of my mayfly lives, but it wasn¡¯t until Ko Ren and Ko Si and I¡¯m not certain who else attempted to exorcise me that the wards on my soul were broken and I recalled my purpose.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± he asked. ¡°So Ko Ren targeted you even before he began plotting against the patriarch. I am sorry that the elders of the Six Mountain Sect could not better protect you while you were vulnerable, grand elder.¡± ¡°Call me Little Bug,¡± I insisted. ¡°It helps me remember who I am.¡± He paused, then nodded. ¡°As you wish. Little Bug, I apologize that your early life was not¡ª¡± ¡°It was wonderful in a way,¡± I said. ¡°I had a loving mother, and a father who tried so hard to provide for us that I never went hungry even in the hard times after the battle in the sky. My sister and the other children thought I was strange, but I thought they were shallow. I have enough wisdom to know better to ask for more than that in any life.¡± Pi Phon was silent as he contemplated his next words. ¡°May I ask what it¡¯s like?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Dying.¡± ¡°Like being born, I don¡¯t remember,¡± I admitted. ¡°It¡¯s the bits between birth and death that are important.¡± ¡°I see,¡± he said. ¡°I believe I shall write that down.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t. Just remember it.¡± ¡°As you say.¡± I sighed, and I hoped that I wasn¡¯t founding a religion. That would be most inconvenient. The fights began, and gradually the adults in the box seats around me grew accustomed to my presence and began discussing the matches rather than sitting in silence and watching in case I sprouted wings. Thinking of wings, I reflected that I needed more meal-worms for Hopper.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ~~~~~~ The list of challengers came in after lunch. It was everyone. Including Hien Ro. I sighed. I understood what he meant by his challenge. We had fought countless times, but he wished to face me as I¡¯d faced Polkluk. Where I wasn¡¯t fighting to his level, but forcing him to fight on mine. Or at least closer to it. I accepted ten of the challenges at random. As I¡¯d known would happen that morning, I stepped onto the coliseum floor once more. ~~~~~ Lukal Lukal grinned as his name was called. The one who had supplanted him and then withdrawn, who claimed to be an awakened soul, had accepted his honorable challenge. While he understood the necessity of keeping the masses happy, he¡¯d been most upset that Po Guah had withdrawn before their scheduled match. He had tracked down the boy who had miraculously drawn the sleeper into wakefulness and taken notes on the battle that had followed. He thought that he had a strategy which would counter the use of duplicates that Po Guah used, be they Qi technique of Dao Avatar. But he¡¯d never gotten to employ it. He followed the tunnel out into the sands of the coliseum, frowning when he saw nine others stepping forth from their waiting areas. ¡°What is this? Is it not¡ª¡± ¡°It grows late,¡± Po Guah said, appearing in the center of the coliseum. ¡°Come at me all at once, and let us send these fine people home with something to talk about.¡± Lukal Lukal balked, unwilling to gang up on an outnumbered foe, but his concern was quickly shown to be misplaced. One of the others, a woman who was lower in the ranking, charged forward, leaping into the air with a ¡°Hyah!¡± to launch a flying kick at the boy. And the boy blurred and split into ten forms. And after that Lukal Lukal didn¡¯t see much of the other battles as he was forced to focus on the attacks that the younger boy was launching upon him. ¡°Are you the true body?¡± he asked as he exchanged breathless blows with the apparition before him. ¡°We are all true,¡± all of the apparitions said in unison. ¡°And we are all false. We are all one, and we are many parts of a whole.¡± ¡°If you are real, then I shall prove it by beating you to the ground and making the others vanish!¡± Lukal Lukal declared, and he launched himself forward with everything he had. Using the technique that he had suppressed due to concerns that it would be disallowed under the ¡®no weapons¡¯ policy, Lukal Lukal stomped his feet and the sand coalesced into a trident in his right hand. The apparition ¨C unless this was the real one ¨C did not even hesitate as it reached out and ice coalesced into a spear of its own. Blade met haft and haft met blade as they exchanged thrust and counter thrust. ¡°If I stab you will you bleed?¡± Lukal Lukal demanded. ¡°I shall endeavor to find out!¡± ¡°Please do!¡± Po Guah said, and the battle intensified. Grinning like a madman, Lukal Lukal brought everything he had to bear. Every hour of practice with his older brothers, who now walked the path ahead of him. Every solitary moment of exercise with the spear. Every waking dream as he contemplated his kata. Po Guah¡¯s eyes opened, and then he grinned. ¡°A dreamer?¡± he asked. ¡°Excellent. Let us see what you can do, fellow traveler!¡± And the apparition split in twain, and Lukal Lukal went from being on the offensive to the defensive as the twin avatars pressed him back. Under the pressure, he slowly felt his stance begin to deteriorate. His focus waver. Openings in his guard, and the ice of the spear¡¯s blade scratching against his skin as they reached him, doing no damage but only because their wielder held the injury back somehow. He approached the limit, and he grudgingly accepted it. He had been beaten. ¡°I submit,¡± he whispered, and the fight stopped at once. ¡°I acknowledge you, mighty warrior. What is your name?¡± Po Guah asked. ¡°I am Lukal Lukal.¡± The apparition turned and shouted ¡°I declare that Lukal Lukal¡¯s spear did break my defense three times!¡± The coliseum roared in applause. It took Lukal Lukal a moment to realize that the other combatants that he had started the fight with all lay defeated on the ground. Only he remained standing. ¡°I won?¡± he asked. ¡°No,¡± Po Guah said more quietly. ¡°But you have pushed me further than the others, and I thank you for the privilege of crossing spears with you. I would ask for another opportunity once the tournament has finished.¡± ¡°It would be a pleasure and an honor,¡± Lukal Lukal said as the crowd continued to cheer. ~~~~~ ¡°You are Hien Ro?¡± the stranger asked. Ro¡¯s cackles raised in suspicion, but under his senses it was no more than a mortal woman who spoke with a heavy accent. It was the evening after the first challenge round, and Ro was walking home, reflecting on the days events. He had not seen his master since the morning, and he was growing concerned. ¡°I am,¡± he admitted. ¡°Your master bade me give you this,¡± she said, handing over an envelope. Hien Ro quickly broke the seal and read the contents, relaxing slightly. ¡°Take me to see him,¡± Ro said, and he was brought into a hotel which had been emptied for the use of the guests of the Raging River Sect prior to the tournament. He climbed the stairs and found Little Bug sitting with a book in one hand, a pen in the other. ¡°Ah, good. There you are,¡± Little Bug said. Abruptly he split in two. Hien Ro was surprised to find that he could tell the difference between the real one and the false. ¡°How might I help, oh ancient one?¡± Hien Ro said, a bit of mockery in his voice. ¡°Oh shut up. Technically we¡¯re all the same age,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°It just depends on how long ago your memories start. As for what I need from you, I¡¯m going to hide for a while.¡± Ro¡¯s eyebrows rose. ¡°And here I thought that you were becoming a celebrity.¡± ¡°I am, and that¡¯s the problem,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°I¡¯m going to hide out in the ring. I¡¯ll come out for the challenge rounds, but the rest of the time I¡¯ll be hiding there. I¡¯m leaving behind this avatar to carry out public appearances and such until I¡¯m ready to emerge and ascend to the next realm.¡± ¡°When you say ascend¡ª¡± ¡°I mean the bronze path. I¡¯m not done with this world yet,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°Come, give me your hand¡ª¡± ¡°Wait,¡± Ro said. He paused, looking at his friend. ¡°Tell me how to win the tournament before you go.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t win that, Ro,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°But you already have a prize worth a thousand times what you would have gotten for doing so. Tell Yara that I said hello, and congratulations. You should find a priest before long to make it official.¡± ¡°Wha¡ª¡± Hien Ro was blushing and sputtering as Little Bug vanished into the spatial ring. He shook his head as the Dao Avatar pretended to read leisurely. ¡°Does he hear what I tell you?¡± Ro asked. ¡°If he wants to. In this case he made the cut quite clean. I am a disposable edifice, to contain memories that nobody wants or cares about. No authority, no agency. Only one purpose, to present a false face to the world. That¡¯s all I am.¡± ¡°Oh. I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Yes. Goodbye, Hien Ro,¡± the avatar said. Hien Ro retreated from the room, explaining to the spies who met him on the base floor of the hotel that no, what was discussed was none of their business and leave him alone. He retreated from the hotel, then vanished across the rooftops to avoid mortal pursuit. The receptionist sent someone to the Awakened Soul¡¯s room to check on him once his ¡®friend¡¯ had departed, but was relieved to find him still reading leisurely. They discussed a few matters briefly, and the Awakened Soul requested to eat at a local restaurant. He ordered the entire menu, and dancers, and musicians. Nothing was decided, but a smiling young Po Guah was seen by many people being pliable and easily distracted. ? 36. Sportsmanship 36. Sportsmanship Di Ram opened the sealed letter, delivered by a swift runner from an unknown sect to the south. The letter was sealed with Pi Phon¡¯s Qi, however, which Di Ram recognized immediately. He read the contents and his eyebrows rose in surprise at the words. So that was why his father had placed so much faith in the future of Little Bug. He began drafting his response. It would still take a long time for his people to travel south, and he could not leave them without a leader for the week or two that it would take him to make the round trip himself. As he wrote down questions and requests for ¡®Master Little Bug,¡± he contemplated that his instincts regarding the boy had always been spot on. He was the future patriarch of the Six Mountain ¨C no ¨C the Seven Mountain Sect. While he wrote, the messenger in the camp gossiped with the mortal guards. When the response was delivered to his hands, he vanished leaving behind only the knowledge that he had shared. That night, the guards told their spouses, and the next day their spouses gossiped, and soon the entire camp knew that an awakened soul would guide them to salvation. And so did the spies in the camp. ~~~~~~ Hien Ro¡¯s ring tapped against the wooden table, making a small pip pip pip sound as he waited at the restaurant outside the hotel where the Dao Avatar was posing as his best friend and master. It had been an hour since he had made his presence known, and he had still not heard back from inside. Feigning exasperation, he stood and left, an outraged expression on his face. He did not know whether the spies had relayed his request to meet with Little Bug or not, but the response had never come either way. Whether the spies were attempting to drive the wedge between Ro and Little Bug, or they were simply observing as the two friends fell apart, Hien Ro did not know. He didn¡¯t really care either. It was all just an act, after all. His friend was as close by as ever. Hien Ro was just following the instructions he found in his pocket this morning. He thought he saw what Little Bug was doing, but in the end decided that such games weren¡¯t really worth spending any more thought on than required. Time had passed, and the tournament was entering its final stages. Today was the last rest day, he reflected. Tomorrow, he¡¯d face Lukal Lukal. He was eagerly looking forward to the challenge. And the day after that, Thaseus. ~~~~~~ Polkluk stood in the section where he had promised to meet his friends, looking around nervously as he wasn¡¯t entirely certain that they would have arrived before him and he didn¡¯t wish to block the passage for very long when-- ¡°Polkluk! Over here!¡± came Yara¡¯s call. He sighed in relief and jogged over. He had long since withdrawn from the tournament. In the aftermath of Po Guah coming forward to announce himself to the world, Polkluk¡¯s fight had largely been forgotten by the masses, but Farun had tracked him down to question him on what it was like to fight all of Po Guah at once. From there, the friendship had grown, and he had spent every tournament day since in the stands with Farun, Arjun, Lahri, and Yara. The former contestants were without regrets, having participated and withdrawn back in the early days. Presently, they were planning on cheering on Yara¡¯s boyfriend, who was to face off against the highest ranked fighter today. He took a seat nearby and took a proffered kebab from Yara, who had two of her own. ¡°Thank you,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. You bought me sweetcakes yesterday,¡± she pointed out. ¡°Friends don¡¯t measure their friendship by keeping track of how many treats they buy each other,¡± Farun said.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°You say that because you¡¯ve been mooching off of me since the expedition south!¡± Arjun complained. ¡°I¡¯ve lost count of how many of my snacks have ended up in your belly.¡± ¡°Oh crap, does that mean we¡¯re friends, Arjun?¡± Farun asked, sounding scandalized. Pokluk smiled and bit into the kebab, relaxing and watching the match. This late in the tournament the entire arena was dedicated to just one fight. Twenty remained, but the placements were more or less firmly decided by points. Lukal Lukal was so far ahead that only Thaseus had a hope of overtaking him, but ironically it was entirely down to Hien Ro, Yara¡¯s boyfriend. While Hien Ro was placed ninth, and no amount of trickery or last minute effort would change that, he had to fight both of the top ranked contestants yet. Against Lukan Lukan, that meant a chance to secure a greater lead against his only competition. Against Thaseus, that meant a final chance to overcome the point gap, which presently sat at fifteen, and take first place. Or he could simply bow out and the tournament would end, but nobody wanted that. When Hien Ro entered the coliseum, the audience burst into cheers and encouragement. He was ninth on the lists, but first in their hearts as his lucky placement in the list had put his name on everyone¡¯s tongue. Only the challenge fights did the audience scream louder, when Po Guah showed up and took on so many opponents at once that it was hard to track all of the action. Pokluk cheered right along with everyone else, but not louder than Yara. Then Lukal Lukal stepped onto the coliseum sands, and the cacophony grew ever louder. ~~~~~~~ Lukal Lukal stepped to the center of the coliseum, sidestepping where the Rising Star had fallen and shaking hands with his opponent. ¡°They are loud today, are they not?¡± ¡°They¡¯re cheering because they know you¡¯ve won. I¡¯m just dragging things out by refusing to concede,¡± Hien Ro said nervously. ¡°No, do you not hear? They cheer for you because you do not give up. And everyone can do the math. If I do poorly in our fight and Thaseus does well, then you have changed the course of the tournament simply by being stubborn. Still, I ask you to give this your all. Do not feed me points simply because the alternative gives us all a bad taste in our mouths,¡± Lukal Lukal said. ¡°I wasn¡¯t planning to,¡± Hien Ro said. They separated, and the judge ¨C Tornolai of course because he would allow nobody else to judge the important matches ¨C called out for the bout to begin. While weapons were allowed while fighting Little Bug ¨C everything was allowed when fighting Little Bug ¨C they were strictly forbidden the rest of the time. Techniques were free game, however, Giving Hien Ro an advantage as he conjured a wall of flame between them. Lukal Lukal leapt over the flames, but that was Hien Ro¡¯s goal, forcing him to obey the laws of physics for the duration of the leap. He spun the energy in his left hand and thrust it forward, and a miniature Rising Star fired upon Lukal Lukal. It was not so hot nor deadly as the attack that Little Bug had used on the coliseum floor, and it lacked the lightning element, but it -- Lukal Lukal was surrounded by dust, and the dust ablated the strike. He pulled back a hand and a spear formed if sand. It was technically a technique and not a weapon, so none cried foul when he let fly and-- A buckler of sand formed on Hien Ro¡¯s left hand and he took the blow upon the shield. The impact was as much spiritual as physical as Lukal Lukal¡¯s attacking spirit met Hien Ro¡¯s defensive morale, and his morale held. ¡°No points,¡± called the judge, signifying that none of the participants had landed a telling blow. They were within fisticuffs range now, however, and they proceeded with a rapid exchange of blows, striking with fist, elbow, knee and foot. Before long, Hien Ro was on the back foot, pressured by the older and more experienced fighter. He fought defensively, but he had nowhere to escape to, and finally Lukal Lukal landed a solid blow to his sternum that sent Hien Ro flying. He landed badly, rolled, and turned to face the older teen. ¡°One point!¡± the judge called. Hien Ro grinned. Lukal Lukal grinned. They were both having fun. They charged each other as the crowd cheered on. Twenty minutes later, the score was six to three, with Lukal Lukal winning on points. Technically the points that Hien Ro had scored were meaningless, as he was twenty points ahead of tenth place--who had no fights remaining--and ninety points behind eighth place, which nobody expected him to achieve when the only combatants left were elites. But Hien Ro walked out of the coliseum feeling like a champion as the crowd shouted his name. ? 37. Victory 37. Victory Alone I sat in a library, willing my spirit to adjust to the fluctuating spatial energies around me. It was the final step, and then I¡¯d emerge and step out of the purification realm and onto the Bronze path. After that, I¡¯d be able to accumulate power rapidly, as the Bronze Path is mostly linear, so long as you¡¯ve built the proper foundation. It would take me a while to fill the basin of the foundation I¡¯d establish, wide and deep as it was. I¡¯d be as strong as some golden cultivators when I reached silver. But that was the goal. I had to be strong enough to take on an empire by myself. I exhaled. I inhaled. I felt the subtle fluctuations in space-time that accompanied even the most stable storage items. I probed the corners of them with my Qi, and I focused on my understanding of the void . I was close. Fortunately I had managed to convince the others that I would not need to make another public appearance until the award ceremony, having battled my fill on the strongest of the contestants and given the masses their spectacle. I knew that I was missing Hien Ro¡¯s journey as he navigated the finales of the tournament, but ultimately that wasn¡¯t my path to walk with him. I had tried to explain, associating with him directly at this point would only paint a target on his back. I focused on pulling apart the mysteries of space instead of the things which were out of my control. Once the tournament was over, I would vanish from the public eye, and that was when I could worry about my relationships with my friends. I frowned. That was ¡­ a complication. I¡¯d have to leave them behind eventually, so tightening the bond any further would only cause more pain in the long run. Should I not maybe ¡­ I focused on the void instead of contemplating things which didn¡¯t need to be contemplated right then. ~~~~~~~ Jumper landed on Hien Ro¡¯s shoulder as they walked through the narrow streets of the city and began singing a sad song. Ro reached up to scratch the fat bird¡¯s plumage; the thing was already larger than a hawk. ¡°I miss him too, but I understand why he¡¯s hiding right now,¡± he told the spirit-bird, which had been sulking ever since Little Bug had vanished into the spatial ring. ¡°When the tournament is over, we¡¯ll head back to the mountain and¡ªhey!¡± The bird pecked his earlobe and flew off, circling the thermals until it was just a spec on the wind. Hien Ro shook his head and smirked. Today was the day, he reflected. The final day of the tournament. He was nervous to fight the brutal Thaseus, but also eager for the challenge. He was famous, but he knew in a strange way that it was not a lasting fame. One day soon things would go back to normal, and-- ¡°Ro! Hien Ro, there you are!¡± Yara shouted, coming up from behind him on the path to the coliseum from the place where they had been staying during their time in the city. The landlord had jacked the prices for everyone, but Little Bug had foreseen that and paid in advance to prevent trouble. ¡°What is it?¡± He asked Yara, wondering at the troubled sound in her voice. ¡°I cannot find my father, and I found this note,¡± she said, and she held out a letter. The paper was stained with blood. ~~~~~~ Thaseus pushed against the Earth, and the Earth did not move. Some things were simply impossible to move, some things were impossible to stop. Thaseus had fought many battles over the last few weeks, and he had amassed thousands of points. He would have amassed more but for the cowardice of his opponents, who would retire the moment they realized they were outclassed. Not all of them would, and Thaseus had grown adept at spotting the ones he could tease points from from the ones who needed to be taken care of quickly. Everyone in the tournament feared him, but it was that fear that had held him back from first place. If he had a reputation more like Lukal Lukal, who, while skilled, lacked Thaseus¡¯s ruthlessness and cunning, then he would not have had so many fighters retire from the tournament rather than face him. He had fought fifty-two battles, Lukal Lukal had faced eighty-nine opponents. Thaseus was ahead on average points, but Lukal Lukal would win the tournament because average points don¡¯t matter. He continued doing push-ups, reflecting on the inevitability of his win today. He grinned. Hien Ro had not been mentioned in his original briefing, weeks ago now, when the then-top ranked names had been whispered in his ear. Those names were forgotten, but he would remember Hien Ro.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Hien Ro would hand him the tournament. Once he had finished his set, he stood and picked up his weapon. A sword that was more like a hammer, its blade dull and designed for crushing more than cutting. It was heavy, half as heavy as he was, but he picked it up and worked his way through a kata, feeling his muscles come to life. He was sweating, but it was a good sweat. He would give Hien Ro his best, and he would finish this battle a champion. When he finished the kata, he dropped the sword. It hit the ground with a thud and did not clatter, too heavy to rebound. He felt better, and although he wished he could bring his favored weapon with him onto the arena floor, as he had when he had fought Po Guah¡¯s apparition, he would obey the tournament rules. No weapons. No killing, No crippling. Boring, boring, boring. But as he stepped onto the sands of the coliseum, he heard his name wash over him as it was chanted by a thousand tongues. He grinned. This was something that he had been looking forward to. The recognition, the acknowledgment of the masses of his superiority. That they were cheering for his opponent even more feverishly mattered not, they would cheer his name when he was victorious. He stepped forward to shake his opponent¡¯s hand, as had become a tradition at some point during the tournament for reasons nobody could quite place. Po Guah did that, he realized. That was the reason, they were aping that monster. It was fine, it gave him an opportunity to look his opponent in the eye. Hien Ro gave him a defiant expression, one filled with anger. That was good. ¡°Try to last the entire match,¡± he told the younger teen. ¡°I need the points.¡± ¡°I know,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°Damn you.¡± They took their places in the corners of the arena. Tornolai, who was once more judging the match, was silent for once until the gong rang signaling the beginning of the match. Thaseus dashed forward, raising a fist to crush his opponent. His opponent stood to meet it, and Hien Ro was blown away. Some things were immovable. Somethings were unstoppable Thaseus was unstoppable, and Hien Ro was but a minor road block in his way. He would crush him, and he would extract the points he needed from the match, and he would be crowned victor. It was as inexorable as gravity. ~~~~~~ ¡°Something is wrong,¡± Po Guah said, watching the final match of the tournament in the box seat with the vipers and sycophants who had been trying to tease out his secrets over the last few weeks. ¡°There is something off in Hien Ro¡¯s aura.¡± Tonilla frowned, but she placed an arm on the boy¡¯s forearm and attempted to reassure him. ¡°I¡¯m certain that he¡¯s simply¡ª¡± ¡°Never mind,¡± Po Guah said. ¡°I see the threads of fate and it is not my place to interfere.¡± Tonilla shivered, because for just a second the boy¡¯s eyes had gone white. It wasn¡¯t the first time she¡¯d heard of them doing that, but it was surprisingly disturbing to witness. Like a venerable ancestor looking at her life and judging her unworthy. Then the attention was back on the match as Thaseus beat Hien Ro around the sands of the coliseum in an utterly one sided fight. ~~~~~~ Thaseus was laughing. So much for a challenge. Hien Ro had so many openings in his combat that the older teenager wondered how it was that he¡¯d come so far. His fist connected with the boy¡¯s solar plexus and Hien Ro went flying, gasping, landing six feet away. ¡°Two points!¡± the judge called. Thaseus walked forward, giving the other boy time to recover, just to smash him in the head with a roundabout kick. He dashed forward this time and ¡­ Why wasn¡¯t Hien Ro fighting back? He paused, recognizing finally that something was wrong. The fans continued to shout, but some of them were jeering. Hien Ro was better than this. It was almost like he was just fighting to feed Thaseus points. But who would ¡­ Suspicion filled Thaseus at that moment, and he shot a glance towards his family¡¯s box seats. He walked forward to where Hien Ro was recovering from the beating he got. ¡°You are better than this,¡± Thaseus said in a voice that would not carry. ¡°Why do you not fight back?¡± ¡°Coward,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°You¡¯re a cheater and a coward. Adan Pocef has nothing to do with this tournament, yet you kidnapped him and hold him hostage and¡ª¡± ¡°Lies,¡± Thaseus whispered, but he knew the truth. The lengths that his family would go to in order to win. But why bother, when he had been so close to victory in the first place. He punched the down teen once more, and the boy fell unconscious. With the coup de grace delivered, he had scored thirty points, putting him into first place. He walked off of the sands of the coliseum for the last time as the crowd shouted and screamed. ? 38. Hollow 38. Hollow Thaseus soaked in the tub, a hollowness in his soul as suspicion and doubt crept into the cracks in his heart¡¯s foundation. He hadn¡¯t cheated, he knew that. He had faced each and every opponent with honor. He had crushed them, but in so doing he was honoring them and their willingness to enter the arena. He had earned his victory with sweat and blood and retrained violence, adhering to the rules of the tournament exactly. Even when his opponents withdrew after they had faced him, he had done nothing wrong. That one would lose heart after fighting someone so far above them was only expected. It was better to have them withdraw after facing him anyway, as that way he got the points from there matches and nobody else could get the points of facing such a weak and disheartened ¡­ He paused, thinking back. How many had withdraw immediately after facing him? It had been a few, he knew. Some of his highest scoring fights, actually. He had thought nothing of it at the time. But it was more than that. He had gained a reputation during the tournament, and it hadn¡¯t been uncommon for his opponents to withdraw rather than face him. It was how Lukal Lukal had come so close to winning; the other teen with his round face and happy but serious demeanor did not have a reputation of utterly crushing his opponents, and so he had fought more duels. Was there something there? Sinking beneath the waters of his bath, he blew bubbles and considered the problem from another angle. How far would his family go to ensure he won? And then he had his answer. ~~~~~~ A knock at the door, and Yara ran out of his arms to answer it. Adan was there, beaten and weary, but whole. He winced as he was enveloped in a hug by his daughter. Hien Ro sighed and stood. His injuries from the match were not really all that bad, but he was moving a little stiffly. Once Adan had embraced his daughter, he turned and kowtowed to Hien Ro. ¡°Master Ro. I thank you for saving my life,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯re welcome, Adan. I only did what I had to do,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°But I do want to know what happened. How did all of this play out?¡± Adan shifted nervously. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I placed a few bets once more,¡± he admitted. ¡°On you, and on the Young Master before he revealed himself. All of the bets on Lord Little Bug were canceled once he was revealed to the public, but I was set to make a tidy windfall on the bets that I had placed for you to place high in the tournament. As long as you made the top ten, I would have earned ten times my investment.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t supposed to be gambling, Adan. That¡¯s how you got your family into trouble in the first place,¡± Hien Ro reminded him. ¡°Yes, My Lord,¡± Adan said, accepting the rebuke. ¡°I saw this as a sure thing. However, as I was going to negotiate payment for my gamble, I was ambushed by ¡­ old friends. My former creditors, until you intervened. It seems that they did not see things as settled as we had hoped, and I was whisked away. They beat me, and then after some time I was told that someone had purchased my debt from them and that my fate rested in your hands, and that is all that I know.¡± Hien Ro sighed. ¡°Have you at least learned your lesson about gambling?¡± Adan shifted nervously. ¡°But sir ¡­ I am still owed for you earning ninth place,¡± he complained. Hien Ro sighed. ¡°Well then, let¡¯s go collect this debt. I can be a very jealous banker, and it seems that someone has purchased a leg from me and then defaulted on the payment.¡± ~~~~~~ The insects chirped in the night, filling the air with their music. Another sound filled the complex where Winding Alley Gang resided, so near the place where Yara had been born. She walked beside her father, listening to the screams coming from within the warehouse where the thugs who had once terrorized her and her family. One young man burst through the door. She made eye contact with him, and he rushed at her, a grabbing motion as he attempted to turn her into a human shield. She broke his arm and kicked him in the butt to send him running off into the darkness. The sounds of violence from within the warehouse quieted down, and she stepped inside to witness the chaos. Dozens of thugs were in various stages of recovering from a beating, and in one corner her boyfriend ¨C in one corner Hien Ro held a fat old man in the air by his neck. Hien Ro sighed in disgust and threw the man through a wall. He returned to Yara, shaking his head in disgust.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°They say they don¡¯t know anything about who was behind it,¡± he said. ¡°They admit to kidnapping your father, but claim that he was snapped up by an intermediary. A cultivator of the bronze path, not some random thug that I can just bully. I¡¯m sorry, Yara, but it seems that our investigation ends here.¡± ¡°Then it is a fine place for mine to begin!¡± a booming voice said, and a humanoid figure burst through the wall, sending bricks flying. The teenagers turned and were surprised to find one of the judges from the tournament. At least, that was all that they knew him as. ¡°Who are you?¡± Hien Ro asked. ¡°I am Tornolai!¡± he said. ¡°And I thought that something was strange, so I sent a Dao Avatar to follow you after your match! Someone has thrown the legitimacy of my tournament into question, and I shall ensure that in the future, the precedent is set for what happens to such fools!¡± The man laughed uproariously for a moment, while the teens exchanged awkward glances. ¡°Yeah, okay. Well, I guess if you¡¯re from the tournament then we¡¯ll just tell you everything we know,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°I don¡¯t know that we have enough to lodge a formal complaint, but¡ª¡± ¡°Simply tell me everything you know or suspect. Hold nothing back!¡± the man said. The teenagers exchanged looks once more, then shrugged and began to relay everything they could about the corruption they¡¯d fallen victim to. ~~~~~~~ The sounds of violence woke him from a deep slumber. In the hours of pre-dawn, Thaseus threw back the sheets and reached for his stone sword, rushing out in the courtyard to face these fools who would dare face his family in the heart of their fortress. His father and his uncle would soon show them just how mistaken they were, but there were sure to be small-fry in any attack force brought to bear against his family, and dealing with them would fall on Thaseus. He was not the only one to rush into the courtyard, as the entirety of his family¡¯s compound¡¯s fighters had the same thoughts. One of the guard towers was shattered and the other was in flames, with the voices of men screaming from inside. In the center of the courtyard was a single figure, with all of the forces of Thaseus¡¯s family arrayed against him. ¡°Is this all you have?¡± the figure asked. ¡°I do hate hunting rats, let¡¯s get this done all at once.¡± The figure snapped his fingers, and a golden wall sprung up around the entire compound. Thaseus swallowed. He had never seen the formation which sealed off his family¡¯s compound from the outside world before ¡­ But he was fairly certain that it would not look like that. ¡°Now then, let¡¯s figure out who knew what,¡± the figure said. It split in two, and then two again, then tisked. ¡°Shown up by a little brat,¡± it muttered. The Dao avatars split off and began systematically disassembling the forces against it. Thaseus swallowed as he realized that a golden path cultivator had come to face his family for some perceived slight. If he was very lucky, he might survive. But when one of the four figures turned its attention on him, he felt hope fade from him as a wave of unimaginable power pinned him down in place. ~~~~~~~ ¡°And that¡¯s all I know. I swear on my soul,¡± Thaseus said in the wreckage of his childhood home. Around him were broken bodies and shattered men. His father and uncle among them. The compound where he had lived, and the fields where he had trained from early childhood, were in shambles and smoking with the devastation that this gold path cultivator had wrought. The assailant questioning him had beaten all of those of the bronze path or higher, but merely swatted down those who were still building their foundations before turning to question them. When it had come to be Thaseus¡¯s turn, the contestant had held nothing back, knowing that the advanced cultivator would see through the deceit. Even though he had nothing but suspicions, Thaseus knew the truth. ¡°If you had attempted to lie to me, I would have shattered your cultivation,¡± the golden eyed Dao avatar stated. ¡°I know overwhelming strength when I see it,¡± Thaseus admitted. ¡°I have done nothing wrong. I did not know that my family was rigging the fights to feed me points until now. I was going to confront them myself and refuse the grand prize out of principle. What you have done, grand elder, is nothing more than justice.¡± ¡°I know that,¡± the figure said. It stroked its chin, then shrugged. ¡°But your innocence presents a problem. I do not wish future competitors to try to rig the tournament, but at the same point I wish for them to give the competition their all. As you have done. Had you been complicit, I would have simply annihilated you. That would solve all problems, but it would leave others afraid in the future of score rigging behind the scenes on their behalf. I do not wish for this taint to color the legitimacy of the tournament, but now the scandal will taint the awards ceremony tomorrow. I¡¯m uncertain how to handle the situation¡­¡± ¡°My lord, if I may?¡± Thaseus said. ¡°Speak.¡± ¡°You have made your point. My family lies crippled and weakened by your actions tonight. It will cause waves throughout the city as they wonder what it was that we have done to earn such retribution, but ultimately those who know will know. Knowing that the tournament has such a powerful figure ensuring its legitimacy will ensure that future attempts at rigging the outcome are curtailed to only the most petty and the most daring.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­¡± the golden figure said. ¡°Yes. It is something of a cry for mercy, but at the same point you¡¯re not entirely wrong. We¡¯ll play it that way for now. For now we shall pretend that nothing has gone wrong, and you shall accept the reward as scheduled. Goodbye, little pawn.¡± The figure streaked into a line of light and vanished in the distance. The wall of light cutting his family¡¯s compound off from the rest of the world faded, and Thaseus fell to his knees. His heart pounded as he realized how close he had come to death. Then he forced himself up and, as one of the few uninjured men remaining in the compound, began organizing the recovery efforts. ? 39. Resonance 39. Resonance The award ceremony was scheduled to last the entire day, beginning with a parade in which the top twenty-five competitors were hauled all through the city on massive floats, surrounded by dancing performers. The city was still shaking from the reverberations of the violence from the night before between the champion¡¯s family and an unknown but powerful cultivator. While such things were unsettling, they were ultimately not that far out of the norm in the Ker¡¯tath peninsula, so although the timing was strange, nobody questioned it too much. Instead a million people rushed through the streets to get an eye on the champions, screaming and celebrating the conclusion to the weeks-long event which had captivated their attention and hearts. Almost everyone in the city had attended at least one day of the tournament. Not everyone could afford a seat for the final ceremony, and so the parade was their final chance to get an eye on their heroes, and everyone was eager to get whatever reflected glory they could. Fortunately for his peace of mind, Hien Ro¡¯s own float was far behind Thaseus¡¯s. He smiled and waved at the cheering crowds, with Jumper perched on his shoulder for much of the journey. When they finally unloaded inside the coliseum, things ironically quieted down as he was ushered into one of the many waiting rooms and the master of ceremony explained the presentation of his reward. Having placed ninth, he would be awarded financially. For the purpose of showmanship, a treasure trove of valuables would be presented to him during the ceremony, but those weren¡¯t his actual rewards. Rather, he was quietly given a chit which he could redeem at one of the local money changers, taking his rewards in a more convenient form than piles of jewelry and gilded silverware. Hien Ro was actually very relieved at this arrangement, and assured the master of ceremony that he would play his role cheerfully. After everything was explained, he was dressed in a fine robe, then forced to wait for three hours as the parade finished and everything else was lined up. When he was finally scheduled to take his place on the victory platform, his name was called, and the audience cheered at him as he walked. He was presented with the fake awards, then he stood on the podium as the rest of the top ten filed in. He was only slightly surprised to see Thaseus in good health, although the young man seemed very distracted and introspective. With the victors in place, it was time to award the grand prizes. One of the announcers came over to them. He shouted his question in a voice which carried through the buzzing coliseum. ¡°There are seven prizes to be awarded. Three of these prizes are the same, a personalized technique developed by the awakened soul of Po Guah. A weapon from the Silver Anvil to be forged to the recipient¡¯s specification. A Sacred Paths Heaven¡¯s Will Bending Ascension pill, which is said to be enough to raise anyone from the purification realm onto the bronze path. A dozen World Walking Pills. And a trove of Sacred Stones. These rewards are not ranked, but rather to be chosen by the champions, with the first prize going to the grand champion. Tell me Thaseus, which reward do you desire?¡± Thaseus was silent for a moment, then he said ¡°The technique.¡± Lukal Lukal also selected the technique. In a surprise upset, the third place winner selected the custom weapon instead, allowing a very excited fourth place winner to snap up the final promised technique. Hien Ro lost interest in the rest of the ceremony, simply standing and smiling as the coliseum cheered at its champions. As the finale, Little Bug came out to give a speech. The crowd cheered at seeing the young boy, whom none doubted would have claimed the championship had he been allowed. Unlike the announcer who introduced him, Little Bug spoke at a quiet, measured pace. ¡°People of the city of Mer¡¯cah. I thank you for your welcome and celebrate the common ground that your various factions have found in founding this tournament. I was there when the idea was presented to the organizers, and the purpose was singular. To give experiential opportunities to their juniors. However, I believe that this has become much more than that. I believe that this tournament has the potential to become a keystone upon which the various factions of the south may reconcile and¡ª¡± He paused, turning to look up. The audience, eagerly listening, looked up at the same time. A figure flew floated above the center of the coliseum, flowing silver robes. Half of his face was rotten away, and his left hand was missing. ¡°I found you,¡± Ko Ren said. He raised his left stump, and a line of energy connected him with Little Bug. The resulting explosion knocked Hien Ro into the stone of the arena walls. He took a minute to recover, then stood, dazed, as the world screamed. ¡°Who dares!¡± came the challenge, and Ko Ren cursed as he recognized the power in that voice. The ants scurried beneath him, but he¡¯d accomplished his goals in killing Little Bug, so he turned to flee. A blast of energy hit him in the side, causing an explosion that rocked the city. Ko Ren cursed, realizing that he would not be getting away so simply. He turned to face his attacker, and found a gregarious man with an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face. ¡°Who dares?¡± Tornolai repeated. ¡°This is none of your concern. It is a private matter that required my personal intervention,¡± Ko Ren explained. ¡°I apologize for¡ª¡± ¡°Enough! Face me, demonic cultivator, and I shall show you heaven¡¯s justice!¡± Ko Ren conjured a spear just in time. Their battle shook the heavens above the city of Mer¡¯cah. Explosions filled the air as Qi and esoteric energies collided with each other. However, the city¡¯s defender faced a serious disadvantage. When a stray blast wandered too close to a residential district, Tornolai burned to much of his reserves in containing the destruction. Realizing his advantage, Ko Ren began targeting the places that mortals would gather. Hien Ro watched the battle in the sky along with everyone else who wasn¡¯t running for cover. It took him back to the days when he¡¯d been young, staring at the lights and flashes as the immortals had done battle in the sky. The Lord of the Realm had faced off against some invading enemy, and more than that wasn¡¯t widely known, but while the energies of this battle were pale reflections of those unleashed during those days, their proximity was much closer. But even so, Hien Ro understood something that his mortal counterparts did not. If a stray blast on this level headed his direction, it would take more than a simple wall to stop the energies from ripping him apart. Instead he walked to the center of the initial blast, where Little Bug had stood. Lukal Lukal joined him, as did Thaseus and the other victors. ¡°So much for our grand prize,¡± the fourth place victor muttered. ¡°Now is not the time for that,¡± Lukal Lukal said. He sighed, looking towards the thundering heavens. ¡°Now is the time to pray to the gods for mercy and intervention.¡±The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°He¡¯s not dead,¡± Hien Ro said. Lukal Lukal put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I know that before he revealed himself you were his friend, and¡ª¡± ¡°This wasn¡¯t him. Not really,¡± Hien Ro clarified. ¡°He wasn¡¯t really here.¡± The others turned, seeing that their fellow victor was in denial, but they said nothing. Hien Ro held out his hand, where a glorious ring decorated one finger. ¡°Do you know what¡¯s happening? Don¡¯t come out. Not yet. Not until it¡¯s safe.¡± ~~~~~~ I gasped as my false reflection was shattered. I blinked in confusion for a moment, then pulled at the corner of my mind where the memories of that reflection were shunted. I frowned, replaying the avatar¡¯s final moments. I closed my eyes as I understood what had come about because I had revealed myself. Then I spent a few moments determining the correct course of action. It was rather simple and obvious when I put my mind to it. People were being hurt because of me. I would endeavor to be their shield. I put aside my current meditations on the nature of the void and quietly walked through the library where I¡¯d spent the last few weeks. I pulled at the corners of the lock that kept this dimension sealed off from the rest of the world of Atla-- And I felt my attunement to the void click into place. It had been my false reflection holding it back, and now that I was entirely me again everything fell into place. I blinked in surprise, for why hadn¡¯t I thought of that sooner? I pulled open the dimensions the rest of the way and stepped through the gateway that formed. I emerged into chaos, filled with smoke and screams. Hien Ro was nearby, as were many of the young competitors. He was looking at his ring, talking to it. I ignored him, sitting in the lotus position. While I would soon commit to helping as many caught in the destruction of the battle between Ko Ren and Tornolai, right now I needed to do something that I could not have done until just that moment. I needed to step upon the bronze path. Taking a deep breath, I reached out to the chaotic spiritual energy, churned up by the battle in the heaven, and I pulled . ~~~~~~ Ko Ren felt the sudden shift in ambient Qi, turning back to the coliseum, which lay half in ruins from the raging battle between him and this unknown golden path cultivator. He cursed, recognizing that he had failed. He raised his hand to conjure another attack, targeting the epicenter of the vacuum that was gathering energy from the world, but he was cut off as his opponent launched a reckless attack. ¡°Damn you,¡± Ko Ren shouted, turning back to face down this interloper. ¡°Don¡¯t you know what¡¯s at stake here? I am doing the world a favor by slaying that leech!¡± ¡°Yes, and if you must burn down a city or two then what¡¯s the harm?¡± his opponent taunted. ¡°You do not walk in the light of your ancestors.¡± ¡°Fool!¡± Ko Ren shouted, and the battle in the heavens carried on. ~~~~~~ Tonilla felt the ascension from where she had taken shelter. She turned in the direction of the power vacuum, wondering who it was that was breaking through onto the silver path at this point in time. What secrets had they glimpsed? What path did they walk, to draw so heavily from the word during this time of strife. She decided that she must know, so she decided to forgo the relative safety of the deep subbasements of the coliseum, rooms that only those who had been involved in the planning stages knew about. She emerged onto the coliseum floor moments later to find Po Guah surrounded by the victors of their tournament, a circle of young fighters turned inward as they gaped. She too stared, uncomprehending, as she witnessed the ascension. The amount of energy that the boy was gathering was far beyond what she¡¯d ever seen a bronze ranker utilize for anything but ascending to the silver path. But then she reminded herself of whom she was watching and decided to simply accept what was happening. The voices of the two golden path cultivators boomed out over the din and the screaming of the commoners. She turned to Hien Ro, whom she regretted not cultivating a closer relationship with. ¡°How did he survive the attack? That blast would have slain an elder,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯ll have to ask him. I¡¯m not even worthy to speak with him, though I walked side by side with him from the north and delivered him on your doorstep,¡± the teenager taunted. ¡°You never even delivered my messages.¡± ¡°What are you¡ªno, you¡¯re right. I apologize,¡± she said. ¡°But what happens now. How far will he¡ª¡± Abruptly the vacuum ceased, and the energy of the world stilled around them. Po Guah stood and turned to her. ¡°Get as many to shelter as you can,¡± the boy said authoritatively, and then he split into a hundred, each avatar running in a different direction. ~~~~~~ Fate shifted all around me. Decisions were being made which would ripple through time for decades to come. Lives were ending, new paths were opening, and above all, things were changing. I walked one hundred paths at once, rushing through the city, pulled by the strings of fate. I could not save everyone, even split into one hundred avatars. But I saved those I could, pulling children from rubble, healing the injured with techniques from beyond time and space, and standing as a bulwark between the titans battling above us and the small people of the city. I set up hundreds of small formations which would serve as shields, and tried to usher as many into them as I could. Behind the energies of those wards they would be ¡­ not safe, but safer than hiding in the basements and the alleyways where they crowded now. I helped criminal and saint the same, for it was neither time nor place to judge them. Nor was it my responsibility. That I could see the sins of some of those I saved weighing them down did not mean that they deserved to die in an attack which came about because of my presence. And while I did these things, I did one more. Each formation I created was one piece of a greater whole. Working above and beyond the ken of mortals, I put together the pieces of a puzzle to form a gestalt. Slowly, the ambient energy of the city began to flow in a new direction. ~~~~~~ Ko Ren screamed as his old injuries became suddenly inflamed. Bong! He heard it, from somewhere, the impossible, dreadful sound echoing through time. Bong! Distracted as he was, he took the full force of one of his assailant¡¯s attacks, punching a hole through his stomach. He screamed and prepared a counterattack. Bong! The purifying energies that had lodged in his body from the final attack of the Asura resonated, and he could do nothing to stop them from. It wouldn¡¯t be enough to kill him; he had survived that attack already, and the scars of it did not frighten him. Bong! But it was enough to distract him while he was already engaged in a life or death battle with someone who was proving to be his equal. Ko Ren screamed in frustration as he turned tail and fled. His assailant gave chase, but when Ko Ren unleashed one final attack aimed not at the unknown golden path cultivator but at the city itself, the cultivator used his own body as a shield, and Ko Ren used the opportunity to flee. Back to the north. ? 40. United 40. United The fires were put out. The survivors were healed, and the dead were buried. The city of Mer¡¯cah began the long process of healing. It mourned its dead, and it celebrated its heroes. It¡¯s mortal leaders did their best with the logistics of the recovery while the cultivators gathered to investigate what had happened, demanding answers as to who had attacked them and why. The council that had initially begun as the ringleader for the tournament became an investigatory body. I, along with Pi Phon and Hien Ro, were called to answer for what the patriarch of the Six Mountain Sect had done. I was not presumed guilty, as the obvious target of the attack, and anyway my heroics during the battle in the sky were too much for them to ignore and try to pin the blame on me. Rather, I was a witness in the investigation, forcing me to sit through hours of testimony from all sides of the matter. I listened as Tornolai described the sense of corruption that he had witnessed in the attacker¡¯s Qi. The shallowness of the attackers Dao, the falseness of his power. I nodded along, pleased that the gregarious and boisterous man could have a serious side. A serious side which faded the moment he was relieved from giving his testimony, as he vanished shouting about alcohol and brothels. I listened as Pi Phon relayed the events which had led to the schism in the Six Mountain Sect. He detailed the growing unease which he had felt, whispers of elders and juniors and friends going missing, of ¡®mortals¡¯ with the faces of advanced cultivators. He told the tale of how Di Phon had seen the corruption coming and chosen to face it alone, sending out his loyal son and what companions he trusted to the safety of the south. These facts backed up his previous words on the matter. He had been warning the elite of the city of the split between the loyalists of the Six Mountain Sect and the new faction, the Sovereign Summit Sect, from the day he¡¯d set foot in the city. They hadn¡¯t believed him before when he¡¯d spoken of demonic cultivation and the raising of undead, but the recent events had given credence to every word that he¡¯d uttered before. Finally it was my turn to speak. And I did not know what to say. ¡°Do you know why it was that Ko Ren has targeted you, Little Bug?¡± Tonilla asked me. ¡°Because the master who has been feeding him demonic knowledge wishes to devour my soul,¡± I said after debating how to explain the matter in simple terms for hours. I had foreseen the question coming, and so it only took moments to select which of the responses would be best from the list I had thought of. ¡°There is no other reason?¡± Tonilla pressed. ¡°His master¡¯s master pursues me because of events from one of my previous lives,¡± I admitted. ¡°There is nothing that I have done in this life to warrant such animosity. But through the last hundred lives I have lived, my life has been cut short because of their pursuit. They have gone to lengths greater than this to kill me. They will go to lengths greater than this to kill me.¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°What would happen if we turned you over to them?¡± one of the other elders inquired. ¡°Speak with the people of your city and answer that question for yourself,¡± I suggested, confident in my popularity among the masses. ¡°Would it bring an end to such attacks?¡± the elder pressed. I sighed. ¡°No. The hand which corrupts this world sees this as an opportunity above and beyond simply grasping my soul, it is an opportunity to spread his influence beyond the reach of the one who holds his leash. Now that he has planted his seed in the soils of Atla, he will not stop until he has claimed the harvest. Ko Ren and others like him will continue to seek out more and more power whether I am here to face them or not.¡± ¡°Has this happened before?¡± the elder asked. ¡°This exact situation? No, but they have shown their willingness to corrupt and destroy the innocent lives,¡± I said. ¡°Would you like to hear of all the times in which they succeeded in killing me before I gathered power? Would you like to hear of the devastation that they leave in their wake each time my soul germinates a new form? Do not think that I enjoy this game of endless sorrow that my presence leaves in its wake. It is breaking that cycle which gives my life purpose, and whether you stand behind me, or beside me, I shall endeavor to shield you from the corruption of the Divine Fates Empire.¡± There was a gasp suddenly as I named my enemy. ¡°Are you claiming that the attack, the entire battle in the heavens, that was due to your presence in this world?¡± the elder demanded harshly. ¡°I do not get to choose where or whence I am born,¡± I said. ¡°But Empress Nadia presses her vengeance without regard for those who are caught in the wake. I am fortunate that the realm of this world was able to stand between she and I, for if she had not been forestalled, this entire world would be but ash and ruin. Just as the one whence I spent my last, short and meaningless life.¡± ¡°And what did you do to her to warrant such persecution?¡± the elder demanded. ¡°I watched as the world burned around her. I watched as time took away all that she loved and held dear. I watched as every attempt to forestall the inevitable failed and entropy shattered that which had once been whole into millions of pieces. I watched as her life drew to a close, and when all that she had left to turn to were demonic techniques, I closed my eyes and looked away,¡± I admitted. ¡°So it is your fault¡ª¡± ¡°Enough, Elder Sila,¡± Tonilla said. ¡°But¡ª¡± ¡°Enough,¡± she repeated. ¡°There is clearly more to this story than we are ready to comprehend. Thank you, Po Guah, for sharing as much as you have about the cycle of your past lives. The question I have to ask is how do we stop the devastation which you mentioned, which overcame your world in your previous existence? How do we stand against the Divine Fates Empire?¡± I considered her words carefully before answering with but one of my own. ¡°United.¡± Writathon update So, for those of you who were wondering, yes I''ve cleared the writathon cutoff of 55,555 words. By significantly more than the cutoff, actually. This marks the end of what I was originally calling part 2 of a series of novellas, but which, after I''ve continued to write in the series, I have instead decided to simply call the halfway point of book 1. It''s also where I started writing on Nov 1 2024. Presently, book 1 is 152,738 words long. With a starting point of 88k words, that means that when I finished writing book 1 a week ago, I''d already won the writathon at about 65k words. I''ve written another 37,657 words in book 2. In other words, I''ve written about 102k words since Nov 1. So yeah, although we''re just getting into the new stuff, I''m officially declaring victory.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. For those of you who are impatient to view the rest of the story, I would direct you to my patreon, where you can either purchase the completed novel as an .epub or subscribe and get it for free, your choice. Chapters will be once per day for the at least the next sixty days or so, unless I get distracted by something and need to slow down writing, in which case I''ll bump it down to twice a week like my other stories. Either way I have enough backlog for the next two months+ I hope you have enjoyed the story, and I''d love to hear from you in the comment section! I''d also appreciate a review if you have the time. Also, I just want to say, I''m especially proud of the finale of book 1. 41. Politics 41. Politics Many things were said and done in my name which I had no involvement in during the weeks following the attack on the city of Mer¡¯cah. I became a figurehead, the hero that the people cheered for as the smoke of the fires cleared and the rubble was carried away and the dead were counted and burned. I was a symbol of hope, and who was I to take that hope away from them? I dared not appear in my true body, but I walked through the city in avatar form, often doing nothing more than allowing myself to be seen, but changing lives as I did so. I could see the effect that I was having on these people as they gathered to speak with me, cheer at me, or simply watch me pass by. I felt the bonds reaching out between myself and the city, and reluctantly I was forced to accept them. All the while I walked the silent halls of the library inside the ring on Hien Ro¡¯s finger, reading and learning the history of the Six Mountain Sect. Three weeks passed, and I felt the strings of fate begin to strengthen as the important decisions were made by others in power. More and more began pulling at me, forking in opposite direction. Appearing and vanishing every moment as action and inaction took their consequences. I am not prescient. Not truly. Nor am I omniscient. I see more than a mortal, but less than a god, and in that gap lies an ocean. Finally, the course of the future split in two directions when Hien Ro received an invitation from the Council of Mer¡¯cah, which was initially formed to oversee the tournament but had grown beyond that purpose in the wake of Ko Ren¡¯s attack. As he sat, reading the invitation, I left the ring to appear to him. ¡°Dammit, give me some warning before you pop in out of nowhere!¡± he exclaimed, rubbing his head, for I¡¯d surprised him and caused him to launch himself into the ceiling. ¡°What does the invitation say?¡± I inquired. He passed it over for me to read. It was an invitation to speak with the council about Hien Ro¡¯s future. It was strongly suggested that he had been scouted by a number of their constituent sects and that this was an opportunity to press him to join one of them. I nodded, because Hien Ro¡¯s talent had blossomed since we¡¯d come south, and he¡¯d done quite well in the tournament from what I remember watching through my Dao Avatar¡¯s eyes. ¡°What do I do?¡± he asked me. ¡°That¡¯s up to you,¡± I said. ¡°Okay, so what are you going to do,¡± he asked. ¡°Because I intend to follow you no matter where you go.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t be possible forever, Brother Ro,¡± I informed him sadly. ¡°But very well. For as long as I remain on Atla, I shall try to make certain you will walk by my side.¡± ¡°Okay. Good. So no more hiding in the ring?¡± ¡°I¡¯m finished with the ring,¡± I admitted. ¡°I have everything I need from it. It¡¯s time to give it back to its proper owners.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t get to keep it?¡± he asked mournfully. ¡°Enough time has passed that I do not believe agents of Ko Ren will attempt to assassinate any of my Dao Avatars any longer. And since I believe only you know me well enough to tell the difference between my true self and an avatar, I shall go with you to this meeting,¡± I informed him. ¡°And we shall give the ring back to Pi Phon together.¡± Hien Ro sighed, looking at the opalescent ring on his finger. ¡°Too bad. I would have liked to have owned a country.¡± ~~~~~~ Tonilla stretched, feeling her vertebrae pop pleasantly after having sat in the same pose for hours. Now that the ¡®important¡¯ matters were dealt with, she could deal with the important matters. She had escorted the avatar back to the private chambers, where a light meal was set out for them to share during the break of the council meeting. ¡°Tell me, Po Guah. How do you truly feel about Sila?¡± she inquired. The young awakened soul shrugged, relieving himself in a chamberpot in the corner of the room. ¡°He¡¯s a vapid mouthbreather whose opinions are as predictable as a spring rain. But he¡¯s one of the less offensive members of your make-shift court.¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! She grinned. It was always fascinating to see behind the mask of this boy, and he was so different when she was alone with him. If he were a few years older she would press her luck a bit further, but she was content to share her bed with Pi Phon for the moment. ¡°And Loren?¡± she asked. ¡°She¡¯s got nice tits.¡± ¡°It¡¯s curious that you¡¯d notice such things,¡± Tonilla commented. ¡°I¡¯m a boy. I might have an awakened soul, but I¡¯ve also got a healthy body,¡± Pi Guah said. ¡°It¡¯s rather frustrating that it¡¯s impossible not to notice those things to be honest.¡± They continued to discuss the ¡®court¡¯ as Po Guah called it, and she carefully took notes on the boy¡¯s preference of each member of the council. With Po Guah as her figurehead, she was establishing a very nice little fiefdom, and she was rather-- ¡°Oh, he¡¯s here,¡± the boy said suddenly. He turned to her and smiled. ¡°It¡¯s been fun playing politics with you, ma¡¯am.¡± Then he puffed into mist. Just like the avatars always do when they¡¯d served their purpose, she realized. And it was in that moment that she realized she¡¯d been cultivating a relationship with an avatar for three weeks, unaware that it was merely a reflection of the boy she wanted to get to know and influence. She let out a scream of frustration, punching a hole in the wall. A nervous servant appeared moments later to inform her that ¡°Master Hien Ro and an Avatar of the Awakened Soul have appeared and are requesting an audience with the council.¡± She got her emotions back under control and forced a smile onto her face. It wasn¡¯t one that touched her eyes, but she instructed the servant to show them to the waiting area and inform the other council members of the adjustments to the schedule. Hien Ro hadn¡¯t been very important when they¡¯d known where the real body of Po Guah had been. But now that illusion was dispelled, the pawn had reached the end of the board and become the queen once more. As she had time to cool down, she was forced to respect the deftness with which she and the rest of the council had been played. She wasn¡¯t far enough along her path to make an avatar herself, but she knew a bit about them. One could see through their eyes, they could speak through their lips. Avatars could act as an extension of oneself in every way possible. Or they could be false mirrors and disposable edifices. It was impossible to say which type of avatar had been playing court with her over the last three weeks. Most likely the avatar was aligned with the real Po Guah on the important matters, while little things were intentionally skewed or altered to give a false impression. She didn¡¯t know how much effort was being put in to misguide their attempts at ¡®handling¡¯ him, and so she didn¡¯t know how much effort had been lost. For that matter, she didn¡¯t know when the switch had been made and when the ¡®real¡¯ body had vanished on them. Or where it had gone to over the last few weeks. Then she smiled as she realized that she could turn this to her advantage. She rang a bell, a servant appeared, and moments later two teenage boys were sitting in the room where the avatar had vanished on her moments later. ¡°It was very clever, playing us like that,¡± she commented to Po Guah. ¡°Thank you for pulling the veil aside for me. Would you do me a favor, perhaps, and refrain from doing the same to my colleagues?¡± Po Guah shrugged. ¡°I make no promises. But I am hungry.¡± And so they ate, and she noticed that this version of the boy touched none of the noted favorites of the avatar she had been dealing with, sticking to simple white rice and fried vegetables. But he ate quite a bit of them. ¡°What is this about, anyway?¡± Hien Ro inquired. ¡°Why was I summoned?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s as the letter said. Some of the members of our makeshift alliance have noticed your potential and wish to inquire as to your plans for the future. As you know your old Sect, the Six Mountains Sect, has suffered an irreparable schism, with the two sides set to go to war. You needn¡¯t be consumed in those fires.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°Well I¡ª¡± ¡°Listen to their offer. The entire offer, Brother Ro,¡± Po Guah said, and Hien Ro¡¯s mouth snapped shut. ¡°The Raging River Sect is one of those who is offering an invitation to join, but the others will cry foul if I do not let them present their terms at the same time, so I will simply say that we want you as an inner sect disciple and will offer great resources to assist you in reaching the bronze path,¡± she said. ¡°I thank you for your consideration and will listen to those terms in more detail when the others present their offers as well,¡± Hien Ro said, almost mechanically. ¡°Now then, tell me, Po Guah, what do you really think of Sila?¡± ¡°Who?¡± ? 42. Library 42. Library Pi Phon was eating in his room when the servant brought in a small card informing him that a minor matter on the agenda had been moved up to the top. He inspected the revised schedule and shrugged, going back to his eggs and pork. Tonilla had been increasingly shutting him out after she¡¯d finished exploiting his relationship with Little Bug to build her own. He was, if anything, grateful for the relief, as there was only so much that duty can take from a man and she¡¯d been pushing him to his limit for a while. He might be a cultivator, but after a certain point enough was just enough. Fortunately her efforts at building a kingdom for herself had taken her full priority lately, allowing him much needed rest. Instead she spent all of her time cultivating her relationship with Little Bug¡¯s Avatar. He grinned, chewing on his pork, reflecting that he knew something that she didn¡¯t. There was simply no way that Little Bug had sent his real self to the council. It was obvious to anyone who¡¯d known him before that his mannerisms were different. He was louder, more boisterous, and in general less ¡­ Little Bug, than his true self. He¡¯d figured it out after spending about two hours with the avatar, but remained silent on the matter ever since. It was a clear advantage for the boy that he was reluctant to spoil anytime soon. After he finished eating, he returned to the meeting room and sat on his cushion, patiently waiting for the others to arrive. Once everyone was present, Tonilla arrived and called the meeting to order. ¡°As chairperson of this council, I made an executive decision to move the matter of Hien Ro to the top of the agenda on the account that he was extremely prompt at answering our invitation, and as such I thought it would be discourteous to force this close ally of Po Guah to wait while we discuss minor matters,¡± she said. ¡°The hereditary dispute between the Ouster Monkey Sect and the Western Jade Sect isn¡¯t a minor matter!¡± one of the councilpersons objected. ¡°No, the resolution of that grudge remains a significant priority for the council. But that is something which has been ongoing for six generations and so it can wait thirty minutes while we deal with something which is somewhat more time sensitive,¡± she amended, conceding a point while remaining in control. The man who made the complaint grunted and seemed mollified. ¡°Remind me, what is the matter with Hien Ro in regards to?¡± Pi Phon questioned. Tonilla had the grace to look embarrassed. ¡°Well, Pi Phon, you see, some members of the council wish to invite him to join their sect. With the trouble in the north, you must understand, it would be a shame for such a promising young talent to¡ª¡± Pi Phon closed his eyes as he recognized that he was being managed. The members of the council were attempting to poach Hien Ro from the Six Mountain Sect right in front of him and they worried that he would be upset. To his surprise, he was upset. It was an insult to his sect that they would do this, a minor slap in the face. But at the same point, they weren¡¯t wrong. The schism, the oncoming fight, it only made sense that Hien Ro might seek refuge in the south. And so far the faithful of the Six Mountain Sect hadn¡¯t shown any reason why the south should be afraid to poach its talented young members. ¡°I understand,¡± Pi Phon said, interrupting his former lover with an icy tone. ¡°Rest assured that I shall allow Hien Ro to come to his own decision on this matter without interference from me.¡± The others seemed to relax at seeing that he wasn¡¯t rising it outrage. He sighed, suppressing his anger inward as the boys were called into the room. He recognized immediately that this was the true body of Little Bug, but he made no sign of it. The others greeted him cordially, but he knelt on the cushion next to Hien Ro as a supplicant rather than part of the council, leaving one cushion on the council empty.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°I am here to advise my brother on how to proceed and not to take part in your discussions at this time,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°I request that, at present, you treat me as a stranger.¡± The others, surprised by the request but eager to play along, all agreed, and the matter was opened. One by one, three of the sects represented in the council made their pitches to Hien Ro, explaining briefly of their heritage and their techniques and their standing and the many other things that they had to offer him. When they finished, they reluctantly allowed the next to speak, until they had all had a turn. Hien Ro listened impassively. He looked like he was about to say something at the end, but looked at Little Bug instead. Little Bug just smiled. ¡°It¡¯s time to part with your ring, Hien Ro.¡± At that moment, everyone glanced at Hien Ro¡¯s hand and saw that he had an opalescent ring. However, when he took it off, he handed it to Little Bug, and the room suddenly spun and they were in a dark place. The others jumped in surprise. Pi Phon was surprised as well, but he saw something that immediately put him at ease. The sign for ¡°Library¡± and ¡°Six Mountain Sect¡± towered before him. ~~~~~~ I sometimes forget out jumpy people can be, or else I would have given more warning before opening the gate to the library and bringing everyone inside the ring. It took them ten minutes for everyone to calm down and allow me to explain my purpose in those actions. ¡°I brought you here to demonstrate that you are all underestimating the value of the traditions of the Six Mountain Sect,¡± I explained. ¡°I encourage everyone to wander these halls for an hour and examine the books that you find. When you have finished, I wish for you to reevaluate what it is that you offer my brother, Hien Ro, when he already possesses this treasure trove.¡± The others were surprised, and some of the elders got the expressions of immense greed, forgetting for a moment that they couldn¡¯t read the language of the north and had to resort to only looking at the diagrams of the techniques and manuals. Pi Phon stepped up to me when the others were occupied, an angry expression on his face. ¡°These are the secrets of the Six Mountain Sect, Little Bug. You cannot just¡ª¡± ¡°The advanced library is impossible to get to from here. This is the common area, where the copies of the common books and scrolls are kept,¡± I assured him. ¡°And even so this library is six decades out of date. I believe that its old caretakers passed away of old age and Di Phon never replaced them.¡± ¡°The age of a secret makes it more precious, not less,¡± Pi Phon argued, but hearing that the secret areas were sealed off seemed to take some of the thunder out of him. He turned and looked around at the emptiness outside of the library. ¡°I carried this with me without realizing, didn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I said. ¡°And you carried me, once, without realizing what I was.¡± ¡°I did, didn¡¯t I?¡± he said. ¡°What are you, Little Bug?¡± ¡°I am what I am,¡± I answered with a shrug. ¡°What are you?¡± Pi Phon was silent after that. Once the hour had concluded, I spun the others out of the library and everyone found themselves back in the council chamber. Some few checked their pockets and were disappointed to find that the books they had stolen had been whisked away by the magic of the library. Immediately, the Sects that had made their offers began clamoring to increase what they had offered previously, while the other sects present quickly tried to throw their hats into the ring as well. Hien Ro silently turned to me for guidance. ¡°That is the library of the Six Mountain Sect, and it shall be returned to Di Ram to assist him in his efforts of turning back the scourge in the north,¡± I explained. I took the ring and patiently handed it over to Pi Phon, whose eyes went wide. ¡°In the mean time, I offer those who offered to give refuge to my brother in this turbulent time a treasure even greater than this. You may each choose one of your disciples who has not yet reached the bronze path, and within a year I shall raise them to the silver,¡± I said. Then I patted Hein Ro on the shoulder and motioned that it was time to go. On the way out the door, I split off that part of me that I¡¯d made to deal with the petty bullshit of Tonilla¡¯s court and sent it back to her side. ? 43. Potential 43. Potential Thaseus walked through the wreckage of his childhood, his arm around his father¡¯s shoulder as he helped the injured man walk for the first time in three weeks. While his family, his clan, had been powerful once, they had overextended their hand during the tournament. They had been caught rigging the scores to ensure that Thaseus took first place, and one of the judges had taken violent issue with this. That shouldn¡¯t have been a problem, except that the judge in question was Tornolai the raging tyrant. While nobody ever expected Tornolai to ascend, that only made the golden path cultivator that much more of a problem to deal with. Upsetting a cultivator who was trying to ascend was relatively harmless. They had to sever their attachments to the world anyway, so forgiving or quickly settling debts were a given. But Tornolai¡¯s displeasure could haunt Thaseus¡¯s family for generations. Thaseus himself had only barely managed to escape the man¡¯s wrath, and he¡¯d done it by showing his belly and submitting completely. It was humiliating. He¡¯d do it again. ¡°I need to sit,¡± his father said, and Thaseus quickly helped him over to a bench where the elders had used to watch their juniors spar. They sat together, staring out at the rubble and broken buildings. His father began to cry. Silently, but Thaseus saw the tears drip. ¡°It¡¯s not the end,¡± Thaseus said. ¡°It is for me,¡± His father said definitively. ¡°Not the entire clan, you¡¯re right about that. But my days of being the patriarch are over. The other elders are already talking about raising your cousin to take my place.¡± Thaseus nodded. He knew which cousin they were discussing, a man in his fifties with a cultivation in the late bronze path. He was expected to take his first steps onto the silver within a decade or two, but his relatively slow pace of growth was not a sign of weakness compared to his father, who was the same age. After all, Thaseus himself had slowed his cultivation for six years to establish a wider foundation. In some things, patience was more important than haste, and Thaseus had become unstop-- He shook his head. No, he was not an unstoppable force. He had only won the tournament through the underhanded tactics of his family that had caused their downfall. If it hadn¡¯t been for them propping him up, he would be ¡­ ¡°I want to tell you that it is time to step onto the bronze, my son,¡± his father said, ¡°But I fear that it is no longer my place to tell you what to do. It was your words to Tornolai which caused him to spare us his total wrath, your wisdom which saw the middle path. What face we have left is thanks to your wisdom and not mine.¡± ¡°I am not wise, father,¡± Thaseus said. ¡°I was a coward. I surrendered rather than fighting to the death. I capitulated. I¡ª¡± ¡°You saved us all from an overwhelming foe,¡± his father said. ¡°We lost so many in the attack, and what few we have left owe their lives to you.¡± Thaseus went silent, inwardly disputing the words but so accustomed to listening to his father that he didn¡¯t dare argue. They sat in silence for some time before a songbird appeared. It sang a few notes, and then abruptly changed form into Po Guah, the Awakened Soul. ¡°Thaseus. I am surprised that you did not seek me out sooner for your reward,¡± the boy said. ¡°Give it to someone else. I won by cheating. I don¡¯t deserve it,¡± Thaseus told the boy, who was no doubt just an avatar. ¡°I know,¡± the boy said. ¡°I¡¯ve decided to take on disciples, and they could learn from your strength. Whether you deserve it or not, you will have your rewards from the tournament. Or not. The choice is yours.¡± ¡°If I accept, then will Tornolai visit vengeance on my family once more?¡± he asked. ¡°No. I¡¯ve already spoken with him and told him of my plans,¡± Po Guah said. ¡°If you decide to accept your reward, meet me at the monolith south of town at dawn in two days. If you decide to forsake it, well, we shall not wait for you. You have until then to decide.¡± The avatar turned back into a songbird and flew away. ~~~~~~~ Polkluk closed his eyes, slowly dancing through the kata with his quarterstaff. He wished that he¡¯d had this staff when he¡¯d faced off against Po Guah. All sixteen of him. He grinned, dancing through a few steps of that fight from memory, imagining the oncoming attacks coming at him and how he¡¯d counter them with a weapon. He¡¯d swing it like this, then block like that, and then he¡¯d dodge over here and--Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. He tripped over a stone and fell into the stream that ran through the practice area. He sputtered and picked himself up, looking around to see if anyone was watching, but he was alone. Practice had ended hours ago at this chapter of the Raging River Sect, and it was only his desire to shadow-spar without eyes on him that brought him out at this time of day. He shook his head. The others just didn¡¯t understand. He¡¯d fought against Po Guah! That was perhaps the defining moment in his training so far. Everything before that was but a shadow. He¡¯d been shown so many weaknesses, gained so many insights, that even weeks afterwards he was still struggling to unpack it all. He would-- ¡°Brother Polkluk,¡± his elder disciple said, motioning him over. Polkluk quickly put his staff away and rushed over, bowing humbly to his elder as was proper. ¡°Brother Rotil? You need me for something?¡± he asked. ¡°Lady Tonilla requests your company tonight,¡± Rotil informed him. ¡°The message was just received, but you are still expected at the compound in Mer¡¯cah this evening by dusk. I suggest that you run.¡± Polkluk¡¯s eyes rose and he sputtered. ¡°Go,¡± Rotil suggested, and Polkluk took off running. He had perhaps five or six hours to travel over a hundred miles. ~~~~~~ I sat with a peach-pit in my lap and a thunderbird on my shoulder and juggled through my reflections. I glanced through a dozen different avatars, watching as this one played tag with a group of children, as that one helped rebuild a pauper¡¯s hovel, as this other one stood solemnly at a funeral. Almost everywhere I looked were happy faces. That was well. My other selves were not me. And they were. They were what I could have become, and they were things that I could never be. But they all took joy in the joy of the people of Mer¡¯cah. Because soon I would be leaving them behind. I sensed something important happening in the presence of the avatar in Tonilla¡¯s court. Closing one eye, I opened another miles away. My other self was eating sweatcake in a corner and watching dancers play out scene two of The Epic of Gilgath. Sensing the strands of fate snapping into place, my other self stood and walked out of the inn to where the servants came in to the compound just in time to find a very sweaty boy stumble through. ¡°Hello Polkluk, it¡¯s good to see you again,¡± I said. ¡°Po Guah!¡± he exclaimed. He was out of breath, but still he kowtowed. ¡°This one thanks the elder for imparting his wisdom!¡± I sighed, but my other self simply smiled. ¡°You are welcome, child. Why have you come?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, I was just told¡ª¡± ¡°Never mind him, he¡¯s just an avatar,¡± Tonilla said impatiently, stepping into the room. ¡°Why are you so sweaty? Did you run the entire way here?¡± ¡°Y-yes?¡± the boy said. ¡°Was that not part of the test?¡± ¡°There was no test! Where did you run from?¡± ¡°F-from the western compound,¡± Polkluk said nervously. ¡°Oh for, I didn¡¯t know where you were when I sent that letter. I would have waited until tomorrow, you¡¯re not to set out for another two days,¡± she muttered. ¡°Look, student, I apologize for the hardship I have unintentionally caused you. You have performed well and pleased me. For now, why don¡¯t you go bathe and change into something that doesn¡¯t stink of teenage boy, and then meet me and the avatar in the parlor.¡± I moved to the parlor to await this meeting. I sat quietly on the cushion next to the one where Tonilla would sit, and after twenty minutes or so Polkluk joined me, his light hair still wet. He knelt on the supplicant¡¯s cushion and waited, and after another five minutes Tonilla joined us. She never would have left me alone before she realized that my true self was not in her care. ¡°Tell me, Polkluk, are you loyal to the Raging River Sect?¡± ¡°Yes! Yes of course I am!¡± the boy said. ¡°I was honored to represent us in the tournament! It was with pride that I refused to give in until after I had unmasked Po Guah! I¡ª¡± ¡°Good. I believe you, you don¡¯t have to prove yourself, you already have, Polkluk,¡± Tonilla said. ¡°And I wish to reward your loyalty. With Po Guah¡¯s blessing, of course, there is an opportunity which has fallen into our lap. Do you wish to reach the Silver Path?¡± ¡°O-of course!¡± he exclaimed. ¡°But my talent is¡ª¡± ¡°A concern for Po Guah. He claims that he can raise any disciple to the silver path within a year. This is a test of him as much as you, Polkluk. I wish for you to join him and his other disciples and follow him with utter loyalty until you have reached the silver path. Then, you will return to the Raging River Sect and take your place as a Junior Elder. Do you accept this task?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Polkluk exclaimed, and I saw not a shred of doubt in his heart. He was humbled by the offer, and eager, desperate even, to prove himself. That he was being manipulated as a pawn and a spy by Tonilla was plain to me, but it suited my purposes well. A chance to evaluate my training methods was no more or less than I promised her. Content, I closed my other eye, and left the rest of the conversation to my other self to manage. ¡°I¡¯m glad that she chose Polkluk,¡± I told Jumper, who sat on my shoulder. ¡°He has more potential than he knows.¡± ? 44. Gathering 44. Gathering Arjun kowtowed before the elders, waiting patiently as his merits were discussed openly. As were his faults. He winced each time the latter list grew longer, and he soon lost count. He was too distracted from his cultivation and studies. He was too interested in socializing with his peers. He was weak. He had bowed out of the tournament too early. He ¡­ The list went on and on and on. The lamps flickered as they moved on to the next candidate. A girl three years younger than him, she was only in the energy gathering realm. He heard nothing but praises in comparison to the scolding he¡¯d gotten. The next. A nine year old boy who quivered with the agony of holding the kowtow for so long. Five more candidates. There were no conditions upon the selection of the candidate except that they could not have reached the bronze stage. Unfortunately in Arjun¡¯s Sect, the Azure Wind Sect, disciples were expected to make a pilgrimage once they turned nineteen and not return until they reached the bronze path, which meant that the candidate pool was mostly younger than Arjun himself. He¡¯d only had a few months before he was expected to begin his own journey when he¡¯d been selected to join the expedition to investigate the strange weather, and then everything that had followed had taken precedence. Meaning that Arjun was the most advanced of the young cultivators who could possibly benefit from the opportunity that they had earned by extending a branch to Hien Ro, but that didn¡¯t mean that he would be selected. The girl to his left had more talent, and-- ¡°We have made a selection,¡± the elders said after several moments of decision. Arjun did not raise his head, though he was surprised. He sensed that several of the other juniors had not had such self control. ¡°Arjun, you will represent the Azure Wind Sect in this opportunity,¡± the elder said. Arjun bit his lip to keep from crying out in joy. ¡°Do you know why we have selected you?¡± the elder persisted. He ran through the possible reasons and selected the one that was most likely. ¡°Because I am friends with Yara Pocef, who is Hien Ro¡¯s girlfriend, and is herself a student of Po Guah,¡± he guessed. ¡°Yes.¡± ~~~~~~ ¡°Lahri, do you know why I have asked you here?¡± the elder asked, her voice not unkind. Lahri looked around at the elder¡¯s private chambers, reflecting on some of the rumors she¡¯d heard about this elder in particular. If they were true, then she¡¯d consent. It would be worth it for whatever resources she could get out of the relationship. And it wouldn¡¯t be so bad. She preferred men, but surely-- ¡°It seems that you do not, judging by your expression. Honestly, a single youthful indiscretion and you¡¯re a lesbian for life,¡± the elder muttered. Lahri blushed. ¡°I apologize, I meant noth¡ª¡± ¡°You meant nothing, but you were considering accepting, yes? So that at least is a little flattering. No, Lahri, I would not call you here for that when I know that your heart lies elsewhere. In two different places if I¡¯m not mistaken.¡± Lahri blushed. ¡°Is that why you¡¯ve called me here? Am I to make up my mind? Farun or Arjun, or another that the sect selects for me?¡± ¡°No. It is much more straightforward than that. I am sending you into the care of another for one year. You are to obey them implicitly and follow their training with utter diligence. In exchange, Po Guah has promised to raise you to the silver path.¡± Lahri¡¯s eyebrows rose. ¡°The silver? Not the bronze?¡± ¡°So he claims. We are eager to see if this is possible, so we are sending some of our best students to him. It is only a year, after all. But I do not know who the other sects are sending. If you wish to turn it down to be with Arjun, or with Farun, then I¡ª¡± ¡°I want to go,¡± Lahri said with determination. ¡°If they don¡¯t wait for me then that¡¯s their problem.¡± ~~~~~~ The light flashed as the two techniques collided, and while they were equally matched in strength, Farun¡¯s will was the stronger. He wanted this more. He needed this more. His long term rival, who had been so smug at the beginning of the tournament, had a look of utter shock as his own technique fell apart and his Qi exploded, sending him flying into the sand several feet away. Farun exhaled in relief, then inhaled triumph. He had won this little tournament of the elders and whatever spoils they offered, which were said to be a ¡®once in a generation opportunity, or perhaps even more rare than that.¡¯ Farun knew, of course. He¡¯d already rewarded the little mortal girl who had handed him the note preparing him for this turn of events. He was to be gone a year, so it was a handsome reward, with a promise of more when he got back. He also tipped the boy who¡¯d actually gotten the secrets from spying on the elders, surprising the boy who hadn¡¯t realized that Farun was among the list of those within his little intelligence spreading circle.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Farun grinned. For all that the Golden Dragon Sect valued strength above all, information was the true power in this world, and simply knowing what he was fighting for had given him a purpose beyond what his peers could conjure up for themselves. But he played his part and acted surprised when the elders lined up the participants in the tournament to announce the grand prize. It had not been a tournament like the one that the city had just held, but limited to a single attack. The ultimate attack of their sect, the Golden Dragon¡¯s Maw. Only eight disciples could perform it who were not already in the bronze realm. Fortunately Farun had been practicing it extensively over the weeks since he¡¯d withdrawn from the other tournament, and he had established from the start that he would not be bowing out early. As he stood in front of his peers, the elder patted his shoulder. ¡°Yes, you were very clever. If I did not tell the little pigeons what the prize was, however, would you have fought so hard for it?¡± the elder asked, and Farun¡¯s eyes shot up. ¡°You knew I knew?¡± he asked. ¡°Everyone knew what the prize was. Or they would have if they put any effort into finding it out,¡± the elder informed him. ¡°I do not know what circuit the information took between my lips and your ear, but I set the compound¡¯s rumor mill going deliberately.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Farun said. ¡°This too is a source of power. Information is power, and control of information is control of power.¡± ¡°Yes. You are a fine candidate for this opportunity, Farun, and I am pleased that you won. Now go pack.¡± ¡°I already have.¡± ~~~~~~ Lukal Lukal sat with his master before the fire as the boar was roasted. His fellow disciples, younger and older both, sat nearby, waiting for the feast to begin. The light of the fire cast long shadows into the night, and the clearing flickered with the steady but ever-changing firelight. ¡°Someone tell a story,¡± one of the youngest disciples demanded. ¡°You tell a story,¡± his sister said in a mocking tone. ¡°I don¡¯t have the right to tell the good ones,¡± the boy complained. ¡°Lukal Lukal, tell us again of Po Guah. Tell us how he was so mighty that he faced ten warriors as fierce as you and¡ª¡± ¡°You do not get to tell a story by asking for a story,¡± the master said sternly. ¡°Lukal Lukal, do you wish to tell the story of Po Guah?¡± Lukal Lukal considered the question for a moment. He enjoyed having earned the right to telling a story before the fire in times like this. It was one of the main reasons he had journeyed into the city to take part in the tournament. He had expected to come back with many stories, but the younger disciples only wish to hear the story of Po Guah. ¡°Let someone else tell a story tonight,¡± Lukal Lukal said after careful consideration. A stranger walked into the clearing and sat nearby. ¡°Might anyone tell a story?¡± the stranger asked, sitting next to one of the children who was still learning how to hold a spear. The children of the camp¡¯s eyes went wide, turning to the Master and the older disciples. Some of the older disciples scurried for their spears, but stopped when the Master said ¡°You are welcome at this fire, Elder One.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± the stranger said, and in the firelight Lukal Lukal saw that it was not a stranger. ¡°Hello again Po Guah. It is good of you to come.¡± ¡°Might anyone tell a story at this fire?¡± Po Guah asked again. ¡°So long as the story is good and true and it is a story that you have lived,¡± the Master said. ¡°If you tell a bad story then we will throw pebbles at you.¡± Po Guah was quiet for a moment. ¡°Let me tell you the story of how I earned my name,¡± he said. The story he told was profound, but the children threw pebbles at him until the older disciples scolded them and told them to go think on the story in solitude. Once the children were gone, the Master sat before the fire and sighed. ¡°It is pleasant to meet you again in this life, Elisia,¡± Lukal Lukal¡¯s master said. ¡°You too, Koras. I am surprised that you remember me.¡± ¡°That is not my name in this life.¡± ¡°Elisia is not my name in this life either.¡± ¡°Still, it is good to meet an old friend.¡± ¡°It is,¡± Po Guah ¨C no, Little Bug ¨C said. ¡°Our fates only intersect this one time in this life,¡± the Master said. ¡°You are dying.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°It was a good raft to get you so far across the river Lethe that you kept half your memories,¡± the stranger said. ¡°Not the memories I wanted to have,¡± the master said. ¡°But perhaps the memories you needed,¡± Po Guah said. The master sighed. ¡°You are here to take my favorite disciple, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Po Guah said. ¡°Take him. He is yours. Lukal Lukal, Little Bug is your Master now.¡± ¡°Are you kicking me away from your fire?¡± Lukal Lukal asked. ¡°With an empty belly? That would be rude.¡± And so they ate together, and listened as their elders told stories from another world. ? 45. Convergence 45. Convergence Pi Phon looked at the ring on his finger. Acutely aware of the guards who¡¯d been present nearby ever since meeting with the real Little Bug where the boy had returned the gift from Di Ram, and by extension the former patriarch of the Six Mountain Sect, Pi Phon was both nervous about Tonilla¡¯s intentions with the guards and grateful for the protection she was currently providing him. But he knew just how rapidly that protection might vanish should the greed of these southerners overwhelm their senses. He¡¯d been very careful to taste his food as he ate, sensing for any unfamiliar flavors in fear of poison. It wasn¡¯t just that the ring was valuable. Spatial artifacts were incredibly valuable, but ultimately they had a price. They were imported from off world, created by immortals as they explored their understanding of the cosmos to greater heights and deeper depths. But they had a price associated with them. That many would believe that this ring alone would be worth killing him hadn¡¯t slipped Pi Phon¡¯s notice. And then there was the fact that it contained his entire sect¡¯s heritage to consider. That was worth perhaps twice again what the ring itself was worth. He sighed and thumped his head against the wall in frustration. He didn¡¯t want this burden. The door opened, and the false Little Bug stepped in. Then suddenly it changed and it was slightly more real than it had been before. ¡°Little Bug, is that you?¡± he asked. ¡°I am not Po Guah at the moment,¡± the boy-avatar said. ¡°You are troubled?¡± ¡°You put a price-tag on my life when you gave me this ring, Little Bug, and many are checking their purses to see if they can afford it,¡± Pi Phon said. ¡°Oh. Yes. I¡¯m sorry, you¡¯re right, I was gambling with the restraint of the sect masters who were in the room when it was handed over,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°I can take it back if you¡¯d like?¡± ¡°You already have a target on your back. No.¡± ¡°You complain that I give it to you and refuse to give it back,¡± Little Bug commented, a grin on his face. ¡°I¡¯m complicated, okay? But this ring belongs on the hand of Di Ram, if you wouldn¡¯t have it.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already gotten everything I could from it. In the secret library on the second bookshelf from the front, there are my notes. I leave them to the Six Mountain Sect, or what remains of it, in gratitude of taking care of me.¡± Little Bug bowed humbly to Pi Phon, and the young man swallowed. ¡°That¡¯s not necessary. You can¡ª¡± ¡°Nobody can tell the future, especially not me,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°What you have given me cannot be taken back, and it will continue to grow and mature as I do. You are the soil in which I sprouted. That I am not a tree that sits still in my potting soil is no fault of yours, but I would be ungrateful if I did not give you some fruit for your trouble.¡± ¡°Do you always talk in metaphor now or is it just to sound wise?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± the boy chuckled. He sighed and closed the door behind him. ¡°Pi Phon. If you do not leave the city by tomorrow night, you will die. I will not tell you where to go, but you already know where your duty takes you.¡± The Avatar vanished. Pi Phon cursed. He banged his head once more against the wall, then stood and began sending out mortal messengers to gather the remainder of his sect members, who had come south to judge the tournament. It was time to return to the acting-patriarch. ~~~~~~~ All across the city, I said farewells and parted with people who had become close to me. The parting was unexpected and unanticipated, and many people felt emotions like that of a family member going on a journey from which they would never return. I smiled and reassured everyone that I would return to Mer¡¯cah in a year, for better or worse, but that things would be different. For me and for them. For I saw the strings of fate pulling at them and marching their young men and women north, and I knew what that meant.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The drums of war were a distant echoes, but if you listen close, you could just make out the beat. I could only hope that I had the year I needed. I leaned my head against the ancient meeting stone, pushed up from deep in the earth by a long forgotten cultivator for purposes unknown. Hien Ro was in town gathering the supplies that he needed, along with Yara and her father, Adan. I was mildly hungry, but so busy in my meditations that I barely noticed. It had only been two days since I¡¯d eaten. I was growing thin, I noticed idly. I¡¯d have to do something about that, maybe. Closing one eye and opening another, I walked into the clan of the Praying Mantis and knocked patiently. A mortal servant answered. ¡°Tell Taimei that it is time,¡± I said. ¡°If she wishes to claim her reward, she has six hours to prepare. I will return for her when it is time.¡± The mortal feinted. I didn¡¯t know how to handle that, so I closed the door and knocked again, repeating the message when the next mortal servant answered. ~~~~~~ Together they came at dawn. From different walks of life they came. Taimei had been born to a servant, adopted into the clan her family had served for generations when she ignited her dantian. Her father was unknown, but the clan¡¯s patriarch always showed her special favor. She came with a small pack and a smile, excited to finally earn the technique that she had ¡®lucked into¡¯ for placing fourth in the tournament. That only a moment of hesitation on the third place victor had been the difference between her taking this journey and another mattered not. She was here now. She was the first to arrive. Hien Ro came from the distant north. He did not know whether his parents were alive or dead, but they were the ones who set him on this path when they bribed a cultivator from the Six Mountain Sect to test him. He was thought to have low talent, but persevered through hard work and dedication until he befriended a boy who, without his protection, might have earned the nickname ¡®stinky¡¯ from the other disciples. He was the second to arrive. Moments behind him was Yara Pocef. She came from a loving family broken by disease. A fever had passed through the city when she was five years old, and she had fallen ill. Her parents had paid the healers every penny they owned and taken out loans for ten times more to save her life. The healers had done their job. Two days later her mother had gotten ill with the same disease. They had no coin for a healer, but the mother promised that everything would be fine. It wasn¡¯t fine. Her father had tried to earn the money back, only to fall deeper and deeper into debt. It was that debt which put her on this path. She was the third to arrive. The three lovers arrived together, unintentionally, from different directions. Farun, Arjun, and Lahri, each keeping the secret of their love for each other, disguising their interests as nothing more than affection. They were brought together by chance, and they were set upon this path by chance. But chance is fate and fate is chance, and so the three Dao Companions were fated to walk this path at my side. He came from the forest. He was looking forward to the story he would tell when he reached the end of this path, when we parted ways and walked in different directions. But for a while, he would walk beside me. His name was Lukal Lukal, and he carried with him a spear. He had a round face and a wide grin, and he called out to the others at the joy of seeing the companions he was fated to know. Nervous Polkluk came, loyal to his sect. He was from the branch families and knew that he was unimportant. He¡¯d known this from the time he was young, for his father had told him so and his mother had told him so and all of his cousins had told him so. But it was against him that Po Guah had revealed himself to the world, and he didn¡¯t care if he was unimportant after that. He faced a genius, he had faced a force of nature, and he had not disgraced himself. And he was loyal, and that loyalty had earned him the right to walk this path. And finally, he came. The champion who shouldn¡¯t have won. He had crushed all opposition save for those who didn¡¯t fight him. Thaseus came from a family that valued strength above all and had instilled this into him from his youngest days. He had killed seven people and maimed fifty-five, and he felt not a shred of remorse. They met at the stone and fell silent as I meditated. Finally, I opened my eyes. ¡°This is a convergence,¡± I declared. ¡°There is only one path that lies before us, and for a time we shall walk it together. We will go our own ways eventually, and what waits at the end of this path I cannot say. But for now we walk together. Let us begin.¡± I stood, and I walked away. They followed. And they had a very hard time keeping up as I bent time and space around me. ~~~~~~~ They came from different backgrounds and different places, some of them from different continents, but they all came to follow a boy along a path. They did not know why they were there. Not truly. The true reason, the reason that the boy did not want to admit, even to himself. He did not wish to walk it alone, though he thought he must. ? 46. Endurance 46. Endurance They walked for days. The sun didn¡¯t set. They each reached the point of exhaustion They pushed through it. Finally, on the seventh day, their leader stopped walking, and they stopped running/jogging/leaping/sprinting to keep up. ¡°Let¡¯s make camp,¡± the boy said, and Yara and Hien Ro and Lokul Lokul quickly went about setting up their tents, starting their fires, and ignoring the other cultivators who didn¡¯t know what to do. They hadn¡¯t brought tents. They hadn¡¯t brought food. They were hungry and thirsty, having pushed through their limits in the hours/days/weeks that they had been walking. Little bug smiled and when Yara gave him his bowl of stew, he gave it to Thaseus, who looked at him in surprise. ¡°Go ahead. If I wanted to kill you I wouldn¡¯t use poison,¡± the boy said. That wasn¡¯t the reason that Thaseus was surprised, but he ate anyway. The ones who knew how to make camp reluctantly prepared meals and set up the tents of the others, showing them how to fend for themselves along the way. Hien Ro and Lokul Lokul showed the boys, while Yara showed the girls. When they had finished, Little Bug Stomped his feet and a stone edifice rose from the ground, forming a shelter large enough for all of them. He grinned cheekily as the campers groaned at him and threw pebbles. They ate and drank, and they sat around the fire. At first there was silence as nobody knew what to say, and then Polkluk broke the silence by exclaiming ¡°Is it just me or is this the fifth day we have been walking and it¡¯s still light out?¡± ¡°It feels like longer than five days. It feels like a fortnight,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°I feel that I have been walking through the jungle for a month,¡± Lokul Lokul stated. They compared notes, and the boy that was their leader allowed them to before speaking. ¡°You¡¯re all correct,¡± he said. ¡°Thank you for helping me practice.¡± The others turned to him in surprise. ¡°It¡¯s a technique. For me, a few hours have passed. But I have been working even harder than any of you have to keep up with me. I¡¯ve been bending space and time to push you to your limits, and when you reached them I put you in a pocket by yourself. This is the path that we walk together, and we will walk it together, even if sometimes one of us must be carried,¡± the boy said. They were silent for a moment. ¡°They say that you reached the bronze path at the tournament, but no bronze ranked cultivator could do what you just said,¡± Thaseus challenged. ¡°What are you really?¡± ¡°A cheat,¡± the boy said. ¡°Just like you.¡± The older teenager recoiled as though he were stung. ¡°I will not be explaining everything, because there are some secrets that are better to keep and some which must not be shared. But this one is simple. I am learning to create dimensional spaces after studying a spatial artifact. It¡¯s not easy, and it requires experimentation. So today¡¯s journey was very educational for me. I thank you for your assistance,¡± the boy said. ¡°Now then, we should get to know each other. I am Po Guah. It means ¡®Little Bug¡¯ in the language of the north, and I would actually prefer it that you call me that in your native tongue. It reminds me of my sister.¡± ¡°Your sister?¡± Hien Ro asked. ¡°Why didn¡¯t she join the sect when you did?¡± ¡°She lacked the talent. Do not forget that I came from a family of mortals, Brother Ro. But I was not sad when we parted ways. She was very cruel to me when we were young. I regret not being able to see whether or not she grows out of it. I hope that she does, but it has no bearing on the here and now. Taimei, I¡¯m afraid I know the least about you. Would you please share something about your past that is especially meaningful?¡± the boy-leader asked.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! The teenager who had come in fourth in the tournament looked surprised, then thought for a moment. ¡°I do not know who my father is, but I believe that it is either my clan patriarch or one of his sons, for he has always doted on me. When I was young, he saw to it that I learned to read, and when I managed that trick he gave me a primer on cultivation. It is nothing compared to the Peach Blossom Dream, but it allowed me to ignite my dantian and become the woman I am today. Even if I am wrong and not bound by blood, my first loyalty is to that man, who set me on my path.¡± Little Bug nodded. ¡°I do not ask that you forswear yourself, Taimei. Tell me, what path do you walk now?¡± ¡°That of gathering strength,¡± she said. ¡°I proved myself in the tournament when I came in fourth, but that meant that there were three stronger than I, and perhaps many others that retired might have beaten me if but for luck or chance. I wish to become a pillar upon which the rest of my clan can lean against for strength when I am older, as I lean on the patriarch now.¡± ¡°Good. Hien Ro, we had this conversation once, but would you tell the others where you come from and where you hope your path will lead?¡± So Hien Ro repeated the story of how his parents had bribed his way into the Six Mountain Sect. He admitted that he had started following Little Bug because it had seemed like a short cut in cultivation, but now couldn¡¯t imagine any other path for himself. Yara¡¯s turn was next, and it was then that she revealed that she was the cause of her family¡¯s poverty when her father had met Little Bug and Hien Ro. That it was her fault that her mother had died, as her mother had contracted the disease which killed her from taking care of her sick daughter. How sometimes she thought that her father and mother would have been better had she died early, so that they could have saved the money on the healer and had more children instead. Polkluk talked of his insignificance. How the single greatest thing to happen to him before this journey was to fight against the great Po Guah in all of his glory, and how he still relived those triumphant moments in his dreams. Farun spoke of how he had bribed his way into the sect as a mortal servant at age six, bribed his way into earning cultivation lessons at age eight, and ignited his dantian at age nine. How he had been weaving an ever increasingly complex web of informants among the younger children in exchange for handing out tips and advice on how to progress their own cultivation, or other such bribes. Arjun confessed that he did not feel worthy of this journey, stating that he was only selected for his political connections. But that he hoped that he would prove worthy, and that the elders would not come to regret wasting their slot in this journey on him. Lahri confessed that she was in love with two men and could not make her mind up on which she wished to have to herself. She wished that there was a way to have them both, but she wished for more than just sex, but a true companionship. Little Bug wished her good luck, but advised her that such relationships were often messy and required ten times as much maintenance as a monogamous one. Lokul Lokul commented that he would not mind sharing a woman with another man if she did not mind sharing him with another woman, but got into an argument with Lahri that what he wanted was just sex. The argument lasted for half the day that was, to them, a night. When he was finally pressed for his path, he sighed. ¡°My master saw my swollen belly when I was on the streets of Mer¡¯cah and offered me a bite to eat. I thought that he would take his payment from me in unspeakable ways, but I was so hungry that I didn¡¯t care. I followed him into the jungle, and that is how I set foot on this path, just as all of his other disciples have. But now my master is dying, and I do not know if I will see him once more before the end of this journey. We have said our farewells, however, and I am looking forward to telling the story of this journey to the other disciples when I return to the great fire.¡± Finally, it was Thaseus¡¯s turn to speak. ¡°My family cheated at the tournament,¡± he said. ¡°I did not know it at the time and I apologize for not realizing it until it was too late. But there it is. That is the reason I am here.¡± With that, he stood and walked into the enclosure, where he pulled off his clothes and got into his bedroll. The others retired soon after, and the fire continued to burn into the night. They walked for a week. They walked for weeks. They walked for months. Each time the intervals between their rest periods seemed to grow longer and longer. They kept notes, and noted that they were beginning to sync up with each other. Each night they sat around the camp fire in the day or the night or whenever it was that their leader called a rest, and they shared truths about themselves. About their pasts. About their hopes for the future. About their hopes and dreams and fears. The ten teenagers grew closer and the bonds between them grew stronger. They began to laugh and compete with each other, with only one of their members feeling that he was an outsider. Little Bug smiled with the rest of them, but he knew how much these bonds he was forming would hurt when they inevitably broke. And the entire day/week/months that they walked, a young thunderbird flew overhead. ? 47. Destinations 47. Destinations It took me three weeks to reach my mountain. Alone I could have made the journey in two days. Carrying the others in their pocket dimensions, adjusting their sense of time and distance to keep them constantly on the edge of exhaustion without breaking them? That was exhausting, and I needed to stop many times throughout the first week. Gradually I got better at it, and I wasn¡¯t surprised when the others adapted to the training I was putting them through as well. It might have been a cruel things to do to my disciples, my friends, but it served several purposes. The first purpose, which was almost entirely selfish, was that it helped me train my spacial affinity, which I had unlocked carefully inside the library-ring which Pi Phon had delivered to me, and I had returned to him. The second thing it did was bring the others to a somewhat equal baseline in terms of their physical, mental, and spiritual health. As they pressed through the hardship of the endless journey I put them through, they came closer and closer to the cusp of stepping onto the bronze path without actually crossing it. The third, was that it taught them about themselves. The long periods of isolation in which they were alone with their own thoughts, forever chasing my back, taught things that are difficult for young cultivators to understand. The loneliness required for cultivation. The perseverance. The mental fortitude. The devotion and drive. The fourth thing that it did was build us as a unit. While I never felt like I was one of them ¨C how can I relate to teenagers when I have the cumulative memories of thousands of lives? While I was never one of them, the bonds between us grew closer, and trust built. The fact that I never pushed them too far past their limits, the fact that there was always a campfire waiting while I rested, while we rested, and the conversations that we carried out during those rest periods brought us together in the way that only young people can be brought together. It was a kind of magic on its own. The fifth thing that the journey did was that it really pissed off Yara and Hien Ro when they realized our final destination. ¡°This is it? You brought us home?¡± Yara demanded, her voice rising. My eyebrows rose at that. ¡°I brought us to my mountain, yes. It¡¯s where we¡¯ll be doing our training. I need to speak with the Tunrida first, but I plan to¡ª¡± ¡°You put us through hell for months just to bring us home?¡± she demanded. The two of them shouted at me for a while, while I smiled with chagrin. I hadn¡¯t anticipated this much backlash to my first training method. It took a while to calm them down and explain to everyone why the journey was necessary. The others weren¡¯t quite as angry with me, as they¡¯d never been to my mountain and didn¡¯t realize just how close it was to Mer¡¯cah. When Yara took out a map and showed them, however, they had a few choice words of their own. I could only sigh, informing them that I was leaving to negotiate with the Tunrida for further rent of my mountain. My relationship with my landlord had thus far been mostly positive, so I was hopeful for favorable terms for the extension of the lease. ~~~~~~ Pi Phon knelt before his lord, having given his report to Di Ram in full and now awaited the judgment of the patriarch in exile of the Six Mountain Sect. ¡°It is good that you returned,¡± Di Ram said at last, ¡°And that you returned this to me as soon as you found out what it was. The truth is that I had no idea myself that it was a copy of the Sect¡¯s archives. I thought that the old library was torn down one hundred years ago, when the new library was built, and that the mortals who worked there were released from our service. Instead they spent the remainder of their lives inside this ring.¡± ¡°Their remains were given high honor in the tomb within, with ranks of ¡®elder¡¯ and ¡®grand elder¡¯ of the sect,¡± Pi Phon reported. ¡°And the others have found the memoirs of six of them filed within the directory. They were isolated, but it seems that they volunteered for the duty-which they saw as an honor.¡± ¡°It makes me wonder how long it was that my father saw this tragedy coming,¡± Di Ram said, half to himself. ¡°And why he didn¡¯t prepare me better for picking up the pieces in his absence.¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°My lord, you have done¡ª¡± ¡°I know what I have done. I have done my best in an untenable situation and more than anyone asked of me. And last night I attended the funeral fire of a five year old girl who died with hollow eyes and a swollen belly because it wasn¡¯t enough . Do not taunt me with what I have and have not done,¡± Di Ram raged, and Pi Phon did not shrink back. ¡°And without you?¡± the man asked. ¡°When would the girl have died without you?¡± Di Ram sighed and looked away. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, my friend. You¡¯re one of the few who remember me from the old days who I trust not to spread a rumor that I¡¯m breaking down.¡± ¡°Every pillar shifts when the weight is added to it,¡± Pi Phon said. ¡°The question is whether or not it cracks.¡± ¡°So then. Tell me about our visitors from the south.¡± ¡°I do not know exactly what to tell you. When I arrived they were in the process of forming a first in a thousand year tournament. Hundreds of young cultivators participated. It was a great financial win for the Raging River Sect, which bankrolled it and spent a significant effort promoting it. However, it was all started by Little Bug. He put the idea in the idea of a small coalition which had, ironically perhaps, come to investigate an array that he had set up in the first place. That coalition now rules in the city of Mer¡¯cah, and it is the representatives that they sent to ¡®protect me¡¯ that now wait outside.¡± They discussed Pi Phon¡¯s time in the city of Mer¡¯cah in detail for some time. When they each felt that there was no more ground to cover, they shook hands, and Pi Phon vanished inside the ring that Di Ram now wore on his right hand. He went to the entryway of his command tent and opened it, undoing the soundproofing wards with a soft touch of his Qi. He nodded at the mortal guard, one Po Kennet, and said ¡°Please politely inform the master cultivators from the south that I am ready to receive them at their earliest convenience.¡± Then he returned to his desk and spent the next twenty minutes thinking about latrines. When the coalition arrived, they were admitted immediately. He smiled with a false face and welcomed them, but he saw immediately on their own faces a look of pity. ¡°I am Sonilla. Tonilla, who leads the council of sixteen, is my mother. I am not empowered to speak with her voice, but I share her mind and her heart and her dedication to helping those poor souls outside,¡± the leader of the southerners stated. The other southerners made sounds of agreements. Di Ram sighed and nodded. ¡°The truth is that you¡¯ve already given us a great gift. The food and clothing that you sent in exchange for us judging your tournament was exceedingly generous, and has delayed tens of thousands of deaths. But now that the tournament is over, I¡¯m afraid I do not know what else I have of value to barter with for your continued support.¡± ¡°I think that is a lie,¡± Sonilla said, glancing at his hand. He covered the ring, but then uncovered it. ¡°Not the ring. But perhaps the secrets within. Little Bug showed you the library?¡± ¡°Not me. My mother, and the other members of the council,¡± she said. ¡°But they were most impressed by the wealth of the heritage of your sect. If that knowledge were for sale, then ¡­¡± She trailed off, but he saw her point. ¡°The knowledge of the Six Mountain Sect cannot be shared with competing factions,¡± Di Ram said, his voice growing stern. Then he thought of a five year old girl playing with her friends three months ago and he lost the iron that made his back straight. He wanted to sag, but refused to show weakness. ¡°If you wish to purchase the knowledge within this archive, then we must enter into a formal alliance. The terms of which I believe you are not empowered to enforce. I think that it is time that I journey to the city of Mer¡¯cah myself and meet your mother, and her council.¡± ¡°As you wish,¡± Sonilla said, bowing, a light smile on her face. ¡°In the mean time, my delegation will investigate the rumors of undead and corruption in the north. I have ways of communicating with my mother over distances, and I assure you that my report will arrive in Mer¡¯cah before you do.¡± ¡°Is that a challenge?¡± Di Ram asked. She grinned. ¡°Perhaps. It shall depend on how fast you travel, I suppose, and how much baggage you bring with you.¡± Di Ram looked at his ring, and he thought of the possibilities. The archives only took up one third of the space within. How many mortals would fit inside, and for how long would they be able to stay? His mind did the math without much effort on his part. ¡°I have everything I need for my journey right here,¡± he said, raising his hand and flashing his ring. ? 48. Ruthlessness 48. Ruthlessness Jumper flew slow circles around the goliath tree, singing out in the haunting and beautiful voice that, if she wasn¡¯t already Jumper, I would have named her for. After several moments, her siblings called back, and the family was reunited. The twelve hatchlings which had once been under my care swirled and did aerial acrobatics above me while I calmly ate a bite of jerky and waited for the Tunrida to notice. I knew that he would, and after ten minutes the massive thunderbird arrived from over the horizon, swiftly flying and landing on the lowest branch of the goliath tree. His massive and colorful plumage was displayed in full as he welcomed me into his court. ¡°You have returned, Little Bug,¡± the Tunrida said. ¡°When these eleven young ones returned to me I considered our business complete. You do not need to continue to make reports on your progress in finding me a mate. Even if these young ones do not meet the qualifications to be my equal, they are at least clever enough to hold a conversation with. I am satisfied that I got the better end of the bargain.¡± ¡°I am glad that you are happy, oh majestic one,¡± I confessed, ¡°However, I am in need of more real estate and I was rather hoping that you would abide me to rent from you once more. This time, I shall be closing off the mountain in question entirely, and while it should not affect the rest of the jungle as¡ª¡± ¡°Yes. Take the mountain. Take twelve of them if you wish,¡± the Tunrida said. ¡°I have never been so happy as when these children flew home to me. Not in this life, at least.¡± I allowed myself a moment to feel surprise. I had been expecting a little more ¡­ bargaining? ¡°I shall not refuse your generous offer. Actually, since I am no longer constrained by budget, I would take a total of nine mountains in your territory, but I would ask time to survey them to select which ones are best for my¡ª¡± ¡°Climb on my back and I shall help you,¡± the Tunrida declared. ¡°And still I will feel in your debt.¡± I considered for a moment. Then I accepted, and I climbed onto the majestic Tunrida¡¯s back and we flew off towards the horizon to scout the mountains where I would train my disciples. ~~~~~~~ ¡°Let it go, Yara,¡± Hien Ro said as they worked together to bake bread in the main compound¡¯s oven. ¡°Yes I was angry too, but you know that he had his reasons. He explained them to us himself, and I can¡¯t exactly say that they were wrong. And we are much stronger after going through that ordeal. I can feel the edges of the bronze path already. I just need a push to step onto it. I feel that if I tried, I could any time I wanted to, but I trust Little Bug, and he said to wait.¡± ¡°Yes, he explained what he did to us. After he did it. That is what I¡¯m upset about. I thought we were friends, but he, he, I don¡¯t have words to describe it,¡± Yara complained, smashing her dough rather than kneading it. ¡°That would have defeated half the purpose and you know it,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°And besides, you¡¯re forgetting something important. As hard as we were struggling to keep up, he was struggling to keep us all together in our own little pockets. He¡¯s only bronze rank and he¡¯s creating dimensional spaces. Just like Dao Avatars, that¡¯s something you¡¯re not supposed to be able to do until Gold, and I doubt it was easy.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t notice, did you? It got easier for him,¡± Polkluk said, stepping into the kitchen. ¡°Sorry, I admit I was eavesdropping but I came to check on dinner and heard you and¡ª¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, Polkluk,¡± Yara said, smashing her dough again. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°The time between rest periods, the outside time I mean, it got longer. The first ¡®day¡¯ we rested was only a few hours after our journey began. Then we must have slept for six hours, and then we had another marathon, but again the journey itself only lasted a few hours to the outside world. At the end our journeys were entire days long, though they felt like months,¡± he explained. Yara frowned, reflecting over the time she had spent with Little Bug. ¡°Huh.¡± ¡°What are you getting at, Polkluk?¡± Hien Ro asked. ¡°It¡¯s just, in the stories about old monsters bestowing great wisdom on their juniors, it¡¯s never a one way street. The powerful cultivator always gets something from the less powerful one. We¡¯re getting techniques and being raised to the silver path, but what does Little Bug get out of this arrangement?¡± he asked. ¡°I don¡¯t mean he¡¯s selfish, I don¡¯t mean¡ª¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°He¡¯s using us to develop his own powers. He as much as told us so. But why bring it up?¡± ¡°Because I was wondering how it is that we can repay him, and so I was hoping that you could tell me ways of giving him what he wants,¡± Polkluk said. ¡°I don¡¯t mind being indebted to him, but I hate to think that I took and took without trying to give anything back to him.¡± ¡°Why are you asking us?¡± Hien Ro asked. ¡°You¡¯ve known him the longest.¡± ¡°Well, as our recent argument proves, perhaps we don¡¯t know him as well as we thought we did,¡± Yara said, smashing her dough again in frustration. ~~~~~~ Thaseus swung his sword. It was large and heavy, made of stone and not metal and more useful for crushing than cutting. More of a hammer in the shape of a sword than a true sword, but he had stubbornly trained with it because it was the heaviest weapon that the training yard at home had allowed him to bring into a duel. Heavy was good, because it helped him crush his opponents. He swung the sword, feeling the inertia strain against his movements as he twisted and turned. He did not bow to the laws of physics, he was their master, and if he said that the hammer-sword was graceful then it would be graceful despite its mass and velocity. If he¡¯d been allowed to use this weapon during the tournament then-- He frowned, and he turned his mind away from analyzing that thought. Because he wouldn¡¯t have done any better, he would have done worse. The entire reason that his family had felt the need to cheat for him was that his opponents were afraid to face him. While bruises and even broken bones might heal more rapidly for cultivators, they still hurt, and when defeat was obvious it was much easier to withdraw from the tournament than continue. He followed the chain of weakness in his mind. His family had cheated. Because he was weak. They had been forced to cheat because he was ruthless with his opponents, causing them to fear him. They feared his strength. But Lokul Lokul was almost as strong as he was. He was reluctant to admit it, but their duel during the tournament had been a minor decision in his favor in points, with a final score of eight to six. Fighting Lokul Lokul had been an exercise in frustration, and although he was technically the victor he hadn¡¯t felt like it when he had left the ring. He had failed to crush Lokul Lokul. He had failed to frighten Lokul Lokul. Lokul Lokul was the true victor of the tournament. Because his opponents had not feared him the way that they feared Thaseus. Lokul Lokul was not as ruthless. He had taken whatever points he could and played to win, but at the end of the duels he would pick his opponents up and slap them on the back and congratulate them for a fight well fought. Was that why Lokul Lokul was stronger than Thaseus? Was ruthlessness not a strength, as his family had taught him, but a weakness? He slammed his weapon against a stone and the stone shattered into dust. He was breathing hard, and he was sweating, and unlike he normally felt when he exercised this hard he was angry and frustrated. He had hit a wall during the trek here and he did not know how to move forward. ¡°Ho there! I thought I heard the sound of someone practicing. Would you like to cross weapons with Lokul Lokul?¡± Lokul Lokul asked, coming up from the side of the clearing. Thaseus glared at him, but nodded. He had remained taciturn throughout their long/short journey here, but although he had maintained a distance with the other disciples, he could respect this other teenager. ¡°Would you fight me with weapons bare?¡± Lokul Lokul asked, extending a hand and forming a trident from the dust on the ground. It coalesced with the guidance of his Qi and became a solid thing in seconds. ¡°You¡¯re not afraid that I will hurt you?¡± Thaseus said. ¡°What is pain?¡± Lokul Lokul inquired. ¡°I fear nothing that I have conquered, and I have conquered pain long ago. Let me show you the techniques of my master and his spear, and I shall witness your techniques with the weapon you have there. I am very curious to see how I stack up when we are not confined by the rules of the tournament.¡± Thaseus grinned, for that was a sentiment he shared. The duel began, and the mountain echoed with the clashes of unrestrained violence. In the aftermath of the duel, Thaseus left his shattered weapon behind him. It had not served him as well as he once believed that it did. ? 49. Guidance 49. Guidance Taimei stretched. It was nice to rise with the sun, instead of ¡­ whatever it was that had happened during their long journey to this place. She grinned and dressed, tying her hair in a ponytail and spending a moment to go through a brief kata to wake her body up. Then she sat and cultivated for a moment, running through the new style that she had begun adapting to. The ¡° Toh Foram Siel,¡± or the dreaming peach, or something like that. She wasn¡¯t too certain how the name translated from its northern name, but either way it was more about simply being a holistic method of full body cultivation, without any required philosophy attached. That it was a step beyond what she¡¯d learned when she was a child was not lost on her. She had been surprised when she had mastered the technique and found, for the first time in years, that she stank after a cultivation session. She had thought that she had left those days behind, but the body purification secrets of Po Guah were profound. Fortunately she had mostly resolved that issue, and the hidden impurities of her body were all expelled with a vengeance. She smiled again. She had a lot to be grateful for to Little Bug. The tournament itself, her opportunity to prove that the patriarch¡¯s faith in her, was ultimately his doing, she¡¯d heard. And while this particular opportunity had only fallen on her because the third place victor had selected another prize didn¡¯t matter. She had earned fourth place, unlike that cheat Thaseus, and she would not be ashamed at taking the prize that had landed in her lap. After an hour of wakefulness, she finished her early morning reflections and followed her nose to the compound¡¯s dining area, where the others were frying up the last of their sausage with vegetable hash. After spending who knows exactly how long bonding with them on the way, she stepped in and began slicing the bread that Yara and Hien Ro had cooked the night before for the others without a word. Little Bug joined them in silence, and they continued their quiet camaraderie as the morning meal was prepared. She noticed that Little Bug took an extra portion compared to what she¡¯d expected him to, and she wondered if he was going to finish growing into his height soon. He was tall for a ¡­ she¡¯d heard that he was twelve, though it was hard to believe. But he still had the face of a child and it was easy to forget sometimes that the wisdom of ages lie behind that face. ¡°I apologize for not explaining about the journey here in advance,¡± Little Bug said abruptly, and the conversation cut off. ¡°I will not explain my motives again, but I do apologize. And now I will tell you the next part in our training.¡± Taimei¡¯s breathing hitched with excitement. ¡°Today, we¡¯re going to separate. I¡¯ve negotiated with the Tunrida for nine mountains, and we¡¯re going to each take one of them. Hien Ro, you can have this one. I have one picked out for each of the rest of you, and one by one I¡¯ll take you to where you¡¯ll be spending the next few days. Or weeks. Or months. However long it takes to get you ready to truly step forward onto the bronze path.¡± The room waited for him to continue. He took a bite of his bread and chewed. ¡°There¡¯s more to it than that, but I have a plan for each of you to broaden your foundations before stepping onto the Bronze Path. It¡¯s best that we wait until we¡¯re alone because each of your paths are different. But when we gather like this again, I expect that everyone will be on the bronze path.¡± He paused. ¡°Including Xol, whom not all of you have met, but he¡¯s been stalking our camp since we arrived. I have to have a conversation with him as well and either sever our link or bring him into the camp fully.¡± Taimei had no idea who Xol was, but for some reason Hien Ro shuddered. ¡°So, yeah. I know you¡¯ll have questions but I¡¯d appreciate if you let it wait until we¡¯re alone,¡± Little Bug continued. He scraped his plate and then stood to put it in the basin. ¡°That¡¯s all I had to say.¡± He left the room, and the others discussed what this would mean with excitement. Taimei couldn¡¯t wait to learn what this forbidden secret of Little Bug would be. Once everyone had eaten their fill, they began to pack once more for their journey to the mountains that Little Bug had picked out for them. While she had been ill-prepared for the journey, Little Bug had proven prescient enough to make certain that everyone had a basic camping kit. And she had her changes of clothes, and she knew now how to make shelter for herself, even though she was not an earth or wood cultivator.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. She left the compound to wait outside for Little Bug, confident in the coming days. Little Bug greeted her with a smile, and he motioned for her to follow him with a wave. So she did. ¡°Who is Xol?¡± she asked. ¡°He is a spirit beast. I bound him in a spirit oath when we first came to this mountain, but left him behind when we returned to the city. I am uncertain what our relationship is now,¡± Little Bug answered. ¡°But I do not wish to be his enemy.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± she said. ¡°Is he a snake? Is that why Hien Ro doesn¡¯t like him?¡± ¡°A jaguar.¡± ¡°Oh. So what¡¯s the secret?¡± ¡°I am going to show you the true depths of the Peach Blossom Dream,¡± he informed her. ¡°Once you have mastered that, then you will be ready to step foot onto the bronze path.¡± ¡°There¡¯s more to the dreaming peach than what¡¯s in the pamphlets?¡± she asked. ¡°Can you fit a dream on a sheet of paper?¡± Little Bug asked. She frowned, and spent the rest of the trip to her mountain meditating on that question. She knew that she was lucky, to have this much time alone with an Awakened Soul like Little Bug, and she was tempted to pepper him with questions. But in the stories, the old souls get annoyed if you do that, so whenever they say something that sounds profound it¡¯s probably best to give it proper consideration. ~~~~~~~ Six weeks passed. But they didn¡¯t, really. The sun moved slowly through the sky, and time on the mountain had slown to a stop as Taimei cultivated. She tore up bits of her foundation, she strengthened parts that had seemed strong but were lacking, and she filled in cracks which she had not known were there. Little Bug smiled as she opened her eyes, seeking permission. ¡°You¡¯re as ready as you¡¯ll ever be,¡± he told her. He had not left her side for a moment, and she was afraid to ask when he would leave to see to the others ¡°I have your permission to step onto the bronze path?¡± she clarified. ¡°You don¡¯t need it. But I see no amount of preparation which will improve the outcome of making that leap,¡± he informed her. She nodded, and she flipped the page in her mind, moving into the next stage of the peach blossom dream. She sucked in as much energy from the sun and the nearby campfire as she could, and she ran it through her body in the complex pattern which Little Bug had meticulously prepared her for. She gasped as she felt the rising tide of her own Qi responding to what she had absorbed and rising to the next level. Together, she forged a link between herself and the world. She exhaled, sweating, as she felt the energies in her body begin to settle after the crescendo. Little Bug sat nearby, chewing on a jungle fruit and clapping gently once he saw that it would not distract her. ¡°Very good. Let¡¯s go back to camp,¡± he suggested. ¡°Yeah, okay,¡± she said, and she broke down her tent, put out the fire, and picked up the remains of the bird she¡¯d cooked the other day to eat along the path. She was surprisingly hungry; ascending to the next realm was hungry work! They walked away from her mountain ¨C she¡¯d fallen in love with it during her rest periods, when she had to walk through the wilderness of the mountain to recover mentally, physically, and spiritually from her efforts. But she was eager to see the others. The trip back to the main camp was swift, and she was surprised to find it empty except for Hien Ro and Little Bug. She blinked, turning back to her companion for the prior weeks who had been constantly at her side. ¡°Oh. For some reason I forgot you could do that,¡± she said to the dao avatar. ¡°You¡¯re not real are you?¡± ¡°I am as real as you are. And I am as false as you are,¡± the avatar said. ¡°The last few weeks were real, Taimei. Never doubt them. You are on a good path, and even I cannot see where it leads.¡± Then the avatar puffed into mist, and Taimei felt a sense of bittersweet loss. ¡°He¡¯s not gone,¡± the other Little Bug said. ¡°I put a large part of me in each of the companions I sent with you and the others. The real me remained at camp, but I was also with you.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± she said. She smiled. ¡°I just thought for a while that I was getting special treatment.¡± ¡°Who said you weren¡¯t?¡± ? 50. Camaraderie 50. Camaraderie Time passed differently for each of them. For Taimei, it was six weeks. For Hien Ro, only three days passed between the others leaving Little Bug¡¯s mountain and Taimei returning. She was the first, and then Yara. Then Lukal Lukal, and when he returned we began playing cards while waiting for the others to come. Arjun, Farun, and Lahri¡¯s time alone with me on their respective mountain was both productive and different. They were each lovesick for the others, and refused to admit it. They were eventually able to separate their feelings for their dao companions and focus on their own personal foundations, focusing on why they themselves walked this path. They were not leaders and followers in their relationship. They were equals joined together and seeking common goals. They had been brought together by chance, a simple lottery during the investigation of my storm-forming formation months ago. I do not know the details of how their relationship formed from there, but it was forming up to be something special. Arjun was the least impressive on the surface, but he held within his heart a hidden modesty and wisdom that kept the others grounded. Lahri was the groups passion. Farun was their ambition. Together their passions complimented each other like carbon and iron. That is why their time alone and away from each other was difficult for them, but also why it was so important. They needed to establish their foundations individually before they brought themselves together into a gestalt. Ironically, none of them saw what it was that was forming between them until I, rather bluntly, pointed it out. After which they became intensely embarrassed and introspective, and I allowed them their mental privacy. After they concluded their meditations on the matter, however, I saw the strings tying them together were stronger than ever before. In terms of their foundations, they had as many errors to correct as Taimei, but it took them longer, individually and collectively, due to a lack of concentration. I cannot fault them for that, because it¡¯s extremely frustrating when hormones get in the way of cultivation. Finally they returned. Lahri first, and then Arjun, and then finally Farun. Each returned within twenty minutes of the other. Two hours after they returned, Thaseus arrived. He had been ruthless with himself, and although his cultivation was stronger than ever, he had lost ten pounds. He was unshaven, and he carried in his hand a sword of bamboo. I did not question his choice to change his path at this juncture. It¡¯s always better to altar your course as soon as you realize that you¡¯re heading in the wrong direction. Thaseus¡¯s future was the most mercurial to me of any of the disciples. He remained the young man he had always been, but there were hints of something greater in the depths of his soul. I had brought him with to be the grinding stone against which the others were sharpened, but he was turning into a promising candidate himself. When they all realized that it was the same day that they had left, despite the days/weeks/months they had spent with my avatar in isolation, they could only laugh. Late it was late in the evening when we stopped our communal card game and went to bed.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. It wasn¡¯t until the next day that they realized that Polkluk was still unaccounted for. He returned two days later. He was five inches taller, and he had aged from sixteen to age twenty-one. He¡¯d had the most unstable base. Rather than accepting this and stepping onto the bronze path, he had asked how to perfect it. And I had taught him. It had taken him five years to retrace his steps and fix all of the cracks and imperfections, but when he strode into the camp, it was with a triumphant grin. It¡¯s just a shame that nobody recognized his accomplishment except for me; before us stood a completely new man from the boy that he had been. Where the others teased him when my Dao Avatar revealed how much time had passed for him versus everyone else, he simply nodded and bowed to me. ¡°This unworthy disciple thanks the Awakened Soul for his tutelage and patience,¡± Polkluk said. ¡°This unworthy soul thanks Master Polkluk for his practice in slowing time to a crawl,¡± I said, mocking in my voice at the formal tone. ¡°You are not unworthy, Master Po Guah, you are¡ª¡± ¡°I know what I am better than you,¡± I said sharply. ¡°If you are unworthy than so too am I.¡± Polkluk, having grown accustomed to the version of myself that I had sent to guide him, looked stricken at the chastisement. But he bowed. ¡°This eager disciple thanks his master for the correction.¡± I sighed, and we spent the rest of the day playing cards. Until Xol decided to make an entrance. The jaguar spirit-beast stalked into the camp and leapt onto the table in the middle of the lot of us before anyone aside from myself felt he was there. He revealed himself in all of his glory. ¡°First Disciple greets his junior disciples,¡± the spirit beast said proudly. A tense moment passed as the shock of his appearance rippled through the others. ¡° First disciple?¡± Hien Ro asked, outraged. ¡°If anyone is first disciple it¡¯s me! I¡¯m the one who has been following him since¡ª¡± ¡°Welcome to the table, brother Xol,¡± I said, cutting off my friend before he could pick a meaningless fight. ¡°I do not see such ranks, but if it pleases you to hold such things in your head that is up to you.¡± The jaguar¡¯s ears flattened as it realized that it had been subtly rebuked. ¡°Would you care to sit with us and get to know your fellow disciples? If you plan on taking part in the training with us, and that invitation is open to you, then you are far behind in establishing the camaraderie that will be required of you,¡± I informed him. The others perked up as they processed my words as well. ¡°I don¡¯t have thumbs,¡± the jaguar said reluctantly. ¡°I require a servant to hold my cards for me.¡± The others face palmed, but Yara said ¡°I¡¯ll hold my cards and Xol¡¯s as well. But I am not your servant, Xol.¡± The great cat yawned and stalked over to her side. ? 51. Development 51. Development Polkluk danced through his katas one by one. He had eighteen that he had memorized. Twelve from the Raging Rivers Sect, and six that had been gifted to him by Master Little Bug. They were distinct things in his mind, eighteen distinct styles that he was supposed to pull together and make his own, but he felt unworthy of that step. The twelve from his sect remained his heritage. He would not forget them, and he did not feel that he was ready to ¡®improve¡¯ them. So instead he simply practiced them to keep them fresh in his mind. And if he felt unworthy of modifying the katas of his sect, then he was wholly unworthy of modifying the gifts from his new master. So he dithered in his assignment to ¡®turn eighteen into one.¡¯ It had not impacted his cultivation upon the mountain, in the isolation with only the avatar of Little Bug to keep him company. But it remained a minor itch in the back of his mind. He fluttered through the Queen Bee¡¯s Righteous Dance, switching when he¡¯d finished to the Leaf Upon the North Wind. When he had finished with the sweeping, gracious dance of that kata, he swapped once more to the Lion¡¯s Quest for Insight. It took him forty-five minutes to go through all of them. Eighteen distinct styles, and he had no idea which one he favored. Which one to use as the foundation of his own style. He was sweating when he finished, and he turned back to the compound to find a moist towel when he realized he had an audience. The girls sat nearby. ¡°Have you finished?¡± Yara asked. He blushed, wondering how long they had been there while he was in his own little world. ¡°For now, yeah.¡± ¡°Did Little Bug teach you all of those?¡± Taimei asked, a hint of jealousy in her voice. ¡°No. Most of them come from my sect,¡± he explained. ¡°Are they secret, or can you teach anyone?¡± she inquired further. ¡°Your dancing was wonderful.¡± He blinked. ¡°They¡¯re not exactly secret, but they form a basis for our martial arts. I know it looks like dancing but it¡¯s more than that, it¡¯s¡ª¡± ¡°I know what a kata is,¡± she said, teasing him. Polkluk blushed. Was she flirting with him? He had been younger than her when they¡¯d set out on this journey, but he was older now. Did she see him differently than she did on the endless journey from the city? ¡°I would like to learn too,¡± Lahri said simply. ¡°Okay,¡± Polkluk said. ¡°Let¡¯s start with the one that our children learn first. It is called the Frog Leaps Over the Scorpion.¡± Fortunately, while he was sweaty, his body was in the bronze path and he could keep dancing for days. Teaching them a children¡¯s dance was nothing in comparison to his limits, which he had yet to discover since breaking through. ~~~~~~ The ten disciples gathered in the late morning, coming to my call. They stood in the clearing outside the main compound, the one which I had erected on my first stay on my mountain and later expanded to fit everyone who followed me back. Just as Polkluk and the girls arrived, Jumper decided that it was time to land on my shoulder and peck at my earlobe. She was getting big, and I had to raise my arm to give her a perch. I looked up at her. ¡°You haven¡¯t matured at all,¡± I said to her. She pecked my nose and flew off. I shook my head and turned back to my companions. ¡°The next stage of the training is very simple. We¡¯re going to spar. You¡¯ve all stepped onto the bronze path but faced no challenges since then. You will be each other¡¯s challenges. You will be each others road blocks. You will each struggle to overcome each other, and prove your worth.¡± I observed their reactions to my words. Taimei raised a tentative hand while the others shifted. ¡°So we¡¯re holding another tournament?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes and no. You will face each other and fight until one of you is too exhausted to continue,¡± I said. ¡°But there is no winning or losing. There is only the challenge. Do not hold back, I will intervene if I think someone is going to far, but otherwise fight as though your life were on the line.¡±The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Xol purred in pleasure at my words, while my human disciples looked either nervous, pleased, or stoic. ¡°We shall begin with the match that I am most looking forward to,¡± I said. ¡°Polkluk, you will duel Thaseus.¡± The disciples I named reacted in surprise, in the first place, and continued stoicism in the latter instance. ¡°The duel will take place on Polkluk¡¯s mountain in one hour.¡± With that, I sort of just wandered off and let the disciples discuss my plans among themselves. ~~~~~~ Thaseus stood on the edge of the unfamiliar mountain. While he had spent weeks shoring up his foundation on a peak just like this not so long ago, he knew that he was in unfamiliar territory. Polkluk had spent years upon this mountain, training and meditating and exploring. It was possible that there were terrain advantages and other such considerations which the young man he was about to duel could take advantage of. Any advantage counted, he reminded himself. He touched the bamboo blade on his hip. It fitted him in a way that the hammer sword did not, he reflected. He had shaped it himself. The blade was black, as he had shaped it with his fire attuned Qi, carefully carving out the sword from within the bamboo shoot with the power of fire and precision control. Fire and Wind. Those were his elements. Ash and smoke, that was what he had once sought to leave behind in his wake. And yet he hesitated, looking around at the wilderness that crept up the side of the mountain. Polkluk was not the shy teenager who had made the journey with him. Five years was enough to change anyone significantly, and Polkluk had spent five years training with an Awakened Soul. ¡°Fire is more than a force of destruction,¡± he reminded himself. ¡°The wind is more than the wind, the flame is more than the flame.¡± Those were the words that Little Bug had given him on the first day. Things to meditate on, to concentrate upon, to build his new path upon. His new path, for he had stepped off the path of crushing all that was before him. It would have been unthinkable before the tournament, but he knew that there was more to power than overwhelming power now. He reflected on his own challenge rounds with Little Bug, when the Dao Avatar had played with him the same as it played with dozens of other challengers from the tournament. Little Bug had overwhelming power. While his cultivation base was theoretically the same, having only just stepped onto the bronze path, the young Awakened Soul contained such wisdom and insight that the thought of Thaseus defeating him in a duel was as unthinkable as facing Tornolai once more and emerging victorious. But in both cases, there was more to the strength of those who had toyed with Thaseus himself as though they were a cat playing with a mouse. He lacked the words to describe it, but he was grasping at the edge of the concept. It was hard, as he had been blind to it for so long in his pursuit of overwhelming strength. Restraint was not the right word. They had restraint, the fact that Thaseus was still alive after facing Tornolai was proof of that. But that was not what made them strong. Determination? They had determination or they would not have become strong. But Thaseus had been determined, which is what had carried him so far down his false path. That was not the source of their strength. Resilience? He paused. Perhaps that was a source of strength for the others, but as the concept came to Thaseus he realized that it was one of his weaknesses. When his faith in his path had been tested, his path had shattered and he found that he walked on salt and sand. How then would his strength compare to Polkluk, he wondered? Polkluk who had night after night, day after day, spoken of his uncertainty and doubts on their long journey from Mer¡¯cah. He did not recognize this new Polkluk, not since the transformation of the five years alone on the mountain. But he would see for himself how they stacked up against each other. The hour had passed, and Polkluk emerged from the foliage nearby. He glanced up at the mountaintop and rubbed his nose. ¡°I wish that he would have picked a different place for us to fight,¡± Polkluk said conversationally. ¡°I am a little attached to this place. So many fond memories, and now we¡¯ll be tinging them with violence.¡± ¡°Are you backing down?¡± Thaseus asked. ¡°No.¡± Little Bug emerged from nearby. Thaseus took one glance at the boy and saw that it was an avatar, not the real thing. He nodded to it in respect all the same. ¡°You are here to referee?¡± he asked it. ¡°I am here to make certain that neither of you goes to far,¡± the avatar answered. ¡°But you may see me in whatever capacity you wish. It is time. Begin the duel.¡± Thaseus nodded and drew his sword. He took his stance and faced his opponent. He would give Polkluk his best showing, demonstrating everything that was left of his strength and everything he had rebuilt after his foundation had crumbled he would-- Polkluk also took a stance, and he moved through a brief dance. The lightning that he conjured struk Thaseus full in the chest and stopped his heart for half a moment. Then he recovered and sat up, coughing blood. ¡°I forgot for a moment,¡± Thaseus said apologetically. ¡°That we are both on the bronze path now. I was going to face you as I was before. I shall show you who I am now instead.¡± The wind picked up, blowing in heat and the smell of smoke. Flames danced along Thaseus¡¯ wooden sword. When the next lightning bolt came, he dodged. ? 52. Many Peaks 52. Many Peaks Di Ram looked out at the vast clearing in the jungle where the new city was being built. He had cleared the wilderness himself and risen the foundations with his own power, and now the mortals were unpacking and beginning to build what would, hopefully, be their new homes. They were perhaps a hundred miles from the city of Mer¡¯cah, but that was a stone¡¯s throw for a cultivator, so he was not surprised when he was interrupted while reading reports on the updates to the sewer system that the mortals were constructing based on records found within the library he wore on his finger. ¡°Lady Tonilla of the Raging River Sect informs Lord Di Ram that she has personally made the journey to visit in hopes of striking a mutually beneficial alliance,¡± the messenger, a mortal woman, explained in heavily accented words. ¡°If it is suitable to the lord, I shall act as translator. Lady Tonilla has been working diligently to learn the northern tongue, but I shall strive to ensure that there is no confusion.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± he said. He glanced around the pavilion which sat on top of the hill and glanced at his field desk and decided that he was ready for the audience immediately. ¡°You may inform her ladyship that I am ready to receive her at her convenience.¡± The mortal bowed and walked off. She returned ten minutes later with a cultivator of the late silver path. He smiled. Another silver-ranker who lacked either the insight or the resources to make the final push into gold. Just like himself. He set his report down and rose to meet the cultivator, bowing politely. ¡°Welcome to ¡®Port Hope,¡¯¡± he said, translating the words into the southern dialect rather than using the northern dialect. While the official name of the city he was building was ¡®Resh Fali,¡¯ he preferred the meaning to the phonetics. ¡°I must thank you most humbly, Lady Tonilla, for the support you have given my people on our long pilgrimage south. Many who will live and hopefully thrive in our new home would have perished along the way were it not for the supplies you sent.¡± The words were translated, and after a moment Lady Tonilla also spoke words which were translated. ¡°Those supplies were bought and paid for in the form of judges for our tournament and experts on Toh Foram Siel. However, I will not deny, after seeing the scope of the migration, that perhaps I did not understand just how desperate the situation in the north truly was. That and the reports that I have received from my daughter have me greatly concerned that the blight which has infected your homeland will spread. Tell me, what is the source of the undead invasion?¡± ¡°If I knew, I would take steps to resolve it,¡± Di Ram said, sighing. ¡°I suspect that Ko Ren has something to do with it, but where he gained the knowledge and experience to raise such a powerful army of monsters I know not. And because we do not know where the leak in the damn between life and death lies, we cannot plug it, and the corruption continues to spew forth.¡± Tonilla listened to the translation, then nodded. ¡°It seems that, for better or worse, we are neighbors now, and it seems to me that if we are to be good neighbors then we had best begin working on a relationship. Let us talk about our pasts and our histories, so that we both know where it is that we came from and what direction we hope our future paths will lead.¡± Di Ram nodded. ¡°Would you like to start or shall I?¡± ¡°I shall. The Raging Rivers sect was founded by my ancestor, who ascended three hundred years ago. For a while we were most prominent, controlling the confluence of the Thresh, the Loren, and the Pohkul rivers, which is where most of our wealth continues to come from in terms of trades and goods. Our cultivation traditions are based upon a number of local heritages, which our sacred ancestor studied and blended into her own. We are a proud sect, and we stand at the front of the alliance which is forming to face the threat in the north.¡± Di Ram nodded at the translation. ¡°The Six Mountain Sect was founded by not one ascended, but six. These companions united the north two thousand years ago in a conquest that was one of shifting alliances and mutual destruction among warlords until finally, their six armies stood at the battlefield. They parlayed before the battle and came to a solution which would prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of warriors. They said that whoever could raise the highest mountain would be proclaimed the ruler of the northern continent, and all of the others would swear fealty. Thus, for six months did they cultivate, and they raised their mountains. When the six mountains were measured, however, they were identical. ¡°Rather than break the pact, the six warlords each swore fealty to the other, becoming bosom companions and remaining friends until the day they decided to ascend. They each passed down their heritages.¡±You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. The words were translated, and Tonilla looked as interested in his sect¡¯s history as he¡¯d been in hers. Finally, she looked to his ring. ¡°You have a need for much more that is presently outside your grasp if you wish to make this city of yours thrive. Help from the locals will be invaluable, but unless I am mistaken, that tradition of which you are rightly proud is the only currency you have to your name. Tell me, will you be willing to share the knowledge contained with in the ring which you now wear.¡± Di Ram sighed, knowing that it would come to this. ¡°Conditionally,¡± he said at length. ¡°I am eager to hear the conditions.¡± ¡°First, I am eager to know why it was that you did not simply take it from Pi Phon when you had the opportunity to do so. He was of but the bronze path and would have been an easy target for your assassins. Instead you insured that the ring, after learning its worth, was returned to my hand. Why?¡± Tonilla nodded at the translation. ¡°There are several reasons. The first is, if I took the ring from you, then I would prove myself untrustworthy after decades of building alliances and establishing relations with the southern sects. Just as your six founders attempted two millennia ago, I am attempting to unite the southern sects under one banner. I will not build this trust by stealing heritages. Especially not when I might gain by trade what I could take, and possibly lose just as swiftly, by force. ¡°The second is that even if I took the ring for myself, that does not mean that I can use it. I would assume that the library is filled with tricks and traps to keep out those who do not belong there. It would be better to have a guide who knows them, or can at least recognize them, than to lose my own researchers in such a way. ¡°The third is that I would not be able to understand the wisdom contained within until it is translated. Thus, I need translators, and taking the ring by force would severely upset those who are best for the task.¡± Di Ram felt somewhat relieved at listening to her reasoning. It wasn¡¯t that taking the ring hadn¡¯t occurred to her , she simply had good reasons to see it returned and then barter for the contents as a separate matter. She may covet it, but she preferred to obtain the knowledge legitimately for a number of nuanced reasons. ¡°Now then, for my conditions,¡± Di Ram began. ¡°The first is that supplies continue to be delivered to my people here at Resh Fali and those who remain in the north. We will endeavor to become self sufficient as swiftly as possible, but at the moment we remain dependent upon the good will of our southern allies.¡± ¡°Done,¡± Lady Tonilla agreed promptly, before the translation had even finished. ¡°I was already prepared for this condition. We have ten thousand bags of Quinoa ready to be delivered to Resh Fali tomorrow.¡± Di Ram nodded, closing his eyes. That would relieve the pressures on the peasants considerably. ¡°The second and third conditions go together. Those who study the techniques of the Six Mountain Sect must swear never to use them against the Six Mountain Sect, or to spread the knowledge to any who bear us ill will. ¡°The third is that they must swear to be our allies in standing fast against the corruption that is stemming from the north.¡± Lady Tonilla agreed, a predatory grin forming on her face. ¡°I have a proposition.¡± ¡°I am listening.¡± ¡°As you know, I am the leader of a council which is acting as a provisional government. While I have been personally bankrolling much of the support that I have been giving you, I am prepared to say that that support instead comes from the collective council.¡± ¡°If that suits your needs, I do not care where you say the food comes from. As long as it comes,¡± Di Ram said. ¡°We shall say that the council has been supporting you all along, my friend,¡± she clarified. ¡°And now that you have something in exchange to offer, we wish to form a formal alliance with the remnants of the Six Mountain Sect. A formal alliance between a sect with two thousand years of history will do much to legitimize our rule, and the knowledge in your ring shall also encourage many of those who are resentful of our position to join us and end their opposition. I wish to form an alliance like that of the six heroes of your story, Lord Di Ram. Let us be the first to raise our mountains.¡± Di Ram was silent for a moment as he considered the translation for a moment. Then he nodded. ¡°Let our meeting signal the beginning of the Many Peaks Alliance,¡± he said. She laughed. ¡°Oh, who said you get to pick the name?¡± But she did not provide her own suggestion, and so the name stuck. And the threads of fate spun and wove as many possible futures snapped into becoming closer to reality, while others faded into the depths of ¡®might have been.¡¯ ? 53. Forging 53. Forging I could feel the decision being made in the far off distance, one which rippled out through the entire world. Something had been decided, something had begun, something which would change the fate of this world. For the better or the worse? That was not mine to say, for such things are ultimately subjective. There would be those who curse the name of the Many Peak Alliance for generations to come. There are those who would rally behind it. It would cause the shedding of blood and the saving of lives. But while I saw the edges of certain futures shaping up, so much was out of my hands that I sometimes felt helpless. I could guide this world, or I could recuse myself from it entirely. If I were to dedicate myself entirely to cultivation, I would soon reach the Gold Path, and could ascend beyond this world at my leisure. Leaving behind the mess that had been created by my presence here. I did not feel worthy of either path, and so I strode a third. I was raising my disciples because they belonged to this world. They would have a say in its shaping. I would give them power and wisdom and hope that they used the second when employing the first, but I would not be a conqueror. I could be. I would not. As these thoughts rippled through my head, I watched Xol battling Yara. The jaguar dashed through the forest, zipping in and out of vision as he employed illusion techniques. Yara was focused on him, and did not see the vine wrapping around her ankle until it was too late. She was pulled off balance and-- A spray of ice killed the vine, and she turned in time to meet Xol¡¯s charge. The spirit beast split into three, two illusions and his true body, but she had seen this trick before and she speared the one on the left with her ice. A true blow. The ice pierced the jaguar¡¯s hide and he limped back, studying her for a moment as the combatants evaluated each other. ¡°What gave me away?¡± he questioned. ¡°A fraction of a second before you split, you slackened your control on your intent. I could feel you intending to attack me from the left,¡± she explained. Xol tisked. ¡°If I had willed it, the vine would have bitten you and infected you with venom.¡± ¡°Thank you for your restraint,¡± Yara said. The two evaluated each other for a moment, then mutually dashed into the distance to resume the fight. On another mountain, I watched as Farun dueled Hien Ro. They both shared the fire element, and they had picked a place high on the mountain for their duel where the flames of their battles would not be likely to spread. Farun had not attuned a second element, while Hien Ro had selected earth. At this stage in their combat Ro¡¯s duality was giving him an advantage in combat, as he could conjure earth to shield him from Farun¡¯s flames and simultaneously conjure rocks as projectiles, or even unsteady to footing beneath his opponent¡¯s feet. As they pushed further and further into the bronze path, however, Farun¡¯s control over his chosen element would solidify far further than Ro¡¯s balanced approach, allowing him to perfect more complicated fire techniques with greater ease and precision. Whether this meant that he would become the stronger combatant or not remained undetermined, but for now, he was being trounced by Hien Ro. I spent a few moments giving the duel my full attention. They launched at each other a wall of flames, and the flames met and clashed in between them. Hien Ro fired an earth missile at his opponent through the din, and Farun saw it and dodged. The power shifted between them and through the gap Farun sent a lance of flames at Hien Ro, bu this too was dodged. The ground shifted beneath Farun¡¯s feet as he landed, and the wall of flames he¡¯d been supporting in his defense suddenly flickered out as he lost control over them. His opponents flames, darker than his own, encroached swiftly on him as he began to reassert control, but it was-- ¡°Point,¡± Farun admitted, and the flames of his opponent backed off as they took a step back and reset. Once more they launched attacks at each other from afar as the world around them was engulfed in an inferno. On another peak, Polkluk dueled against Arjun. Arjun¡¯s earth mastery proved to be a solid counter to Polkluk¡¯s lightning, and the young man from the Raging Rivers Sect was finding it impossible to get a firm attack in while simultaneously running from the foliage and pebbles that his opponent was sending at him.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Lahri dueled Thaseus, her water countering his flames and fierce winds. Mostly. I noticed a few scorch marks on her sarong, but otherwise they were evenly matched. A state which I knew Thaseus found frustrating to no end, but such things were good for him to overcome if he were ever to find his new definition of strength. A flash occurred on another mountain, and I shifted my attention to the final duel that was taking place between Lukal Lukal and Taimei. I grinned as I watched Lukal Lukal wildly spinning his spear while he waited for his vision to recover. Taimei waited, then swiftly approached from the side and planted a fist right against his jaw. He went flying through the trees and landed awkwardly. ¡°You have scored a point,¡± he admitted, and they waited for a moment while he recovered his vision from the bright flash so that they could reset the duel. When he had recovered, he made a gesture with his hand to start, and the earth around Taimei¡¯s feet attempted to suck her in. She had been expecting this, however, and was in the air a second later. Lukal Lukal threw his spear, and she swatted it aside with her own blade. Lukal Lukal was forming another spear when she hit him in the face with another intense ray of blinding light. ¡°Ah!¡± he shouted. ¡°Point, Point.¡± ¡°You should get better at fighting blind,¡± she suggested. ¡°Between you and Xol I fear that I must,¡± Lukal Lukal agreed. I grinned and turned my attention elsewhere. My disciples were shaping up quite well indeed. But they had not noticed that I had been spending most of my attention on the northernmost mountain. And neither did they notice when it vanished. I waited, breathless, to see if the strings of space-time that I had woven together would break. They did not, and I stared in wonder at the box that held a mountain. I had successfully created a spatial artifact. I grinned. This box wasn¡¯t worth as much as the ring that I¡¯d been given by Pi Phon and later returned to him. The ring with a library inside. But it was worth a fair bit. Soon, I¡¯d have ten of them. I closed the lid on the box and turned my attention back to the duels. ~~~~~~ Di Ram looked at the ring on his hand. Not the one with the library on it. The other one. The new one. Then he looked over to where Tonilla lay peacefully beneath the sheets. While he could see the signs of her true age, she was quite beautiful, the body of a twenty-five year old, the wit of a politician, and the wisdom of an octogenarian. He sighed and got out of bed, pulling on trousers and a robe. He sat at the table nearby and began going through reports by the light of small spiritual stone which he had charged himself. He could not seem to focus. He was married. It was political. A formal seal between the Raging River Sect and the Six Mountain Sect to form the Many Peaks Alliance. But it was official, having been presided over by a golden ranked cultivator who seemed to have been genuinely pleased to officiate, for all that he was boisterous and shouting about ¡°True love conquers all!¡± He read the reports that had been delivered from Resh Fali and sighed. The food from the southern alliance had taken off most of the pressure, and the building was underway according to the plans that he¡¯d established before coming to Mer¡¯cah. Everything was looking up. Yet he couldn¡¯t help feeling a sense of impending dread. Or perhaps that was lingering jitters from before the ceremony, when he had reflected on marrying a woman he barely knew. Whose language he barely spoke, who barely spoke his language. Although there was one language that the spoke well enough, he reflected, recalling their time beneath the sheets together. He sighed and put the reports aside, then picked one of the copies that the mortals had made of the notes left behind in the library by Little Bug. They were reflections on the reflections of the founders, and he found them simply fascinating. ¡°There is no part of the mountain which is more important than the base or less important than the peak. A mountain can be a mountain without a peak. A people can be a people without a ruler. It is not the base¡¯s responsibility to cater to the peak. The peak is put in place by the base, by roots so deep into the earth that it is impossible to dig them out. To move a mountain, you do not move the peak. So it is with peoples. It is a shame that the rulers of so many lands do not understand the wisdom of mountains.¡± Di Ram reflected on the words, teasing out the wisdom and the metaphor. The original passage upon which Little Bug was expounding was about how if the peak of the mountain serves the base, then the base will serve the peak. It was all a metaphor between the relationship between those who rule and those who are ruled. But now that he ruled a people ¨C for he was unquestionably the lord of the refugees who had come south ¨C he saw now that rulers had far less freedom than he¡¯d once believed. Quietly, midway through the reading of one of Little Bug¡¯s notes, he came upon an epiphany and took his first step onto the Golden Path. His Qi soared to new heights, waking his wife and sending ripples through the city. ? 54. Light 54. Light ¡°For the first three hundred miles we encountered only those souls who were fleeing south. We gave them directions to join the caravan and tried to gather as much intelligence from them as we could, but the language barrier got in the way. They repeatedly grew distressed when we expressed that we were heading north, and that we refused to turn back.¡± Sonilla paused, gasping as her organs shifted. She pushed against her bandage and her stomach slipped back into place. She¡¯d be dead were she not a cultivator. As it was, she had perhaps fifty-fifty odds of surviving. ¡°We continued to travel until we reached a city. The streets were empty. We found nobody, no bodies. We arrived at dusk and made camp in the governor¡¯s mansion to continue our search by daylight.¡± She gasped again, pausing her narrative as she touched the wind and light construct. ¡°Mother, they came during the night. Uncounted and terrible. Some were only children, but so many. Each of them with the power of a cultivator, ranging from an early purification realm cultivator up to the silver path. I and Toras and Pholonia escaped while the others bought us time, but I was injured. If I do not see you again, I love you.¡± She gasped again and sent the communication construct flying away. It shot over the horizon in a breath, its light vanishing into the distance. She lay back down and closed her eyes. Her breath slowed. Her heart stopped. Time passed. She sat back up, adjusted her wounds. The gaping maw in her chest healed over, and she stood up. She had lain down as a cultivator of the bronze path. She rose at silver rank. But there was no light in her eyes. ~~~~~~ The necromancer stared at the magical projection of Atla, studying its energy flows. It¡¯s leylines. It¡¯s blood and bones. He grinned to himself. This was actually going better than he¡¯d expected. While he¡¯d initially been ordered to simply find the unbound soul and deliver it to Empress Nadia, he was actually establishing a foothold in a dimension where the Divine Fates empire was weak. What had initially been nothing more than an attempt at tracking the soul through blood ties was building up a degree of momentum and inevitability. As each corpse-soldier killed, it created more undead. As each peasant starved to death or died of disease due to the conditions that were progressively getting worse, they too would rise. And they were infecting the world¡¯s energy with his necromantic flavored Qi. It was slipping into the world¡¯s heart and slowly changing the very nature of life on Atla. Soon, his corpse soldiers would begin to rise in the south. And on the eastern and western continents as well. Very soon, they would be begging their lord for intervention, but the necromancer would not let them get that relief. He would snatch the prize away once he had enough energy, pulling the entire world into his own dimension. Then, it would be only a matter of time until he found the unbound soul hiding within the remaining populace. He did the math, and decided that it would only take a billion more deaths before he could reach this goal. He was patient. It would only take another year or so. After a certain point, these things had a way of moving on their own. ~~~~~~ The disciples sat around the table, joking and laughing as they ate. I sat with them, listening to the rise and fall in their voices. The threads of fate continued to twist and turn, leading towards two outcomes. Either Atla would fall, the corruption that was infecting it destroying the planet and its people, Or the Lord of the Realm would purify it before that happened. But the strands of fate that were coming from off-world were so far away, so impossible to read. I could not determine what was happening in the court of the ascended ones.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I had to make my own plans. The two options were corruption and purification. I had to ensure that it was the latter, and not the former, which took place. The hall grew silent and I looked up, realizing that the others were looking at me. I realized that it was time for me to announce the pairings for today¡¯s duels. Instead, I decided that it was time to move on. ¡°We will be doing something different today,¡± I informed them. ¡°Meet me outside in an hour. Be prepared to fight as though your life is on the line.¡± ~~~~~~ Hien Ro studied the others, wondering whether he¡¯d be about to fight one of them, and if so which. He had, over the last few weeks, gotten intimately familiar with each of their fighting styles, and they with his. That they were equals was no longer in question. While they had set off on this journey at different points in their cultivation progress, somehow Little Bug had put them lockstep with each other. He wasn¡¯t certain how the young Awakened Soul had done it, but while it was true that they had bad match-ups and certain wins in their duels, there was nobody who stood at the apex except for Little Bug himself. That they each had strengths and weaknesses for the others to be wary of or exploit was besides the point. Hien Ro had strategies to fight each of his potential opponents, and they would have strategies to deal with him. The outcome was never certain, never foregone, and always open for interpretation as while they jokingly kept score, there was never a real winner or loser in the duels. They simply fought until they were out of energy, and then they returned to camp to eat and joke around with the other disciples. It had been surprisingly intimate, getting to know the rest of them through combat. While they were each fiercely competitive, a respect had grown among them. Even Xol, who continued to taunt the others that he was ¡®First Disciple.¡¯ Even Polkluk, who remained uncertain of himself even as he demonstrated time and again that he belonged here. Even Thaseus, who slowly had come out of his shell to embrace the camaraderie with the others. Even Hien Ro, he thought to himself, who had only become a cultivator because he had lied about seeing a light above an elder¡¯s hand when they had administered the test. As they reached the summit, Hien Ro realized that he had been to this spot before. It was the place where Little Bug had collapsed after attuning the lightning element. He glanced at the boy, wondering what this was about, when Little Bug suddenly turned around. ¡°You will be fighting together today,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°You may work as a team, or in teams, or by yourself. But you will be fighting me. I shall not be holding back except at the last possible moment, when to do otherwise would cause death. Come at me with everything you have. Let us see how far we can walk this path together.¡± The others considered his words for a moment, but no sooner had they stopped speaking than Hien Ro dashed forward, empowering himself with the strength of the earth and the Iron Monkey¡¯s Strength technique, summoning a massive sword of fire which he swung at Little Bug. Little Bug split off an Avatar, and Hien Ro was profoundly disappointed when that Avatar turned to face him rather than Little Bug himself. But then he did not have time to question his worthiness, as the avatar matched his tactics, pulling strength from the earth and conjuring a blade of fire. The two massive blades of Fire Qi impacted each other, and the confluence of energies threw both Hien Ro and the Avatar back. Hien Ro landed on his feet and dashed forward again, and the Avatar landed on his feet and dashed forward. They clashed, blade against blade, for five minutes, neither backing down and neither giving any advantage. It¡¯s like fighting a mirror, Hien Ro thought to himself. Every strategy he employed was countered exactly the way that he¡¯d do it, and every weakness he presented was exploited exactly the way he¡¯d do it. Hien Ro chuckled. If that¡¯s how it was, then -- A lightning blast suddenly took his avatar in the chest, and the avatar burst into mist. He turned to see Polkluk running towards him. ¡°Tag!¡± the older boy shouted, and Hien Ro grinned, for the disciple from the Raging Rivers Sect had the same idea that he¡¯d had. He charged at the avatar that had been dueling Polkluk even as the one that had been mimicking him began to reform. Hien Ro dashed and narrowly avoided the lightning bolt that his new target sent his way. He fought like he would fight against Polkluk, redirecting lighting bolts and deflecting them with shields of earth while simultaneously fighting against the storming wind. His flames were smothered by the oncoming storm, but Hien Ro had mastery of the earth as well, and the earth endured in the face of any storm. He charged forward, conjuring a blade from the earth and-- Little Bug¡¯s Avatar turned to mist before he struck. He watched as the mist swirled and combined with the mist that had made up the opponent that Polkluk had been fighting. When the combined avatar took shape once more, it was in the form of a Mirror Walker, a being made of glass and silver that wasn¡¯t supposed to actually exist. They were the reasons why peasants never put a mirror in a child¡¯s bedroom, for they were said to be children which had fallen through a mirror and entered another world. Shivering, Hien Ro brought up his blade in defense just in time, as the Mirror Walker swung it¡¯s long arm and conjured flame and thunder at him at the same time. The wind knocked him off balance, and the earth shook beneath his feet. He was struck by the lightning, and he fell to one knee. Polkluk lasted not much longer. ¡°I said I wasn¡¯t holding back,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°So come at me once more. With everything.¡± One he had recovered from the electrocution, Hien Ro nodded at Polkluk, and together they dashed forward at the Walker Avatar and began the fight in earnest. ? 55. Elsewhere 55. Elsewhere ¡°Look at what you¡¯ve done,¡± the ghost of Ko Si said, staring out at the empty fields and the dead city around them. There were people everywhere, and yet not a soul in sight. Ko Ren ignored his sister¡¯s ghost ¨C her fragment, as the demon who had given him so much called her. Ko Si was dead, truly, but when he had strangled her, some parts of her mind and memory had slipped into that half of him which he had taken from her. Killing her was supposed to have solved his problems, instead it had caused his body to begin decaying and his mind to go mad. He¡¯d solved that first problem at least. He flexed, feeling the undead strength coursing through him. His missing hand was even starting to grow back after the last magick that he¡¯d coaxed out of the Demon¡¯s jealous repository of knowledge. He was at the peak of the Golden Path now. Stronger than he¡¯d been when he¡¯d killed Di Phon, stronger than any other on Atla. If he could only find the damn target, then he would solve everything by feeding Little Bug¡¯s soul to the Demon. He turned to his followers. Those who remained. He¡¯d killed those who wouldn¡¯t follow him willingly, and they had risen again. Loyal. ¡°Gather everyone,¡± he instructed. ¡°Every man, woman, and child who has risen again. We march south.¡± ~~~~~~ ¡°I understand your concerns,¡± Di Ram said calmly. ¡°But this is not an invasion. We did not come as conquerors, but as refugees. We claimed land that was unclaimed and unwanted, and we beg for what scraps have been given us. Without my wife¡¯s support I would not have made it as far as I have; my rag-tag group of survivors would still be crossing the great divide between north and south. Or we would be dead, and still crossing the great divide between north and south. ¡°We did not come as conquerors, but make no mistake that the conquerors come. Ko Ren and his undead army will¡ª¡± ¡°We¡¯ve only your word on the undead,¡± came one of the detractors who had agreed to this meeting. ¡°How do we know that you¡¯re telling the truth?¡± Di Ram sighed. ¡°Send your own scouts if you disbelieve the accounts of the survivors who returned. If you disbelieve that my wife¡¯s mourning of her daughter is genuine. If you¡ª¡± ¡°And how do we know that swearing the oaths is worth the price?¡± another detractor demanded. ¡°This vault of knowledge you purport to possess, well, the Silent Mountain has is own library. It will take a lot to impress me that we¡¯re not better off just using that.¡± Di Ram nodded. ¡°That is a valid point. And one that is easy to address. You may visit the Archive for one hour. My mortal assistants will escort you and show you the various tomes so that you may judge the wealth of knowledge that is being offered. I ask you to be patient with them, as they are still learning the southern languages.¡± The detractors considered the offer, and agreed, and with a wave of his hand and a subtle manipulation of Qi, they were sucked into Di Ram¡¯s storage ring. Di Ram sighed and rolled his shoulders. A mortal servant came forward to rub them, and he sighed in pleasure. ¡°After my ascension I feel twenty years younger and a thousand years older at the same time,¡± he muttered. ¡°Why does gaining power complicate things instead of simplifying them?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know my lord,¡± Po Sana said, continuing her massage. ¡°Perhaps my son could answer your question. Has their been any word?¡± ¡°There are sightings of him all over the place, but nothing credible,¡± Di Ram admitted. ¡°I am sorry, Po Sana. I wish that there was more to tell you than he was alive six months ago and gaining power rapidly. I believe that if anyone is going to survive the coming night, it will be him.¡± ¡°I believe you, my lord,¡± Po Sana said, reaching for some oil to really rub out the stress knots in her lord¡¯s back. ¡°How is the rest of your family?¡±Stolen story; please report. ¡°They¡¯re good. The little one is walking and beginning to talk. She¡¯ll be normal, my lord. She¡¯s nothing like Little Bug at all. More like her other brother than anything, and he¡¯s as normal as a boy can be,¡± Po Sana said. ¡°Do you think that Little Bug knows he has a second sister?¡± ¡°I cannot say,¡± Di Ram admitted, leaning forward and allow the massage to happen. Ever since he had rescued them from their village, Di Ram had been keeping Little Bug¡¯s family close at hand. It had simply seemed like the sort of thing he ought to do at first, but now that he¡¯d actually thought about it, he had determined the reason for his instincts. Blood magic. If the enemy got hold of Po Sana, her children, or the father, then it would open up an entire list of terrible, terrible options for them to attempt to deal with Little Bug himself. Now that he had some inkling as to how important the Little Sage really was, he wasn¡¯t willing to let the enemy, who had proven through their corruption to be capable of anything, to have such a weapon. Besides, he thought, moaning a little in pleasure as she hit a particularly tense muscle. She had magic fingers. The door opened, and a veiled woman came in. Po Sana tensed and stopped her massage, but she needn¡¯t have. Di Ram had explained very clearly to his wife who Po Sana was, and Tonilla agreed that it was best to keep the mortal family of Little Bug close at hand. ¡°They are in the library?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes. It was just as you said. First they accuse us of invasion, then when we insist that we want only to stand fast against a common enemy, they demand to know what we bring to the table. All while refusing to believe that the threat is real.¡± ¡°These men are nothing if not predictable. But when they see the wealth that you brought south, whether you realized it or not at the time, they will understand that it is better to fall under the banner of the alliance than stand alone,¡± she predicted. ¡°I hope so. Has their been word of Sonilla?¡± ¡°Her message is the last contact we have with the group of scouts that we sent,¡± Tonilla said. She dabbed her eye through the veil. ¡°I wish that I had time to simply mourn my daughter.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know for certain¡ª¡± ¡°I know.¡± Di Ram was silent, and then he nodded. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I did not mean to imply that you should hold out false hope. We have both seen too much of this world to not be realists. At least she had a chance to say goodbye through the message construct.¡± ¡°Yes. At least that,¡± Tonilla agreed. ¡°Now let us discuss how to manage those pig-headed fools once they finish gawking at the library.¡± ~~~~~~~ Adan Pocef stepped up to the palace and nervously stood at the gate for a few moments before the guards finally acknowledged him. He wasn¡¯t dressed particularly well, but he was wearing the best clothes he owned. He¡¯d been gambling again, and he was in debt again. He had thought that if he could just get out of debt, everything would be fine. The cultivators had done that much, but then they¡¯d also taken his daughter from him. She was better off with them, learning to cultivate and exploring a world that he would never see than drowning in an old man¡¯s debt like him. He snorted. He was only in his thirties, but he still felt like an old man. A foolish old man who had squandered his life. ¡°What do you want, peasant?¡± the guard finally asked when they acknowledged him. ¡°I¡¯m wondering if the Raging River Sect has any word of my daughter, Yara Pocef. She is a companion of Po Guah.¡± His words caused the guard to stiffen, then send a messenger to the main house. A few moments later, he was whisked off and interviewed by a young looking woman. He revealed his own status as a cultivator, although one who had started late in life and was only in the energy gathering stage, and he told the story of how he had been hired by Little Bug as a guide before Little Bug had become known as Po Guah, the Awakened Soul. He could sense her intent upon him, and he could sense the truth-telling technique that she used on him as well. He didn¡¯t care, he allowed it. When she was satisfied, she rose to give her report. An hour later, he was served a meal. An hour after that, he was told that they had not received word from Po Guah or any of the disciples who had left with him, but thanked him for inquiring. Adan Pocef sighed and went back to the small room where he stayed and stared at the ceiling. He scratched at the tattoo on his back, and he wondered how much time he had left before Little Bug¡¯s prediction of his death came true. ? 56. Ten Become More Than One. 56. Ten Become More Than One. Arjun gasped as the vines crawled up his leg and yanked him into the air. The avatar that he was fighting had taken on the shape of a Gao Giant, but it continued to utilize the complex magic that all of the avatars utilized, especially when the disciples were working together. Which they were more and more frequently, as the opening days where Little Bug was content to simply show them a mirror were long gone. Little Bug had stopped pulling his punches long ago, as he demonstrated by slamming Arjun into a rock and then launching him high into the air. Polkluk was there to catch him and redirect him to the ground. While he was up there, the young man launched a lightning bolt at the Gao Giant avatar, who roared in anger when the attack connected. Yara was being protected by Hien Ro, who burned the encroaching foliage back with his own power while Yara focused her abilities into a complex pattern of a technique. Abruptly she opened her eyes, which glowed blue from the concentrated Qi, and spread her hands. Hoarfrost spread throughout the jungle, killing the vines that the Gao Giant had been using against them. It roared in defiance, then broke apart into a hundred bats. The bats began flying at the disciples, and Thaseus stepped up. Conjuring up a wind, he set it aflame in an area denial attack to take out as many of the miniature avatars as he could. He caught perhaps nine in ten, but the ones that got threw changed into Boar Hounds and snapped their tusks into the thighs of Lahri and Lukal Lukal. Lukal Lukal roared in pain and thrust an earthen dagger through the skull of the Boar Hound attacking him, causing it to burst into mist. He threw his trident at the one attacking Lahri, but Farn had already set it aflame and Arjun had impaled it with earthen spikes. The trio of Dao Companions gathered back to back while Lahri staunched the bleeding. A new Dao Avatar appeared, this one in the shape of a Yamatuma, a yeti-like monster said to inhabit the jungle. It roared and threw rocks, which turned into spears in the air. The battle roared. Each time the disciples defeated a Dao Avatar, a new one would appear in an unpredictable shape and with unpredictable power. They had to identify its weaknesses and counter it swiftly, a task that was growing more complex every day. But they worked together, and they were slowly overcoming the challenges that Little Bug presented them. The battle raged through the day, and in the evening finally the attacks stopped. An avatar appeared in the form of Little Bug. ¡°That is it for today,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ll meet you back at the compound. Tomorrow, we begin the next stage of your training.¡± The disciples, sweaty, bloody, beaten and weary, made their way back to the mountain. It was only one of three remaining mountains in the small range that Little Bug had claimed, the rest having vanished into spatial artifacts sometime over the last few weeks. Little Bug was waiting for them, having already drawn up water for them to wash and cooked a stew for them to share. They rinsed off the worst of their sweat and grime and sat at the table, too exhausted to talk. This training session had been the most exhausting one in a line of exhausting training sessions. But tired as they were, they were also hungry, and somewhere along the middle of the meal, someone cracked a joke, and someone laughed, and soon they were acting like teenagers again. Little Bug watched them with a small smile on his face. They had done well, overcoming everything he had thrown at them today. That night, after everyone had gone to bed, Little Bug climbed the mountain one more time. He sat in the freezing cold, and he cultivated. Hien Ro woke up in the middle of the night as he felt a sudden change in the Qi of the mountain. He went outside and stared up at the summit. An hour later, he saw Little Bug descending. The boy had broken through onto the silver path. ~~~~~~ The disciples stood outside in the gathering spot, nervously waiting for me to talk. I nodded at them. Aside from flaring my cultivation in the morning to make certain they knew what had happened, I hadn¡¯t said a word all morning. They hadn¡¯t pressed me.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Their reactions ranged from surprised to worried at my breakthrough. They ought to be worried; I had been as strong as a silver path cultivator, perhaps stronger, when I had faced them before. Now that I was on the silver path, I was fairly certain that I could take on Tornolai and win. They were still powerful cultivators of the bronze path, but that¡¯s all they were. Powerful cultivators on the bronze path. They couldn¡¯t summon Dao Avatars, and they couldn¡¯t utilize every element. Yet. I grinned. ¡°Today, we begin work on something which will give you an advantage. Something which will allow you to stand toe to toe with someone a hundred times stronger than you individually. I shall teach you the North Star Guiding Formation.¡± They glanced at each other, confused. They¡¯d never heard of such a technique. That wasn¡¯t surprising, it wasn¡¯t famous in this dimension. ¡°The secret to the formation is to become a part of a whole. I do not mean simply that you must cooperate with each other. I mean that you must become unified in a way that is presently difficult for you to understand. You have learned teamwork, and that is good. You have learned to rely on each other. You know each other¡¯s strengths, and your weaknesses, your hopes and your dreams and your fears. That is good.¡± I paused, allowing them to soak in the praise. ¡°But you are still nine teenagers and a jaguar working together as a team rather than Ten being One . When you learn the North Star Guiding Formation, you will become a gestalt, ten pieces that are stronger together than they are apart. Not one plus one, or two times two. You will be exponentially stronger for each part of the gestalt. You will be able to take on anyone in this world. Even Ko Ren. Perhaps even me.¡± I smiled. ¡°Let us begin. To start with, stand in a circle, hold hands, and send your Qi into the body to your left. Keep in mind that you are not sending it into a partner. You are sending it into a different limb of your body, for the ten of you are one and the one of you are ten. You must not reject the Qi that enters you from other parts of your body, just as you must not hold back when you send your Qi elsewhere.¡± The ten of them followed the instructions I gave. Even Xol, who¡¯s status as a quadruped made the formation somewhat uncomfortable for him and the others. Immediately they experienced Qi rejection. They began vomiting and convulsing, and it took ten minutes for them to recover. ¡°Again,¡± I said twenty minutes later, after discussing where they had gone wrong. Where I knew that they would go wrong. And where they would go wrong on the next attempt, and the one after that. It would take weeks for them to master this technique and overcome the Qi rejection sickness that prevented most cultivators from utilizing this technique. But they would be far, far stronger for it. ~~~~~~ Belqee stretched, the vertebrae in her ancient back popping as she forced them back into place. The other villagers were gathering around to bury the young man who had fallen victim to a snakebite the other day, and she needed to pay her respects. There had been more traffic on the nearby highway than normal lately. She¡¯d been called to translate a few times, and had learned that northerners were building a city nearby. She was too old to care about the comings and goings of the young overly much, but still she sensed the winds of change coming in, stirring up the dust of the old ways and shaping them into something new. She wobbled through the village to the graveyard where the hole was already dug. The others waited patiently for her, and once the whole village was there, the village head, Coatl, stepped forward. Ever since the wandering cultivators had put him in his place, he had been a much better leader. That they had left him in his hole for three weeks while he screamed and pleaded for release had something to do with it, of course, but she liked to think that it was thanks to her pleading for his life after his defeat that he had treated her with the respect that she deserved. ¡°Markee was a friend of mine,¡± Coatl said. ¡°I will miss him.¡± That was it? She scoffed. Some eulogy. But he took a shovel and began throwing dirt on the body. When the second shovelful of dirt landed, however, the body abruptly sat up. The crowd gasped in shock as Markee climbed out of his grave. ¡°Get back! Get back!¡± Coatl shouted, but before anyone realized what had happened the corpse attacked one of the women in the front row. The villagers ran screaming. Only the swift and violent actions of their village head prevented a massacre as the bronze-ranked undead tried to massacre the friends and family of its body¡¯s previous owner. Even so, the next funeral disposed of three bodies instead of only one, and they were burned instead of buried. The next day, they dispatched runners to the south, to Mer¡¯cah, and to the new city that was being built in the north. If the dead were rising, then the cultivators in the city must be made aware. ? 57. Gestalt 57. Gestalt Taimei felt Lahri¡¯s Qi enter her, just as she pressed her own Qi into Yara, and Yara pressed her Qi into Lahri. This was a smaller application of the North Star Guiding Formation. The girls club. They had managed to form a collective once as a group of ten, and then spent two days recovering. The formation had changed her in ways that she had trouble understanding. She was more aware of the others than ever before, but also aware of herself in a way that she hadn¡¯t dreamed possible. On an existential level, she was more . She had seen herself through the eyes of her friends, and her friends had seen themselves through her eyes. She had felt their pride. In themselves, in her, in the group, in each other. She had felt their perceived shortcomings. They had all agreed to test this power. They had channeled it through Hien Ro, who had formed a Rising Star and aimed it at one of the remaining mountains nearby. It had blown off the snowcap and left a crater in its place. But that wasn¡¯t good enough. Not for Little Bug, and because it wasn¡¯t good enough for Little Bug, it wasn¡¯t good enough for his disciples either. For one thing, they wouldn¡¯t always be together, and they wouldn¡¯t have an infinite amount of time to synchronize their Qi. Now that they had done it as a single unit, they needed to be able to enter the formation in smaller groups. And faster. Without hesitation or pause. And so they had broken up into boys and girls. She felt the gestalt slip into place, and the other girls exchanged looks. Her eyes were glowing, as were the other girls. ¡°How shall we test it?¡± she asked them. ¡°Cut down that tree,¡± Yara suggested. ¡°Me?¡± Taimei asked, and the other girls nodded. So she turned towards their target mountain and she focused on performing the technique she had learned from Master Little Bug. She had always known how to make light with her Qi. Her alignment had come naturally at a young age, shortly after she¡¯d first awakened her powers as a cultivator. It had been an advantage in that she¡¯d been able to draw energy from the light of day, from the sun and stars and moon. And in combat, when she blinded her opponents, it had proven invaluable. But she hadn¡¯t known about invisible light until Little Bug had informed her of its existence with a very informative demonstration. And she hadn¡¯t realized how deadly light could be if you concentrated it in just the right fashion. Technically simply showing her how to utilize that had fulfilled Little Bug¡¯s promise to teach her a customized technique, but he had never once even hinted that he wanted her to return to her sect, and she wasn¡¯t about to put such an idea in his head. She turned the light up to the wavelength that Little Bug had shown her was most effective for cutting through things, and she pushed as much power into the technique as she could. She aimed it at a tree nearby and cut through it at its base. And for three miles behind it, trees began to fall. ~~~~~ Hien Ro felt the gestalt form between him, Thaseus, Polkluk and Xol. He exhaled, at the same time feeling the relief from the others. They had managed it only moments after they had sensed the girls¡¯ group do the same. They wouldn¡¯t be the final group to manage to form a collective this time, but soon they knew little bug would shuffle the deck, until they had formed a collective with every possible combination.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°My family would never approve of this technique,¡± Thaseus commented, looking at his hands from which sparks and shocks were jolting. ¡°Why not? It¡¯s immensely powerful,¡± Hien Ro asked. ¡°Because it requires leaving myself vulnerable. Right now, should you turn your Qi against me, I would have no way to stop it,¡± Thaseus pointed out. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°I might have hated you when we fought in the tournament, but that was years ago now.¡± ¡°I know. But they would not understand that,¡± Thaseus said, sighing. ¡°They believed that blood ties were the only ties that truly mattered, and even then they did not blink when I was beaten half to death by my older brother, who taught me to be strong by his example. Even then they did not ¨C no. It is in the past.¡± ¡°So, the girls cut down some trees with their gestalt. What should we do?¡± Polkluk asked. ¡°Let me teach you how to do the Rising Star,¡± Hien Ro suggested. And so they felt as he used their own Qi to form a proper rising star. The scar it left on the bedrock is still there. ~~~~~ Lukal Lukal blinked as the connection finally formed with Farun and Arjun. Arjun¡¯s flavor of earth Qi was so different from his own. While Lukal Lukal¡¯s earth tasted like mud and salt, Arjun¡¯s tasted like loam and peat. Farun¡¯s fire Qi tasted different from Thaseus and Hien Ro¡¯s Qi as well, like smoked mesquite instead of ash or ceder. Once they had formed the gestalt, they grinned at each other. Lukal Lukal felt like an outsider in this little circle as he felt the two men¡¯s love for each other. And they felt it for themselves. They blinked as they exchanged looks, then blushed as they remembered that they were not alone in their own souls at the moment. ¡°We need to try this with Lahri,¡± Arjun commented. ¡°What if she doesn¡¯t feel the same?¡± Farun asked. ¡°That¡¯s why we need to try it with her,¡± he said. ¡°We should test the gestalt before we break the connection,¡± Farun said. Arjun nodded, and they turned to Lukal Lukal. ¡°Raise a platform of earth as high as you can,¡± they instructed, speaking in the same voice. Lukal Lukal nodded and willed a pillar to form beneath them. It lifted them high into the air, forming a spire a hundred meters tall. Which they then had to climb down, of course. ~~~~~~ I shifted the groups around, ensuring that every possible combination of my disciples had combined with each other at least once. It took them days. Outside of my mountain, only hours passed. I had placed the flags months ago. It had been years on my mountain. I was born twelve years ago. I was fifteen years old. Once I was confident that the disciples were ready, I told them that it was time for their final test. I gathered them once more in at the summit of my mountain. They were all older than they had been when we set out from the ancient meeting stone. They had a look of determination when I told them that they were ready for my final test, and then I would teach them how to advance to the silver path. They waited patiently for me to explain their task. It was a very simple chore. ¡°Kill me, before I kill you,¡± I said, and I launched my attack at them with everything I had. ? 58. Graduation 58. Graduation Even as they sensed broadcast intent behind the attack, half of the group didn¡¯t believe it. Fortunately Thaseus recognized it for what it was and pulled the air around them into a shield, pushing back the Rising Star just long enough for the others to dodge. The pressure of the concentrated plasma cut through his shield and sliced off his right arm, cauterizing the wound immediately. The others recoiled as they realized that for the first time, I wasn¡¯t joking when I said I would hold nothing back. I pulled forth the air and formed a technique that would cause an overpressure wave, and once more Thaseus met it head on despite his injury. He shielded the others long enough for their shock to dissipate, and they reached out to one another to form the North Star Guiding Formation. One by one they slipped into the gestalt even as Thaseus stood at their vanguard. He was the last to enter the collective, and I sensed once he had, as suddenly he went from barely holding back the overpressure to overpowering me. I grinned, splitting into four avatars. One continued to hold Thaseus down with an overpressure, another began firing lightning at the others, and the other two began forming a complex technique that would draw blood into their lungs. Hien Ro spat blood, but it was Lahri who saved them from drowning in their own fluids as she spread forth the technique to counter my technique through the collective and the others quickly copied it. Arjun, Lukal Lukal, and Hien Ro countered the lightning. The others hesitated for just another second, and then they launched attacks of their own. Bolstered by the power of the gestalt, Yara called forth the fury of a blizzard. Polkluk launched lightning, while Xol vanished from sight. A second later one of my avatars had its throat ripped open by feline fangs. It puffed into mist, and two more formed to take its place. Taimei launched her ultraviolet laser at another avatar and sliced it in two. It puffed into smoke. And formed into two more avatars. Farun chanted for a moment, and then the blizzard was filled with not just fire, but droplets of liquid fire that burned everything that they touched. Only those who shared his Qi signature were safe, meaning those of the collective. I was not in the collective. I burned. The real me caught flame. I waved a hand and took control of the flame even as I duplicated two more avatars ans sent them to deal with Farun to disrupt his technique. I would heal the burn later. I didn¡¯t have time now. I called forth another overpressure explosion and--A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Lukal Lukal charged me and-- Thaseus picked up his hand and-- Xol bit my shoulder and-- Explosions, light, pain and blood. It all mixed together in an endless stream of violence. The disciples fought their master in their graduation ceremony. Wounds were taken. No quarter was given. Xol whimpered as his eye was shot out. Farun lost his right leg. Arjun his left ear. The violence continued for days, with neither side letting up. I fought beside my avatars against them, putting the weight of my past lives against the passion of their friendships and youth. It was kill or be killed, though they did not understand that until the first of them died. It was Hien Ro, my first companion. Outraged at having felt his death through their link, they tried to turn their remaining power on me. But the North Star Guiding Formation fell apart. Everything stopped for a second. The disciples continued to try to fight, to reestablish the gestalt, to avenge their fellow student by slaying their teacher. They tried to-- I activated the formation that I had been holding in reserve. We were pulled back in time. I stood before them, the destruction that we had wraught on the mountains, on each other, on the world, it was somewhere else. Some when else. It had never happened. ¡°You fail,¡± I told them. They trembled. Hien Ro, who remembered his own death, looked down at his hands. ¡°Master,¡± He said. ¡°What was that? How did you¡ª¡± ¡°That is not a secret for you to know,¡± I told him. ¡°Go and rest and reflect on the battle. We shall try again in one week. I expect you all to do much better the second time around.¡± They retreated to the compound. I stayed on the mountaintop, watching the sunset. In another timeline, I mourned my best friend, who I had slain with my own hands, even as that timeline fell apart, having never happened. ? 59. Grief 59. Grief I sat on the top of my mountain, at the spot where I had killed Hien Ro, and I looked at the bloodstain that was not there. That would never be there, because in a split second I had made two decisions at once. The decision to kill my disciples. And the decision to spare them. I had made those decisions with equal determination and certainty. For twenty miles, the world had split in two as my disciples, my friends, had fought for survival against the master, the friend who had betrayed them. In one reality, at least. The amount of work that I had put forth into this graduation test was staggering. I had been preparing for it since we had arrived on the mountain. Seven months to the outside world, three years for my true body. A decade for Polkluk, who was now the oldest of my disciples. If you counted the time that I had spent living through my avatars, then I had spent almost a century training my disciples. And I had committed myself to murdering one of them. I hadn¡¯t known which it would be, only that I would slay one of them and then activate the formation to return their memories to immediately before the battle began. That it had been Hien Ro was ¡­ I closed my eyes, feeling the moisture well up and drift down my cheeks. Because in a week, I would do it again. Except I would not stop at one disciple. I would keep going until I had slain them all. And they would not be able to stop me. In the silence on the mountaintop, with the air thin and still around me, I wept. ~~~~~~ Hien Ro sat in the bath. Lukal Lukal was there with him, as was Polkluk. They had refused to leave him alone, and anyway the entire group of males in the cohort had taken to bathing together after their training exercises so this was normal for them. Except that everything was different. He felt his chest, where the hole had been. There was nothing there except for what was supposed to be there. But yet he had felt his heart be destroyed, he had felt his soul leave his body. He had seen the light, and he had gone towards it and ¡­ and ¡­ He did not remember what happened after that. But he had not simply rewound and found himself back in his old body, before the battle had happened. He felt older. Wiser than he had been before. And yet traumatized in a way that was impossible to explain. He dunked his head beneath the water, holding his breath until he had to come up for air. He was a cultivator of the late bronze path, so this was some time. When he finally stood up, he reached for a towel. ¡°I need to see him.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not certain that¡¯s a good idea,¡± Polkluk said. ¡°What if he¡ª¡± ¡°I know him best. He won¡¯t,¡± Hien Ro said. He quickly dried himself and dressed. The other teens, young men now, did the same, and the three of them marched up the mountain to confront their master. Whom they found sobbing uncontrollably like a child half of his supposed age. Hien Ro made several realizations then. Intuitions, really, as he began to understand what it was that had happened. He wouldn¡¯t really understand until his master explained the time reversal technique, but he knew enough to guess. ¡°Master. Little Bug. Come down and join us. You don¡¯t have to stay up here,¡± he said.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°How can you say that?¡± Little bug demanded. ¡°How can you be here after¡ª¡± ¡°It was worse for you than it was for us,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°Wasn¡¯t it?¡± Little Bug was silent. ¡°Do you know how that magic works?¡± he asked at length. ¡°You split time somehow,¡± Hien Ro asked. ¡°And then you bring our souls back with you to before you did it.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°It only works because of the bonds we have formed. We are linked. Even as I kill you, I love you, and it is that love which allows me to resurrect you endlessly. But each time I murder you, a crack forms in the bond between us. And it is like cutting off a piece of my heart.¡± ¡°Then why must you do it?¡± Polkluk asked. ¡°How can I let you go to face what this world is becoming without preparing you for the fact that some of you will die in the fight to come?¡± Little Bug demanded. ¡°How can I let you go without telling myself that I have done everything I can to prepare you for anything that you might face, including death.¡± Hien Ro was silent for a moment. ¡°But you haven¡¯t prepared us for death,¡± he said at last. ¡°When I died, I was unprepared for it.¡± Little Bug was silent. ¡°No. I will not teach you what you ask, Hien Ro.¡± ¡°Teach me to awaken my soul, so that¡ª¡± ¡°NO!¡± Little Bug shouted. ¡°You do not know what you ask! I curse the name of the one who taught me, and I curse the world where I learned, and I curse myself for listening! It has brought me nothing but suffering, and I will not inflict the same upon my friends!¡± ¡°Teach me so that I might understand you,¡± Hien Ro demanded. ¡°If not in this life, then in the next, when we are separated by death¡ª¡± ¡°That will never happen, Hien Ro,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°For we will be separated by life before then. The convergence ends one you pass your graduation exam. After you have succeeded in killing me, you will go north and stand as a bulwark against the growing corruption. Beyond that I cannot see, but that is where our paths finally diverge.¡± Hien Ro was silent. ¡°Come back down the mountain with us, Little Bug,¡± he said at length. The boy rose. And the master followed the disciples home. ~~~~~~~ The others had flinched when Hien Ro had brought Little Bug back into the communal kitchen. They had watched in silence as Ro prepared a meal from their leftovers and served it to the old soul in the young boy¡¯s body. Little Bug had eaten mechanically, and then he had gone to bed, where Jumper landed in the window and sang him a sad song. Once they were relatively certain that their master was asleep, Hien Ro turned to his companions. More than his companions. To truly master the North Star Guiding Formation, they were often like extensions of himself. But they were not connected in that way right now. The pain of having him die into the collective was too fresh, and they all needed time to heal from that cauterization. ¡°He¡¯s doing it because he loves us,¡± Hien Ro said at last. ¡°He killed you, Ro,¡± Yara said, her voice hot. ¡°I felt you die!¡± ¡°Who knows what death is better than someone who remembers a thousand of them?¡± Hien Ro challenged. ¡°He knew what he was doing to us, and he had his reasons for it. This is harder for him than for us.¡± ¡°How can that possibly be true?¡± Yara demanded hotly. ¡°Ro, he¡ª¡± ¡°What would happen if we fought Ko Ren and he slew me then? What would happen to us if we never felt someone die while we were linked by the formation?¡± Hien Ro challenged. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what would happen. We would have fallen apart just like we did against Little Bug, and then Ko Ren would have slain us one by one with ease.¡± The others were silent as they considered his words. They reluctantly saw the truth in them. ¡°When we go into battle for real, we won¡¯t have Little Bug to revive us,¡± Hien Ro reminded them. ¡°Whatever he did to bring us back, it wasn¡¯t easy for him to do. It was difficult on a level that we can¡¯t even understand, I believe. Perhaps on several levels that would stagger our minds. And he did it because he loved us, so that when the time comes and we are in true danger, we do not freeze up from the pain, we do not stop because of the agony, and we do not fall apart because of the loss.¡± The group was silent. ¡°It changes things,¡± Thaseus said at last. ¡°If he is able to turn back time, then¡ªI¡¯ve never heard of anyone being able to do that. Not at gold rank. I don¡¯t believe that even the Lord of the Realm can do that.¡± ¡°Little Bug can,¡± Polkluk said. ¡°That¡¯s all we need to know. Next time we face him, we¡¯ll know.¡± They nodded, and one by one they broke off to go to sleep. In the morning, they tried to act as though nothing had changed. They tried to smile at their master, but despite themselves, things were different. The convergence was reaching its end, and their training was almost over. It could not come soon enough, as they were desperately needed in the north. ? 60. Divergence 60. Divergence It did not begin in the city. It began out in the jungles. The dead began to rise, and feast on the living. The ghouls that rose from the grave were lonely and desperate to make more dead for the company, and few of the living had the strength to stop them. Desperation ran through the people as they fled to the city, or their local sects, or the clans of the mightiest warriors they could find. They pleaded for protection. Many were granted admittance. Others turned their refugees away. Those who turned them away soon found themselves overrun as the very people they had refused to protect returned, and this time they did not knock on the doors but leapt over the walls with cold limbs and hungry maws. Those who accepted their refugees were little better off, but they at least had the sense to burn their dead and patrol their borders. Only two cities seemed to be safe. Mer¡¯cah, where the remnants of the formation that Po Guah had set up during the attack from Ko Ren purified whatever energies were causing the undead to rise in the first place. And Resh Fali, where the residents had always been burning their dead since they first arrived in the south, meaning that there were no corpses to rise. Slowly, undeath began to squeeze the life out of the world of Atla. The living would not give up without a fight, but it was a desperate and hopeless fight, in bad weather, poor terrain, and against overwhelming odds. Because every time a warrior fell. They got back up and fought for the enemy. ~~~~~~ Twelve times I slew my students. On the thirteenth week, the thirteenth day to the outside world but the thirteenth week for those living on my mountain, there came a moment. I committed to killing my students in order to save them. I waited a moment for the memories of the future to return.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. And they did not. I paused, waiting another moment. The others waited for me to attack, their guards up, their links already formed, but they would not commit to the first attack. They knew now what this cost me, and they too were hesitant. But the memories from the future did not return. I sank to one knee. ¡°You have passed,¡± I said. They did not let up their guard. I half expected them to attack. They did not understand. If the memories did not come from the future, then that meant that I had failed to activate the array to send our souls back into the past. The only way that this would have happened was if they had managed to slay me. ¡°It¡¯s over. You have graduated. You¡¯ve passed my final test,¡± I repeated. ¡°We will not fight today, nor ever again. You should return to Mer¡¯cah as soon as possible, the hour grows late and the darkness rises. The people need to see the light of the moons so that they can find the stars of their souls.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t we remember?¡± Hien Ro asked after a moment. ¡°Because that is how it works,¡± I explained. I did not have the words to tell them the truth. That even now, there was a timeline in which they had slain me. That it was slowly unraveling as it became unreal, having never happened. That a part of their soul which had killed their teacher was ceasing to be because it never was. ¡°What about you?¡± Hien Ro asked. ¡°Do you remember the fight?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I lied. ¡°You all acquitted yourself well. I slew three of you before one of you made the final strike and won the match. I will not say names. Now go. I wish to be alone.¡± They exchanged looks. Then they carried me down the mountain despite my protests that there was no need. It took me six days to convince them that I was fine and that they must leave. I gave each of them their mountains to carry with them their private sanctuaries, and I cajoled them to leave and return. But finally, finally, I was left alone, with only Jumper for company. I too packed my mountain into a storage ring, and went to the goliath tree. There I found the Tunrida singing with the young hatchlings that I had raised, which were each now the size of an albatross. ¡°Your soul is heavy with loss,¡± he said to me. ¡°It is,¡± I said. ¡°Will you let me listen to your song?¡± ¡°I will sing for you until my throat grows sore and you cry no more,¡± the tunrida sang. And it kept its promise. ? 61. New Paths 61. New Paths I was a bird. I flew through the air on thermals beside Jumper and the Tunrida, feeling the wind on my feathers and the heat of the thermals rising above the jungle. This was freedom. It was so tempting to put myself entirely into this avatar and leave behind my true body, but after hours of taking joy in the simple pleasure of flight, I bid my farewell to my feathered friends and dissipated the avatar, returning entirely to my body. One by one I did the same to all of my other avatars which were scattered through the jungles of Ker¡¯tath. I had been held back by splitting myself before, but for what I needed to do now, I needed to be one. It would leave me vulnerable if I was attacked again by Ko Ren or his agents, but that did not matter. Holing myself up in a cave on the summit of my mountain, I closed my eyes. And I began to cultivate in earnest. Nine months had passed to the outside world, while three years had passed for me. A variable amount of time had passed for my disciples as I had sped or slowed time to keep them walking lockstep with each other. Together, we had grown. Fast. I had been ambitious when I said that all of my disciples would reach the Silver Path before the end of the year. I had fulfilled my promise. Now, it was time for me to cultivate a step higher than that. The power within my core roiled as I reflected on my life, looking at it from new angles and understanding my past path that had led me to be the person I was today. Slowly, my power began to rise. The golden path awaits. ~~~~~~~ ¡°When do you think it was?¡± Polkluk asked the others as they walked over the road. They were perhaps a day from Mer¡¯cah by the way that mortals reckoned distance. They had already arrived by the way that cultivators of their caliber saw distances, having flared their Qi to announce their return for the scouts they had seen on the edges of the city¡¯s territory. ¡°Who can say?¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°Little Bug can probably tell us exactly when it was,¡± Taimei pointed out. ¡°But why didn¡¯t we notice?¡± ¡°We were too preoccupied with our own petty bullshit,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°I would not call the stresses of dying and being revived by a cultivator who is without equal ¡®petty bullshit,¡¯¡± Lukal Lukal said. ¡°It hurt him to do that to us more than it hurt us,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°You all couldn¡¯t tell but¡ª¡± ¡°We could tell,¡± Lahri said, one arm linked with her lover, Farun, and the other linked with her other lover, Arjun. ¡°We could all tell, Hien Ro, and you know it.¡± Hien Ro was about to challenge her, but he stopped, knowing that she was right. There were no secrets that the disciples kept from each other. The first time they had entered the North Star Guiding Formation after he had reached his understanding of what the graduation test cost their master to perform, they had understood. Just as he had seen their own version of his understanding through their eyes, shaped by their own time and experience with Little Bug. ¡°I think it was during the fifth battle,¡± Thaseus said. ¡°There was a brief moment where ¡­ I do not remember, but I think that is when we crossed the line from bronze into silver. The graduation battles were so intense, but there was a clear demarcation between the fifth and the sixth where things became even more intense. When our battles began to truly shake the mountain and the rest of whatever bubble-magic it was that Little Bug confined us in for his magic to work.¡± The others reflected on the experience ¨C an act which brought them pain as they once more felt the raw edges of the wounds on their souls that the graduation exam had instilled in them, and they reflected that Thaseus was probably right. That they had not noticed their evolution from Bronze Path cultivators into silver ranked ones was something they had never anticipated. Normally such advancement was heralded by a cultivator¡¯s support system with great fanfare and reverence, as senior disciples became elders of the sect.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Little Bug hadn¡¯t even commented on the advancement. He had simply pressed them harder than ever before, and they had been too preoccupied, emotionally and physically, to notice the difference within themselves. They continued to compare notes solemnly until the messenger arrived. A bronze path cultivator, the young man bowed reverently at the gathering of ten silver ranked souls and spoke cautiously. ¡°Chairwoman of the Southern Unification Council Lady Tonilla and Patriarch of the Many Peaks Alliance humbly invite the disciples of Po Guah to their home to wash the dust of their path in the comfort of a hotspring and to discuss matters of great importance,¡± the messenger said. The others exchanged looks, and without a word or motion, came to a consensus. Hien Ro spoke for them. ¡°We humbly accept.¡± ~~~~~ After two hours of relaxation, the disciples dressed in fine robes while their own clothes were cleaned by the mortal servants and gathered in a parlor, where Pi Phon greeted them. It was strange for Hien Ro, who had once looked up to this man as his senior, to receive the humble respect that he now displayed at the difference between their ranks. Once he had bowed and everyone was seated, Pi Phon began to explain the situation within the city, which had changed considerably over the last few months that they had been in seclusion with Little Bug. ¡°To begin with, you may wish to get in contact with your various sects and clans,¡± Pi Phon said, ¡°but before that I believe you should understand a bit about the current political situation. As silver rankers now, you are yourselves significant political forces in this world. Especially with the legend of Little Bug continuing to grow. Once the word of your accomplishment spreads, jumping from the purification realm straight onto the silver path within a year, it will cause a surge of hope among the populace. You should begin planning how to capitalize on that momentum.¡± ¡°And how does Lady Tonilla and Lord Di Ram, whoever that is, plan on capitalizing on our growth?¡± Thaseus questioned. ¡°Who cares?¡± Xol asked, laying on his side nearby and licking a paw. ¡°The lessers fear us and respect us, and we shall continue to inspire awe and fear as we continue to surpass our limits.¡± Pi Phon turned to the Jaguar, surprised that what he had thought was one of the disciple¡¯s pets had spoken, but then he turned back to the human disciples and nodded. ¡°They do plan on using you. As beacons of hope, if you¡¯d let them. They hope that your master has prepared you for combat, because we can use warriors. And not just in the north. The undead have begun gathering elsewhere. Even now, the villages and hamlets throughout the jungles are emptying as the peasants and commoners rally to their overlords for protection. If we could announce your cooperation with some of the missions to take out some of these encampments, it would greatly increase morale.¡± ¡°And what do we get out of this relationship?¡± Farun questioned. ¡°The official backing of and membership in the Many Peaks Alliance, and the direct support of Di Ram and Lady Tonilla themselves of course,¡± Pi Phon answered. ¡°And more. I¡¯ll leave the negotiations to the lord and lady themselves, but I assure you that they will go to great lengths to get you to cooperate with their plans. They both understand and believe in mutually beneficial arrangements.¡± A current passed through the disciples, one which was perceptible even to an outsider like Pi Phon. The others looked to Thaseus a moment before he spoke. ¡°When I left, my family was in ruins. We had suffered the vengeance of Tornolai for having interfered with the legitimacy of the tournament. How do they stand now?¡± he asked. ¡°Your family¡¯s efforts of rebuilding have been met with mixed success. Your father stepping down as patriarch relieved much of the pressure on your family, although the exact nature of the circumstances surrounding it are not officially spread. Your Uncle has assumed that position, but his efforts at rebuilding have been stifled by a variety of factors. I¡¯m sorry to inform you that your family¡¯s political power is a fraction of what it once was.¡± An eerie silence filled the room as once more Pi Phon felt a current pass between the disciples. ¡°I believe we are still lacking a proper understanding of the situation,¡± Arjun suggested. ¡°Why don¡¯t you proceed to explain in greater details exactly what has changed in the last year, elder Pi Phon?¡± Pi Phon nodded at the respect this cultivator, who was younger but stronger than him, showed him, and he began to speak. ¡°The remnants of Di Ram¡¯s faction of the Six Mountain Sect reached the south approximately six months ago. They began building a city on the edge of the jungle, which is being named ¡°Port Hope,¡± or Resh Fali. When you left, Lady Tonilla was in the process of transforming the council which oversaw the formation of the tournament into an investigatory body following the attack by Ko Ren on the city. These two forces have combined their efforts and formed what is being called the Many Peaks Alliance.¡± Pi Phon paused to consider his words. ¡°The purpose of the Many Peaks Alliance is to gather the forces of the south and stand in opposition to the corruption which has led to the utter collapse of the northern continent. We have spent the lives of dozens of scouts investigating, but it is clear at this point that the north is lost. Our only hope, or so we thought at first, was to hold the undead at the isthmus between north and south. We have been gathering an army for that purpose for some time. ¡°However, recently, the dead have begun rising in the south as well. Several leaders tried to suppress this fact, but while it isn¡¯t terribly prevalent at the moment, one corpse in twenty will rise if it is not cremated. Whatever force is causing the spread of the undead seems to be growing stronger as time passes. We are taking steps to confront this by cremating everyone who passes away. There was some outrage when we began digging up the graveyards to do the same to the recently deceased who have been laid to rest, but this has been balanced by the fear of the undead.¡± He paused to take a sip of water from a glass that a servant handed him without being asked. ¡°As for what this means for you? I¡¯m afraid that there is a lot of hope that has been placed upon your shoulders. The legend among the commoners is that the Awakened Soul Po Guah will appear in the hour of darkest need and save the world, and that he will be heralded by his mortal apprentices. Now that you have returned, I¡¯m, well, I¡¯m not certain what will happen next.¡± The discussion continued for some time as the disciples asked more specific questions regarding their sects and the situation, which Pi Phon answered to the best of his ability. After an hour of discussion, Pi Phon retreated, along with the mortal servants, allowing the disciples to discuss their plans in private. ? 62. Connections 62. Connections A welpakian servant stepped forward with a tray. Kneeling before the recent arrival, she set the tray to one side, Kowtowed, and then began mixing the tea for the honored cultivator. The leaves were taken from the world of Retla, which was one stage above the cultivator¡¯s home world of Atla. They were dense with the spirituality of that world, having been cultivated carefully in a grove that was centuries old in the densest region of spiritual energy on the planet. The water was taken from a spring on the world of Ortlas. It retained the icy taste of winter and was dense with the essences of purity and change. It, too, roiled with spiritual energy and significance. The teakettle that she boiled the water in was centuries old, and had been crafted by a master who had died rather than ascend. The flame itself was a candle taken from the wax of the regal wasps of Eltlas. She was not worthy to taste the tea that she brewed. She was barely worthy to serve this recent ascendant. She was-- ¡°What is your name?¡± the ascended one asked, his voice gentle and calm. It took all of her training not to yelp in surprise at having been spoken to by the ascended. She was not worthy to answer, but perhaps this ascended did not know that. Now that she had been asked, however, it would be a grave violation of etiquette not to answer. ¡°This one is called Mai Mai,¡± she answered. ¡°Your tea is splendid. I forgot to thank you the last time you served me. Thank you, Mai Mai. I hope that you are treated well in the palace,¡± he said. ¡°Thank you,¡± she said. She proceeded to continue making his tea, and once she had finished she set the cup by his side, then quietly retreated from the room. The witnesses to the exchange reported it as protocol, and immediately she was set to begin receive additional training on the off chance that the ascended one meant to cultivate a relationship with her beyond simply having her serve him tea. With a simple ¡®thank you,¡¯ her Mai Mai¡¯s life was forever altered. Di Phon was not ignorant of this, watching thoughtfully through the avatar of little birds as he studied the palace he had been given. He could have clarified his intentions, especially when the young woman was given embarrassingly detailed instructions on how to please a man in bed. Instead he remained silent. He continued to take his tea when the sun was just above the peak of Nial So Fortha, an hour after the sun had reached its zenith, and two hours before twilight. And each time he thanked Mai Mai kindly by name. The Descendants who ran the palace examined each exchange carefully. But more than that, they studied the ascended one. They watched as, free from the world of his birth, his cultivation soared to unprecedented heights. ~~~~~ ¡°He¡¯s gone,¡± the landlord informed them. Hien Ro glanced at Yara, who glanced at him. They were at the apartment that they had rented while preparing for the tournament, but although Little Bug had transferred the lease to Adan Pocef, Yara¡¯s father, once they had left, there was a new family living their now. A young couple with three children. ¡°Did he tell you where he was going?¡± Yara asked patiently. ¡°I didn¡¯t ask and he didn¡¯t say,¡± the landlord said. ¡°He owes me two months rent though. I swear that I didn¡¯t kick him out, not when he was put there by the Awakened Soul himself, but a debt is a debt and he owes two months rent.¡± Yara sighed and settled her father¡¯s debt with the coin that they¡¯d been given by the Many Peaks Alliance for their agreement to cooperate with the defense of Mer¡¯cah and Resh Fali. After their meeting with the patriarch and the chairwoman, the disciples had each gone their separate ways. ¡°Where do we look next?¡± Hien Ro asked Yara as they walked through the familiar streets of Mer¡¯cah. They glanced at the coliseum in the distance, so recently built, such a recent part of their history. Yet it had been a lifetime ago when they had competed there. ¡°With every bookie and loan shark in the city,¡± she said, a tinge of anger in her voice. ¡°If anyone knows where my father will be, it will be his creditors.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Hien Ro¡¯s hand entangled with her, and she began to calm as they walked through the streets hand in hand. Their matching rings on their fingers. They needed to find Adan to make the announcement, but the man was simply nowhere to be found. ~~~~~ Taimei stood before the patriarch and flared her cultivation to its greatest heights. In return, he showed his own base. They competed, silently, for a long moment, before finally the patriarch realized that he was outclassed. His spirit filled with submission, and he bowed his head slightly to the girl who had been born out of wedlock to a chambermaid. ¡°I am proud of you, granddaughter,¡± he told her. Taimei¡¯s eyes rose. ¡°Granddaughter?¡± ¡°I am sorry. You must understand, your father, he is married, and the situation with his wife¡¯s family is tense. Acknowledging you formally while you were younger would have put the clan in a difficult position. Toran was sent away so that the relationship with your mother could not continue, and he has lived with his wife¡¯s family ever since. I promised him before he left that I would see to it that his child was looked after. I apologize that there was only so much I could do without¡ª¡± Taimei enveloped her grandfather in an embrace, causing the old man to stiffen, then relax. ¡°I always hoped,¡± she said. ¡°I knew that there must be more to the story, but mother never said a word, and neither did anyone else except to disparage her as a whore.¡± ¡°She was not that. The love between your mother and father was great, but he had already sworn vows to another, whom I regretfully forced upon him because of political reasons. In between his duty to his clan and his duty to his daughter, he was reluctantly forced to choose his clan, but that does not mean that he does not love you.¡± Taimei wiped a happy tear from her eye. ¡°Can I meet him? Officially?¡± ¡°You may. Now that you have reached the silver path I am officially announcing your lineage. Your father¡¯s family will understand; his ability to produce such a powerful heir will increase the standing of your half-siblings in their clan as well.¡± Her grandfather chuckled. ¡°It shall put the pressure upon him to actually do so. I fear that there is no great love between him and his wife, and they have only a single male heir who has yet to enkindle his dantian.¡± ¡°When is the announcement?¡± she asked. ¡°And when can I meet my father?¡± ¡°I shall make the announcement tomorrow night, at a feast to celebrate your achievement,¡± the patriarch stated. ¡°As for when you may meet my youngest son, I¡¯m afraid that he has joined the Many Peaks Alliance and is in the north, so I do not have that answer.¡± Taimei processed this information for a moment, then smiled. ¡°Well then, if he can¡¯t come to me, I suppose I¡¯ll have to go to him.¡± ~~~~~ Lukal Lukal stepped into the clearing where the fire pit still smelled of charcoal and ash. He looked around at the small village that had sprung up around his former master¡¯s camp and sighed. He had known that this was a possibility, but he had still hoped that he would return in time for his master¡¯s final days. The camp was empty. The clan of orphans and foundlings which his master had cared for had lost their anchor. He had hoped that some would remain, but the oldest footprints he found were weeks old. He walked through the camp, sticking his head in some of the rickety shelters and looking for any signs of habitation, but found nothing. The children and elder disciples of his first master ¨C a man who had known Little Bug in another life ¨C had vanished. It did not take him long to find the man¡¯s grave itself. The grave marker a simple spear, but one that Lukal Lukal was intimately familiar with. He built a fire near the grave and forced a smile upon his face. ¡°This disciple thanks his first master for sending him to his second master,¡± Lukal Lukal said, kowtowing to the grave. ¡°He will now tell the story of how he reached the silver path.¡± He began to recount the entire tale, starting from the endless walk through the jungle where the sun did not move even after hours and at night the stars remained frozen in place. ¡°I saw a shooting star moving in slow motion,¡± he said, shaking his head. ¡°It was utterly beautiful.¡± When he had reached the halfway mark of the story, a sudden shift in his camp came. He frowned, looking from the fire where he had imagined his master¡¯s spirit was listening to him. From the grave, a hand pushed through the dirt. His master¡¯s corpse pulled its way out of the ground. It flared, it¡¯s cultivation that of a late silver path cultivator. Lukal Lukal closed his eye for a moment, then, as the ghoul was still climbing out of the grave, he took his master¡¯s spear in his hands and prepared for combat. It took him an hour to still the unnaturally moving body for the second time. With tears streaming down his eyes, he honored his master¡¯s remains by consigning them to a purifying flame. As he stood at the pyre, he continued to tell his tale from where he had left off. It was a very good story, he thought, and he was proud that he had returned to his master to tell it. ? 63. Companions 63. Companions The Dao companions Lahri, Farun and Arjun hesitated. They had decided, individually and collectively, that they were not to be separated again by anything save death itself. Individually, they believed that not even that would separate them very long. They had tasted death. They had felt the pain of losing one of their companions, and while their bonds were tight with their fellow disciples, between the three of them their bonds were iron. They were cement. They were stronger than steel and more flexible than water. They understood each other on a level that the most intimate couples could only dream about. ¡°So why do we go to your sect first again, Arjun?¡± Farun asked, interrupting Lahri¡¯s thoughts on the matter of their unity. ¡°Because the paperwork to withdraw is quite long and I wish to get it started,¡± Arjun explained. ¡°We¡¯ve all agreed that we will settle down in Lahri¡¯s sect.¡± ¡°But doesn¡¯t that mean that we should start with hers to ensure that they¡¯ll have us?¡± Arjun raised a hand, and three orbs, one of water, one of flame, and one of earth appeared before him. He pressed them together with the power of their joint cultivation until they formed a gemstone. He studied it for a moment, then tossed it over his shoulder into the dirt. ¡°If Lahri¡¯s home does not welcome us, then we make our own,¡± he said. ¡°We can pave the path do our door with diamonds.¡± ~~~~~~~ The elders of the Azure Wind Sect listened carefully to Arjun¡¯s reasoned arguments, his careful statements. His thanks for their care of him until that point, and his promises to repay their kindness in the future. And they rejected his request. ¡°The Azure Wind will not willingly sever ties with you at this point in time,¡± Elder Jadan stated flatly. ¡°Your request for your withdrawal paperwork is denied.¡± The three young cultivators exchanged glances. ¡°Allow us to ask one more time politely,¡± Farun said flatly. ¡°After that, we shall ask a third time, and it will not be polite.¡± With his words, they pulled on their cultivation. Their collective cultivation, which was greater than the sum of its parts. Together they served as a core in the greater constellation of the North Star Guiding formation with the other seven disciples of Little Bug, but alone they were a formidable force all on their own. As their power grew and grew, the determination of the elders broke. The Dao companions sensed the moment that their resolve broke and stopped their posturing. Six hours later, they left the Azure Wind Sect, having completed the necessary paperwork for Arjun to amicably withdraw from the organization. ~~~~~ The Dao companions sat at a restaurant, eating hot-pot calmly as they recovered from the hours that their previous chore had taken them. ¡°So why are we not just going straight to Farun¡¯s Sect now?¡± Lahri asked, knowing the answer but it was pleasant to have conversation. ¡°I¡¯m not certain how strong the intelligence gathering network of the Green Dragon Sect is inside of our other two sects,¡± Farun explained, blowing on a strip of beef before chewing it. ¡°I¡¯m certain they know that we withdrew, but I want to make certain that someone with the senses to feel our power-play has time to give their report to my elders.¡± ¡°And why don¡¯t we just do the same thing again?¡± Arjun asked, again knowing the reason but enjoying making Farun explain it to them as though they were simpletons.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Because we don¡¯t want to make it seem like we¡¯re strongarming everyone to get our way in the face of tradition,¡± Farun said around his mouthful. ¡°But we are,¡± Lahri said. ¡°Oh yea, we definitely are,¡± Farun said. ¡°But we don¡¯t want to make it seem that way. Tradition is to be honored as long as it doesn¡¯t get in our way. That¡¯s the precedent we want to set, right? So now that we¡¯ve revealed ourselves once, we keep our strength hidden and let the spies between our three sects spread the word that together, we¡¯re far stronger than we ever were apart.¡± ¡°How do you know that there are spies in my sect that will do that for yours and Lahri¡¯s?¡± Arjun asked. ¡°Oh please,¡± Farun said, and he didn¡¯t deign the question with an answer further than that, simply sipping on the broth of his meal and making loud slurping sounds. ~~~~~~ The elders of the Green Dragon Sect showed them straight in to a meeting room, where three cushions were laid out for them before a council of elders. It was unusual to allow outsiders into such a meeting, which would normally be an internal matter, but the report had come in that the three of them had somehow joined their Qi and fused it in some strange new path. They were uncertain whether the trio would consent to be separated or how they would react to the suggestion and didn¡¯t want to raise the tensions by asking. So instead they simply invited the three of them politely to discuss their training under Little Bug. The young companions shared the version of events that all of the disciples had agreed to share. Then they requested that Farun be allowed to withdraw from the Green Dragon sect. The elders hesitated for a moment, then casually suggested that such could be arranged in exchange for more details on the technique which linked the three of them together. This deal was acceptable to all parties, and each of the companions just so happened to have penned a scroll just that morning detailing their thoughts on the technique. The exchange of information and permission was made, and the three companions walked out of the Green Dragon sect, having only spent an hour making arrangements. ¡°I told you that would work,¡± Farun said. ¡°Yes, well, they were your sect, so you ought to know how they¡¯d react,¡± Arjun pointed out. ¡°You¡¯d think that, but we all know that he wasn¡¯t nearly so certain as he acts in retrospect,¡± Lahri said. ¡°But it¡¯s not like they could have stopped us.¡± ¡°No. It¡¯s not,¡± Farun agreed, smiling. There were only a few things in the world which could stop them now. ~~~~~ It was evening when they made their way to the Crimson Blossom Sect, and they were promptly shown inside. The elder who had sent Lahri south to be Little Bug¡¯s disciple in the first place met them in a reception room, invited them to tea, and served them biscuits. They exchanged pleasantries for a few moments before the elder¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°So then. You wicked men have first stolen the heart of my beloved disciple, and now you intend to steal her away from my sect to start your own. Is that the size of things?¡± she asked. ¡°I told you she¡¯d say that,¡± Farun said. ¡°What do you know? You hadn¡¯t even met her, but it¡¯s still a fairly obvious thing to say,¡± Arjun argued. ¡°No, Auntie,¡± Lahri said, ignoring the men for a moment. ¡°Actually, they wish to join as outside elders, if that¡¯s possible. With my own ascension to the silver path, that would put us as equals in everything save for seniority, and I do like the idea of lording that over them until the end of time.¡± Her dao companions¡¯ eyes narrowed at her, wondering for just a second how she had hidden that from them, and how she had manipulated them into this position. Then they decided that they didn¡¯t care and began filling out the admission paperwork when the mortal servants brought it into the room. The formal tests of aptitude and strength would come in the morning, and they retired to one of the suites set up for visiting guests of great importance. In the days that followed, both the Azure Winds Sect and the Green Dragon Sect reached out to the Crimson Blossom Sect, requesting to bind their three already allied sects together even more tightly than they had been before. ? 64. Reflections 64. Reflections Xol picked up his head from where he had been lounging and looked at the door. Moments later, it opened, and a woman wearing a black veil appeared in the room. Polkluk, who had been practicing a kata, paused when he recognized Lady Tonilla. He blushed at having been caught without a shirt, but bowed to her as a junior ought to bow to an elder. ¡°I see you have grown well in the year since I sent you away,¡± she commented. ¡°Considering that it has actually been less than that.¡± ¡°To me, it has felt like a decade,¡± Polkluk stated evenly. ¡°I realize that I have changed, but I remain loyal to the Raging River Sect, Lady Tonilla.¡± ¡°Your tale of Po Guah¡¯s training methods are extraordinary. That he would find so many precious resources, that he knew exactly the words to say to trigger a breakthrough at the right time, that you¡¯re all full of bullshit,¡± she commented, slipping the last line in casually. ¡°Yes, well, he is a genius,¡± Polkluk said. Then he frowned. ¡°What?¡± ¡°You were a bright-eyed teenager when you left, and now you are a young man. You say that it has been a decade, yet the others have not aged so much. Tell me, where are the ruins which change the flow of time, and how did Po Guah find them? Why did they affect you more than the others.¡± Polkluk sighed. ¡°There are details which I¡¯ve sworn not to tell you, Lady Tonilla.¡± ¡°You swore your loyalty to me. You¡ª¡± ¡°I am not forswearing myself when I say that I am loyal to the Raging River Sect, to Master Little Bug, and to my fellow disciples. Not unless you ask me to violate the trust of the other two, in which case you are the one who has betrayed me, and not the other way around, Lady Tonilla,¡± he said. ¡°I have told you what I can about Little Bug¡¯s training. What we all agreed to tell. It¡¯s the truth, but it¡¯s less than the entire truth. That is private. I ask that you respect my privacy. I swear that no secret I keep harms the Ragin River Sect or any of its alliances, nor am I withholding any intelligence upon which you could act.¡± ¡°There¡¯s more to the story,¡± Tonilla persisted. ¡°Yes. But much of it is private.¡± She towered over him, despite being shorter than him now that he had grown into the man he was. But he did not back down, and finally, she did. ¡°There is something you have to offer me, however. I can see it in your eyes. Something which you intended to bribe me with if I decided to continue to press to far,¡± she said. ¡°Yes,¡± Polkluk admitted. He went over to his pack and pulled out a box. ¡°Here. You can have it. Each disciple was given one safe for Xol, who has no thumbs so he can¡¯t exactly carry it.¡± She opened the box, and they were both sucked inside. They stood at a small house made of stone. ¡°This is where I rebuilt my foundation,¡± he informed her. ¡°I spent five years training here. Outside, three days passed.¡± She looked around in wonder. ¡°If we stay in here, will time continue to pass the same as outside, or¡ª¡± ¡°That is a magic of Little Bug, not the box, however, so for now the river of time passes the same in here as it does out there,¡± Polkluk stated. ¡°But yes, that¡¯s why some of us are much older than when we left.¡± Tonilla nodded. ¡°So that¡¯s how he raised you all to silver in less time than he promised.¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am?¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°He cheated.¡± ¡°Well, yes,¡± Polkluk admitted. ¡°But we all figured that out early enough in the training. We stayed anyway because it was worth it.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t ask you to divulge secrets,¡± Tonilla began, ¡°But would you tell me more about your time with him?¡± Polkluk nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s start with the beginning. Let me tell you how it felt to realize that I was the weakest of the ten of us, and how he turned me into the strongest.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the first disciple?¡± ¡°No. I am the strongest version of myself that I can be at this point in time,¡± Polkluk clarified. ¡°But that¡¯s true of all of us. We¡¯re equals, ma¡¯am. And we intend to keep it that way for as long as possible.¡± And so, beneath the stars inside the spatial artifact, Polkluk began to talk of happier times. ~~~~~~~ Thaseus walked through the halls of his childhood home, the servants wincing and fleeing out of his path. He sighed. He hadn¡¯t even noticed the way that they¡¯d looked at him before he¡¯d left; they¡¯d been so far beneath his notice that he¡¯d-- He shook his head. There would be time for regret when he was old and near death. He had stepped off of that path and onto a new one. He walked into the parlor, where the family was muttering in hushed tones. They hadn¡¯t been informed with everyone else when the disciples had returned, and had only moments to discuss Thaseus¡¯s reappearance before this moment of confrontation. He walked straight past them to the table where a platter of fruit sat. He broke open a pomegranate and began to eat the juicy seeds within. ¡°No,¡± he said. ¡°I am not the pawn I was. Whatever methods you were planning to use to manage me when I returned will not work.¡± The others were silent for a moment. His sister stepped forward. ¡°Brother. It is good to see you. Won¡¯t you come to your room? We still have your servants, they survived the fire. They were moved to new responsibilities, but now that you¡¯re back¡ª¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care. Leave them in their new capacity, or pay them a generous severance and give them their freedom,¡± he said. ¡°Treat them fairly but do not count on my sentimentality for my old nurse to influence me.¡± His sister went quiet. ¡°A year is not so long of a time. I didn¡¯t believe it when it was said that you were predestined to return at silver rank, but it is true, isn¡¯t it? I can sense that you¡¯re¡ª¡± ¡°Flattery won¡¯t work either,¡± he said. ¡°I know better than you what it takes to accomplish what I have. And I didn¡¯t do it for recognition.¡± ¡°Then why?¡± she asked innocently. ¡°Why else?¡± he asked. ¡°I wished to know how it felt to be strong. I thought I knew that once, before the tournament. But what we had before was the illusion of strength. We were neither the immovable object nor the unstoppable force. We were children strutting around before a mirror, showing off our pathetic muscles and trying to impress each other with our childish strength. But the mirror has shattered, and we cut our feet on the glass.¡± His sister looked at their parents, uncertain what to say. ¡°Well then, my son,¡± his mother said eventually. ¡°What path will you lead us down with this strength of yours that you have found in the wilderness?¡± ¡°It is very simple,¡± he said. ¡°We will take all of our remaining forces. And we will join the Many Peaks Alliance with nothing held back.¡± ¡°You wish to surrender our autonomy to Tonilla and an outsider?¡± his father questioned. ¡°I wish to prove that we are more than cheaters and frauds,¡± Thaseus said. ¡°Once we have earned glory in the war between life and the twisted mockery of life that is sweeping down from the north, then we can talk about picking up the pieces of our shattered lives. We are bound by blood, and only the bonds we choose to be greater than that are greater than that. When the dust settles, what remains of our clan will return to Mer¡¯cah with our sins forgiven for our service,¡± he predicted. His father was quiet. ¡°I am no longer in a position to make this decision for the family. The patriarch must be consulted.¡± ¡°That will be easy enough,¡± Thaseus said, pulling a ring out of his pocket. He had pried it from his uncle¡¯s hand an hour before after beating the man in a duel. He slipped the ring onto his finger and stared at it. ¡°He stands before you now.¡± ? 65. True Purpose 65. True Purpose Sealed up in my cave alone, I reflected on my life. Not the ones that had come before, for I did not have that much time, and they were not relevant to my current advancement. In order to achieve my current goal of reaching the Golden Path, I needed to step onto that path with a purpose. Not just any purpose, but something which I had been working towards my entire life. Something which I could continue to dedicate myself to for the rest of my life. However long that might be. My purpose in entering samsara and being born as Little Bug might have been to slay Nadia and bring about peace in the face of her madness. But my soul and my current life were surprisingly not in harmony on this matter. It was frustrating when I reached that conclusion, but I never shied away from unpleasant truths. I needed to kill Empress Nadia in order to stay her wrath, but what I wanted out of life was something entirely different. And I had no idea what it might be. So I delved into my memories of this life and began analyzing them one by one. When I was about four years old, I picked up a grasshopper¡­ ~~~~~~ Di Ram studied the maps. The scouting reports were dated, but it was clear that something was happening in the region northwest of the city of Mer¡¯cah. Three of the scouts in that region were late in checking in. Late probably meant dead. Po Sana passed him a cup of tea, and he drank it without looking at her. She looked at what he was looking at but didn¡¯t see what he saw. She saw nothing but paper with a map and writing on it that she couldn¡¯t read. What he saw was ambush. That was fine. He kept her close for her protection, not for her tactical mind. The entire Po family had been moved into the estate where he now lived, with the younger children playing in the halls and falling silent as he passed. The father was one of his guards, safe in his anonymity, and the eldest daughter was ¡­ He sighed. The eldest daughter was a problem. But not one that was easily solved. She was getting into the sort of trouble that teenage girls often do, and it wasn¡¯t her place to solve the problem. Nor did he have the time or energy to do so when he was in charge of preparing for the oncoming undead horde. ¡°Thank you, My Lord,¡± Po Sana said. He glanced up in surprise. ¡°What for?¡± ¡°You sent word of my son,¡± she explained. ¡°You didn¡¯t have to do that. But knowing that he¡¯s alive, that he has friends, and that they were together not too long ago, it brought me a moment of happiness.¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. He nodded. ¡°You¡¯re welcome, I suppose,¡± and he turned his attention back to the maps. He didn¡¯t have time to waste on sentimentality and she knew that, but she¡¯d needed to say the thank you all the same. After a few moments, a knock on the door and her husband appeared. ¡°My lord. The Peach Petals are here.¡± ¡°The peach what?¡± he asked. ¡°It is the name that they are giving the disciples of Po Guah,¡± he explained. He still did not believe that the near mythic figure was his son. What he believed, Di Ram did not have time or an inclination of finding out. ¡°Show them in. Sana, thank you, but you may retire until I ring the bell again,¡± Di Ram said. She bowed and vanished into one of the servant¡¯s entrance to the room. Moments later, the door opened, and six young men and three young women and one great cat entered the room. ¡°Thank you for coming,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ll get right to the point. Having ten silver path cultivators join our force would be welcome enough, but you also carry the weight of Little Bug, who for various reasons has become a folk hero. Having you execute a successful mission at this point to strengthen our position and weaken the enemy would greatly increase morale. Since you have agreed to flock to the banner of the Many Peaks Alliance in this hour of need, I see no point in splitting you apart, but I will be sending with you experienced guides so that you are not overwhelmed. Does this suit you?¡± Hien Ro spoke for the group when he said ¡°Just tell us where to go and what to do.¡± Di Ram nodded. ¡°I suspect that something is happening in this region,¡± he explained, and he began to go into details about missing peasants and late scouts. The disciples studied the map for a while, then agreed to investigate and report their findings back to him. They left his command room, and he relaxed. He might be on the golden path, but he felt tense around those kids. Like the way he¡¯d felt around his father, when he¡¯d been young and hadn¡¯t understood the depth of the power that Di Phon had possessed. Hopefully they¡¯d live long enough to put it to use. He shifted his reports to the team he¡¯d assigned them to and relaxed. Even though these disciples were young and untested, as long as they listened to the veterans he¡¯d assigned them, they should return unharmed. Even if there was a reason for the missing peasants and late scouts. ~~~~~~ At some point, without really thinking about it, and without saying one word to the rest of the group, each of the disciples reached out to the others and began to weave together the North Star Guiding Formation. It was a response to the tension. Of knowing that they might be going up against overwhelming odds, for they¡¯d sat through briefs of what reports had come down from the north. Of endless armies of undead in the bronze and silver ranks as far as the eyes could see. The sergeant who had been placed in charge of their integration into the Many Peaks Alliance had done his best to scare them. But it wasn¡¯t fear that they were feeling. It was relief. Because while they reached out to each other due to the tension they were feeling in this mission, one thing was definitely true which brought them peace. The enemy was not their master. Bring on the hordes of the undead. Compared to the hell that they had already been through, a few thousand ghouls did not frighten them. When the silver ranked scout took command, he was unnerved by their presence. But they followed his instructions without complaint or the arrogance that newly risen silver path cultivators usually possessed. They dashed out over the city and into the region where the lack of scouting reports were causing concern. Hopefully, there would be nothing there, he reflected to himself as he struggled to keep up with the younger cultivators. He didn¡¯t hold out hope that that was the case. ? 66. Inversion 66. Inversion The garden of the new arrivals was a place of beauty. The architecture of the palace borrowed styles from a hundred worlds throughout the Lord of the Realm¡¯s domain, with a wing for every land in which ascended ones were expected to arrive. This was to ease the transition of the newly ascended soul by giving them a place of familiarity in the days following their ascension. Not every ascended one chose to stay in familiar quarters, however, and the most recent ascended one complicated the palace staff by insisting on sleeping in a different room every night. This wasn¡¯t especially a problem given that there were a thousand bedrooms to choose from, but it presented a number of difficulties. For one, the palace staff was forced to move a significant amount of furniture to ensure that the ascended one always had a bed with the proper softness, sheets with the proper thread count, and covers with down from the correct geese. The ascended one was not told of the problems his eccentricity was causing, but little birds watched with amusement as the men and women who made the palace work while fading into the background grumbled about the ascended one behind his back. The fact that the ascended one slept in a different bed every night meant that Mai Mai never knew where she would be sleeping. Although the ascended one had never once made any advanced beyond thanking her for the tea, the palace superiors insisted upon keeping her near him in case he expressed a desire for her companionship. Which meant that when he slept in a new room, Mai Mai would sleep in the nearest servant¡¯s quarter and wonder if tonight would be the night when he asked for more than tea from her. She was willing. More than willing; being his lover would elevate her and her family significantly in the rigid social hierarchy that she had been born into. She was but of the bronze path, but few Welpakians rose above that rank. But with the seed of an ascended one, perhaps her children might be¡­ Well, they would be Descendants, that was true. But perhaps they might be powers of their own right. She did not really understand these things, but if the ascended one managed to cultivate to the diamond path, then his own station would elevate, and any of his children who had been conceived prior to his ascendance would be retroactively granted special privileges. However, if he did not ascend past his current rank of the golden path, then he was effectively a ¡®dud.¡¯ Not all ascended ones were equal. If this one who had taken an interest in her did not advance soon, then he would be asked to leave the palace of new arrivals and integrate into society. The golden path was not so great or grand in an ascended realm, after all. The ascended ones were revered for their ability to reach the ascended realms, but they were often not especially powerful when they arrived. But Mai Mai had confidence that her ascended one would achieve the vaulted Diamond Path. And when he did, the courtesans that he would be granted would turn green with envy that he already had a child in this world, and that that child was born to a Welpakian like her. She smiled as she picked out the tea leaves for the afternoon tea that she would serve him. It was a pleasant fantasy, but it was ultimately out of her hands. She was willing. But he had only thanked her for the tea, and it was entirely possible they were reading too much into these things. Satisfied with the tea leaves she had picked out, she carefully arranged them on the platter and carried them forth into the room where the ascended one was cultivating and the guards and watchers stood by to make certain that he wasn¡¯t disturbed. She kowtowed, and without a word began going through the rigorously practiced ritual of making a proper cup of tea. ¡°Make a cup for yourself as well,¡± the ascended one said. She froze. ¡°As the ascended one wishes.¡± ¡°Call me by name. My name is Di Phon,¡± he said. ¡°As you wish, Di Phon,¡± she corrected herself. Would tonight be the night? Her heart beat fast as she thought of it. She had been told that this might happen, that she was not to refuse him. She might be unworthy, but the ascended one¡¯s interest made her worthy , and so if he gave her a cup of tea then it was permissible to take it. Another servant appeared with a second cup for her, and she poured herself a cup next to his. He took his cup and motioned for her to sit next to him as he studied a dao painting that was six millennia old. She stared at it and her mind went dizzy. ¡°Tell me, Mai Mai. Do you have a man that you love?¡± he asked her. ¡°I do,¡± she said. For he was sitting right next to her. ¡°That is good. One of my regrets that was holding me back from ascending was that I had so many lovers, but no true companions. Why is your cultivation stalled at bronze? Is it a lack of resources?¡± ¡°I was never taught to cultivate beyond the basic precepts that all children learn,¡± she explained. ¡°When I was judged worthy to serve in the palace, it was determined that there was no further need for my education on such matters. I was taught to make tea.¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°And the man you love? What is his cultivation?¡± Di Phon asked. ¡°He walks the golden path, but there is hope that he will step onto a higher path yet,¡± she said. ¡°Then it is my wish for you to walk the same path as the man you love, so that you might not die before he does and cause him to mourn you for the rest of his life,¡± Di Phon said, and he took a cup of tea. ¡°If that is your wish,¡± she said. She too took a cup of tea, and she closed her eyes. She tasted it, savoring the flavor that had always been denied her before this very moment. And she cursed her traitor tongue for the question that came out of her mouth. ¡°But who will serve your tea?¡± ~~~~~~~ Li Toh spun the energy around into the technique that he had been practicing. It was an inversion technique. It would take the target¡¯s Qi and invert it, causing the target to inflict significant harm on their own body as their own Qi ripped them apart on its own, following their passageways and making use of their own body. It was a thing of horror. It was a thing of beauty. He looked at one of the nearby ghouls and decided that the army could spare one foot soldier in the name of experimentation. Rather than dissipating the technique, he fired it at the undead minion and observed the effects. At first nothing happened. The undead monster looked at him in confusion. It opened its mouth, as though to speak, but then it seemed to remember that it was dead and had no words worth speaking. Instead an awful belch escaped it. Li Toh groaned and tried to ventilate the area before the stench could-- The corpse exploded, covering him with gore. He frowned. It would take more than a simple ventilation technique to get rid of that smell now, he reflected, wiping his face with a handkerchief. He looked at the other gold-ranked member of his team. ¡°What?¡± he asked. The other member remained silent. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s right,¡± Li Toh said. ¡°I have half a mind to try the technique on you to see what happens.¡± Phal Rei said nothing. He¡¯d said nothing since his death six weeks ago, when he and the remaining purity fanatics of the Sovereign Summit Sect had ambushed Ko Ren and his retainers in an assassination attempt. An attempt which had gone terribly for the assassins. Now, Phal Rei served the very enemies he had sought to save the world from. He walked on an artificial leg, grafted from a lower level ghoul. His right arm was similarly constructed. On his face was a scroll which limited his intellect and made him biddable, but only by Li Toh. And where his heart should be was an iron spike, flared on each side of his chest to keep it in place. Li Toh grinned. He had achieved gold rank through hard work, insights, and the sacrifice of several of his kinsmen. But Phal Rei had been deliberately raised from silver rank upon his death, and Li Toh loved the fact that his former frenemy was now completely under his control. ¡°I know it¡¯s a waste, but I need to explore the new technique. That means test subjects,¡± he explained. ¡°It might be messy but¡ª¡± ¡°Stop wasting resources,¡± Wen Shi said, stepping carefully through the gore. She looked out through the night and counted the undead army that was gathering at their rally point. ¡°You can experiment when our numbers don¡¯t matter. We¡¯re behind enemy lines with no supply lines. You don¡¯t¡ª¡± ¡°Our forces are undead, we don¡¯t need supply lines,¡± Li Toh argued. ¡°And everytime they kill an enemy our forces grow stronger. Soon we¡¯ll be standing on a mountain of living corpses eager to follow our every command. Just because you¡¯re slightly stronger than I doesn¡¯t mean that you can¡ª¡° ¡°We don¡¯t have our army yet,¡± Wen Shi pointed out. ¡°So stop destroying them before they can recruit more for us.¡± Li Toh tsked, but ultimately accepted the rebuke. Wen Shi wasn¡¯t the commander, but he doubted he could kill her in a fair fight, and if she reported back that he was putting the mission in jeopardy then Ko Ren might be reluctant to give him more techniques like the one he¡¯d used to reach gold rank, or the latest one that corrupted a target¡¯s own essence. He looked off into the night. He frowned. He sniffed. ¡°I think I smell the living,¡± he commented. ¡°So let¡¯s do something about that,¡± Wen Shi said. She waved her hand, and the three hundred undead she¡¯d managed to gather began to march in the direction that the scent was coming from. Li Toh spun together another technique and launched it at a ghoul just as it walked by her. It exploded, covering her with gore. She turned to glare at him, and he glared back. ¡°Really?¡± she asked. ¡°I need to make sure that it works,¡± he explained. ¡°So practice on animals or something,¡± she scolded. ¡°These corpses are valuable.¡± He muttered ¡°These corpses are valuable¡± in a mocking tone. Wen Shi pretended that she didn¡¯t hear him. It was time to begin the attack, and as much as she wanted to kill him, Li Toh would be useful in dealing with the two golden path cultivators who were known to be in the area. After all, what could one do when their own Qi turned against them? ? 67. What if? 67. What if? Di Ram had not wanted to risk the Peach Blossoms on their inaugural mission, so he had sent with them three silver ranked scouts and nine bronze rankers. While this might seem like overkill to some, considering that it was effectively a scouting mission, nobody questioned him or thought he was being overly cautious. The silver path cultivators remembered their own days following their rank ascension, when they had viewed themselves as invulnerable and immortal. And the bronze cultivators knew the fatality rate for scouting in the north. If there was even a hint of a forward stronghold this far south, then they would be grateful for every silver ranked cultivator they could get in the force that dealt with it. ¡°Do you hear that?¡± one of the bronze path scouts asked the others as they dashed along the treetops and the silver-rankers flew above them. ¡°I don¡¯t hear anything,¡± his friend said. ¡°Exactly. When is the last time this jungle was quiet?¡± the first one asked. It was an hour before dusk, and everyone was tense. The veterans because they sensed something was off. The disciples of Little Bug, the peach blossoms, because they too sensed something was off. The flow of Qi in the area was unnatural, with a strange pull to it. Hien Ro reported what he sensed to the silver ranked veteran who was in charge of their group, and the veteran made the call to investigate, diving into the center of this strange magnet. They arrived in the hollowed out village just as the sun set. At first there was no sign of life. The scouts, knowing the signs, were instantly on edge. If the village had been abandoned peacefully, then it showed none of the usual signs. The peasants who evacuated were supposed to leave a record behind of where they were going, but when the bronze ranked cultivator emerged from the village chief¡¯s house, he reported not a scrap of paper with the destination, but a bloodstain on the underside of a bed. As though a child had been hiding there. They discussed the matter for a while longer before deciding to investigate further, but just as the sun fell, they had their answer. The corpses had buried themselves in shallow graves in the edges of the jungle before the previous dawn, and now that it was night once more they emerged and converged on their village. And they grasped at the cultivators who resided within. The common peasants had been raised to the bronze path in undeath, and there were dozens of them. Tolkle, one of the bronze path scouts, realized that there was a very real chance that he was about to die as six of the ghouls fixated on him. They raced forward swiftly with gnashing teeth, and he fought them off. Later, he remembered the battle only in fits and flashes. First, he thrust his sword into the gut of the lead zombie. He remembered screaming as his leg was bitten by one of the child-corpses He remembered feeling brains on his hands as he crushed a skull of the unliving. He remembered thinking that this was not enough as his shoulder was dislocated by one of the ghouls who had managed to grab him and throw him into a building. And then the battle was over, and one of the Peach Blossoms was there. Lahri, her name was. Tolkle took her hand as she helped him up, and he felt her Qi enter his body and wash away his wounds. ¡°Thank you,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯re gathering over there,¡± she said. Tolkle nodded and followed her directions to where the others from the little band were congregating. The silver path cultivators were consulting each other. Two of the veterans wanted to press on and continue the investigation, while the third was recommending that they return to the city and give an account of the battle. The bronze ranked cultivators were asked if any would volunteer to make a solo run to give a report to the Many Peak Alliance. Tolkle volunteered immediately. He listened carefully to the report he was to repeat back to the minds that were preparing the defense of Mer¡¯cah, and he repeated it back to the veterans. Then, from a shadow in the sky, he was hit by a ray of energy. His eyes went wide, and everyone turned to look at the source of the attack. An attack which seemed to have done nothing except scare-- Tolkle did not finish the thought as his own Qi rebelled against itself and he was violently ripped apart from the inside. The survivors watched in horror as three figures descended on the village. ¡°You¡¯re wasting resources again,¡± one figure said. ¡°It¡¯s an enemy, why do you care?¡± ¡°He was on the bronze path. That meant we could raise him to at least the silver if we had the body,¡± the female voice chided. ¡°We¡¯d have to kill him first for that. We¡¯ll have to kill all of them for the ambush to work, not just the one that they sent to report.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s the other thing. Now they know we¡¯re here. You really are an idiot, I meant follow him when I ordered you to kill him.¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Who says you¡¯re in charge anyway?¡± Two of the three figures continued to bicker while the scouts tensed. Hien Ro stepped forward, and behind him eight figures and a jaguar fell in behind him. ¡°We¡¯ll slow them down,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°Go to the city and report what happened here.¡± The veterans knew this went counter to their orders, but the series of events that had just unfolded changed their priorities. ¡°Everyone! Scatter!¡± The leader shouted. ¡°At least one of us must report that the invaders have three gold rankers. Peach Blossom, I have only one order for you. Do not give your lives in vein.¡± ¡°Just get out of here,¡± Thaseus said. ¡°You¡¯re in the way.¡± Feeling ashamed, the leader flew away. A burst of fel energy hit him, and he felt a strange sickness in his core. A moment later, he too exploded into gore. But nine members of the team got away. While the Peach Blossom held the line against three golden ranked fighters. ~~~~~~~ The strings of fate tickled at my awareness. I frowned, trying to ignore them, but I could not. Finally, I opened my third eye to follow the one which seemed to be pulling me to act, and I saw the possibilities. My disciples were about to face their first true test since their graduation. They were up against three gold ranked opponents, with no backup or support. I could interfere, if I chose. I could send an avatar to assist them, I could drop one of their opponents into a pocket dimension even from here. I could do so many things. I closed my eyes and chose to trust in my disciples and the training they had gone through. I whispered words for them, sending them on the wind as I had on the night when the lone warrior stood against the corruption. I closed my eyes, and the strings of fate bothered me no longer. I had acted, and I didn¡¯t need to know the result to know the result. I had faith in my disciples. I paused, and I began to truly consider that insight from a different angle. What if ¡­ ~~~~~ Li Toh grinned at the ten little figures who had stayed to play. He wondered which one of them to pick off first. ¡°Don¡¯t.¡± Wen Shi said impatiently. ¡°But they¡¯re enemies,¡± he whined. ¡°Their corpses are valuable. Don¡¯t destroy them. Kill them, but do it clean.¡± He pouted, but he knew she was right. That part of him that hadn¡¯t gone insane knew that if he returned and she reported that he had wasted ten silver-ranked corpses to play with his ability, corpses which might be elevated as Phal Rei had been elevated and made to serve, then he would be punished. And he didn¡¯t really like the feeling of his soul being scoured and twisted and torn. So as much as he wanted to explore the inversion ability, he instead raised his hand and-- ¡°Phal Rei! Rip these fools apart!¡± he shouted. The corpse-puppet dashed forward, moving through the air. Thunder chased after him as he broke the sound barrier. Fist met fist, and Phal Rei stood face to face with the undead abomination, matching strength for strength. In fact, he pushed the corpse back for a second, then weakened. ¡°Taimei, Xol,¡± Thaseus shouted. ¡°Support me!¡± ¡°Yes!¡± One of the women shouted. The jaguar growled. Li Toh frowned. Phal Rei was physically stronger than he was. Stronger than anyone except the other corpses who were raised in the same manner. How could they-- Lightning shot at him and he narrowly avoided it. A young man hovered before him, electrical arcs popping and zapping the air around him. ¡°I¡¯ll take this one. Lahri, Farun, and Arjun, empower me,¡± Polkluk said. ¡°Yes!¡± the dao companions shouted as one. ¡°We fight as one!¡± Lukal Lukal shouted, stepping forward to stand next to Hien Ro. ¡°I¡¯ve got your back,¡± Yara said. Hien Ro faced Wen Shi. ¡°This is your only chance to back down. Surrender, and we¡¯ll ensure that you¡¯re not tortured during your interrogation.¡± The woman frowned. ¡°What gives you the confidence to¡ª¡± Lukal Lukal dashed forward, moving faster than a silver should. He formed a spear of mud and clay and threw it even as his master¡¯s spear spun and came too close to taking Wen Shi in the throat. She raised a barrier to protect herself from the technique and-- And it pierced through. She frowned as the speartip pierced her left shoulder. Around her, the flashes and bangs of techniques and energies colliding echoed, and she realized for the first time something which she had neglected to consider before. She was, technically, outnumbered. It shouldn¡¯t matter, as one gold could crush thirty silver. But what if¡­ ? 68. Silver-Gold 68. Silver-Gold ¡°The world stands behind you. Will you stand aside?¡± His master¡¯s voice echoed in his ear, whispered on the wind. Hien Ro felt his conviction growing as he watched. He pumped half of his Qi into the formation, the collective whole of their constellation. He watched as Lukal Lukal engaged the enemy general ¨C he was fairly certain that this female cultivator was the leader of this group. Lukal Lukal fought like a demon. He waved his new spear, thrusting and slashing and keeping the enemy dodging, all while conjuring techniques from various angles. The piercing energy of his blows was enough to break through the golden path cultivator¡¯s shields, but the shields were enough to slow the techniques of Lukal Lukal. Still, he was gaining ground. Still, he was losing. She fought back, utilizing a short sword that glowed red with purple ruins along the blade. The sword swiped and blocked the conjured spears, and each blow that she blocked, she learned a little bit more about how Lukal Lukal fought. Soon, she would make the counter attack, and her golden path body would give her an advantage despite Lukal Lukal¡¯s strength and speed and the reservoir that he had to call on. He spun up a Rising Star, borrowing just a sliver of lightning Qi from the collective to empower it beyond what he could manage on his own. He held it at the ready, waiting for an opportunity to strike Thaseus wrestled with the corpse. He did not use his bamboo sword, not for this. This was a battle of sheer strength as he and the corpse beat each other senseless. Thaseus took a blow to the face. He punched the corpse in the stomach and felt ribs crack. The enemy showed no signs of pain at all. The next punch he took was even harsher, coming from the non-grafted arm. Thaseus returned it with one of his own. He smiled. It was like the old days, wrestling and fighting with his siblings and peers in the clan. He no sooner thought this than he was knocked off his feet, through the air, and into one of the huts nearby. He pulled himself out of the wreckage just in time to see Taimei unleash one of her coherent light techniques, burning a hole through the undead¡¯s stomach the size of a grapefruit. The ghoul didn¡¯t seem to notice. ¡°Stop fighting like a meathead and fight like the predator you are ,¡± Xol scolded. ¡°Sorry,¡± Thaseus muttered, then he pulled on their Qi from the collective. He split into three. Illusions, not avatars like their master could conjure, but impossible in the darkness to tell apart by sight alone. He ran forward and-- Phal Rei¡¯s corpse picked the wrong one, just as Thaseus had hoped it would. Thaseus landed a critical punch and felt the monster¡¯s skull break beneath his punch. Xol appeared behind the corpse and ripped with his teeth, hamstringing the ghoul. He was gone a second later, perfectly invisible to all senses. Taimei shot another light attack, a slash which cut through the corpse¡¯s legs. Li Toh growled with frustration as another blast of lightning hit its mark. Its mark. Him. He was the target of the lightning wielding cultivator. Who the hell wielded lightning? Who was insane enough to go through the process of attuning themselves to electricity? Who thought that was a good idea? He growled as he launched his own attack, a black-flame devouring orb that would burn and burn and burn until not even ashes were left. It was his pride and joy, although the new technique was favorable too, but he would pay back this lightning cultivator for the pain he was inflicting. Polkluk saw the attack coming. He knew that he he couldn¡¯t dodge. He attacked instead, pulling on the collective and empowering his lightning further by the raw energy from within. He disrupted Li Toh¡¯s concentration, but not by much, and still the attack came. He couldn¡¯t dodge, but he wasn¡¯t afraid. If he died, the others would--This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. A bolder smashed into the black flame before it hit its target. The stone was engulfed and swiftly melted into slag. Arjun stepped forward. ¡°Perhaps you should focus more on dodging, that does not seem like an attack you should take head on,¡± Arjun suggested. ¡°I¡¯m curious to see if I can do that,¡± Farun commented. He began weaving his energy in the way that he¡¯d seen the enemy doing, pulling on Xol¡¯s darkness attributes from the collective. ¡°Now is not the time to experiment!¡± Lahri shouted as she sprayed the enemy with high-pressure water. It cut a line through Li Toh¡¯s skin, but could not cut through his skin, since he was at the gold rank after all. These fools were-- Li Toh¡¯s arm fell off. He looked at it stupidly. The water, it had cut his arm off! Wen Shi didn¡¯t have time to focus on the rest of the fight, but she was recognizing that something was off. These cultivators, they were silver ranked. But yet they fought like golds. With an unimaginable reservoir to call on, techniques that were crisp and practiced and full of purpose. They had to die. ¡°Li Toh! Forget their bodies, kill them!¡± she shouted. She was immediately engulfed in ice. She flinched and shattered the encasement, turning towards the source of the attack. She began gathering her energy to counter and shouting ¡°They¡¯re pooling their energy somehow! If you hit them with inversion--¡± She knew no more. The Rising Star hit her directly on in the second she was distracted. The plasma, as hot as some stars, flashed through her and left not even ash behind. Phal Rei was in pieces, but those pieces were pulled inexorably together. They would reattach and regrow given time, but the opponents were burning the pieces faster than that could happen. Thaseus with his fire Qi, and Taimei with her lasers, worked together to render the corpse into ash Li Toh saw that the battle was going badly. He turned to flee, but at Wen Shi¡¯s command, he paused and considered. Giggling, he decided he wanted to see what happened if he tried her suggestion. Whipping together an inversion attack, he sent it straight at the lightning cultivator. He giggled, watching as the young man looked surprised, having been unable to dodge the near instantaneous attack. The Rising Star hit him full in the torso, an attack unleashed by Farun while the enemy had been distracted. His head blinked, willing itself to float for a moment to witness its enemy¡¯s end. It never came, even as light faded and darkness encroached. Li Toh¡¯s head fell to the ground, lifeless. ¡°What is that attack?¡± Lahri asked, concern in her voice. ¡°Are you okay?¡± ¡°It¡¯s like the inversion attack that Master unleashed on us during the fourth through eighth graduation exams,¡± Polkluk said, scratching his nose. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I allowed myself to be struck by it, but it was easy to quash. It was shallow compared to Master¡¯s technique.¡± Those were the words that Li Toh¡¯s undead head heard as it came back to life. The disciples gathered up the heads of the two gold ranked cultivators and burned the rest of their bodies before flying back to the city of Mer¡¯cah. Where an army was forming up to make a stand. ~~~~~ Di Phon woke in the middle of the night to receive the report. Moments later, the city bells were ringing announcing the incoming attack. Throughout the night, the ghouls launched themselves at the walls. The jungle had been cleared for a thousand yards before the city, creating a killing field where the bronze and silver-ranked zombies charged at the city. The bronze ranked cultivators fought in dozens of battles, each waiting for a silver ranker to come and rescue them. The silver ranked cultivators stood back and watched, waiting for a silver ghoul to reveal itself so that they could pounce on it and slay it quickly, before it could cause havoc in the bronze rankers. And the two golden path cultivators of the city stood above it all on the ramparts, watching the night devolve into chaos. ¡°It is so frustrating to stand here while our juniors die,¡± Di Ram said to the elder cultivator. Tornolai was silent for a moment. Di Ram looked sidelong at him, for it was seldom that the boisterous man was silent. Eventually, Tornolai said ¡°It is not our place to stifle their growth. It is our place to shield them from that which would crush them without noticing them. Keep your eyes opened for the golden ranked threats.¡± ¡°I know,¡± Di Ram said. The fighting lasted for hours. They arrived with the dawn. Like a storm they flew over the battlefield and brought destruction in their wake. Lightning, fire, purifying light slew the ghouls in droves, leaving behind nothing. Ten figures flew from behind enemy lines, three women, six men, and a great cat. The destruction they unleashed was precise and total, and in moments the undead besiegers were wiped out. The cries of celebration rang out, and the peach blossoms were soon paraded through the city. The celebration lasted for three days. ? 69. The Paths We Walk 69. The Paths We Walk A Welpakian boy wandered the streets, alone and hungry. His clothes were dirty and torn. He was eight or nine years old, his hair long and unkempt. His swollen belly had not had a meal in some time, and his eyes were hollow and lifeless. He walked through the streets, towards the palace of new arrivals, and he hoped. The palace was expansive, with many gates. He came from the east, and so it was the center east gate to which he came. ¡°Please sir,¡± he said to the guard. ¡°I wish to work here.¡± His answer was a beating. When the guards had finished, they dragged him into an alley, searched his pockets but found that they couldn¡¯t rob him, for there was nothing to take from the boy but his dirty and unkempt clothing. And his life, but neither of those two items were of any value to the guards. After twenty minutes, the boy pulled himself up and tried the gate to the northeast. When he had made the full circle around the palace and been rejected at every gate, he collapsed and sobbed for twenty minutes. Then, abruptly, he remembered who he was. The little boy turned into a little bird, and it flew off over the gates of the palace which had denied him entrance. None of the guards even noticed. Di Phon opened his eyes. ¡°There was a boy who was supposed to arrive today,¡± he commented. ¡°I wish to meet him. Where is he?¡± he asked. The palace of new arrivals had never seen such chaos as what followed. Di Phon paid it no mind, watching through the eyes of birds and sipping at tea with Mai Mai. ¡°When I reach the silver path, will you lie with me?¡± she asked him nervously. ¡°Will that make you happy?¡± he asked her. ¡°I think it would,¡± she answered. ¡°When we stand as equals, Mai Mai.¡± She despaired, but sipped her tea and focused. She felt the burgeoning spirituality in her core and she focused on stoking those flames yet higher. There was no hope if she didn¡¯t try. ~~~~~~~ I had come to my conclusion. I saw now the path that I had been walking. I saw it clearly, tracing it back to the moment when I first stepped onto it, to the moments where I had nearly wandered off of it. ¡°Mother,¡± I whispered. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I was such a difficult son. When we meet again, I¡¯ll give you the words I should have given you more often when I was younger.¡± ¡°Father. You tried so hard. I am sorry for the hardship I caused the family. May you look upon me with pride.¡± ¡°Sister. We were children and you didn¡¯t know any better. I forgive you. Little Bug forgives you.¡± ¡°Brother. I will see you soon.¡± ¡°Pi Phon, thank you for your guidance. You were right, I was too young to set my Dao when we met, and it was wise of you to advise me to hold back. But I see the path now, and I step forward with both eyes open.¡± ¡°Di Ram. May you bear the burden you have taken up with poise, but never ease.¡± ¡°Hien Ro. Thank you for being the brother who chose me.¡± ¡°My Disciples. Make me proud, and be proud. Stand tall and you shall weather the storm that is coming.¡± I whispered my farewells unto the wind. And I crossed a threshold. There was no going back now. I stepped onto the golden path. My power surged, even as it narrowed in scope and focus. I had been endless potential, but so much of that was focused now. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Nadia. But you can¡¯t have this world. It¡¯s mine.¡± The mountain glowed golden as I consolidated my gains. ~~~~~~ His name, which nobody remembered save for himself, was Loshi. But that was a common name, and he had left it behind when he had stopped being common. Now, he did not know what it was that others called him. It did not truly matter. Everyone knew who he was. He was the Lord of the Realm. He stood at the apex. Not a god, but so close as to make no difference, his power was endless and his purpose divine. And yet he had been driven to the brink of destruction seven years ago.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. He sighed. His eyes had been blinded by his accomplishments. He had lost his ambition somewhere along the way, believing that simple mastery over his home dimension would be enough. He had conquered and tamed every world in his home dimension, forming a vast inter-connected array to empower the core worlds. And himself. It had allowed him to reach unimaginable heights. He had, perhaps foolishly, believed that he was invincible. That he would reign forever and always. The ennui had been insidious, but increasingly he had simply found himself ¡­ vacant. He sighed, and the sigh was carefully logged by his observers. Dozens of men and women were informed that he had sighed, and the question of what his sigh meant would cause decades of debate. He would never meet those who debated his every move, his every word, his every action. But he knew they existed. He had once thought it was fun to play games with them, but he had lost interest in that centuries ago. He sighed again, causing centuries of work for the watchers and scholars who studied him. He pulled on the array which fed him power slightly, and he frowned. There was a bitter taste in the Qi he drew in. It was subtle, but noticeable. ¡°Something has changed,¡± he declared. ¡°Something corrupts. Find it.¡± Pens snapped and scholars feinted as he spoke aloud for the first time since declaring that he was recovered from the battle with the Divine Fates. If this was the precursor to another attack, he would be ready. Throughout the dimension where the Lord Loshi ruled, billions of souls began searching for something that they would never find. But eventually, the source of the corruption would be uncovered. And then, one way or another, the Lord of the Realm would deal with it as he dealt with everything. Decisively. ~~~~~~ Po Sana blinked as she heard a whisper on the wind. It was the day after the attack and the sky was bright. The voice had sounded familiar, but yet it couldn¡¯t be. She looked around, confused for a moment, before she continued to sweep the dust off of the porch. Her youngest child was on her hip, yawning and sleepy but wanting to be held right now despite the work that was to be done. Six miles away, her husband was drinking with the other guards when he bumped into a cultivator on the bronze path. The cultivator, outraged that a common guard would Dare , punched the offending man in the chest so hard that his heart stopped. Po Sana didn¡¯t find out for three hours that her husband had been murdered. She wept in the arms of Di Ram when she was told. As a consequence for his actions, the murderer was to be sent north to serve as a scout. Di Ram seemed apologetic that he wasn¡¯t able to execute the cultivator and make an example, but with the war, every able bodied soldier and cultivator was required to stave off the undead. But with the mortality of scouts being what it was, surely that was enough? Po Sana listened as this was explained to her. Then she asked a question. ¡°And why my children ask why their father isn¡¯t coming home?¡± she asked. ¡°What do I tell them about the man who murdered him?¡± Di Ram closed his eyes. ¡°That he will face justice on this earth, or in heaven, for the wrong that he has done.¡± ¡°My son, you say my son is important. How can you let this man go when my son is¡ª¡± ¡°I must let him go to protect you and the rest of the family. I can justify this punishment. To put him to death, I would have to explain who it was that he slew. Others would know who you are. Who your children are. They would know who to target to make Little Bug weak. I cannot risk that.¡± Defeated, Po Sana retired to her room, where she rocked her fussy toddler to sleep. ~~~~~~ I stepped out of my cultivation cave, looking at the world for the first time from my golden path. While my cave had been in my mountain, which had been in the ring which I¡¯d hidden and now wore, I was only a few miles from where I¡¯d trained my apprentices. The missing mountain range stood testament to that time, but already the jungle was growing over the scabs. Life in this part of the world was voracious, desperate to cover every surface it could. It was beautiful. I floated up into the air, looking out at the vast jungle beneath me. I saw the goliath tree in the distance and flew towards it calmly. I flashed my power in greeting, and received an answering call from the Tunrida. He arrived moments later, the fire and thunder that flew in his wake echoing over and through the jungle. The Tunrida hovered in the air, flapping its wings calmly as it evaluated me. ¡°You are strong,¡± it said at last. ¡°I would not wager myself against you,¡± I said. The thunderbird¡¯s echoing laughter boomed. ¡°Why have you come here, Little One?¡± ¡°I am setting out on a journey. It seems only right that I should say goodbye to my neighbor, my landlord, and my friend,¡± I said. ¡°I do not know when fate will bring me back this way again.¡± ¡°Ah. In that case, I wish you fair skies and pleasant company for your journey.¡± I smiled. ¡°Yes. Would you like to come with?¡± The thunderbird frowned. Then he shrank to the size of a robin and flew over, landing on my shoulder. A moment later, Jumper tried to land on my other shoulder, but the albatross sized songbird didn¡¯t fit. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Jumper. You¡¯ll have to fly to keep up,¡± I said, and then I landed. ¡°I have a thousand and one pilgrimages to make.¡± ¡°I shall accompany you on five,¡± the thunderbird said. ¡°Regretfully that is all the more directions I can split myself at present.¡± I nodded. ¡°With Jumper, that makes six. One for each continent.¡± ¡°What of the North?¡± ¡°I would not risk you in the north. You are too beautiful for that.¡± The thunderbird preened. Then the little bastard pecked at my earlobe, just like Jumper did when she was that size. I sighed and set out on my chosen paths. I walked a thousand paths at once. And I walked only one. But at least I wasn¡¯t walking it alone. ? 70. The Path Not Taken 70. The Path Not Taken Di Ram exhaled as the two representatives of the Peach Blossoms finished giving their report. It was beyond his expectation that there would have been three golden path cultivators ¨C no, perhaps that wasn¡¯t the correct term. Three gold ranked threats. None of the enemies that the peach blossoms had disposed of were cultivators anymore. But that there would be three gold ranked threats so close to the city was concerning. ¡°And you slew them all,¡± one of his aides asked. ¡°You truly expect us to believe that?¡± ¡°Compared to fighting our master, the trial was easy,¡± Hien Ro said flatly. ¡°Their Dao was flat and their power stolen. The one weapon that they had which might have undone our unity was something that we have faced before and know how to overcome.¡± ¡°They were weak,¡± Thaseus confirmed. ¡°Even though we were forced to split into three groups and only keep a marginal collective, we were easily able to dispose of them. A half-formed avatar of our master could have dealt with the lot of them.¡± ¡°And that is before whatever happened earlier today,¡± Hien Ro supplied. Di Ram went stiff. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure, but I think he broke through onto the golden path,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°I heard him speaking, and then I sensed something strange. I¡¯m not certain though, and I don¡¯t want to give anyone false hope.¡± Di Ram relaxed slightly. He hadn¡¯t thought that the peach blossoms knew the identity of Little Bug¡¯s family yet, and he preferred to keep it that way. Especially until the murderer of Little Bug¡¯s father was sent on a suitable suicide mission in the north. Di Ram frowned, and began to plan how he would handle it if Little Bug returned to demand justice. Simply having the murderer executed would suffice most of the time, but in this instance, they were dealing with Little Bug. It was impossible to predict what the Little Sage would do or say about mundane things, let alone something so significant. Well, for now, he was confident in how he had handled that situation. As for how to handle this one? ¡°It seems that we have vastly underestimated the power that the Peach Blossoms possess,¡± he said, ¡°I need to reevaluate my chessboard after having found that certain pieces move in ways which I did not anticipate. Might you help me readjust my understanding of this game¡¯s rules?¡± ¡°You want to duel us to determine if we¡¯re truly as strong as all of that,¡± Hien Ro said, motioning to the reports on the table which detailed their heroics from the night of the attack. They were still dealing with the ramifications of that attack, but the Peach Blossoms had not been requested for any further duty so far. ¡°Of course not,¡± Di Ram said, taking a sip of water from a glass on his table. ¡°I have people to delegate such things to. Tornolai is very excited to test your mettle. His strength I am familiar with and know how to rank. The duel is only supposed to establish where you sit, collectively, in the rankings. But he might push things further than that.¡± ¡°As you wish,¡± Hien Ro said, and he turned to leave. ¡°Your servant has been crying,¡± Thaseus said suddenly. Hien Ro turned and paused, a questioning look on his face. ¡°Her husband died recently,¡± Di Ram said. ¡°Oh,¡± Thaseus said. ¡°Take care of her. Those who see us in our weakest moments of solitude deserve our loyalty, even as they return it a thousand fold.¡± Di Ram cocked his head to the side. ¡°I did not think to hear a man from your family say words like that.¡± Thaseus fingered the patriarch¡¯s ring on his left hand. ¡°I may be a scion of my clan, but I am a student of Little Bug. I am trying to remind myself of this every day. When I saw the tears on her face, I made a choice not to ignore them as I would have before.¡± ¡°But at the same time, it is not your place,¡± Di Ram said, motioning for him to go. ¡°Rest assured that I am looking after her family to the best of my abilities and your attention is better spent elsewhere.¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Thaseus accepted the rebuke with grace, and the Peach Blossoms left the room. Di Ram sighed and fidgeted with his own ring, and it was then that his wife emerged from the library within, her face excited behind its black veil and a set of scrolls in her hand. ¡°Here it is, here it is!¡± she announced, holding out a scroll for him to review. ¡°The little genius used the gathering array as a base to power the formation which has been keeping the dead from rising within the city array, and he detailed the process in this scroll for us. With this, we should be able to replicate it throughout all of the major cities and ports of the south.¡± Di Ram smiled and took the rolled scroll from her, pulling it open to review the now familiar handwriting of Little Bug. It was just what she had said, a detailed instruction on how to rebuild the formation that he had used to help Tornolai fend off Ko Ren. He rang a bell, and Po Sana appeared. As Thaseus had noted, her eyes were red from tears, which she held back now and presented a face of stoicism. ¡°Sana, would you please instruct my generals that I have found something which requires the attention of my formation experts?¡± he said politely. He had always been polite with her, but since she had lost her husband he had been especially so. He had been surprised when she¡¯d returned for duty in the morning, for he¡¯d given her a week of bereavement, but she hadn¡¯t commented on it any more than she had. ¡°Of course, Lord Di Ram,¡± she said, and she stepped out once more to pass the message. Standing side by side with his wife, Lady Tonilla, Patriarch Di Ram studied the formation which had the potential to, if not change the shape of the war, at least give them some measure of defense and warning in the future. ~~~~~~ In a thousand and one directions I traveled. My avatars, more me than they had ever been before, split off from one another as each crossroad was reached, as each divergence of fate or chance, whichever name you prefer to call the thing that governs that which we cannot control, pulled me in a new direction. I was listening not just to fate, but to the world itself. And she was crying out in pain. I had heard this pain for a while but had turned a deaf ear to it, for there had been nothing that I could do. It was not just the infection of fel energy which was causing the dead to rise, upsetting the natural order of birth, life, death, and rebirth. It was also the gathering arrays which had been strangling this world for millennia, keeping Atla from reaching its full potential. Stunted and starved for Qi, the world had whithered on the vine. I came to places of power and found them already claimed by the Lord of the Realm¡¯s gathering array. I found them spewing the poison that was infecting the world. With my hands, and with magic, I rolled up my sleeves and set to work. Just as I had once built an array to protect a city from the attack of a golden ranked cultivator while I was but of the Bronze Path, I now set about a more ambitious prospect. I hoped that this narrowing of my path, this blind canyon I passed through, did not lead to a sudden dead end. Because there was no going back. ~~~~~~ Di Phon was never a seer, or a revolutionary, but as he felt one of the few strings of fate from the world of Atla, one of his few remaining ties to the world of his birth, pulling him in the direction he wanted to go, he abruptly closed his eyes. ¡°Mai Mai. I would take another cup of tea,¡± he said. ¡°And the rice that was served to me three days ago, along with an egg from the hen which laid my morning meal three weeks and two days ago. And¡ª¡± He continued to give instructions, growing more certain as he did. Mai Mai was terrified, but she was not alone. Though he addressed his instructions to her, it was the elder servants of the palace which would carry them out, and she knew this. She simply set about making another cup of tea, carefully picking out the tea leaves, paying especially close attention to the ones that she would serve in this pot. When the food was served, Di Phon ate mechanically, taking little time to enjoy or reflect on the meal. Then he quietly sat for hours, his attention focused inward. Abruptly the palace shook, and the formations which were set to detect such things flared to life in distant places. A cultivator at the palace of new arrivals had stepped from the golden path onto the diamond. When Di Phon finally opened his eyes again, he looked around, seeing the world with crystal clarity as he saw the path which would lead him to sever his ties with his home world completely. He saw the path. And he ignored it. ¡°I know that it is not time,¡± He said to nobody and everybody who was listening, ¡°but I would kindly ask to take my audience with the lord of the realm soon.¡± ? 71. Hunger 71. Hunger There was no arena on Atla that could contain their bout, so the duel between the Peach Blossoms and Tornolai the Raging Tyrant took place in the air, far above the unclaimed jungle above the densest regions of the Ker¡¯tath jungle. Hundreds of silver-ranked watchers judged the match, each filing a report to their superiors at the conclusion, which would be summarized and condensed and fed back to their master tacticians and Di Ram himself. Tornolai, while a powerful and unpredictable force, was no tactician himself, and he had gladly shirked the duty the moment the option was presented to him. But he was content to throw his muscle around in the directions that the schemers and the plotters wanted him to move the mountains and change the landscape, so when he had been gifted this opportunity he had gladly accepted. He refused to be shown up by some little brats who thought that a formation was a substitute for true power. He would show them what it meant to be on the golden path! The ten disciples hovered in the air nearby, waiting for him to begin. He stood in the air, his arms crossed, as he waited for them. ¡°To confirm, this is a friendly bout to demonstrate the relative power between the combatants,¡± one of the silver ranked judges said. ¡°Lethal blows should be avoided, and injuries that do not heal in three days are to be avoided, and¡ª¡± Tornolai had heard enough of the rules. He pulled at his Qi and fired off a blast of energy at the leader of the Peach Blossoms. His first element had been water. He had learned to swim deep in the oceans while holding his breath, and it was there that he had found the eels which had changed his fate. He had grabbed at one, intending to snap its spine and eat it, when it had electrocuted him. He had hunted hundreds of the creatures as he sought to realign his Qi to lightning. With water and lighting in his Qi, he had managed a third element, and combined them into one. Water. Wind. Lightning Tornolai was a storm that walked like a man . The clouds began to gather as he pushed out his Qi and began causing the environment to shift its natural flows to obey him. This was why he was called the raging tyrant, and as he watched the lightning rush towards the leader of his opponents, he continued to marshal his might. The lightning blast was casually deflected by Hien Ro, who turned to his companions. ¡°Lightning. Polkluk, would you like to take point?¡± ¡°Yes. It¡¯s so rare to fight a lightning expert aside from Master,¡± Polkluk said, and the formation changed. Tornolai frowned, because they hadn¡¯t shifted or moved, and yet his sense of who was leading the group was fundamentally different. He saw now that who he had thought was the leader was merely supporting the tall young man in the middle, who even now was gathering-- Tornolai frowned as the storm began to fight back against his control. He was attempting to martial the powers of nature, but so too was the leader of the Peach Blossoms. He struggled for a moment against the pull, trying to reallign the energy with himself, but it would not give until-- The full lightning blast of the storm impacted his chest, pulled from miles around. He staggered. He had not had a jolt like that since he¡¯d first picked up an electric eel by mistake. He sagged in the air for a moment as he recovered. ¡°Not bad, you little brat,¡± he muttered. Then he charged into the midst of the formation, determined to settle this the old fashioned way, even as he continued to struggle for the control of the skies. Polkluk rose to challenge him, and Tornolai frowned as each blow, which should have crushed the silver path cultivator, was deflected, blocked, or dodged. And each blow that landed on his own body carried far too much weight, and a touch of electrical power as well. The duel continued for five minutes between Tornolai and Polkluk before they mutually backed off.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°You are holding back,¡± Tornolai said to his opponents. ¡°Only one of you fights when you could be exploiting my openings and weaknesses while I was occupied with your lightning master.¡± ¡°This is a friendly duel,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°We would not wish to kill one of the most powerful assets of the Many Peaks Alliance.¡± ¡°Cocky little brat,¡± Tornolai muttered, but as he felt his own Qi shaking at the purity of the blows he had taken, he put one fist in the other palm and bowed over his hands. ¡°I thank you for the bout and concede my loss.¡± The Peach Blossoms each gave them their own signal of respect, and the duel was decided. They flew back to the city, the roar of breaking the sound barrier echoing behind them. An hour later, Tornolai found himself surrounded by beautiful women who were massaging the injuries he had taken when Di Ram and Tonilla stepped into the room. ¡°Well?¡± Di Ram asked. ¡°How strong are they?¡± ¡°As a team, they are worth five of me,¡± Tornolai said. ¡°Individually? I cannot say.¡± Di Ram nodded and paced while Tornolai oohed and awed at the massage he was receiving. He was surprised again by the clarity behind the blows he had taken. It did not quite match his own storm path, but there were insights in the fight which he could learn from. It was never too late to adjust one¡¯s heading, after all. Or to reconfirm it by studying the path not taken. ¡°What do we do next?¡± Di Ram asked. ¡°We defend our homeland for as long as we can,¡± Tornolai said simply. ¡°Until the sun sets and the stars burn out.¡± ~~~~~~ The little boat pulled up to the dock. Its wood was not native to these shores, its appearance was dingy and poorly constructed. The idea that it was held together with Qi and hope would outrage anyone who knew anything about seafaring, and it would have been immediately turned into firewood. But it had carried its passenger across an ocean to the new continent. A young man, seventeen or eighteen, despite having been born only thirteen years ago, stepped out, and the boat immediately fell apart. Few in the port noticed him, but those who did met his eyes and felt the weight of ages in the light of the windows to his soul. He stepped forth and made his way deeper inland. Nobody noticed as he came to a crossroad and, rather than choosing which direction to take, He took both. ~~~~~~~ Ko Ren stared down at the marching horde. His numbers were growing by the hour as undead flocked to the command sigils he had emblazoned on his own body. Sigils which gave him the power he had always dreamed of. He still ranked at the end of the golden path, but he was so much more than that. ¡°I am hunger,¡± he said, watching as a wraith of a woman stumbled and clumsily got back to her feet to continue the march through the wastelands. He had disrupted the gathering arrays here to allow them to march through the Qi desert, but it was taking time to cross the many leagues to the south, where the prey waited. ¡°I am the ravenous maw,¡± he said, staring at one of the amalgamations. It was strange, as he wasn¡¯t quite certain where the abominations came from. They had simply begun appearing of their own accord within his ranks. ¡°I am the end of suffering and the joining of all paths into one,¡± he said. He glanced at their destination, his eyes piercing the distance and following the planet¡¯s curve to the distant city of Resh Fali ¡°I am the end of hope and the one who remains in the ashes,¡± he said, solidifying his path yet further. Six Dimensions away, the Necromancer watched with amusement. ¡°Oh this is quaint,¡± he said. ¡°I am the one who tears down the foundation so that it might be rebuilt in mine own image,¡± Ko Ren said, feeling the power surge within him. Within Ko Ren were two cores. One which he had cultivated himself over decades, almost two centuries of life. The second had been cultivated with as much care and effort. By his sister, whose ghost he was finally rid of as he had consumed the last of her spirit. The core that belonged to Ko Si resisted his words. But the other core, the one that had belonged to him all along, stepped onto the golden path. He staggered as his power reached new peaks. He was not a diamond path cultivator, but he was stronger than any golden ranked threat that had ever stepped foot on the world of Atla in living memory. The Necromancer grinned. Then he turned his attention elsewhere. There were, after all, six more continents to conquer before he could call this world his own. ? 72. Pilgrims 72. Pilgrims I followed the threads, wherever they would lead. Wherever they split, I either pulled them back together, or I split with them, sending one avatar down one path and the another to follow the divergence. I forgot which one of myselves was real as I watched through thousands of eyes. In one corner of my mind, I waited out a sudden storm on the western continent, chatting idly with a young woman who was to be married in the spring. She asked for my blessing, and I gave it wholeheartedly. In another corner, I sat in the barn while children leaped from the rafters into the hay. I was negotiating with their father for the rent of their pasture, for it was the confluence of several ley-lines and I needed it for my plan to work. But the old man was stubborn, and this avatar was broke. Far away, on the eastern continent, I led the charge against a wave of undead forces. The locals had been caught out by the sudden resurrection of their dead, and they had fallen into despair before my arrival. But I stirred defiance into their hearts and they rose their banners behind me as we charged the horde and screamed that ¡°No! We will not go meekly!¡± And on the northern continent, I slipped in behind the marching horde. There was much to do there, in the empty streets where the only survivors were those who had fled early. I said a thousand and one paths I must walk. I walked far more than that. In three months I lived a lifetime. In three months, I died a thousand deaths. I worked while I rested and rested while I worked. I had the strange feeling that I had done this before and struggled to remember where. Ah yes. In the time between lives, in the plains of suffering, when I had labored to turn the tide of suffering of the dread god¡¯s victims. I wondered, idly, if this would work. I was committed, and the eventual success or failure of my path would not change my conviction to walk it to its eventual end. I would either die. Or¡­ ~~~~~ Di Phon walked through the grand palace. It was a hundred miles in diameter, and he was expected to make the pilgrimage from the gate of arrival to the throne room on foot. While maintaining his dignity and poise. He sighed as he rubbed the blisters on his foot, having decided to further show his humility by deliberately sending his true body and lowering his cultivation. If he displeased the lord and the lord snuffed him out, he would not only be exiled. He would be dead. He knew that despite reaching the diamond realm, he was still a pawn on the Lord¡¯s chest board. The diamond realm had six distinct echelons of its own, each twice as powerful as the last, and beyond that was the platinum, and then the mythril realm. Beyond that, supposedly, lay the divine realm. The lord was at the beginning of the mythril realm, having spent the last few millennia pushing up against the borders of what was possible with only one dimension to rule. He had so far refused to pursue power into other dimensions, and his reasons for doing so were genuinely seen as being benevolent. Di Phon speculated, but would not speak his thoughts on the matter to anyone outside his own mind. Limited to the strength of the mortal, he made his journey with one companion from the palace of new arrivals. Mai Mai was allowed to ride a palanquin, a conveyance that changed hands numerous times through the journey as the burden was passed from bearer to bearer. She sat atop the rocking platform and watched as the man she had come to love, to pine for, made the journey by foot. They stopped three times a day, and she would prepare tea for the two of them, and then the journey would begin again. Through the endless halls and corridors they traveled, through the courtyards and unexpected twists of architecture. Endlessly had the grand palace been constructed, and endlessly did they wander, guided by the countless servants who lived there, until finally their journey came to an end. The audience room itself was titanic. The ceiling stretched into the sky, and the largest ruined buildings that Di Phon had visited in his youth could fit comfortably inside one corner. It took one hour for the supplicants to pass to the foot of the dais where the throne stood.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. When he passed a line, he felt that it was time to bow, and so Di Phon bowed to the lord of the realm, deeply. ¡°This humble cultivator greets the Lord of the Realm and humbly thanks the lord for the protection and benevolence for which he is known to extend to all under his rule. This one thanks his lord for the reception that he has received upon ascending past his mortal limits. This one brings news. You have spoken of corruption. ¡°I know something of corruption, my lord, having faced it before. With your permission, I would tell you the tale of my ascension.¡± The room was silent, the hidden watchers watching and listening with held breath. What could this newly ascended fool, a child compared to the Lord of the Realm, teach the Lord that he did not already know. How presumptuous to presume to educate a being thousands of years older than-- ¡°Proceed,¡± the lord said. Di Phon began to speak. ¡°It began when I sent an avatar with some of my juniors to investigate the claims of a merchant about a promising young boy,¡± he said. ~~~~~ ¡°Rising Star,¡± Hien Ro said, and he unleashed the fury of a star across the battlefield. The line of fire so hot that it was more than fire, that it was more than the concept of fire, painted a line of glass through the distance. Each ghoul that was caught up in this fire, empowered by the full backing of Hien Ro¡¯s allies through the North Star Guiding formation, was immediately burnt. Not to ashes, not to dust. To vapor. To atoms. To things that the people of Atla didn¡¯t have the words for because they were so small. Six of the undead leaders banded together to protect their force, revealing their location. Hien Ro adjusted the direction of the Rising Star and painted over them as though they were not there, their pathetic protections evaporating in the face of the overwhelming power of stars. When finally he had spent the technique, he stepped backward, evaluating the changed battlefield with the others. ¡°You got the last of their golds,¡± Thaseus pointed out. ¡°Most of their silvers too,¡± Lukal Lukal agreed. ¡°We should leave the rest to the soldiers,¡± Lahri said, though there was a hint of sadness in her voice. She was suggesting a battle that would cost the lives of their allies. But like a crucible, a cultivator was formed in conflict. A warrior did not grow in potted soil. Their master had taught them this. The war that they had prosecuted over the last few months ¨C had it truly only been months? The war that they prosecuted taught them that it was sometimes necessary to allow some of their subordinates to die so that they might have veterans in the next battle. ¡°Let me even the numbers a little more,¡± Thaseus said, and the others consented, lending him their power. Through the North Star Guiding Formation, Thaseus felt an overwhelming sense of power, as he channeled this pure energy through himself, he didn¡¯t even flinch. It was not his power, not truly, but lent and freely given power by his friends and equals. Alone, he was just another silver ranked combatant. Together, they were-- ¡°Fields of ash,¡± he said, and he unleashed his technique. A wind swept over the battlefield, it burnt the non-living. They did not catch flame, the fire was more insidious than that. They simply burst directly into ash, scoured down to the bone by the flame that was not a flame. Over two thirds of the battlefield this wind blew, and when it finished, the living army finally outnumbered the dead. He sat back and looked at the others. ¡°There. We¡¯ll win this battle easily, but with fewer casualties than before.¡± The others nodded. Then they watched as men died in the crucible of combat, knowing that they could interfere. And choosing not to. ¡°We cannot walk their paths for them,¡± Arjun said, placing a hand on Lahri¡¯s shoulder. ¡°We can only make certain that the dangers that they face are ones which they can handle,¡± Farun agreed, giving the woman his hand to hold. Lahri nodded, but there were tears in her eyes. ¡°We could have saved them all,¡± she said. While it had been her to point out that the soldiers needed experience, she was conflicted in the necessity of allowing them to die. Yara too watched the army battle with a heavy heart. For she had found out where her father had gone to. He had enrolled as a common soldier and vanished into the war machine. Though she had searched for him, he was a single cog in a vast undertaking, and not worth the effort of establishing a paper trail. She had put out the word that she was looking for him, expecting him to immediately come forward. He had not. For all she knew, he could be out in that field right now. She swallowed, and tensed slightly when one of the disciples enveloped her in a hug. It was Hien Ro. They had decided to hold off on the wedding until they knew Adan¡¯s fate for certain. If he lived, then he would be at the ceremony. If not, then they would honor his memory first. Either way, they had decided to wait. For happier times, which were surely ahead. ? 73. Growth 73. Growth The boy, his rump still stinging from his punishment, was hiding his shame out in the fields near the gathering array when he saw the cultivator arrive. He blinked, sure that he was imagining things, but the young man was flying through the sky at an unbelievable speed. The boy watched as he landed nearby. He looked around, inhaled deeply, and smiled. ¡°Just like home,¡± the cultivator said. He turned, and the boy realized that hiding behind a rock wasn¡¯t enough to hide him. The cultivator knew that the boy was there. ¡°Come out. I shan¡¯t hurt you,¡± the cultivator said to the boy, and while it wasn¡¯t phrased harshly, the boy knew better than to disobey an order from a cultivator. He stepped out from behind the rock and kowtowed. ¡°Greetings Master Cultivator,¡± the boy said. ¡°How might this one serve?¡± ¡°What is this one¡¯s name?¡± the cultivator asked. ¡°This one is called TooRah,¡± the boy answered. He blushed. ¡°It means something like ¡®whoops another one.¡¯ My family is large and my father had a sense of humor.¡± The cultivator laughed. ¡°Well, do you know what my name is?¡± the cultivator asked. ¡°If you are very famous I might have heard of you, but I do not recognize you on sight,¡± Toorah admitted. ¡°My name is Little Bug. Or that is what it means in my native tongue at least. There is a story behind that name, but I shan¡¯t bore you with it right now. Tell me, might I hire some laborers from your village? I have fifty silver coins and I need help constructing an array nearby.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± the boy shouted. ¡°Yes, we would be eager to help the master Little Bug! I will go get the alderman and he will negotiate the price for our labors.¡± ¡°Very well. And Toorah? When you have fetched the alderman, come back to me as well. I sense a potential inside you and I wish to teach you to cultivate.¡± Toorah blinked in shocked, then he nodded nervously. ¡°Y-Yes master cultivator! I shall struggle to take your lessons to heart!¡± The cultivator sat down next to the gathering array, crossing his legs and his arms as he waited for the boy to complete his errand. Toorah, meanwhile, ran straight to the alderman to report what he had seen. It took him an hour to convince the old man that he wasn¡¯t exaggerating or lying, but eventually he returned to find Little Bug exactly where the boy had left him. ¡°Forgive me, master cultivator, but I do not recognize the insignia of our local sect upon your clothing,¡± the alderman stated. ¡°That is because I am not a member of that sect,¡± the cultivator said. ¡°I was a member of the Six Mountain Sect for a time, but now I am a rogue cultivator. Do not worry, I do not come to make problems for your people. I wish to construct an array for my personal cultivation over here, you see. It will bring prosperity to your own village as well, I assure you.¡± The alderman bowed apologetically. ¡°I am sorry, but without the permission of the sect, I am afraid that I cannot help you.¡± The cultivator nodded. Then, to TooRah¡¯s amazement, the cultivator stood up, while still sitting down. Two of the cultivators stood before him now. ¡°I shall accompany you or your messenger to the sect in order to obtain permission,¡± the one who had stood up said calmly. ¡°And I shall remain behind to teach the youths of this village how to cultivate,¡± the other cultivator said. The alderman swallowed. ¡°If that is your wish. Perhaps we might be able to begin the work of gathering the materials for your array before obtaining permission for it¡¯s construction?¡± ¡°That is a wonderful idea. Yes. I shall give you ten silver coins now for the purpose, will that be sufficient?¡± ¡°Come with me,¡± the alderman said. ¡°I will call the village together to begin this project of yours.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± the cultivator who had agreed to go with him said, following him back to the village. ¡°TooRah, go gather your friends. Anyone and everyone below the age of fifteen,¡± the Little Bug who remained sitting said. ¡°I wish to measure their aptitude for my teachings.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Toorah said, and he sprinted off to follow his instructions from the master cultivator. ~~~~~~ As I retaught Toorah and his friends how to breathe, I was also walking through a forest. I paused to pick up a flag that I had placed years ago. It seems that nobody had ever bothered to come and investigate it in the aftermath of the disastrous and profitable encounter I had with the peach tree. It must have simply been forgotten in the excitement, I thought, as I traced the signal to the other markers. Jumper landed on a nearby branch and began singing. Her voice was growing truly beautiful, even if she was now larger than she¡¯d ever been. I sang back with her the longs of learning that I had learned when I was but a toddler, being bounced on my mother¡¯s knee. ¡°Two and two is four, and four and four is eight. Mother washes the floor, and father checks the gate. Sister runs with the boys, and brother plays with toys. Little bug is all alone, But walks the world to atone. Little Bug has many friends And he will walk with them to the ends of this world, where the dragons lie And bring it forth shining into the sky.¡± I smiled at the modifications I had made to the simple song, then picked from my pocket a peach pit. I had carried it for so long. I didn¡¯t remember whether this was my true body or yet another avatar, but I knew for certain that I had a purpose in coming back here. I walked through the forest where I had almost died once. I stepped over the moss where my blood had fallen, where the fight between children had turned serious and almost deadly.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I had checked the sect nearby before coming to the forest and found the buildings abandoned. The ancient halls of the Six Mountain Sect were empty, and this forest was devoid of the sounds of insects and birds. Only Jumper defied the silence with me. Singing, we walked to the clearing where the peach tree had been. Where I¡¯d had the Peach Blossom Dream. And what I saw made me cry. They had chopped it down. I sat on the stump of the spiritual tree, running my hands over the naked wood. I felt a moment of anger, and I let it go. But I held on to the sorrow, for I had lost a friend, and though it was painful, I refused to simply let it go. ¡°I am sorry. This happened because I revealed you to the sect,¡± I said to the corpse of the tree which had helped me once without asking for anything in return. ¡°I tried to keep my promise to repay you. But I have only this one pit left.¡± I pulled out the peach pit and placed it on the stump. ¡°This is your mother,¡± I told the nascent spirit of the pit. ¡°Grow?¡± it asked. ¡°Time to grow?¡± ¡°Yes, little one,¡± I answered. ¡°It is time to grow.¡± I picked the pit up and placed it in the soil nearby. Immediately, a sprout emerged from where I buried it, and within moments a sapling stood nearby. I watched for an hour as it continued growing, before closing my eyes and letting go of this avatar. It puffed into mist, and Jumper looked at the place where I had vanished. After a moment, Jumper jumped into the air and began flying south. ~~~~~~ Di Ram stood atop the tower of Resh Fali¡¯s ramparts, staring out at the ruined wasteland that stood between the south and the north. The hordes of undead had yet to arrive, but the scouts reports had come in. In six days, Resh Fali would fall. He closed his eyes and reframed the thought. In six days, he would die in the defense of Resh Fali. He grinned. No, in eight days he would die, for he would not go meekly. The thought troubled him less than he¡¯d thought it would. Death, now that he saw the specter looming before him, was not so terrifying as he¡¯d thought it might be. The army knew that Resh Fali was lost as certain as he did, and the volunteers who were remaining behind to ensure that the refugees had time to rush further south were saying their final farewells to family and friends. Di Ram had sent his wife south. He had sent Po Sana south, though the stubborn widow was determined to stay by his side. She had sent her children ahead, and he would convince her tonight to make the journey himself. He respected her service and her dedication, but there was no need for her to die horribly simply to bring him comfort. ¡°This is a moment,¡± a voice said to him from behind. Di Ram turned, astonished, for he hadn¡¯t sensed anyone approaching, ¡°It is a place in time when the threads of fate split in two directions. One leads to happiness for you and for Po Sana and even your first wife. The other leads to you dying alone and sorrowful in the battlefield you see before you, surrounded by the guts and the blood of mortals and juniors.¡± ¡°Little Bug?¡± Di Ram demanded of the young man without a presence. He nodded. ¡°It is you. You are looking well. I hope that you are well.¡± ¡°I called you elder once,¡± Little Bug continued. ¡°But you are my junior now. Take a little advice from an old soul. Take what happiness you can find.¡± ¡°My happiness cannot come before the lives of my subjects,¡± Di Ram argued. ¡°I have picked up this mantle that has been thrust upon me, and though it weighs heavily upon my soul I will not place it on the shoulders of another. Not even you. Po Sana is¡ª¡± ¡°She is grieving and in desperation for comfort,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°I cannot bring her comfort the way that you can, or I would appear to her like this as well. But you can. Take her as your second wife, Di Ram. That is the thread that leads to happiness.¡± Di Ram blinked in surprise, for he¡¯d never once considered such a thing. Po Sana was beautiful, for a mortal, but she was also ¡­ his eyes narrowed. ¡°You would have me become your step father?¡± ¡°I can think of nobody better for the position,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°But I will not command your heart. If you do not feel for my mother the way that¡ª¡± ¡°I will consider this course of action carefully, thank you, Elder,¡± Di Ram said, feeling strange to thrust such a title on a teenager. ¡°I would hear your council on the state of the war. Your formations were a godsend, and they have held the hordes back for months, but they have begun to have a lessened effect. Elite enemies have begun to sneak into our fortresses and cause havoc. Is there anything we can do to strengthen¡ª¡± ¡°This is not the sort of enemy that can be defeated with passivity. Should I tell you how to strengthen the wards and you hide within your walls, what next? What happens when the food runs out and your people grow hungry?¡± Di Ram nodded, conceding that they were in an untenable position. ¡°So then, how do we win this war?¡± ¡°Stop thinking of it as a war,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°It is something else. ¡°What is it then?¡± ¡°When Ko Ren and the other elders thought that I was possessed by a demon, they inadvertently opened a door into another realm. They reached out to the ones who were seeking me, and a demon reached back. It is that demon that poisons the world and raises the dead.¡± Little bug paused for effect. He smiled sadly. ¡°This isn¡¯t a war, Di Ram. It is an exorcism.¡± Di Ram frowned at the boy-elder¡¯s words. Then he gave them careful consideration. And gradually, his entire understanding of the conflict began to change. ¡°The scope of what we would need to accomplish to set things right¡ª¡± he began. ¡°I have already begun,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°I have not been idle while my apprentices and my people have fought in my stead. I need two weeks. Can Resh Fali hold for two weeks, Elder Di Ram?¡± Di Ram was silent. ¡°Resh Fali will stand against the dying of the light until the last breath of the last brave soul leaves his breast,¡± Di Ram said. ¡°If you need two weeks, then I shall purchase you three, just to be sure.¡± Little Bug was silent. ¡°Your father would be proud of you.¡± The avatar vanished. Di Ram looked to the ring on his finger. It had been a gift from his father. If he channeled Qi into it just so, it turned into a spear which possessed the determination and understanding of his father¡¯s spear techniques. It was a deadly weapon that had served Di Ram well throughout his career as a Silver Path Elder. But that had been before he¡¯d stepped onto the golden path. Now, he wore it out of sentimentality. But it might serve one last purpose. With a wave of sorrow, he shattered the artifact. And absorbed the knowledge and intent contained within. He cursed his decision immediately, for the depth of the knowledge that his father had hidden in this little ring was so profound that it would take him days to process. He needed the knowledge before fighting on the front lines, and he also needed to issue the instructions to his followers, and he also needed to speak with Po Sana to see if there was any merit or possibility behind Little Bug¡¯s suggestion. There was so much to do, but only one of him. He had not managed to unlock the knack of dao avatars quite yet; he was most certainly a junior as far as Golden Path cultivators went, and as he contemplated what to do, he felt himself being pulled in three directions at once. If he could only. He made a decision and stood up, forsaking the knowledge remaining in the ring. He sat still, carefully absorbing and listening to the wisdom of his father. He blinked, looking at himself in shock as he realized what he had just done. ¡°My first Dao Avatar,¡± he said simultaneously. Then he bowed to himself and went his separate ways. He wondered which version of himself was true. Then he realized that was a silly question. They both were. ? 74. Consideration 74. Consideration Tonilla frowned as she read the reports. They were losing. They were doomed. They were set to be swept aside by a wave of undead and rise again as twisted mockeries of themselves. Well, not all of them, she reflected. She checked the careful etching she had made within her own meridians. When she died, they would ignite, and turn her body to ash. It was a dangerous technique, but after what had happened to her daughter, she had searched for some way of preventing herself and her followers from meeting the same fate. This was her solution. When she died, she would die. That was her decision, and many in the armies had begun practicing this technique themselves, carefully booby-trapping their own bodies. But these new orders from her husband made no sense. She hesitated, then decided that it required clarification. She rose and flew the distance between them, traveling from her estate in Mer¡¯cah to the fortress of Resh Fali in minutes, nearly breaking the sound barrier as she flew. She landed and was immediately recognized. The bronze ranked officer escorted her to where her husband stood, barking orders and contradicting their previous strategy of a cautious retreat into the jungles of Ker¡¯tath. ¡°Husband,¡± she said. ¡°I do not understand this change of strategy.¡± Di Ram turned to face her, a surprised look on his face. Then he nodded and-- She gasped as he split himself in two. One version bowed to her, then turned back to his generals, while the second stepped forward and embraced her. ¡°I am pleased that you have come. I was going to send an avatar to check on you myself,¡± he said, leading her into the fortress to his bedchambers. ¡°I need to request all the forces that you can spare from your contacts and everything within the alliance which has been held in reserve. We must hold them at Resh Fali.¡± ¡°What brings this sudden change of strategy?¡± she questioned. ¡°A vision. A visitation. Little Bug is preparing to deal with the undead crisis once and for all, but for some reason Resh Fali is critical to his plans. He needs three weeks to finish his preparation. I¡¯ve already sent for the Peach Blossoms, but Tornolai is far to the south and it will take time for my messenger to arrive. If you have any other forces in reserve, now is the time to play those cards.¡± Tonilla frowned. ¡°You¡¯re placing a lot of faith in one boy,¡± she said. ¡°Husband, am I even speaking to the true you, or are you¡ª¡± ¡°That¡¯s a question that shows you do not understand the truth behind what an avatar is, Tonilla. I was surprised the first time I managed it, but ¨C no, I can¡¯t talk about it. I don¡¯t understand it myself well enough to truly explain, except that I am three right now. One of me is cultivating, one is issuing orders and acting as the general of Resh Fali, and the third is speaking with his wife.¡± She nodded, accepting that he did not want to speak of the secrets of forming an avatar. But she truly wished that she knew she wasn¡¯t being ¡®managed.¡¯ ¡°What is his strategy, at least?¡± she asked. ¡°What does buying him three weeks buy us?¡± ¡°He didn¡¯t deign to explain his full plans to me,¡± Di Ram admitted. ¡°But if you could see him the way that I saw him ¨C he was a perfect void to my senses, and yet every sense I was born with told me that he was right here. I don¡¯t know how he did it, and I¡¯ve never heard of anything like it.¡± Tonilla frowned. But she sighed. ¡°We agreed that you would be in charge of military matters. Very well, we shall place all of our chips on one bet. I¡¯ll return to Mer¡¯cah and begin leveraging my contacts to send reinforcements to Resh Fali. Thousands will die defending a city that is less than a year old.¡± ¡°This is where we draw the line, Tonilla. At Resh Fali. Not a step farther shall the corruption spread. It shall not take Hope from us.¡± She smiled. ¡°That is good. You should use that in a speech.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°You like it? I was trying out a few permutations of it,¡± he admitted. ¡°I thought you would be more opposed to this course of action.¡± ¡°Ram, we are losing this war,¡± she said. ¡°You say that Po Guah has a solution. Something which will turn the tide. When the choice is certain death or the possibility of salvation, who would not reach out for the sliver of hope?¡± ¡°That¡¯s good. You should use that in a speech.¡± ¡°You can have it, you¡¯re likely to be in greater need of motivational speeches in the coming days than I,¡± she said. She shook her head. ¡°I¡¯ll send my forces, but I will remain in Mer¡¯cah, organizing things from there.¡± ¡°Of course. And there is something else I would ask of you, Wife,¡± Di Ram said. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Take Po Sana with you,¡± he said. ¡°And, if possible, consider the possibility of allowing me to take her as a second wife.¡± Her eyes narrowed. ¡°Have you¡ª¡± ¡°I would not without your permission,¡± he assured her. ¡°But surely you can see that the idea has merit. If we marry into Po Guah¡¯s family¡ª¡± She raised her hand in a snapping motion, running through the possibilities in her own mind. ¡°Po Guah gave his blessing of this union?¡± she asked. ¡°It was his idea,¡± Di Ram answered. ¡°Then I consent. But you are thinking too soon of the future, when the now is so desperate,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯re right, the matter of marriage can wait until¡ª¡± ¡°I¡¯ll fetch the priest and spread the word,¡± she said. ¡°The wedding will be in haste, but it will bring joy to the masses when we announce that their illustrious leaders are marrying into the family of Po Guah.¡± ~~~~~~ ¡°¡ªAnd so, faced with the choice of allowing the demon Ko Ren to consume me and grow ever stronger, or to forever cut ties with the world of my birth, a place which I love and the place where I was prepared to leave my bones, I chose this path,¡± Di Phon said before the court of the Lord of the Realm. ¡°Do you believe that I am a coward for not accepting my death? I sometimes do, but even should I have passed from that world, I would have left behind a corpse which the demonic influences of my world would have been able to raise to yet untold heights. By ascending I denied them this resource. And while I am undoubtedly unworthy to advise my lord, I remain at his disposal,¡± the young ascended said. For although he was an old man, he was young for an ascended one. Yet he had already advanced to the diamond realm, showing great potential. Lord Loshi had, despite himself, gotten captivated by the tale. Even as a part of him seethed that some part of his realm was being invaded by forces from the Divine Fate Empire, even as he identified the source of the bitter taste of his realm¡¯s Qi that he was detecting, even as he reflected on the weakness of this man who gave his report, he had to admit that there was a tragic heroism about him as well. ¡°Your tale interests us,¡± he said after contemplating the conclusion carefully. ¡°We see now that the source of corruption we sense comes from the world of your birth. We shall investigate the matter with care. You are to be commended for bringing this matter to our attention.¡± Di Phon kowtowed once more to the lord. As for Mai Mai, she had been removed from the court hours earlier and sent to the healers after she had collapsed from holding her kowtow too long. But Di Phon had never once rushed his retelling of his final months on Atla, delving often into philosophical topics and divergent paths that seemed to lead nowhere. ¡°This humble servant of the realm did not bring this matter to the attention of his lord in hopes for recompense. But neither shall he deny the lord¡¯s generosity,¡± Di Phon said. ¡°You may retire at your leisure,¡± the lord said. ¡°I must consider your words for a time, and investigate the corruption of Atla in great detail.¡± With that, the avatar that he had sent to the court vanished. The pressure that his presence put on the entire palace vanished as his attention was turned elsewhere, and the cultivators who worked there gasped in shock as they realized the weight of the presence which they had grown accustomed to. Many feinted. Those who did not suffered nosebleeds, ulcers, and coughed up blood. Mai Mai suffered a vision which changed the shape of her future. Di Phon clicked his heels and went to the side of his servant, patiently tending her needs while he waited for her to wake. Telling his tale had made him thirsty, and he wanted a cup of tea. ? 75. Union 75. Union Despite the looming march of undead mere days away, the streets of Resh Fali were filled with celebrations as not one, but three weddings were announced by their leaders. The decision of Di Ram to take the mother of Po Guah as a second wife brought forth waves of joy to everyone who heard the story. How Di Ram had sheltered the mortal woman on the way south, with their affection slowly growing over the course of months in their relationship as master and servant. How these feelings had evolved in complexity and intensity after the untimely death of Po Sana¡¯s husband. How he had sought and obtained permission from the fox-like Lady Tonilla to make his love official¡­ It was like a thing from a story, and both the women and men spread the telling through the streets like wildfire. Then there were the three dao companions of the Peach Blossoms, who had decided to use the opportunity before the battle to make their relationship official. Their own tale of being thrust together by fate and finding true love in each other, and more than love, was tinder to the already blazing rumor mill. And finally, the lovers Hien Ro and Yara had decided that they had given her father enough time to come forward, and that if they were to face death in the coming days that they would do so as husband and wife. All those citizens who had not fled Resh Fali for the south came out to celebrate. Every soldier who was not on duty served as an honor guard as the participants of the wedding marched through the streets, waving and encouraging the crowd to cheer and be happy. To forget for a moment that this wedding was in haste, one last moment of happiness before the twilight that was descending upon them from the north. That this might be their last moment of happiness. The ceremony was jubilant. Or so Adan Pocef heard through the grape vine. He had traded with someone to scout the roads leading to the northern expanse, beyond the demarcation where the jungle stopped and the wastes began. While his daughter was being married, he was fighting to keep her safe. The irony that she was one of the peach blossoms, one of the most powerful forces in the world, was not lost on him. He had never been a strong or important man. He had been content to have a happy life with a wife and a child or two. But then the weeping sickness had swept through Mer¡¯cah, nearly claiming his daughter and claiming his wife. Yara did not clearly remember those days in the aftermath, when he had been a broken man. He had picked up the pieces and put them back together with mud made from spit and sweat. And he had fought so hard to keep his daughter alive and healthy and ¡­ he smiled sadly. Hien Ro was a good man. He was glad that she¡¯d found happiness in someone better than he could ever be. The ambush came out of nowhere. His squad barely managed to return to Resh Fali in time to warn the defenders of the advanced forces that were attempting to circle around and entrench to the southeast of the fortress city. ~~~~~~ Ko Ren shuddered as he felt the man who had once tried to heal him of the very strength which now coursed through his veins finished inscribing the latest of the runes that the demon had bestowed upon him. He flexed his power through the new tattoo, feeling as the power slid into place. It was frustrating, but he hadn¡¯t been able to unlock the secrets of using dao avatars. As he pushed his mind into the new rune, however, he encountered something just as profound. He forced his will upon one of the golden-ranked corpses, another man who had once questioned the path that Ko Ren had taken the Sovereign Summit Sect down. Now, the iron rod thrust through the man¡¯s heart served as a conduit, and Ko Ren impressed his will and his mind upon the empty vessel.Stolen novel; please report. He grinned in two places at once. It worked. While the empty vessel that was serving as the extension of his will was weaker than his primary body, and likely weaker than a true avatar would be, the ability to command from the front without exposing himself to the cursed purifying abilities of ¡®the peach blossoms¡¯ would be a great boon to him. With an effort of will, he forced the final stage of the march to begin. The ghouls, the abominations, and the fractured horde of monstrosities charged through the wastes. The city of Resh Fali stood just beyond the isthmus joining south and north. Its forces were arranged and dug in. Entrenched, they would not give up their position easily. But they faced the entirety of the risen north. Against half a billion corpses, the defenders would be ground up like meet in a grinder. Ko Ren grinned, watching the chaos as it unfolded through the eyes of his former friend. The line of charging undead met the line of defenders. And the final battle began. ~~~~~ ¡°It is almost time,¡± I said. ¡°What is that, master?¡± Toorah asked, opening his eyes. ¡°Continue cultivating,¡± I said. ¡°I might leave you soon. Don¡¯t be afraid, even should you see visions or feel danger. Stay near the formation and you will be protected. And continue to cultivate. You have great potential, Toorah. More than you realize right now.¡± ¡°Will I walk the bronze path some day?¡± the boy asked. ¡°If you follow my lessons, then perhaps you will walk the gold,¡± I answered. Then I ruffled his hair. ¡°Now shut up and cultivate.¡± ¡°Yes Master.¡± ~~~~~~~ ¡°It¡¯s a girl!¡± I said, wrapping the baby as the mother collapsed from the efforts of childbirth. We were alone. Her child had come early while she had been journeying home from the city. An ambitious task during a storm, in the middle of the night, and considering the distance. But I had used my powers to erect a shelter and done the necessary tasks that she could not do for herself while she had done the things which all mothers did in these times. Now, I wrapped the girl in my own robe, which I had cut and torn for swaddling, before passing the child to her mother. The girl cried softly, but calmed after a moment. ¡°Will you name her for me?¡± the mother asked. ¡°I name her Hope,¡± I said. ¡°I am sorry, but I must leave you now. I have already stayed to long.¡± ¡°Thank you, Little Bug. If you hadn¡¯t¡ª¡± I never heard her parting words, as I released this avatar which had been chasing a thread for too long. But I had caught it in the end. If I hadn¡¯t been there, then hope would have died to the elements during the storm that raged outside the shelter. Now things would be different. Hope would change the world. ~~~~~ I had spread myself thin. So thin, so many threads in so many places. It was a tapestry which only I could see. A tapestry of humanity. Each stitch and weave in its proper place, each life saved, each lesson given, each act of providence or gift of foresight had a purpose. A thousand thousand paths I had walked. But the convergence was coming. I began to pull myself together, abandoning each avatar that had served its purpose. As I pulled, the stitching of the tapestry suddenly took on a new shape. And a picture began to form. ? 76. Darkness 76. Darkness The accounts of the battle of Resh Fali focus on the acts of the mortals and their accounts of what they witnessed between the golden path cultivators and the gold-ranked undead monstrosities. The accounts state the facts in tactical terms. Resh Fali was established on the eastern shore of the isthmus of Korein, the connection between the northern and southern continents. While tropical in nature, the previous battles between silver and gold combatants had already burnt away most of the foliage. Thus were the fields empty save for the ashes and the mud of combat. When the great leader Di Ram, who led the mortal forces in this, their darkest hour, committed all of his forces to holding the isthmus rather than accepting the previous plan of retreating and waging guerrilla tactics against the overwhelming numbers from the north, which his advisers had previously suggested, the fortifications of Resh Fali were extended significantly. Over the course of the battle, waves of reinforcements arrived from the south, each arriving just in time to relieve the wounded and desperate forces. Each soldier of bronze rank or higher was expected to wear an amulet which would, upon their death, ignite into a conflagration, taking as many of their enemies with them into oblivion as possible. The mortal soldiers were forced to man the ramparts and serve as auxiliaries, but yet they died in droves, their bodies cremated by the cultivators whom they served into the moment of death. For eighteen days and nineteen nights did these brave men and women stand while the golden path cultivators Di Ram and Tornolai the Raging Tyrant did constant combat with the monstrous gold ranked undead monsters of the northern forces. Supported by the Peach Blossoms, whose mighty North Star Guiding Formation allowed them to fight at the level of a golden path cultivator for a time, these heroes did prevent the immediate obliteration of their forces and thus does the world remember their name. On all of these matters the mortal scholars are in agreement. For centuries they reviewed the documents and the accounts of the soldiers and the officers from those days and came to an official version. But there is no agreed upon account of the nineteenth night. The darkest night, when the ramparts were broken and the formations which prevented the entrance of the undead to the city itself were shattered. The night when the peach blossoms withered. The night when Tornolai the Raging Tyrant fell from the skies, The night when Di Ram the Beneficent spoke with his ascended father. The night when the heavens turned their face from the earth. The night when Little Bug stood defiant against the darkness. The night when the darkness shied away from the light. ~~~~~ Hien Ro gasped as pain ran through his meridians. He was overtaxed, having fought for more than two weeks without rest. As had the rest of the disciples of little bug. He cast out his senses, scanning the battlefield despite his exhaustion. Despite his weakness, he remained atop the tower where the rest of the Peach Blossoms stood defiant. ¡°How are you feeling, Xol?¡± he asked the only disciple who was not linked with their collective. ¡°I will live,¡± the injured jaguar said, who had withdrawn from the collective only so that his pain did not distract the others. ¡°Soon I will be able to fight again. I am not weak, I will¡ª¡± ¡°You¡¯ll see to your wounds and stop being so male that you don¡¯t kill yourself by overtaxing yourself,¡± Yara scolded, and the jaguar winced and put its head back down. He lie on his side, with a mortal attendant sewing up his stomach, having gotten his entrails back in more or less the right position. Hien Ro knew all too well how the feline disciple felt at the moment. ¡°We do not fight to protect you, Xol,¡± He said. ¡°We fight to honor the sacrifice you made. That attack was meant for Taimei. Had you not blocked it, then she would be on death¡¯s door.¡± ¡°Yeah, thanks fuzzball,¡± Taimei agreed. Xol relaxed more. ¡°Just do not let them through,¡± the Jaguar said. ¡°I will not say that I stood this long for you to fail at the last¡­¡± He closed his eyes. The others closed theirs. ¡°Thank you, first disciple,¡± Taimei said again, tears in her eyes. ¡°Thank you, first disciple,¡± the rest of them echoed. Xol exhaled his last breath, And his body burst into purifying flames. The others spent just a moment to mourn his passing, silently and each in their own way. Then Hien Ro raised a fist. ¡°Gather our strength. This night will be worse than the others.¡± ¡°How do you know that?¡± Polkluk asked. ¡°It fits the trend,¡± Hien Ro said, a sad grin on his face. ¡°Every night has been worse than the one before it.¡± The others grinned at the dark humor of his statement. Then they flew off toward the gold-ranked threat they sensed to the north east. They remained united in the face of loss. Diminished but undiminished in spirit, the sacrifice of The First Disciple weakened them and strengthened their resolve. ~~~~~~ Tornolai was alive. In the face of undeath, he had never felt so alive. He reached out through the storm he had conjured, far to the north, behind enemy lines. His role was not to hold the line. His role, which he had volunteered for, was to take the fight to the enemy. Alone and with no expectation of help from either Di Ram nor the little disciples, he unleashed heaven¡¯s judgment upon the army that marched south. With the world itself as a generator, powering an endless storm that he directed, his fury was unbridled and his wrath untainted. Each lightning strike struck down a silver ranked threat.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. The wind blew hail and sand, cutting through the lesser undead. The winds slowed the advance. Every moment that he could buy relieved the pressure on his juniors to the south. He grinned, wondering where that thought came from. He hadn¡¯t had juniors in a very long time, since he had walked out of the sect and promised never to come back. He had kept that promise, going so far as to cross to another continent, leaving behind everything he¡¯d known to play king fish in a small pond. His sect master would be furious to see how he had wasted the centuries he¡¯d spent whimsically interposing himself in politics, appearing suddenly to throw a wrench in this plot or that coup. All while maintaining the facade. The facade that he didn¡¯t care. That he wasn¡¯t building towards something. And then that little brat had appeared and done in two years what he¡¯d been fighting to do for centuries. He grinned. The tournament had been a masterstroke. He should have thought of it decades ago. He had tilled the soil, and he hoped that this Little Bug could reap a fine empire from the field he had prepared. Tornolai knew that he would not be around to see it, because he had seen the black hound. There upon the ramparts during the wedding, the hound had looked at him and Tornolai had known. Death watched him, and soon it would be time to take that final hand which reaches out to every soul when all other hope is lost. But he would be damned if he didn¡¯t take his share of these abominations with him! He laughed and he smote . He smote and he smote and he smote . And then the enemy that he couldn¡¯t smite appeared. ¡°You there, you are causing me problems,¡± the voice said, sonorous and patient. ¡°Kindly remove yourself from my path and I shall grant you a boon.¡± ¡°Die!¡± Tornolai shouted, striking with all the fury of a hurricane at the flying enemy. It¡¯s face was covered in a prayer sheet, and its heart was pierced with a iron spike. The figure blocked the coalescing lightning with a crimson shield of Qi. ¡°If that is the form you wish your boon to take,¡± the figure said. ¡°Then I can oblige.¡± To the south, the mortals flinched as the lightning and the thunder of the storm to the north intensified a thousand fold. And then they winced again as the lightning suddenly stopped. Followed by the rain. Slowly, the clouds dispersed. And the stars began to shine once more. ~~~~~~ Di Phon was pleasantly chatting with Mai Mai. They had returned to the palace of new arrivals while waiting for his own palace to be built. That he would get a palace was not a question, the only question was how large he wanted it to be and what style it should be designed in. He enjoyed frustrating the architects with his humble demands. ¡°A man¡¯s palace should be large enough for all of his servants and family to live comfortably. That is all I ask,¡± he said. ¡°So how large? How many bedrooms?¡± ¡°How many servants do I have?¡± he had rejoined. The architect had gone to fetch the answer, and found that only Mai Mai was officially registered as the personal staff of Di Phon. There was space for a boy who was missing at the moment, but the efforts to track him down were very promising. ¡°We cannot build a palace for three people,¡± the architects said. So they went to the palace of new arrivals to recruit a proper staff for the ascendant who had been recognized by the Lord of the Realm, only to find that they had already made efforts to find a staff for Di Phon, only to find that his list of requirements for every position were absurd. His maids must know the difference between dew and the drops of morning. His groundskeepers must be able to sew the light of their soul into the fabric of their garden. His tailors and seamstresses must know how to keep the flame of hope ignited in the smithy of their heart. If they weren¡¯t dealing with an ascended one, they would simply think that he was being poetic. The possibility that he was being literal, or that there was some cultural references which they were unaware of, kept them from filling any of the positions with an unsatisfactory applicant. Little birds were watching the arguments between the palace staff and the architects with great amusement, When suddenly. Di Phon, All of Di Phon. Was called away. He blinked as between one thought and the next, his body, his true body, was in a celestial palace. He looked around at the simple architecture and felt genuine surprise for the first time since he had ascended. Before him, on a throne on a dias, sat the lord. The old man, ancient and weary, smiled at him. ¡°Welcome to my true home, Di Phon,¡± Loshi said. ¡°You cannot stay long, or your body will be torn apart by the tidal forces of a thousand worlds rubbing up against each other.¡± Di Phon promptly kowtowed. ¡°Thank you for the invitation, My Lord. I am your humble guest.¡± ¡°I have investigated the source of the corruption. You were correct, it stems from the world of your birth,¡± Lord Loshi said. ¡°And it reaches out through the ways between stars which I have carefully constructed and which my servants maintain. Should things have turned out differently, that would have been your task. Maintaining the bonds between worlds is a costly endeavor, but ultimately rewarding.¡± ¡°I am willing to serve my lord in whatever capacity I may,¡± Di Phon said humbly. ¡°I can see that. Your humility is a strange thing to witness, Di Phon. Normally those who ascend past their birth world are filled with hunger and ambition, having cut out their ties from their past life and being desperate to fill the wounds with more power,¡± Loshi said. ¡°It grows wearying.¡± ¡°I lost my appetite for power long ago,¡± Di Phon said. ¡°You are a child, Di Phon. If you do not wish for power, then how am I to reward you for the service you perform for me?¡± Loshi asked. ¡°Save my world.¡± Loshi was quiet for a moment. ¡°So that is it. I thought so.¡± ¡°I apologize for my presumption. Obviously I needed only point out the flaw in your¡ª¡± ¡°I am burning out the connection between Atla and the network of other stars. The energy that it has been tainted with is poisonous, insidious, and contagious. To protect trillions of lives, I sacrifice a few billion. I am sorry, Di Phon. Your request is denied.¡± With those words, the Lord of the Realm waved his hands, and thousands of strands which connected the world of Atla to the larger cosmos burned away in an instant, save for one. ¡°I offer you this one chance, before I cut out the world of Atla completely. You may speak to the people, as my servants once spoke to you to invite you to join my court,¡± Lord Loshi said. Di Phon, his face stained by tears, kowtowed once more. ¡°I understand. I thank the lord for his generosity. May I have a moment to construct my farewell?¡± ¡°You have one hour. After that, this strand too will burn.¡± ¡°I do not need that long, Lord,¡± Di Phon said. ¡°How does it work?¡± ¡°Speak, and be heard,¡± The lord said, and Di Phon felt the connection between him and his birth world. He closed his eyes, and he said his farewell. ? 77. Silence 77. Silence ¡°My children who dwell on Atla,¡± Thaseus swung his sword, cut from a common bamboo shoot months ago and shaped by his own Qi. The technique clicked into place, empowered by the collective of the North Star Guiding technique. He did not pause to look up at the sky, from which the voice came. ¡°I have failed you. I saw this corruption and stood before it, but I was too weak to protect you. My son, I sent you out of the nest in hopes that you would remain pure, but the rot has reached far.¡± Taimei felt the collective come to her just as she finished forming the technique. With her Qi to show it the way, the collective snapped into place and it shone . The light was blinding to look at, and purifying, and it burned through a thousand of the lesser undead. A thousand more took their place. ¡°While I ascended to plea to the Lord of the Realm for intercession.¡± Polkluk gasped as he reached for the thunder of Tornolai¡¯s storm instinctively, forgetting it was not there. He gasped as a stray arrow took him in the stomach. He retreated, pulling himself out of the collective to spare the others his pain. ¡°This is his answer.¡± The silence that followed was deafening. In the midst of battle, as men screamed and fought and died. The silence was deafening. Di Ram screamed out to fill the silence as his spear pierced through the heart of a gold-ranked threat. ¡°Father! We need your help.¡± The silence. And then, the final strand connecting Atla to the heavens was severed. And the stars went out. ~~~~~ I staggered under the weight that had just fallen upon me. I had known that this might happen. I had prepared for it. I had never hoped for it, but rather lived in dread of the inevitability that this would come to pass. The Lord of the Realm, who had previously defended Atla against the attacks of Nadia of the Divine Fates Empire, had cut this world out of his protection. That he did so not out of malice or carelessness I had no doubt. He sought to preserve the rest of his empire by quarantining this one. It was logical. It was calculated. It was heartless. And just like that, the final strand of fate which would have led to my obedience to this man, this Lord of the Realm. This man named Loshi, who had ruled a dimension for thousands of years uncontested. The thread snapped. And I was free to act a I pleased. I dispersed the last of my avatars, And I walked into the darkness of the battlefield. I had hoped that the lord would fight this fight for me, because I knew that it would change me in ways that were so profound that I could not predict the sort of man that I would become. But I knew one thing. The world of Atla was poised to fall. And it was a burden that I could not pick up by myself. ~~~~~~ Adan Pocef fought. For days and nights he had fought. He was barely more than a mortal, having only reached the energy gathering realm thanks to the wisdom and kindness of the great Little Bug. He grinned, dodging under one of the lesser undead¡¯s attack and decapitating it with the short sword which Hien Ro had given to him the last time they¡¯d parted. ¡°Don¡¯t let her die,¡± he whispered, looking in the distance where the Peach Blossoms were fighting even now. No mortal could come close to that part of the battlefield, and even the silver ranked combatants steered clear. ¡°I know that the cat is dead, but don¡¯t let her be next.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The news of Xol¡¯s death had spread through the battlefield hours ago, and then that Polkluk fought through a grave injury, and next that Lahri was blinded, and he feared to hear that the light of his life would be the next to fade. ¡°Hien Ro, you bastard. You stole my daughter for me, the least you can do is keep her safe,¡± he muttered, beheading another undead. That it was the corpse of a child didn¡¯t bother him anymore. It wasn¡¯t a child, but something other and alien and twisted . ¡°Little Bug, your disciples need you,¡± Adan said. ¡°Oh won¡¯t you save them?¡± ¡°Worry about yourself, old man,¡± a familiar voice said. Adan turned and saw an impossible sight. The master cultivator stood next to him, dressed in the armor of a common soldier. The soldier who had been fighting next to him for days now, through the countless hours. The soldier whose life he had repeatedly saved. Who had repeatedly saved his life. In the din of combat, he had never before heard this soldier¡¯s voice, but he knew it now. ¡°What are you doing here, Little Bug?¡± ¡°Saving your life,¡± Little bug answered. ¡°Yara would never forgive me if I let you die.¡± At that moment, one of the errant techniques of the Peach Blossoms impacted an attack from the enemy that was equal to it in every way. The energies clashed, and Adan prepared to die as he saw one ray of the explosion heading towards him. Until Little bug, dressed as he was, stood between his squad and the blast. He held up a hand, and the attack dissipated. ¡°What?¡± Adan asked. ¡°This is as far as I can walk by your side, Adan,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°Good luck. I hope you live to see your grandchildren.¡± The figure closed its eyes, then opened them again. ¡°Oh,¡± He said. ¡°Here I am.¡± Then he flew off into the distance. Adan watched him go for a moment, then the battle came back to him and he was too busy to think beyond the next block, the next attack, and the next ghoul. ~~~~~ Ko Ren felt triumphant as he dueled with the cursed Peach Blossoms. He had conjured together two of the gold-ranked puppets and controlled them now through dark magic that split his mind three ways. It was not a weakness, but rather a unification of wills that made him thrice as strong. The petal blossoms, meanwhile, were wilting. Already his forces had killed one of them, and more were grievously injured. He stepped forward to slay them at last, and forever extinguish the spark of hope that lit the way for the rest of the defenders. ¡°It¡¯s not too late,¡± he said conversationally, giving them a chance to surrender just as his puppet had given the thunder-warrior. ¡°If you stand aside, I will grant you power. You will become my lieutenants as we conquer the world. Then, in the ashes¡ª¡± ¡°There it is! That one is the main body!¡± one of the blossoms said, pointing at Ko Ren. Ko Ren felt a convergence of intent, and he barely avoided a technique which pierced through the night and continued over the horizon, a ray of light so blinding that it might have been made from starstuff. He cursed and began pulling together energy from the two puppets, shaping it into a technique of his own. He aimed it not at the petals, but at the city behind them. And just as he knew they would, they stood to protect it. The brilliance of their violet Qi formed a shield against his black energy. The sprays of light that signaled death to any who would so much as came near it wrecked through the battlefield that had already seen thousands of such displays over the last two weeks. Worn and weary as they were, the blasted Peach Blossoms¡¯ shield held through Ko Ren¡¯s technique. He cursed and began forming another one, not giving the petals enough time to-- Lightning struck him from the side. He turned, surprised to find that one of the petals had separated from the others. Polkluk gathered his power, his solitary power, and hoped that his death would give the others an opportunity. He watched as the enemy turned to him and began forming a technique. ¡°Give them hell, friends,¡± Polkluk said as the technique flared towards him. The other petals were out of position, separated from him and unable to pull him into the unity that would allow him to defend against a gold-leveled attack. He smiled as he met his end. The technique vanished mere inches away from him. Space and time twisted, and the energies that were intended to wipe Polkluk from existence instead struck the puppet on the left, the surprise attack eradicating it from existence. ¡°You may rest now, Polkluk,¡± a familiar voice said. ¡°Your master is here.¡± Polkluk fell to his knees. ¡°Little Bug?¡± he asked as the figure stepped up next to him. ¡°Where have you been?¡± ¡°Here and there,¡± the young man¡ªhad Little Bug aged since they¡¯d parted ways? He looked profoundly older. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I left the ten of you to face this darkness on your own. Until the Lord of the Realm made his decision, I did not know which path I would walk. But now that he has made his decision, I have made mine.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Polkluk said, not understanding. He felt exhaustion on a level so profound he didn¡¯t have a word for it falling on him. ¡°What decision is that?¡± ¡°I will ascend,¡± Little Bug answered. Polkluk grinned. ¡°Yeah, that makes sense. If I had a choice to live on this world or leave it, I think I¡¯d make the same one.¡± He fell asleep before Little Bug could clarify his intentions. ¡°I never said I was leaving.¡± ? 78. True North 78. True North ¡°This is the moment I have been waiting for,¡± Ko Si whispered in his ear. ¡°Do you feel that? That is the power that you have been chasing, but compared to what you have claimed, you are weak and hollow.¡± Ko Ren stared at the newly arrived Little Bug, who floated in the air between Ko Ren and the Peach Blossoms. Between Ko Ren and his targets. Between Ko Ren and everything . ¡°If that is what true power tastes like,¡± Ko Ren said, still reeling from the destruction of one of his two puppets, ¡°Then I will consume his power and make it my own.¡± ¡°Consume at your peril, brother,¡± Ko Si whispered. ¡°He has already killed one god. I remember, now. I watched him from the other side of the river as he freed countless souls from the dread god on the plains of lamentation. I chose to be reborn into this body, but never found the proper moment for an awakening. It is only in death when I became myself again.¡± ¡°What nonsense is this?¡± Ko Ren muttered. ¡°Be silent specter!¡± ¡°I squandered the providence he gave me. I squandered so much¡ª¡± ¡°Hello Master,¡± Little Bug said, bowing humbly to Ko Ren. ¡°I see you there. I hope you do not mind, but I shall release you from your suffering and send you into the peace of samsara. May you be reborn into a life of peace and happiness.¡± ¡°What nonsense is¡ª¡± ¡°Thank you, Master,¡± Ko Si said, and Ko Ren gasped as he was forced to bow. ¡°This one was not worthy to learn from you.¡± ¡°We are all worthy of learning, Pupil,¡± Little Bug answered. ¡°May you always remember that at least.¡± Ko Ren gathered his power, preparing another attack with everything he had and-- The vampyric technique which held Ko Si¡¯s core, her power, to his own evaporated. ¡°Thank you.¡± Ko Si¡¯s voice faded into-- Ko Ren gasped as he saw through the veil, to that which awaited those who die. Of what awaited him. He recoiled in horror and screamed in madness. ¡°Ko Ren. You too I shall send into Samsara,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°I pray that heaven¡¯s judgment for the suffering you inflicted in this life takes into account the fact that you were twisted by forces beyond your understanding or control.¡± ¡°No! No, I will not end up like that!¡± Ko Ren screamed in defiance. He pulled the energy from his remaining puppet and-- The puppet came apart at the seems, it¡¯s power hollow and empty. Ko Ren realized too late that Little Bug had woven together an attack on the puppet while they were speaking, one which pulled apart the enchantments binding the body to unlife. And he had pulled the technique into his own body. He screamed in denial as the technique quenched the undead fire that kept the parts of him that were still mortal alive, and then he-- ~~~~~ I watched as the last light of life faded from Ko Ren¡¯s eyes. He had become a twisted mockery of a man, but I had once respected him. As his corpse hovered in the air for a moment, I paid him the final respect of a junior to an elder. ¡°Goodnight, Elder Ko Ren. May you drink deeply of the waters of lethe and forget this madness. May you learn justice and compassion in your next lives. May you¡ª¡± ¡°Enough of that,¡± the corpse of Ko Ren said, and I nodded. I had been expecting this. ¡°You have made a mistake to reveal yourself to me, Unbound one. I have been hunting you for centuries and you finally appear before me? You think that I shall allow you to escape so easily?¡± ¡°You claim this body as a vessel to hunt me,¡± I said. It was not a question, but a statement of fact. ¡°I shall devour your soul and bear it back to Empress Nadia! Finally, finally I shall be free once more!¡± the voice of the hunter exclaimed. ¡°I name you,¡± I said. ¡°You are Ant. You have risen to great heights, but never again shall the confluence of providence which allowed you to gather power in this world allow a second chance. You shall be born to small lives for all of your future lives. You will be an insect, a flee, a helpless¡ª¡± ¡°Enough of this nonsense! Face me!¡± the possessed corpse exclaimed. And it¡¯s power soared. Past the Golden Path. And past the diamond. Onto the platinum path, as the necromancer empowered the corpse with a significant portion of his true self. The dead and undead on the battlefield groaned and pulled themselves back up. Their master had arrived, and they groaned as they were called once more into his service. And then they fell, their strings cut, as the technique that had slain Ko Ren worked its way through the battlefield. ¡°Wait, how did you do that?¡± the necromancer demanded. ¡°Dammit. Wait a second.¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He muttered, and the corpses rose again. Only to fall again. ¡°You cannot use puppets against me,¡± I informed him. ¡°That¡¯s all that your technique is. You are not truly a necromancer, Ant. You are a puppeteer. You do not call back life from death, you parade corpses around and¡ª¡± ¡°I know very well the limits of my power! And if I cannot wear you down with bodies, then I will simply crush you myself!¡± the necromancer exclaimed. From the corpse of Ko Ren came a Dao avatar. Taking the form of a hideous hydra, it began attacking the soldiers with many heads while. A figure of an Asura emerged and stood between the hydra and the forces. ¡°I will protect the masses!¡± Di Ram called to me. ¡°Little Bug! I cannot face him. If you have anything you¡¯re holding back, now is the time to play it!¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I said. ¡°It comes down to this moment. I ask you one last time, Ant. Please. Surrender.¡± ¡°Me? Surrender? Are you high? Do you think just because you¡¯ve got a little trick that keeps me from using my army that I¡¯ll just give up?¡± the platinum ranked monster before me laughed. ¡°I am going to crush your body and torture your soul and deliver your mangled remains to Nadia! And then I will¡ª¡± ¡°I am sorry for what you shall endure for the rest of eternity for the consequences of your actions in this life, Ant,¡± I said. And then the fight began in earnest. ~~~~~~ Across the world, my final avatars, the ones which had been engaged in activities too important to abandon halfway through, paused. ¡°This is the moment,¡± I said through a thousand and one mouths. ¡°I am sorry that I could not prepare you more.¡± ~~~~~~ Po Sana held her children close. The voice in the heavens had spoken, and then it had gone silent. The answer of the heavens to the darkest moment of history had been silence. She saw that plainly, and she expected nothing more. She held in her hand a little bottle. Poison. She looked at her children. Her daughter looked at her, understanding on her face. ¡°We¡¯re a family,¡± Po Sana said. ¡°Family¡¯s should be together in times like this.¡± ¡°I understand, mama,¡± Her eldest daughter said. ¡°You¡¯re right. It¡¯s better than¡ª¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, Mother,¡± I said, stepping out of the darkness. ¡°Families should be together in times like this.¡± ¡°Little Bug?¡± my mother said, looking surprised. ¡°What are you¡ªshouldn¡¯t you be¡ªOh I missed you!¡± she exclaimed, and she enveloped me in a hug, the bottle of poison dropping to the floor. ¡°I am sorry that I never sent word that I was doing well,¡± I said. ¡°I am not really here, even now. I am fighting a fight which only I can win. But I am not alone.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± she said, stepping back. ¡°You¡¯re not really here, are you? This is a ¡­ a cultivator trick?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I said. ¡°But there¡¯s something I wanted to do. For all of you. I want you to sit with me and listen very carefully.¡± We each sat down on the cushions in Tonilla¡¯s mansion, where my mother and the rest of my family were being housed during these dark times. ¡°I am going to teach you a cultivation technique,¡± I informed them. ¡°It is called the Peach Blossom Dream.¡± ~~~~~~ ¡°Hien Ro!¡± I called out. ¡°Why is it called the North Star Guiding Technique?¡± ¡°Is now the moment for a lesson, master?¡± my first friend asked, channeling his energy to shield the city from the hydra¡¯s attack. ¡°Who is the North Star?¡± I persisted. ¡°Is it you?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± he said. ¡°There is no north star. We¡¯re a constellation.¡± ¡°A constellation, yes,¡± I agreed. ¡°Which points to the north star. You guide the world to find their guide. That is the purpose of the North Star Guiding Technique,¡± I explained even as I shielded them from the corruption radiating out from Ko Ren¡¯s body. ¡°What does this have to do with¡ª¡± ¡°I never once tried to join the collective,¡± I said. ¡°Because you could not comprehend what would happen if I did. Do you still wish to learn how to cultivate your soul?¡± ¡°Yes, but is now the time¡ª¡± ¡°Let me be your north star, disciples!¡± I called. There was a pause as, despite the chaos of the battle being fought on so many different levels, they hesitated. And then I felt them reach out to me with all that they were. I reached back. ~~~~~ Toorah was cultivating with the technique that he had learned from the master cultivator when the stars went out. He blinked in surprise, then stood. Long moments passed and the stars did not come back. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± the master cultivator said. ¡°It¡¯s time. Practice what I taught you, and you¡¯ll do well in the new world, Toorah.¡± The voice calmed him, and he sat. He began cultivating again. He lost track of time as the array, erected atop the nexus of the energy gathering arrays which were now cut off from the heavens, suddenly came to life. And the world of Atla began to shine. ? 79. Ascendant Realm 79. Ascendant Realm Loshi sat in his palace. In his true palace, not the facade that he¡¯d constructed for the mortals who could not comprehend the nexus of worlds where his true body resided. He had company, the first visitor for millennia, but the young Ascendant deserved to at least say goodbye to his past. Di Phon had proven himself capable in so many ways, and Loshi had plans for this one. While the loss of Atla had decreased Loshi¡¯s power by perhaps two percent, he was still confident in his power, and a few hours of cultivation every decade or two inside the nexus would elevate Di Phon into the platinum realm in no time. But it would take time for the gaping wound in the man¡¯s heart to heal. ¡°If there were witnesses, they might think that your final speech was an insult to me,¡± Loshi commented. ¡°And then there is the fact that I know it was a criticism. But it was a fair one. I respect it. I admire that you were brave enough to criticize me to my face.¡± Di Phon did not speak. ¡°The magic is gone. You can speak now. Come, let us discuss your future.¡± Di Phon did not speak, staring at the magical representation of Atla. Loshi waited patiently for the man to recover from whatever emotions were roiling through him at the moment. It was a shame that he¡¯d been forced to sacrifice this world, but-- Loshi blinked as he saw it. He waved his hands, calling the representation of the world of Atla over before him. While it still showed all of the signs of corruption that he¡¯d seen before, he saw now something else. Something that hadn¡¯t been there when he¡¯d inspected the world the first time. He¡¯d know, he¡¯d been very, very thorough in making his decision to cut Atla off from the collective. It gave him no pleasure, and he-- He frowned. ¡°Something is happening. Something I didn¡¯t expect,¡± He admitted. He glanced at Di Phon. ¡°This is where you say ¡®what is that, my lord?¡¯¡± Loshi said. Di Phon¡¯s silent condemnation continued. Loshi sighed. ¡°Someone is attempting to cultivate the world¡¯s core,¡± he explained. ¡°It¡¯s a foolish task. It takes thousands of souls working together to a common purpose. I don¡¯t know who has the secret of this technique on such a backwater planet like this, and I respect their courage, but it¡¯s ultimately doomed to fail.¡± Di Phon continued to stare silently off in the distance. Loshi sighed. ¡°I will be naming you a royal advisor in the near future,¡± Loshi informed him. ¡°Even in your silence you give me a perspective which my court has been lacking. I forget what it is to be criticized. Do you not fear that I will take issue?¡± The silence continued. ~~~~~~ Hien Ro gasped as his soul was pulled from his body. He stood, naked, in a sea of souls. He saw a child born, age into adulthood, wither into old age, and die in a blink of an eye. He saw an alien creature meditating patiently upon the gates of a divine temple. He saw a fish swimming in the depths so dark that no light from the surface reached it, its eyes blind and its skin white. He reached out to a young man who looked familiar, and -- The barrier broke. His name wasn¡¯t Hien Ro. It was Lucas. He worked in an office. He had a wife, two cars, three kids, and a dog. He wasn¡¯t happy. He was in debt and struggling to get by. His wife made more than he did, and he was fairly certain that she was cheating on him. But he didn¡¯t dare confront her, because he knew that she¡¯d win the kids in court and-- The barrier was back. He blinked in surprise. Lucas. Yeah, his name had been Lucas once. But it was Hien Ro now. He was brother to Little Bug, and disciple to Little Bug. Second Disciple to Little Bug, because although he had been following Little bug for the longest, Xol had earned that title with his sacrifice. ¡°Why are you showing me this?¡± Hien Ro asked. ¡°What happened to Lucas?¡± a voice asked. ¡°He died. He was hit by a truck,¡± Hien Ro answered. ¡°Then I was ¡­ I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t know what happened next.¡± ¡°Yes you do, you¡¯re just afraid to look,¡± Little Bug¡¯s voice called. ¡°But that¡¯s okay. You¡¯re not ready to know. Maybe in your next life, you¡¯ll be ready, but for now, seeing the sea of memories is enough. Nothing is forgotten. Not truly.¡± ¡°Why does this matter?¡± ¡°Because, Hien Ro,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°It is time for you to step onto the golden Path. Tell me. What is the purpose of your life?¡±You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Hien Ro paused. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°That¡¯s okay. You have eternity to figure it out. I¡¯ll wait until you do.¡± The voice retreated. Leaving Hien Ro alone with the memories of his past lives. ~~~~~~ It pained me, but I was once more ruthless with my disciples, forcing them into the sea of memories not for the profound secrets they would find there, but simply to give them enough time to reflect on their current lives. I waited with them, in that space where time does not exist and eternity passes within a heartbeat, as each of them reevaluated their lives. They each explored some of the memories of their past lives, but seldom more than one or two. That wisdom, however, gave each of them the perspective that they needed to see the larger picture of their current lives. One by one, they ignited, glowing golden as they surfaced from the sea of their souls a changed person, this personal baptism igniting the strength which had always been there. ¡°To make my parent¡¯s sacrifice worth it!¡± Yara shouted as she ignited. ¡°To leave a great story which will be told when I am gone!¡± Lukal Lukal exclaimed. ¡°For love and companionship!¡± the dao companions shouted, their conclusions reached at the exact same moment. ¡°To show everyone that nobody is worthless!¡± Taimei whispered, but the light of her soul shone brighter than the others so far. ¡°To become extraordinary!¡± Polkluk shouted ¡°To teach the world what strength is,¡± Thaseus declared. ¡°To walk with you until the end,¡± said Hien Ro calmly. I guided them through their ascent to the Golden Path, showing them how to cycle their Qi and calm it, claim this new power for their own. Even as I taught them how to channel it into the North Star Guiding formation. Into me. Closing my eyes, I used my companion¡¯s power to reach new heights as well. ~~~~~ ¡°No no no no no!¡± the Necromancer shouted as the unbound soul ascended to the diamond realm. ¡°I can¡¯t let this happen.¡± Reaching through the connection he had created to the corpse of Ko Ren, he began weaving together a technique. He was a realm above the unbound soul still, but he no longer had any confident in bearing it to Nadia. Better to kill it and start over from scratch, he thought, putting the final weaves together on the world ending technique. ~~~~~~ I watched, calmly, as Ko Ren¡¯s corpse was torn apart by the energies released from six dimensions away. The weaves of power on the scale of which only one being had ever wielded on a planet like Atla, and that being Loshi, the one who had bound it into servitude, were unleashed. I could not stop it. I had reached the diamond path, but this technique was beyond my power, even with the North Star Guiding Formation empowering me. But I had foreseen something like this, and I had prepared. I reached out with my own power and formed a technique. Not to stop the attack, I couldn¡¯t do that. To empower the one being which could. Taking every ounce of Qi I possessed, including every drop my disciples could pump into me, I empowered the core of Atla itself. The world awoke, startled, an infant who had just quickened. The painful pinprick of the Necromancer¡¯s attack caused it to jerk reflexively, sending a wave of energy to wash it away with purifying light. The mutated and defaced corpses of the battlefield puffed into dust as the corrupted energies within were purified. Everywhere throughout the world where the undead ghouls still walked, they too burst into light and turned to ash. And the energy did not stop there. It overwhelmed Ant¡¯s attack on me and pushed through the gates he had created, into his own realm. I do not know what happened there, but I cannot imagine that he was very happy about it. But as for me and mine ¡­ We were born of Atla. The energy of the core posed no threat to us. It washed over and through us, cleansing impurities and making the broken whole. Atla Ascended. And I felt the moment that it felt me. ¡°Father?¡± Atla asked me. I smiled. ¡°Hello child.¡± ? Epilogue Epilogue Po Sana ¨C no, she was Di Sana now, she reminded herself, sat in the bath with her children, washing her son¡¯s hair. She was reminded of the day, years ago now, when she had discovered Little Bug covered in filth. The memory was a surprisingly happy one, for all that she had been irate at the time. And she also recognized it now for what it was. That had been Little Bug¡¯s first step on the road of cultivation. And now, he had guided his family on their own first step. She felt the Qi flowing through her veins, the power that was suddenly within her grasp. She wondered how much stronger she was now, what stage she had reached. How much longer she would live, now that the impurities within her had been burnt away in the light that had emerged from the world and lasted for hours. In that light, she had practiced the Peach Blossom Dream. Her son¡¯s technique. Her chest swelled with familiar emotions, amplified a thousandfold. Maternal pride. ¡°Mama, does this mean that we can follow Little Bug on his adventures now?¡± her son asked as she continued to scrub his hair. ¡°I don¡¯t know what it means, Po Gisu,¡± she answered honestly. ¡°But it means that things will be different. And that light, I think that it has changed the world, and not just our little family.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± the boy said, then he dunked his head under the water to get rid of the soap. The door opened, and Di Tonilla stepped inside. Sana had to resist the urge to get up and bow to her new husband¡¯s first wife, but instead simply nodded in greeting as the silver ranked matron undressed and joined them in the bath. ¡°You have reached the bronze path. Congratulations, Lady Sana.¡± ¡°I do not know of such things. I was simply following Little Bug¡¯s instructions when the light shone,¡± she admitted. ¡°Is this a rare accomplishment?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not certain yet,¡± Tonilla admitted. ¡°Many people who knew a bit about cultivation were able to exploit the opportunity that the light presented and advance. Those who were already cultivators advanced by a step or two, while those who were weaker advanced the most. However, with the nature of this world¡¯s Qi itself changing and growing thicker, it will be interesting to see what sort of world we live in next year.¡± ¡°Little Bug caused all of this trouble?¡± Sana asked. Tonilla laughed. ¡°You might say that. Now come. Let your elder sister wash your hair. It stinks with impurities. You¡¯ll feel better when they are washed away.¡± Sana agreed, and for the first time since she was a child, allowed an older woman to wash her hair for her. ~~~~~~ Di Ram sat on the ramparts as the last of the reports came in. Little Bug was near by, as were the Peach Blossoms, though his junior cultivators were all asleep, their bodies being fussed over by mortal attendants who were worried about the wounds taken in battle. He looked out over the dawn and he smiled sadly. So many had been lost to this corruption. But those who remained, they were forever changed. Perhaps for the better, perhaps for the worse, it wasn¡¯t his place to judge such things. He turned to Little Bug, who knew his heart on this matter, and they exchanged nods. Performing a simple technique to make his voice carry, he spoke to his soldiers. ¡°We have done it. Comrades, friends, soldiers, we have stood against the corruption, the darkness that eats at man¡¯s heart, and we have come through into the dawn,¡± Di Ram said. And the soldiers who were not too weary to cheer cheered. When they had calmed down, he continued. ¡°Now is the time for healing. While there are no dead to bury, there is much work to be done. Those of you who are injured will be sent home first, but rest assured that everyone who survived will be sent home as soon as the work of putting right what can be put right in the aftermath of this destruction. It will take days, not weeks, before I announce this army officially disbanded, and the Many Peaks Alliance¡¯s first campaign a success.¡± Again he paused as the cheers grew louder yet. ¡°Like many of you, I do not truly understand what transpired last night, save that a savior appeared in the hour of our greatest need and pushed away the dark of the darkest night. I heard the voice of my father, speaking of assistance from the heavens, but it was not the heavens which answered our need. The power that pushed back the darkness came from Atla itself. Of this I am certain. ¡°When you go home, carry your heads high. You are soldiers of the Many Peaks Alliance, the alliance that fought at the battle that marked the end of the world and the birth of a new one. We stood against the depths of despair and brought forth hope into a new world!¡± The cheers were louder yet, and Di Ram decided to end it on a high note. Little Bug stepped up next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. ¡°You worry that I will be angry that you did not execute my father¡¯s murderer,¡± Little Bug said, and Di Ram tensed as one of his fears was called out on him. ¡°Yes,¡± Di Ram admitted. ¡°I was constrained. I¡ª¡± ¡°My father¡¯s murderer died honorably in the defense of life on Atla. I do not know more than that, but it was a good death. A death with meaning. A death with both more and less dignity than what he gave my father,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°I would know, for I was there. I burnt his body myself in the aftermath of the attack that claimed his life.¡± Di Ram stood silent as he wondered what Little Bug¡¯s verdict on his judgment would be. ¡°May you rule kindly and with grace, Di Ram,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°But never let the crown upon your head grow light, and never let the burden you bear rest easy upon your shoulders.¡± Little Bug turned and walked away. Di Ram watched as the cultivator who had once been his student faded into the distance in the space of three steps. Then he sighed wearily and went to bed. The reports on the rebuilding efforts could wait until he¡¯d slept. ~~~~~~Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Hien Ro awoke in the infirmary, and he reached out to touch the others, relieved to find that the bonds of their collective were still there. Except for two stars which were missing from the constellation. Xol had journeyed the final journey, into the unknown shores of death. He grieved for the First Disciple, but he forced himself to move past his grief and think of other matters. It was what Xol would have expected and wanted him to do. Wincing, he stood up and walked over to where Yara, his wife, slept. He stroked her cheek, but she did not wake up. He smiled. He was married. They hadn¡¯t had much time to celebrate, but-- ¡°Congratulations on your wedding,¡± Little Bug said from the entryway into the infirmary. ¡°Thank you, Little Bug,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°I think that I shall be happier in this life than I was as Lucas. Or many of my other lives, which I only but glimpsed in that place you sent us.¡± Little Bug grinned. ¡°My masters who brought me into the sea of memories for the first time would be outraged that I abused that power the way that I did,¡± he confessed. ¡°It was meant to be used for ¡­ something else.¡± ¡°Soul Cultivation,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°Will you teach me more?¡± ¡°Do not be in such a hurry,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°Reflect on the lessons you learned in the sea for a year and a day. If you still wish to learn after that, then I will teach you how to reach the fifth step.¡± ¡°What about the sixth?¡± ¡°That will be for another lifetime, Hien Ro. But yes. We are bound together by chains that are unbreakable now. In this lifetime, or the next, I will find you and teach you how to cultivate your soul until you are ready to face the final tribulation. If that becomes your desire. But reflect on our journey, and know that I was suffering for most of it. I will not bar you from following me on the path that I walk, but I will try to talk you out of it from time to time.¡± ¡°If my conviction cannot stand your persuasion, then I deserve to be talked out of it,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°I¡¯m pleased you understand. Now then. Let¡¯s talk about happier things. What do you plan on naming your child?¡± ¡°My child?¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry. Did Yara not tell you yet? Soon, we will both be fathers.¡± ~~~~~~ Lord Loshi sat silently as he stared in awe at the impossible sight. Atla, the world itself, had ascended. Where before it had been a stage four world, it had swiftly risen and was on the cusp of rising to stage twelve. It would be a jewel in Loshi¡¯s crown. He only had one other world on that level, and it was a stage eleven. If Atla continued to rise, then ¡­ he didn¡¯t know. Perhaps he¡¯d be able to break through the bottleneck in his own cultivation. And he had no idea how it had happened. It shouldn¡¯t be possible. Whoever did this was a genius. ¡°This is where you tell me that I made a mistake,¡± he said to the silent cultivator who was his guest. ¡°This is where you tell me that I was too hasty to write Atla off as a lost realm and burn its passageways. Without those passageways, I cannot easily answer how this was done. Without those passageways I¡ª¡± ¡°Oooh, that¡¯s shiny,¡± A new voice said, and Loshi¡¯s jaw snapped shut as he looked from the magical display of Atla to the new arrival in the throne room of his nexus. Only a few beings could come and go uninvited in this place, and none of them were beings that he wanted to deal with right now. ¡°Omaia. I welcome you into my home,¡± he said, nodding at the avatar of a little girl. The girl ignored him and bounced over to the representation of Atla. ¡°Oh this was very well done! I wonder what it was like before? Do you have images from the past to compare it to?¡± Loshi considered the request for a moment, then pulled up images from ten years and ten days ago to compare. ¡°Huh. That¡¯s strange,¡± the girl said. ¡°It was filled with corruption only a few days ago, and now it¡¯s pure as can be. I wonder how that happened, but the image is all grainy. Why is it so grainy?¡± Loshi was silent. He didn¡¯t want to admit his failing before this being. Though she chose the visage of a little girl, this being was ancient and powerful. One of his peers. ¡°Oh fine, keep your secrets. But I know that you¡¯re not the one who¡¯s responsible for it.¡± ¡°What makes you so certain?¡± Lord Loshi asked. ¡°Because I wasn¡¯t sent here to talk to you. I just stopped by because I was moving through your dimension and it would be rude not to say hello,¡± Omaia explained. ¡°The Emerald Court of Xian has determined that a new Ascended Lord has been born in your realm. I have been selected as the messenger to invite them to send their avatar to attend court and discuss their place in the cosmos.¡± ¡°This Dimension is mine,¡± Loshi said. ¡°If anyone rose to the level of¡ª¡± ¡°Why did you burn out the connections to this world?¡± Omaia asked. ¡°It makes things very inconvenient for me. I cannot travel the roads that you built, so I must make my own way to the home of the new Ascended one. Why, Lord Loshi, did you do that?¡± Loshi cut himself off. ¡°Oooh, I sense a story here. Who is this young man? Is he a witness to what happened?¡± Omaia asked, turning to where Di Phon stood, staring at the world of his birth in silence. ¡°Tell me, young man, what happened here? Why is this one world cut off from the others?¡± Di Phon smiled, but he did not speak a single word. Loshi held his breath waiting for the silence to end, or for Omaia to lose interest and leave. He prayed that Di Phon¡¯s silence would continue forever. ~~~~~~ Even as I spoke to friends and family and many others, I also sat before Atla in a liminal space, helping the young world come to terms with its own existence. ¡°Father, these things are hurting those things,¡± the world said. ¡°Should I stop them?¡± ¡°That is a panther,¡± I answered. ¡°It is a predator. The animals that it is hunting are its prey. If you stop them, then the panther will die.¡± ¡°Is that wrong? The prey is dying because of the panther, so why shouldn¡¯t¡ª¡± ¡°If you stop the panther from eating, then the population of the prey species will explode. They will eat all of the food, and soon nothing will be left. They will starve, and you will have neither predator nor prey,¡± I explained. ¡°Oh.¡± The young world¡¯s mind began examining the relationship again. ¡°What about here? These are people like you, and they are hurting these other people. Should I stop them?¡± ¡°And how would you stop them, child?¡± I asked. ¡°I would burn them away.¡± ¡°But who would you burn? Have you investigated the cause of the conflict? Are you confident in your ability to pick out only the aggressors and instigators?¡± ¡°Oh,¡± the world said. ¡°No, I do not know how the war started. But shouldn¡¯t I do something?¡± ¡°Let us speak of the things that you can do, and the things that you should do, and the things that should not be done,¡± I answered. ¡°It will take some time, but that is okay. I love you, Atla, and I will guide you as far along the path of wisdom as I can.¡± ¡°And how far is that?¡± ¡°Not very far. You see, Atla, your father is an idiot.¡± The world was silent. Then it began to laugh a childish laugh at the joke I had told. 1. Atla Naps 1. Atla Naps ¡°Father, they¡¯re almost here,¡± Atla said. ¡°I know. Are you nervous?¡± I asked my world/son/daughter. He/she/it hadn¡¯t exactly confirmed its gender, or whether it would have a gender. I loved Atla, but it was so very young. It had only woken up five years ago, and like any newborn it consumed a significant portion of my attention. ¡°They¡¯re very strong,¡± Atla said. ¡°Stronger than you.¡± ¡°I know.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you scared?¡± ¡°No. Because they might be stronger than me, but they¡¯re not stronger than us ,¡± I reminded my nervous child-world. ¡°Bonded as we are, we can face any one of them.¡± ¡°But if they work together¡ª¡± I laughed. I felt the world flush in embarrassment without knowing why it had that reaction. Or at least that¡¯s how a human child would have felt. ¡°Child, if one of them attacks, then the others will attack them for me. It¡¯s a tricky balance, but it is a balance. That¡¯s why we tugged at fate a little bit so that they all arrived together, remember?¡± I pointed out. ¡°Oh yes, that¡¯s right. You already explained that bit,¡± my nervous child said. ¡°But I can¡¯t hear them like I can hear you. They¡¯re not ¡­ they¡¯re not of me. I don¡¯t know what¡ª¡± ¡°Everything will be fine, Atla,¡± I assured the nervous world. ¡°Nobody will expect you to say anything. You¡¯re a world, and although these people can hear the voices of worlds, they¡¯re not used to one being so ¡­ vocal as you are. But that¡¯s okay. You¡¯re very young and have many questions, and it is my duty to answer them as your father. But for now, while we have guests, perhaps it is best if you are quiet and allow me to do the talking?¡± ¡°Oh, yeah, maybe,¡± Atla said. ¡°I¡¯ll keep quiet unless I have a really, really important question.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not saying you can¡¯t speak, beloved one,¡± I said. ¡°But the others might hear you if you do, and they might realize how special you are. If they try to take you from me, then, well, I have seen how the strands of fate unravel if that happens and it is best to avoid that future.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I want to talk to them anyway,¡± Atla said. ¡°I think I might take a ¡­ a nap until they leave. Yes, I will take a nap.¡± The world went quiet, and I felt it as the flows of energy shifted ever so slightly. The awareness of the world vanished from my core for the first time in five years. I sighed in relief. Newborns were so very, very needy. But I couldn¡¯t be prouder of Atla. Opening my eyes, I looked out at the forest. Against my back was a peach tree. The same tree that I had planted myself in the forest of the former headquarters of the Six Mountain Sect. The same place where I had first had the Peach Blossom Dream. Those were simpler times, and so much had changed since then. It was not the same peach tree, and I was not the same Little Bug. I reached into the future, a simple trick if you know how to do it, and plucked six ripe peaches from the tree, placing them in a small basket and walking out to the clearing nearby where a large formation was set up. I had built it myself, it was both simple and incredibly complex, but only the surface level was above ground. Four circles were glowing, and suddenly flashed. Violet, green, red, and another shade of red, slightly darker than the first. A moment passed, and two men, a woman, and a little girl appeared. I bowed humbly to my guests, but not too low. ¡°Welcome, esteemed visitors, to the world of Atla. I am the world¡¯s father. My name is Little Bug. If you come in peace, then I extend you guest rights.¡± The strangers studied me for a second, then one of the men, a large man with a boisterous laugh, burst into laughter. ¡°Oh you¡¯re its father, are you? That¡¯s a new one,¡± he exclaimed. ¡°I am Mioji. I accept your greeting, Worldfather. I vow that I have no ill intentions to either you or your world.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°This one is Lilayla,¡± the woman said. ¡°She also accepts your welcome and guest rights in exchange for a promise of nonviolence.¡± ¡°Helloooo! I am Omaia! It¡¯s so nice to finally meet you! Did you know that that old coot Loshi burnt all of the roads that lead to this place, so it took us five years to make the journey?¡± the little girl said. ¡°You¡¯re older than he is, Omaia,¡± the younger, slenderer man said. He had crimson hair and emerald eyes, which were quite piercing. ¡°I am Kuto. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Little Bug. Is that truly your name?¡± ¡°In this life,¡± I answered. Kuto nodded. ¡°Well, I too accept your offer of guest rights and vow that I have only peaceful intentions.¡± ¡°It is a pleasure to meet you all. And since you have all agreed, I extend you guest rights,¡± I said. And I tugged a little bit on Atla¡¯s power, which he/she/it allowed me to flex, and suddenly the avatars before me became just a bit more real than they had been before. More than that, the Qi that flowed through the world was open to them, where before they had been swimming in deep waters. The four had varying reactions. Omaia clapped delightedly at what she perceived as my skill of mastery over the world. Kuto¡¯s eyes narrowed with suspicion, while Mioji threw his head back and laughed. Lilayla examined her hands in confusion. ¡°I have to ask, when did you learn to do this?¡± Lilayla asked. ¡°I confess that my own mastery of my world is not so advanced as this, though I have more of them in my domain.¡± ¡°I had a long conversation with a mythril path cultivator once upon a time, in another afterlife,¡± I answered cryptically. ¡°Now then, I believe that it is customary to give a gift? I offer you each one peach, grown on this tree behind me five years from now.¡± I held up the basket, and they exchanged looks. Omaia began to laugh. ¡°Be nice to him,¡± Mioji said, scolding the girl that was not a girl. ¡°These peaches are probably very special, but he hasn¡¯t had time enough to cultivate the mortals to make a proper wine or brandy with them.¡± He stepped forward and took the largest peach. He bit into it, and the juice exploded on his face. He gasped in shock, then immediately took a second bite. In a moment, the peach was gone, pit and all. Seeing his reaction, the others each took a peach. They too devoured the entire peach. They looked at the remaining two and watched with mournful expressions as I took the smallest one and ate it. I saved the pit, putting it in my pocket. ¡°I don¡¯t care who eats the final one,¡± I admitted. ¡°I wasn¡¯t certain how many of you would be showing yourselves, so I picked extra.¡± ¡°You knew I was here?¡± a fifth voice asked, stepping out from the shadow. ¡°I sensed a convergence of six strands of fate,¡± I answered. ¡°I know not who you are or what you can do, only that we would meet here, at the base of the peach tree that I planted.¡± ¡°Interesting,¡± she said. ¡°Is it too late to claim guest rights?¡± ¡°If you wish to be my guest, then make the same pledge as the others and you make yourself welcome,¡± I answered. ¡°I pledge no violence during this visit,¡± she said. ¡°Good enough.¡± I waved my had and extended her the same privileges as the others, then tossed her the peach, which she also consumed whole. ¡°I am Shishi,¡± my fifth visitor said. ¡°You know why we have come? Do you see the future?¡± ¡°I see potential futures,¡± I admitted. ¡°But things never turn out quite the way that I expect them too.¡± ¡°You knew that five of us would arrive,¡± Kuto pointed out. ¡°Yes. But I was expecting six.¡± The others turned and exchanged looks. ¡°Loshi is being stubborn and stupid. He refuses to acknowledge you as a Xian Lord,¡± Omaia said, giggling. ¡°But it¡¯s obvious that¡¯s what you are.¡± ¡°Is that what I am called, now that I have bonded with the world?¡± I asked. ¡°Yup! We¡¯re Xian Lords too, you know?¡± she said. ¡°Well, I¡¯m a lady not a lord, but you know, you know?¡± ¡°I see,¡± I said. ¡°I will retire to the ruins of the Six Mountain Sect. We will speak in the estate of the former patriarch in two days, where I have done my best to furnish rooms that will be comfortable for all of us. I¡¯m afraid that the sect is empty these days, but feel free to wander until our next meeting.¡± The others exchanged looks. ¡°In two days?¡± Kuto asked. ¡°We are free to do as we wish until then?¡± ¡°I ask that you refrain from interfering with the fate of anyone below the golden path,¡± I said. ¡°But yes, otherwise I see no reason to restrict your movements with unnecessary oaths.¡± All at once, the five guests vanished in different directions. I sighed. ¡°The real gift was the pit,¡± I said, shaking my head. ¡°You were supposed to plant it, not consume it.¡± ¡°Father, are they gone?¡± And just like that, Atla was up from his/her/its nap, and I was back to parenting a growing infant. ? 2. A Friendly Challenge 2. A Friendly Challenge Hien Ro flinched as he sensed the unknown cultivator approaching. So it was today, he thought to himself, thankful that his master had warned and prepared him for the chance that this would happen. When Little Bug said that there was a chance something would happen, he typically meant something more like ¡®this will happen, and this is how I wish for things to turn out,¡¯ rather than ¡®this might or might not occur.¡¯ He flared his own Qi in response and greeting, as did his fellow disciples of Little Bug. Without a word, the others had stopped what they were doing all across Resh Fali. They had a few moments before the stranger arrived, and they spent it tensely exchanging nervous smiles. ¡°Master was right, as always,¡± Polkluk said cheerfully. As the ¡®oldest¡¯ of the disciples, Polkluk was not the leader. They had no leader aside from Little Bug. Even the title of First Disciple had been honorary. ¡°But if he allowed the cultivator to come that means that he also managed to get them to agree to his terms.¡± Thinking of the first disciple, Hien Ro felt a gaping wound. Like a severed hand, a part of him that simply wasn¡¯t there any longer. It was a weakness of their group technique, the North Star Guiding Formation. They were a constellation, but one of the stars had vanished beyond the veil. They were diminished by the death of the spirit jaguar that had learned from their master at their side in a way that was profound and unending. ¡°But still we are strong enough to face this together,¡± Thaseus said, interrupting Hien Ro¡¯s thoughts. Hien Ro glanced at the companion, whose family had once threatened his father-in-law¡¯s life in order to win a tournament. That was how Thaseus had earned a way among them; he had cheated. Nobody ever forgot that. Least of all Thaseus, who remained determined to show that he deserved his spot. Hien Ro reflected that the new patriarch of the Dios Clan had earned his spot a thousand times over. ¡°Yes, we are,¡± Hien Ro agreed. He turned to the others, exchanging looks that conveyed a thousand words of encouragement. Hien Yara, formerly Yara Pocef. His wife, and more than his wife. The mother of his children, who were even now in the care of Di Sana. Beautiful and dedicated utterly to their growing family, she was the star that was closest to his own. But their closeness was a pale comparison to the Dao companions. Arjun, Lahri, and Farun. Lovers and more than lovers, the three companions had been thrust together by fate before meeting Little Bug in the jungles of Ker¡¯tath. And of course, Little Bug being the master of fate that he was, he had helped them understand and discover what they truly were to each other. While the companions had distinct personalities, it was often easier to think of them as a unit, as they seldom did anything in isolation. However, for those who knew them, and being one of the Peach Blossoms, Hien Ro couldn¡¯t help but know them, the differences were clear. Arjun was quiet and steady, the rock, the foundation for the other two. Lahri was their passion, the driving force that crossed the distance between Arjun and Farun. And Farun was their ambition, keeping them driving forward as a unit. Hien Ro allowed himself to grin, thinking of just how much the three of them had advanced their personal politics over the last five or six years. If they were not flying, then Taimei would have been bouncing with a combination of excitement and nervousness. She was always eager to prove herself, even after having reached the golden path and elevated herself above the clan that had once looked down on her as being an illegitimate child. Finally their was Lukal Lukal, a round faced young man with dark skin and a potent mastery of the spear and earth magics. He loved to tell a good story, and Hien Ro¡¯s daughters loved him above all of the other disciples. Sometimes, Ro thought, even more than their own father. Together, they were heralded as the Peach Blossoms, the personal disciples of Little Bug, he who had stood defiant against the darkness of the night that the stars went out. He who had turned back the darkness and corruption and purified the world. Individually they were among the most powerful cultivators in the world of Atla. Together, they were matched only by their master. Or at least that had been true before these new arrivals. They heard him before he arrived, laughing boisterously. He stopped a thousand meters away from their formation and looked at them approvingly. ¡°You are a righteous bunch are you not, standing to face my challenge!¡± he shouted. ¡°I am Mioji. I politely request that you challenge me to a sparring match.¡± Hien Ro swallowed. ¡°Did our master not¡ª¡± ¡°A friendly match, a friendly match. I just wish to get a taste of the strength of the strongest cultivators of planet Atla, that is all. Once you have demonstrated your strength to me I shall call an end to the match,¡± Mioji explained. ¡°If you swear by Atla that you will abide by those terms, and that we may be permitted to withdraw at any point, then we accept,¡± Hien Ro said. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°Oh? So you¡¯re the leader then?¡± Mioji asked. ¡°Very good, very good. It¡¯s exciting to see so many young cultivators such as yourself answering my challenge. Let us begin.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± Thaseus said. ¡°If we¡¯re not going to be holding back at all, and I believe that is what you wish for us to do, then we must go somewhere where the backlash of our attacks will not harm innocents.¡± ¡°Yes, yes, of course. How careless of me. Do you have a place in mind?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Lahri said. ¡°Follow us.¡± And so they flew out to the east. Over the sea. ~~~~~~~~ ¡°Father, father, they¡¯re fighting,¡± Atla said. ¡°Who is fighting?¡± I asked. I sat in the same spot where patriarch Di Phon had once held audiences with his juniors of the Six Mountain Sect, before the sect had been corrupted by the Necromancer Ant and the power hungry Ko Ren. It was a beautiful house, and I sensed a profound dao in its construction. ¡°Mioji is fighting with your disciples.¡± ¡°Did my disciples agree to a sparring match?¡± I asked. ¡°Well, yes?¡± ¡°Then it¡¯s alright. If Mioji pushes the limit of what the Peach Blossoms can handle, then you have my permission to interfere. But as long as he restrains himself to their level, let the match continue until the conclusion.¡± ¡°What if they involve mortals in their fight?¡± Atla asked. ¡°Is that likely?¡± ¡°Well, no,¡± Atla admitted. ¡°But they¡¯ve already killed a lot of fish. They¡¯re fighting over the ocean.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Atla. I know how you like fish. It¡¯s okay to save them, but try to do so without interfering with the fight.¡± ¡°Right!¡± ~~~~~~~ Hien Ro staggered under the weight of the pressure. He grinned, feeling the other¡¯s feel the weight through the North Star Guiding Formation. With their connection, they were able to reach the strength of a cultivator of the next stage beyond theirs, nearly a hundred times together as they were apart. While they were missing Xol, who had perished during the night the stars went out, they remained the strongest force on Atla save for Little Bug himself. It was their strength that conjured the storm that circled around the combatants. It was their strength that caused the ocean to heave and churn. It was their strength that caused the lightning and the thunder. When they had entered their collective formation, Mioji had raised an eyebrow, and then simply raised his own strength to match, then a half a stage higher. The bout that had followed, with techniques that would have leveled cities and exchanges of blows that would have cratered mountains, had lasted twenty minutes. As strong as they were together this stranger had them outclassed. He knew it, and he was laughing. They fought over the ocean, miles out from shore. Already a storm was gathering around them called by the conflict of their Qi. ¡°That is a good expression!¡± he exclaimed as he unveiled his power. ¡°I approve! That is the look that one should have against overwhelming strength! I am sure that you have never --¡± ¡°Master is stronger,¡± Polkluk said. ¡°Yeah. Much stronger,¡± Taimei agreed. Mioji frowned, studying the nine disciples. ¡°Well, I suppose he would be, being the lord of this world. But you must understand¡ª¡± ¡°And his dao is far more profound,¡± Thaseus said, nodding. ¡°I¡¯ve seen enough. I concede that there is no way to win this duel. At this point we¡¯re just killing fish.¡± ¡°Yes. We are making Atla very sad,¡± Lukal Lukal agreed. Hien Ro bowed humbly in the air before the elder cultivator from another realm. ¡°Thank you for the instruction, but these disciples request to withdraw from the match at this point. We thank you for the pointers.¡± Mioji scowled, because he was just getting warmed up. ¡°Where is your fighting spirit!?¡± He demanded. ¡°Where is your pride?¡± ¡°We lost our pride the night that the stars went out,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°It died with the First Disciple, and he took it with him into his next life.¡± The others all bowed to Mioji with respect, and then flew their separate ways. He scowled as he watched them leave, but he hadn¡¯t been able to find any others on the golden path in this backwater. ¡°A stage eleven world without more than a handful of golden path cultivators,¡± he said, tsking. ¡°Pathetic. Not even enough to get excited about.¡± He vented his frustration by creating a new crater on the moon. The storm that had been forming abruptly fell apart into white clouds and clear skies. ? 3. Manners 3. Manners ¡°Thank you for the Tea, Mai Mai,¡± Di Phon said. He sat in the palace that had been designed and built for him during his stay with Lord Loshi and Omaia. Those seven words were the only words he deigned to speak, and only after Mai Mai served him tea. With the exception of that simple expression of gratitude, the diamond rank ascended one was utterly mute. Loshi¡¯s avatar lounged nearby. The mortal servants ¨C anyone beneath gold rank was a mortal as far as Loshi was concerned ¨C knew not that the Lord of the Realm was present, nor that he was disguised as a young ascendant himself. ¡°I¡¯m going to make you say something eventually,¡± Loshi said. ¡°It¡¯s just a matter of time. Now that Omaia is gone, I truly wish to earn your forgiveness for turning my back. You must see that it was the correct decision at the time. On the grand scale of things¡­ bah I¡¯ve grown tired of repeating myself.¡± ¡°Perhaps if you had a new argument, my Lord Loshi, then Lord Di Phon would be forced to counter it,¡± Mai Mai said. Loshi¡¯s eyes narrowed at the mortal, then he shrugged. ¡°If there is another argument, then it¡¯s one that I hadn¡¯t considered when I made the decision,¡± he admitted. ¡°I examined the problem thoroughly. I weighed the lives of Atla versus the lives of the greater collective of this dimension, and I determined that it was better to cauterize the wound. That¡¯s the crux of it. If things had turned out differently, then it would have been the correct decision.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that just a fancy way of saying that you were wrong?¡± Mai Mai asked. Loshi¡¯s eyes narrowed again, then he forced himself to remember that this mortal didn¡¯t know who he was. He¡¯d deliberately enchanted this avatar to appear far beneath his true station. Nobody would think that he was the Lord of the Realm except for Di Phon, who only spoke to thank Mai Mai for the tea. He only ever thanked Mai Mai; Loshi had caused an occasion to have other tea makers perform the duty and Di Phon had never thanked them. ¡°It was the correct decision to make,¡± he argued. ¡°There was no other choice. What choice could I have made?¡± ¡°You could have fought for the people of Atla,¡± Mai Mai said. ¡°And unleash the corruption into the Nexus?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Mai Mai said. ¡°That was the other option, wasn¡¯t it?¡± Loshi¡¯s eyes narrowed. Yes, that was the other option. The one that he¡¯d discarded because ¡­ because it would have involved a conflict with an entity that he didn¡¯t fully understand. That he couldn¡¯t predict the outcome of the conflict had been a large part of his decision. He would have had to figure out where the corruption was coming from and stop the leak, and then dilute the necromantic energies throughout his realm. It wouldn¡¯t have been impossible. Just difficult. And if the necromancer had shown himself, if he¡¯d been forced to do battle, then he would have been exposed. While he had no doubt of his victory, not in his home dimension where every world was linked to the nexus of his power, he would have been exposed for a short time. If Divine Fates Empire took that opportunity to return, then he would have ¡­ He sighed. ¡°I took the easy path,¡± he admitted. ¡°The difficult path would have been to fight. This corruption was as certain of an attack on my realm as the invasion thirteen years ago, yet because it was insidious and easy to overlook I overlooked it, then stepped aside to allow the attackers to succeed. I sacrificed billions of soul to maintain my perfect order. Is that what you wish for me to say?¡± Di Phon took a sip of tea. And said not a word. ~~~~~~ Shishi cursed the twisty words of her host as she realized just how tightly he had bound them. ¡°Do not alter the fate of anyone below the Golden Path.¡± Had she cast out her senses, she would have never agreed to those terms. There were only perhaps one or two hundred golden ranked beings on the entire planet! And that idiot Mioji was currently fighting nine of them together, like the oaf that he was. Still, she¡¯d be interested in his report on the matter. She walked through an ancient city to the south of the peach tree where they¡¯d arrived. Far, far to the south, but it had taken her only moments to arrive. She sensed a confluence of fate that had occurred nearby, just to the north actually. She could investigate there, but it was sometimes better to get a distance from something rather than slamming your face into it while investigating. She walked and listened to all of the various dialects being spoken, shaking her head. At gold rank, it was possible to overcome the language barrier by speaking The True Tongue, but none of these ¡®mortals¡¯ would understand her if she tried. They didn¡¯t have the senses to understand the universal language of Qi. She noticed a stall with fruit nearby and picked one that looked ripe, tossing the vendor a golden coin from two dimensions away. He bit it, the little bastard. Right in front of her! But then he grinned and offered her an entire basket of fruit, so she supposed he could live. She bit into the fruit, and while it was tasty, it failed to live up to the standard of the fruit that their host had given them as a welcome gift. The Qi in that single morsel had been staggering. She sometimes forgot how Qi dense these ¡®advanced¡¯ worlds were. Although this world had just been quickened, it was still three stages above her own most advanced world. Such a gift as that peach would have been a tribute worth a century of taxes for a lesser sect, should they have found it in the wild and given it in lieu of their usual tax. She continued to munch on the star fruit and walked through the market, studying the junk that the peddlers were peddling. Mortal fair, all of it. She sighed. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Abruptly two figures blocked her path. She frowned, wondering who would dare¡ªbut then of course. She had reduced her cultivation down to the level of a silver path cultivator to fit in. They spoke rapid-fire in their tongue for a moment, bowing respectfully to her, and then motioning her to follow them. So she did. So far she did not believe she had significantly altered anyone¡¯s fate, and if it appeared that she was, she would simply vanish. ~~~~~~ ¡°Father, this one breaks her vow,¡± Atla informed me. ¡°What do you mean? Show me,¡± I said, and my world-child showed me a vision of Shishi flipping a merchant a golden coin. I frowned for a moment, following the divergence in fate for a moment. ¡°It¡¯s true, she did break the promise not to alter anyone¡¯s fate who isn¡¯t of the golden path,¡± I admitted. ¡°Shall I punish her?¡± ¡°Atla, what do the strands of fate look like when I walk through a crowd?¡± I asked. ¡°They get all tangled and twisted and move in three thousand directions at once,¡± He/she/it answered proudly. ¡°It¡¯s very pretty to watch.¡± ¡°Remember that Shishi is my peer. Compared to the mess that she could be making, she is showing considerable restraint. Let¡¯s cut her some slack. Let¡¯s cut them all some slack, and say that only major deviations count. Okay?¡± ¡°That man will either die or become a very rich man in six months because of that coin,¡± Atla predicted. ¡°Yes, and that might seem like a major deviation, but there might have been a chance that he would have died in that time frame anyway. I don¡¯t know because I couldn¡¯t look at his strands before the coin changed hands,¡± I said. I shrugged. ¡°Atla, sometimes, you just need to let things go. Shishi is trying to obey the promise she made. Let it rest at that.¡± ¡°Okay father,¡± Atla said, and he/she/it hummed with pleasure as it continued to watch itself grow. ~~~~~~ Shishi was shown into a lavish estate, where a silver path cultivator greeted her with a bow. The young woman chatted in one of the languages that were being spoken everywhere, but not the predominant one. They retired to a lounge, where the young cultivator served Shishi tea. Shishi was a little nervous, because she knew that any action on her part could change the weave of this woman¡¯s fate, but so could any inaction. Her fate-senses were not particularly powerful, although they were more advanced than most any of her peers. So she smiled and took her tea, which was fairly good although lacking in spirituality, and smiled. After being made welcome for some time, the door opened and a golden path cultivator stepped in. She too bowed to Shishi and politely made her greeting. ¡°Hello, honored guest from beyond the stars. I am Lady Di Tonilla. This is my sister wife Di Sana. We welcome you into our home.¡± Shishi relaxed. With a golden path cultivator present, that changed matters, as any alteration to fate she made could be argued to apply to the golden path cultivator exclusively and then ripple down through the ranks independently of her actions. Lady Tonilla¡¯s presence freed her up considerably. ¡°Thank you for your welcome. May I ask how it was that you spotted me?¡± ¡°We do not have so many who walk the golden path on this world that the addition of a new one in our city would go unnoticed,¡± Tonilla explained. ¡°And we had forewarning from the world-father that guests would be arriving from off-world. It was the logical assumption to make, Lady ¡­¡± ¡°Call me Shishi,¡± Shishi said. ¡°Just Shishi. You have the surname Di. Do you have any relationship to Di Phon?¡± ¡°That is the name of my husband¡¯s father,¡± Tonilla answered. ¡°Why? Have you met?¡± ¡°He is currently vexing Lord Loshi considerably with his stubbornness. It¡¯s very amusing,¡± Shishi admitted. ¡°Loshi knows that he has made a grave error and refuses to admit it, yet it¡¯s obvious to everyone by the ascension of Atla inside his domain, under the rule of a different Xian Lord, shows that he is a fool who cannot maintain a grip on his own powerbase. To have surrendered a world and for it to immediately be claimed as Atla was, and then raised seven stages as well? Hah!¡± Tonilla waved her fan, which had the character for ¡®pleasant greetings¡¯ on it, not that Shishi was familiar with fan etiquette on this world. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that much of what you are saying is going over my head. I do not know who Lord Loshi is, but if he had any say in the night that the stars went out, then I¡¯m not sure whether to thank him for standing aside for Little Bug¡¯s rise or to curse him for abandonment.¡± ¡°Yes, that is how you should feel,¡± Shishi said. ¡°I see.¡± A brief silence in the conversation, then Tonilla offered her guest a tart. Shishi ate it willingly, although she still had her basket of fruit. The tart was sweat and filled with jelly from a different sort of fruit, one with a tangy zest. ¡°Might I ask what the purpose of your visit to this world is, or is that overly presumptuous,¡± Tonilla asked as Shishi ate. ¡°It is no secret. We are here to establish relations between the Emerald Court of Xian Lords and a new Xian Lord who has arisen within our domain. We must clarify whether or not he had anything to do with the corruption that caused Lord Loshi to forfeit this world, but I find that hard to believe after feeling the purity of his aura and the purity of this world¡¯s Qi.¡± The silver-ranked woman spoke suddenly, rapid-fire in a tongue that Shishi couldn¡¯t understand. Lady Tonilla smiled. ¡°My sister-wife said that her son is pure and has no taint of corruption on his soul. She is a little indignant of the accusation.¡± Shishi¡¯s eyebrows rose. ¡°This woman is the mother of the lord of this world?¡± ¡°Indeed. He visits her quite frequently still, although only in avatar form. Is that so hard to believe?¡± Tonilla inquired. ¡°While Xian Lords have arisen from all sorts of backgrounds, I find it difficult to believe that someone could have risen to the rank of a Xian Lord while their mortal parents still lived, that is all,¡± Shishi explained. ¡°How old is this ¡®Little Bug¡¯ anyway?¡± ¡°It has been eighteen years since he was born, according to his mother,¡± Lady Tonilla answered. Shishi dropped her tart. ? 4. Currents 4. Currents Omaia rode a golden cloud over the sea, heading for the landmass on the other side. She could sense people there, unlike the continent where the peach tree was. That place was barren and boring. She wondered why it was so empty, then decided that she didn¡¯t care. It wasn¡¯t that important to her how ¡®Little Bug¡¯ governed his world. She¡¯d already gotten the one answer that she cared about, which was just to make certain that all of the corruption was really gone and that the Xian Lord wasn¡¯t responsible for it in the first place. It had only taken one look at the young man when she¡¯d arrived to know that much, which meant that the rest of the visit could be spent having fun. So she traveled, not bothering to go so fast as to break the sound barrier but still quickly enough to cross the sea in a few hours. When she reached the other side, she began immediately searching for a golden path cultivator, only for one to pop up to investigate her by himself. He had not sent his true body, but an avatar of himself as a younger man. He had muscular arms with a shirt that was torn to show them off, and on his side he wore a long curved blade. His straw conical hat kept the sun off his head, but it also hid his features. Omaia was annoyed because she was considering changing her age on their meeting. Being a girl was fun and put her opponents off their guard, but being a maiden had it¡¯s own pleasures. Abruptly making the decision, she changed her avatar from that of a nine-year-old to that of a twenty-one year old before. Her dress changed from a childish play dress into a flowery robe fit for any court in the nine dimensions, and her face was pale and beautiful She had restricted herself down to the golden path for this encounter, and she was curious to see how he would respond to her beauty. Omaia sat on her cloud and waited to be addressed. ¡°You enter the lands of Nonpo,¡± the man said, his voice carrying clearly. ¡°I humbly request that you state your business and your identity.¡± ¡°Are all guests of the land of Nonpo questioned so?¡± she asked. ¡°We have not extended an invitation at this time, so you are not a guest yet,¡± the man answered. ¡°I have guest rights from Little Bug, the ruler of this world,¡± she argued. ¡°Therefore, I am a --¡± ¡°We do not recognize the rule of Little Bug in Nonpo. We are a proud and fierce people, and we will not bend the knee to him, nor the Many Peaks Alliance, nor any other force from the west. If you are their delegate, then we request that you leave,¡± the man said sternly. Omaia¡¯s eyebrow twitched, and she tugged at her power. The man staggered as she gave off the aura of a platinum path cultivator, something which he had never experienced at this distance. He looked up at her, wide-eyed with shock. ¡°I believe that we have gotten off on the wrong foot,¡± she said. ¡°I am here as a guest from beyond the stars. If Little Bug has yet to conquer this continent, that is fine. But I wish to explore, and I do not care for your petty politics to get in my way. Now stand aside little man. I want to have some fun.¡± ¡°O-of course,¡± the shaken guardian said. ¡°If I may escort the young mistress, simply tell me where you wish to go.¡± ¡°That is better,¡± she said, grinning. ¡°Let¡¯s do something fun. What do you do for fun in the land of Nonpo?¡± ¡°I-well, there is theater and opera,¡± he said. ¡°Excellent! I enjoy both. Let¡¯s do that.¡± ~~~~~~~ ¡°Father, father! The fate of Nonpo is changing! They weren¡¯t supposed to change the fates of mortals but they have,¡± Atla said, pouting slightly. ¡°How has Nonpo¡¯s fate changed?¡± I asked. ¡°They, well, they do what you want them to do instead of walling themselves off like before,¡± Atla admitted. ¡°So it¡¯s a good change, but they¡¯re still breaking the rules.¡± ¡°I knew when I set them loose that there would be ripples from their actions, Atla,¡± I assured the world-child. ¡°Let¡¯s review what¡¯s happening in Nonpo together and see whether this is actually a broken promise, or whether they have simply altered the base of a mountain by changing the location of its peak.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not how mountains work,¡± Atla protested. ¡°It¡¯s a metaphor, beloved one.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ~~~~~~ Shisuke was shaken. His world was shaken, his foundation cracked, and his path forever altered in a second. Nonpo had seen a few undead rise years ago, but Shisuke and his followers had put them down quickly before it had become a problem for the land. He had heard of the trouble in the west, but had assumed that they had simply allowed the problem to get out of control rather than nipping it in the bud. That wasn¡¯t a problem for the land of Nonpo, and so they had remained isolated.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Then came the night without stars. That had been most concerning. But in the aftermath, the Qi gathering formations that had strangled Nonpo and the other lands in the east had inactivated, and instead began injecting immense amounts of Qi into the environment. This was good, and the clans and sects of Nonpo were even now frantically working to claim the newly enriched real estate from the peasants who had been denigrated to the lands of low worth in the previous generations. Of course, the entire world was affected so, so he and the other leaders of Nonpo had not sought to capitalize on the opportunity with expansion. Rather, they had too much newly enriched land right at home, so why bother? Instead they had continued to seal their borders and reject outside influence. When the ¡®Peach Blossoms¡¯ had arrived, Shisuke himself had turned them away with a display of his strength. He had thought to do the same with this latest interloper. But she outclassed any threat that he had previously seen. That she had the power of the ascendant was obvious, and he wondered what she was doing on a backwater like Atla. Unfortunately he didn¡¯t presume to question her after her display of displeasure earlier, and he didn¡¯t dare interrupt her while she was entertained watching the traditional plays that he had arranged through an avatar at the last moment. The first play was atrociously performed, using a mixture of understudies and actors who had been cobbled together at literally a moment¡¯s notice, but their guest hadn¡¯t seemed to notice. The quality of the acting improved as the mortal acting troupe got their feet under them. That they were performing for a single cultivator they knew quite well, and they were determined to impress, knowing that displeasure could forever alter their fate for the worse. But Omaia was clapping with excitement as the fake-swordsmen circled each other and shouted off their lines, so Shisuke hoped that she had been appeased by the showing. ¡°It has been a long time since I enjoyed performance like this,¡± a new voice said, and Shisuke turned to find a teenage boy sitting in the audience with them. Which was impossible, because Shisuke would have sensed even a mortal approaching. However, to his spiritual senses, there was simply nothing there. ¡°Who are you? How did you come in?¡± he demanded. ¡°My name is Little Bug,¡± the new guest said. ¡°I am not really here. I¡¯m watching from another place. But it¡¯s impolite to spy on my guests, so I figured I¡¯d make my presence known.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not exactly a requirement, if you¡¯re using your world-senses to spy you don¡¯t have to announce it. Even if we are guests,¡± Omaia said. ¡°Just don¡¯t peep on us in the bathroom!¡± Little Bug chuckled. Shisuke realized that, at the moment that Little Bug had revealed himself, the avatar of the beautiful young lady had turned into that of a child in a play-dress. He rubbed his eyes. ¡°Tell me, how old is your own core world, Omaia?¡± Little Bug asked. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s about eight billion years old, but it¡¯s only been awake for a million years or so,¡± she admitted. ¡°I have ruled it for about sixty thousand years is all. I inherited it from my grandmother, who inherited it from her grandmother, and so on.¡± ¡°I see. Does your world talk very often?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve only heard his voice three times in my life,¡± Omaia admitted. ¡°He spends most of his time sleeping.¡± ¡°I see. Thank you, I was just wondering how long before Atla stopped chattering so much. I love them, but they require most of my attention, so I apologize if I¡¯m not being a very good host,¡± Little Bug said. Shisuke blinked as he tried to follow the conversation between the most powerful cultivator he had ever met and a ghost who wasn¡¯t really there. He could see Little Bug, and hear him, but every other sense that he had was insisting that he was alone with Omaia. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of that. You can just ignore it, you know? It¡¯ll figure things out on its own,¡± Omaia said. ¡°Oh, I have no intention of doing that,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°I¡¯m very much invested in Atla¡¯s growth. And now that I have sufficiently appeased Atla that it was us who has altered the course of Nonpo¡¯s future and not just you, I will be retiring. Shisuke, I will send one of my disciples to discuss compensation for Omaia¡¯s visit at a later date, if that pleases you. As we have stated before, we have no intention of subjugating Nonpo, but we do need to discuss it¡¯s place in the world to come.¡± Then the illusion vanished as though it had never been there. There was not even a trace of Qi in the entire display. Whatever it had been, it was something-- ¡°Astral projection,¡± Omaia said. ¡°It¡¯s different from Dao Avatars. No less useful, since you don¡¯t need to cross the distance yourself to arrive at your destination, but then you can¡¯t exert any force either. But for messages and conversations, it¡¯s very handy. That such a young boy has mastered it already is slightly astounding.¡± Shisuke turned back to his guest and found that she had resumed the guise of the beautiful maiden. ¡°How long can these actors perform?¡± she asked. ¡°If I order them to, they will go through their entire repertoire without rest,¡± he assured her. ¡°I believe that Little Bug would be annoyed with me if I allowed you to make them do that,¡± she said. ¡°Please instruct them to inform us before they have reached the point of exhaustion. Request that they try to time it with an exciting part, so that they may pick it up tomorrow and finish on a high point.¡± ¡°You will be spending the night? I shall make arrangements immediately,¡± he said. ¡°Don¡¯t bother. I¡¯ll be sharing your bed.¡± Shisuke flushed, but didn¡¯t argue. Sometimes it was best to simply go with current and allow oneself to be swept away. ? 5. Transparency 5. Transparency ¡°Father, father, the lady visitor is bugging Di Ram.¡± ¡°Let her,¡± I said. ¡°But he¡¯s¡ª¡± ¡°He¡¯s old enough to make his own decisions without us butting in,¡± I said. ¡°But she¡¯s changing the weave of fate¡ª¡± ¡°Fate changes when a butterfly flaps its wings, child. When a titan walks, things start to shake. When the dust has settled we will see what shape things are in, and if things are broken then we will mend them.¡± ¡°What if she fights him?¡± ¡°Di Ram fought off the Necromancer Ant¡¯s Hydra by himself. I have every confidence that he can survive a duel with our guests. If they start to fight and Lilayla pushes matters to far, you have my permission to intervene.¡± ¡°Yes! I hope they fight,¡± my world-child exclaimed. I shook my head and resumed cleaning out the dust of the abandoned villa. In my pocket, the little peach pit was asking ¡°Grow? Time to grow?¡± ¡°Not for a while, little one,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll let you know when it¡¯s time to grow.¡± ~~~~~~ Pi Phon nervously served the tea to the two titans before him. Di Ram, who had surpassed his father and stepped onto the Diamond Path last year, and this stranger who had made herself known to the expedition hours ago. She was a beautiful woman, he noted with the part of his brain that always noticed such things. But there were very few ugly cultivators of power, and this woman was very powerful. ¡°I am accustomed to having my tea served by women,¡± Lilayla said. ¡°In my culture, when a man prepares tea for a woman, he is either her husband, or is proposing marriage.¡± Pi Phon flushed and glanced at his leader. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that in our culture tea is just tea. Some of our regions have a very ceremonial custom around it, but in this case it¡¯s just being served as refreshment. If you would prefer juice, I can arrange some,¡± Di Ram said politely, sitting across the table from their guest. ¡°No, tea is fine. I just wanted to tease this young man. Tell me, what is holding you back from the golden path?¡± Pi Phon blushed at such a personal question. ¡°I am still struggling to form my identity core,¡± he admitted. ¡°I know who I am, and yet when I try to find my truths and change my nature to revolve around them, I cannot quite seem to manage the trick.¡± ¡°It is not a trick. It is a reaffirmation of all that you have been, are, and hope to be,¡± she said. ¡°Come to my chambers tonight and I will attempt to coax it out of you yet.¡± ¡°If that is your will,¡± Pi Phon said, blushing, and hoping that he wouldn¡¯t have a repeat situation as he¡¯d encountered with Lady Tonilla. Lady Di Tonilla, he reminded himself, as his former lover was now married to his lord. That was a bit of awkwardness he¡¯d rather do without. ¡°You make it sound like I¡¯m asking you to walk to the gallows,¡± Lilayla scolded. ¡°We¡¯ll just be asking and answering each other questions, so put those impure thoughts out of your head.¡± Pi Phon relaxed slightly. ¡°I thank you in advance for the pointers.¡± ¡°Hah! So you were having impure thoughts!¡± she exclaimed, and he blushed again. ¡°If you are done teasing my subordinate, perhaps we can discuss why it is that you came?¡± Di Ram interjected. ¡°To this world, or to speak with you?¡± Lilayla asked. ¡°Both?¡± ¡°Well, the reason I came to this world has nothing to do with you at all. I am here to formally extend an invitation to the Emerald Court of Xian to the master of this world, whom you call Little Bug. That is a delightfully humble name, by the way. He has received five invitations, and it will be interesting to see which one he accepts. There are a great many eyes upon Atla and Little Bug at the moment, but all of that is the matter for us Xian to deal with and has nothing to do with a common cultivator like yourself.¡± Di Ram nodded, unbruised by the explicit statement that he was ¡®common.¡¯ ¡°I know that My Lord¡¯s ascension would cause issues in the heavens, but I was uncertain what the shape of those issues would be. If I could beg an indulgence, would you perhaps explain to me what the emerald court is, and its significance?¡± ¡°Why, since you ask so politely, this one is happy to explain,¡± Lilayla said, smiling. ¡°To begin with, let us start at the base of the pyramid. At the base, there is the lowly mortal, born to die within a century or two. Above that there is the cultivator, who extends their life and obtains vast spiritual and magical powers. The cultivator absorbs spiritual energy to increase their own core until it becomes potent, which occurs in stages. The foundation realms, the bronze path, the silver path, the golden path, the diamond path, the platinum path, mythril, celestial, divine, etc. You should know this, even in a backwater such as Loshi¡¯s domain.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± Di Ram said, showing no impatience for the repetition of common knowledge. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°And it is also common knowledge, I suppose, that when the cultivator reaches the height of what they can achieve on their home world, they are forced with a decision. They must either cut ties with their world, severing all bonds with their loved ones and former life in order to ascend, or they must choose to stagnate and, eventually die.¡± ¡°My father made such a choice before I was born. It was only when he realized that his corpse could be used against the world that he chose to ascend rather than face the final embrace of death,¡± Di Ram said. ¡°What is also common knowledge in many domains, but remains a secret in yours, is that there is another path to power. It is a difficult path to step foot on, and a more difficult path to walk. But it is the path that Little bug has chosen for himself, and it is similar to the path that I walk myself. That is the choice to become a Xian.¡± ¡°And what, exactly, is a Xian?¡± ¡°Rather than ascending and cutting ties to their birth world, the cultivator chooses to cultivate the world¡¯s core, advancing it to the next stage. This creates a mutually beneficial relationship between the world and the cultivator responsible for its advancement, and over time this relationship is formally recognized by the world itself,¡± Lilayla explained. ¡°Of course, with the system that Lord Loshi employs throughout his realm, that is impossible for anyone except for himself.¡± ¡°Because of the gathering arrays,¡± Di Ram guessed. ¡°Exactly. Anytime that a cultivator in this realm attempts to cultivate their world¡¯s core, it is siphoned off and fed to that hungry tyrant. It is a dead end for everyone in your dimension because of that.¡± ¡°But Little Bug saw a way,¡± Di Ram stated. ¡°And that¡¯s why he has generated so much interest. We were content to let Loshi play tyrant in the corner by himself with his home realm, because it¡¯s really not our place to interfere in such matters. But for a new Xian Lord to be born under his jealous watch? Why, everyone can¡¯t wait to meet him!¡± ¡°And what does this mean for the people of Atla?¡± Lilayla shrugged. ¡°Who can say? This far from my home world, I am little stronger than a platinum path cultivator myself. I cannot see the strands of fate, they are obscured from me.¡± ¡°I see. Thank you for indulging me in answering my questions.¡± ¡°You are quite welcome. Now then, on to why it is that I¡¯ve come to see you specifically,¡± she said, leaning forward. ¡°Quite frankly, I was hoping to hear stories about Little Bug when he was younger. That¡¯s all.¡± ¡°Oh. Well, I was only his elder at the Six Mountain Sect for a short time, but I suppose that I can indulge. You must understand that he was a strange child, even from the beginning. When he first rose to my attention, it was because I noticed that all of the boys in the sect were particularly malodorous. When I investigated, I found that someone had been distributing a wondrous new body cleansing manual.¡± ~~~~~~ ¡°Father, father, one of the outsiders is poking around in the sect,¡± Atla said. ¡°Is that so? Is that a bad thing?¡± ¡°Well, no,¡± the world-child admitted. ¡°But I thought you¡¯d want to know. ¡°You¡¯re not wrong,¡± I admitted. ¡°But I expected as much. At least one of our guests would be expected to make some sort of investigation into my background. But I¡¯ll go and make certain that they have everything they need to file a thorough report.¡± ~~~~~~~ Kuto circled back after pretending to have left in order to spy on this supposed World-Father. He vanished his presence and approached the dilapidated Six Mountain Sect from a different angle. A cursory investigation should turn up all of the evidence that he needed, and then when he had proof that this Little Bug was a demonic cultivator he would-- ¡°Hello. I¡¯m surprised to find you here, I thought you would be exploring with the others,¡± Little Bug said, an avatar springing into existence a few meters behind Kuto. The older Xian Lord cursed and dropped his stealth act. ¡°What gave me away?¡± he asked. ¡°Atla is very aware of where each of you are at the present,¡± Little Bug explained. ¡°You¡¯re like an itchy feather under their shirt, tickling and irritating at the same time.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± Kuto asked, his eyes narrowing. ¡°Or are you simply hoping to cover your sins? I know that this was the site of demonic cultivation. It has been purified, but the stench of corruption remains in ashes and smoke.¡± ¡°Yes. Come, let us walk and talk about the sad story of Ko Ren. I will speak of the fall of the Six Mountain Sect, of which I was once a member, and the rise and fall of the Sovereign Summit Sect. Once I have told the story, you can confirm the veracity of my words with whatever means you wish. I have nothing to hide from the Emerald Court. Not even one of their inquisitors.¡± And to Kuto¡¯s amazement, Little Bug proceeded to do just that. They spoke for hours. Little Bug answered the lingering questions to the best of his ability, and then he simply left Kuto to explore the ruins of the sect after providing him with a master key that would get him through most, but not all, of the private wards. Not that those wards would prove difficult to bypass, Little Bug simply didn¡¯t know where the key for them resided. It was a large sect, after all. Kuto¡¯s eyes narrowed as Little Bug¡¯s avatar vanished after their conversation, but his subsequent investigation turned up nothing that the young Lord hadn¡¯t predicted. A few mortal corpses, a few formations and rituals that had been twisted. Mad writings on the wall of the new palace that was partially constructed. Perfectly in line with the story that Little Bug had presented. Which presented Kuto with a problem. He wasn¡¯t looking to out the new lord as a demonic cultivator, he¡¯d known that for a fool¡¯s errand the moment he¡¯d felt the younger cultivator¡¯s aura. But it was possible to be in league with and coordinate actions with demons without being one yourself. According to Little Bug¡¯s story, he had stomped the Sovereign Summit Sect and the mechanations of the Necromantic Demon which had supplied them with knowledge and power. Nothing that Kuto found in the ruins of the sect contradicted that story, but it didn¡¯t exactly exonerate Little Bug as having no interaction with demons either. But Little Bug wasn¡¯t denying the contact. Rather he was embracing it as part of his origin and rise to power. The purists of the Emerald Court would want to keep an eye on him because of his exposure, but they would see it as a feather in his cap rather than a mark against him. Kuto sensed an opportunity there, but as he continued to search, going so far as to utilize spirit magics to call for the echoes and resonance of the deceased innocents, he realized that there was no leverage to be found in the ruins. Cursing, he fled south, to investigate the scene of the battle at Resh Fali. There too, he found the signs of necromancy and demonic activity, yet the resonance of Little Bug¡¯s power from that battle was clearly in opposition of it. By the time that he had concluded that this angle was a dead end, he had run out of time and was forced to make his way back to the ruins of the Six Mountain Sect without anything to show for his investigation. ~~~~~~ ? 6. Invitations 6. Invitations The male Xians returned disappointed after the two days I had given them to explore my world. Mioji had challenged a number of other golden path cultivators and spiritual beasts, but remained disappointed when they all turned tail and fled as the corners of his power came out. He thought that they should fight through, to struggle to overcome him despite his overwhelming strength. Even the gold-ranked wild boar that he¡¯d fought on the southwestern continent disagreed with this notion. And because he had agreed to be my guest, he could not rightly punish them as he might have on his home worlds. Instead, he was left frustrated and annoyed when he rejoined the council. Kuto, by comparison, had found nothing that he had spent the time looking for except for confirmation of the story that I¡¯d told him. He was undoubtedly hoping to find some leverage to use against me, but although I had illuminated my past as clearly as I could, he still searched for some shadow that wasn¡¯t there. Omaia was quite pleased with her stay in Nonpo, and I would eventually dispatch my disciples to negotiate the payment for any disruption her activities had caused. And to politely repeat their invitation to join the Many Peaks Alliance, which was slowly spreading beyond the central two continents where Di Ram and Lady Tonilla had founded it six years ago. Shishi had enjoyed her time with my mother and Lady Tonilla. After their conversations, the matron of the Raging River Sect and founding member of the Many Peaks had discovered that they shared a love of poetry, and Shishi had surprisingly thrown herself into the study of local poets. Tonilla worked hard to ensure that copies of her private collection were made for the off-worlder to take back with her. And, of course, Lilayla had spent the entire time after coaxing what information she could out of Di Ram attempting to push Pi Phon onto the Golden Path. Even now, the young man was in closed door cultivation after having received her lengthy coaching and advice. Which brought us back to the audience room of Di Phon¡¯s former palace. I had laid out cushions for my guests to sit upon, and I sat upon my own across from them. I had a smile on my face, and Atla was chattering away in my ear about, of all things, gazelles. ¡°So then. I hope that you enjoyed your time exploring Atla,¡± I said. ¡°I believe that it is time to discuss the matter of what brings you to this world.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Lilayla said. ¡°This one speaks for the others when she says that each of us bears an invitation from a faction of the Emerald Court of Xian to attend our next session in five years. This session has been called directly in response to your ascension, and we were partially sent to investigate whether or not you used demonic techniques to achieve it. Such an action would have excluded you from membership in our court.¡± ¡°And have I passed the screening?¡± I asked, cocking my head. ¡°I make no secret of the fact that I confronted a demonic cultivator only five years ago, and it is in that battle that I awoke Atla and formed the Xian bond with them.¡± ¡°It is my conclusion that the demonic cultivator came from one of the corrupted realms of the Divine Fates Empire,¡± Kuto admitted. He coughed into his hand, then shrugged. ¡°I could find no evidence linking the two of you except for the confrontations that you told me about. In fact, if I hadn¡¯t been looking for them specifically, I might have missed them. My report will reflect that you have been upfront and honest, and that the only link that you have demonstrated to corrupt forces is in opposition to them.¡± ¡°My report will confirm that I have found your mortal family and that they are of this world. There is no evidence that you are in violation of certain agreements between the Emerald Court and the Lord of this Realm, Duke Loshi,¡± Shishi said. ¡°Oh? Which agreements would that be?¡± I asked, curious. ¡°That we would not send Xians or cultivators hoping to become Xians into his home dimension to cultivate ¡®his resources,¡¯ and that in exchange he would allow only those cultivators who had earned his personal recommendations to leave this dimension to serve members of the Xian Court,¡± she explained. ¡°It had absolutely nothing to say about Xian Lords who awoke within his dimension under his watch, however. A matter which he is most displeased to have overlooked.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I said. ¡°To be honest I had no idea of this arrangement. I only acted when I did to awaken Atla because I saw no other way of saving my family and friends. Should I expect problems from Lord Loshi in the future?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, but nothing so uncouth as a direct confrontation,¡± Shishi predicted. ¡°It¡¯s unseemly for a Xian of his stature to bully one who is just rising to power, even if you did snap up a world under his domain. But he will attempt to strangle your growth in a few centuries from now, once you reach the point where you will need to expand to other worlds to increase your power further.¡± ¡°Because all of the worlds in this dimension belong to him,¡± I said. ¡°Leaving an upstart like me with nothing.¡± ¡°Indeed. He might have attempted to claim that you robbed him of Atla if Omaia hadn¡¯t arrived in time to see the evidence that all of the connections between the rest of this dimension and this world were severed on his end, and not yours. But the wounds to the threads between stars were fresh and obvious, even to one such as her,¡± Mioji explained. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Hey!¡± Omaia said, sensing a subtle insult. ¡°Shut it, crone,¡± he muttered, elbowing her. She elbowed him right back. ¡°Well, if you are not satisfied on your report of my confrontation with demonic forces, I am pleased to provide additional information or whatever support I can in helping you reach the honest truth of the matter. But I swear upon my soul that I do not practice demonic arts,¡± I said, and I layered it with an actual soul oath. The others gasped as they felt the oath form, then fall apart as they neglected to complete it on their end. The demonstration was definitive. As was the depth of my soul, which they could only see the very surface of. ¡°That will not be necessary,¡± Shishi said, visibly calming herself. ¡°It seems that we have our answer as to how you advanced so fast, Grand Elder. May we know your names in your previous lives, so that we might recognize you?¡± ¡°You would not have heard of my prior selves,¡± I assured them. ¡°They would have been like ants to you. Most of the depth that you just saw came while I was in the afterlife. But I have gone through the final tribulation and emerged out the other side. This much is true.¡± ¡°And whatever you saw in your past lives, plus a modest amount of good fortune in this one, has set you up for a meteoric rise,¡± Shishi said. ¡°I have seen enough. I invite you on behalf of Count Beailor to attend the Emerald Court, or to send a representative on your behalf. When you have made up your mind, this ring will guide you to the nexus where the Count resides.¡± ¡°I, too, extend an invite on behalf of Duke Valan,¡± Omaia said, placing a fan in front of her. ¡°This will guide your way.¡± ¡°I bring the invitation of Prince Ostoin,¡± Mioji said, placing a necklace on the ground in front of him. ¡°I serve the Duke Doe. He hopes that you will accept his invitation despite my earlier rudeness in my investigation,¡± Kuto said. He presented a small dagger. ¡°And I represent my father, Prince Yema,¡± Lilayla said. She set forth a small uncut diamond on the floor before her. ¡°I thank each of you for making the journey and vow to either attend your overlord¡¯s invitations in avatar form, or to send an authorized representative. That is an acceptable alternative, correct?¡± I asked. ¡°If they come in person, they are presenting a vulnerability which presents a significant measure of trust in the host,¡± Lilayla explained. ¡°Nobody would expect you, as a Xian, to leave your home world in anything other than avatar form. But to send a trusted subordinate empowered to represent and speak for you would be seen as an honor to both the cultivator you select and the house that you send them to.¡± ¡°I thank you for your council. I would invite you to stay, but I¡¯m afraid that the world is shaking enough from your visit already and I need some time to calm things down. I offer you instead another peach,¡± I said, and I presented them with a basket with five peaches inside. Greedy hands emptied the basket in seconds. Three of the representatives ate their peaches whole on the spot, while Lilayla and Shishi stashed them away in dimensional artifacts. Either to consume them later, or to give them away, I could not say. ¡°We thank you again for your hospitality and apologize for any inconvenience we have caused,¡± Lilayla said, speaking for the group as the humble one. ¡°We look forward to seeing you or your representatives when you join us at court.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± I said, escorting them back to the formation that would assist them in transferring their avatars off of Atla once more. Once they were outside of Atla¡¯s glowing influence, they would be on their own. I sighed as the last of the formations deactivated. ¡°Father, father, father, are you listening?¡± Atla asked. ¡°Yes, Atla, I¡¯ve been listening. Gazelles are amazing.¡± ¡°Yes they are,¡± Atla agreed. ¡°But for the last twenty minutes I¡¯ve been talking about goldfish.¡± I covered my face. ¡°Goldfish are amazing too,¡± I said. ¡°I apologize that I was busy with our guests.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯m glad that they¡¯re gone. I thought you said that they could hear me, but none of them did.¡± ¡°Did you try talking to them?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh. No, I only talk to you.¡± ¡°Well, you can try talking to other people too,¡± I suggested. ¡°Maybe Hien Ro can hear you, or the other disciples. Or Di Ram.¡± ¡°But I only really want to talk to you,¡± Atla said. ¡°That¡¯s okay too,¡± I assured the world-child. ¡°But you do understand that sometimes I need to be focused on something entirely, yes? We¡¯ve talked about this.¡± ¡°I know, I know. So anyway, I think that goldfish are actually stupid, not amazing.¡± ? 7. Reflection 7. Reflection With the Xian delegation out of the way, I could finally relax a bit. I used water techniques to clean out and then heat up the expansive baths in the sect, the same one that I had had my first full-body soak in when I¡¯d first arrived. I was still luxuriating when Hien Ro arrived, flying over the compound looking for me. I flared my Qi to announce my presence, and he arrived a moment later. Without a word, he joined me in the bath, and we relaxed together in quiet companionship. Finally, however, he broke the truce. ¡°How did things go with the offworlders?¡± he asked. ¡°I have five invitations, and I must send either an avatar or a representative to five members of the Emerald Court. While they are phrased most politely, it¡¯s clear that refusing any one of them will result in an enmity or a perceived insult on behalf of the snubbed party,¡± I said. ¡°How bad are things elsewhere?¡± ¡°You know that better than I,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯re the one who can be everywhere and see everything.¡± ¡°I stretched myself too thin preparing for the night when the stars went black,¡± I said, shaking my head. ¡°I could barely pull myself back together. If I hadn¡¯t saved Adan when I did and found my true self, I might have been lost.¡± ¡°As you say, Master,¡± Brother Ro said. He sighed and stretched in the hot water. ¡°I forgot how pleasant these baths were. It is so hot down south that you don¡¯t appreciate the hot water the same way as you do in the north.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I agreed. ¡°How was the battle with Mioji?¡± ¡°He was strong, but we were expecting that. We couldn¡¯t win, and we withdrew once we recognized that. He found that objectionable, but was polite enough not to smite us out of spite,¡± Hien Ro reported. ¡°How much longer are you going to stay up north? I don¡¯t understand why you¡¯re here in the first place.¡± ¡°For the fresh peaches,¡± I answered. He blinked at me. ¡°What? You mean that tree in the forest? I thought it was chopped down.¡± ¡°I planted a new one. It will blossom soon, and in five years the fruit will be ripe. It¡¯s already a spiritual tree. A second generation spiritual peach tree. It¡¯s seeds are quite valuable. I wonder if the guests will ever realize just what sort of fortune they choked down their gullets.¡± Hien Ro blinked. ¡°They ate the pits?¡± I nodded. He laughed. We continued to soak for a while, then got dressed. With nothing left to occupy my interest in the north, I flew south, towards the rebuilt city of Resh Fali, where the refugees of the north had finally stopped fleeing from the undead five years ago. The line in the sand, the place where Di Ram and his followers had said ¡®not one more step.¡¯ The place where the Ko Ren had fallen, and the place where I and Atla had arisen. My new home. ~~~~~ Colors. Images. Blood. Death and birth, hunger and satiation. That was what it was to be Atla. A million sensations from a million minds and souls all at once. But one soul stronger than any other, and one soul linked to the center of the developing ego that was constantly bombarded by all of those other things. They were not good things, the linked one had said. And they were not bad things. Sometimes good things happened and sometimes bad things happened. It was not for Atla to judge the things that happened, for that was up to the forces of heaven. It was up to Atla to make things grow, and to give them a chance to live their lives. When things died of old age, that was good. When things died to feed other things, that was good too. When the plants were eaten that was good, and when the things that ate the plants were eaten that was good too. It was not good when men killed other men, but it wasn¡¯t Atla¡¯s place to interfere with that. That was a heavenly duty and Atla should simply turn a blind eye. It was hard, but Atla tried to follow their father¡¯s advice. But secretly Atla did things to people that they didn¡¯t like. She cut off the Qi flows to their meridians, stunting their growth and making them weak. It did not stop them from hurting other people, but as everyone who was good grew stronger and stronger now that Atla was awake and half of Atla¡¯s Qi wasn¡¯t being siphoned away, the evil people were growing weaker and weaker. Atla hoped that their father wouldn¡¯t mind that they did that. He told them not to worry too much about what people did, that they should focus on growing their Qi big and strong so that everyone could prosper. But Atla was able to see many things at once. Atla was able to be many places at once. It wasn¡¯t taxing to curse the bad people and bless the good ones, and so that is what Atla did. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. And Atla also loved their father very much. He was a very wise man, for all that he joked that he was not, and he was teaching Atla to be a very wise world. But something had been bothering Atla recently, and it was something that was not easy for them to put into words. ~~~~~ Di Sana sensed her son returning home and quietly put on a pot of tea. Her eldest son, not the younger one. Her younger son walked the bronze path, despite being only thirteen years old. But that was not the accomplishment that might have once been. Instead, it put him as merely average for his age in this new and crazy world that she lived in. Di Sana, formerly Po Sana before her marriage to Di Ram, was the mother of Little Bug, or Po Guah. That wasn¡¯t his real name. She smiled. His real name hadn¡¯t been spoken in years, she thought, and she wondered if he would even remember it if she called him by it. But he liked Little Bug. It ¡®reminded him who he was.¡¯ She had been ashamed when she had let the nickname take root when he was small, but it had turned into a kernel of his identity, so she could not keep blaming herself for that failure forever. ¡°Momma, Momma, big brother is coming,¡± her little one said. Her youngest daughter, who was only six years old. Her last daughter by her first husband, before he was killed in a senseless act of brutality by a cultivator. She turned away from that line of thinking and began making the tea. She timed it just right so that it had finished steeping when Little Bug and Hien Ro entered the house. Her little one ran over to her big brother and was rewarded by being swung up into the air and swirled around like a bird. She shrieked with laughter. ¡°Now let¡¯s take a look at you,¡± Little Bug said, setting the girl down and examining her with his other senses. ¡°You have entered the energy gathering realm since the last time I saw you. That¡¯s very good. Has someone shown you the Peach Blossom Dream yet?¡± ¡°Yes, brother, but it makes me dizzy when I try it,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s very difficult for a little one like you, but keep trying. You¡¯ll grow into it with time. Do not rush cultivation too much, little sister, because some things are meant to happen in their own time,¡± Little Bug said. Di Sana shook her head. This young man was so different from the quiet and withdrawn boy that she remembered, but yet he had her husband¡¯s jaw and her eyes, and she felt his love for her when he smiled at her. A smile that she remembered from when he was small, even if he did not. ¡°Mother, mother, I dreamed I was a fish,¡± a small voice from the past whispered. ¡°I got very big and the villagers speared me and gutted me.¡± She shook her head. There was nothing that she could do to give advice to her past self on how to deal with a child who had grown up, so she should instead focus on the man that he had become. So she poured the tea, and they sat as a family, with Hien Ro acting as a favored family friend. ¡°How was the guest you entertained?¡± Little Bug asked her. ¡°Delightful once Elder Sister Tonilla got her speaking of poetry,¡± Di Sana admitted. ¡°Before that I sensed her sensing me quite invasively when it was admitted that I am your mother. It was rather rude, but I tolerated it in silence.¡± ¡°I apologize for that, Mother.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t you who was scanning my colon,¡± she said, shrugging. ¡°I am grateful that she didn¡¯t cause more of a fuss than she did. I heard that one of the merchants in the streets has closed his stall, and now I don¡¯t know where to buy starfruit. It¡¯s quite inconvenient.¡± ¡°Tell me, mother. What is holding you back from stepping on the golden path? You have reached the point where it isn¡¯t power. Is there anything I can do to help you step forward?¡± Little Bug asked. Di Sana swallowed. She shook her head. ¡°I fear that I lack the insight to take that step in this lifetime, beloved son,¡± she said. ¡°I hope that my eventual death will not weigh too heavily on your soul once I leave you behind.¡± Little Bug was silent for a moment. ¡°I will love you forever and always, Mother. I thought once that I would be able to sever karma with you, and I see now how foolish I was as a child. But when death parts us, know that it is with joy that I will look upon the memories of our days together.¡± He laughed. ¡°Do you remember the night when I broke the merchant¡¯s light stone, and you scolded me for bathing in filth?¡± She laughed at the memory, and for a while they spoke of happy days gone by. ~~~~ That was it! Watching Father speak of things with his family, while the little girl that was Father¡¯s kin played nearby, sparked something in Atla¡¯s growing mind. That was what they was lacking. Atla had a body. The body was large and rocky and hot in the middle and full of Qi and covered with plants and animals. But that wasn¡¯t how Atla saw themself. Atla saw themself. as¡­ They couldn¡¯t form the picture. Slowly, it put all of its mind towards the problem, but it quickly realized that it needed help. So it reached out to the voice that always answered back. ? 8. Eidolon 8. Eidolon ¡°Father, what do I look like?¡± Atla asked while I was having tea with my mother, Hien Ro, and my youngest sister. I blinked, for everyone else had stopped moving as I was pulled into the liminal space where my connection to Atla was most profound. ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked my world-child. ¡°Do you mean what do you look like from far away? I could fly to the moon and you could see yourself through my eyes.¡± ¡°No. Okay, maybe later,¡± Atla said. ¡°But what do I look like?¡± I paused, sensing that this was one of those concepts that Atla had trouble communicating. ¡°Do you mean to ask how I see you?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Atla exclaimed. ¡°I see you as my child,¡± I answered immediately. ¡°Not a big rock?¡± ¡°You are a big rock, but that is not the shape of your spirit,¡± I answered. ¡°Your spirit is that of an innocent child who needs guidance and protection. That is how I see you.¡± ¡°So I¡¯m a person? A human like you?¡± ¡°You¡¯re a world, Atla. But some worlds are like people, and you are one of those worlds,¡± I answered. ¡°But you are a child-world. When you are older, you won¡¯t need me so much, but those days are a long time away I think. I understand that worlds take some time to grow up, and I am ready to guide you for as long as it takes.¡± ¡°How do you know that?¡± Atla demanded. ¡°In one of my past lives, no, actually it was in one of my afterlives, I spoke with a very wise man. He told me a lot about how to raise a child world like you,¡± I explained. ¡°It was his guidance that allowed me to awaken you in the first place, for which I am deeply grateful to him.¡± ¡°What did he say about worlds like me?¡± Atla questioned. ¡°Many, many things. We spoke for years about the subject, child, and I do not think that you have the patience to listen to all of it. But mostly he advised me to be open and honest with you, and to treat you like you were my own child, which is how I have been raising you,¡± I explained honestly. ¡°Okay. But what do I look like?¡± the world-child insisted. ¡°Not my rock-body, but my spirit. You said those are different things.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I admitted. ¡°You don¡¯t know what I look like?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Atla, I don¡¯t. I wish that I could tell you. But I think that it¡¯s better if you decide for yourself what you look like,¡± I answered. ¡°How do you mean?¡± ¡°I think you know. I think that¡¯s why you¡¯re asking me what you look like,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re just struggling with the words. If you don¡¯t know, then I¡¯m not going to put the idea in your head before you¡¯re ready for it.¡± Atla was silent for a while. ¡°Father, am I a boy or a girl?¡± I blinked. I had not been expecting that question for some reason. ¡°That is an interesting question, and I do not know.¡± ¡°If you had to pick if I was a boy or a girl, which would you rather me be?¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t make the choice. I would make you make it for yourself,¡± I answered definitively. ¡°And if this is going where I think it is going, then it¡¯s not a forever choice that you have to make right now. You can change your mind. I am happy to start thinking of you as either a boy or a girl, both or neither, if you wish.¡± ¡°What does my face look like?¡± Atla insisted. ¡°I can get the rest of it right if you show me what my face looks like.¡± I was quiet. Then I closed my eyes, and pictured two faces. One of a mischievous young boy, and the other of a clever young girl, each about eight years old. ¡°If you are a boy, then your face looks like this,¡± I explained. ¡°If you are a girl, then your face looks like that.¡± The world was silent, and the liminal space collapsed. I was back to having tea with my family. I looked around. ¡°Atla?¡± I asked, reaching out for our bond. I felt it, stronger than ever, but there was something happening on the other end. Something which I wished to exert no control over. I was silent, even as a gust of wind swept through the building and blew blue dust about. The form of the boy that I had pictured appeared in the middle of our tea party, coalescing slowly as Atla struggled to figure out how to manifest himself. My younger sister shrieked and buried her head in Mother¡¯s lap, while Hien Ro turned to me in awed silence. Mother looked at me, and then judging by my calm expression, simply accepted the situation. Within moments, the Eidolon of Atla manifested himself for the first time. A child of seven or eight years old. A boy, with black hair and a mischievous smile. ¡°Hello father,¡± he said. ¡°Hello Atla. Mother, Hien Ro, Little Sister, this is my son. He is also the world where we live,¡± I said. ¡°Now let us find him some clothes.¡± ~~~~~~ Hien Ro sent word to Di Ram and Di Tonilla immediately as Di Sana fawned over the Eidolon-boy. They didn¡¯t have any boy clothes that would fit him at the moment, but they borrowed some of Little Bug¡¯s younger brother¡¯s clothes to start with while a servant ran to fetch something that would fit. Di Tonilla was the first to arrive, both due to the fact that she had been the closest and the fact that she was a wind cultivator of some power and could fly quite fast. Di Ram arrived soon after. Hien Ro met them in another parlor while Sana was busy combing her sort-of-grandson¡¯s hair. He explained what he had witnessed, and what Little Bug claimed the newest child in their house to be. A world personified. ¡°Do you know what this means?¡± Di Ram asked. ¡°No, what?¡± Tonilla asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, that¡¯s why I was asking you,¡± he said. ¡°I am still reeling from the visit of the other Xian lords, and I don¡¯t know anything about cultivating planets. Do you know if this is a good thing or a bad thing?¡± ¡°Little bug seemed very happy when it happened,¡± Hien Ro confided, ¡°So I can¡¯t imagine that it¡¯s a bad thing. But perhaps we should ask him to explain before we begin plotting and scheming behind his back.¡± ¡°We do nothing behind his back,¡± Tonilla said. As his step mother, she was fully committed to his ascension to further heights of power, as her own flag was hoisted beneath his. ¡°We seek to understand the situation so that we might assist him. That is all.¡± Hien Ro shrugged. ¡°So let¡¯s go ask while the child is still distracted by Sana,¡± he suggested, and they went to do that. Little Bug met them in the hallway and smiled. ¡°I know you have questions. Yes this is a good thing. But it is also a danger. If the other Xian lords found out that Atla could manifest an Eidolon, they might attempt to subsume it to claim the wold-bond from me. But they would have to defeat me in battle in order to succeed, and they will be increasingly nervous of doing so as Atla learns to manifest himself more fully and potently.¡± ¡°So it is a blessing and a curse,¡± Tonilla clarified. ¡°I prefer to focus on the blessing, but yes, it has a drawback. I will ask Atla not to reveal himself when the other Xian lords next come to visit, and in the mean time I am perfectly happy with claiming that he is my son of flesh and blood.¡± The others turned to look at each other. ¡°Okay,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°But who do we say is the mother?¡± That took some of the wind out of Little Bug¡¯s sails. ¡°Okay, so I might need your help finding a woman willing to play that role,¡± he admitted sheepishly. ¡°I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll have to look very far,¡± Tonilla said, a smile on her face. ? 9. Narrative 9. Narrative ¡°And so naturally we thought of you,¡± Lady Di Tonilla said. Taimei flushed and remained silent for a moment as she thought, her mind racing and her heart thumping. It wasn¡¯t like that she told herself. She would be posing as the mother of her master¡¯s child to prevent confusion in the masses. Master wasn¡¯t actually interested in her that way, thank goodness! He just needed her help with this matter. ¡°I accept,¡± she said, because when phrased as a request for assistance from her master there could be no other outcome. ¡°What do you need me to do?¡± ¡°Nothing directly. We need your servants to begin spreading rumors that you had returned from your time as Little Bug¡¯s apprentice with a child. Once they have lain the groundwork and created interest in the matter, we will announce the child and his parentage at the same time,¡± Tonilla explained. ¡°And, the child? Are they aware of and part of this deception?¡± Taimei asked. ¡°I don¡¯t want them feeling that they¡ª¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t we go and meet him, and we can explain matters yourself,¡± Tonilla suggested. Taimei nodded, and they got up from the tea room where the discussion had taken place, moving to the courtyard where a young boy was play-fighting with Little Bug. ¡°You are getting very good at moving your Eidolon,¡± Little Bug praised. ¡°I¡¯m proud of you Atla.¡± The boy laughed and threw a haymaker that set him off balance before falling on his butt. He laughed some more. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize being a human required so much balance!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s take a break. I believe that the women have come to discuss matters with us.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to talk with them. I want to keep playing with you,¡± Atla complained. ¡°Sometimes matters of the world get in front of playtime, Atla,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°But I promise that after we have discussed matters we can play again.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± the child said, and they sat down in the courtyard near an elm tree that grew in the center. The tree had not been there six hours ago, but it was now nearly fully grown. ¡°Atla,¡± Little Bug said, ¡°I would have you by my side if you choose to continue to manifest in this form. I would not ever wish to hide any part of you, except to keep you safe from the other Xian lords. But the masses, they will rightly assume that you are my child and question where you came from. You know how it is that human children are born, and so they will say ¡®if Little Bug is the father, who is the mother?¡¯ And the best way to silence these questions is to give them an answer that will make them stop asking.¡± ¡°Okay. But I don¡¯t have a mother. Unless you count the sun. But maybe the sun is my father and you are my mother? I don¡¯t know it¡¯s confusing,¡± Atla said. ¡°Yes, but we don¡¯t need to figure out the confusing bits right now,¡± Little Bug persisted. ¡°We just need to decide what we will tell the people who ask ¡®who is that little child who follows Little Bug around these days?¡¯ And Taimei has volunteered to help us answer that question by posing as your mother.¡± The child burst into laughter. ¡°But she¡¯s too skinny!¡± Taimei flushed, for she¡¯d never thought of that particular objection. She remained silent as the world-child-eidolon¡¯s laughter died down. Then Atla turned contemplative. ¡°We are going to be lying to people. Is lying bad?¡± ¡°The control of information is an exertion of power,¡± Lady Tonilla explained. ¡°By using this fiction, we are controlling the narrative that might otherwise be turned against us. Our cause is righteous, for it is to protect you and give you a place in the world where you may stand proudly, Atla. So while it might be ¡®bad¡¯ to lie to cover up a misdeed, in this case the fiction we are presenting the world is ¡®good¡¯ because it is being done for a good reason.¡± Atla considered her words, then nodded. ¡°I want to be a good world. Taimei you are not my mother but we can play pretend. I¡¯ve never played pretend before, it¡¯s supposed to be fun!¡± Taimei nodded, relieved to have passed the world-child¡¯s test, whatever test that might have been. ¡°Perhaps you would like to go on a walk with me and talk about matters that interest you?¡± she suggested. ¡°If I am to be your pretend-mother then I should know things about you so that when people ask me of you I can give them answers.¡± Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°Okay,¡± Atla agreed, and so they went for a walk around the compound. While Little Bug took his first nap in five years that didn¡¯t end with Atla suddenly bursting into his thoughts with a new thought, question, or ¡®emergency.¡¯ ~~~~~~ I awoke from my nap into a moment of perfect silence, and my first instinct was that something was intensely wrong. Then I remembered that Atla had managed to manifest himself as an Eidolon, and that he was currently distracted by my allies. I calmed down. I rose from my bed and did several things that one usually does after waking up, then went to lay eyes on my beautiful child once more. It was not just a matter of having a face to go with a name. The manifestation of an Eidolon was a significant step in the development of a world like Atla. It marked the transition from being a stage eleven world; a world with potent latent energy and also a voice, into a stage fifteen world, having skipped straight past stages twelve, thirteen and fourteen, in which a world was expected to bring forth partial manifestations rather than a perfect one like Atla¡¯s new body. At the same point, the boy that was currently playing with Taimei and regaling her with how many different types of fish were in his ocean was decidedly not human. He wouldn¡¯t bleed when he got a scrape on his knee, he couldn¡¯t die of a fever, and he might suddenly disappear if something happened on the other side of the world to draw his attention. But at the moment he was happily distracted playing a counting game, so I considered myself lucky. Di Ram stepped up beside me. ¡°We have to talk about what this means, you know,¡± he said. ¡°I know,¡± I agreed. ¡°So ¡­¡± he paused. ¡°What does it mean? I gather that it¡¯s a good thing, but I know nothing about the raising of worlds. Until recently I thought that a world was a world and there was nothing to be done to change it.¡± ¡°It means that Atla is growing and becoming stronger,¡± I answered. ¡°Being able to contextualize himself as a human will allow him to actively channel his energy as a world in new ways. He¡¯ll be able to reach new heights.¡± I paused, considering what to share. ¡°There are Xian Lords who would attempt to subsume him at this point,¡± I confided. ¡°To merge their mind with their world¡¯s mind and become more than they were alone. But while that would make us, together, very powerful, I cannot bring myself to suggest it to Atla. Atla would no longer be Atla if I merged my mind with his, and I would no longer be Little Bug. Even if I must guide his development at a slower pace instead of taking direct control, I refuse to take that path.¡± Di Ram just nodded. ¡°I can understand your conviction on the matter. More strategically, however, I have to ask. Will this effect the alliances? The Qi of this world is already becoming so thick that formerly barren areas are as Qi laden as the focal points of the meditation rooms that the sects once used in the before times. Some formations have stopped working or caused problems because they were designed to work in low Qi density zones. There are a thousand issues that are popping up around the world because of how Atla is changing.¡± ¡°I know, and I refuse to apologize for them,¡± I said stubbornly. ¡°Especially the spread of cultivation through the masses.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s another sticky spot,¡± Di Ram agreed. ¡°We have commoners who are coming forward to their sects for testing and exceeding all of the established criteria for admittance by the hundreds. Commoners who are more advanced in simply self-exploratory methods, cultivating in their back yards, than students of the sects who have trained for decades. This world is one that I don¡¯t recognize anymore.¡± ¡°Once more I refuse to apologize. I will be happy once everyone on Atla has a chance to walk the silver, or even golden path. That will be the mark that this is a true Xian world, I think. That only children are below the silver path, and that is only so that they might grow.¡± Di Ram nodded. ¡°And the golden path?¡± ¡°Is not for everyone in every lifetime,¡± I said honestly. ¡°I hope that those who set foot on it are a fifth as just and honorable as you are, Di Ram, but there will be problems, just as there were in the old world. But the power dynamics between the strong and the weak will continue to change in the coming years, and I cannot predict how they will turn out.¡± ¡°Even with your ability to see the future?¡± ¡°I see the ways that fate is pulling people, or places, or things,¡± I explained. ¡°I can tell when one is better or worse, mostly. But not the exact future. When the world was in peril, I saw two options to save it. One was that Lord Loshi would step in and fulfill his duty as Lord of the Realm. If this happened, then I would have served him in whatever capacity he required in order to drive off Ant. Instead, the weight fell upon my shoulders. But because I had seen this possibility, I had prepared for it. And thus was Atla born.¡± ¡°You saw the Xian lords coming,¡± he pointed out. ¡°Yes. I saw five titans walking Atla and shaking things up, so I took steps to minimize the damage they would cause,¡± I admitted. ¡°And I haven¡¯t had a chance to look at fate recently. I will remedy that in due time. For now, let me just enjoy the sight of my son playing with Taimei and we can talk of futures and alliances tomorrow.¡± Di Ram nodded. ¡°Of course. I will schedule a meeting for tomorrow morning and we will discuss the state of the Alliance at that time.¡± I sighed and nodded my agreement. He stepped away, and I spent the rest of the evening watching a child-world play. ? 10. Alliances 10. Alliances After five years, finally, the fires had gone out. The Necromancer looked around the ruins of his domains and tsked. Not even his own body¡ªhis true body! Not even his own body had escaped the conflagration. He had pushed too much of himself through the links to the world of Atla in his greed and opportunism, and when the world awoke and sent its purifying light through the portals he had created, he had been too slow in collapsing the tunnel behind him. The interdimensional links were gone now, burned away by the very forces that had nearly destroyed him. So much had changed, and the Necromancer had lost so many interesting and promising test subjects. First that contagious technique which had severed the control mechanism that caused the undead to move on their own. Insidious as his own technique, entire armies had been reduced to rotting piles of meat. What a frightful technique to have followed him home. But the pure energy of the world of Atla was far more devastating. It had damaged the wards and the seals on his own world, spreading out and burning like wildfire. And the necromancer could do nothing but watch, for it was directly inimical to him. The power of a world was not to be underestimated, and this one was effectively primed to deal with his particular brand of corruption. Like an inoculation, the energy was effectively an antibody to everything that he stood for, a hard counter which he could not overcome without throwing vast amounts of energy at it. He was already greatly diminished. He had chosen to allow the fires to burn themselves out. He sighed and split himself into a dozen avatars, then rolled up his sleeves and began working on rebuilding his domain. He frowned when one of his avatars noticed that he had a message from Empress Nadia. He cursed, since it was her fault that this had befallen him in the first place. He had been happy ruling in his own little corner of nowhere when she-- He reined in his anger and called her back, standing before the communication crystal that projected his image across dimensions. She answered immediately. ¡°My body is failing. I need your help,¡± she stated. He sighed. ¡°You¡¯re burning through your descendants too quickly. Only one in ten are eligible for the procedure to begin with and¡ª¡± ¡°And what is the alternative? No. I refuse to die,¡± she stated. ¡°I wasn¡¯t suggesting that,¡± he said. ¡°You misunderstand. By preparing the body more thoroughly before inhabiting it, you¡¯ll be able to extend the use that you get out of your descendant¡¯s bodies. If you could raise them to the platinum realm before you possess them, then¡ª¡± ¡°We¡¯ve had this conversation before. It¡¯s easier to breed descendants than raise someone who might defy me,¡± Nadia answered. ¡°But you were on the cusp of divinity before you chose this path,¡± he pointed out. ¡°If you had a stronger body, you could call upon that power once more.¡± She was silent. ¡°I have my next body selected. I shall begin seeking candidates for the next one, and, as you suggest, I shall begin pouring resources into them so that they will be fertile soil once I take possession.¡± The necromancer bowed in understanding. ¡°By the way. You failed once more to claim the unbound soul,¡± she said. The necromancer swallowed nervously, feeling for the core of corrupted energy within-- He frowned. It was gone. The energy that she had infected him with had been burned away by the fire of Atla. He felt the ropes of her control attempting to twist the implanted corruption within him and felt as it slipped around the surface of his power. She had no more power over him, he realized. Yet even as he realized, his act of stoicism vanished and he mimed excruciating agony. ¡°Because of your failure, I must martial my strength to face the unbound soul directly and crush him before he reaches the mythril realm. If I did not need you to switch bodies, I would have cast you aside by now. Be grateful that you are useful,¡± she said. Then the connection was cut. The necromancer grinned. He glanced around the ruins of his world, then took the most promising tests and experiments that had survived the fires of purification, and he fled to a distant part of the multiverse. Let Nadia fix her own damn body-swapping problem. Ant was free! ~~~~~ I awoke in bed and was not alone. Atla was awake and looking at me, his face inches away from my own. I blinked in surprise and he smiled. ¡°Good morning father,¡± he said. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Good morning Atla,¡± I answered. ¡°Did you sleep?¡± ¡°There are birds migrating in another place. I watched them through the night, although it is day there. Did you know that birds can sense where my head and feet are because of something in their brain? Why don¡¯t humans have that?¡± he asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I admitted. ¡°But it sounds very useful. Come, let¡¯s get ready for the day.¡± I assisted my world-child in dressing his eidolon and did my own morning routine. He clung to my side, talking about migratory birds and magnetism. I smiled and listened with half of my mind while the other half focused on the coming day. ¡°Atla, now that you¡¯ve manifested your Eidolon once, you should find it easier to do it again in the future,¡± I told him. ¡°If you want to go back to focusing on your world-body, you can just leave anytime you want. I¡¯m going to be busy with many boring things during the coming hours, and while you¡¯re welcome to watch, you don¡¯t really have to be present. So if you want to go play, or if you want to focus on your world-self for a while, that¡¯s fine.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± he said cheerfully. ¡°The Southern Green Billed duck flies up to a thousand miles during its journey, but they usually nest within miles of where they were hatched. Sometimes a single nest is used for six generations.¡± ¡°That¡¯s amazing,¡± I said. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that.¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± Once it was clear that Atla was content to follow me for the day, I made my way to the courtyard, where I was somewhat surprised to find that my retainers were all already present. ¡°Lord Little Bug!¡± Pi Phon shouted, piercing through the slight din of conversation. ¡°And the Young Master, Atla.¡± The various heads of various factions within the Many Peaks Alliance turned and bowed to various depths depending upon their relative positions, but they all showed respect. I noticed that there was a seat of honor placed in the front of the courtyard, next to the elm tree. And Di Ram was decidedly not taking it. I held a conversation with him in silent exchanges, but it was clear that the seat was for me. Reluctantly, I took the spot to get the meeting started. Atla giggled and ran straight into the tree, becoming one with it. Incorporeal once more, I still heard his voice as he began talking about the root structure of the tree he¡¯d planted yesterday and how it stretched out and tangled with many others. The child¡¯s casual display had various effects on the gathered men and women, but I simply picked up the first sheet of paper that was handed to me. ¡°Alright then,¡± I said. ¡°Let us discuss matters of this little alliance which seems to believe that I am their patriarch.¡± Two hours later, Atla pulled at my attention, whispering in my ear ¡°I¡¯m glad that I started playing with the trees instead of staying to listen. These people are so boring!¡± ¡°Yes, well, they are dealing with important matters which might shape the future of the alliance of humans in the future. I am hoping to set things up so that everyone is happy on your world and that there are no wars. You were very sad about the war in the Lokoto region until we put a stop to it, remember? So they¡¯re working on keeping you happy.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± he said. ¡°I like this tree.¡± ¡°The tree you planted yesterday?¡± ¡°No, a different one. I¡¯ll show you. It¡¯s neat.¡± I allowed myself to be swept away in the vision, and Atla was right. The tree was a very good tree. ¡°Patriarch?¡± the young retainer said, confused by the vacant look on my face. I blinked around and realized that my focus on Atla had derailed the meeting for a moment. ¡°Apologies. I was focused on Atla, who is playing with a tree many miles southwest of here.¡± The retainer smiled. ¡°It makes sense now why you have only interacted with us through avatars. You were busy with a powerful and precocious child. Seeing Atla in the flesh has reassured everyone that you are indeed the leader we thought you were.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± I asked. ¡°Well, remember that I am just a figurehead. Di Ram rules the Many Peak Alliance in my name. His word is law, I am just here as the world-father to give his own judgments additional weight.¡± ¡°As you say,¡± the retainer said. The meeting continued the entire day. The Many Peaks Alliance was slowly spreading out. It covered the southern central continent already, with only a few sects or clans who had not thrown their lots in with the organization. They were in the process of reclaiming and repopulating the northern continent after the devastation of the undead invasion, which meant that they had a considerable amount of land to build their foundation upon. However, most of that remained wilderness, and they were in a race against Atla¡¯s wildlife to claim that territory, as just like the human cultivators, the sudden abundance of Qi in the environment meant that animals that were previously restricted in their growth were awakening as spirit beasts. More significantly and requiring far more importance, however, were the negotiations with the other factions throughout the world. Some of them were anxious to throw their lot in with the alliance, as the rewards for doing so were substantial. Included in membership was access to the Library of the Six Mountain Sect, which contained one of the most extensive repositories of knowledge and heritages of powerful cultivators, including the personal notes of many ascendants. Including an entire section dedicated to my own notes on a plethora of topics. Then there were the holdouts, such as Nonpo and other regions which either did not trust our open offer of friendship, or which feared our rising power, or which jealously guarded their own lands and secrets. Fortunately, I was able to delegate the majority of this work to Di Ram¡¯s subordinates after simply listening to their reports and assuring them that they were doing a good job. I was happy with the direction that the Alliance was taking overall. Once the state of the alliance had been determined, however, it was time for me to make several announcements which would shake things up considerably. ? 11. Service 11. Service ¡°Father, father, I found a bug that poops silk,¡± Atla whispered as I began to speak. I frowned, having been derailed from my line of thought. ¡°That¡¯s fascinating Atla, but I¡¯m about to tell the boring men what to do now, so if you could¡ª¡± ¡°Oh, I want to watch that,¡± the world-child said, and abruptly he manifested back in the courtyard. I covered my face and apologized to the gathered retainers as I quickly helped Atla dress his Eidolon with the clothes that a servant had recovered from where they had gotten stuck to the tree. Once that was done, I stood and turned to the gathered men and women. ¡°I apologize. My son is still learning how to manifest himself,¡± I said to the gathering. ¡°But as I was about to say, I am very proud of all of you. You have made significant strides towards unifying this world under one banner, and in doing so without the shedding of blood. I do not think that I need to tell you how very rare of an occurrence that is. But even when a roadblock could more easily be overcome by force, I encourage you to continue to take the difficult and higher road of peaceful negotiation. Even when the result is a rejection of your efforts, we are playing a very long game here. I am planning the future of Atla in the terms of centuries, so what does it matter if certain clans or other forces hold out against the alliance for a few decades? Let them have their pride and come to the table on their own terms. The dozens of sects and hundreds of clans that we have rallied so far make it clear that the future is in our hands.¡± To my surprise, the assembled men and women cheered. I smiled, as did Atla, and we waited for the cheers to die down. ¡°That said, I believe that it is time to offer some additional incentives. I am announcing the construction of a waygate system to traverse all territories which are allied with the Many Peaks,¡± I said. ¡°Some of you are already familiar with my spacial magics, as Tonilla and some others have taken some of you to the mountains I have put inside boxes. Compared to that, a waygate system is both very simple and very complex, and I will require the help of your logistics teams in getting it into place. But once it is built, we shall connect the greatest cities of the world together.¡± ¡°Instead of taking years for a mortal to travel from Mer¡¯cah to the lands of the eastern or western continents, it will take them a single step. I have already prepared the waygate between the ruins of the Six Mountain Sect and Mer¡¯cah, so those who are responsible for such things may investigate the materials that I¡¯ll require in detail and begin planning the constructions and locations of the sites to build the gates.¡± This announcement was met with stupefied expressions, followed by even louder cheers. But I still wasn¡¯t finished, and I motioned for them to be silent. ¡°Finally, I am announcing a world tournament. Like the tournament of Mer¡¯cah several years ago, it will be open to all challengers regardless of their allegiances. We will divide it by realms, with a section for the foundation, bronze, silver, and golden path. The grand prize shall be a dao impartment from myself for the winner of each tier of the tournament.¡± Instead of cheers, this announcement was met with stunned silence, until Atla began giggling. Then the others all cheered as well. ¡°I leave the details of these matters to your capable hands,¡± I said. ¡°Di Ram, when you have finished with delegating my instructions properly, I will meet you with the Peach Blossoms in your study.¡± ¡°Yes, Little Bug,¡± Di Ram said, and I bowed humbly to the servants of the alliance. As I walked away, Atla decided that he wanted to be carried, and so I closed the door behind me by bumping it with my hip while my arms carried the weight of a world. ~~~~~~~ Di Ram cursed as his former student and current master exited the courtyard and, moments later, his retainers burst into questions, expecting him to have the answers already figured out how to make both the great public works announcement work as well as this massive tournament. ¡°I shall take control of the tournament,¡± his wife said from where she stood next to him, taking his hand in a moment of quiet support which he was profoundly grateful for. ¡°After having run the tournament where Little Bug first emerged onto the lips of the masses, I have some experience in these matters. While this sounds like a step beyond that, I will endeavor to make Po Guah¡¯s vision a reality.¡± Di Ram exhaled, as a burden shared was a burden halved. He nodded his agreement. She cleared her voice and announced ¡°The planning committee for the tournament will meet one week from today. For those of you who are interested in serving on this committee, applications will open tomorrow and remain open until the night before the committee¡¯s first meeting, where the selection of the board shall be made. As the appointed chairperson, I will be in charge of the selection process, and endeavor to be fair and judicial throughout the process.¡± Di Ram suppressed a chuckle as he realized why she had just taken the project on to herself. He would be best served by turning a blind eye to her ¡®fair and judicial¡¯ proceedings, as the amount of political corruption involved in the matter was likely to make him blow his top. She had a better sense for how to step up to that line without crossing it than he did. ¡°Pi Phon,¡± he said, and the young man snapped to attention. He had been distracted ever since he had received the personal coaching of the Xian visitor on how to step foot onto the golden path. ¡°Are you at a stage where you may continue to serve, or do you wish to withdraw from the committee of public works at this time to focus on advancing to the next step.¡± Pi Phon frowned, and for a moment he had a far off expression. Then he nodded. ¡°I will serve. Tomorrow. I need to go into seclusion now tonight,¡± he said, withdrawing from the meeting. Di Ram sighed, because he¡¯d been hoping to unload most of the work onto Pi Phon¡¯s shoulders. But they were cultivators, and he knew that Pi Phon was at a critical point in his advancement, which is why he had asked rather than simply name him his number two. ¡°In the meantime, let us visit the waygate that Lord Little Bug has constructed to see what our requirements are for fulfilling the expectations our leader has put upon us,¡± he said, and the meeting broke up. Three hours later, while the volunteers of the public works committee were investigating the simple gate which opened to a destination hundreds of miles away, Pi Phon took his first steps onto the Golden Path. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. He had chosen a life of servitude, and in doing so he had elevated himself. ~~~~~~ Hien Ro joined the other disciples with Little Bug in Di Ram¡¯s study. Young Atla was crawling over Little Bug, who had the patience of a parent who had a hyperactive child who simply needed to get the energy out. Hien Ro had a thought. ¡°Atla, would you like to play with my daughters?¡± he asked. ¡°I already know everything about them,¡± Atla said. ¡°But why don¡¯t you play with them? I know that you¡¯re a world, and that this body you show us is an Eidolon, although I don¡¯t really understand what that means. But you might enjoy playing as human children do, and I¡ª¡± ¡°Yes! Father I¡¯m going to go play with Hien Ro¡¯s girls,¡± Atla said. And rather than run the distance like a human child would, Atla¡¯s eidolon vanished. Leaving clothes that drooped to the ground without their occupant. Little Bug spent just a second to cover his face in frustration before he split off an Dao avatar, which picked up the clothes and ran to prevent a scandal. The real Little Bug exchanged a look with Hien Ro, who simply grinned back at him. ¡°Kids, right?¡± he said, and Little Bug chuckled. ¡°I appreciate the effort to distract him. I love him, and I¡¯m proud of his manifestation of an Eidolon, but it¡¯s also very challenging. Rewarding, but challenging,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°I feel the same way about the girls,¡± Hien Ro said. Hien Yara stepped forward. ¡°I should probably go and calm the girls down as well. I¡¯d send an avatar, but, well, you know. Can¡¯t yet.¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯ll be best if it¡¯s you. They might have questions,¡± Hien Ro agreed. ¡°I¡¯ll take notes for you,¡± Ro promised, and he kissed his wife quickly before she dashed out the door after Little Bug¡¯s avatar. ¡°Parental emergencies aside,¡± Little Bug said, setting five artifacts on the desk in front of him. ¡°We need to discuss the visit from the representatives of the emerald court and how we will respond.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Ro said. ¡°We¡¯ve only got mixed reports from the people who were visited, but at least the representatives were mostly peaceful. Even Mioji respected the terms of our spar, although he was very disappointed that we didn¡¯t push things further than we did.¡± ¡°Thank you for managing him,¡± Little bug said. Ro shrugged, as did the other disciples. ¡°It was fun to flex our power again,¡± Thaseus admitted. ¡°Being challenged by a powerful opponent from beyond the stars is an excellent story to share,¡± Lukal Lukal agreed. ¡°Which brings us to how we are going to handle the court of Prince Ostoin, whom Mioji represents,¡± Little Bug said. He placed a finger on the necklace, a silver and golden chain with a gemstone that looked like a ruby but was more. He closed his eyes, opened them, and they were pure white, as they always were when their master looked at the strands of fate. ¡°I could send an avatar, but that is the middle ground. It has no worse options than sending a representative, but no greater benefits either,¡± he pronounced. ¡°But sending a warrior of great strength would earn me greater respect among their faction of the court. I believe I will wait until the conclusion of the tournament and see if anyone distinguishes themselves.¡± He placed a finger on the fan, then nodded. ¡°Lady Tonilla will represent me to the court of Duke Valan,¡± he pronounced. ¡°This too will wait until the conclusion of the tournament. The fact that she is my step mother and a powerful politician on my world in her own right will earn her significant credit when she arrives, and she will be able to navigate the waters of that court better than anyone else in my service.¡± He moved on to the diamond. ¡°Prince Yema presents a number of options. He will plant the peach that I gave him, which marks him as one of the wiser leaders who sent representatives. I believe I shall send him not one, but three representatives, if they would agree to make the journey.¡± He turned and looked at Farun, Arjun and Lahri with a meaningful expression. They exchanged looks, then nodded. ¡°If that is what you would have of us,¡± Lahri said, ¡°then we¡¯ll leave whenever you wish.¡± ¡°This is not an order. This path is not without danger,¡± Little Bug stated. ¡°The better question isn¡¯t what the danger of the journey will be, it is what the rewards shall be,¡± Farun said. ¡°If this road is open to us then I say we take it.¡± ¡°And with my vote we are unanimous,¡± Arjun said. ¡°When do we leave? Do we wait for the tournament to conclude?¡± ¡°You can. Or you can leave at your convenience. The court of Prince Yema will see it as a compliment that I am sending three representatives instead of only one, as well as the promptness of my reply, but while it is a compliment to be the first, the others will not see it as an insult that I take my time in selecting my other delegates,¡± Little Bug explained. ¡°Give us two weeks to prepare,¡± Lahri said. ¡°Then we shall go and see what advantages we can find in Prince Yema¡¯s court.¡± Little Bug nodded, and he placed a finger upon the dagger. ¡°I shall send an avatar to the court of Duke Doe, once Atla has adjusted to his new Eidolon and requires slightly less of my attention.¡± He moved on to the ring. ¡°Which leaves Count Beailor. While I see that he is weaker than the other options, I also see a possibility of a strong alliance. Shishi brought him one of my peaches, and he will see the wisdom in planting it. With his unwavering support, I see the possibilities of certain futures flickering in the distance that shine brighter than many others.¡± Little Bug turned to Hien Ro, and his eyes changed from white to their normal color. ¡°Hien Ro. My friend and companion. Will you perform this task for me? Will you journey to the court of Count Beailor and secure an alliance in my name?¡± Hien Ro blushed at the sudden formality of the request. He scratched the back of his head nervously. ¡°Can I bring my family?¡± Little Bug grinned and nodded. ¡°Even better!¡± ? 12. Another One 12. Another One It took some time to make my will manifest, but I was in no hurry. Over the coming weeks I received constant reports on how news of my tournament was being spread, and how the preliminary maps of where the waygates would be located were being distributed. The opening of a waygate was rather simple for me. I had attuned myself to spacial energies before ascending to the bronze path, and now that I was on the diamond path I was even more proficient than I had ever been. All I needed to do was use two avatars to fold space at the same time and form a connection, then anchor that connection on a formation dedicated to maintaining it. The waygate could be disrupted by destroying the formation, of course, which would cause space to snap back into it¡¯s usual behavior. But otherwise it should power itself indefinitely on the ambient Qi of Atla. While the old world wouldn¡¯t have been able to maintain more than a dozen of these waygates, the new Atla was more than capable of holding thousands open at the same time. But I wasn¡¯t planning to open so many as that. One per continent at the minimum, with a few more. I encouraged the cities aside from Mer¡¯cah to bid for who would host each gate. It was a quick way to fill the coffers of the alliance. The opening of the gate to the northern continent also allowed some of the refugees from there to finally return home without crossing the former wastelands, where the Qi gathering arrays of Lord Loshi had drained the land almost dry. Now, those lands were in resurgence, with animals and insects and plants suddenly feasting on a bounty of Qi. The journey south had been long but uneventful once they had escaped the undead attacks. That would not remain true for very long as the wastelands gave rise to spirit beasts and plants. The same was happening all over the world. While the average cultivation level of the people of Atla was rising to the bronze path or higher, so too were the challenges they faced from nature. This was ultimately a good thing, as I saw it, but it meant that there would be those who failed to rise to the challenge. Atla periodically informed me when a mortal died. There was no real pattern to what sort of mortal drew his attention, he would just interject it into the conversation. And then I would dwell on whether or not that person would have lived had the world not changed beneath their feet. But the answer was no. If I hadn¡¯t acted, if I hadn¡¯t quickened Atla, then the world would have been corrupted by Ant. People might be dying thanks to my actions, but more were clinging to life in this new, exciting, and quickly changing world that was my son. Atla¡¯s ability to manifest an Eidolon continued to improve, and eventually he even learned to manifest his clothing with the rest of his body. That was a great relief to the Hien family, as while the girls were becoming close friends with my world-child, they would shriek and run and hide when he first appeared before one of the servants manage to dress him. In summary, time passed, and things proceeded the way that I wished them to. Billions of people lived and struggled to adapt in the world which I had found myself parenting, and that was good. Many more animals also struggled, and the number of spirit beasts surged. That was also good, but in a very different way. Ultimately, I stood on the apex of the world, and it was not my place to look too closely at the lives of those struggling beneath me. I would cause problems if I did so, so I remained aloof aside from those in my immediate circle. Except for now and then, when the strands of fate pulled me towards a certain individual who showed great promise. ~~~~ Toorah sighed as the members of the sect to which his family owed allegiance continue to dissect the formation that Master Little Bug had formed, with their permission, five years ago. They had been told that it was simply meant to tap into the worldwide gathering arrays and siphon off a small bit of energy, and that he would destroy it once it no longer served its purposes. And he had bribed them to get them to cooperate. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. But then everything had changed when the sun had gone out and the world was submerged in perfect darkness, until the world itself began to glow. The formation glowed brighter than anything else, shooting a pillar of light into the sky that had helped bring the sun back. That had generated a lot of interest in Toorah¡¯s sleepy little village, and now, five years later, he was a disciple in the sect. But a low ranked one, despite having reached the silver path at only fifteen years of age. Such an accomplishment would have once marked him as a genius, but now it was only average. The Qi in the world since the day the sun vanished was so much denser and richer than it had been that even he, who had barely been able to sense it before that, could tell the difference. ¡°Toorah,¡± came one of his senior brother¡¯s voice. ¡°Come here, I have an errand for you to run.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Toorah agreed, and he fetched the burden, a bunch of rubbings and notes, and went to run them back to the sect. Thirty miles away. It wasn¡¯t so bad, but he hadn¡¯t quite figured out how to fly yet like most silver ranked cultivators could, so he was stuck to the ground. As he reached a crossroads, suddenly, his first master appeared before him. Toorah cried out in shock and dropped his burden. ¡°Master Little Bug! You have returned! The sect is tearing apart the formation that you built even though we tried to argue that it should be preserved and --¡± ¡°That formation has served its purpose. The cultivators of the Green Valley River Sect are welcome to study it, although they will get little benefit from the knowledge they gain without seeing the whole picture,¡± Master Little Bug answered. ¡°Toorah. I am not really here. This is an astral projection. You stand at a crossroads, and your fate takes you into two separate directions. I cannot tell you which path to take, but I can tell you where they lead.¡± Toorah studied the apparition and realized that he could sort of see through it. Huh. ¡°What do you mean, Master? I mean, this path leads to the sect, and¡ª¡± ¡°And it leads to a life of servitude as the established families of the sect attempt to relegate the emerging cultivators into lesser factions while maintaining a grip on power. That is why I stopped in your village in the first place, to make certain that they did not have a monopoly on cultivation techniques.¡± ¡°Everyone and their sister is practicing the Peach Blossom Dream now,¡± Toorah said. ¡°Although the grownups took some time to learn it and are still sweating out black sludge in many cases.¡± ¡°That is good. Everyone adjusts at their own pace, and while I disagree with your sect on many matters, they will keep the growth of spirit beasts in check during this transition. Your personal fate, however, has another alternative aside from continuing to serve in your sect.¡± ¡°And what is that?¡± Toorah asked, his ears perking up with interest. ¡°Glory,¡± Little Bug answered. ¡°If you wish for a quiet life, carry your burden to your sect and pretend that I never appeared. If you wish for your name to be remembered, then take the road to the city of Litha. I will not give you more detailed instructions than that. If you want glory, then you must find it yourself. But that is the direction in which it lays.¡± The vision of his master vanished. Toorah stood at the crossroads for ten minutes, then abandoned his package and took the road that didn¡¯t lead back to his sect. He wasn¡¯t worried about being kicked out, or abandoning his family, or anything like that. He just wanted people to know his name. Even if it meant something silly like ¡°Whoops there¡¯s another one.¡± He laughed. It was a funny name for a seventh child. ? 13. The Companions 13. The Companions ¡°Are you certain that you are willing to take on this task for me?¡± Little Bug asked the three dao companions. They sat in the private chambers that Di Tonilla had added on to her private compound for Little Bug, where Atla was playing with toy horses in one corner of the room. ¡°We¡¯ve spoken about it at length in private. We are honored that you trust us and are pleased to make this journey in your name,¡± Lahri said. ¡°You have given us a great honor and we look forward to representing you to the court of Prince Yema,¡± Arjun agreed. ¡°And we will bleed them for every opportunity or advantage we can squeeze out of them,¡± Farun said. Little Bug nodded, then presented them with the uncut diamond. ¡°This will lead your way. Lilayla herself paved the way to the court when she arrived, and this should pull you back to her origin point. When you are ready to return to Atla, you will need the assistance of Prince Yema¡¯s court to make the journey, so I suggest that you either be friendly so that they want to help, or so obnoxious that they cannot wait to get rid of you.¡± They laughed, and took the stone. With their Qi combined as one, they reached out and touched the hidden world inside the stone. They were sucked inside, then twisted sideways, kittywompus, and backwards as they were pulled through dimensions. Despite how sturdy they were as golden path cultivators, the journey was not one that was easy for them, and they emerged on the other side with with a queasy, nauseated feeling, but managed to keep their last meal in their stomachs. They stood in an archway, and the room was aglow with lit up runes and magical symbols of every color. They examined the scene for a moment before a servant appeared and bowed humbly. ¡°Welcome of Prince Yema, honored emissaries. If you would come with me, I will show you to your quarters and make you comfortable. Do you have any luggage?¡± ¡°Only a mountain or three,¡± Farun said, handing over the box where his personal mountain resided. ¡°Tell me, have you arranged for one room or three for us?¡± ¡°Three, of course.¡± ¡°That will not do,¡± Arjun said. ¡°For we will not be separated. Even in death, we are sworn to trod the road forward together.¡± The servant¡¯s eyes shot up. ¡°I see. We can knock the wall out and, yes, that will work. But it will take some time to arrange. In the mean time, perhaps you would wish to visit the garden?¡± ¡°That sounds lovely,¡± Lahri agreed, and the servant led them deeper into the palace, while another one who had been listening ran off to begin the construction on their room. Mortal servants ¨C for in the court of Prince Yama anyone below the Golden Path was considered mortal ¨C worked with superhuman speed, endurance, and precision as they combined the three guest suites into one large one. The beds were pushed together, and the furniture rearranged for the increased space. It took mere hours while the dao companions sat on the edge of a pond, feeding the koi. ¡°The Qi here feels strange,¡± Lahri commented. ¡°It¡¯s not Atla¡¯s Qi, that¡¯s all. We¡¯ll get used to it,¡± Arjun predicted. ¡°Is it strange that I¡¯m already homesick?¡± Lahri asked. ¡°Not at all,¡± Farun assured her. ¡°But remember why we¡¯re here. Lord Little Bug needs allies, and we are here to assist him in securing as many as possible. We owe him everything, including the love we bear for each other. If it were not his insight, perhaps we would never have set down this path together.¡± ¡°I know,¡± Lahri said, rehearsing the skit they¡¯d prepared for just this moment for the spies that were watching. The companions could sense the eyes upon them, and they gave a grand performance, idly enjoying themselves while discussing their hopes and motivations. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Or at least the ones that they chose to present to the court. ~~~~~~ Yema was pleased. While a prince, she was very much a woman. The court simply used masculine names for its ranks due to an archaic system which nobody could agree to change, so it remained in place. And she was very happy that the new Xian Ascendant had chosen to send her not one, but three representatives before sending any to the other courts which had sent him an invitation. Ultimately it wasn¡¯t exactly something that she could lord over the others, as she didn¡¯t know the intricacies of Little Bug¡¯s court and so she didn¡¯t understand the motives behind the actions. It might have been a compliment to her, a slight, a way of getting rid of ambitious underlings, or a way of honoring loyal retainers. She simply didn¡¯t know. Which was the most frustrating thing of the entire situation, but also the most delightful. That someone had daringly managed to create a Xian world inside of the stagnant universe that Duke Loshi held in his stranglehold was the gossip of the entire Emerald Court, and she couldn¡¯t wait for the gossip that these three interlinked companions would bring spread to her ears. She wanted to call them to an audience at once, but there was a way of things. First a feast which would last three days, and then she would make an appearance, and then finally a formal introduction, in which she would invite them to a private audience. And then she would be able to speak candidly with them and fish for what she truly desired. Information. Gossip yes. But ultimately, she wanted to know how it was that Little Bug had done it. How he had managed to raise a world in the backwater, Qi starved wastelands that was Loshi¡¯s domain. While she didn¡¯t expect an answer, perhaps the emissaries would provide hints of how it was done. In the mean time, she had a feast to enjoy, she reflected, waiting patiently as the mechanisms of her palace began to turn and the servants prepared for the celebration. She could already smell the sweetmeats cooking, and she sneaked out of her throne room to pester the cook. ~~~~~~ ¡°Father, I can¡¯t sense them anymore,¡± Atla said, standing nervously and holding the toy horse to his chest. ¡°Yes, they are very far away from you,¡± I answered. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect your senses to stretch that far, so don¡¯t¡ª¡± ¡°Bring them back,¡± Atla said. I paused. ¡°Atla, have we not talked about this? They are representing me, representing us, to our potential allies elsewhere in another dimension. I¡ª¡± ¡°They¡¯re my, their your friends. I don¡¯t like it that they¡¯re somewhere I can¡¯t watch over them. What if they get in trouble? How will I help them if I can¡¯t see them?¡± Atla demanded. I nodded, and put my hand on my son¡¯s shoulder comfortingly. ¡°We just have to have faith that they will see the path which leads them back home on their own, Atla. I am certain that they will be fine.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know that though,¡± Atla said. ¡°I see it when you look at fate, and there are fates where they die off world. You know it and I know it too. I don¡¯t want that to happen.¡± ¡°They knew that when they accepted the task, my son. But with danger comes opportunity for growth. I sent the companions to Prince Yema because I saw that they would have a chance for immense growth if planted in that soil. And besides, the future where the companions die together is very, very unlikely to happen, and you know that too.¡± Atla pouted at him, then looked at his toy horse. ¡°I¡¯m going to go look at real horses,¡± he declared, and he vanished. With his clothes this time, so that was an improvement, so long as he remembered to manifest them when he reappeared. Wherever that might happen. I shook my head, pleased at the world-child¡¯s rapid growth. Hopefully I was doing a good job of guiding him. ? 14. Opportunity 14. Opportunity Toorah was eating noodles at an outside restaurant, listening to the gossip of the city of Litha as told by two old men, a hag, a pretty young lady, and a talking monkey. While the city didn¡¯t belong to any one sect, three sects together formed a sort of unified governing council alongside six clans. It was a loose alliance, with centuries of tensions and infighting. But the topic today was whether or not the council would accept the invitation of the Many Peaks Alliance to have a waygate installed in the city of Litha. Or rather, whether they would win the competition between six other nearby cities to earn the right to call their city the host of the Worldfather¡¯s latest miracle. The monkey was speaking of what sort of effect the waygates would have on trade if they worked as advertised, while the old woman was more concerned with how this would affect traditional values, and the two young men were excitedly egging her on by speaking of how they looked forward to chasing women on another continent. Toorah was finishing his noodles when the monkey said something which made his ears twitch. ¡°¡ªAnd they¡¯re hiring all sorts of translators. Anyone who speaks a language from another place is in demand, but the language of the Ker¡¯tath region is especially in demand. As is the language spoken by the Six Mountain Sect, since they¡¯re the driving force behind the Many Peaks,¡± the monkey was saying. ¡°Where is that?¡± he asked, and the conversationalists stopped talking to look at him. ¡°I speak a foreign language, but I¡¯m not sure what language it is or where it¡¯s spoken. If it¡¯s a valuable skill, well, I¡¯m almost out of coin so I could use the work. Do you know where I should go to try out?¡± The monkey looked him up and down, then dismissed him. ¡°City hall. It¡¯s in the Crimson Docks District. Get directions from someone else, but that¡¯s what I heard.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± Toorah said, and he bowed politely to the gossipers as he made his way across the city. He arrived twenty minutes later, having accosted a half-dozen guides along the way for the location of city hall. When he arrived, he approached the guard outside the main entrance and bowed politely. ¡°Hello, sir, I hear that the council is in need of translators?¡± Then he repeated the words in the language that his master had taught him in a moment of profound magic, simply placing his hand on his head when Toorah had been ten years old and pushing the knowledge inside. The guard looked at him in shock, then ushered him inside. After Toorah displayed his proficiency a half dozen more times, he was officially gainfully employed. His jaw just about hit the floor when he heard his salary. Apparently his skills were very, very in demand. He¡¯d have to tip the talking monkey the next time he saw him. He was given an advance, but told that he was expected to spend most of it purchasing new clothes at a certain boutique, while the remainder could be spent upgrading from the hostel he had been staying at to a more suitable dwelling for a member of the diplomatic staff. Three days later, he was in a meeting in which the fate of his city was decided. The representatives from Litha city were present with a delegation from the city of Liris, it¡¯s sister city further west down the coast. Toorah was shifting in his fancy new clothes and mostly listening to the occurrence, but his presence was needed in case the delegation from the city of Mer¡¯cath said anything in the language of the Worldfather. ¡°The purpose of this meeting is that I have, upon consultation with my superiors and negotiations with the council of Litha, decided to withdraw my bid from consideration as a site for the waygate,¡± the head negotatiator for the city of Liris was saying. The representative from across the sea said something, and eyes turned to Toorah as he was expected to translate. After a brief back and forth, Toorah turned back to his employers. ¡°Oh, um, she asked what brought on this change of heart.¡± The negotiator nodded and explained. ¡°There are a number of factors. Recently the city of Liris has had a problem with rampaging spirit beasts, both on shore and at sea. While few lives have been lost thanks to the citizenry gaining access to cultivator techniques, the problem is that we cannot secure our lands at this time without reinvesting in our defenses, which means that we do not have the funds necessary to purchase the contract for the waygate.¡± The representative waited for the translation, but the negotiator from Liris wasn¡¯t finished yet. ¡°As part of our agreement to withdraw, the council of Litha has agreed to lend us support in training up a guard force, rebuilding roads that have fallen into disrepair, and to assist in finding capable young cultivators to protect those who have not been able to develop the skills necessary to protect themselves in this new world. As such, not only does the city of Liris withdraw from consideration at this time, they throw in their support wholeheartedly to the city of Litha as the host of the waygate to Mer¡¯cah.¡± The representative from the many peaks alliance scratched her chin in thought as the words were translated, then spoke in the language of the northern continent across the sea. Which is the language which had been pressed into Toorah¡¯s head, so that he might better understand the profound statements that his master had said to him back then. ¡°You are nervous that we will see corruption at the backroom dealing between your two cities to lower the price, but also that we will find out on our own. The truth is that I already heard whispers of this decision and I am very pleased that you decided for a transparent approach rather than attempting to hide the realities of the situation from me. We support this arrangement between the cities of Liris and Litha without reservation. It has not gone beyond our notice that Liris has had difficulties adjusting to the new world, and we were nervous that her leaders would bankrupt her buying a waygate to encourage trade that they couldn¡¯t support.¡± She fell silent, waiting patiently for Toorah to translate, which he did as fast as he could. He was slightly out of breath when he finished, and then he nodded to her that he had gotten her words out and she continued. ¡°I am willing to consider the service that the city of Litha is providing to the city of Liris as credit towards the buy-in for the waygate. If you pledge to support Liris to the sum of ten thousand golden coins or more, that will definitively purchase a waygate for your city. I will withdraw to allow you to negotiate the practicalities of this offer in private, but I expect an answer within a week.¡± The representatives withdrew, and with her absence, Toorah was sent away. He was in a noodle shop later that day when he heard that the city had secured the contract to buy the waygate. His only thoughts were ¡®well that was quick.¡¯ He quickly finished his meal and rushed back to work to see if his translation skills were needed. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. They were, and he was kept up half the night as they worked out the details for the building of the waygate, which would occur as soon as the Avatar of the Worldfather arrived in Litha, sometime within the next few months. ~~~~~ Shisuke sighed as the latest spy report came in. He went over to the map table, which showed a world map that was increasingly turning the blue that his cartographers were using to represent the spread of the Many Peaks Alliance¡¯s influence. Soon, the map would be nothing but blue, with a red center to represent Nonpo itself. With a heavy heart, he crossed off one more city-state that had declared itself for the alliance, and then another, and a third and a fourth and a fifth. He didn¡¯t have all the details of the arrangement, but those cities had traded in exchange for the promise of a way-gate. He was still suspicious that such things could exist on a world like Atla, but the other world leaders believed they existed and were willing to go to great lengths to obtain one. His eyebrow twitched in frustration. The world was changing in more ways than one. Peasants awakening as cultivators, the peach blossom dream spreading among the masses, the rise of a spirit beast tide, and now the many peaks alliance spreading across the world like wildfire through a steppe without any opposition at all. The fact that they were not demanding obedience or the handing over of sovereignty mattered little in his opinion. The way the offer was presented, the benefits ridiculously outweighed the costs. It had started simply with access to the Six Mountain Sect¡¯s library, according to the intel that Shisuke had gathered. That had been enough to gather the support of the southern central continent to one banner. That the Six Mountains traditionally ruled the northern central continent meant that, with a stroke of the hand, they had conquered two continents in less than a year. But their influence had spread. Next, the negotiations involved tariff reductions, trade support, caravans and rare goods. As greed conquered the world, Shisuke had tried to point out to the other leaders the trap that he alone saw. There was a hook in this bait somewhere, he was certain. Officially the only penalty for withdrawing from the alliance was a loss of everything the member gained by joining. As the benefits of joining continued to rise, however, independence became increasingly costly. And now the waygates. His eyebrow twitched again. How could he argue against instantaneous travel across the world? That the cities could even recoup the price of the installation over time with a simple tax on the service meant that it wasn¡¯t simply a price to be paid, but an investment to be recouped. Nonpo was not, as he liked to pretend, perfectly isolated. They traded with their neighbors by sea. The sea trade was surprisingly opposed to the introduction of waygates, but Shisuke could see the benefits. If he took the bait, if he brought in a waygate, then would he have outsiders walking the streets? Or would Nonpo remain proud and isolated? He frowned, then turned back to the other reports. He wished that this matter did not fall into his lap, but of his brothers, he had been the first and only to reach the golden path before their father ascended. That made him the heir protector of the Nonpo people. But the world was changing, and gold rank did not mean the same thing that it once did. Already, Nonpo was reporting that three others had reached the milestone. Cultivators who had been stuck at the bronze path for decades due to a lack of resources to elevate themselves had suddenly blossomed in this new world. And then the commoners awakening by the thousands. His eyebrow twitched. He did not like change, but the world was changing. Reluctantly, he admitted that Nonpo would have to change or be forgotten in the sands of time. He took out a piece of paper, and began to write a formal invitation for a delegation from the Many Peak Alliance to the port of Weshi. He set it aside for the ink to dry, then went to bed. His assistants would deal with the logistics of getting the letter where it needed to go while he rested. He was not expecting an answer the very next day, but he was informed upon waking that a cultivator representing the alliance had arrived in the night and was patiently awaiting an audience. Shisuke¡¯s eyebrows twitched at the representative arriving uninvited, but then he recalled the apparition¡¯s promise that he would be sending a representative to discuss the matter of compensation for Omaia¡¯s visit to their island nation. He had put it out of his mind until the aide explained the delegate¡¯s stated reason for visiting. So they didn¡¯t have spies examining his every move, it was just a coincidence, he told himself. He sent out instructions for the guest to be made welcome, then moved to an audience chamber to receive them. A young man, tall and with broad shoulders, a man filled with muscle, stepped forward. He did not bow, but only nodded. One golden path cultivator to another. The fact that one of them was the ruler of Nonpo did not matter to this man, for the other was a disciple of the Worldfather. ¡°I am Thaseus Dios,¡± the stranger said. ¡°As I have told your subordinates, I come to discuss the matter of the disruption that our offworlders caused your nation a few weeks ago. You have the Many Peaks Alliance official apology for the event and we are grateful for your assistance in the matter of keeping the delegation from the stars entertained. We ask that you tally up the expenses she incurred during her visit and we will repay them tenfold.¡± Shisuke nodded. ¡°It is not so much, really. She ate lavishly and we engaged several mortal acting troupes for their services, but in terms of finances, the most costly resource that she deprived Nonpo of was my undivided attention. Which was, after I got over the shock of having such a powerful visitor, not so unpleasant.¡± ¡°Even so, you simply need to give me a number and I will ensure that you receive compensation,¡± Thaseus insisted. ¡°Nonpo has made its stance on the alliance clear and we wish to respect your national boundaries and wishes to remain independent. If you¡ª¡± ¡°Waygates,¡± Shisuke said. ¡°Do they go only to Mer¡¯cah? Can we, perhaps, negotiate one connected to another location?¡± Thaseus stopped mid-sentence, then scratched his stubble as he considered the question. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure they go wherever the Worldfather wants to put them.¡± ¡°We of the Nonpo People are not interested in the access to the archives, but several of the other benefits of the alliance have some of my subordinates and supporters salivating. And I confess that a waygate to one of our distant ports of trade is a very tempting thing for me to consider as well,¡± Shisuke admitted. Thaseus nodded at the words. ¡°I¡¯m not a skilled negotiator, and I do not know all of the details of the network of waygates that the worldfather is building. If you wish to engage in a lesser form of alliance than a full membership, then I can have a delegation here within a week to discuss specific terms. To include a waygate in the deal doesn¡¯t seem unreasonable to me, but such things are above my station to promise. I was only sent for this other matter because Little Bug promised to send one of his disciples.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± Shisuke said. Then he thought of something, and he grinned. ¡°How would you feel about a friendly spar, out over the waters of the bay? It would be good to see in person the strength of one of the Peach Blossoms, and it has been so long since I stretched my powers properly.¡± Thaseus grinned. ¡°Now that is something for which I am prepared to discuss terms,¡± he agreed, reaching to the bamboo sword at his side and drumming his fingers against it. That night, the bay above the city of Weshi was full of light! ? 15. Reunion 15. Reunion ¡°Thank you for the tea, Mai Mai.¡± Another day passed in silence. ¡°Thank you for the tea, Mai Mai.¡± Another day passed in silence. ¡°Thank you for the tea, Mai Mai.¡± ¡°Thank you for the tea, Mai Mai.¡± The days blended into one as Di Phon continued his silent criticism of his lord. Lord Loshi, in the guise of a handsome young man with long blond hair, rested nearby throughout, ready to pounce on any word that he said that was not thanking Mai Mai for her service. He would have to wait for a very long time, for there was nothing that Di Phon could think of that would soften his heart towards his lord. He hadn¡¯t expected his silent condemnation to consume his lord so much, but let it. Loshi stood from where he had been reclining suddenly. He hadn¡¯t attempted engaging Di Phon recently, and Di Phon wondered what new tactic the ancient lord would try now. ¡°Mai Mai, may I please have a cup of tea as well?¡± Loshi asked, kneeling nearby to join them. ¡°Of course, my lord,¡± she said, and she began the slow process of selecting the tea leaves to prepare another pot. ¡°I have been thinking of my mistake from every angle. However, I have come to the conclusion that, although you may criticize me for my cowardice, cutting Atla off from the network resulted in the greatest good. Combating the corruption would have cost millions, perhaps billions of lives. Whatever method that was used by the child-lord to staunch and correct the corruption has resulted in a small fraction of that. I could not see that future from my vantage, but had I not acted as I did, it could not have happened,¡± Loshi said, waiting patiently as the water was set to boil. Di Phon said nothing, patiently sipping at his tea. ¡°You are correct to criticize me for cowardice,¡± Loshi continued. ¡°But I was correct in my action, even if it was for the wrong reasons. I had once thought to employ you as an advisor, seeing as you are unafraid of criticizing me and so very, very effective at it. But I see now that I do not command your loyalty as I would hope to command the loyalty of my trusted advisors. As such, effective immediately, I am releasing you from my service.¡± A gasp, but it was not from Di Phon. Mai Mai looked shocked at the words, for she had gathered along the way who this young man truly was. ¡°I will not give you any orders on what you must do next. I release you from service, but you may either remain my guest, or you may move on to one of the realms of the other Xian lords. The choice is yours. You must merely make your desires known, and I shall endeavor to make them a reality.¡± Recovering from her shock, Mai Mai continued the tea ceremony with shaking hands, as her own fate was about to be decided as certainly as Di Phon¡¯s. And it was entirely out of her hands. Di Phon closed his eyes for a moment, then when he opened them, he smiled kindly at Mai Mai. ¡°Would you follow me wherever I choose to go, Mai Mai?¡± Loshi felt a surge of triumph, having finally made Di Phon break his silence, even if it meant severing the bond between them forever. ¡°Yes, my lord. To the gates of hell if that is your destination,¡± Mai Mai said with conviction. ¡°Nowhere so terrible as that,¡± Di Phon said. He finished his tea and set the cup aside. ¡°I wish to go home.¡± Loshi nodded, taking his own tea and quaffing it in a swallow. ¡°You may leave at your convenience.¡± ~~~~~ ¡°Father, father, someone is coming,¡± Atla said, interrupting his rant about squid. He liked squid. ¡°Is that so?¡± I closed my eyes and felt along the edges of our bond, careful not to look too closely at his rapidly developing ego. I thought he meant somewhat more locally, but I saw that his attention was focused on the edges of his perception, where a diamond path cultivator was pushing against the current to reach our world. ¡°Do you know who it is?¡± Atla asked. He suddenly plopped down on the ground, kicking his feet up in the air as he continued to play with his toy horse. ¡°I don¡¯t recognize them, no,¡± I admitted. ¡°But I don¡¯t sense malice from them. And when I look at their fate, I don¡¯t see violence. I think we should extend them an invitation to the Six Mountain Sect.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Atla said, and his own eyes glowed as he aligned the formation near the peach tree to pull at the unknown cultivator. While I had erected the formation myself, it was easier for him to handle this part of these things, as he could key the formation to an individual without much effort. For my part, I split off an avatar to go meet this individual, picking up Di Ram along the way, for when I had peaked at fate I had seen that the best options involved Di Ram being present for this meeting. There were no bad options, exactly, but some were better than others. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. I was stretched in a dozen different directions at present, as I¡¯d sent off a number of avatars to begin the formation of the waygate network. But with both Di Ram and I being on the diamond path, and with the way-gate shortening the distance considerably, my avatar arrived well before this unknown guest. Like the others, he arrived in a flash of light, although his was a golden yellow. He paused, looking up at the peach tree for a moment, then walked in a circle around it until he found the stump of the one that had preceded it. He put a hand on the stump and his face had a saddened expression. ¡°I am sorry that it came to this, old friend. It is not the future I had hoped for when I planted you,¡± he said to the stump. ¡°But you would be so pleased to see your daughter thriving as she is.¡± Another flash of light, much smaller than the first. A pleasant green color, and a young beautiful woman stepped out of the formation. She looked around. ¡°Lord Di Phon, have we arrived?¡± she asked. Then she saw Di Ram and jumped. ¡°Ah, we are not alone!¡± ¡°They mean us no harm,¡± Di Phon assured her. ¡°Mai Mai, this is my son, Di Ram. And this other individual is the Lord of Atla. When I knew him first, he was a promising student, but he has risen high in my absence. Higher and faster than I could ever imagine.¡± The welpakian woman bowed low to both of us, while Di Phon continued to count the rings of the chopped down peach tree. ¡°This one greets the Lord of Atla and the son of Di Phon humbly and with pleasure,¡± she said, and she shifted her pack. ¡°Perhaps the lord would like a cup of tea?¡± ¡°I think I would like that very much, Mai Mai,¡± I said, smiling. ¡°But it will rain soon, and it is not good to drink tea in the rain. Let us find shelter, and then we can speak of tea and reunions and the future.¡± ¡°Of course, Lord. Might this one know the lord¡¯s name?¡± ¡°Call me Little Bug.¡± ~~~~~~ We made our way to the Patriarch¡¯s mansion, arriving just as the rain began. Mai Mai quickly found the servant¡¯s rooms and began searching for fresh water before eventually changing her mind and placing a basin outside to collect the rain. We sat in silence for some time as she worked, filtering the rainwater and then boiling it thoroughly while she selected the finest tea leaves from a basket she carried. The inside of the basket was larger than the outside, but not limitless, and eventually she would have to replenish her supply. When she had completed the ceremony, she served each of us a cup with a polite bow before taking a cup for herself. ¡°This one does not feel quite comfortable drinking in the presence of such illustrious names, but Lord Di Phon insists that he will only drink with my company,¡± she explained nervously. ¡°You needn¡¯t feel out of place, Mai Mai,¡± I said. ¡°I was born a peasant boy to a mortal family in a land where mortal truly means mortal. Ten years ago, my mother would have feinted at the thought of a tea maker on the silver path serving me so finely.¡± I took a sip of the tea, and was indeed floored by the richness of it. Both in flavor and in spirituality, it surpassed any cup of tea that I¡¯d ever tasted in this lifetime. I savored it in silence for a moment, and when I opened my eyes again I said seven words. ¡°Thank you for the tea, Mai Mai.¡± For some reason, she burst into laughter. Di Phon also smiled, but he remained more solemn. He was looking at his son, who was likewise awkwardly uncertain how to handle this change of fate. ¡°You have returned¡ª¡± ¡°You have done well in my absence,¡± Di Phon said, interrupting his son. ¡°I am so very proud of you.¡± Di Ram looked shocked at the words for some reason, then he bowed to his father. ¡°This unworthy son and disciple has only¡ª¡± ¡°Enough. I was tired of the bowing and scraping centuries ago. Now, when there is nobody around to see it, I would dispense with it entirely. More importantly, we both stand on the diamond path, my son. Though we remain father and son, we are equals. I would not have you continue to bow to me, even in public,¡± Di Phon said. ¡°Besides. I have failed you and the world of Atla. In failing to recognize the corruption that was taking hold in my sect, I allowed demonic cultivators to¡ª¡± ¡°Nah, that was Ant,¡± Atla said, abruptly materializing in the room, having apparently decided that this conversation was more interesting than squids. ¡°Besides I wouldn¡¯t be awake if you didn¡¯t, so I¡¯m happy that you screwed things up.¡± Di Phon blinked at the sudden interruption. He looked at Di Ram and I for an explanation, and I nodded. ¡°This is my son, Atla. He is the Eidolon of the world itself. He only recently managed to manifest himself in this form, but he has been awake since the final battle with Ko Ren and the necromancer Ant. Had things have turned out differently, he would not have been quickened. I, for one, am also grateful that things have turned out in this way.¡± ¡°They turned out this way because I failed,¡± Di Phon said. ¡°First I failed to stop Ko Ren on the mountain. Then I failed to convince Lord Loshi to intervene. The weight that fell upon your shoulders, Di Ram, Little Bug, is weight that¡ª¡± ¡°It is weight that you bore in silence for centuries,¡± I interjected. I took another sip of the fragrant tea. ¡°It was time for someone else to pick up the burden. You did not fail, you entrusted the future to the next generation. And they will carry the burden farther and farther into the future, while you remain to give your guidance. That is how I see things.¡± Di Phon was silent for a moment, then he nodded. ¡°So then. I understand that you are attempting to unite the world under one banner. How might this old man serve this endeavor?¡± His son nodded, and began to speak of the alliance. At some point, Atla decided that the conversation wasn¡¯t as interesting as he thought it was going to be and vanished to elsewhere. I hoped he was behaving himself, but ultimately I wasn¡¯t too worried. He could be mischievous at times, but he cared about the lives that made him their home. ? 16. Tea 16. Tea Di Phon decided, rather than stepping into a leadership role and upsetting the balance of the alliance, that he would instead stay in the north and work to rebuild the Six Mountain Sect. He meant this literally as well as figuratively, as he pulled from storage a set of carpenters tools and set to work. Mai Mai, however, was instructed to return to Resh Fali with me. She objected, but Di Phon had simply smiled and said ¡°I wish to be alone for some time, precious one. If I become thirsty for your tea, I will come and find you. Besides, this is not the proper garden for a beautiful flower such as you.¡± The parting of father and son was emotional, and I did not stay to watch it, but rather escorted Mai Mai to the waygate, confident that he could make his own way back. I offered to carry her burden, a large pack containing many implements for making tea, but she refused and seemed somewhat indignant that I would offer. Not because she was insulted by the offer, but because she thought it was below my dignity. When we arrived at my home, she met my mother, who was most pleased that I had brought home a woman. Rather than correcting her by explaining that Mai Mai was a welpakian servant from beyond the stars, I allowed the women to speak among themselves as I released the avatar that had been escorting my new guest. All across the world, my other avatars were moving into position to open the first network of waygates, and that required most of my attention. In city after city they arrived, finding the platforms with the preliminary formations already in place. I did not bother giving speeches, but I did allow myself to be seen for the grand opening of the waygates, waving to the gathered crowds as the local politicians spoke of what this would mean for their city, their country, and the world at large. When it was time, I gathered my powers and set up the gates one by one. Two dozen cities, each hundreds or thousands of miles apart, were suddenly a single footstep away from each other. These central nexus points were but the first stage of the plan, the core points to which other waygates would connect. Within a few hours, the world of Atla became significantly more interconnected than it had ever been before. As had been decided, I allowed the masses to witness the power of the waygates for themselves for a few hours before I once more asked them to gather. With all of these cities no more than two portals away from Mer¡¯cah, I announced that Mer¡¯cah would be holding another tournament. With the crowds cheering at the prospect of such a spectacle, I dispersed my avatars and allowed the local governments to spread the final details of regional qualifications and registrations for the participants. Returning to being one person again, instead of spread among several avatars, I accepted a cup of tea from Mai Mai while Atla chattered in my ear about dolphins. I offered a sip of my tea to him, and he of course had to sample it. His eyes went wide and turned a solid blue. ¡°I don¡¯t know this plant,¡± he admitted after a moment. ¡°Where is it? Why can¡¯t I find it?¡± ¡°It grows on another world,¡± I explained to him. ¡°I want it. Get me the seeds, because I want it,¡± he said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t work that way,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m certain that whatever plantation produces this tea, they jealously guard the¡ª¡± ¡°Actually, Lord, I happen to have some seeds with me. They were a gift from Lord Loshi. He said he apologizes for not coming in person to congratulate you for your ascension and wishes you good health,¡± Mai Mai said, fetching a small paper bag from inside her pack. ¡°Oh,¡± I said, uncertain whether to be pleased or disappointed that my lesson in accepting disappointment had been ruined. ¡°Well, there you have it.¡± ¡°What kind of soil do they need?¡± Atla asked. ¡°How much rain do they like? How hot should it be? Do they like the shade or direct sun? Do they¡ª¡± He asked a thousand questions at once as Mai Mai struggled to catch up. While Mai Mai was undoubtedly just as committed to finding a suitable location for the tea plants as Atla was, her idea of a search for the perfect location was on a different scale from his. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Once he had answers to all of his questions, he announced ¡°I think the best place to grow them is on my butt.¡± Mai Mai had to blink at that. ¡°What?¡± ¡°He means on the other side of the world,¡± I explained. I sighed, wishing that we could come up with better terms to discuss these matters. ¡°He considers this continent to be his ¡®face.¡¯ the eastern and western hemispheres are his right and left arms, and the other side of the world is, well, his bottom. He¡¯s been thinking in those terms ever since he manifested an Eidolon.¡± ¡°I would not think that we should have to travel so very far to find a suitable location,¡± Mai Mai objected. ¡°Father can open a waygate just for you,¡± Atla assured her. ¡°Right?¡± ¡°If I didn¡¯t see the value in growing this tea on you, then I would put up more of an argument,¡± I admitted. I sighed, splitting off an avatar. ¡°Very well. Atla, if you would guide me to the perfect location to plant them, I¡¯ll set up a waygate. In the meantime, Mai Mai, let¡¯s find some experts in growing tea and discuss who will tend these plants for you.¡± ~~~~~~ While half of me flew over the vast oceans of my world-child, most of my attention was with Mai Mai as we accosted tea merchant after tea merchant. She examined bushel after bushel of tea, coming up disappointed in each case. ¡°Most of these samples aren¡¯t worth being served to cattle,¡± she complained. The merchant who overheard this remark took issue with this statement, but quieted down when they recognized me. He bowed slightly, then said ¡°The product that I sell is intended for the common masses, illustrious ones. If you are looking for spiritual teas, then I recommend the tea house on the edge of the Waythrough River. They do not sell in bulk, but perhaps they will be able to put you in touch with their supplier.¡± ¡°There, you see? We have simply been going about it from the wrong angle,¡± I said, and I scooped Mai Mai up and we flew over the city towards the river. She shrieked when we first took off, then burst into delighted laughter. We landed nearby and made ourselves known to the tea house¡¯s proprietor. Mai Mai requested to see the leaves themselves, but I insisted that we be first served as normal customers. ¡°You have been serving tea all of your life, Mai Mai,¡± I pointed out. ¡°Enjoy this opportunity just this once to be served by someone else.¡± She nervously accepted, and we sat patiently as we watched an old woman perform the tea ceremony for us. ¡°In one of my past lives, I was a tea tree,¡± I admitted. ¡°Is that so?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes. I lived for about a hundred years before a blight took over the plantation and I was burned to preserve the trees that weren¡¯t infected yet,¡± I explained. ¡°My tea was very good, I like to think, but not so good as the tea that you prepare.¡± She blushed and took a sip of the old woman¡¯s tea. She nodded, evaluating the flavor along with the technique that had gone into preparing it. ¡°There are several things that I would do differently, but nothing that would make much of a difference in flavor or spirituality,¡± she admitted. ¡°This one recognizes the technique of the senior sister.¡± The old woman cackled at that and retreated to allow us to enjoy the tea in solitude. ¡°So you remember your past lives then? That is how you grew to be so powerful?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes and no. Simply remembering my past lives was not enough. I was also faced with a series of challenges and threats, the worst of which still looms off in the future. I thought that I would have to chase it down, but I see now that it is coming for me no matter what I do. I will not chase it to the ends of the multiverse, but neither will I allow it to catch me unaware. Instead I choose to live my best life with friends and family and my beloved Atla,¡± I explained. ¡°And when the threat comes for me, as it surely will, then I will defend them with everything that I am.¡± ¡°You are very different than I thought you would be,¡± Mai Mai admitted. ¡°Many people say that when I meet them,¡± I admitted. After we had enjoyed each of the six flavors of tea, Mai Mai requested to see the leaves that had been used to prepare each of them. She selected the same one that I had enjoyed the most and requested to know where they were grown. With that information in hand, we flew off over the horizon to find the plantation and question the growers personally. She surprised me along the way with a kiss. I kissed her back, and decided that I liked Mai Mai very much. ? 17. Expectations 17. Expectations ¡°Yes Ma, I earned the coin working. No I didn¡¯t steal it,¡± Toorah said, sidestepping his youngest sister¡¯s attempt to tackle him as she suddenly realized that he¡¯d come home. ¡°The sect has kicked you out, you know. It was announced six days ago that you have neglected your duties and were no longer welcome. We had to go and carry your stuff home before they threw it out,¡± his mother scolded. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the inconvenience,¡± he said. ¡°But I saw an opportunity and I had to take it. I¡¯m working as a translator, and with the waygates open I¡¯m busier than ever. I can only visit because my employer took three days off, but otherwise I have been working steadily. That¡¯s why I can afford to bring so much coin home.¡± She studied him for a moment, then nodded. ¡°Well, I suppose that if you¡¯re working in the city, then things are alright then. I wish you would have left word before you left, I was worried so much.¡± ¡°Ma, I¡¯m a silver-path cultivator. You don¡¯t have to worry about me so much,¡± he objected. ¡°That only makes things worse! What if you get in over your head challenging some spirit beast or steal the heart of a young mistress and start a thousand year grudge! You know how those things happen to people like you!¡± ¡°Those are just stories, Ma. Being a real cultivator is nothing like that,¡± Toorah objected as his sister tried to tackle him again. He scooped her up and examined her. ¡°And you need to start cultivating soon,¡± he told the four year old. ¡°Come here and I¡¯ll show you how to start, okay?¡± ¡°Kay,¡± she agreed, but not before she managed to get him engulfed in a hug. ¡°There is something though,¡± Toorah said before guiding his little sister outside. ¡°Um, there¡¯s a tournament coming up. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll do very well, but I was thinking I¡¯d enter.¡± ¡°You what? ¡± his mother exclaimed. ¡°It will be fine. You get disqualified for killing your opponents, so it should be safe,¡± he said quickly. ¡°I don¡¯t expect to do too well, I¡¯m not that experienced in fighting. But I was thinking that maybe the family would like to come and cheer me on.¡± His mother scoffed. ¡°And who would tend the fields?¡± ¡°Mother, I just gave you enough coin to buy the village itself,¡± he objected. ¡°You can afford to hire a field hand or two.¡± ¡°Harumph,¡± she said. ¡°Go teach your sister how to cultivate and I¡¯ll think the matter over. Don¡¯t think that I¡¯ll be signing any papers saying you can participate, and if I find out that you forged them then¡ª¡± ¡°Ma, the tournament doesn¡¯t ask for parental permission,¡± Toorah said, his face turning crimson. ¡°That would be humiliating. I wasn¡¯t asking you to approve, I just thought you might want to be there.¡± ¡°And see my favorite son get his face beaten in?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think Poul is entering,¡± Toorah said. ¡°Hah! Go teach your sister.¡± Sitting outside on the rickety porch, Toorah spent a few minutes looking out over the fields where he¡¯d grown up working and playing as he guided his sister through the breathing exercises that his master had taught him. He nodded, pleased with himself as she began to sweat out small amounts of black impurities, just like she was supposed to at this stage. She kept her focus inward for an impressive ten minutes before realizing that she stank. She ran inside to demand that her mother give her a bath, while Toorah continued to look out at the fields. Nervously, he stepped out, and began practicing the techniques that his master had described to him five years ago. He had attuned himself to Earth and Fire, both because those were the easiest elements to obtain and because he¡¯d thought at the time that they fit his personality. So as he summoned pillars beneath his feat and launched whips of fire through the air, he thought again of Master Little Bug. The Worldfather. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Toorah shook his head in disbelief. He couldn¡¯t tell anyone that, of course. Nobody would believe that a weakling like him was a direct disciple of the Worldfather. He would just get laughed at and called a liar. It didn¡¯t matter. It was true. And even if he didn¡¯t win the tournament, he would do his best to make his master proud. He¡¯d thought, before the vision at the crossroads, that Little Bug had forgotten about him. That even now, his master was continuing to watch over him from a distance was both profoundly touching and humbling to him. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I can win,¡± he said as he went through the kata his master had shown him with an earthen spear in one hand and a scimitar of flames in the other. ¡°But I can try my best with all I am.¡± The earth shook as his sudden epiphany pushed him to the cusp of the golden realm. He stopped what he was doing, sat, and spent three hours meditating, trying to recreate the feeling. But he fell short. Rather, it wasn¡¯t time yet. But he¡¯d touched on the edge of it and knew what the golden path felt like now. He grinned. It was probably for the best to hold off on advancing until after the tournament anyway. He was only fifteen years old, and some of the golden path entrants would have centuries of experience. Yeah. It was better to wait. Like his master said, the best things come to those who wait. ~~~~~~~ The part of me that wasn¡¯t kissing Mai Mai was busy looking for the best place to plant tea trees. While I had startled a few people by using the waygates to cross over onto the western continent to shorten the distance considerably, the location that Atla had picked out was still several hundred kilometers away, and while I could have made the trip considerably shorter, I wasn¡¯t in any hurry. I passed over the ocean onto one of the uncharted islands, almost as large as Nonpo. I scanned it quickly and was surprised to find it uninhabited except for a species of boar, the king of which was in the golden realm, several species of birds, and a monkey king who was fighting with the boar when I arrived. I flared my power and slammed into the earth between the combatants. I looked between them sternly. ¡°Hello. What seems to be the cause of this disagreement?¡± I asked. ¡°Monkey invades my territory,¡± the boar declared. ¡°Pig eats my fruit,¡± the monkey said. I nodded. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not really my place to get involved in your disputes. However, I will be establishing a tea plantation on this island. I will be sending several of my subjects to do the farming, and they will be under my protection. As you two are the reigning local landlords, I wish to inform you of this decision I have made as Worldfather. Do either of you object?¡± I asked this question while my power was on the cusp of the platinum realm. The monkey and the boar exchanged looks. ¡°I do not object. I will instruct my progeny to leave your subjects alone so long as they remain on the land you stake out,¡± the boar said. ¡°Will they eat my fruit?¡± the monkey asked. I tugged a little harder on my power, borrowing some from Atla. ¡°I do not object,¡± the monkey said. ¡°I will leave them alone.¡± ¡°Excellent,¡± I said. ¡°I apologize for interrupting. Pleasant dueling.¡± With that, I flew away to find the ¡®absolute perfect spot,¡¯ which took only a few minutes with Atla chattering in my ear about how perfect it was. Once I¡¯d found it, I quickly built the foundation for the waygate and waited for my other self to finish kissing Mai Mai and do the same in the Di family compound. About an hour later, I formed the connection and allowed this part of me to dissipate while my other self walked through to the island paradise with Mai Mai. She spent a few minutes looking around. The battle between the island¡¯s kings hadn¡¯t resumed, and my true self and she spent several hours exploring. Mai Mai was delighted that I trusted her with the entire plantation project, from finding the workers to selecting the best places to plant the trees to everything. And with the waygate, she would never be too far away. We returned to Resh Fali after exploring the island for hours, arriving just as the sun was coming up in the city. We watched from the top of the Di family compound until my mother appeared and scolded us for being out all night and setting the city ablaze with rumors of our date the day before. She reminded me that, as far as the public was aware, I had a child with one woman already, and while it wasn¡¯t unthinkable for me to take both Taimei and Mai Mai as concubines, I shouldn¡¯t damage the reputation of honorable young women if I could avoid it. Both Mai Mai and I were blushing at the tongue lashing we received by the end of the conversation, and we reluctantly allowed ourselves to be parted. ? 18. Exploration 18. Exploration ¡°So now they¡¯re growing tea on my butt.¡± ¡°No they¡¯re not. Your butt isn¡¯t big enough for that anyway.¡± ¡°No, really they are. I mean, not this butt, my rock butt. On the other side of me. You know.¡± ¡°Shut up. I don¡¯t believe you and you know that.¡± ¡°But I¡¯m telling the truth.¡± ¡°Shut up. But at least you show up with clothes on now.¡± ¡°It¡¯s really hard to do that, you know? It¡¯s so easy to just show up, but bringing clothes with is hard.¡± ¡°Whatever. Let¡¯s play tag.¡± Hien Ro glanced up from where he was reading reports on the status of the alliance and the establishment of the tournament to watch his eldest daughter playing with Atla. The Eidolon was somewhat clumsy and awkward yet, but was getting better at chasing after the five year old girl. He shook his head at their childish banter and watched them play for a moment. He knew how much his master appreciated the time when Atla was distracted by his girls, and he didn¡¯t mind babysitting. But his role in the alliance, stemming from the perception that he was the highest ranking disciple, meant that he was busy a lot of the time. The waygates had made his job both easier and more complex. On the one hand, he could more easily travel to distant points of the globe, rush to a flashpoint, flex his power and authority and settle a dispute. On the other hand, he was expected to do so more frequently because of the fact that he could. ? And no small amount of the disputes involved who would be getting a new waygate to one of the hubs that Little Bug had just established. While he touted the examples that Litha and Liris had set, of mutual cooperation and benefit being the way to earn the alliance¡¯s attention, the old way of thinking and zero-sum ideation remained predominant in much of the glob. And soon, he reminded himself, he and his family would be sent to establish relations with Count Beailor. He sighed, turning the page. He wasn¡¯t looking forward to that, but fortunately he had some time. Little Bug had to figure out how to protect his little ones from the tidal forces of the travel, which would require some experimentation. His master loved Hien Ro¡¯s children almost as much as their father did, so he was confident that either the solution would be perfect, or there would be no solution and Hien Ro would be asked to make the journey alone after all. For the thousandth time, he wished that he could tease out the secret to forming a Dao Avatar so that he could balance his work life with his family life. He thought he knew the secret, but he couldn¡¯t quite figure out how to make the commitment real . He closed his eyes, searching for the times in his past when he¡¯d been on the edge of an important decision, one which would effect his path, his life, his future. And he tried to replicate the feeling. He kept searching, pushing back further. The decision to follow Little Bug and become an official disciple, not just a companion. The decision to throw the tournament to protect Yara¡¯s father. The decision to enter the tournament in the first place. The decision to follow Little Bug south. The decision to walk in front of a truck-- No. He frowned. That wasn¡¯t him. Well it was, it was a memory of a past life. His life as Lucas, a man in another world. A world of technological marvels and no spirituality. Full of knowledge and lacking in substance, Lucas¡¯s world was hollow and weak compared to the life that Hien Ro had lived in Little Bug¡¯s shadow. He knew that Lucas had made mistakes, but those were in the past. He shouldn¡¯t dwell on them. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ...Or should he? Hien Ro frowned, and then pushed slightly on the edge of his awareness, aligning him just a little more with his past life, on the corner of his soul, where the waters of lethe flowed into the sea of memory, looking once more for Lucas to -- He gasped as he was plunged into the water, naked and cold. All around him were the bubbles of past lives, but he couldn¡¯t touch them. The membrane between himself and the other selves were so thin, yet the distance between them was so vast that he couldn¡¯t reach them. He was drowning, alone and-- A hand reached out and grabbed him, and he was back in his body. He lie on the ground, with his family gathered around him and looking afraid. Little Bug was there. ¡°Sorry,¡± Hien Ro said. ¡°I lost myself for a second.¡± ¡°You should not go exploring your soul without someone to help guide you,¡± Little Bug scolded. ¡°There are places in there that are dangerous to look at. Dangers you cannot understand or face in your current state. Some of the things your past lives have done will shock you, and some of your past selves left the world with great regrets which will follow you into your present life if you allow them to.¡± ¡°How do you know that?¡± ¡°Do not forget who you are speaking with,¡± Little Bug said sadly. Hien Ro sat up and looked sheepishly at his frightened daughters, at his wife, and at his master and his master¡¯s son. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I was thinking that maybe the secret to Dao Avatars lie in the past, and I went looking for Lucas to see if I could learn from him.¡± ¡°You could learn much from Lucas, I think,¡± Little Bug said. ¡°But he is lost in the sea where Lethe drains, and that is the best place for him I think. The secret to unlocking a Dao avatar lies not in the past, Brother Ro, but in the future.¡± Little Bug turned to leave. ¡°If you wish to explore your soul further, come and find me. Do not go delving into its depths without someone holding a rope to keep you from drowning.¡± Hien Ro nodded, promising that he¡¯d follow the advice. Then he hugged his family and kissed his wife, before leaving to solve a centuries old dispute on the other side of the world. ~~~~~~ Rather than allow the avatar I¡¯d dispatched to save Hien Ro to dissipate, I decided that it was time to test something I¡¯d been meaning to test for a while. Picking up a small box, I formed the protective sphere around it that I hoped would protect Ro¡¯s daughters from the tidal forces between dimensions and placed a rabbit, some lettuce, and a handful of worms inside it. I closed the lid on the box, carrying it under one arm as I went to find the dagger that Kuto had left behind. Unsheathing it, I looked at the celestial steel for a moment. The dagger by itself was beyond anything that had ever been crafted on Atla, and but that was before the quickening. As the smiths of my land learned to work with the increasingly spiritual metals and the warriors demanded improved weapons to deal with the increasingly dangerous threats, the quality of my blacksmiths would increase considerably. Was this blade a taunt? Was Duke Doe teasing me, saying ¡®I can afford to send this out as a simple travel talisman, while on your world it would be a priceless heirloom, a treasured gift from heaven by an ascended ancestor.¡¯ Or was he saying ¡®challenge yourself, and such wealth may also be yours?¡¯ I would only find out by accepting the invitation. Severing the link between my primary self and this avatar, and more painfully my link to Atla, I channeled my Qi into the blade and allowed myself to be whisked away into another dimension. I was not entirely my own person, but I could not speak with my other selves or sense them. Nor could I commune with Atla, which is the only thing that allowed me to ascend. If I had tried to send my true self into another dimension, the weight of my bond would have kept me from leaving. While Atla was my child in my respects, he was also a weakness, as our bond was a metaphorical anchor keeping me in place. I could not abandon him without breaking the chain that connected us, and he was literally a weight the size of a planet. With the Divine Fates no doubt preparing to come after me once more in the near future, being unable to run without abandoning my world-son, and all of the people who lived upon him, was a significant weakness. One which my enemy would undoubtedly be certain to capitalize on. I needed allies, and I needed to prepare. With this in mind, I appeared in the arrival platform of Duke Doe¡¯s demesne. It was stark and plain, open to the elements, but as I stepped to the side of the platform I saw why. I was atop a tower half a mile high. A servant appeared a moment later, prostrated themselves, and greeted me by name. I acknowledged them and asked to be shown to my quarters. A hovering conveyance appeared and brought us from one tower to another, just on the edge of the horizon. I was told that the entire tower had been given to me for the duration of my stay, and was encouraged to explore. I was not alone on the tower, although the penthouse had been emptied and prepared for my arrival. Ten thousand people lived inside. Mortals all of them, I asked what they did and they simply shrugged. ¡°We live,¡± they said. ¡°We are under the protection of the great lord, for if we ventured out of the tower we would surely die.¡± I frowned at this, and decided to investigate. Splitting off another Avatar, I sent it out of the tower. It was immediately accosted by a roc of the diamond path. I dissipated the avatar rather than do battle with it. As I meditated on this world, I wondered if, perhaps, this was the future of Atla. ? 19. Elevation 19. Elevation ¡°So the Sect master asks Little Bug, ¡®what is the secret to enlightenment?¡¯ Little Bug replies ¡®Patience.¡¯ The sect master grows angry and says ¡®I¡¯ve waited for centuries for this answer!¡¯ Little Bug shrugs and says ¡®a little more patience, then,¡¯¡± Farun said, delivering the punchline with a deadpan voice. The courtiers laughed, and Lahri handed him a drink. He kissed her on the cheek and fed her a skewered sweet-meat while Arjun sat on her other side, his arm around her. ¡°Okay, I have one,¡± Arjun said. ¡°Why does nobody gossip about the Dao?¡± ¡°We gossip about our Dao all of the time,¡± one of the courtiers explained. ¡°Okay, why don¡¯t the masters gossip about the Dao?¡± he amended, and the group broke into laughter. ¡°Why?¡± a young woman asked once the laughter had died down. ¡°Nobody wants second-hand enlightenment,¡± he answered, and the group laughed once more. In the lavish ballroom of one of Prince Yema¡¯s many vassals, they gossiped and joked with their peers. Cultivators of the golden path who had drawn their master¡¯s eyes, like the companions. Arjun could tell that none of these young cultivators would advance much further than they had already. Their daos were hollow and shallow. Already he could see that their paths, which had gotten them this far, were largely guided by their parents and their guardians. When it came time for them to step out of the shadows of their elders, they would wilt in the sunlight. But he laughed and joked with the rest of the group, because it wasn¡¯t his path to guide these souls. His path was to make certain that he and his beloved ones didn¡¯t fall victim to the same trap that they had. The music started up again, and the mortal acrobats came out to entertain. The fact that they were mortals and not cultivators was part of the act, for their antics wouldn¡¯t have been impressive for even a bronze path junior. But for a mortal? Farun wondered what it was that drove them to practice so hard when they could simply cultivate. In Prince Yema¡¯s world, the Qi was thick enough that one needed only to reach out and take it into themselves to ignite the dantian and begin their path. These mortals must have been imported from offworld, he realized. ¡°Say, how long are these mortals expected to serve before they are permitted to cultivate,¡± he asked the other watchers. The courtiers frowned at each other. ¡°I don¡¯t know that anyone has ever asked that before. I know that they are retired when they can no longer perform, but I never thought about whether they would be permitted to cultivate.¡± ¡°Are they returned to their home world or permitted to stay?¡± Lahri inquired. The others exchanged looks, but nobody had an answer. ¡°We can find out if you¡¯re really curious,¡± one of the courtiers suggested. ¡°No need,¡± Farun said. ¡°I¡¯ll simply ask Prince Yema at our next visit. It will be nice to discuss the treatment of mortals in his realm, so that I will be able to share his advice to our lord Little Bug once we return.¡± The others exchanged nervous looks, for the wise among them realized that there was a subtle barb in the comment, as well as a subtle flex of the companions position as emissaries. They moved past it in conversation, however, and on to the next topic. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. The companions continued to thrive, even as they pushed themselves to new heights in the unfamiliar but dense Qi of Prince Yema¡¯s core world. Honestly, Lahri thought to herself, this was nothing compared to the political games that Farun¡¯s sect played within itself. But navigating these waters as a unit was challenging and rewarding. Soon they would reach the Diamond Path, and then they would return home, victorious. ~~~~~~~ The tower that I was given, I quickly learned, was one of thousands on the core world of Duke Doe. And they were each a crucible. Every child, at the age of five, is taken from their parents and brought to the base of the tower, where they are given an education of how to read, write, and cultivate. Their only way to reunite with their parents is to advance through the tower. Advancement was not simple, however. In order to reach the tenth floor, a child must win the tournament that takes place every week on the ninth. In order to reach the twentieth floor, the child must reach the bronze path. In order to reach the thirtieth floor, the child must win another tournament. Those who stagnate and did not advance were permitted to stay on their current floor, but they were allotted fewer resources. Less food, less access to cultivation resources and less time in the Qi dense cultivation rooms. Competition was fierce, as everyone wished to live in the penthouse sweets, the floors which had been vacated for my personal use at a moments notice. There was intense jealousy among those who had been evicted, and after my encounter with the roc, they felt justified in challenging me to a duel. The duel itself was not worth speaking of, as the highest among the cultivators on this tower were only of the golden path, while I strode the diamond. None of them lasted more than a few minutes before me, although I was gentle in putting down their complaints. I had, after all, caused their untimely eviction, so I couldn¡¯t be too upset with them. Once the hierarchy was established, I asked them what the next stage of their advancement would be, and was told that after reaching the penthouse, they were expected to wait until every room was filled, and then, when they had a full team, they would make the journey to the court and present themselves to the duke. On average, one in five survived this journey, but those who did were given resources to advance further yet. The ultimate dream of every child was to be able to walk the wilderness of their birthplace without fear, which would require the strength of at least the diamond path. I was horrified at the systemic brutality that these young cultivators endured. However, as I explored the tower, I came to realize that while many had given in to apathy and simply stagnated in their environment, many more were driven to constant advancement. While I disagreed with his methods, I couldn¡¯t argue with the results that Duke Doe¡¯s system had produced. The current cohort of golden path cultivators was fifty strong, and the oldest was twenty-five years old. The last expedition had set out two years ago. The rate at which he was producing powerful young warriors was impressive, and it had me wondering what he needed them for. When a servant arrived on one of the flying cars to present me with the official invitation to attend a session of court, I was given an option that was an obvious challenge to my personal might and pride. I could either accept a ride on one of the warded flying conveyances, or I could make the journey on foot. I set out immediately, for the trip would take one week, and I had exactly that amount of time before my expected arrival. I arrived three days early, having ruined my robes. I was shirtless, scratched with wounds that would not heal, and covered in blood that was both mine and from a dozen different beasts. But I was triumphant, and those who saw me arrive cheered my approach, heralding me with wreathes of flowers and escorting me to my new rooms at the base of the tower. I had misconstrued my invitation, it seems. I was expected to climb this tower floor by floor in order to speak with the Duke, who lived at the top. I took the time to bathe and change into the uniform of one of the many young adults who lived in this tower, a golden gi with black pants. And then I set about challenging the tower. ? 20. Challenge 20. Challenge ¡°Father, what is your other self doing right now?¡± Atla asked, leaning back into me and looking up at me with his starry eyes. Literally, there were stars in them if you looked close enough. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I won¡¯t know until I come back and he rejoins into me,¡± I answered, shifting his weight slightly so that I could write easier. He had insisted upon sitting on my lap as I worked at my desk in the office Di Ram had given me. ¡°What if he doesn¡¯t come back? What if he decides that he likes Prince Doe¡¯s world better than me?¡± Atla asked. ¡°If he doesn¡¯t come back, the more likely explanation is that he died,¡± I pointed out. ¡°Especially since I would never choose to abandon you. It was with a very heavy heart that my avatar severed the bond between us, and¡ª¡± ¡°He¡¯s going to die, isn¡¯t he?¡± Atla asked. ¡°I know he probably is, that¡¯s why you didn¡¯t send any of your friends. Because if an avatar dies, all you lose is a bit of Qi. But if your friends die, then you lose a friend.¡± I was silent for a moment. ¡°I lose more than a bit of Qi if an avatar dies, Atla. At least, if the one that I sent to Duke Doe dies I will. The avatars that you interact with are all linked to me very closely and I¡¯m able to reclaim what I invest in them when they vanish. The one I sent to Duke Dao, it is almost like a second me. If it dies, then I lose a part of myself that I can never get back.¡± ¡°Never?¡± ¡°Not unless I go to Duke Doe¡¯s world and reclaim it myself,¡± I explained. ¡°But if I had to guess, I¡¯d have to fight him for it, since even a fragment of me would be something that he would try to claim for himself. At least, if my visions of the potential futures are accurate and he is the man I think he is.¡± ¡°And what sort of man do you think he is?¡± I paused to consider. ¡°Hungry,¡± I answered eventually. ¡°The monkey and the boar are fighting again.¡± ¡°As long as they leave the tea plantation alone they can do whatever they want.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ~~~~~~ The private audience was, as always, not exactly private. There were scribes there to capture the words of the prince and the guests, though those records might never be revealed to the rest of the cosmos. They would be recorded nonetheless. There were servants to refill the wine and serve the sweetmeats. There was a harpist in the corner, carefully plucking away at her instrument with the skill that only a cultivator could manage. ¡°Before you ask, I want to assure you that the mortals brought to this world for their performances, such as the acrobats you saw the other day, are volunteers who are treated humanely. Being in this Qi dense environment, their dantians ignite naturally whether they try to cultivate or not, so their careers in entertainment are relatively quick, but the pay is very good. When they leave, they are referred to a number of opportunities beyond anything that they could have achieved on their home worlds,¡± Prince Yema said as soon as the introductions were made. The Dao companions exchanged looks. ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Indeed. I do not exactly keep track of them once they leave my employ, so I don¡¯t know the full details. But it is my understanding, after a brief investigation, that they typically reach the silver path within ten years of leaving my service. As you know, having made the transition from silver to gold yourselves, advancing to gold is as much a personal journey as one of seeking power, and it is where most cultivators fail. It is for that reason that me and others like me consider the golden path to be the true start of cultivation.¡± ¡°And thus, you call us infants,¡± Farun said, sipping on his tea. ¡°Nothing of the sort. That distinction is for worlds like mine. Xian worlds with powerful cores and environments full of Qi. That you were born in a Qi starved environment such as one of the worlds governed by Duke Loshi and managed to reach the golden path on your own, or at least as part of a cohort, makes you exceptional. I am eager to see what you achieve in the future as you continue to follow your dao.¡± The companions exchanged looks, then nodded. ¡°You¡¯ve noticed it too. The courtiers, they¡¯re shallow,¡± Arjun said. ¡°If they were a puddle, I could step in them in sandals without wetting my toes,¡± Yema agreed. ¡°The sort that flock to my court are very interesting conversationalists, but they hold very little real power. They cling to illusions and allusions, while the ones who hold actual sway do so from a distance.¡± A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°Why do you play with them such?¡± Farun asked. Yema shrugged and swirled her wine. ¡°It passes the time. I expect to live a hundred thousand years or more. Watching the peacocks is a hobby that keeps me from growing idle and indolent. Ennui is the greatest enemy of the Xian lords, and it is one that we have dedicated entire worlds like this one to battling.¡± She downed her wine and motioned for another glass, which was promptly placed in her hand. ¡°Be thankful that you were not sent to Duke Doe, for his entertainment is rather more competitive than mine.¡± ~~~~~~ The punch to my sternum was backed by the opponent¡¯s ¨C Piotr, his name was Piotr ¨C entire path. Every step, every practice punch, every strike that he had ever made against an opponent was embodied in that blow, just as it had been in the strike that had one his last duel and the one before that. I saw his path, growing linearly stronger with each defeated opponent. He was on the cusp of the platinum path, yet he stood guardian of floor fifty-one. It¡¯s sole occupant, for those who could defeat him did not stay long, and those who could not were sent down to floor forty to make the climb again. My ribs cracked, and I coughed up blood. He grinned, confident in his victory. I grabbed his wrist and shook my head. ¡°Shallow,¡± I said. I struck him on the side of the head with my knee, and he went flying into the wall. I fell to one knee, he crumpled to the ground. I coughed up more blood, then stood. Piotr did not. The holographic screens across the battlefield showed our witnesses cheering or jeering the outcome of the battle. It was unusual for two diamond path cultivators to come to physical blows, but once they did, the outcome was usually devastating. Piotr still did not stand. I worried for a moment over his health, going so far as to check the strands of his fate. I saw only glory in front of him. I had not seen that going into the battle. I had changed his path without intending to, but such was the way of things. Limping, I made my way to the elevator and pressed my bloody hand against the scanner. It flashed green, and I rose to floor fifty-two. Behind me, Piotr finally stirred, pulling himself to his knees. ¡°Thank you, elder brother, for correcting my path,¡± he whispered, drowned out by the continuing cheering of the crowds from the hovering holograms. I heard his words despite the interference, but the doors closed behind me before I could offer him any further encouragement. On the next floor, I showered and allowed my ribs to be bound by ¡®mortal¡¯ servants of the silver path. I ate, drank, and examined the rules of this floor. In order to advance, I needed to challenge two competitors and defeat them in combat. Each of them, however, were combatants on the level of Piotr, who had been serving as gatekeeper for this floor for ten years. He could have advanced at any stage, but had deliberately caused a bottleneck. I nodded, examining the names of the competitors, along with the score card next to them. Reading their scores was misleading, for many of them had advanced only to have been knocked back down by the rules of the floors above them. I checked my own score. Five hundred twenty-one wins. Mostly by forfeit or default, as the early challenges in the tower were against golden path cultivators who had withdrawn once I¡¯d shown my power. Two losses. Humbling defeats that I had learned from, despite the setbacks they had caused me. I had missed the cutoff to receive an audience with Duke Doe by the date of my invitation, but I hadn¡¯t really been expected to take on the tower in three days. The next audience with the highest ranked competitor was in six weeks. I had until then to reach the penthouse. I closed my eyes and cycled my Qi, as acutely aware as ever that this world was not Atla, and I willed my body to heal. Twenty minutes later, the lingering effects of Piotr¡¯s dao left my body and I was whole again. I picked a name at random from the card and issued a challenge. When they declined, I promptly issued another, and another, and another. On the tenth challenge, I was issued a super challenge, one that could not be declined. I blinked, for I hadn¡¯t been informed of that rule. I reviewed the rules and found that I was able to carry the super challenges to higher floors. Grinning, I continued to challenge until I had only two names left on the list. ? 21. Romance of the Tower 21. Romance of the Tower My romance with Mai Mai continued in the background of my life. She had to share me with Atla, although we were able to find a babysitter for him often enough that we had plenty of time alone, while I continued to send out avatars to deal with matters of the alliance and establishing the network of Waygates. At my mother¡¯s insistence, we announced to the public that we were officially courting, a matter that was met with a public celebration in the streets, to my surprise. Taimei made a point of being seen in public with Mai Mai, gossiping and being friendly, so that those who watched such things knew that there was no animosity between the two women. Taimei was my disciple, and I appreciated her role in the ruse to conceal Atla¡¯s origin, but I never felt anything for her but fondness. Mai Mai was ¡­ igniting something in me that I hadn¡¯t felt before in this life. Something intense and emotional, and distinctly intimate. After a few weeks of this intimacy developing, after we¡¯d shared our first and second night together, I finally noticed Atla¡¯s jealousy. ¡°You know I can know what you do when I¡¯m not around,¡± he pouted at me during our time together out by the elm tree that he¡¯d grown in a few hours. It was covered in birds which had come at his call. ¡°Is this about Mai Mai?¡± I asked. ¡°You¡¯re making normal babies.¡± ¡°Are you jealous?¡± ¡°Will you love them more than me?¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t possible. I¡¯ll love them, but not more than you. Differently and as much, but not more,¡± I answered. He frowned. ¡°Mai Mai will make good babies. I checked. You know, the things that make good babies are good in her. She doesn¡¯t have the bad things that make bad babies in her blood. Neither do you.¡± My eyebrows rose. ¡°That¡¯s something you can check?¡± ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m trying to fix the bad things in people but it¡¯s hard. Sometimes I can¡¯t fix the bad without breaking the good and making things worse. I don¡¯t know how to fix everything and make everything better,¡± he said, looking at me like I was supposed to give him the answer to his problem right then. ¡°I¡¯m not even sure what we¡¯re talking about, Atla,¡± I said. ¡°But I think it¡¯s sweet that you¡¯re worried about your maybe human brothers and sisters before they¡¯re even conceived.¡± ¡°Oh. I guess she didn¡¯t tell you yet,¡± he said, and he ran off. ¡°Or maybe she doesn¡¯t know herself.¡± I blinked after him in surprise, and had to take a seat to wrap my head around what he had just informed me of in his very Atla-esque way. I was going to be a father. Not just a world-father, but a father-father. For the rest of the day, I couldn¡¯t wipe the smile off my face. ~~~~~~ The wall of flame engulfed half of the battlefield that made up the center of the tower. I pulled up a defense of water and wind, the storm circling around me as it clashed with the fires that swept over and around me, but burnt me not. I called to myself a lance of lightning and fired it at my opponent, but lightning was not so uncommon on Doe¡¯s world as it was on mine for cultivators to attune themselves to, and my opponent had countermeasures. He redirected the lightning with his own Qi and it flew off to strike the wall. It never impacted; burrowing instead through space in the tunnel that I¡¯d set up for it. The opponent ¨C I don¡¯t remember his name ¨C was taken in the back, gasping it pierced through his defenses perfectly. He staggered, but that was not enough to take him down, so I followed it up by crossing the distance between us and launching ice lance after ice lance at him. He gasped and brought up a shield of flames, but the ice lances concealed a spear of earth, and he was impaled in each shoulder and his stomach. Mortal wounds to a mortal, but only enough to take him out of the fight at our level. ¡°I concede,¡± he announced, and the screens around the arena lit up to show my face and the word ¡°Victor!¡± Throughout the demesne of Duke Doe, a fortune had changed hands as those betting on me began collecting their winnings, and those who bet again settled their debts. That was one purpose behind this brutal system, I had learned. After a certain level, there was no more hiding it, as the crowd favorites began earning sponsorships and patrons. On the seventieth floor, it was an open secret, and I had been disgusted to learn that from the beginning my fights had been recorded for those who enjoyed this sort of bloodsport. I was uncertain how I felt to know that the betting was five to one in my favor on this last match. I had pushed myself to defeat my opponent, yet I didn¡¯t feel that I was reaching my limits. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Rather, I felt that my limits were stretching out further than ever before. I was much stronger than when I had arrived. I estimate that I had been a quarter of the way through the diamond path, yet now I was brushing up against platinum. I left the opponent where he had fallen ¨C I would not be helping him by helping him stand or tend to his wounds. His sponsors didn¡¯t like to see that sort of thing. So I simply walked to the elevator and pressed my hand against the handprint scanner. It beeped, and I ascended. Thirty floors left to go. ~~~~~~ Lukal Lukal stood before the fire. ¡°And that is the story of the first disciple of the worldfather,¡± he said, his voice heavy with loss as it always was at this point in the story. ¡°He took a wound meant for another, dying with honor and earning his place of honor that he had once claimed in hubris. But it was not hubris which earned him his title. It was the pride he carried with him, enough for each of the disciples and well earned, for he faced the specter of death and saw that it was his time. His last act was not only to save his companion from a mortal blow, but he also ignited his meridians to prevent his corpse from rising again. To prevent his friends from having to deal with one more enemy, and this one wearing their friends face.¡± The children, orphans mostly, but his disciples now, all looked in the fire as they tried to ponder the story that he had just finished. ¡°Xol was my friend. That he was a jaguar matters not. I honor his memory by telling this story, and you shall honor his memory by hearing it and carrying his courage and pride in your heart,¡± Lukal Lukal said. ¡°Now then. We have heard a good story, and everyone has a belly full of food. It is time to practice our Qi cycling technique and go to bed. Tomorrow we will hold another tournament to determine who is the strongest disciple of Lukal Lukal, and who had grown in strength since the last tournament last week.¡± The children ¨C for the oldest was only fifteen years old and the youngest was a foundling of three years ¨C all nodded and split off into groups, where Lukal Lukal walked among them, examining their techniques with the critical eye of a golden path cultivator. This continued for three hours. The younger children fell asleep cultivating and were carried to bed by their elders. The oldest would have continued through the night had Lukal Lukal not sent them to bed. In the darkness, the fire continued to burn. The remains of the boar that the children had eagerly devoured was cooling nearby, and it would be picked clean in the morning. Lukal Lukal had never appreciated how hard his first master had hunted for his disciples until it was his turn to do the same. Some of his followers were familiar faces from those days. Others he had tracked down himself. Others had been drawn by rumors and whispers that spread among the street children of Mer¡¯cah. Two hundred children now called Lukal Lukal Master. They were children, for at age sixteen he would send them off to fend for themselves. But for now, they were his responsibility. ¡°Master, will you take part in the tournament, as you did in the one where you met the great Worldfather?¡± one of the disciples asked with sleepy eyes. He grinned. ¡°Of course I shall,¡± he said. ¡°It will make a great story.¡± ~~~~~~ The question came out of nowhere, and Taimei was floored by it. She had been scrubbing Atla¡¯s back when Mai Mai asked. Despite the boy-world¡¯s constant teleportation, it seemed that he brought the dirt along with him when he appeared at his destination. ¡°I can appear without the dirt,¡± he had explained when the women had told him it was time for a bath. ¡°But I can¡¯t appear without the dirt and with my clothes, and you yell at me when I don¡¯t bring my clothes with and why are you telling me to take them off?¡± But once he was in the water he decided he liked baths and was perfectly cooperative, if a bit splashy. The women didn¡¯t mind, as they were bathing with him. It wasn¡¯t just that he was too young to be interested in them that way; they were perfectly aware that he was literally omnipresent, so they had no reason to be modest in the presence of his eidolon. ¡°How do you know if you¡¯re pregnant?¡± Mai Mai repeated. Taimei flushed. ¡°Um, I don¡¯t actually know. I mean, there¡¯s the obvious. Your flow stops, but we¡¯re cultivators so our flow is irregular anyway. I heard you get sick to your stomach in the morning, so maybe¡ª¡± ¡°You¡¯re pregnant, Mai Mai,¡± Atla said suddenly. ¡°I thought you knew but wasn¡¯t sure and father said that I shouldn¡¯t tell you unless you asked, but yeah, you¡¯ve got a baby in you. It¡¯s a girl. She¡¯s going to be healthy, I checked that too.¡± Mai Mai gaped at him, then sat back in the water. ¡°Thank you for telling me, Atla. Not knowing was driving me crazy,¡± she admitted. ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± he said, then he dunked beneath the water and started blowing bubbles. The women exchanged looks. ¡°So I guess one way of knowing is when the eidolon of your world tells you you are,¡± Taimei joked nervously. ¡°I guess,¡± Mai Mai responded. They sat in silence for a minute. Atla didn¡¯t surface, but they weren¡¯t worried about him because the bubbles kept coming long after a normal boy would have run out of breath. ¡°So, this affects you too,¡± Mai Mai said. ¡°The public believes that we¡¯re both concubines. I¡¯ll support you however I can, but¡ª¡± ¡°We should talk to Tonilla,¡± Taimei said. ¡°She¡¯ll know better than us how to manage the public on this matter.¡± ¡°What about Little Bug?¡± Mai Mai asked. ¡°What about him? It sounds like Atla told him weeks ago and he never said a word. I say we just ignore him until he comes rushing to apologize,¡± Taimei said, turning up her nose. The women laughed and then helped the other wash their hair. ? 22. Romance of the Tower pt2 22. Romance of the Tower pt2 The bottle neck on the eighty-fifth floor was brutal. A platinum path cultivator stood before me, summoning a dao avatar the size of a building. The massive ape chased after me with a pole that was part of the avatar itself, which changed length and weight upon its wielder¡¯s command. It was faster than me. It was stronger than me. It beat me brutally until, in desperation, I tried an attack which I hadn¡¯t considered before. I put half of its head through a waygate and closed the gate on top of it. The cut was clean, and the ape¡¯s head fell apart. I turned to the platinum path cultivator. ¡°I can do that to you next, if you don¡¯t get out of my way,¡± I threatened. ¡°How did you do that?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll show you exactly how.¡± Then I walked calmly passed him to the elevator, shooting him a meaningful look. ¡°I concede,¡± he said. I placed my hand on the handprint scanner and waited for the doors to open, which they did a moment later, despite the booing and the hissing of the audience that was being broadcast through the screens from all around Duke Doe¡¯s demesne. I had only fifteen floors left to climb. None of the remaining floors required that anyone accept a regular challenge, and the defeated moved down a floor at every defeat. Nobody wanted to move down to the eight-fifth floor and fight that monstrous monkey once again. But I had fifteen super-challenges saved up. I slid into the machine that they used to evaluate the damage of a cultivator after a battle and allowed the mortal servants to do their work. I knew that I would survive. Silently, as the nutrient fluid flooded the tube, I broke through to the platinum path. I did not celebrate my success. I did not broadcast it to my fans, or to my backers, or to my opponents, but rather quietly consolidated my gains before lowering my apparent cultivation back to the diamond. I would hide my strength until it was time to strike, like an asp coiled and waiting. For the next bottleneck. The ninety-ninth floor. ~~~~~~~ Lahri watched with a sickened expression as her master was beaten half to death several dimensions away. The ape swung its staff like a dancer wielded a baton, but every time it impacted with the floor or the walls or the ceiling of the tower, it caused a boom that shook the entire structure. A structure meant to contain exactly this sort of fight. And her Master was taking direct strikes from that, despite his agility. Despite his grace. Despite his overwhelming elemental mastery, for all of the techniques that he launched at the beast were defeated by that damnable staff. And then out of nowhere the ape was defeated, its head cut in twain by forces that nobody understood. Lahri didn¡¯t know what happened, but she tightened her grip on Arjun and Farun as their master walked past the gatekeeper. ¡°He won, right?¡± she asked. ¡°He just had to defeat the avatar?¡± ¡°This fighter is known for his physical weakness,¡± Prince Yema explained. ¡°The typical strategy to defeat him, which of course is carefully concealed from anyone who hasn¡¯t faced him a handful of times, is to ignore the ape and go after the cultivator. After all, most of the time, it¡¯s a mere effort of will to re-manifest a dao avatar. ¡°Not one like that,¡± Farun said. ¡°That one takes more than effort of will. That was a dao impartment, I¡¯ll wager. That guardian grew fat off the insights of a master. That¡¯s why he¡¯s guarding the eight-fifth floor instead of challenging for the top.¡± ¡°And you got it in one,¡± Prince Yema agreed. The screen faded to black as the elevator closed behind their master, and then another fight from another tower was shown. Lahri turned away in disgust. ¡°And people pay to watch this?¡± she asked. ¡°Oh yes. Duke Doe¡¯s entertainment crystals are extremely popular throughout the multiverse. Not only do they pay to watch, but they pay to send their children to live and die under this brutal system from entire dimensions away. It¡¯s a matter of pride for some families to know how far one of their scions climbed the tower before succumbing,¡± Yema explained. ¡°Disgusting,¡± Arjun declared, and the other two companions nodded. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°I agree completely,¡± Yema said. ¡°Which is why I¡¯m not going to beat around the bush any further. Let me tell you what my offer is for your master, and you may return home at your leisure. In exchange for his support in the court and swearing to me as his liege lord, I offer him the protection of my forces against Duke Loshi and a stage seven world in my demesne.¡± Arjun coughed, and Farun choked on his own tongue. ¡°So generous!¡± Lahri exclaimed. ¡°To what shall we attribute this offer?¡± ¡°By establishing him as my vassal, I do not diminish him but elevate him. By offering him a world, I extend his powerbase, and as he is my vassal that means I strengthen myself. But most of all what I gain is a foothold into that old bastard¡¯s domain, which is simply ripe for the plucking. All it will take is one overstep, one misconstrued border skirmish, and I¡¯ll be able to launch a full blown invasion on Duke Loshi and steal away dozens of his worlds,¡± Prince Yema explained. ¡°It¡¯s simply a win-win situation.¡± ¡°Unless you¡¯re a mortal caught up in a cosmic war that has nothing to do with you,¡± Lahri said. Yema¡¯s eyes narrowed at her, and Lahri said ¡°Or at least I believe that is what my master will say. But we shall report your offer to him honestly and without tainting the matter with our personal opinion.¡± ¡°Tell us more about the world you are offering?¡± Arjun suggested to move the conversation along as Yema continued to stare daggers at Lahri, and eventually the cosmically powerful woman nodded and pulled up a hologram of a world that looked much like Atla had before it¡¯s ascension. They spoke for hours of the technical details of the offer, and three days later, the companions were sent home. ~~~~~~ In my office, I was interrupted when Taimei abruptly entered. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it, then opened it again, then closed it. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to have disturbed you,¡± she said at last, and turned to leave. ¡°Sit,¡± I said. ¡°We haven¡¯t talked much since you left the mountain with the others, but I know when something is wrong. And I have to thank you properly for posing as Atla¡¯s mother. I know that wasn¡¯t an easy decision for you, and I truly appreciate¡ª¡± ? ¡°It was an easy decision, actually. You asked for help, I could help, so I said yes,¡± she said. I nodded. With the disciples, such reasoning really is that simple. ¡°Even so, it has affected your reputation. You are seen as my concubine now, and I¡¯ve been meaning to ask you how you felt about that? Has it caused you difficulty?¡± ¡°Not so much,¡± she admitted. ¡°Actually it¡¯s been rather nice, as I¡¯d been sort of fading into obscurity lately and this brought me back into the limelight. Even though it¡¯s a fiction, having a child that¡¯s supposedly ours being officially recognized, it, well, I¡¯m happy to be involved in giving Atla a place to fit in.¡± I nodded. ¡°Good. I¡¯m glad. I¡ª¡± ¡°I¡¯m pregnant,¡± she said. ¡°For real. With someone else. I ¡­ I¡¯m not sure who. It might be one of two or three men? I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t know¡ª¡° She abruptly began crying. I sat there stupidly for a moment, not knowing how to comfort her. ¡°Okay,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s start at the top. Who are the potential fathers.¡± ¡°Well, there¡¯s Lukal Lukal,¡± she admitted. ¡°And also Polkluk. And another man you don¡¯t know. I¡¯m sorry, Master, I¡¯m a --¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be sorry for. This should be a happy occasion. I don¡¯t care what the gossip mongers will say and neither should you.¡± ¡°But your dignity¡ª¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care. But we should really figure out who the father is. Can you narrow it down anymore or¡ª¡± ¡°It¡¯s Polkluk,¡± Atla said, skipping into the room. ¡°She asked me if she was pregnant and I said yes because you said I should answer them if they asked, but she didn¡¯t ask me who the father was so I didn¡¯t tell her but I know it¡¯s Polkluk because when I noticed the baby in her I checked the bloodlines and that¡¯s how I know.¡± He continued to skip around as we processed this information. ¡°Okay. So, we have a conversation with Polkluk, to see how he feels about the situation,¡± I suggested. ¡°But I¡¯m supposed to be your concubine! What about Atla?¡± ¡°We can say that I cast you aside when I met Mai Mai. It¡¯s not even a fiction,¡± I said, half teasing. ¡°That drove you into the arms of your fellow disciple, who comforted you in your time of need.¡± She frowned at me, her eyes red with threatened tears, but she slowly nodded. ¡°Okay. Okay. And if Polkluk doesn¡¯t step up to be the father, then I¡¯ll raise the baby by myself.¡± ¡°If Polkluk doesn¡¯t claim his child then he loses the right to call himself my disciple and I¡¯ll claim it myself,¡± I said sternly. ¡°Okay,¡± she said. ¡°But let¡¯s not lead with that okay?¡± I nodded. ¡°This isn¡¯t the end of the world, Taimei. It¡¯s the beginning of one. I was overjoyed when I found out I was going to be a father, and I hope that once the ¡­ complications are figured out, you feel the same way about your child.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a boy,¡± Atla announced. ¡°If you care.¡± ¡°Of course I care! But I wasn¡¯t expecting to find out for nine months.¡± ¡°Seven months. You¡¯ve been pregnant for longer than Mai Mai but didn¡¯t notice,¡± Atla argued. ¡°Atla,¡± I began, but instead of scolding the world-boy I just rubbed my forehead in frustration. ¡°Okay. Let¡¯s go talk with Tonilla and my mother first, to see if they see an angle that we missed. Then you¡¯ll go talk to Polkluk, and after that we¡¯ll start planning the wedding.¡± ¡°Wedding?¡± Taimei asked. ¡°What wedding?¡± ¡°Polkluk will insist on it, if I¡¯m not mistaken,¡± I said with a grin. ¡°And I will be most honored to accept the duty of officiating as the world-father and also the master to both of you.¡± ? 23. Romance of the Tower, Pt 3 23. Romance of the Tower, Pt 3 The party to see the Dao Companions off lasted six weeks, but they were only present for the first three days of it. Once they had made their farewells to the few people they¡¯d actually befriended, as well as the dozens of others who had to get a word in before the trio crossed dimensions and were likely never heard from again, they returned to the platform on which they had first arrived, where Prince Yema stood with a peach. She bit into it and smiled. ¡°Oh this is good,¡± she said. ¡°My compliments to the tree that grew it.¡± Then she reached through the dimensions and parted the way for them, creating a door for them to step through. Which they did, nervously, and found themselves outside the Six Mountain Sect, next to a peach tree which had just blossomed, but wouldn¡¯t bear fruit for five years. They bowed humbly to the tree and conveyed the prince¡¯s respect before flying to where they knew the waygate lie, only to find that from the ashes of the abandoned sect grew a sudden community that was thousands strong. Before they could reach the waygate, they were recognized and hailed. That they were expected wasn¡¯t that surprising, but they had never met Di Phon before, causing a bit of awkwardness when he ushered them in to his mansion and attempted to serve them tea. The tea was bitter and steeped too long, but they smiled and choked it down as the old man in an ascendant¡¯s body watched. ¡°It was terrible, wasn¡¯t it?¡± he asked. ¡°No, no, it was okay,¡± Farun said judiciously. ¡°That bad, huh?¡± he said. He shook his head. ¡°Ah, if I were six centuries younger, the opportunity I would have had with that woman. But we could never be equals. When you see Mai Mai, tell her that I¡¯m happy that she found happiness, and that I wish her well. And that when we meet again, I will serve her a cup of tea for a change.¡± ¡°What has she done to you to deserve such treatment?¡± Arjun joked, and they laughed. ¡°Let me catch you up to speed on what has transpired while you were offworld,¡± Di Phon said, and he pulled out a map. It had two or three dozen more markers indicating waygate locations, periphery ones to the central hubs that Little Bug had initially set up. It also showed the city-states and nations which had officially declared for the alliance in emerald green. ¡°This is the last map I received, and it is two weeks old,¡± he informed them. ¡°They¡¯re only keeping me informed out of politeness, so I don¡¯t know how accurate this information is, but this is what I know. The tournament will occur in six months. Regional qualifiers will begin in three months. The exact details of the qualifiers are not part of the central tournament¡¯s stance, as rather than dictate the terms they are simply allotting the number of participants based on the number of reported cultivators in a location and allowing the local sects and clans to figure out who to send.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± Farun said. ¡°So that takes some of the pressure off of Mer¡¯cah to host millions of hopefuls, right?¡± ¡°Exactly Tonilla¡¯s plan. My son married a smart one,¡± Di Phon said. ¡°Aside from that, your master has announced that Mai Mai is pregnant with his child, that he has cast aside Taimei as his concubine but wishes her well in her wedding to Polkluk, and to prove that he is happy for the new couple he will be marrying them himself.¡± The Dao companions stared at the old retiree in an ascendant body in silence for a moment. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Lahri said. ¡°Could you repeat that, but with a bit more context?¡± ~~~~~~~ It wasn¡¯t enough. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Every step I had taken, from the day that I first picked up a glowing stone and asked how much the merchant wanted for it, it had all led to this moment. I had faced down bullies who had stabbed me. I had fled from jealous elders who had exorcised me. I had battled the wild jungles of Ker¡¯tath. I had negotiated with a divine beast, and bartered with it for a mountain. I had tricked sixteen sects into allowing me to cultivate in peace rather than interrupting my meditations to study the array I¡¯d erected. Then I had further tricked them into giving me the tournament I wanted. I had gained disciples. I had murdered and saved them from death at the same time. I had enkindled a spark in the world and tended it carefully while the world was bursting into flames around me. I had faced demonic cultivators and legions of undead. But I had finally confronted something that I simply could not overcome. Brute strength on a level that I could not match. Tactical genius that surpassed my own. Technique mastery which was on par with mine, and a dao that was nearly as profound. I coughed, spitting up blood. I looked up at the man who had defeated me on the ninety-ninth floor. I had given the duel everything I had, and the ruins of the combat room around us gave testimony to that fact. The walls were scorched and cut clean through, the screens were flickering and dead. The false rocks and foliage, there to give me an advantage, were all scorched down to the plasteel beneath the false exterior. The waterfall had been consumed and the air was heavy with the steam of its vapor. I had done most of this to remove this obstacle from my path, and yet still I had been defeated by this man. ¡°You did well. Really. Sneaking up the last fourteen floors without revealing that you¡¯d ascended to the platinum path was amazing. You¡¯ve caused a significant amount of money to change hands with your dedication,¡± Kuto said, reaching down to give me a helping hand. I took it. I had admitted my defeat, there was no shame in it at this point. ¡°Tell me, why did you not simply accept the air car?¡± he asked. ¡°It would have taken you straight to the Duke himself. There was no need for you to challenge the tower.¡± ¡°Yes there was,¡± I said. ¡°Oh? Why is that?¡± ¡°Because I read the strands of fate,¡± I answered. ¡°And they said that the air car led to the death of everyone and everything I cared about, while the wilderness led to hope.¡± ¡°Curious. How is your fate sense? I¡¯m practically blind in that department, but Omaia¡¯s is quite keen,¡± he commented. ¡°Well, anyway. You have two choices. Either you can challenge me again, and you can do that as many times as it takes¡ª¡± ¡°You¡¯re on the mythril path. I only just stepped on the platinum. It will take me centuries to surpass you,¡± I objected. ¡°¡ªooor, you can bring me the hearts of ten beast kings of the platinum path and I¡¯ll bring you to the Duke with my recommendation,¡± Kuto concluded. ¡°I see,¡± I said. ¡°Do I have to climb the tower with them from the beginning?¡± ¡°Of course not. After facing me, nobody would dare accept your challenge. They¡¯d forfeit rather than accept even a superchallenge. Everyone knows, once I acknowledge a challenger, there¡¯s only two options. Either the challenger ascends to the one hundredth floor. Or they die. The betting is now on as to which fate lies in front of you.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I said calmly. ¡°It¡¯s quite amazing that you managed to get so far in avatar form, you know,¡± Kuto said. ¡°What do you plan on doing when you get home?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ll ask myself when I get there,¡± I answered. Then I turned away, and limped out the ruined and shattered entrance to the stairs that led to the floor beneath. The cries of the audience echoed in their silence as they watched me leave alive. I wondered how many had bet on that outcome, and then promptly decided that I didn¡¯t care. ? 24. Romance of the Tower Pt 4 24. Romance of the Tower Pt 4 Shisuke sat in the cafe, quietly drinking coffee and listening to the mortals speak in a language he didn¡¯t understand. He was a thousand miles away from Nonpo, and he¡¯d made the majority of that journey as a mortal would. On his own two feet. He shook his head in disbelief. He¡¯d been in this cafe once before, as a young lad. His father had sent him out with on of their merchants to learn how logistics and trade, and the merchant had taken him across the sea to one of their distant ports of trade. He had never expected to come back. The old man who had run the cafe was dead, as was his son. A new old man ran it now. The coffee tasted much different, but that could be a number of factors. A different type of bean, grown in a different soil, roasted in a different way, ground to a different grade, prepared differently, he didn¡¯t know. It could even just be that he¡¯d been in the purification realm and now stood on the Golden Path. In fact, now that he thought of it, that was probably what it was. He tipped the proprietor and quietly left, making his way through the busy port. One of the central hubs, it was said that it was only three waygates from any major city in the alliance. He joined his mortal guide, who didn¡¯t know his identity, and requested to be escorted to the waygate to Mer¡¯cah. It took twenty minutes, walking as a mortal does and not standing out in the crowd, but between one step and another he was on a different continent. He asked his mortal guide to arrange another local guide, but none could be found who spoke Nonponese, so he paid the man for his translation services and the local guide to bring him to the Many Peaks Alliance headquarters. The mortals were happy to take his coin, and within fifteen minutes he was standing in line to gain entrance to the public buildings of the Alliance which was conquering the world without drawing a single blade or casting a single technique. He wondered, briefly, whether he could put an end to it right there by destroying the heart of the beast. But he put the thought out of his head. No, at this point nothing except for killing the worldfather himself would solve that and-- ¡°There he is father! Standing in line!¡± A boy shouted, pointing right at Shisuke. Shisuke blinked, wondering what he had done to draw attention, when the worldfather himself walked up and greeted him with a smile. ¡°Thank you, Atla,¡± the worldfather said. ¡°Hello Shisuke. I¡¯m pleased that you¡¯ve come to visit. We don¡¯t typically make visiting heads of state wait in line, however, so if you¡¯d like to come with me, I¡¯ll show you to where Di Phon and Lady Di Tonilla are preparing to negotiate with you for full membership in the alliance.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Shisuke said, his shoulders slumping slightly. ¡°Your spies have read my mind, for I did not know that was my purpose when I came here, but I see now that my enemy knows my mind better than I do myself. Rather than fight against the rising tide, I shall ¡­ I cannot think of a metaphor. I surrender.¡± ¡°I do not accept your surrender,¡± the worldfather said, ¡°for this is not a war. I defeat an enemy by making him a friend, Shisuke, but we were never enemies. We both want to see Nonpo shine and rise to heights never before seen on any nation on Atla. But while you hope for the rise of Nonpo alone, I share the same hope for all nations and all people.¡± ¡°And I stand in your way, so you¡ª¡± ¡°I make you my friend, Shisuke,¡± The worldfather said. ¡°But that does not mean that I ever saw you as my enemy.¡± Shisuke was silent as he contemplated this impossible man, whom he had witnessed opening a waygate with his own eyes. Through an avatar no less. ¡°I am not ready to call you my friend,¡± Shisuke admitted, ¡°But perhaps I am ready to discuss matters of how we might bridge the gap between our perceptions of this gap between us.¡± ¡°Good, Shisuke. Believe it or not, simply getting everyone to sit down at the table is always the hardest part. So yes, let¡¯s do that.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to go play with penguins,¡± the boy said, and he promptly vanished. Shisuke blinked at the empty spot that the boy left behind, wondering for a second if he¡¯d even been there at all. Then he shook his head, and prepared to negotiate for the future advantages of his nation. He might have been defeated without either side drawing his blade, but he would bleed his foe on the negotiating table. This, at least, he could swear. ~~~~~~ It was not hard to find the first beast king. But I could not kill it. It was not a matter of strength. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. She was a thunderbird. Beautiful, majestic, and the perfect mate to the Tunrida I had met six years ago now, who longed so desperately for a mate that he was willing to hang his hopes on my ability to raise a chick to be his equal. I knew that there were but ten divine beast kings on the planet, for I saw the strands of fate leading me to each of them. But when I saw this magnificent beast, I knew that I could not complete the task as it was given to me. I made my camp miles away from the thunderbird¡¯s nest and meditated on the problem. At a confluence of ley lines and near a natural rock formation, I heard the voice. My eyes opened, certain that it was an illusion. I closed my eyes and listened closer. ¡°Grow strong,¡± the voice sang. ¡°Strength. Grow strong. Grow grow grow strong.¡± Beautiful and melodious, the singer was not using a voice. It was the song of the earth itself. Nervously, I reached out as I had five years ago to Atla, And the world reached back. She took my hand, And snatched up a piece of my soul, completing the Xian bond. ~~~~~~ ¡°Hah, I told you he¡¯d take the bait, pay up,¡± Duke Doe said, even as the credits were automatically transferred into his account across cosmic accounting systems. ¡°Do you think he sees the trap?¡± Ostoin asked, cocking her head to the side as she examined the hologram in her board room. She had lost six billion credits on this wager. Enough to buy a small planet. Not on the scale of the one that Duke Doe had just lost to this wondering Xian, but a nice one. Stage five or six, maybe? Not a stage ten like this particular tower world. ¡°Either he saw it and stepped into it, knowing it was there and that the snare would strangle him, or he¡¯s a greenhorn who doesn¡¯t understand what happens when an Avatar is cut off from the prime body for so long,¡± Beailor said from her own porch in the prairies of her core world. ¡°If it¡¯s the first, then we ought to be wary. If it¡¯s the second, then he might not be so valuable of a piece as we thought.¡± ¡°What sort of fool would invite a tribulation?¡± Ostoin asked. ¡°Someone who knew that he could withstand it?¡± Valan suggested, sipping wine in a party in another galaxy. ¡°Even so, it¡¯s not worth it,¡± Ostoin said, shuddering. ~~~~~ It took hours for the Xian bond to settle into place. I meditated quietly, listening to the voice of this planet. ¡°What is your name?¡± I asked it. ¡°Strong,¡± she said. ¡°Grow strong.¡± I sighed. She said nothing else. She was not like Atla, who had reached out to me in confusion and hope. She had simply seen someone strong and reached out to that strength to make it stronger. The Xian bond had slipped into place naturally because that she wanted to be strong, and she wanted everything on her surface to be strong. She was obsessed with strength to the point where she thought of nothing else. It worked, I reflected. With her senses, which I unashamedly utilized for my own purposes, I scanned through the strongest beings on the planet. There were more platinum ranked beast kings than I¡¯d originally thought, with the majority of them in the oceans and on another continent. A continent without towers or humans living on it. Nothing but wilderness, and the endless drive to grow stronger or die trying. It was simplistic and honest. And it was so far from the world-child that I loved that it was heartbreaking. It wasn¡¯t her fault. She¡¯d been raised this way by whoever had quickened her. I spent three days in communion with her, trying to break her out of her endless song. ¡°Strong. Grow strong. Be strong. Grow strong,¡± she answered. I doubted that I could even get justice for her, as the one who had done this to her was eons dead. ¡°Why?¡± I asked once more. ¡°What purpose does strength serve, Majeesha?¡± I had at last coaxed her name out of her, or perhaps it was simply part of her song. ¡°Grow strong on Majeesha¡± now rang out every few minutes, mixed in with the rest of it. ¡°Strong,¡± she answered. ¡°Grow strong.¡± I sighed. ¡°Very well, Majeesha. Let me show you my strength, and perhaps then you will answer me.¡± Flexing the world¡¯s power, which I had claimed for myself, I flew back to the tower. To put an end to this farce once and for all. ~~~~~~ ? 25. Romance of the Tower Pt 5 25. Romance of the Tower Pt 5 I stepped out onto the ruined ninety-ninth floor at the same time that Kuto stepped out of the elevator down from the one hundredth. I cocked my head to the side, wondering why I had never realized it earlier. He wasn¡¯t the guardian of the ninety-ninth floor. He was the occupant of the one hundredth. The ninety-ninth floor was empty. ¡°You¡¯re back sooner than I was expecting,¡± Kuto said. ¡°Your grace, you do me honor by facing me yourself, through this avatar,¡± I said, bowing politely. ¡°Ah, figured it out, did you?¡± he said, scratching his nose. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. Kutodoe is my birth name. Believe it or not, I grew up on a world like this, in a tower like this, with a past like every other child in this tower.¡± ¡°And you rose. And you rose and you rose until you could rise no higher,¡± I said. ¡°Yes,¡± he said. ¡°And I found the heights dizzying, but empty.¡± ¡°So you create worlds like this to create more like you.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Coward.¡± He cocked his head to the side. ¡°Huh. That¡¯s not an accusation that I receive very often. Care to explain?¡± ¡°If you wanted a real challenge,¡± I said, ¡°You should have brought me to your home world. The one where your true body rests.¡± ¡°Ah, but then how would I give you the Xian bond to even the distance between¡ª¡± I flexed upon my power, upon Majeesha¡¯s power. My power, her power, our power. And I formed a dao avatar. It shined brightly, with a purifying white light that cast out benevolence to all who bathed in it. It was male, cherubic, slightly fat. It sat with a beatific smile and clasped hands, a rosary in its hands. It began to pray. Kuto cocked his head to the side. ¡°What kind of avatar is that?¡± ¡°It is my weakness,¡± I explained. ¡°Everything that was holding me back before, I have invested in that avatar. I fight you now without the restraints I placed upon myself.¡± ¡°Oh? I¡¯ve never thought of that before.¡± ¡°You should be thankful. I shall demonstrate the reason why.¡± I dashed forward with the speed of a cultivator and the weight of a world in every step. Each step was the path that I had chosen, and every choice had brought me to this moment. From the choice to sneak out of my home and stare at the heavens while immortals did battle there, to the choice to kiss Mai Mai back, this was the path that my fate had taken me. I would become a weapon. A naked blade of celestial steel. Not a dagger, for a dagger has a blade, and I would cut both ways. I did something blasphemous. As I fought, the eyes of my dao avatar turned black. The eyes of the naked blade turned white. Kuto casually threw his hand towards me, and the Dao avatar of the ape from the eighty-fifth floor appeared. It roared in outrage, recognizing me as the one who had vanquished it and returned it to its true master. It swung it¡¯s pole at me, moving so swift that the sound of thunder crackled from it. I caught it with one hand, though it weight a thousand tons. ¡°Not good enough,¡± I said, and I spun, ripping the staff from the ape¡¯s hands. It fought me for it, but pulling on the strength of Majeesha, I was stronger. I spun and brained it with its own staff, and it vanished into a puff of mist. Kuto cast out his hand and a griffon appeared. The griffon reared back and shot lightning at me from its mouth With an effort of will, I made the staff that I had stolen mine in a fundamental way, changing its shape from a simple staff into a spear. Though I was forced to dodge, I followed the dodge with a lunge. The griffon snapped at me, and I speared it through its jaws. A blast of energy hit me, knocking me through the wall. I fell thirty floors as another Dao avatar chased me before I recovered. I grabbed onto the roc¡¯s feathers and began strangling it. All of this within seconds. Stolen story; please report. With each new dao avatar he sent after me, he grew slightly weaker. It was either a mistake, or he believed he was playing with me, but as I faced his Dao I ground it under my heel, proving my superiority step by step. He weakened as I grew stronger, and he finally realized that I was feasting on him in a fundamental way when I reconjured the Ape¡¯s staff to battle an elephant headed warrior the size of a colossus. ¡°Enough,¡± he said. ¡°I will face you directly.¡± I dismissed the staff, unwilling to give him the chance to claim it back. I saw the strands of fate tugging at Kuto as we sparred, and I tugged them out of place. Titanic amounts of energies collided as my fist met his. Both of us gave ground as the bones of our wrists shattered and the impact threw us backward. He was laughing, I was silent. He floated into the air, and began to speak-- The lightning coursed around me as I zipped forward, tugging at the string of fate that would cause him to dodge left. He dodged left. Into a void blade that sliced him in half. He reassembled himself on the other side, but the lightning struck him in the chest. He frowned, wondering how that had happened when he had dodged it. The answer was simple. The answer was impossible He had dodged it in another timeline. One that didn¡¯t exist, because this one had happened instead. I was destined to lose this fight. The odds were overwhelmingly against me. I could see the fates that brought me back to this floor time and time again until finally, after ten, after twenty, after thirty duels, finally I had succeeded. I pulled those futures into the now. I became the man that I would be then, Today. Kuto frowned as he tried to clamp down the energies that were ramping up around the room. The fire, the vortex of plasma that was hotter than some stars, the rippling lightning struck him from every angle while he struck back at me, but I had fought him a thousand times in the possible futures that extended out from today. I knew his tricks. He had never seen mine. ¡°Enough!¡± he declared, and the shield that he extended blasted my energies back. I broke through the shield with my broken fist and slammed a haymaker into his jaw, pulling on the weight of Majeesha herself, on her dao, on the strength of a world that thought of nothing else. He gasped and was spun about. He landed on the dirt and spat blood. ¡°Where were you hiding this man?¡± he asked. ¡°As deep in the sea of forgetfulness as I could sink him,¡± I answered. He began to get up, thinking I would give him the time. The earth beneath him formed spikes that pierced his chest. I slammed a kick into his head. I tore the space apart around his very being, and his body exploded into a puff of mist. But that wasn¡¯t enough. I roared and flexed through Majeesha, and the earth beneath the tower quaked, shaking its very foundations. I pulled and I pulled through the Xian bond, and when I could contain no more, I unleashed it all in a raw, unfiltered ray of Qi that destroyed what was left of the ninety ninth floor. And the floor above it. And five floors below it. I¡¯m not certain how many people I killed in my rage. At the moment, I didn¡¯t care. The cherubic figure appeared behind me, putting a hand on my shoulder. I rejected it, I was better off without it. I would-- Its eyes glowed golden, and I was whole once more. I exhaled. I looked down at the terrified survivors of my rage, for the blast had not been directed downwards at full strength and most of the denizens of the upper floors had survived, though they were bloodied, broken, and injured. ¡°I am done here,¡± I said. ¡°Kuto, I have no interest in being part of your court. You may keep Majeesha, she is shallow and weak.¡± And with perfect ruthlessness, I severed the Xian bond that had given me the strength to overcome a titan, ripping the link out of me like a parasite that had infested my soul. I stood in the aftermath, screaming in agony and rage, until suddenly Kuto was there, holding me in his arms. ¡°I know,¡± he said. ¡°Whatever you¡¯re feeling, it¡¯s okay. You did something unbelievable right now. Something I ¨C respect. But you are very young for a Xian Lord, and we must discuss what your time in the tower will mean for the other you, should you choose to rejoin him.¡± ¡°So I am to be your prisoner?¡± ¡°Nobody forced you to challenge the tower, Little Bug,¡± he pointed out. ¡°You were invited as an honored guest. Come with me, and let us retire to another world. One which is not so barbaric as Majeesha. She was my first, and I made many mistakes, but I learned from her. You will make mistakes with Atla too, and perhaps if you listen to your elders, you will avoid following in my footsteps.¡± I couldn¡¯t help it. I began to laugh. ?